Andrew, Stephen, Alexander and Grace attended a table tennis tournament in the Joey Dunlop Centre yesterday. This tournament was a follow on from the table tennis coaching held earlier this year, which was run by Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council. The children all played really well, with each player playing ten games. We were delighted that Rasharkin team got third place in the tournament. Click her to see Andrew Stephen Alexander Grace
Behaviour Questionnaire
We were delighted to welcome back one of our past pupils, Robert Anderson to take our Assembly on Tuesday 2nd April. Robert is currently on placement with Scripture Union. Thanks to our volunteers who helped Robert tell the story of Jairus' daughter from the Bible.
Pupils from P6 and P7 received their certificates for attending the Waterways Ireland Workshop at Portna.
Once again we were delighted to have Mr Terry Hasson in school to talk to children about building bridges. P6/7 children then built bridges from K’Nex, while P4/5 used motors to make cars. They made some very spectacular bridges and great cars..
On Thursday 4th April we welcomed Pat from Sentinus who came to school to take various science workshop. P1 - P3 made rockets. These were launched outside and the children were really excited to see how high they went. One went right over our school.
On Thursday 4th April, P3 and P4 had their second Forest School session at St Patrick’s Primary School. The activities included
Making stick men
Making bird bracelets from Cheerios for the birds to eat
Making mud faces
Making 2D and 3D shapes from sticks
P4 and P5 children and the P5 children from St Patrick’s Primary have been working together on a history of Rasharkin topic, as part of the Shared Education Programme. They have been writing about and creating eBooks about Rasharkin, then and now. On Wednesday they had a final celebration day where everyone dressed up in clothes from the past. The children showcased the ICT work that they have been doing over the past weeks. At St Patrick’s Primary, there were different activities organised, relating to the past. There was a demonstration of how to bake soda bread which everyone got to sample. The children were not too keen on the smell of the buttermilk!! They then played some playground games that would have been popular in the past. Thanks to the teachers and classroom assistants from both schools, for their work on this very interesting topic.
Today P1 and P2 along with children from St Patrick’s Primary School, had a Shared Education Day with the focus once again being ‘Springtime’. The children were learning about the different plants and flowers that can be found in our school grounds in springtime. They then went outside and had a scavenger hunt to find and name the flowers and plants.
![IMG_5189[1].JPG](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5684021ed8af10fc737c847c/1554386351750-0UZFDLIS5E4GZ1PP0HSQ/IMG_5189%5B1%5D.JPG)
As part of British Science week, Kevin from Sentinus came to school on Thursday 28th March to deliver a workshop on building model cars with our P3 and P4 children. In groups of two, the children made their cars and then they raced them down a ramp to see whose car would go the furthest. They then worked on putting power into their cars using batteries and circuits. The children learned a lot of new skills from this excellent session.
Our children once again enjoyed a ‘doughnut treat’ for eating healthy breaks over the past few weeks.
British Science Week Celebrations Launch – Wednesday 27th March
We have been delighted to have been given a ‘Kickstart Grant’ to help celebrate British Science Week. Many different activities are planned over the next few weeks and to start it all off we had a special evening for parents and children on Wednesday 27th March. We were inspired by Mr Terry Hasson’s presentation of his work on Belfast Rise- (Sculpture at Broadway Roundabout Belfast), to build giant geodesic domes in the assembly hall. Hasson’s Engineering Rasharkin, built the iconic dome in Belfast, after winning the contract from Belfast City Council. Mr Hasson provided a brief overview of how the project progressed, including an excellent time lapse video. Children and parents then moved to the assembly hall to build two giant domes, with the help of Sentinus.
P1 and P2 together with some of the P1s from St Patrick’s Primary School had a lovely Forest School shared Education day at our school. This session was organised by Mrs Calderwood and Mrs McFadden. The ‘Learning Intention’ for the session was for the children to ‘Learn collaboratively’ about springtime. Their activities included
Looking for and being aware of signs of spring in Rasharkin
Building nests together
Thinking about the types of birds that may nest in our area
Identifying some plants growing in our school grounds
The children learned so much from this session and they all enjoyed the lovely sunny springtime weather.
Today P6 and P7 together with P7 from St Patrick’s Primary had their first Orienteering Session. The main focus today was map work skills.
We were delighted to welcome back a past pupil of Rasharkin Primary School, Miss Christina Logan to take our Assembly this week. Christina told the story of David and Goliath. Thanks to Sam for volunteering to be dressed as a soldier.
Thanks to Police Officer Mark Crawford for coming in to school to talk to our P1 and P2 children. Mark talked about ‘Stranger Danger’ and ‘Road Safety’. The children got a chance to try on a police uniform and some of them even got handcuffed. Mark showed the children the lock up cage at the back of his police van and they tried it out!
During literacy, the children wrote about the Green Cross Code. Miss Richmond showed the P1s and P2s how to use the Green Cross Code to cross the road safely.
Today our P5 children had a visit from Seamus, a fire fighter from Kilrea. Each year the fire service speak to all P5 pupils about fire safety. The topics they were learning about were, safe use of electrical devices and safe use of candles, matches and open fires. They were also told how to check their home smoke alarms once a week and change the battery once a year. Finally they were told how to have a family fire safety plan so that everyone in the family would know how to get out, stay out and call the fire brigade out if a fire started in their home.
Springtime is almost here and the P1 and P2 children have been enjoying outdoor play. They looked at the bulbs that had been planted in the autumn. They have now grown into beautiful daffodils and tulips. Their activities also included - den building, Easter baking, drawing nature and talking and listening.
Congratulations to Sam and Alexander who came 1st in the area heat of the K’nex Construction Challenge which was held in Ballymena Academy. The brief for their construction was ‘Design and Build three existing playground attractions’. At least one of the playground rides had to be able to move. The construction had to be sturdy.
Sam and Alexander designed an amazing playground which included three moving rides - swing, see-saw and roundabout. They then added additional attractions - monkey bars, climbing frame with slide and they also had a picnic table and bins for litter all enclosed by a fence.
Out of 24 teams they were the winners! They now go forward to the Northern Ireland K’Nex Challenge on 24th June 2019 at Jordanstown.
Do you ever have a problem with your computers and iPads in school? If the answer is ‘yes’, then we now have three capable Digital Leaders who can help. Mrs Howe provided application forms to all P7 children who wished to apply for the three ‘Digital Leader’ positions. The role of the Digital Leader is to help teachers to set up laptops and iPads for their classes, and also to assist the younger children with some of their ICT projects. Congratulations to Andrew, Alexander and Grace who are our three Digital Leaders.
