Monthly Archives: March 2017

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Designing Christmas Stamps

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Yes we know it is only March but we have had our Christmas thinking hats on this afternoon as we have been busy designing Christmas stamps to enter into the Royal Mail’s Christmas Stamp Competition 2017.

The theme is ‘What does the Christmas season mean to you’. The winning designs from 2 children will be featured on Christmas stamps in 2017, the winning stamps must be approved by Her Majesty The Queen! There are 2 categories in this year’s competition: 4-7 years old and 8-11 year olds.

 

This links to article 31: taking part in a wide range or artistic activities

School

Cullivoe Up Helly Aa

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On Friday 24th February we met at the school at nine and got our shields so we were ready to meet the Jarl squad. Then we got the bus up to the hall and met up with the Jarl squad and got to see the galley, we got our photo taken with the galley.

After a while we got in the galley and went down the hill to the Jamison’s garage. 

This is when some of us had to come off because there were other children there wanting a turn in the galley, from there we went to the school.

There were lots of photos taken here with the Jarl Squad. The community came in for a cup of tea, coffee or juice and a biscuit.    

After that we got to hold/put on the jarl squad things like helmets, shields and axes.         

The jarl squad very kindly handed around creme eggs to all the children and some adults if they were lucky. The Jarl squad sang their songs and danced a little which was good before they went visiting.

When they left the school, we practised our squad to make sure everything went smoothly for the performance at night. We also played Chinese ladders which is when you get a partner and sit foot to foot all in a line with spaces between each pair (it looks like a ladder) you all get numbered then you have to run up the ladder from your space, round the back and end up back in your space. The Jarl squad came back and we got a photo outside with the jarl squad.

Then we had dinner with the Jarl squad, it was delicious!! When we were waiting for our pudding the Jarl squad started singing and had us join in so we all sang and danced, (we danced on our chairs at one point)

Once we finished our dinner we went home at 2 o’clock for a rest and we came back at 7 o’ clock to get on the bus to go to the procession. We went back to the school to get changed then we preformed our squad at the school. After that we got the bus up to the hall to perform our squad there. When we were finished we got changed into our party clothes and went through to the hall to watch the rest of the squads. We all had a great night!

 

By Jasmine, Amanda and Abbie

 

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Learning about Smoking

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Today Lauren Peterson, who is the Health Improvement Practitioner, came to visit primary 4-7 this afternoon during topic.

We began by letting her know what we knew about what smoking does to the body. She went over all our ideas before giving us her facts – we had nearly all of them already so she was impressed with our knowledge! Here are a few of the facts:

  • it can lead to heart disease
  • less oxygen gets to your heart
  • your hair smells and so does your clothes
  • you are more likely to get coughs and colds
  • your skin can get dry and wrinkly
  • it stains your teeth

Did you know that 1 cigarette contains more than 4000 different chemicals.

Lauren had taken some chemicals in bottles for us to see – we had to get into pairs and choose 2 to research. We then had to take a leaflet and find the chemical we chose, noting down how that chemical affects your health. We all shared one chemical that we researched.

She then split us into two groups and asked us to think of the health benefits if you stopped smoking and to put these into a timeline. We share our timelines to each group before Lauren shared a few facts with us:

  • After 20 minutes of giving up smoking your blood pressure comes down so you get health benefits straight away!
  • 8 hours later the oxygen levels in your lungs return to normal
  • 12 hours later the level of carbon dioxide reduces in your body
  • 36 hours later the nerve endings that wee damaged from smoking  begin to come back
  • 3 days later your sense of smell and taste comes back
  • 2 weeks later your circulation gets better
  • After 1 year the risk of getting heart disease reduces by half from when you were smoking
  • After 5 years your risk of having a heart attack is no more than that of a non-smoker

We really enjoyed Laurens visit and thanked her very much for coming in to see us.

 

 

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Coin experiment

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Primary 1-4 experimented with coins last term, we used old coins that Miss Nicholson brought in and put them into different liquids to see which would clean the coins the best.

We had water, fairy liquid, fairy liquid with water, orange juice, lemon juice, coke, vinegar, vinegar and salt, baking powder and water, bicarbonate of soda and water. The vinegar made our classroom stink but it really cleaned the coins, a little too much as it stripped the colour from the coins. The water didn’t really do anything to the coin, the fairy liquid with and without water cleaned it a little but not too much, the coin in the orange juice was surprisingly clean! The lemon juice worked a little, the coke worked really well! We wondered what it does to your insides when you drink it if it could cleaned really dirty coins that well! The baking powder and bicarbonate of soda worked a little too. After a unanimous vote we decided that coke is the best thing to use when cleaning coke so we used this for cleaning the rest of the coins.

Primary 1-4

 

School

OutRight Certificate!

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We took part in the UNICEF OutRight campaign 2016 at the end of last year.

We also sent Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary for the UK, a letter explaining about our learning on the refugee crisis and how it effects their rights.

We received a letter from the UNICEF UK Senior Campaign Adviser.

The letter said well done on our learning and thank you for taking part in the UNICEF OutRight Campaign 2016.  They said that hundreds of people send letters, pictures and videos everyday of them learning about The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. They also sent a certificate for us that can be seen on our achievements wall.

 

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Primary 5-7 Debate Gender Stereotypes

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We took part in a debate about gender stereotypes, based on three questions:

  1. Should some toys be just for girls or boys?
  2. Should women be allowed to compete in the same sports as men?
  3. Should the Cullivoe Up Helly Aa have a female Guizer Jarl?

We were randomly divided into groups to argue each side, with many of us arguing points which we didn’t personally believe in.  This was really tricky!

– Primary 5-7

School

Climate Change

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Here is Ben, Amanda, Poppy and Ollie’s news report on coastal erosion in the Kiribati Islands.

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Jessica, Dylan, Ruby, Dean and Lee made their news report around Typhoon Haiyan, which struck the Philippines in 2013.

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Jasmine, Katy, Tali, Sabienne and Thomasina made their news report on how rising sea levels are affecting Bangladesh.

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Finally, here is Emma, Bethany, James, Abbie (camerawoman) and Monica’s news report on the 2011 drought in the Horn of Africa.

 

 

School

Dogs Against Drugs

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This afternoon Michael Coutts came into school to talk to us about Dogs Against Drugs. They are here to help our community and keep us safe.

There are 2 dog handlers in Shetland and they have 4 drugs dogs between them. They have 2 working dogs (Blade and Thor) and 2 training dogs – Axel and Odin who is still just 8 months old. They start training the dogs when they are 1 year old. Michael had a dog work as old as 9 and a half years old. They use Labradors or Springer spaniels as their noses are bread to be better. Did you know that dogs have 30x better smell than humans?

They take the dogs to the airports and the ferry terminal – anywhere where people can come into Shetland. As well as searching buses, cars, trucks, houses, etc. The dogs aren’t just used to find drugs but are used as a deterrent.

We saw a clip of Thor working and how he shows his handlers that he has found something – they stand and wag their tails.

The dogs and their handlers have to go south every year for assessments.

Michael showed us his uniform and let us try it on. He showed us his baton and let us all hold it.  He also showed us his handcuffs and let us try them on too but they were too big and our hands were able to come out as they are designed for adults. So he had Louise try them on!

Michael had taken his dog Thor up with him so we all went outside to see him. We stood in a big circle and Michael took him round for us to pet him. He was lovely and very excited to see us. Michael then took out a ball for Thor to play with as they use this as a reward. So because he was good and let us all pet him he got to play with the ball for a bit. Michael had him sit and wait before throwing the ball up into the air. Thor then caught the ball in his mouth!

Michael very kindly gave us key rings at the end that had their website on it. Here is a link to the Dogs against drugs website if you want to have a look at the dogs in Shetland: http://www.dogsagainstdrugs.co.uk/the-dogs

Eco

Climate Change

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This term we have been learning about climate change.  We have been looking at how climate change has affected people in different parts of the world.  We made up our own news channels and each had a role to play – these were presenter, reporter, scientist and local person.  We will upload our videos to show you, we hope you enjoy our news reports!

Primary 4-7

 

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P4-7 Topic

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This term we have been looking at the topic ‘Changes’. We have learned about climate change and changes in the body.

We have learned about drugs and the effect of this on the body as these can change the people who use them in all kinds of ways: they can make you happy, angry, upset, sad, scared, excited, tired or paranoid. They can stop your body working if they are taken too much or for too long, especially the brain, lungs and liver. We looked at what legal and illegal drugs are and that drugs are harmful if they are used inappropriately, incorrectly or excessively. Here is what we have learned:

A drug is any substance which causes a change in the way the body, or part of the body work.

Illegal drugs are drugs that are against the law to carry, take or sell. Some are illegal because they can be really harmful or be addictive. They are sorted into different classes: Class A drugs are things like heroin and cocaine – these are the worst drugs and most harmful, there are class B and Class C drugs too.

Legal drugs are drugs that are prescribed to you by a doctor or bought over the counter which help you and your body, we call these medicines, or they have an age limit on them, like alcohol and tobacco products.  Coffee, tea, coca-cola, energy drinks and chocolate all contain caffeine which is also a legal drug. Caffeine is a mild stimulant which can make us feel more awake, but if we take too much it can make us irritable and give us headaches. The drug in tobacco is called nicotine which is addictive – we are going to learn more about smoking next week when the health visitor comes in to talk to us.

Alcohol can also be addictive and affects your body as it changes the way you think and feel. Addiction is when something becomes a habit and is hard to break. Some people feel they need these ‘drugs’ to help them as they are dependent on them and can feel sick if they don’t have them. There are lots of different organisations that can help people with addiction. The AA (alcoholics anonymous) is one for people who are affected by alcohol, it might be the person themselves or their families. It gives them a chance to share their experiences and see/speak with others, they try to support each other to recover.

It is illegal to sell alcohol or tobacco to anyone under the age of 18! The government recommends that pregnant women do not drink as this could harm the baby.

Alcohol relaxes you and reduces tension but it does lead to poor concentration, slow reflexes/reaction time, reduces coordination, slurs you speech, makes you sleepy, affects your emotions/vision, make you sick or pass out.

Primary 4 and 5 created posters on the short term and long term effects that alcohol have on your body.

Short term risks usually linked to drunkenness are head injuries, fractures, facial injuries and scarring. They can also include alcohol poising.

Long term risks can include: liver damage, stomach ulcers, increased blood pressure which can cause heart disease/heart attacks or strokes, male sperm production decreases and it disrupts normal brain development.