FOUR LEGGED VISITOR

Thanks to Mason's mum for bringing a little lamb to school.  The P1 and P2 children all enjoyed hearing all about it and feeling its lovely curly wool. 

'SNAP THE CIG' COMPETITION

P6 and P7 pupils entered a photograph competition - 'Snap the Cig', sponsored by Cancer Focus NI.  The children had to take an original photograph to promote a smoke free environment.  Their photograph was entitled 'Life V Death - Be on the Winning Team', and was one of seven winning entries from Northern Ireland Schools. The prize is an iPad for the school and this will be presented after Easter.  Thanks to Mrs Wright for helping her class with this competition.

POETRY IN MOTION P6/7

This year P/7 have had the wonderful opportunity of working with a poet, to create some of their own poems, as part of the ‘Poetry in Motion’ project.  All our children produced some amazing poems.  Ten of our children’s poems have been chosen for publication in the 2017/2018 Poetry in Motion Anthology - ‘In Other Words’.  Congratulations to Emily, Harley, Arjay David and Leonard from P7 and Alexander, Matthew, Tyler and Sam from P6 who had their poems published. We were also delighted that Emily and Leonard were asked by the judges to read their poems at the celebration event.  P6/7 travelled to the Ulster Hall on Tuesday 14th March, to enjoy poems from the winning entries.  With special thanks to Mrs Wright, who initially applied for the grant and also facilitated the sessions. Click here to see Emily and Leonard performing their poems at Ulster Hall. (apologies for sound quality)

POETRY DAY

As already mentioned in the P1 and P2 World Book Day Blog, we had a poetry day in school on  Thursday 8th March.  Stephanie from the Library Board read poems and stories to each of the classes, and there was great class participation in these sessions.  A very exciting part of the day was when the children got to say the poems they had been learning at home, in front of their own classes.  The children who had impressed their class the most, recited their poems in front of the whole school in the afternoon. 

We are also delighted that the P6 and P7 children will be going to the Ulster Hall in Belfast on Tuesday.  As part of Poetry in Motion Schools Programme, the children had written poems in school.  Emily and Leonard have been chosen to recite their poems to a large audience of school children at this special event on Tuesday. 

The photos below show some of the class sessions on our Poetry Day.  The children who performed in front of the whole school have also been included.  There is also a short video of some P5 poems.  Click here for video

WORLD BOOK DAY P1 AND P2

To celebrate World Book Day, we had a special poetry day in school on Thursday 8th March.  Stephanie from the Library Service came into school, and spent some time with each class.  She read some rhyming stories and poems to the children in P1 and P2, which they all enjoyed very much.  During Task Board Time, Mrs Calderwood helped the children to focus on three poems and stories

• Incy Wincy Spider - the children made water spouts for the spider and they made spiders with eight legs out of play dough and pipe cleaners
• Humpty Dumpty - the children had to build a wall that an egg wouldn't fall off
• The Paper Dolls, by Julia Donaldson - the children made paper doll chains

Some children had been learning poems at home and they recited these to the rest of the class. In the afternoon the P1's and P2's said the poem, The Snowman to the rest of the school.

I'm a freezy weezy snowman

Will you warm me with a cuddle?

Oh no! I think I'm melting,

And now I'm just a puddle!

            .......................

It was a busy, fun day for all the P1's and P2's.

OUR WEE WORLD

The new P1 and P2 topic for World Around us is 'Our Wee World'.  In it, the children will be looking at the village of Rasharkin and the surrounding area.  Today they had a walk around Rasharkin and they looked at the houses and shops and had a visit to the park!  In Fullans Supermarket, they looked at all the different parts of the shop - bakery, butchers etc and they got a chance to go to the Post Office to see where the parcels and letters go to, after they have been posted.  They also went to Fiona's Hair Salon and pretended they were having a hair cut.  They also had a fun time at the park.  Back at school, the playroom has been set up as a town.  As a follow up to their walk around Rasharkin, the children were making a model village, preparing afternoon tea in the tea room, and building their own play park.

ANTI-SMOKING POSTERS

Congratulations to Robyn P7 and Grace P6 who were the winners of the Anti-Smoking Poster Competition organised by Kennedy's Pharmacy.  Thanks to Patrick Kennedy and his staff for taking the time to come into school to talk about the dangers of smoking, and also for providing the prizes for the poster competition.

K'NEX CHALLENGE

Today, four of our P6 pupils took part in the K'Nex Challenge which was held in the Technology Department of Ballymena Academy.  This is an annual competition organised by Sentinus. Andrew and Grace were in one team and Alexander and Sam in the other team.  Altogether there were twenty two teams taking part in the competition.  The task for the teams was to design and build a new and innovative Sports Stadium for their local area.  Their stadium had to be creative in its design, exciting to look at, and robust and structurally stable.  The children had two hours to design and then build their sports stadiums from K'Nex pieces. Two teams were chosen to go to the K'Nex final later on this year based on their work today.  We were delighted when it was announced that Alexander and Sam had been chosen.  Very well done to them and also to Andrew and Grace for the teamwork they showed in building their models.

SCRIPTURE UNION

Scripture Union for children in P4 to P7 has once again started at lunch time on a Thursday.  Our thanks to Hazel, Lorna, Laura and Rebekah for taking SU for us.

MILLIONAIRE READER

Congratulations to Peri in P5 who is our first 'Millionaire Reader'. As part of the Accelerated Reader Scheme, each time a person reads a book and takes a quiz and passes the quiz, the words from the book are counted.  Peri is the first pupil to have read one million words this year.

MUMMY CHALLENGE

For their topic work in World Around Us, P5 - P7 have been studying the Egyptians.  They were given the challenge of making a mummy with moving arms and legs, using only pipe cleaners and toilet roll.  Lots of team work and problem solving skills were required!  We got big mummies, scary mummies and very funny mummies.

FOREST SCHOOL PROGRAMME

We are delighted to be involved in a Forest School project supported by the Northern Ireland Forest School Association.  Over the course of the coming months, children from P1 and P2 will be involved in various Forest School project activities, working alongside children from St Patrick's Primary School. On Thursday 22nd February, the children had their first session, which was taken by Brian from Forest Schools.  They made trees by gathering branches, leaves etc.  Brian then lit a fire and heated some orange juice which the children all enjoyed. 

On future dates the children will be looking at - the structure of trees and having a scavenger hunt.  Our thanks go to Northern Ireland Forest School Association for giving us this wonderful opportunity to become involved in this exciting venture.

COMPETITION TIME

As part of the Shared Education Signature Project, the children from our school and St Patrick's Primary were asked to design a new school logo.   This logo will be used on correspondence about Shared Education Activities etc. There were lots of entries and Lily from P6 had the winning logo. Her drawing has now been made into a computerised logo.

SHARED EDUCATION - 'THEN AND NOW'

P3 and P4 had another very beneficial Shared Education lesson with St Patrick's Primary School.  Their topic is 'Then and Now'.  The children used books to investigate how things have changed since World War II.  They made up their own storyboards, and then used the iPads to make comic strips from these storyboards.

POLICE VISIT - BULLYING

P3 and P4 had another talk from the two policemen who having been coming into school over the past number of weeks.  Their topic this week was bullying.  The children were given lots to think about - What does a bully look like? Who might be a bully?  Why do people bully? What type of behaviour could be called bullying?  They also gave lots of advice on how children can deal with a situation where they feel they are being bullied.  Bullying is wrong!

ACCELERATED READING CUP

Congratulations to Ella in P5 who was the winner of the Accelerated Reading Cup for this half term.

ACCELERATED READING

Once again we are delighted how keen the P4 -P7 children are to reach their individual Accelerated Reading Targets.  Certificates were presented today to those children who had reached their target for this half term.  Missing from the picture are Tyler and Andrew from P6.

TRANSPORT - P3 and P4

In their World Around Us for this half term, P3 and P4 have been looking at the topic of 'Transport'  They have been writing transport poetry, making transport games and researching lots of information about transport now, and in the past.  Yesterday they did a 'Car Colour Traffic Survey' on Duneaney Road.  They have found out lots of interesting facts about cars, lorries, tractors and aeroplanes.

ARCHERY

On Tuesday after school, P4 - P7 children enjoyed their first Archery Session.  Nigel, the coach from Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council, taught the children how to safely use archery equipment and they had lots of practice at hitting the target.  The children will also have lessons on Kurling and Boccia over the next few weeks.

MULTI SKILLS

Yesterday was the first day of after school sports coaching. Nigel from Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council is the coach for these sessions.  P1 - P3 children had great fun in their Multi Skills class.  There were lots of team games, and lots of running and of course a game of football at the end.