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    

 

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 plants for us. Hopefully this autumn we will have some fruit to pick!

On Wednesday the 2nd of February schools came together at Bowmore to have rugby tournament. The schools included were, Port Ellen, Bowmore, Keils, Port Charlotte and Small Isles. (Jura)

When we got to Bowmore, we started to do some games to get ready before we actually did the real thing. The first game was Port Ellen and Bowmore, at the end of the first game Port Ellen won by two points.

We all brought pack lunches and sat at our side of the pitch. We split out teams in to 10 or 9 people to be even with the upcoming team. Everyone did extremely well in the tournament, and we may be doing it again very soon.

From the 7th of January to the 12th 2022 we did a project on fast fashion.  Fast fashion is where people buy cheap clothes and they wear out very quickly so they have to buy more . This is a problem because it’s very wasteful and very bad for the environment  since they go to landfill. Did you know that children in child labour pick the cotton for these jeans and they spray it with acid and sand to get ripped jeans which causes the children to get sick and have lung diseases?

We did not like the idea of this and decided to make our own bags’ from old material. By doing this we learnt how to hand sew, use a sewing machine and I learned to use a popper tool. To practice for making the bag we all had to do mock-ups made out of paper, tape and staples.  I feel that when you make something for yourself you look after it more or if it cost a lot of money. On seesaw we have posted 2 seesaw activities one was a collage on bags we like and the other was a bag design with measurements and photos. When we finished our bags we had a fashion show with Mrs Macdonald and posted it on seesaw.

Shinty  is a sport that we play at P.E and you use a stick that is like a hockey stick and a light baseball on the all weather pitch.

We have been practising our shooting and dribbling and some people have been  defending and goalkeeping.  We have learned that shinty is hard and shinty sticks are easy to break! Shinty sticks in Gaelic are called caman. We wear shinty helmets which are very tight and sore on your head . We have proper sticks and fake ones but the fake ones are better because they are a lot harder so they do not break.

This term we have been learning Gaelic with Caroline, Caroline is a online Gaelic teacher who teaches kids Gaelic through video call. We have been learning hobbies in Gaelic, food in Gaelic and we also do actions to remember.  We also learned about jumping and sitting down and listening. Some examples are, sit in Gaelic is suidhe, Stand in Gaelic seasamh, jump in Gaelic is leum.

Caroline teaches P12, P234, P567.

On the 27th of January David Wood a member of the RSPB came in to the school to teach primary 5,6 & 7 about corncrakes. He taught them all the need to know facts about corncrakes, and gave them some quizzes on corncrakes. Here are some of the need to know facts :                                                                                Corncrake have two sets of eggs each year.                                                                             Corncrakes are extremely rear and we are very lucky to have them on the Isle of Islay.                                                                                                                                                          Corncrakes Latin name is Crex crex.                                                                                             Corncrake males will call at the top of there voices from midnight to three am in the morning.                                                                                                                                          Corncrakes migrate to Africa in winter then come back and stay from April to September to mate the find there way by following certain stars they also know which direction south, east, west and north are in.

This  year the p7s read address to a haggis by Robert Burns in front of the whole school on the stage. Callie then cut the haggis in half with a knife. We had two weeks to practice it and learn it. The poem had 8 verses and we had to read four of them and we had to stay in sync .  In the poem it was talking about how good the haggis was and was saying it was better than French food . They said that only brave people can eat it. We also had the haggis on our lunch. We then had a great lunch.

Primary 7 give you ‘Address to a Haggis’ by Robert Burns to round off our renditions! pic.twitter.com/535Z2Wbrt6

— Port Ellen Primary School (@portellenps) January 25, 2022

 

Port Ellen Primary did some poems and Primary 5 did up in the Morning Early and put it on to seesaw and the poem is

Cauld blaws the wind frae east to west, 
The drift is driving sairly; 
Sae loud and shill's I hear the blast
I'm sure it's winter fairly. 

Up in the morning's no for me, 
Up in the morning early; 
When a' the hills are covered wi' snaw, 
I'm sure it's winter fairly. 

The birds sit chittering in the thorn, 
A' day they fare but sparely; 
And lang's the night frae e'en to morn
I'm sure it's winter fairly
 
Up in the morning's no for me, 
Up in the morning early; 
When a' the hills are covered wi' snaw, 
I'm sure it's winter fairly.

All the words were hard to learn and the meanings were hard to learn snaw means snow cauld means cold.

Happy Burns day everyone! Here is a reading of 'Up in the Morning Early' by P5. Enjoy. pic.twitter.com/hvUidKIF0d

— Port Ellen Primary School (@portellenps) January 25, 2022

 

Here is the Primary 6 reading of the Robert Burns poem 'Robert Bruce's Address to his Troops at Bannockburn' with artwork🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 pic.twitter.com/cbuu2jJhU9

— Port Ellen Primary School (@portellenps) January 25, 2022

On Tuesday 25th January 2022 P5/6/7 had to learn a poem each.
The p6's had to learn Scots Wha Hae. The scots wha hae poem is about 
the Scottish fighting the English at
Bannock burn. On the seesaw post, we all had to a different verse 
Verse 1 was Finlay and Teddy
Verse 2 was William
Verse 3 was Iona
Verse 4 was Dylan
Verse 5 was Chloe
Verse 6 was James
Here is the poem Scots Wha Hae


Scots, wha hae wi' Wallace bled, 
Scots, wham Bruce has aften led, 
Welcome to your gory bed, 
Or to Victorie! 

Now's the day, and now's the hour; 
See the front o' battle lour; 
See approach proud Edward's power 
Chains and Slaverie! 

Wha will be a traitor knave? 
Wha can fill a coward's grave? 
Wha sae base as be a Slave? 
Let him turn and flie:

Wha, for Scotland's King and Law, 
Freedom's sword will strongly draw, 
Free-man stand, or Free-man fa', 
Let him follow me. 				

By Oppression's woes and pains! 
By your Sons in servile chains! 
We will drain our dearest veins, 
But they shall be free! 

Lay the proud Usurpers low! 
Tyrants fall in every foe! 
Liberty's in every blow! 
Let us Do- or Die!!!

On Wednesday we took part on a Edinburgh national art gallery competition. We have been doing a topic on observational drawing with Mrs. Brown that I really enjoy! Observational drawing is were you look at something and draw it.

First Mrs. Brown set up fruit and plants on a table. We all put our tables round the fruit like a bonfire so we could all se it at different angles. We first got to practice our shading on a wee set up of fruit. Then we got A2 paper to do the real drawing on. I sketched all out. Then I started to paint with water colors. Then did some shading with pastels. I finally finished after a long two days.

I waited till I forgot that we did it! Then Mrs. Brown announced that someone in the class won! We all gave a long drum roll then she said “Katie won!” I was over the moon with joy!

 

Well here it is, P1/2 class of 2021 Christmas Nativity. The children have worked so hard to create this for you and hopefully have had some fun along the way too! Thank you to all of the other classes for their contributions, we really appreciate it! We hope you enjoy it!

Sorcha won the Marine Design a fish Competition. She drew a picture of a imaginary fish and won the Competition.  The fish was very colorful and creative.

First you had to draw the fish on a piece of paper. Then you need to send it in a email to the Marine Design a fish competition leaders.  Finally they pick a winner and turn the winners designs into a toy.

Here is a picture of Sorcha’s fish.