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For the School Christmas Fair we got into teams and had to design a company, adopt roles and do market research to make products to sell.  The process of making all the items, cakes and everything else took 2 weeks.  We had a budget of £20. The first thing we did was get into our roles. We were each assigned to the roles we would be good at. Next we had to make our team name/logo. We made our name “The Merry Marauders” and our logo was a gingerbread man.

We then chose what products would make us a profit, and if we would be able to make it in the given time and budget we have. Our first idea was to make cushions, so the manager brought in a lot of stuffing and the school had a sewing machine that we could use. The cushions had  pictures on the top that were also sewn on, however they weren’t very Christmas related.

We needed more items however so we went to make some charm bracelets. We went on Word and made 24 charm bracelet notes out of card, then we got string, put it through a hole in a charm, and tied it around the middle of the charm bracelet note. The charm was a dandelion. We made two more things after that.  We also made wooden decoations.

The next thing we made some dog biscuits. We got some whisky tins, covered them in card which has painted paw prints on, put on a label that says “Santa Paws Christmas Treats” and filled it up with homemade dog biscuits. After that we made one more product. We got small jars, put a wish inside, then put them in a box. We put all of this in a balance sheet, which managed what we have purchased, it’s cost, how much we got for it and the overall profit. We managed to make £44.31. Our group won the competition on who would make the most profit.

Port Ellen Juniors is a grassroots team that anyone from the age of 4-15 can join. Every Sunday there is a training session for everyone in the team, so that we can get good enough to travel away to the main land and challenge other team’s.

Near the end of November the entire club went away to Bowmore to go and play on the twin-track, in the swimming pool. At the swimming pool everyone was racing each other across the twin track and trying to push each other off or pull someone into the water. It was fun.

Doctor Knowles came to visit p4/5 and p6/7 to answer questions about being a doctor and eating food and what is good and bad for the digestion system. Since we have been doing a topic on healthy food and diet, also a digestion system topic, we have been learning a lot of things about health.

When Doctor Knowles came in we asked a lot of intersting questions. We took notes in our science jotters so we would remember the answers she told us. Then we asked more questions about our topic. We then asked questions about being a doctor and doctor Knowles said ”I didn’t think everyone else was doing a great job of it” she said. The other thing is that she is now retired and she travels around the world and we keep track of her jouneys around the world.  It was very interesting.

On Monday the 3rd of December it was the Christingle which is when people are welcomed to come to church and celebrate Jesus.     I went with Borownies and we use an orange fruit and put tape around it with sweets and a glow stick.

The orange represents the world, the tape around the orange is for his blood, the sweets are for all the people who believed in him. Then the glow stick is how he lights up the world.

We sing lots of different carols that I really enjoy. But my favorite is when the lights go out and we all get to snap are glow sticks. All the little ones stand up the front and sing away in the manger with a candle. The little ones sing the first verse and we join in for the rest. At the end the little ones blow out the candles and we sing the last song about the seasons. I have went every year and I can’t wait for the next one in a years time.

On Monday’s  I go to chanter and when I go I feel very happy because it is ran by my uncle. He is teaching me  Baby Shark  and the White Swan and Jingle Bells to play for Christmas.

When I first got my chanter It  was very  shocked I was very happy because I’ve wanted to play the bagpipes.

When I blow in to the chanter It makes me feel very dizzy.  I almost bashed in to the table.  Learning the chanter is very interesting and you need to blow not to hard  and not to soft just right and you have to cover all the holes so that you can play the scale the scale is low g, low a ,b, c, d, e, f, high a and high g.

To play a tune you need to learn all the excises you have exercise 7, exercise 8, exercise 9 and exercise 10.  You need to learn all of then and then you can play  Baby Shark and other songs.

I cant wait till Christmas so that I can play Jingle Bells in front  of my family.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!.

On Saturday 1st December we had our School Christmas fair  that we have every year.  We had a bottle stall, tombola and we had Santa in the school to meet all of us and to give us a little present before Christmas.  We had cakes and other items that we made to sell and the cakes sold very fast and all of the cakes sold out so it was a good day and the school made a lot of money in fact the school made £2,200 pounds and we only had face paint and thing that we made and the Santa and a  tombola.

We had face paint and the person who was doing the face paint was Mrs Clark  and she did a great job they all looked stunning. Everyone was enjoying them selves and I thought that the whole of Islay was there, it was that crowded and I was very hot in the hall. I was very excited when I saw Santa because I can’t wait till Christmas and I can’t wait till a new year.

Merry Christmas and a happy new year.

On Saturday 1st December Islay and Jura Dolphins went to Tolcross Swimming Pool located in Glasgow. I got up early and only then was I told that it was a 50 meter swimming pool. After that I knew that it would be tiring. I was also told we were going to have two sessions both 2 hours! Now I was exited and nervous. We got on the ferry then drove up to Glasgow.

When we arrived at the swimming pool our first glance was at the pool ( it was massive). Much bigger than ours. The first day we swam over just over 1KM then some races at the end. After a while swimming we got out and went to Frankie and Bennies for dinner. It was good. After dinner that night we went bowling! In my group Matthew won but I came 2nd last, altogether there were six of us. It was soon time to go back to the hotel ready for another day of swimming.

That morning we woke up and went to have breakfast to fill us up. We then made our way to the swimming centre for the second time, But this time it was more interesting.  We were swimming in the lane that Adam Peaty broke the world record for 50m breast stroke. That day we swam nearly 2KM.  It certainly felt like that the next day. Before the ferry we had a few hours so we went to Braehead. Struan got a toy sword out of a shop and got it taken off him by one of the workers! Then we made our way home from a funny but tiring weekend.

For the Christmas Fair we had to do a cupcake challenge. We were in three groups and making our products before that. We all made a design and chose the best one. Our groups cupcake flavour was apple and toffee flavouring.  The other groups chose their flavour to be banana and chocolate and the other groups flavour was bubblegum and carrot.  My group’s cupcake was pink and red icing. The other groups had: a christmas tree and a snowman as their cupcakes.

For the final assesment we had the cupcake taste test. For the taste test my group got first for it’s looks and it got second for taste. When the cupcake taste test was over we were talking about the snowman cupcake and Mrs MacDonald turned around and said “carrot… bubblegum” and it was really funy.  For profit we came third and we sold out third as well. We tied with the group that got third for taste and looks. The group we drew with got second for profit and second for selling out. The christmas tree group won and we tied in a second.

On Monday 3rd in the Ramsey Hall everyone came for guides.  When we were all there we all started by sorting the tables ready to start.  Then the fun began!  Most of us were very silly and just had fun and we got told what we were going to do.  Me, Kaya and Hannah painted little and big toilet roll tubes, which is going to be stuck on to a long brown tube and it will be a christmas tree.  The christmas tree was for the Christingle at the church.  Everyone was joking around and having a great night.  After that we started to tape all the tubes we painted and stuck them on the brown tube.  But you wouldn’t believe what happend when we put the last one on, it fell over and we had to restart!  Afterthat we had to start tidying up and this is when the fun came, we started to paint each other with the paint brushes.  Sadly after something exiting happens it soon has to come to a end.

By Caitidh

We wrote stories about the history of Dunyvaig.  What would it have been like to be there at the time?  Here is one for you to read…

 

The siege of Dunyvaig 

by Matthew

One day at Dunyvaig castle everything was very calm the villagers were doing their normal thing .

The farmer was just harvesting wheat. Inside the castle John MacDonald, the Lord of the Isles the owner of the castle was just having not a good feeling. The guard in the tall tower looked into the distance and there were about twenty boats coming towards the castle!  They were very far away.  He told John.  John was shocked but he was ready for a fight. The following day the ships

looked gargantuan now. There were so many ships. “They’re coming our way!” said the guard “this is not good! said his friend “we need to get ready for a big battle in one hour…”

The battle began. “They’re surrounding us!” said the guard “the ship looks like it’s looking at me this is really not good”

“We’re trapped. It’s a siege. We’ll soon have no food and no water at all so we’re all dead.” I’ll go and tell the Lord of the Isles. He talked to John MacDonald and John said we have to try to get food. He tried but he could not. One of the Campbells tried to kill him but then he sprinted back inside back inside. He told John he could not get any food at all so he sat down and went to talk to his friend. He said “I need to get food we are all going to die! Look at the villagers they’re all panicking they’re all so hungry.”

From the tower the guards shot about ten Campbells. It was their only hope hardly anybody could survive.  A lot had died. They needed food immediately they could only last about two more days. They were all going to die and John was panicking a lot. I mean a lot.

Meanwhile one of the heavily armoured guards tried to get food but he was speared by arrows three hit his head and two hit his arm. His arm was fine because he had armour on his arm but he forgot to put on his helmet so he dropped dead. John dropped his seal and made a run for it. John was petrified so he ran fast as a bullet, he was absolutely panicking. The guards were shooting lots of Campbells.  John shot the big muscly one in the leg he had steel on his leg so he was fine. He whipped out his bow and the arrow hit him in his chest he was not dead yet. The big muscly one was angry he was furious he came into the castle.  And John Macdonald ran down to the sea gate and got in a boat.  He sailed away to freedom.  Sadly, the Campbells won the siege and got to keep the castle of Dunyvaig.

picture by Louise

P4-6 wrote a Gaelic poem about Dun Nuvyig. We painted the back ground using sponges, toothbrushes and other art materials to make the sea and sky affect. We wrote Gaelic phases to make a mixed media piece of artwork. In the end it all looked really good and what we liked about it was that we got to use our imagination.

On Sunday 11th of November 2018 it will have been 100 years since world war 1 ended. In school we had 2 minutes of silence to remember all the soldiers who died in world war 1. This year was important to remember the soldiers who were fighting for are country 100 years ago. Sunday came and the war memorial will be lit up down at the pier. People to come and  pay there respects to the people who died in the war. Sunday will go down in history books.

Ellen, Jack, Holly, Aaron, Ciaran and Aidan did this thing called Cycling Proficiency this term where you learn to ride safely on your bike.

P7’s around Argyll and Bute do a cycling test.  First we cycle around the playground, and try to lift your hand of the handle bar so you can signal the driver behind you to tell them which direction you are going such as left or right, you don’t put your hand up if you are going straight.  Before you start to cycle you put your pedals at 2 o’clock and you look behind you and then signal, then you do your life saver. The life saver is when you  look behind to see the if there is traffic behind you for your safety.  After the playground you practice in the road.  There is also a theory test.

I got a C in my cycling test so that means I need to work on my cycling a wee bit more so that I can cycle on the road with all my friends.

On Wednesday 7th November Mr.Wright came into Port Ellen Primary school to play some rugby and also play rugby related games with us. Sadly it wasn’t the best weather to go outside so we stayed inside in the hall to play rugby, that was the first ever time Mr.Wright came over and we had to stay inside. We started off with running around the hall in different directions, we weren’t allowed to run in circles, we also had to be careful because there was 17 of us in the hall all running in different directions.

We also played a game with a partner, there was 1 and 2, number 1 had to chase number 2 and touch their shoulder lightly so that nobody would get hurt during the game. If No.1 caught No.2, No.2 would then have to chase No.1. Suddenly the rules where changed around a wee bit, now whoever the chaser was had to touch the other person’s shoulders, then there hips.

Then we started getting into a game where we were all in teams, the teams where green, red, yellow and blue. Each team had to go after the other 2 teams and try get their tags, we only had 2 minutes in each round. At the end of the game we had to count up all the tags, In the first round the Red team got 1st because they got 11 tags and the blue team got 10, yellow team got 6 and lastly our team the green team got 8 tags, In the 2nd round our team the green team won because we got 12 and the other teams got less.

Then we all had to get into a line with green at the front then red in the middle then blue at the back and then across from us was yellow with the rugby balls,  Green had to go first and try to get the persons tag so that they couldn’t get past to win, we had to shout TAG when we got a hold of their tag. We kept on doing this but swapping.  It was good fun!

 

On Wednesday 31st of October Port Ellen Primary School had a Halloween Disco.  The pre5 had their disco in the morning and the older ones had theirs in the afternoon.  When everyone finished their lunch we all started to get dressed.

The hall was all decorated like a spooky house.  Always the very first thing we do is the best dressed competition.  In p6 Dearbhla won and in p7 Mara won and everyone who won got a bag of creepy Halloween sweets.  After that we had a game of corners; the choices were bats,witches,ghosts and skeletons.  Then we played some classic games like musical statues and more.  Finally the last thing we did was a dance competition.  At last it was time to eat we all went straight to the Halloween cakes when we finished are food and drinks we got took out class by class to go dunking for apples. Sadly all that came to a end and we had to go home but the happily thing was the after dinner we going out for Halloween!

Here is another example of gaelic poetry from Mara:

Is mise Dùn Naomhaig,             I am called Dunyvaig,

Tha mi mòr,                           I am big

Tha mi casteal,                       I am a castle,

Tha mi fuar,                            I am cold,

Tha i dorcha,                          It is dark,

Tha mi cunnartach,                  I am dangerous,

Tha mi dubh agus donn.             I am black and brown.

 

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We have been using our Castle art to create Gaelic Poetry using the vocabulary we have been learning.  Our poems were written as if we were the castle; how we felt, what we looked like.  We wrote the poems out and then used Chatterpix to record our poetry.  Here is Caitidh’s poem:

Is mise Dùn Naomhaig,             I am called Dunyvaig,

Tha mi làidir, tha mi stoirm,      I am strong, I am stormy,

Tha mi dubh agus donn,            I am black and brown,

Tha mi seachd ceud bliadhna,    I am seven hundred years old,

Tha mi fuar agus fliuch,             I am cold and wet,

Tha mi brònach, tha mi garbh,    I am sad, I am wild,

Tha mi mòr, tha mi fada,           I am big, I am long,

Tha mi dorcha.                         I am dark.

 

This year the Gaelic Choir at Port Ellen were going to Dunoon for the National Mod.  The first day of the mod we were in the bus then we went to Inveraray.  When we got to hunters quay we got to our lodge.We all went for a practice. Then we got our red and purple tee shirts. After that we went swimming and there were two pools opposite each other. One had a bridge and one was deep. We went for dinner I had chicken and it was fantastic.

The Second day of the mod we woke up at 7.30am. I had a shower then got my stuff. My nana and papa was there to pick me up in the car to the grammar school. Then we went to practice my poem then I went In. Thought I was 1st on  but I was 2nd on and I was so nervous but then I did it.  I waited for the competition to end I didn’t get a medal but I took part though.

We had lunch. Then we went to the High Kirk and we all sang two songs, our own choice and a prescribed song in the unison.  We had to go to the Queens Hall to sing one more song, the Puirt-à-beul.  We won all of the songs!  So we had to get recorded for the tv.  We went back to Islay, happy that we had achieved so much.

By Phoenix

This term p6/7 were reading books to improve their reading skills. We worked in groups. It was pretty fun. The book my group read was called Tom’s Midnight Garden which is by Philippa Pearce. This book is about a kid called Tom who, when the thirteenth strike happens on the broken old grandfather clock, enters a lovely garden full of plants in which would normally be a small pathway with some bins and flower pots. I enjoyed the book because of the fact that there was none other book like it. I also liked it because it was actually quite interesting how he realized what was happening so fast and how it has some aspect of realism in it unlike a lot of other books. It’s also good because of the twist ending in which we find out that the landlady Mrs Bartholomew is in fact Hatty. “Quite early in Mrs Bartholomew’s story Tom suddenly leaned forward and whispered: ‘You were Hatty – you are Hatty! You’re really Hatty!’” This was to show that Tom understood what she was saying and so that if the reader didn’t realize that she was Hatty they would’ve got it. Altogether I would say the book was a 4/5 because at some parts it did get a little boring and that the story takes some time to turn into something interesting. I would say that the genre is fantasy because the main character travels back in time in to a garden which is full of color although in reality it would be a small little paved garden. Altogether this book is a good read and I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in books that are more than they seem and books that make you think about what is going to happen next.

As part of our Dunyvaig topic we have been learning about what castles looked like at that time and some of their key features.  We looked at lots of examples of castles and used what we knew to create our own impressions of Dunyvaig Castle using pen and pencil and oil pastels.  You can see some of the results below.

BY HOLLY

BY ELLEN

BY ORLA

This term our reading group was reading  The brilliant world of Tom Gates  by Liz Pichon. I think the Genre of this  book is  comedy because  he is mean to Marcus Meldrew and its funny because he has illustrations like in his diary.

I love how Tom Gates  and Derek has a band called DogZombies.   Tom Gates has written a song called Delia’s a weirdo.  My favorite  quote is I call granny and grandad the fossils.

by Ellen

 

 

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I really liked my book because I think it is a comedy. With lots of pictures and funny moments like when Tom decides to join the choir and it went  horribly wrong.

I love how the author made Tom and Delia  so different  and how they never get along.  Another thing I like is  how she includes lots of people.

I think this book would be popular because the  cover stands out and the name is big and bold. But of course there is  really funny photos.

If you decide to read this book I think you will really like it.

 

I am reading the Brillant World of Tom Gates. It is about a boy who goes to school and calls some  people idiots  and is cheeky.  In the book the main character is Tom Gates.  He has friends called Amy and Derik and Mealdrew who Tom Gates calles an idiot.  Tom Gates is very mean and can get distraced in class. I don’t know what I would do without this amazing  book.  As soonas I saw it it got my atention.   It is superduper brillant.

My  favorite part in Captain Underpants is when an evil giant dandelion attacked captain underpants. I laughed so much when George and Harold did a prank because they changed the letters at the cafeteria to nasty toilet pee pee sandwiches. But my favorite part was when I read the bonus comic dogman. It was about a dog that is a cop and he stops the most wanted villain Petey who is a cat. Also dog man was the best cop and he did stop other criminals.

The author was actually a child- his name was Dav Pilkey. This author had very good description and punctuation and he made it funny and cool. With flip- o-Rama as well; here’s how it works he made it so when you turn the page fast as you can the it looks like its animated. Dav Pilkey used alot of fonts colours.  He is a very good author in my opinion .

The reason I enjoyed this book is because it has lots of laughs, a good story line, a lot  of stuff that I really like about the book. It had good description and the story was really good. My favourite charactors  were Captain Underpants because he got super powers in the book. I liked George because you wolud think he is responsible but he is not.  I like Harold as well but there are my favourite because Harold and George do really funny pranks.