P4 and P5 were given another STEM Challenge. This time in their groups, they had to build a castle with Lego. It had to contain moving parts and be around 20 cms tall. They created some wonderful castles with moving doors and revolving tables. One castle even had a swimming pool. The winning castle was built by, Ewan, Sam, Emma, Ethan, Cameron, Hana and Oliver.
RADAR
On Thursday 4th October P6 and P7 travelled to RADAR in Belfast. RADAR stands for Risk Avoidance Danger Awareness Resource. The children all really enjoyed and benefitted from their visit to RADAR and were given lots of practical information on road safety, personal safety. fire safety, and dangers of alcohol and being a good citizen. One of the main areas covered was Internet Safety, which is becoming an increasing danger to even primary school children with the use of ‘Snap Chat’ etc.
Detailed below is information that the children were given, to help keep them safe online:
all setting should be set to private
don’t share personal details online
don’t invite someone to be a ‘friend’, if you don’t know him or her well enough to invite to your house
Use ‘Ghost Mode Snap Chat’, otherwise everyone can see where you are even if you are not using Snap Chat.
Once again we are delighted that the library van is calling at school once every two weeks. Children in P3 - P5 have the opportunity to take out books from the van. The older children are always excited to get books that they can do Accelerated Reading quizzes on!
Nine children from P4-P7 have been chosen to serve on School Council. All our children wrote a manifesto giving reasons why they should be chosen to be on the School Council. There was then a class vote, and the following children were elected:- Lily, Emily, Harley, Ella, Jodie, Lucy, Oliver, Emma and Sam. In assembly, the nine new School Council members read their manifestos. They are now looking forward to working alongside the teachers, to try to implement some of the changes that pupils have suggested, to make our school a better place.
Congratulation to all the pupils who received certificates for September. Certificates were awarded for ‘Being Kind and Caring’, ‘Great Reading’, ‘Good Organisation’, and ‘Excellent Class Presentation Skills’.
Parents and carers may find these sites useful.
This is the link to the ‘Take a Peek’ campaign, to help combat head lice.
http://www.onceaweektakeapeek.com/
This link is to an interesting article challenging adults in how we allow our children to experience and deal with risk in their play.
Rasharkin Primary and St Patrick's Primary School have been working together over the past number of years in the Shared Education Project. This year P5 - P7 have been joining with St Patrick’s children for six Sports Taster Sessions at the pitch at Rasharkin Community Centre, and later at Dunloy Sports Academy. They have all enjoyed football, Gaelic football, cricket and handball. Thanks to Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council and the Executive Office District Council Good Relations Programme for funding these sessions.
P4 - P7 had their first Hockey Coaching session on Wednesday after school. John their coach from Causeway & Glens Borough Council, taught them new skills this week and will continue to do so over the next few weeks.
Today in assembly, we all got the chance to sing a lovely new song called ‘Everything I am’. Thanks to Flora, Emma and Hana from P4 for volunteering to sing part of the song on their own.
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‘Storm Ali’ gave P1s and P2s the perfect opportunity to gather some leaves at break time. Have a look at some of the fantastic pictures they made using the leaves.
P1 have only been in school for a couple of weeks but they have already settled into the school routines. In numeracy they have been following their ‘Numeracy Taskboard’. They have been -
playing with numbers
developing hand strength by rolling play dough
learning to share and take turns during numeracy games
P4 and P5 were given a STEM challenge. In groups, they had to build a paper tower construction that would be able to stand on its own. They were given twelve sheets of paper and masking tape and were not allowed to use any other materials. They looked at towers from around the world for design inspiration. Some of the towers were very tall but the winning tower was the group whose tower was able to stand unaided. Heidi, James, Tom, Emma and Ethan had the winning design. It was 60 cms high. A few children from P6 and P7 gave them a helping hand to finish off their towers.
On Friday P3 and P4 were very excited to see if the potatoes that had been planted earlier this year, had grown. They were not disappointed! They had great fun pulling the tops and gathering the potatoes. They had quite a crop.
At the beginning of each new school year, all our children get a chance to write a lunchtime prayer. The winning prayer is then said every day, before lunch is taken. We had some excellent prayers from the different classes. The overall winner was Stephen in P7. Wiktor P3, Ethan P4, Lucy P5, Annie P5 and Alexander P7 also received prizes for their prayers.
Learning in the outdoors is a wonderful way for children to experience their environment and to use all their senses as they play. P1 and P2 had their first outdoor session this week. They made stew in the outdoor mud kitchen, drew some lovely pictures, enjoyed the bikes and made some great constructions.
Back in May our P1 and P2 children planted some carrot seeds. There was great excitement when the children harvested their carrots last week. Some carrots had grown quite a bit and others were a bit small. This was a great introduction to the P1 and P2 topic for this half term - Five-a Day.
Following on from the success of last year's green and red choices, we have decided to continue with them this year. Children are encouraged to make good behaviour choices every day in school - green choices. Red choices are things that would make school be an unhappy, unsafe place for children to be in: e.g. running in the corridor, leaving people out, bullying At the beginning of this term everyone got the opportunity to think about 'green and red choices'. They drew pictures and wrote about what they had drawn. In assembly everyone agreed to try to make green choices every day, and stay away from red behaviour choices.
Welcome to our new P1's. We have eleven pupils in P1, 4 girls and seven boys. They have all already settled into the routine of school and are now looking forward to staying until 1pm from Monday 10th September.
Today we had an end of term treat when many of our children took part in the Rasharkin's Got Talent Competition. We had singing, dancing, football, skipping, comedy, violins, piano and gymnastics. Our winners this year were Lucy and Lily with a fantastic gymnastic routine. Thanks to Mr George and Hannah for judging the competition. Click here for video
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Today, our P3 and P4 children and P4 children from St Patrick's Primary School went on their end of year trip to Glenariff Forest Park. Liz, who is the Forest Education Officer told the children all about the forest animals before taking them on a riverside walk. As we walked along we used our senses to enjoy various aspects of the forest. We also did the Grufallo trail before enjoying our picnic and games, overlooking the spectacular Glenariff Glen.
