Sports Day

For the first time in years sports day was able to go ahead on the date that was planned and we had lovely weather.
The morning section was partly indoors in the arena at the Picky Centre and some activities on the track outside.
Our potted sports consisted of Beat the goalie, Bocchia, javelin throwing and curling. There were parachute games and Westray dodgeball also inside.

bocchia

curling

Beat the goalie

Throwing the javelin

Parachute fun!

Westray dodgeball

Outside at the race track we had some rugby training activities.

In the afternoon it was time for some team competition! There was a great atmosphere of sportsmanship and lots of encouragement from team mates!

flat race

3 legged race

bib, hat and hoop

sack race

skipping race

and the winners are ...
Ayre!
Team captains Ronan and Abbie make their thank you speeches.

Here they are with the trophy.

P7 also had responsibility for helping to organise by running with the scores and returning equipment to the start line - it kept them very busy! 

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?

The fun we had!

I have attempted to make slideshows out of the photos that were taken last week. With 5 different cameras snapping away there is a considerable amount to sort through! Apologies if some of the photos seem duplicated.No fancy editing either I'm afraid - just pictures and music!
I have split the slideshows into activities to make it easier to upload as they would be too big otherwise.

Beach cleaning

During the last three weeks we have all given up some of our lunchtime breaks to go to Scapa beach where we have been helping to clear away rubbish washed ashore by heavy seas and storms.

The beach was littered with bits of plastic, rope, packaging cord and all sorts of assorted 'disposable' items.

Each time we went we found something different! The most upsetting thing was finding creatures that had died and wondering what had caused them to die. Some of us had never seen a puffin before so it was sad that our first sight had to be a dead one.

We came across several birds, a seal and a sheep.

Some of the bits of rope and plastic were buried quite deeply in the sand and it took some effort to get them out.

The boys made a sled with some of the bigger stuff and used it to haul our pickings one day!

Every day we went we half filled the big bin so it was a good feeling to think about how many marine creatures we might have saved and it was satisfying to see the beach looking tidier.

There is still a lot of rubbish along the side of the road so plenty to do yet! I wonder if the council could bring along a machine to scoop it up? I think it calls for some letter writing!

We have had a good response from our posting on the Pick up three Pieces facebook page and all publicity helps.

Follow the link below and if you have a facebook account please like and share the page.

Pick up Three Pieces

Another useful and interesting page to follow is the Orkney Beachcombers page:

Orkney Beachcombing

See some more images of our clean up in the slideshow below.

Christmas lunch

Wednesday was Christmas lunch day at school and we helped at the first sitting. The tables were decorated with crackers and set out like a party. We served the little ones their dinner, helped them cut their meat and tidy away the rubbish afterwards. Then it was our turn to eat!

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.

Shelter building and canoeing

We had some preparation to do before we were ready to embark on our outdoor adventure. First we needed to be sure that we could build ourselves a shelter should we need it! We practised in school using modelling materials. We were allowed 15 spills, 1 metre of string, some matchsticks and a bin bag sized piece of plastic. Working as a team, sharing ideas and cooperating was very necessary for success in this task.

We tried different shapes of shelters and used the techniques we learned from Kim Foden's visit earlier in the term.
The next challenge was using real sized sticks and building shelters we could fit into.

See more shelter building photos in the slideshow below.


Now we were ready to try the real thing in the wilds of Harray! The weather was reasonably kind to us although the wind rose a peedie bit and meant we had to keep our canoeing close to the shore.
We managed to build two shelters of different types.

After the shelter building, it was time to get the canoes in the water. When we arrived at Harray loch we had to unload the canoes and learn how to carry them properly down to the water's edge. The Voyageurs in Northern Canada had to carry their canoes and supplies over many miles of rough country and snow. This is known as portage. Luckily we didn't have to carry our equipment very far. We were well dressed for the task with our waterproofs and buoyancy aids.

At last we were ready to launch!

We practised trading goods with our teams at the trading posts.

And all this before lunch!

There are some more images from our day out in the slideshow below:

We had a great day even though we didn't quite manage the campfire building due to time and weather. Many thanks to Ron and Ms Mackay for the experience and also to the parent helpers.