All posts by S Renwick

A Forest Grows in Skeld

Our Tree Diorama

We were asked to make something for a festival of trees, we decided to make a small diorama of a wood.

We came up with some ideas, everyone wanted to do a tree, but also some animals that lived in and around the trees. We wondered what to use for a base. Luckily we found an offcut from a pine plank. This gave us a base to work on but also dictated the size too.

The trees were made from a hanging basket liner and a wooden skewer. We cut the liner into different sized circles and then glued them to the skewer.

We spray painted the trees black. This helped us make shadows as well as make them more rigid. Once the paint was dry we covered the trees in PVA and water with a drop of washing up liquid to help break up the surface tension. When they were soaked through we sprinkled on the dark green flock. When the trees were dry we sprayed them with hair spray to seal the flock on.

We then drew out our design on the board and built up the hills with offcuts of polystyrene. We covered everything in Sculptamould. We made a depression for the stream when it was still wet. We then painted the ground brown.

We decided where the trees were going to go and then made holes to take them. We then covered the ground with PVA glue and sprinkled on lots of different flock. We made sure we didn’t touch the stream as we wanted it to have water in. The stream had a darker colour painted on and then small stones and grit were glued on.

Mr. Renwick printed us animals and birds. Everyone painted something. The trees were glued into their holes and then the animals and birds were stuck onto the scene.

We then got Mr. Renwick to add the resin into the stream area.

Our final task was to add all the tufts to look more like long grass and reeds.

 

Table Tennis

We were really lucky to have Joan and Chris in school to help us improve our Table tennis. We were super excited when they brought in a Table tennis robot. This would fire a ball out and we would have to hit it back.

We learned how to add backspin to our shots as well as backhand and forehand shots.

We all had a go at hitting a ball on the robot’s fastest setting. This was firing a ball at us less than a second apart….it was so much fun

We even got to take part in a league. We played in singles and doubles matches.

Joan said that we had tried really hard and had made so much progress over the two weeks. We asked her if she could come back and she said that she would love to. She said that she was away at three  competitions,  but would come back after the October break to carry on with our training.

 

 

A Massive ‘Thank You’

The Geek club wrote to some more companies to see if  they would support our little club. we were really excited when ‘The Army Painter’ said they were sending some paint and some brushes.

We wrote letters to say thank you and received a really lovely email today.

Peder (The Army Painter)

19 Sept 2023, 14:31 CEST

Thank you deeply for your kind letters! I was very touched by this. I loved learning what you each would like to paint.

XXXXX, we are kindred spirits. My favourite dinosaur is Spinosaurus, although with so many great species, it is difficult to choose. My 3-year old son loves Parasaurolophus.

I have ordered your club some Gamemaster paints as well. If you need anything in the future, do not hesitate to write.

Good luck with combining paints with gladiator fights! It sounds like a bold strategy 😉

Best regards,

Peder

Customer Service

Web: www.TheArmyPainter.com

STEM with the Royal Navy

Primary Seven had the opportunity to go to Aith with Mr. Renwick to work with other P7’s and S1’s on a Royal Navy STEM challenge.

We first built a rocket and ours actually worked the best when it was shot into the sky with compressed air

We then worked with another team and had to follow a brief to produce two different things. The first was a tower and the second a windmill.  Our team’s windmill won. Our tower wasn’t quite as successful though.

We had a great day and want to thank DYW and the Royal Navy for giving us the opportunity to attend.

We Made Fire

We asked if we could go outside after art and Mr Renwick said Yes. We wanted to have a go at lighting a fire with the flint and steel and again he said yes.

So here we are giving it a try… it is a lot harder than they make it look like in the films 🙂

 

Another Day, Another Wood

One of the Many great things about a small school is the ability to be spontaneous.  We were spontaneous today.

We piled into our teachers cars and went to Sand gardens for an hour before lunch.

We played, explored and even had a quick game of chess.

Some people think that Shetland is always wet and windy, and although it can be, we also get amazing sunny days too…

 

Woodland Adventures

We got to explore Kergord Wood in the rain. A lot of us felt that it was actually more fun than if it had been really sunny.

We went up to a clearing and while we explored Mr. Renwick set up a tarpaulin and Kelly kettle ready for hot chocolate when we returned.

We had our lunch in Bonhoga and explored the gallery…

We ended the day with a walk along sand Beach

Someone even found a piece of 18th Century Glass…

Technology Project

We were tasked with making a box  or a frame out of 10mm wood. We had to measure carefully and cut accurately.

P2/3 did an amazing job to produce their frames.

Primary 5 and 6 took it to the next level to make either a cube or a cuboid.

We really enjoyed working on this and learned so many skills.