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The Latest News hot from Fetlar
We started the day with Breakfast and then the 5 schools separated with some going on a Boat Cruise, whilst others studied boats at the museum.
We fished for plankton samples and looked at them via a camera and a microscope.
We also got to look at what lives under the pier.
On Monday we arrived in Voxter and spent most of the day in the Clickiminn. This was good, especially as the weather wasn’t too pleasant.
There were many activities laid on: swimming, climbing wall, roller skating, bouncy castle & big toy play.
Everybody enjoyed the big play stuff.
Afterwards we went to Mareel to see Two By Two and then we headed up to Voxter.
The title of this post comes from one of the pupils when he was watching the eclipse through the special sunglasses.
The video of the eclipse as seen from Fetlar is available here:
We didn’t think we were going to see much this morning as it was quite drizzly, but around 8:45am the rain stopped and it began to brighten. We took the telescope outside but we couldn’t get it to project clearly so we used the special glasses. The clouds kept passing over the eclipse but we were able to see quite a lot of it. The video, which was taken using the glasses as a filter, shows the best bits. It is a bit wobbly though. We won’t apologise for the enthusiastic cries of the pupils!
Special thanks to Janet (our regular helper and adviser on all things to do with Space) for coming up to the school to help us see it.
As this is a new website I am not certain if viewers can post comments. Please try to. I think I have altered the settings!!
Despite being busy with the solar eclipse, some of the pupils managed to make cakes for our Baking Sale at the shop.
We made chocolate crispies in school, in between eclipse viewings, but we also had pupils bring baking in from home and many donations of traybakes from the community. Nursery made delicious flapjacks.
We had a target of £33 so that we could donate to Unicef in order to supply 3 water purification kits to families in Vanuatu.
Thanks to everyone who came, and the kind permission of Fetlar General Merchants, we managed to raise £109 which means we can send 9 purification kits.
Well Done Everyone.
Mr Rose came to school today to talk about Renewable Energy. He brought a water powered generator and a solar powered generator amongst other things.
We measured the amount of electricity generated. But it took a lot of water!
We used solar power cells on what was rather a dull day.
The maximum we got from these cells was 10 volts.
We discussed the situation in Vanuatu caused by the cyclone at the weekend (13th-15th March) and decided that as a school, which believes in the rights of every child, we should do something about it. UNICEF said on their website that for £33 we could give 3 family sized water purification kits, so we decided to aim for that.
We are holding a cake bake this Friday (20th) at the shop, with all donations going to Unicef. Pupils, parents and friends of the school are making traybakes or fancies to sell. Nursery are also making cakes as well. We are not pricing items – just asking for a donation. We will be at the shop between 11 and Noon on Friday (or until we sell out).
Please support us.
We were lucky enough to have a visit from our local District Nurse Practitioner Beckie on Friday 13th. We learned about how to clean and dress a cut, apply bandages, make an emergency phone call, listen to a heartbeat and perform CPR. We also got to inspect the Fetlar Ambulance. It was a busy morning.
As with all school events Nursery were involved too.
Obviously we didn’t have real blood coming from our injuries. That’s why we had the ketchup bottle out!
Healthcare from the pupils to the teacher was (maybe) a little heavy handed!
Pupils also practised CPR on the dummy to the tune of ‘Staying Alive’. Below is Beckie showing us how to do it…. But, for some unknown reason the sound won’t play.
CPR.
When Nursery arrived we used stethoscopes to listen to our heartbeat, before going to explore the Ambulance.
We were very impressed with the Ambulance.
At the end of our activities Beckie gave us all a brief test before awarding certificates. Thanks for coming to see us Beckie.
On Friday 6th March 2015 our new Nursery pupil baked for the first time in school. She baked with our oldest pupil and they both worked really well together.
The chocolate cookies that they made were delicious and all the pupils of the school enjoyed them. Next time it is the turn of P4 to bake with Nursery.
Well done!
This week Mr Rose is teaching us about separation and filtration. We studied how we could clean up dirty water. This linked nicely to our WaterAid work. P2 learned that there is a lot of water in our bodies (as the picture below shows).
We filtered the sandy water through some gravel inside a filter paper. This is what we were left with after filtering:
Lots of sand was kept in the filter but the water was still quite dirty. It would take a lot more filtering to make this safe drinking water.
We are studying Buddhism. We have learned that Buddhists wish to attain a clear mind from from bad thoughts. We think that this actually means that the beliefs of Buddhism are really similar to the Rights in our Rights Respecting School work.
We have learned that the Buddha is not a God. He is a wise man who has gained enlightenment. We have also learned how good it is to have a pure heart.
We have learned about the importance of Lotus Flowers to Buddhists. These are flowers which show how hard life is as they grow from the bottom of a pool to the top. This is like the Buddhist belief in reincarnation until the believer attains Nirvana.
We were given the challenge to make our own Lotus flowers out of tissue paper to decorate our Buddhist shrine.
