Posted on

Art Styles

My Endeavour  is art  and I’m basing my art on Andy Warhol, Bansky and Keith Harings.

My aims are:

  • to evaluate and improve my work as I go along
  • to organise resources and manage deadlines.

In February I finished  of my planning , then  wrote my letter to Miss Roberts, the art teacher in Islay High School  and also started my research.

In March I looked at Pop Art, Graffiti Art, Modern Art and a little bit of perspective drawing.  I tried to copy these styles of art to understand the process.  I had planned to see the art teacher this month but did not achieve this.

By the end of my Project I hope  to improve my art skills and put on a mini exhibition for the Endeavour Fair in June.

I have done 3 pieces of art so far for my exhibition.

Posted on

Animation Endeavour

I am doing an endeavour about clay animation. Right now I am making an animation about a volcano eruption because of global warming. I just have to animate it now and do the volcano eruption. But it is quite hard because I have to move the volcano and take pictures, it is hard because I forget where I took the pictures and it makes the animations bad sometimes so I need something to put it on so I can make the captions right. The reason I picked this endeavour is because animation is fun and I haven’t  really done much with clay so I thought it would be fun!

Posted on

Port Ellen History

This year for my endeavor I am doing Port Ellen and its history. Endeavour is a long term project that lets us use learn and get better at new skills. Every year you have to have created something that you can show at the endeavour fair. Everything you do is put into a folder and you keep it all year. You also need to plan all year.

Port Ellen has changed allot over the years and I wanted to identify the changes by presenting a timeline, sway and a map of Port Ellen to show where people in the war live. I have learnt about the monuments and lots more changes. WW1 was a big event for Islay having that the Tuscania and Otranto sinking just of the coast. We had a memorial at the start of may where Princess Ann came over to celebrate 100 years since the incident.

I have learnt how to use a timeline on power point. For my endeavour I need to now how to work a computer. I also needed to plan my year and show what my ambitions and aims are. Every week you also need to plan what you are doing.

This year I made a sway on Port Ellen and the changes that took me a couple of endeavour sessions. I also made a map with all the people in the war and where they lived. That was displayed in the Ramsay Hall for the Princess to see. Im also in progress to finishing a time line on power point.

I think to get finished I would need to do some at home but I will hopefully have enough to show on the endeavour fair.

by Jack

Port Ellen - Whisky Cyclist

Posted on

Celebration of Engineering Event

On the 31st of May 2018 we had an  engineering fair. We were showing other people our learning about engineering. We had made sections about things such as engineering new things out of Lego and K’nex and we had sections for global warming.

There were also things to do with the STEM club. There was a simulation of the great pacific garbage patch. We were shown a video about a large net pulled by a boat that went to the great pacific garbage patch to collect as much garbage as possible. Some of us went to try and make something to collect as much of the stuff inside the simulation of the great pacific garbage patch as possible. One of the designs was a bunch of pipe cleaners with beads on them on the handles which would make it float. Then it would be pulled along to collect as much rubbish on the surface as possible.

In the hall there was a save the polar bears desk where two people were sitting at the desk, getting donations so they could save polar bears. There were lots of posters explaining how polar bears are endangered and how they could be saved. Just down from the polar bear desk there was the engineering endeavour table. There were four people. The first person was doing mechanical engineering, the second person was doing coding engineering the third person was doing electrical engineering and the fourth person was doing biomedical engineering.

It was a great day and lots of people from the community came and it was even filmed for BBC Alba.

Posted on

Kitchen Skills Endeavour

This year for my endeavour I am doing kitchen skills. I chose to do this because I am really interested in it and I really like helping out at home and the skills that I have learnt will help me when I am looking for a job. Through the weeks of endeavour I have learned a lot of new skills. I have learned how to chop, peel, core and I have learnt about hygiene. At the end of my endeavour I am hoping to make an i-movie to be able to show and teach other people about hygiene in the kitchen and different skills. I am really enjoying endeavour this year and I hope that I can learn more skills even though I won’t be doing endeavour anymore after this.

By Rebecca Morris

Posted on

Highland Dancing

Endeavour is when you get to choose your own project and do it for the whole year. For this year I have choose to do highland dancing . I am learning how to get better at it, learning to talk with people if I am stuck with a step.Only p5/6/7 do Endeavour but the rest of the school do mini projects. This year I achieved lots, I also learnt new things, I had to overcome lots of problems and I learnt new skills like; learning how to put my costume away properly, how to tie my pumps and how to put everything away in its right place for the next time I go dancing. I learned how to put my sash on my white dress by my self.

I had to over come some problems like; my kilt would not fit me so I had to get it ajusted, my pump laces were to short so I had to get new laces, I went over my ankle and I could not dance, I staved my toe and I had to wear special socks to protect my foot and I was not able to dance for a whole week, I lost my pumps and I had to borrow someone elses, I was going to a competition and I forgot to bring my blouse to wear so I had to wear my sisters when she was not dancing and I was going to a practice and I for got my pumps again and I had to dance in my pumps and it was really painful and my socks were white at the start and at the end they were black on the bottom.

I have learned about the history of highland dancing, I have also learned that it is different than today, I have learned what they wear in the history and what they wear in different countries. I also learned that it was only men that did highland dancing untill the 20th century. I also learned that highland dancing builds up your muscels and makes you stronger.

To get all of my research I have been using SOBHD, wikipedia and youtube videos that have been teaching me how to choreograph a dance and how to dance properly. I chose Highland Dancing as my endeavour because I already do highland dancing and I wanted to learn more about it like the history, what other countries do it and what do they wear to dance, is what they wear the same as us in scotland, were the out fits in history the same as today in scotland. I also chosed it because I want to learn more dances becuase when I am older I would like to be a dance teacher.

 

RHDA - REGINA HIGHLAND DANCING ASSOCIATION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted on

P1/2/3 Renewables Trip

  

On 23rd May P1/2/3 went on a trip to see the different renewables being used in Islay.  First we went to Dunlossit Estate where David Gillies showed us the biomass boiler and we saw that the store where all the wood chips were stored was like a giant slushy machine.  Then we went to Ballygrant to see the hydro power station…it fitted inside a shed!  Finally George Dean took us to the wind turbine and we got to go inside it.  All were very intrigued by the upside down computer.  Thanks to David and George for a great day.

  

Posted on

May Diary

Renewables Engineering Islay – May Diary

 

As the end of our year-long project approaches there has been no slowing down here in Port Ellen….

 

Mentor Visit

Again, we were delighted to have our mentor, Neil Chattle, visit the school at the end of April.  He toured the school to see what the children had been up to and looking at displays of their work.  The children in nursery with Alison Logan were very keen that he see the boat that they’d built…and check out the tadpoles! In the afternoon Neil introduced all the children to jet engines and let them assemble amazing model engines used by apprentices at Rolls-Royce.  There was lots of adrenaline running in the competition to see which team could assemble their engine  fastest.

 

Learning about Solar Energy

P1/2/3 and Maggie Harrison have been finding out about life in rural Africa.  Having read the story of Handa’s Surprise they have investigated what it’s like to live in rural Africa and how homes there don’t have electricity.  Evie’s mum came in to talk to the class about her experience of living in a remote part of Tanzania and she showed the children a kerosene lamp that people might use to light their homes.  The children learned how solar energy might be helpful.  They built models of African homes and added solar panels and lighting – a great addition to the sand tray which was full of wild animals.  They also built and tested solar ovens!

 

The Boy who Harnessed the Wind

Also thinking about how renewables could be used in developing countries were P4/5.  They read The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamwamba. Everyone was amazed that this was a true story of a 14 year old boy. Scott said I was surprised it was a real story. I think the boy was sad when everyone called him crazy but he showed resilience and kept working on his idea. Kate Brown used the story as a novel study and the children worked in groups to understand more about living in rural Malawi. They then watched William Kamwamba as an adult presenting his story to an audience. Kate was amazed about the impact this had on the children in her class and told us I heard one of the children at a family party tell everyone about this amazing real life story of a young boy in Malawi and the incredible things he did to help feed his village.

 

Gael Force Test Run

Kate Brown and the group from P4/5 tested their floating wind turbine, Gael Force, for the Knotts to Watts competition on the day that the Rolls-Royce media team visited.  It was typically wild, wet and windy!  The dads who had been involved in supporting the build were just as keen to see if it worked on the sea….and they were not disappoionted. The group are looking forward to seeing how the device performs in the giant wave tank when they go to Glasgow in June.

 

Climate Change

This month Jo Clark’s class have focused on climate change, who it affects and how we can help.  They have looked at the carbon footprint of different countries and heard stories about women around the world who are working to help communities adapt to climate change.  Rowan said I was surprised climate change doesn’t affect everyone equally.  Poorer countries are more affected by severe weather than we are, which isn’t fair because rich countries are contributing more to climate change.  Now they are working on inventions that can help save people from climate events around the world.  They created climate change spiral poems for the visit of author and scientist Nicola Davies, who writes stories for children with an environmental theme.

 

We are Engineers

One of the main aims in the project was to raise the profile of engineering among our children. This is already showing some impact. Primary 6&7 carry out Endeavour projects every year; long term projects chosen by the children which are ambitious, look at developing new skills and have to be shared with the local community at the end.  This year our focus on engineering has led to some interesting project choices.  Sophie is currently building a hydraulic robot arm as part of her Endeavour on biomedical engineering.  I chose this project because I think girls should be able to do engineering and I would like a job that helps people.  Taylor has built a model Haynes combustion engine as part of his project on mechanical engineering; To build the model was ambitious and challenging and Donald is learning about electrical engineering and has built a capacitor circuit to store energy for the P123 class solar lights in their African huts.  The same impact is being seen throughout the school.  In nursery Erin asked Alison Logan Are we going to be engineering today? Jo Clark also arranged for P6/7 from Port Charlotte Primary to visit Port Ellen for some paper plane engineering!

 

Upcoming Events

Although this will be the final diary entry we will keep you updated on our upcoming events and continued progress with our project.  George Dean is organising to take P1/2/3 to see the hydro dam, wind turbine and solar panels at the Gaelic College now that the weather is better and these younger children have a better understanding of renewable energy. The team are planning a large community event to share our journey on 29th May and Maureen MacDonald has been in discussion with BBC Alba to come along and film.  Maureen is also in discussions with the council and liaising with the Islay Energy Trust about the possibility of us installing a wind turbine in the school,– a lasting legacy from this project

 

Budget

We have not spent any money this month so we still have £3280.99  in the budget.  Alison and Maggie are planning to to buy some additional construction material for the Pre-5 unit and some solar lighting for the school; remaining money will go towards our legacy projects.

Posted on

Solar Ovens

 

There was great excitement in P1/2/3…and a bit of envy from P4/5….as the solar ovens were used to cook marshmallows and melt chocolate digestives.  Even although it was not particularly warn, we were amazed how quickly the ovens melted the chocolate and marshmallow.  William is keen to cook pizza next!

Posted on

African huts….using solar power

P1/2/3 have read the story of Handa’s Surprise and been learning about life in Africa.  They have found out that it is very different in rural Africa from the city.  They build these huts from straw, clay and wooden sticks….then added solar panels and LED lights.  They were a great addition to the sand tray with all the African animals. The children learned how useful solar panels can be in helping children in rural Africa to do their homework.  Evie’s mum showed the children a kerosene lamp that would be used – costly to run, dangerous and giving off nasty fumes.  We researched case studies and made these Explain Everything to show what we had learned.

Posted on

How strong are eggs?

       

We have been discovering how strong eggs are and learning to measure at the same time!  Underneath this stack of books are only three eggs…..and two trays of eggs can support a small person!  We were amazed when we watched a film clip of Richard Hammond balancing two crushed cars on a large array of eggs. Check it out.

 

Posted on

Climate Change

Climate change is getting worse and worse every day because of us. Climate change is when lots of carbon emissions are released into the atmosphere which creates a lair of greenhouse gas which then traps heat in the earth causing global warming, which destroys habitats and can create tornados, tsunamis and hurricanes. This is also caused by surprisingly cows because of there farting and burping , this happens because the methane they let out.

The energy we use is also having an impact on the earth because of all the carbon emissions we use to run our homes,cars and electronics. We could change this by using renewables such as wind, solar and hydro power. We are destroying the Arctic so Polar bears and penguins won’t have habitats. So I feel that everyone needs to start using renewable energies.

You can see how global warming is happening using this climate spiral animation:

By Aidan and Jack

Posted on

Gael Force Wind Turbine

this is us building the floating wind turbine

As part of the Knots to Wats competitoin. Dearbhla’s dad Mr Newman and Morgan’s dad Mr Mcfarlane came into help us make our floating wind turbine. There was a rule book we had to follow it. for example, it must float in water, the connecting wires have to be 1.5m long attatched water level. It was hard work but we were very pleased it worked.

Dearbhla and Caitidh

 

 

 

 

Posted on

Nicola Davies Visit

Yesterday Nicola Davies came in to talk with us about her books as part of the Scottish Book Trust 20th Anniversary Tour.  She has mostly based her stories with animals in them because before she was an author she was a zoologist and there was a book that she was telling us about and it was about a boy that got his arm pulled of  by a lion, it’s name was The Lion Who Stole My Arm. The  real story that it was based on was about a 5 year old boy who got attacked by a lion and even though his arm didn’t come off he had to get it amputated because the attack was so bad. She was also telling us about animals that she was looking at such as: lionesses, humpback whales etc. When she was talking to us about the humpback whales she noticed when she was studying them that mostly every day and hour of the day the whales would eat then eat then eat again. Also to have a little fun we learned how to sing like a whale.  Nicola Davies also wrote a climate change book called Gaiya and because we are doing climate change as one of out topics that was very interesting. We also wrote climate change poems. We have been researching a lot of different facts and effects that climate change has on the world. We could either write a kenning, a haiku or a free verse poem.  We thought that the visit as very exciting learning about lots of different animals.

By Rebecca and Rowan

Posted on

WW100 Display At The Ramsay Hall

This term we have been learning about how WW1 affected the lives of people on Islay and Port Ellen by learning about the sinking of the Tuscania and the Otranto and the lives of the local people at the time.  All through our WW100 topic we have made art work, researched from primary sources of evidence online, imagined letters and put ourselves in the soldiers shoes. The reason for this is that on Friday 4 May it had been one hundred years since WW1 and we had a big remembrance event on Islay.  Everyone around the island came to remember WW100 in Port Ellen. The Islay Quilters had worked with local community groups to make the state flags of the US soldiers who died in the two sinkings, including our school; our class made the flag for the state of Michegan.   The five schools on Islay came together to carry the flags in a procession to the pier and then we put them at the Ramsay hall for display. For the project we used our research to write letters pretending to be one of the soldiers from the Port Ellen war memorial, that we had chosen, writing to their family.   We included the name of our soldiers, any interesting facts, information about family members and their jobs. In the hall there is information about the Tuscania, Otranto, and soldiers that fought in the war. Jack used a map of Port Ellen at the time to show where the soldiers lived.  The art work we did was about the Tuscania and all different things about the war and was mixed media. The other schools also had things on display.  We liked learning about the war and how the war started and how it impacted on people here on Islay.

By Jack and Aaron

Posted on

WW100 Islay- Remembering the Tragedies of WW1

On may the 4th Islay came together to remember all the people that died in WW1 in the sinking of the Tuscania and the Otranto and to save us and make life better for the future people. Everyone went to the pier by the Islay hotel in Port Ellen and there was lots of solders with guns, there were bands too. Later on Princess Anne came in a black car with a lot of security. I didn’t really see Princess Anne I just saw her get out the car then walk towards the memorial. All the schools on Islay got together to hold the flags of the states of America, which had been made by the Islay Quilters and lots of people in the community as well as the schools; Port Ellen P67 made Michegan. We stood on a sidewalk and held out our flags. We were greeted by MP’s and navy officers and we also got to meet the American ambassador and his wife. I think that it was a fun day and it was an honer to be there because we were representing all the different states America by holding the flags which we had made.

By Ciaran and Charlie

 

Posted on

WW100 An important day for Port Ellen Primary

On  Friday the Choir sang at Port Ellen Pier in front of the Princess Royal, it was very nervewracking! We sang to remember the solders that died in World War 1 and the people who drowned in the ship disasters.  The song we sang was called Tuireadh nan Treun, it was amazing and the Choir was very nervous. The song meant Lament for the Brave.The Choir sang with there red shirts and we also sang with the adult Choir. We also saw the Royal Navy. The bagpipes played along the road.  Princess Anne said our singing was amazing.

Evie and Kayla

Posted on

Princess Anne visit`s Islay

Friday the 4th of May

Princess Anne visited Islay. We went down to the pier and waved flags for the cameras and for other people and for two of the NAVY solders and the American Ambassador came over to us all and we waved our flags for Princess Anne but she was in the car so we did not get to see her for long, it was about two seconds.

I am in the Choir and for the welcome we sang “Glasgow” then we had to wait for about an hour with our jackets off, then we sang our choir song Tuireadh Nan Treun. Then we waited while they were leaving the wreaths at the monument  while Alastair Currie sang Shein e Bhan. It was a very emotional ceremony.

 

 

 

 

Posted on

WW100 Commemorations

On Friday the 4th May all schools came to Port Ellen Primary School except from the school in Jura they came for the World War One commemoration. The choir walked down  to the pier to sing a Gaelic  song with the Adult choir. About half an hour later the schools walked down to the Islay Hotel to wave the handmade flags that we made at Port Ellen Primary School. They waved the flags to welcome the Princess Royal for the WW1 commemorations and to remember the brave soldiers that were in World War One and that the fought for there country for us. We also thought about the vrave Islay people who helped the survivors of the Tuscania and Otranto.

Charlet and Millie

Posted on

WW100 Remembrance

On the Friday 4th of May we went down to the pier to remember the sinking of the SS Tuscania and the Otranto. We stood outside the Islay Hotel and we waved our flags when we were getting our pictures taken. When we were leaving the school we were buddied up with P123 so they were safe. The pipers and the drummers were coming down the street and we were waving our flags to the music and there were people behind the pipers and the drummers with big flags walking down the pier.

Then we saw Princess Anne’s helicopter flying over us and it landed on the football pitch next to the Ramsey Hall. Then Princess Anne came in a blue range rover and she got out at the monument and she put a wreath next to the monument.

 

Posted on

Port Ellen Primary School Band

On Thursday 3rd of May Fiona Hyslop came in. The PortEllen band and two people from Bowmore played their instruments in front of Fiona Hyslop, they played Mary had a Little Lamb and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Fiona Hyslop is an MSP and the minister of culture. ‘I enjoyed it because it was a one time thing only and it was really fun,’ says Donald  from primary six and he is in the band. The band consisted of Holly, Donald, Charlie, Dearbhla, Charlet, Millie, Liam and Emily. The band was in practising at breaks for Fiona Hyslop and were exited to play in front of her.

By Holly and Donald

Posted on

Animation Endeavour Project

I am doing animation for my Endeavour. I have made some animations.  I am making a storyboard for my last animation and I have done some research on the different types of animation and famous animators like Walt Disney, Dr Suess and Nick Park. Nick Park is the animator of the popular kids show Wallace and Gromit. Walt Disney is then founder of the amazing company which made amazing animations like The Lion King and Bambi. Dr Suess wrote the books for animations like the Lorax and How the Grinch Stole Chirstmas.   Some of the most famous animations are Zootopia by Disney and Wreck it Wralph also by Disney.

Report a Glow concern
Cookie policy  Privacy policy