Term 3 in Primary 5-6-7

PUPILS STEP UP TO THE MARY’S MEALS CHALLENGE

Pupils in P5-6-7 have accepted a fundraising challenge for the next twelve months.

After a visit from Rev. Fulcher explaining the work of the charity ‘ Mary’s Meals’, pupils decided to raise the sum of £238.50 (the cost of feeding the whole school, for one year, if we lived in Liberia) from profits from their Healthy Tuck Shop project.

Mary’s Meals is an international movement to set up school feeding projects in communities where poverty and hunger prevent children from gaining an education.
Mary’s Meals provides daily meals in school for over 350,000 children in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe.
Mary’s Meals not only addresses the immediate needs of a hungry children by giving them a daily meal, it also allows those children to receive an education that can provide an escape from poverty for themselves and their communities.

Pupil directors have already banked £35 towards their total, and have been designing menus to achieve maximum profits while offering a range of snack choices for hungry customers.

Our Healthy Tuck Shop project was set up last year by using finance from The Primary Schools Challenge Fund linked to The Determined to Succeed initiative.

HAVING A WEAVING

GOOD TIME

Pupils in Primary 5-6-7 were absolutely delighted to welcome local weaver and artist, Louise Oppenheimer to school on Thursday 12th March.

The visit was organised by Fiona Blakey, Cultural Co-ordinator for Argyll and Bute Council and linked to the children’s research project on life on Islay 200 years ago.

Mrs Oppenheimer showed the pupils examples of her weaving work, before explaining the weaving methods she uses. The children were then set the challenge of weaving their own pieces on their own hand looms! You can find out more about Mrs Oppenheimer’s work at www.louiseoppenheimer.com

The children ended the session by putting Mrs Oppenheimer in the mastermind chair and asking her questions on her chosen profession and artistic style.

Primary 5-6-7 followed up their investigation into weaving with a visit to The Islay Woollen Mill, owned by Mr Covell.

The children were able to compare their experiences of hand weaving with the mechanised process employed at the Woollen Mill.

We would like to thank Mrs Oppenheimer and Mr Cavell for sharing their expertise with us.

DAY OF DANCE

Pupils from Primary 5-6-7 joined their peers from Keills, Port Ellen, Bowmore and Small Isles primary schools for this year’s ‘Day of Dance’ on Wednesday 25th March 2009.

The children have been working each week with Mrs MacAuslan on their dance steps. Many thanks to Mrs MacAuslan for her help

PUPILS EXPLORE DESERTED BLACKHOUSES FOR CLUES ABOUT THE PAST...

On Wednesday 4^th March 2009 primary 5/6/7 went to an abandoned village called Fornasaig. We met Mr. Reavey and we talked about the village.

We walked up to the old village ruins then talked about who might have lived there and when they lived there. The houses were like a big pile of rocks, but when we actually got inside we could see the houses and we talked about what they were like long ago.

We found out that it was really hard work.  The people kept their houses warm by having a cow in beside them and they might also have had a sheep and some cattle in the next room beside them in the house. The evidence we saw was that there were only two rooms and Mr. Reavey said “one room was for cows and animals and the other was for the humans”

The people ate potatoes and drank cow’s milk and water.  We saw the place where they grew potatoes and the well for water in the village. The most interesting thing I found out was how hard the people had to work to survive in those days.

We would like to thank Mr. Reavey for a wonderful day at Fornasaig and Mr. McLellan for moving the cows!

By Sarah McHarrie

With their peers from Keills Primary, pupils have set up a ‘Wiki’ (Hawaiian for ‘Share’) on the internet. They can share their ideas and experiences about their ’Leaving Islay’ topic online, and these can be viewed by everyone at: http://leaving-islay.wikispaces.com/. Why not log on and find out more?

TIME TRAVELLING AT THE MUSEUM OF ISLAY LIFE

On Wednesday 4^th February 2009, the P5/6/7s went to the museum in Port Charlotte. We were going to research on our topic on the Highland Clearances.

When we got there we met Mr. Reavey and he told us a lot about the Highland Clearances.  He told us that people were put off their land all because of sheep. So Walter Frederick Campbell built Bowmore, Port Charlotte and Port Wemyss for the people who were put off their land.

Then he showed us about the Mesolithic times. It was very interesting. We then got to hold some spearheads and a dagger made out of stone. Then we looked at the Bronze Age times. Then he told us about the black houses.

Next we asked him about the rich people and what their living conditions were like. My group asked him ‘Did they have maids?’ and his response was ‘Yes lots!’. We were surprised!

We also found out about the sinking of the Tuscania. The museum had newspapers about the sinking. All the newspapers said different things. German U boats sank the ship. They recovered the bell from the Tuscania.

My favorite thing was about the museum was about finding about the clothes from 200 years ago and about the rich people. I would recommend the museum because it is a fun attraction to adults and children!

By Rosie MacPherson P7