P4N has been up to some fishy business this term! We started off at the museum, finding out about Shetland fishing in the past. We looked at a sixareen and learnt how fishermen used longlines to catch fish.  Sixareens were clinker built, open boats with a sail and oars.

In class, we made a timeline to see how boats in Shetland have changed over the years from Viking longships to modern trawlers. We compared old fishing methods and boats with a modern trawler when we were shown around the Antarctic II. There are no oars or sails on this boat! It has a huge engine and massive nets to catch the fish. We were amazed how much technology there was on the bridge to help find the fish and operate the boat safely.

Frankie’s Fish Shop came to our classroom and showed us some of the different kinds of fish caught around Shetland. We had great fun meeting some weird sea creatures, like lobsters and monkfish.  Frankie staff taught us about sustainability and even cooked up some ling, catfish and mussels for us to eat. It was delicious!

All our experiences helped us create an imaginary “toonship” with crofting/fishing characters. We wrote recounts of our tour around the Antarctic II then typed up neat copies on the computers and inserted photos. We created flow diagrams on computers to show the journey of a fish from the sea to our plate and labelled a diagram of a fish.
So, a very big THANK YOU to everyone from the Shetland Museum, Frankie’s Fish Shop and the Antarctic II for helping to bring our learning to life.