主播大秀

We have been working very hard since before Easter on a combined drama production with 3 other peedie schools.

The first thing we did was to create dances and mime with our Drama teacher. We also worked very hard with our music teacher and produced the music for our boat mime and pirate dance. We had to record what we did on DVD and send it to North Ronaldsay school as they were going to dance with us. They watched our mime and dance and added some bits of their own. They sent us a video so we could see what they had done. It was a bit strange working from a video. Papay school and Rousay school did the same thing for their dance and mime.

We met for the first time after Easter and had a rehearsal in Kirkwall with all the teachers helping us. It was great to see our friends but a bit difficult to get the dance right as we hadn't been practiving together.We then rehearsed for the next 2 wednesdays in the Arts theatre where we were going to perform. Because of the boat and plane times we had to come in the day before the rehearsals and stay overnight in the hostel. We had lots of fun when we were in town visiting places and trying new sports such as golf and fencing. Staying in the hostel was a bit scary at first but we really liked it by the end. The hostel staff were really kind to us and we got fed really well.

The rehearsals were hard work but it was fun decorating our t shirts to make pirate costumes. We used our picture from the peedie school travelling art gallery and photos from our island as the backdrop.We were also interviewed by the local radio station and newspapers which was a bit funny.

It all finally happened on the 23rd May when we performed at the Orkney Arts theatre in Kirkwallin front of our friends and family and children from 2 Kirkwall schools. The parents and friends had to come by boat or plane but lots of people came to support us and the ones from Eday clapped very loudly when we did our bit. It was fantastic and we would like to do it again!

Our topic work this term has been minibeast. We have been keeping nature diaries of what we have observed.We have used microscopes to look at the mouth parts and wings of some minibeasts. We had to record what happened to our Painted Lady caterpillars and also all the insects we found in the school grounds.

Our caterpillars grew quite quickly and soon turned into pupa. It took 2 weeks for them to hatch. When the butterflies came out we fed them sugar water and then a few days later we released them into the wild.

Lots of insects were brought into the school. G found a water beetle nymph in her dad's pond. R brought lots of white butterflies and we found out that there was more than one type which like to eat his mum's cabbages. We also found centipedes, woodlouse, spiders and beetles. D found a green beetle just like the picture she had painted in art. M brought in a mystery crysalis. We waited patiently to seem what would come out of it. Finally a moth appeared much to everyones surprise. We looked in the reference book and we think it was a poplar hawk moth.
We hope that our new wildlife area will encourage more minibeasts and butterflies. We hope to build a moth trap to see what comes at nighttime.