Today we have been looking at advertising techniques and trying out Keynote to make adverts for our mocktails. This is part of our Distillery IDL. We learned new ICT skills to make an advert.
The Archeological Roundhouse Find!
Outside of our school there is an Archeological dig happening because the new distillery is going up there and they need to check for ancient remains before they can build. When they are digging they are trying to find different colours of ground and put flags on that spot that was a different color. This tells them something was there, like a post.
A few people have come over to Islay to come and do this Archeological dig. They have been here for a while digging up mostly every day for a few weeks. There have been quite a lot of things they have found. We met with them in the playground and saw all the things that they had found like bits of pottery and flint. They were digging and they found lots of big rocks in the ground in a circle. Turns out there was a Round House underneath the ground, right next to our school, which is really exciting! They know this because there is evidence of posts from a building and a ditch and a circle of stones to mark out the site.
ELCC COUNTING BUNS
Today at group time talked about what what a certain number looks like. We counted our current buns and found the correct number symbol. We sang the Current Bun song and bought our buns with a penny. We talked about how many were left and how many we had eaten. ⭐️ We are learning about how many are left and identifying the correct number. 🦶 We will continue to play number games and revisit this concept.
P1 TRANSITION VIRTUAL CLASSROOMS
Mrs Hannett is working with ELCC children who are soon going to be going into P1! To help the transition she is making weekly virtual classrooms for parents to share the transition experience. They also have joint sessions so they can get to know their P2 buddies next year. Below is a virtual classroom and a QR code link to the Seesaw post explaining how to use it.
P12 Distilleries Presentation
Yesterday afternoon we presented our distilleries to our class. We needed to think about how we built our model, ensure we spoke clearly and used as much distillery language as possible and could answer questions from our friends. We gave each other feedback on our designs using 2 stars and a wish.
Trèoir
This year three people called Amy, Gyles and Lynn came in to do Trèoir with us. This is a project that involves art, music and Gaelic.
To start off we got into a circle in the hall and we all said our names in Gaelic. My name in Gaelic in Seamus. Then Jyles made a rap song about three deer sitting on a fence trying to make 1 pound out of 85 pence. That was for music.
Then we had to paint pictures of things we see in everyday life like trees, flowers and clouds. We had to draw and paint a tree with a bench and a bush. It also had to be 3D.
Then finally we had to make our own sentence about our picture with a mixture of Gaelic words and English words. I have enjoyed learning in Gaelic.
Mocktails
P234 were talking about things that go on our skin and inside our bodies. We had a chat about what alcohol and how it affects the body. We then finished off our topic by making some mocktails, agreeing on the ingredients with a partner….some were very inventive! Lots of fun!
Biodiversity IDL
This morning P12 started our new IDL topic of biodiversity. We joined lots of schools across the UK to meet with Keeping Scotland Beautiful, The National Book Trust and the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland. We found out about the importance of food chains and how all species rely on each other, we got to meet the endangered Pine Hoverflys and Wolves at The Highland Wildlife Park and meet with author Gill Lewis to talk about some of her books which are about how humans and animals can work together to make a difference.
Distilleries Timeline
P234 were revisiting the past, present and future and making a timeline for Islay distilleries, including some of the early ones which closed. We discussed how distilling had changed over time and what it might be like in the future, remembering our Googlemeet with Georgie Crawford about the new Farkin distillery.
P234 Model Distilleries
We have been looking at the design of Farkin distillery and all the different things involved in the planning. We have designed our own distillery, created a side view, made a model from Lego and then created a plan view of our design.
Highlands and Islands Oban Highland Dancing Competition
On the 30th of April 2022 Highlands and Islands dancing competition was held at the Atlantis Leisure Centre. On the 29th of April there was also a choreography competition.
Their were four highland dancers from Islay that were competitors in the Oban Highlands and Islands competition. The four of these dancers were all from Ella Edgar School of Dance. Ella does an amazing job training her dancers for competitions like this. We did very well and won lots of medals.
By Iona
MOCKTAILS!
P12 have been inventing their own healthy mocktails as part of their distillery topic. They used lots of lovely fruit to make delicious cocktails and then they wrote evaluations of their drinks.
Barley Germination P12
Last week P12 had the challenge of trying to get barley to germinate. Some of us decided we should put our barley outside (picture 1) this had two different outcomes. The barley which were left under/beside the train disappeared! We think some visitors ate it….. The barley that was protected by the creel was very wet but did begin to germinate slightly. The barley that was in the fridge (picture 2) went mouldy although it did begin to germinate too which Mrs Hannett was surprised at! The barley which was left in the classroom by the window and kept damp germinated beautifully and we will attempt to plant this tomorrow. Fingers crossed the deer don’t get it!
FITNESS
We were learning about the importance of exercise and how it is good for us. We had lots of good ideas. Over the next few weeks we are going to look at different aspects of fitness. We were finding out about the different aspects of fitness…speed, strength, flexibility, agility and stamina. We did some activities to test how good we were.
TESTING PAPER AIRPLANES
We were engineers this afternoon making paper aeroplanes ✈️ it was a bit tricky so Mrs Bonar had to help a little. We wanted to see who’s could go the furthest and decided that we had to be up high so used the cable reels. We made predictions and wondered if we needed stronger paper or if there was different shapes we could make!
EMOTION WORKS IN P12- THE RED COG
This morning we have been investigating the red cog. This helps us to think about how different emotions feel inside our bodies and where we feel them. We watched the story Marvin gets Mad to help us think about how anger bubbles and builds inside us. We then used our Emotion Work resources to help us think about other emotions. We drew around Cievah and used her body shape to help us think. We then used tickets which showed the different body parts and added some describing words to think about how these felt – shaky, cold, tight, tense, butterflies… Afterwards we worked in small teams to do the same outdoors with different emotions.
Library Van
We visited the library’s van this morning, this will be our last visit this term. We have really enjoyed going and choosing our own books. We know we must look after the books and return them for others to use. We are learning that there are people in our community that can help us and we must take care of the books as they don’t belong to us and will be shared with others. We will continue to visit the library van and also learn more about our community and who can help us.
Farkin Distillery Google Meet
On Monday 22 of March, The school had a google meet with Georgie Crawford the manager of the new Farkin distillery which i being built next to the school.
These are some of the questions we asked:
- When do you think FarKin distillery will be finished?
- ls the distillery going to have a malt floor?
- How many floors are they going to have?
- Is it going to have a visitor center?
The answers:
- The end of next year!!!
- The distillery is going to have a malt floor!!
- The distillery is going to have 3 floors.
- It is going to have a visitor center and a teaching centre.
This has really helped with our distillery project!
JOINT SESSIONS!
This afternoon we had another joint session. This we thought about how we grow and what we need to ensure we’re growing healthily. We decided we needed exercise, good food and water and to have birthdays so we know we’re bigger!
Use the QR code to watch the video.
Football Tournament Away
So on Sunday Port Ellen juniors went on a trip to Campbelltown and we played against them and won 3-1. The goals were like this; so we were down 1-0 and then Finlay got the assist for Jack’s good goal and then we were level and then Callum from his own half almost scored but Murray tapped it into the goals. This made us 2-1 up. so then the last goal we got was Murray got an assist to Jack’s other goal and as soon as he got the goal the match ended. There the score was 3-1 to us and then we went home on the bus to the ferry with a smile on our face.
Our Corncrake Books
We have been learning about corncrakes with David Wood from the RSPB. We made corncrake books in groups on Book Creator. We made one about a game called egg hunters. We had to have rules that were you had at least 1 hider and at least 1 hunter to play. In our group we had William Campbell, Hugh Mackinnon, Thomas Edwards and Duncan Campbell. There was five different groups that made them they were called Crazy Corncrakes, Corncrake runners, Corncrake Escape and Corncrake Kahoot.
Ferry Fun
We had the loveliest morning chasing the ferry to the end of The Ard where we had a wee rest and some snack. Then we walked round the path and headed back to school. We are so lucky to have this on our doorstep and will be spending lots of time over The Ard over spring and summer.
YOGA
Ms Brown has been teaching us Yoga in P234. Yoga helps to make us more flexible, builds our core strength and helps us to relax. It is good for the mind and body.
TRIP TO THE RSPB!!!!
On Tuesday the 15th of March we went on a trip to the RSPB. We helped planting lots of thing like, cowparsley, nettles and hogweed. We went here because Evie’s dad is teaching us about corncrakes and that is the reason we went to the RSPB reserve.
When we arrived we met the people that work at the RSPB. The people that we met were David, Laura and Dave. Then we went up the hill and started to plant things. We planted the nettles first. We had to dig holes to plant them in, then we scattered hogweed seeds everywhere. Finally we planted Iris plants in the stream at the bottom of the field. We also got to use view-finders to spot Golden Eagles. It was a great day out!
EMOTION WORKS- THE YELLOW COG
This morning we looked at the yellow emotion works cog. This helps us talk about the triggers for our emotions. We used Ruby’s Worry by Tom Percival to help us think about our worries and have been busy creating a new wall display to replace The Colour Monster that we have had up for a wee while.
Signs of Spring
We went on a sunny walk round the nursery and school ground this morning looking for signs of spring🌼 we noticed that the pond look really full, Mrs Logan found two frogs under the tarp and lots and lots of frog spawn 🐸 the children were so excited!
Primary 1 and 2 Trip To Bruichladdich
Well what an amazing day we have had! We left school and took the big new bus to Bruichladdich distillery where we went on a tour with Lesley who taught us all about the whisky process. After that we went back to the shop and met Kate and James who are the foragers for The Botanist. They told us all about their jobs and let us make our own bases for gin. Then we headed to the brand room to meet Adam and Julie. Adam told us about his job making the whiskey for Bruichladdich and answered our tricky questions and Julie helped us realise that the things we enjoy doing provide us with skills which we could apply to jobs when we are older. We then headed down to Port Mor for our lunch where Basia, Eilidh and Ranga had been busy making us cakes for our pudding. Luckily it didn’t rain so we got to have a good run about in the park before heading to the museum of Islay Life. It was tiring so some of us had a wee snooze on the way home! The children were superb today, fantastic behaviour, awesome questions and good listening! Well done P1/2!
School Trip To Bruichladdich
On Wednesday March the 2nd the whole school went on a trip to Bruichladdich. Why we went is because we are doing a topic on distilleries.
First when we got there we learnt about foraging. There were different types of plants on the table like gorse, bog myrtle, spearmint, and a lot more! After we learnt about foraging, we made our own jar of dried plants. I put some different plants in my jar and crushed them all up which made a sweet minty smell. To forage they use a secateurs which is like a pair of pliers to cut the plants. Once they collected all the plants, they put them in a bag that works like a tea bag. Eventually they put them on a shelf to dry in a warehouse.
After that we went up to talk with Adam and Julie. Adam talked about the process of whisky and Julie talked about the jobs. We talked about what we were good at, then the jobs that you could do that involved distillery jobs. I would be good at designing labels and bottles. Next, we smelled whisky scents. The first one I thought was pineapple, but it was Lemon; it smelt good. The second one I guessed was honey and it was honey! The third one I guessed was vanilla extract, but it was just vanilla.
Thirdly we went on a tour. The class went to the Malt room first. It was where all the barley is fermented with yeast. We got to smell some barley as well. There was the first normal barley that smelt good. Then the next barley was smoked barley, so it smelt much stronger. The next place we went was the mash tun. It was cool and they had an open one and there are only five in the world! The masher is 108 years old. There was a big mixer in the masher to mix all the boiling water. The next place we went was the wash backs. The wash back is where the alcohol finds its way into the distillery’s whisky. The wash backs go right down to floor ground because the floor is lifted to the roof. After the wash backs it was the still room. There were stills that are 148 years old! There is a still that is called ugly Betty too! Lastly on the tour was the barrel room with barrels that are so old!
Lastly, we did some maths to do with distilleries, so we measured the alcohol in the drink, and it showed on the thermometer. Then we hopped on the bus and went to Port Mor for lunch. Port Mor also gave us cakes and drinks! Then we hopped back on the bus and went to the museum.
At the museum we had to find some old distillery stuff. I found a bottle of whisky and a illiat still which is illegal and way more. It was interesting looking at all the old stuff.
Overall, it was a fun and interesting experience and I really enjoyed it. The distillery people were really kind, the same as Port Mor and the museum.
By Katie 532 words
Colour and Light in ELCC
We got some lovely new shapes for the light box and had lots of fun today using the shape spyglasses to find the correct shapes. The children loved using the shapes as glasses 🌈
Tree Planting
The Bee Healthy citizens group ordered some free fruit trees and hedging plants from the Tree Council last year, so we could start to make an orchard to grow our own fruit. The trees arrived on Thursday, and we had to plant them before the holidays, so today we were out planting trees and hedging in the hail and snow! We were very lucky to Have Gordon Currie and Ello come and dig a trench for the hedging plant
s for us. Hopefully this autumn we will have some fruit to pick!
