Fuel Hunters

by Molly, Eva, Gracie and Logie

In Generation Science, P4-P7 were learning interesting facts about oil. We learnt where it comes from, what it’s used for and how fuel hunters detect it.

Oil comes from the centre of the Earth and it is used as fuel. They detect it by using sound waves which reverberate against the rock that may contain oil. There are three rocks that complete the oil cycle.

First there is the SOURCE ROCK; which, under lots of heat and pressure, turns into oil. Then there is the RESERVOIR ROCK; that acts like a sponge soaking up the oil.  Finally, there is the CAP ROCK; it stops the oil from going up to earth.  But what you need most is TIME; you need 350,000,000 years before the cycle is complete.

After learning all these amazing facts we built four two metre high oil rigs. To build these oil rigs we were split into four teams. Each team had a green, red and blue leader, a foreman or two and two nuts and bolts people. Together we followed pictures and diagrams to create our oil rig. The reason for doing this was to understand how the oil is drilled up from below earth.

Overall, it was a fantastic presentation and we would be thrilled to do it again.

We have asked what people thought was most amazing:

“I was amazed at how different the earth was thousands of years ago.” Elena Cameron

“I was surprised about all the different rocks used to create oil.” Bea Yielder

“I was surprised that oil is just dead plankton” Logie Johnston

Drama Festival 2017

In the Forest

Written by children from Bunessan Primary School and Jan Sutch Pickard

March 2017

Bumpy ground, cracky stick, bark flaky and rough, moss fluffy and soft,

squishy mud, dry bracken, dead leaves like ripped silk

– the feel of the forest.

What can we see?

Twigs, trees, moss, broken branches, crumbly old pieces of tree,

dead leaves nibbled, wee creatures with legs, a rabbit hole, a worm,

an eagle, circling.

What can it see?

Human beings, you and me.

Our senses are alive here –                                       Palmo & Oscar

We feel slimy stuff and hear birds singing

and rivers flowing also,

we taste sweetness and see trees and smell air.

We see patterns on the bark,                                     Elizabeth & Megan

we feel that the moss is soft,

we hear birds, see a river and trees

and an animal made of moss

– a hibernating bear –

we thought this could be a den.

I tasted salt, I touched leaves fallen from trees,       John & Finlay

we seen new plants and listened to birds sing,

found a pattern on a stick and spots on a leaf.

There is holes in the ground.

Dark forest, trolls, giants!                                            David & Quinn

Eagle, trees, moss, leaves,                                        Karys

logs, grass, breeze.

Tiny leaves of sorrel, tasty,                                        Katy & Lily

big trees wrapped in moss, soft and squishy,

giants on three trees above us,

giants made of willow and moss.

I lie on very soft moss,                                                          Rory & Archie

I see three giants heads,

I see eagles flying high,

round and round the trees.

Bird tweeting, river running,                                        Jodie & Ciara

eagle swooping, tasting air.

Dark forest, giant giants,

bus shining, trees in the breeze.

Logs lying, crows cawing,

twigs snapping, soft moss.

Patterned wood, bugs crawling,

golden celandine growing.

I can see an eagle                                                       Libby

peering through bare branches,

sweeping from the glittering blue.

I can see big, big wings,

as big as the biggest thing.

Yay – I’m free.

Written by Molly Dougall P6, December 2016
Oh my goodness!  Bunessan Primary School acted in a fantastic Pantomime, Aladdin Trouble.  Spectacular singing, brilliant dancing and amazing actions.  Dramatic tension spreads around the village as Abanazar cruelly locks Aladdin in the Cave of Wonders.  But all ends well as thrilled Aladdin and glamorous Princess Jasmine tie the knot and Widow Twankey finds herself a rather handsome King!  A legendary pantomime that couldn’t beat another panto!  What on earth will we do next year?

The older children’s enterprise challenge was rightly ambitious and they organised a pop-up restaurant in Bunessan Village Hall. They chose a Mexican theme and offered 3 courses to 40 people. Bunexican was a great problem-solving exercise for the class and they particularly enjoyed choosing and costing recipes, going shopping, cooking and organising front of house on the night.

Customers were invited to provide ‘Tripadvisor-style feedback’.  Comments were 5-star and included: The food was delicious, the service was very efficient and the children were polite and attentive.’ ‘The hall was transformed into a cosy restaurant.’ 

£447 was raised, split equally between Children in Need and the school’s Playground Improvement fund.

 

28 October 2016

As part of our enterprise project this term, P1-P4 planned to raise money for more books for school.  This is especially important now that the Mobile Library has stopped coming.  We had the idea of running a Book Café and inviting adults to come and share books with us and have a cuppa and some cake.  We made lots of cakes in the afternoons leading up to the café: flapjacks, fairy cakes, jam buns and sticky chocolate squares.  On the day, we made signs so that everybody would find their way in.  Then we organised the chairs and tables and the cake and waited for people to come.  When they arrived, we waited on our friends and families, made sure they had drink and cake and then we read to them.  Lots of people said that we are great readers.  We raised £125!  Next, we are going to look through some catalogues and choose some new books for our classroom.  Maybe this could become something regular – what do you think?

As usual, the whole school went to the MOD in Tobermory at the beginning of September.  Thank you to the Sea Eagles’ Fund for funding the cost of transport for us to attend and to Janet Campbell for coaching us.

All three of our choirs did well, in particular Pre-5 and P1, who came first with their Action Song in their age category.

In August, P1-P4 read the story of Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown.  In the story, Stanley gets squashed when his bedroom notice-board falls on him.  Luckily, apart from being completely flat, he is otherwise unharmed.  He finds being flat is quite handy: he can slip under closed doors and even hide in a picture to catch thieves in an art gallery.  The best thing about being flat is that his family fold him into an envelope and send him off to have a holiday with friends in California.  Flat Stanley has a great time and is easily posted back home afterwards so that he can tell everybody all about his holiday.

We enjoyed the story so much that we made our own Flat Stanleys, wrote letters and slipped them into envelopes.  Then we all walked down to the Post Office.  Our letters had to be weighed and we each stuck stamps on our envelopes.  There is a post-box right outside so we were able to post our Flat Stanleys off to have holidays with friends and family in the UK and overseas.

By the time we finished for half-term, some of the Flat Stanleys had been returned and others had sent postcards or emailed photos.  We have been looking on maps to see where they have been and we are learning what it is like in places far away from the Isle of Mull. So far we have heard from Lisburn in Northern Ireland, York, Manchester and Deal in England, Hong Kong, France, New Zealand and the USA.  We look forward to the post coming each day.