March 21, 2025
by Mrs Irvine
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40 years of Red Nose Day

P3/4 have had a retro 1980s day to raise money for Comic Relief as it is 40 years since the campaign began.

This week we have been using 1980s cartoons to inspire our writing and developing designs for our very own Inspector Gadget suit!

We looked back at he Doomsday Project completed by P5 and P6 in Whalsay Primary in 1985 and used it to discuss some differences that had occurred in the isle in the last 40 years. The children have enjoyed playing some of the playground games mentioned in the project during PE and outdoor time this week.

March 7, 2025
by Mrs Polson
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P1/2 World Book Week

Primary 1/2 have had a busy week celebrating books.

They enjoyed meeting the author Ann Marie Anderson. She read her latest book “Hirda the Oorick.” Some of the class created characters to help Hirda gadder up bruck.

Anne shared books written in Doric with the class. She read “Nae Place Like Hame?” The class thought this story was funny. There are lots of words in Doric that are different from Whalsay words. Great reading Anne.

Eva brought in another book written by Ann Marie Anderson called “Da Fisherman’s Wife.” She explained how it was her auntie Jo who illustrated this book. Well done Eva.

Ruby read one of her favourite books called “Peekaboo Sun” and look there she is dressed up as the sun for World Book Day! Great reading Ruby.

On World Book Day we had so many book characters in our class. A big thank you to secondary one and primary 6/7 who read books with us.

March 6, 2025
by gw19patersonelizabet@glow
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P6/7 World Book Week

With World Book day on Thursday the 6th March, Primary 6/7 have been exploring the world of books.

We have been inspired to by MC Grammar and created our own raps based on a novel by Julia Donaldson. We have really enjoyed sharing these raps with the children in P1/2.

Over the week we have been tuning in to authors to find out what inspires them when they are creating stories.

It was lovely to have parents and family in to join us for our library session on Wednesday.

But the biggest surprise was when the children arrived to school as their favourite characters from books. Miss Paterson was most surprised by the arrival of minions instead of her P7 pupils! Also including a set of terrible triplets and a scary shark. All of the children in class looked great.

Well done boys and girls and I hope this has helped to inspire you to read more or create your own books.

March 6, 2025
by Mrs Irvine
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Happy World Book Day from P3/4

P3/4 have had a busy couple of days celebrating World Book Day.

Yesterday Ann Marie Anderson came to visit us to read her new book Hirda the Oorick. The children enjoyed hearing the story and learning new dialect words. P3/4 drew pictures of Hirda with new characters they thought would be good at picking up bruck! Our work is on display in the primary corridor.

Thank you to the parents who came in yesterday for our library session. There were activities to complete and lots of books to explore.

Today we were treated to a Harry Potter themed science show in the primary canteen. Mrs Constable and Mrs Simpson put on a fantastic show and kindly let us have some of their experiments to try in class. The levitating feather and the Marauders Map were exciting to play with!

Secondary 2 came to read to us today as part of the paired reading activities that are ongoing in the school. It was lovely to see friends and relations sharing stories in the class and in the library.

In class we have been thinking about our favourite places to read, completing a book scavenger hunt and character top trumps game. It has been a really enjoyable day!

March 3, 2025
by Miss Nairn
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P3/4 Co-op Group Lessons

Part of our topic this term has been all about our place in the world – Shetland and Whalsay.

Our co-operative groups chose an area to research in depth – some chose knitting, some looked at music in Shetland, the sports we play, and others chose to look at the fishing boats we have.

Each group had to spend time gathering information about their chosen area, and to make a presentation to the rest of the class. We became the teachers! We gave our presentations and prepared some work/ activities to check that our pupils had been listening carefully! Once the presentations were complete, each group answered any questions and then gave out the follow up work. As teachers we had to help the pupils who needed it, and of course, we had to correct it at the end!

February 7, 2025
by gw19patersonelizabet@glow
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Sumdog Competition

This week Sumdog were hosting a competition across Shetland.

We were very please to find out that P6/7 reached the top of the leaderboard.

In addition we had 3 students in top ten positions.

Libby 1st

Cleo 4th

Benjamin 7th

A huge well done to all the P6/7 pupils on their success.

February 5, 2025
by gw19patersonelizabet@glow
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P6/7 Writing Success

It has been a great week for writing in P6/7. On Tuesday we made it into the 100% club.

All of the children met the success criteria for writing on Tuesday and as a result we have reached 100% on our run chart. The chart tracks our progress in writing over the term.

As a reward the children have decided to wear there pyjamas to school. This will take place tomorrow, Thursday 6th February.

Well done P6/7.

February 4, 2025
by Miss Nairn
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Volume-o-meter

Creating solutions to real life problems.

In P3/4 we work hard and sometimes we can get a little noisy. We decided that too much noise was becoming a problem for us – we know that too much noise can affect our health, well being and our learning. We decided that we needed to find a solution to this problem.

Last week we spoke about how some of us were feeling about too much noise:

” It’s distracting.”

“I can’t hear the instructions.”

” Too much noise makes my head hurt”

We wondered how people in other classes and schools kept their noise levels down so we investigated different strategies for example having quiet critters and having a ‘thermometer’ of noise. We had lots of brilliant ideas.

In P3/4 we love working in our co-operative groups as we enjoy helping each other with our learning and we have fun while we do it. In our co-op groups we designed and planned different ways of keeping the noise down.

This week we have made our volume-o-meters and we are looking forward to testing them out – one volume-o-meter a week and finding the one that works best for us.

Each group has made something totally different! Some of us made coloured flags to put on desks to show which table is working at a ‘good’ level of noise. Others combined the idea of Quiet Critters and token jars.

Here we are making our volume-o-meters:

Here are some of our completed Volume-o-Meters ready to go:

January 17, 2025
by Miss Nairn
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Chinese New Year

As part of our RME we are finding out about Chinese New Year. We have learned that the new year begins on Wednesday January 29th 2025 and that this is the Year of the Snake. The new year is one of the most important festivals in Chinese culture and we are learning about how it is celebrated throughout the world. We have been learning that red is a lucky colour and that children receive money and sweets in red envelopes! Red is the colour that symbolises good luck in Chinese culture. We have also discovered that Chinese lanterns are a way to let go of the past and to welcome the new year with good fortune.

On Thursday we made our own Chinese Lanterns, here are some photos of our work:

: Woven Lanterns

December 20, 2024
by Miss Irvine
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JRSO Competition

The JRSOs have done a fantastic job of organising and running a be safe be seen competition during Friday Fun this term. Pupils had to design a reflective vest or a reflective suit for Santa. The overall winner received a bike helmet and class winners got small prizes. The P1 and P2 winners will get their prizes after the holidays.

Whalsay Primary Blog

We hope you enjoy our new Primary blog for all classes.