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At the start of this term everyone was handed out books to read, and my book was Tom’s Midnight Garden. I thought that this book was quite good because the author used excellent language, I think the story is set out very well because: everything happens in chronological order, the author often leaves things on cliff hangers which just makes me want to read on more, what happens in the book is very clever because everything adds up at the end. Like when Tom finds out that everything that happens in the garden is because Mrs Bartholomew (later found out to be Hatty) dreams of the garden and what she dreams of happens to Tom.

Although what I do not like about this book is that it is very slow moving, I say that because it goes into every tiny detail about every single thing that happens, one of the times this happens is when Tom is reading about Victorian clothing and it goes into detail about the headings and all the sub headings and it even goes into detail about all the clothes that Tom is not searching for such as men’s clothes even though he is looking for the kind of clothes that Hatty wears.

Overall I think that this is a good and it is very satisfying when you have finished it. Despite that I would recommend this to older readers who will not get bored with it and will read on.

This term my reading book for homework it was the Brilliant World of Tom Gates. At the start of the book I wasn’t sure of the book but if I didn’t  read it I would be missing out.  It is a really funny book because I think its really funny at the part when Tom calls Marcus moosy Marcus  it was funny from the start until the end and there is parts in it that you expect like how at the end when they finaly are about to go to dude 3 the dog [Rooster] eats the tickets and Mr Fullerman buys them a ticket. If I was to give the book a mark of 5 I would give it 5 out of 5. An example of the author trying to be funny is when Mrs Worththington has a moustache. Over all it is one my most favorite reading books.

This term our reading group was reading the book Mr Stink.  The author is called David Walliams and his style of writing the book was a comedy.  He also use a lot of change of text for different scenes.    The author doesn’t have a lot of pictures.  I think that because maybe he wants you to imagine it yourself.  I found the book very entertaining but I think it would be even better with a little bit of drama.  I really liked reading this book,   Because the chapter when Mr Stink got invited to the prime mister in the city was very funny and also it was very serious. The prime minster invited him because on the show everyone loved him and want him to be the political party member.When they were there Chloe didnt like the prime minster then…   Chloe decided to tell said a rude joke which got them kicked out but they were still happy  .I loved the style he use. It was entertaining and I never got bored reading it.  I would read it again and I would give it a 5 out of 5.  Also I would advise other people to read it.

By Caititdh

Holes,

Louis Sachar,

Evaluating.

This book is a great book because the author has used lots of different Punctuation and describing words to write the book such as: stooped, huge, “, -, ?,., ; and !  The book is quiet funny as the author has used most of the funny parts at the end of sentences when people have finished talking.

 

I would say that the genre of this book is comedy because a lot of people characters were just digging lots of holes.  Stanley and Hector/Zero the two main characters.  Stanley and Zero saw this thing on the mountain and they thought it was a big thumb so they left camp to climb the big mountain then they found out that it was a big thumb.

One of the funny parts in the book is” Stanley had seen KB is his mothers bathroom and he also saw it in the wardens cabin. It was  halve of a lip stick tube.”  Stanley meets these new people at Camp Green Lake who have very weird names like; Zero, Armpit, Zigzag, Squid, X-Ray and Magnet. Overall I would rate this book 5/5.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This term I have been reading a book called Mr Stink. It was a brilliant book. The book was partially humorous and partially emotional. Chloe who is a 12 year old girl and Mr Stink who is a 60 year old man I felt as if their bond grew through out the story. My favorite part  is when Mr Stink gets invited on to a show called question time and he embarrasses himself (in a hilarious way) and embarrasses mother who is Chloe’s mother. Overall I really like this book and I like the way the authors styled it and I like the illustrations that the illustrator made.

Holes by Louis Sachar is a book based about unfair punishments. A boy called Stanley Yelnats is framed for stealing a pair of sneakers he did not steal. He got sent to camp green lake where he gets up to trouble.  I enjoyed very much because of the different types of characters from innocent Stanley Yelnats to the aggressive Warden.

The way the author wrote it it was like two different sides of the book; There was the joking funny sneaky boys then there was the dark side of the Warden and Mr Sir. A easy way to show this is when the boys stole a sack of seeds and Stanley took the blame. Mr Sir got angry and took him to the Warden. The Warden wears venomous nail polish; it wasn’t dry and she scratched Mr Sirs face for wasting her time.

The genre of this book I feel is adventure because Stanley and his freind Zero escape from Camp Green Lake. They have to climb to the top of a mountain. Stanley had to carry Zero to the top. The reason why they climbed to the top is because they believed there was water source at the top. I feel like it is also about freindships, because Stanley has to make freinds with the boys and they all have nicknames: Caveman-Stanley Yelnats, Zero-Hector Zeroni, Xray, Magnet, Twitch, Zigzag, Armpit and Squid they even called Mr Pendanski Mom.

Louis Sachar wrote very weirdly because there was a poem that he repeated over and over in the book.

“If only if only the woodpecker sighs,

The bark on the trees is as soft as the skies.

While the wolf waits below, hungry and lonely,

Crying to the moo-00-oon,

If only if only.”

But he changes the poem each time. He can make the book really tense. Like when the author made Stanley and Hector starving in the desert.

 

Holes which is written by Louis Sachar is about a boy getting punished for “stealing the shoes” of Clyde Livingston. Clyde is a famous basketball player. The boy in this book is called Stanley and he gets sent to Green Camp lake where he had to dig lots of holes. At the camp Stanley meets other people and starts to bond with one in particular, Zero. Zero is a boy who isn’t very smart and Stanley has to teach him to read and write. Suddenly zero tries a get away and everyone is camp tries to find him. No luck, But Stanley didn’t stop and he got his reward. He found him under a boat keeping himself alive with a gloopy juice. Stanley manages to persuade him back to camp and in no time they were back at home partying with Clyde Livingston.

The Author is trying to get a message across in this book. This message is that punishments can get as bad as this         (digging holes all the time). He has got very good description for example his “no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-Grandfather.” He also has lots of characters in the book ( Stanley, Squid, Clyde Livingston…) which needs to have good description. He has put two stories into one book because of when he tells the story of his Grandfather. I would say this is an adventure book because of the adventure Stanley goes on and all through the book where Stanley goes through different stages.

Personally I liked the book and I would rate it 4 1/2  out of 5. I liked this book because there was lots of description and there was never nothing interesting going on. So for example Stanley is always digging and finding something interesting. At the end of the book it is a surprise because He ends up sitting next to the person that he got accused of stealing his shoes. I would read this book again.

Tom’s Midnight Garden is a book I have read by Philippa Pearce. It was published in 1958 so the language in it is different from what we would see today. The genre is adventure, as Tom goes on an adventure around the garden. It is about a boy named Tom who has to go to his aunt and uncle’s house to stay temporarily because his brother, Peter, has measles.

When Tom first goes to his aunt and uncle’s, he was bored, but curious because there was a grandfather clock with a “13th hour.” He missed his brother and he couldn’t get to sleep, and when he saw the 13th hour on the clock, he sneaked out to the garden.

In the garden, he met a girl named Hatty, who ends up being one of the main protagonists in the story. Hatty says she is a princess, even though she is not, however that isn’t important the story. Time moves faster in the garden, so he can stay in there for a long time, even though it’s just an hour.

He ends up going to the garden every night, and something completely new happens every night. He meets someone called Abel, who is extremely protective over Hatty. Since everything moves faster in the garden, some big and important things an happen very quickly. A fir-tree that previously had an effect of the story came down, leaving it to never be mentioned again.

The book is quite a serious book, and doesn’t have much humor, but a funny bit in the book is when Tom and Hatty are fighting over which one of them might be a ghost.

At the end of the book, Tom and Hatty go skating down Ely, in one of the frostiest winters Ely had ever had. It didn’t take long to become winter, as it started of in summer, but became winter in only a couple of months.

A interesting quote from the book is: “Nothing stands still, except in our memory.”

In conclusion, I would rate the book 4/5, as it is a good and exciting book, but it can get boring sometimes.

When I got back to school I was given a book that is named holes. It had 50 chapters, every week I would read 8 chapters, It is a very interesting book that makes you want to read more. Holes had a lot of good VCOP and one of the best books Ive read so far! My favourite part of the book was when at the end Zero and Stanley get out of the juvinial camp and ended up rich because they found treasure and Stanleys dad made a deodrent for peoples feet and they get to meet clive livingston. This is an exaple of Mr sir being sarcastic “This isnt girl scouts,is it?” I would recomend reading Holes by Lewis Sachar, I give the book a 4/5!

This Book Review is about Captain Underpants, it is the 3rd epic novel by Dav Pilkey.

This Book was about a battle between Evil Cafeteria Ladies and Captain Underpants and he has 2 children called George and Harold from a school to help him.   At the start Captain Underpants Is a head teacher called Mr Krupp and he hated George and Harold but when one of the boys snapped their fingers he turns into Captain Underpants.

This book was very funny because of there was comics and this thing called Flip-o-Rama which is basically when you flip the page back and forth and in between you can add sound effects.  One of the funny jokes in the book was “I was at the shoe store buying a cheese burger” said captain underpants.

I would rate this book almost excellent because it’s so hilarious and I would recommend it to children and I think they will find it very funny.

On Wednesday 3rd October Port Ellen primary invited the older generation in the village into school to enjoy a lovely afternoon tea. There were scones and pancakes prepared by P1-3, sandwiches made by P4-6 and cupcakes made by P67 as well as shortbread made by Anne Holyoake. Children helped serve the tea and sat and chatted with the visitors, and they entertained them with dancing, singing, poetry, music and talks about their learning. More than 50 people came along, and there were 4 people over 90 present that afternoon, and the children really enjoyed spending time chatting and performing. Everyone joined in with a singalong of Birlinn Ghoraidh Chróbhain and a medley from WW1, while the gaelic choir practiced their songs before the Mod. The children even got to enjoy some cakes at the end too!

We have been learning the gaelic song Birlinn Ghoraidh Chróbhain as part of our Dunyvaig learning.  Godred Croven was one of the earliest settlers on Islay and probably used Dunyvaig as a base.

When the mighty Norwegian King Harold Hardrada was killed in battle in 1066, his Chief of Staff was Goraidh Crobhan (Godred of the white hand), who escaped and made his way to the Island of Islay, where his reputation as a clever and fearless warrior had gone before him. Men flocked to join him, and he was victorious in his battle with Fingal, King of Man and the Isles. He also fought successfully against Malcolm Canmore.  In our animation you can see him travelling a Birlinn to Islay from the Isle of Man.

Ghoraidh Chróbhain is best known on Islay in a legend where he cleverly kills a dragon that was eating people and cattle, so we decided to have him slay a sea monster in our video, xan you spot it?   He died in 1095 as a result of the plague that was sweeping the area and is said to be buried on Islay.

We used stop motion animation to film the story of the song, and also recorded us singing along.  We hope you enjoy the animation!

Here are the words:

Hóbhan na hóbhan hó, hi horó na hùbhan,
Hóbhan na hóbhan hó, Air Birlinn Ghoraidh Chrobhain

Fichead sonn air cùl nan ràmh,
Fichead buille lùghmhor,
Siùbhlaidh ì mar eun a’ snàmh,
Is sìoban thonn ‘ga sgiùrsadh.

Suas i sheòid air bàrr nan tonn !
Sìos gu ìochdar sùigh i !
Suas an ceòl is togaibh fonn,
Tha Mac an Righ ‘ga stiuireadh !

Dh’ fhàg sinn Manainn mòr nan tòrr,
Eireann a’ tighinn dlùth dhuinn,
Air Ile-an-Fheòir tha sinn an tòir
Ged dh’ èireas tonnan dùbh-ghorm.

Translation:

Hóvan, na hóvan ho,
Hee horó, na hóvan,
Hóvan, na hóvan ho
The barge of Gorrie Cróvan

Behind the oars, a score so brave,
A lusty score to row her,
She sails away like bird on wave,
While foaming seas lash o’er her.

Up she goes on ocean wave !
Down the surge she wails O,
Sing away; the chorus, raise,
A royal prince; he sails her !

The towers of Man we leave away,
Old Erin’s hills we hail O,
On Islay’s shore her course we lay
Though billows roar and rave O.”

 

On Wendnesday 29th August we went on a bus to go to Finlaggan. When we got there our class was the first to go and see all of the old buildings and island in the middle of the Loch.  When we were finished outside we went inside to see a lot of old things that the Lords of the Isles would use and other things they used in the medieval times and the family tree of one of the familys that lived there and facts about Finlaggan. When we were done that we got back on the bus but the bus was leaking oil so we had to drive to mundells yard to get a new bus and came back to school.

I enjoyed learning facts about Finlaggan and the best part was when we got there.

We have been learning about Dunyvaig Castle.  Our class did a lot of research and had learned what life was like in Dunyvaig castle.  Also what they wore and what they did in a castle.  We also went to the dig at Dunyvaig and include some of the facts we learned.  After our weeks of research we had to imagine we were someone in a castle writing a letter to a family member or a close friend. When we wrote the letters some of us wrote it from the time 1593 which someone at Dunyvaig found a seal with that date on it.  All of us used all the facts we had learned through are topic about Dunyvaig into our letter and when we went to the dig.  A few people in are class choose a mother or a father but the other people choose some people like Lord Campbell.

Dear Daughter

I have regretted switching clans this place is falling to bits. Because of those attacks from Lord Campbell. At the moment our leader is planning in the great hall are next attack on the Campbell! So many soldiers have been tacking out of the war and have been sent to the wise woman. If I was them I would not go and see her people have went in with two arms and have come out with one. Our leader is so mad with Lord Campbell.

Today the hunters have come back to the castle with a magnificent deer for dinner tonight. They were very quiet on their horse with the long bow ready to shoot. Everyone was setting the Great Hall up for the feast tonight. The minstrels were ready to sing and dance. At the moment my favourite song is Birlinn Ghoraidh Chrobhain.Finaly they have put the dear on the spit over the burning hot fire and ready to eat.

Yesterday we had a terrible storm we needed five men to close the sea gate. All of our Birlinn got destroyed our lead was so annoyed he said “What are we going to do if the Campbell’s attack us we have no escape boats until next week! “When the storm wa s happening all of the women went up to the solar room to sew a tapestry. It was a beautiful tapestry the embroidery thread added some colour into the castle. Currently everyone is really busies since that storm carpenters are making some more Birlinn in case of a battle. And the Black Smiths are making daggers, swords and spears. That is all for now I will keep you up to date with what is happening. 

Your Loving Mother                                                                       

 

 

 

In class we have been researching famous people from the time of Dunyvaig and Finalggan, from Godred Croven to John the II of Islay.  We have learned what life was like at the time and the family tree surrounding the lord of the Isles.  We created posters of the famous figures; below you can see our poster for Godred Croven and Somerled, two of the earliest characters associated with Islay.

 

 

 

 

P67 at Port Ellen have been recreating a letter from the time of Dunyvaig castle. They had to imagine a letter that might have been written and had a seal attached.  This is because there was a seal from 1593 discovered at this years dig at the castle; seals were used with wax to seal letters to make them official.  We have been using a seal in class to add to our letters, which we have aged using cold tea.  We melted wax in a spoon over a candle and then used a tree of life seal to imprint in the wax.  We think they look very authentic!

On Tuesday the 25th of September 2018 all p6 and p7 went to          Stramash.  We got to go on a ferry and the ferry ride seemed like it lasted a million years but it was all worth it because we were about to have  a really fun week.

My favorite activity was canoeing because we got to sink a canoe and go in one. The first activity was coasteering and I enjoyed coasteering more last year at Stramash but it was still fun. The 2nd activity was bushcraft and I really enjoyed bushcraft because making the fires and toasting marshmallows and we got to go under a tarp to keep dry in the rain.  Sharing a room with my classmates was fun and the dinners where quite nice but I missed my mum and dad and was glad to get home again!

 

By Alexander

On the 25th of September P6/7’s from Islay and Jura went to Oban for Stramash. Stramash is lots of exiting outdoor activities made for experience and making friends. First we got on the ferry to Kennacraig then it was a long bus journey to Oban. That was when we got to meet the instructors and get told our groups and rooms. Everyday we got told our timetable and on the first day I had cannoeing but the bus was late! The next day sounded fun anyway.

I got up out of bed and was told I had Castle adventure. Once we got there everyone had to say about the sounds around you and how we felt. My group made a very fun mud slide which caused one tragedy later on in the week. Soon after lunch my group had gorge walk. Gorge walk was really cold last year so I wasn’t looking forward to it. First we scrambled into our wetsuits then headed to the gorge. Suprisingly we got to see a red squirell. We also got to float down on our backs. I WAS ABSOLUTLEY FREEZING!

On the 2nd and last full day I awoke very tired. After breakfast my group had climbing and absailing. It came to my mind that it was going to be fun. We had to have a harness and a helmet to keep us safe. Once we got there we climbed on rock then two others. For me the last one was the hardest.

Later just before lunch we got told we were doing coasteering with Adam, so once again we had to clamber into our wetsuits and bouyancy aids. I knew coasteering would be fun because I did it last year. Coasteering was all about going around the coast climbing and then swim a bit.  Last year we got to jump of a rock and I didn’t do it but this year I was determined to jump.

That night the teachers decided to take us swimming, we also went last year but it wasn’t as fun as this year. The swirly flume was amazing and I got stuck in the middle of it but thankfully I managed to get out. Noon came and because it was the last night we had a fire and lots of games at the beach.

Sadly Stramash had to come to an end.  We only had time on the last day to do one activity which was bush craft with Rich. We did bush craft in a woods and got to make a fire. WE ALSO GOT TO TOAST MARSHMALLOWS! After that we had to say goodbye and start heading back to Islay.

Overall Stramash was really fun and I would definitly go back to Oban. My favourite activity was coasteering because you got to jump of a rock.

by Jack

Bush Craft at Stramash

On Tuesday the 25th September p6/7 from the Islay and Jura schools went on an outward-bound trip: Stramash.

One of the activities that we done was bush craft, I really enjoyed that. Excitedly I walked up the path towards the woods with my group and at last we arrived. Our instructor, (Rich) told us to go and find somewhere comfy to sit and listen to everything around us. When we came back down we listed everything we heard; cars, wind, leaves etc.

Later on Rich showed us a feather stick he made because he wanted us too have a go and try making one. All of us were told about the triangle of death, the triangle of death is in between your legs where your arteries are, we were told TO NEVER! cut in-between your legs because if your knife slips out of your hand it could hit your arteries and that could kill you. So that is why you have too always cut at the side of you and away from your body. Soon enough Rich handed out knifes to each one of us, we were all pretty psyched to get too use a real knife by ourselves. When I had a go at making my own feather stick it took me quite a while to get the knack of it but when I did I was all right at it.

Now it was time to make a fire. My partner for making the fire was Ciaran, our fire was the first to get going and I think that surprised both of us. Too make the fire we had too collect sticks, (number ones) and (number twos) were the kind of sticks we had to collect, number ones are small thin twigs and number twos are thicker and a bit bigger. Too test if the twigs were dry on the inside we would snap them and if they made a good noise then we were able to use them.

Finally we were ready to create our fire. Ciaran lit the fire and carefully I laid the number ones on top of it and the number twos width ways, we both also used our feather sticks. Whenever our fire started going out we would use the mats we sat on and blow on the fire with it and me and Ciaran would start shouting “LIFE SUPPORT” whenever our fire died down a bit. As well as making a great fire everyone got marshmallows and got to toast them over the fire and me and Ciaran got one more each than everyone. I felt pretty sneaky about that…

By now it was the end of our bush craft session and I would be able to tell my friends all about my great time building fires and making a fire stick.

By Holly

 

On Friday 28th of September 2 authors came to Port Ellen primary. In p4-7 class the author was called Janis MacKay and she came in and did some fun writing activities with the class. The first activity was we had to continue a part of a book she read called The Reluctant Time Traveler.  After we had written a few sentences we had to pass our work to the person on our right and then they had to right a sentence or 2 but continuing in the same style as the other writer. It was a fun little activity and she told us about how she became a writer and different places shes lived and questions linked to them. She also told us stories about how she was inspired to become a writer and what gave her ideas on what to write about.

On Friday 28th of September in p1-3 they had another author called Alan Dapre and he was talking about his book called Porridge the Tartan Cat.  P1-3 did a little activity where Alan read them a segment of the story then they got to make up their own characters and show what the character was feeling.  For example people drew spotty guinea pigs, unicorns and different patterned cats and things like that.

Written by Orla Campbell

We have all been learning about life in castles at Port Ellen this term following our exciting trips to Dunyvaig Castle to take part in the archaeological dig.  Primary 123 have made their own castles with working drawbridges from paper, and they have been researching what people who lived in the castles did.  Here is a clip explaining their work.

When we were making groups for a certain subject to debate for, we had to make a Sway. Our group was about gender equality, and our sway was explaining what our group was about and what we were trying to do. The sway also had a video of two people in our group talking about our group and why people should vote for us. Each group also had a picture of the entire group. I was in charge of making the sway and I made slides about: Our members, our manifesto, what we are trying to do and our slogan. We showed our sway in front of the entire school to try to get them to vote for us. If we won the election, we could choose an activity everyone in the school could do, but we didn’t win however.

Our class p6/7 are doing a topic about elections.  For our topic we had a visitor come to are school called Lord George Robertson.  George Robertson was an MP who is now in the House of Lords in London.  He told us what it is like to be a MP and we had asked him many questions for example; we had asked had him did you always want to be a MP.   He said “I was always a person with my own opinion”. We told him that we were doing a election topic and he gave all of are parties some advice.  George wanted to be a MP because where he lived there was nuclear navel ships showing up so they all protested to get them moved.  We had learned a lot about Politicians and MP’s we used all the key facts he told us and used it for are party presentation.  It was a really interesting day!

Last week we held an election for parties we had designed ourselves.  Every political party has policies and everyone has a role; leader, manger, canvasser, speech writer, policy advisor and public relations.  The party’s names were Party Animals, Boogie Bombers,  Super Sports Bro,  Gender Party,  Cycle Islay and  POP which is people oppose pollution.  I was the leader for Boogie Bombers the winning team of the election and we are going to hold an X Factor competition, Yeh!

Every year we have a Captain and 2 Vice Capatins for each of our school houses. This year we have 3 vice captains in one house it is also the same as last years house. This year the house with 3 Vice capains is Nave: Vice captains Orla, Aidan, Harmoni and the captain is Ellen.  Orsay’s vice captains are Morgan and Charlet and their captain is Dearbhla.  Texa’s Vice Captains are Jack, Millie and Freya is their captain.   Before the eletion for voting people from your house have to give speeches about what they would do for the school.  A lot of people took part in the voting but not everyone could win something in the election because it works by voting and not who has the best hair do!  It is about who you think is going to change the house and the school for the better.  We hope the captains have a good year.

A funfair has arrived at Port Ellen. It has everything: a rocker, a inflatable slide, a lot of prizes to be won, a jungle run, gambling  machines and dodge ems. There is bumper cars for little ones and zorbs that you are allowed in then you go on water and float.

So far i have been to the fair everyday except from one day. The money you spend starts to pile up after being there day after day. Each ride cost from £2.50 up to £5.00.

The fair will be here for just under two more weeks. Its here till the 15th of September.

The fair is really fun but it is expensive so dont go to often.

Today Bowmore primary came to our school so we could teach them how to use sway. First we showed them how to start from a subject on sway, and then they made their own sway with the information. Next we taught them how to use one note, and we told them about the collaboration space and how they could use the different subjects in their folder to work. They made there own pages about Dunyvaig and they write about their trip to Dunyvaig. Mrs. Clark showed them how the start form document feature works but they didn’t use it. We added sway and google classroom to their homepage so they could access it easily. Then they had to leave at 2:30 and they were told they could use sway, google classroom and one note at home.

We are the Cycle Islay Party and we are mostly focusing on cycling and we are trying to win a school election. We all have our roles and we have 5 pepole and things that we will do if we win. We will do stuff for our school the isle of lslay, Scotland and the world and we need to try and improve the world so everyone has a better life. You should vote for us if you want to keep fit , reduce global warming and even go on your bike in school up the path. You can vote for us in the election becuase we will try and help you.  We want to make cycling more fun becuase it is a very good way of transport because you can travel with fresh air while traveling instead of being inside while traveling and you can easily communiciate while traveling when pepole go along the path and chat to them while on the move.  So vote for us.