Over the past couple of weeks Primary 2 have been learning about money. They have learned what all the different coins are, and even made posters to show to the P3s. Today they had the chance to play shop with Miss Murray, and try to complete money dominoes as a group. They managed to complete 14 dominoes in 5 minutes. They’re going to try and beat their score next week!
 
  Primary 4 – 7 visited the Museum and archives to find out more about what happened to the Victorian whaling ship ‘Diana’.  Kirsty Clark led a hands-on workshop on what it was like at the Whaling in Victorian times and Mark and Brian Smith shared interesting information stored in the archives. We had a really interesting and informative visit, thank you all!
The Diana left for the Arctic in May 1866. At first the crew did well and they caught a small number of whales, but on the journey back the weather began to get worse and the ship was locked in a sea of frozen ice. It was trapped for over six months. Food was rationed, and fuel was in short supply; the sailors were driven to use anything they could get their hands on for food, even the wood from the ship’s masts and seal clubs.
By the time the ice had thawed and the Diana had finally landed in the Shetland Isles, 13 men were dead including Captain Gravill, the captain of the ship. A detailed log was written by the ship’s surgeon, Dr Charles Edward Smith, after the death of Captain Gravill.
We have entered a play in the Drama Festival which tells the story of the crew, many of which were Shetlanders. Some of the crew are our ancestors.
The play was written and directed by Marsali Taylor, based on the information in Dr Smith’s log entries. Dr Smith’s brother, Frederick Smith was mayor of West Ham and after hearing the tragic story of the Diana’s crew, he paid for a red marble drinking fountain to be erected on Victoria Pier in Lerwick.The memorial reads “The Providential Return of the S Whaler ‘Diana’ of Hull 1866-7”.
As our Viking topic comes to an end here is a selection of photos to show what the Primary 1 and 2 class have been busy doing. Â It includes our visit to Lerwick to see Up Helly Aa, helping to make our own Viking longship which Mrs Nicolson’s son built for us, visits from our very own Vikings and one called Thorfinn Sigurdsson, taking part in Aith Up Helly Aa with Primary 2/3 and making Viking longships and longhouses for our displays in class.
 
On Wednesday Primary 1 thought about the months of the year and could show which months their birthdays are in, discussed special events which happen throughout the year, the 4 seasons and how 12 months makes one whole year.
We are thinking about time this term and decided to make a calendar.
Primary 2 made the grid part of the calendar and had to think about the year, month names, days of the week and the number of days in each month. Â They worked really hard together to complete all 12 months for our calendar.
Primary 1 thought about months, seasons, weather and special events then designed a picture for each month.
We now have a calendar in the P1/2 and P2/3 classroom to look at and use.
Today Primary 1 and 2 spoke about all the different fireworks they saw on bonfire night. Then they really enjoyed creating their own fantastic glittery firework pictures.
We had 3 weeks to try and make a gymnastics routine with a partner or small group. There had to be a minimum of four moves and a maximum of eight. We had to include a teddy bear roll in our sequence. We suggested music to put our sequence too. We had a vote to see what song we should do our routine to. Lisa Johnsons ‘tears’ won. We did our sequence to that but it didn’t feel right so we went with the second most popular song ‘faded’ by Alan Walker and it was perfect!
Here is Emma.D, Holly and Emma.R’s performance! The one above is Peter and Finns!
This blog is by Emma.D and Scott
We have been busy practising our letters today. We wrote the letters using our ‘magic finger’, remembering where we start each letter,  then used paint on our fingers to write each letter.
