Viking Shield

Well, we have reached the end of Primary 4!

During our last week at school we were involved in designing a shield for the viking longship which will be taken through the streets and set alight during shopping week. All the classes, including the nursery, were given a blank shield and the challenge to come up with a design. In primary 4 we each came up with a potential design and then voted for our favourite one. The winner, which you can see below, was drawn by Connor! The border has each pupils' initials written in viking runes.

Keep your eyes peeled for our shield during Shopping Week!

Mock Wedding

Our RME focus this term was Christian celebrations, which included the wedding ceremony. What better way to understand what happens at a wedding than to carry one out?!  Our local minister, Magdalena Trgalova supported with providing the readings and words used in a Christian ceremony.  

Getting Ready                                                                                                                                                                      

Invitations were made and decorated, stained glass windows were made to decorate the ‘church’, and tissue flowers to decorate the sides of the aisle.  Speeches were written and songs and readings practised.

The Ceremony

Guests were warmly welcomed by the ushers, Eilidh and Jordan.  David the groom, and Ewan, his best man,  waited nervously at the altar for the ceremony to begin.

After a request to ‘Please be upstanding for the bride’, from Einar, the minister, Doreen, our organist began playing Wagner’s Bridal March.  Leo looked like the proud father as he led his daughter Olivia up the aisle. Following behind were Leah the bridesmaid, accompanied by Sarah the flower girl and James, the pageboy. Jessie, the bride’s mother and Matylda and Connor, the groom’s parents looked proudly on. 

Einar opened the ceremony with a short reading and the congregation then sang the hymn, ‘All Things Bright and Beautiful’. Katrina and Thorfinn read verses from Corinthians followed by David and Olivia exchanging vows and rings.  The wedding register was signed, before the blessing and final hymn ‘One More Step Along the World I Go’. David and Olivia came down the aisle to The Wedding March.

The Reception

Alistair confidently took on the role of MC to lead the proceedings through the reception. The bride and groom cut the cake, followed by speeches and toasts. George have a speech to the bride and groom, with David replying on behalf of himself and Olivia. Ewan proposed a toast to Leah, Sarah and James.  The waiting staff of Zara, Holly, Christy, Taigan and Ethan confidently took on the role of waiting staff to serve food and drinks.  Ethan gave a vote of thanks to Doreen Garson for the music, Magdalena Trgalova for help with the service and George Argo Snr and George Argo Jnr for the wedding cake.  

The Grand March

Miss Shearer and Mr McIntosh helped the wedding party carry out the Grand March and Mr McIntosh and Miss Nicolson led the way in the Eva Three Step. Kayla captured a lot of the fun of the day on film in her photographer role. 

Kirkwall Airport

What a week of visits; nearly every class in the school was out visiting somewhere today and Primary 4 were off to Kirkwall Airport!

We drove to the airport and were met by Neil who welcomed us at the door. We then split up into 2 groups to explore 2 different areas of the airport. Miss Nicolson's group went to the inter-island flight first and Mr MacLeod and Ms Muir went to the fire station. We managed to see one plane landing and another setting off as we were waiting.

At the islander plane, we all managed to squeeze on and each had a shot in the pilot's seat. We could hear people talking to us through the head phones!

After this, both groups met back in the terminal for a snack. Neil generously gave us some juice.

Then we swapped over.

Down at the fire station we saw the 2 huge fire engines that they use. We were prepared in case an alarm went off and we had to get out of the way as quickly as we could so the firemen could go. Mark showed us what they keep in all the compartments and how much water they carry - 7 tanks could fill the Stromness Swimming Pool! Mark said the best way to extinguish a fire was a mixture of water and foam so they mix this together before it is pumped out of the engine. We got to see this happening!! It was really impressive and can reach 60 metres away!

We had a really great morning at the airport and learn lots about different vehicles!

New Stromness Library

Today we walked down to the new Stromness Library in the Warehouse Buildings which opened earlier this term.

While we were there we had a look downstairs at the children's books, upstairs at the study section with the adult books and in the George Mackay Brown room which has all the old copies of the Orcadian.

We really enjoyed looking through the old Orcadians and even managed to find some of our birth announcements! The really old copies of the Orcadian were huge!

After all that we spend some time reading the books. The new library is such a lovely place, we will definitely be back soon!!

Cress Heads!

Primary 4 have been creating some super cress heads for the Summer Fayre competition this weekend.

We planted our seeds over a week ago and have looked after them well; making sure they have enough water and turning them in the sunlight. They have grown so fast!!

Here are a few of our creations!

 
 

Boat Building

Continuing with our topic of transport we have now turned our attention to boats.

This week we have been working on a design challenge to build a toy boat which floats and can move forward.

We spoke about the 4 stages every designer/engineer/inventor goes through:

After doing some research on different boat shapes and different floating materials, we each drew 3 different possible designs and chose one that we were going to make.

Today we made those designs and tested them in the water. We had loads of really inventive ideas and successful boats. Our boats moved using wind in their sails, using the power of an oar in the water or using string to pull them through the water.

Here are some pictures of the creative process!

Here are some of the finished products being tested.