p7 go to Lyness!

We caught the Houton ferry to Lyness on 30th May to round up our World War II topic from last term. The Scapa Flow visitor centre is a great place to visit and has so much to see that we didn't get round all the exhibits.
We were lucky with the weather and it made the trip even more enjoyable. 
We started with a nice walk to the cemetery where we investigated some headstones and got an idea of scale of loss. The cemetery has a special atmosphere and it made us realise how young so many of the lost servicemen were. It was interesting to see graves of men from other countries too.

On the boat

Gathering information from the headstones

Big guns!

Alanah trying to picture bomb!

We went into the empty oils tank to watch some videos of Lyness during the wars and learn a bit about the site.

Inside the oil tank.

We didn't have long left in the Interpretation Centre but there are many interesting exhibits.

Planning manoeuvres! 

Trying the uniforms ...

...and the tea!

What is this strange contraption?

Speedfacting

Yesterday we tried a new way to learn facts. In pairs we read some information about global warming and climate change and chose the main idea from our reading. Next we used the main idea to write our own sentences which we memorised.
We set the tables out so that we were facing each other. we told the person sitting opposite our information and listened to theirs. The inside group moved round in a circle until we had told everyone our facts and listened to everyone else's. A bit like speed dating!
It got a bit noisy! It was however a fun way to learn and we would like to try it again with another topic.

Book Week

On Friday 30th November we invited p1 into our classroom to share our favourite books. Everyone had a buddy and we read our books together. We gave our buddies the bookmarks we had made for them. Everyone enjoyed the session and we all agreed that we would like to do it again sometime. Here is a slideshow of our session.

Stromness museum

On Wednesday 26th September we went to Stromness to search for evidence about the Hudson Bay Company and John Rae. We started our search by looking for plaques on buildings on the street. We found buildings that had been recruitment offices for the Hudson Bay Company and one that was a hospital for sailors coming home with scurvy.

We had a look in Logins well where the ships used to stock up with water before going on their expeditions.

Outside the museum

searching for evidence

John Rae's fiddle

Some moccasins with intricate Indian beadwork 

The scrimshaw on these tusks and teeth is amazing!

Inuit dog sleigh and reindeer - made from bone or ivory

We were particularly interested in the hunting weapons.

Eating our lunch