Fantastic Gymnastics

Photos by William.

This term in PE we are doing gymnastics. We are focussing on rolls, jumps and balances. Last week we got split into groups and we made up sequences. We were in groups of 4. We think we're getting the equipment out so we are excited for next week's gymnastics lesson because gymnastics is fantastic.

by Erin K. Caitlin and Aneisha

We were doing rolls and balances and sometimes we needed people to help us stay straight in a hand stand. Then we practised and got better and better.

Rolls can be forwards or backwards or sideways. Sideways rolls are the most difficult. A Teddy Bear roll is when you sit down and hold on to the back of your legs and roll around.

Balances is when you either stand on one hand or two and you can also stand on one foot or two, for example: handstand 'bow and arrow'. A bow and arrow is when one foot  is on the ground and lift the other leg up and hold on to the tip of your foot.

Jennifer, Pippa and Paige.

These jumps are what we have been practising we use to do a one eighty. Now some of us can do a round off. A round off is a half flip and half cartwheel or a three sixty some of us can do a one handed cartwheel! we would like to improve on cartwheel, handstands or headstands and reach our goals.

Jake, Bruce and Angus.

Our visit to St Magnus Cathedral and the Orkney Museum

A blog post by Class 5.

At the cathedral Fran told us that when it was being built you would be able to see the Peedie Sea in front of the cathedral. Red and yellow sandstone was found under the museum around a ramp or jetty where the builders brought it by ship from Eday. Now when you look across the road you can see shops. The land was reclaimed and shops were built there about two hundred years ago. 

The stone mason carved their mark so the chief mason would know how much to pay them and to see how much work they did. They all had different marks. We felt the symbols because we would be touching history.

The paintings on the roof got covered in plaster and painted white. The paintings were of gardens, patterns and saints. The paintings would be painted in bright colours and patterns. The covered up every bit except the one that was left because you couldn't see any of the pictures on the other ones.

In the middle of the cathedral there are four hooks on the pillars. They were put there by Cromwell to tie his horses. It was at the time when there was no king or queen.

Fran told us more about the St Magnus story.

When Haakon arrives at Egilsay.

Earl Rognvald.

Kol Rognvald's father.

 Years ago Magnus's nephew went to Orkney and said, 'If you make me Earl of Orkney I'll build a cathedral in Magnus's honour'. The people of Orkney agreed. 

When the church was getting rid of the bones of the saints the people of Orkney hid the bones of St Magnus in a pillar in the cathedral. Five hundred years later when they were repairing the pillar they found the box with St Magnus's bones inside it. They knew it was St Magnus because the skull had a big crack in it. They put the bones back in the pillar in a new box. They box is behind the stone with the cross on it. The original box is in the museum.

In the Viking age if they needed to cut grass or crops they used a sickle. At the museum today we saw a real sickle used by a Viking. It was made out of iron. You could only see the hook because it was broken and it was rusty all around. We saw Viking board pieces as well. They were made out of whalebone . The pieces were some beads. They were in a pouch so they were together. They were buried at a Viking grave at Scar in Sanday.

In the Orkney museum we looked at a box that had had St Magnus's bones in it. They put the bones in a new box back in the secret place.The old box is ancient and fragile.

The comb was made out of deer's antlers. The male deer's antlers fall off every year. They carved the deer's antlers. The men and women used combs for their hair. They hung them on their belt or in a pouch. The combs had some designs on it.

In the museum we looked at a sword and it was really rusty. The end of the sword was broken. Blowflies had laid eggs on the sword and when the eggs hatched there were maggots. There were little cases on the sword from the maggots.

The whalebone plaque was made out of whale bone. It was found in a grave in Sanday.

Viking model house challenge

Where did the Vikings eat, sleep, rest, cook, play and tell stories? Where did they store their precious jewellery, weapons and make their clothes? Where did they care for their animals? 

Making the model houses in groups.

Our challenge was to make and label a typical Viking model house in an hour showing how the Viking home provided these things. Some of the houses even had outdoor toilets! 

Our finished models.

You can read our comments about the task below..

Class 5 storytelling Festival

Our five groups finalised their stories today and performed them in class.  Two of the groups went outside to tell their stories in the storytelling tent. Their audience was P2/3. Perhaps they will leave some comments below to share their reactions!

Open Afternoon

This week we have a post by three pupil bloggers about last week's Open Afternoon.

We will aim to have more writing by pupils published here on the blog at regular intervals.

We had an open afternoon to show our parents what we have done in P5 so far. We made circuits to make a light bulb work. After that we made Lego ROVs. An ROV is some thing  that works on the sea bed in a wind farm. Next we did shelter building.  We could show our parents how to build a shelter because we did it at Muddisdale and we are good at it. Then we did some willow weaving. We played Chinese checkers and Mancala.  Next we went on the blog and we showed our parents the photos. My favourite thing was building shelters because we got to sit in it after we had built it.

BY Bruce and Kadyn

Open Afternoon

We invited our parents to come to our open afternoon to show them around  last Wednesday. I showed my mum around the class and showed her how to play Mancala. We made shelters and used our own instructions to build the shelter. After we played Mancala we went to look at the circuits and me and mum enjoyed it. We weaved a little willow circle. After we weaved we then tried to play Chinese checkers it was quite hard to play we did not understand very well. Next we went back to the electricity table and I named all the stuff that was there like the batteries and we used penny’s and other stuff to see if they would conduct the electricity.

I  enjoyed doing the electricity and showing mum what we have been doing. I told her about insulators and conductors and what the difference is. I also showed her my habitat and electricity folder. She enjoyed weaving and the electricity. Mum was annoyed she was not able to do the LEGO ROV. Me and mum tried really hard to fit everything in. I showed mum how to weave. The circle of weaved willow was about the size of my head. I  hope we can do this some other time. After mum left I made an ROV.

Sofia