The BBQ and day 3 at Nethy

Wednesday night ended with a barbecue and some songs round the campfire with all the schools together as the sun set and the moon rose in a clear sky.

 Day 3 started with  the silver maze and problem solving in the forest. Team work and cooperation helped. Some of the problems required perseverance and quite a few attempts.

In the afternoon we went canoeing and did archery. The canoeing at the pond was great fun as we competed at picking up the balls to win points and had the obligatory jump in to freezing water at the end of the session.

It looked inviting in the hot weather, but it was a little more refreshing than expected!

The winers of the art competition with their work and their prize.

Tonight a DVD and a good sleep, then a Forest Adventure tomorrow morning before we leave.

Day 1 at Nethybridge.

We have had beautiful weather for our first day of activities, which started with orienteering. Based on the front lawn, we used increasingly complex maps to look for locations using photo clues. 

Taking a break on the front lawn.

Off with another photo clue.

Getting the answers checked.

A short break - time to catch up with our Michelle Paver books.

Arriving at the zip wire tower.

Zipping!

Made it!

The adventure course was fun.

Morgan makes it look easy.

Finally time for a shower and a swim before tea, games, Time Out and supper. Phew!

Water polo.

Mini - Olympics

Over the last few weeks Class 7 have been training for the Olympics - the Class 7 mini-Olympics - with Miss Flett. Finally the day arrived and everyone took part in hurdling, throwing and jumping.

P7 mini- Olympics finished with the relay race.

The medal ceremony took place at whole school assembly.

3rd place went to 'Fish fingers and custard'.

2nd place went to 'The bean team'.

1st place went to the 'Dynamos'.

Well done everyone!

BBC School Report Broadcast Day!

The BBC School Report team 2012

Our BBC School Report Broadcast is now live on our dedicated blog: BBC School Report at Glaitness 2012. Please visit and see our broadcast which is in three parts. Or find us on the map on BBC School Report webpage.

World War 2 radio play

We have finished our radio play and it is now on our wiki.

Listen here.

How we reflect on our learning

We think it is important to think about the learning we have done and know about the skills we are good at, and which are more challenging for us. We do this by looking at the cloud of labels on the blog and choosing one which we think we have done well. When we click on that skill it creates a list of posts which remind us of activities when we used that skill. Now we can choose an example which we remember and are pleased about doing well. We do this at home with our parents and at school once or twice a term. Its great fun to look back at things we have enjoyed and remember how we felt about them.

When posts are put on the blog we can label them with the most important skills we used in that activity. We can look at the cloud of labels and discuss, choose and agree on the best ones. Most of the skills can be used for many different areas of the curriculum (labels like writing and using mathematical skills aren't used much on the blog but you can see these skills on our wiki literacy and maths pages).

Using the blog labels to review learning.
Thinking about the skills we used and how we like to learn.

We learn in lots of different ways and we all like a different mixture of ways of learning, but most of us agree that model making and real life activities are some of the best ways of learning, some of us prefer drama and role play or debates. In our learning review we think about how we like to learn. This helps Ms Mackay give us choices about how we might be able to do things.

A few of our favourite ways of learning - investigating technology outdoors, planning and conducting experiments,
model making, playing games, creating pictures, organising fund raising, print-making.

All of us do things in and out of school which are important to us and we feel a sense of achievement about. Sometimes this can mean we win a medal or earn a certificate, but sometimes it is a real life skill like cooking a meal for the family or being a class representative on the Pupil Council. We like to share these achievements with our teachers so that they understand about our life outside school and what we are good at!

We do lots of things outside of school which we are proud of!

Bin questions and answers...

Today Maria Cuthbertson, Waste Services Manager for Orkney, and Dennis MacDonald, Team Leader Waste Operations, visited our school to answer some questions we had after thinking about bin design and what would be good for collecting marine litter at Scapa. We found out that a plastic bin would be best as it wouldn't rust and it could be picked up by the lift on the bin lorry. A large sliding lid which opens wide enough to take big items would be best. Dennis thought that locking wheels would be enough to keep the bin in place and that it wouldn't need an anchor post. This type of bin already exists and is used in our school grounds. At 1100 litres it has a big enough capacity and there is no need for bin liners. In winter the bin would be emptied once a week but in summer the bin would be emptied three times a week. We thought this was great! When the beach is busiest more people might help remove the marine litter and more capacity would be needed.

Our next job will be to design signs and decide how to tell people at Scapa what the bin is there for and try to encourage them to use it!

The S Team : Research and Development

Back in class the S Team continued their work by sorting and cleaning smaller items to be used in art work.

We identified some of the livings things that make up the ecosystems at Scapa and started compiling our 'biodiversity' list - a list of all the living things we find on our visits.

Some of the larget items have to be hosed outside.

Next we designed and made models of bins which we thought could be used at Scapa to solve the problem of where to put marine litter. If visitors to Scapa used the bins that are there at the moment for marine litter they would fill up very quickly and that would create another problem. Some of the items are quite large and don't fit in a regular bin.

'The Rubbish Digester'

'The S bin'.

The Scaspa Box

Scapa Litter and Information Station

The Green Giant

The Wheely Bin 7000

Evaluating our designs meant we had to think critically about the problems of collecting and removing litter as well as how to encourage visitors to Scapa to help.

Launching the S TEAM!

 Today we (the S Team) were at Scapa Beach picking up litter or ‘Bagging the Bruck’. It was a very windy day but we picked up various types of materials but the main concern was plastic as, although many people don’t realise it, it does not biodegrade and disappear it just breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces and it is being found in the human food chain in some parts of the world. Some of the other materials we found included rope, bottle tops, shot gun cartages’ and parcel ties.

Sue Whitworth and Lindsay Taylor (the RSPB field officers) met us at Scapa to tell us a bit about the shells, wildlife, the affects of litter and they were also there to give us a hand with picking up litter. We didn’t only go to Scapa to pick up litter we also went to raise awareness of the amount of litter being dropped not only in Orkney but everywhere around the world, to achieve the second part of our John Muir award and also to collect ‘bruck’ to use in our art work.

We managed to collect 12 bags of rubbish and a huge piece of fish netting - it took the whole team to pull it out of the sand.

By Joanne and Leah

The John Muir Award - getting started.

We have begun our work towards the John Muir Award by thinking about the difference we can make to the environment around us. At the end of the Arctic Voice topic we looked at our own global footprint and thought about ways in which we could reduce our impact on the planet.

Now it is time to get active!

Sue, our RSPB field officer, reminds us of how long materials take to decay.

 In primary 4 we found out about th eglobal impact of marine litter, now we are going to do something about it in our local environment.

The bird has died because its stomach is full of plastic.

A bale of packing tape at Birsay with a gannet stuck in the middle of it.
 Did the gannet mistake the floating bale for a shoal of fish?

We have made a plan of action for the next two terms and we hope to get lots of people throughout the school and community involved.

If you think you can help us or spare some time please get in touch.

You can see our plan on the John Muir Award page on the wiki.

The last debate

We have finished term  1 with a series of debates. The last debate was about comparing life in Orkney in 1861 with life in Orkney today. Everyone is getting better at listening and responding to the points the other team makes and often we are persuaded to change our minds by the end of the debate!

The last debate was about comparing life in Orkney in 1861 with life in Orkney today.

Were people happier? Was life better? What do you think?

Voyageurs, campfires and canoes.

At The Ouse in Finstown we set up camp and sent our voyageurs off to trade for furs at the trading posts. We used the Hudson Bay Company trading game we created to set the scene and set up negotiations. Meanwhile back at the campfire we made bread dough twists and ate them with maple syrup. Later we boiled some water in the kelly kettle for hot chocolate before packing up and carefully leaving no trace of our camp.

Many thanks to our parent helpers, and to Ron, for making the day such a success.

Shelter building at Muddisdale

We went to Muddisdale to build shelters based on designs agreed by the groups. Each shelter had to be built in 15 minutes and everyone had to fit inside. Once they had built the shelters they ate their bannock and butter inside.

The Hudson Bay connection

This week Kim Foden came in to tell us about her ancestor Magnus Twatt who grew up in Orphir and spent 30 years working for the Hudson Bay Company in the late 18th century.

Kim shows us how the teepee is contructed.

We learned all about Magnus's life and heard how Kim found out about Magnus and discovered her Cree cousins at Sturgeon Lake.

Some of the Canadian artefacts Kim brought in to show us.

In the afternoon there was a technology challenge, to construct a model shelter that could be moved from place to place. Some groups tried to use the teepee construction, while others tried to use the traditional A frame tent shape.

Family drama

This week we have been getting ready for our visit to Kirbister and Corrigall Farm museum.

Each family group have developed the characters in their families and created family trees.

There was a visit from a photographer, everyone sat very still for the photograph to be taken.

'Watch the birdie!'

 The daily lives of the families at this time of year are full of hard work, especialy as there are only a few men folk. Many of the younger men have already left the toonship for Hudson Bay. One of our wives has not see her husband for a year and doesn't expect to se him again for at least another 12 months!

An evening around the hearth after a hard day working in the fields.

 As usual the older members of the family tell stories of life in their youth and tell a few favourite folk tales. There is still sewing, mending and knitting to be done for the women and the men might be repairing tools or furniture. The harvest Home dance is very soon so practising the fiddle is important too.

Practising the nine-pins for the Harvest Home dance.

We are looking forward to dancing, singing and music at Corrigall next Thursday.