Congratulations to all the children from P4- P7 who received certificates for reaching their Accelerated Reading targets for this half term.
In the afternoons our P1 and P2 children go to the playroom for activities linked to their topic work. This half term their topic work is ‘Helping Hands’. The children have been enjoying playing in the health centre, and playing with the hospital Lego and emergency vehicles. I think there may be some doctors and nurses in future years!
P1 and P2 have been looking at ‘People who help us’, in their topic work of ‘Helping Hands’. They have been learning about the people who work in school. Mrs Hutchinson, who is our school secretary, came to their classroom to talk about her job in school. The children helped Mrs Hutchinson to open the post and answer the telephone. The children practised answering the phone politely “Good morning, Rasharkin Primary School - how can I help you?”
Mrs Hutchinson took the children for a tour of the office. They saw the money boxes, catalogues, accounts books and Mrs Hutchinson’s diary which is always full of dates for school trips and courses.
Thank you so much Mrs Hutchinson for taking time to talk to the P1 and P2 children!
On Wednesday 9th January a coach from Causeway Cost and Glens Borough Council came to take an after school session of table tennis, for P4 - P7 children. They enjoyed their first session and they all made great progress from the beginning to the end of the class.
Children from P1-7 enjoyed a doughnut on Wednesday 12th December as their reward for making twenty healthy break choices. The school councillors came up with the idea in October and staff were happy to use this as a way to encourage children to make healthy choices. Any fruit, vegetable or non – sugary bread based snacks, e.g. toast, and a drink of water or milk, are recommended by the Department of Education. Although these guidelines are stricter in their recommendations, we try to accommodate children’s varying tastes, with allowing some exceptions, e.g. pancakes. For more information please see the guidelines by clicking on the link below.
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P3 and P4 together with the P3 children from St Patrick’s Primary enjoyed a Christmas/ Winter themed Forest School Session on Tuesday 19th December. They had six different activities
Build Santa’s house - using large scale construction blocks and pipes
Story Time - ‘ A Little Bit of Winter’ - they then made insulating layer to prevent ice from melting
Santa’s Elves - The elves’ house was destroyed in a rainstorm. Use natural materials to build them a new house ( twigs, leaves, moss etc)
A home for a hedgehog - Build a warm comfortable home for a hibernating hedgehog
Paint a picture - Mix own paints using coal, mud, leaves grasses and warm water and then paint a winter scene
Collage - gather natural materials to make a winter and a summer tree.
Thanks to Mrs Henry and Mrs Morrison for all the work they did in preparing the activities.
Thanks to Mrs Morrison for organising parties for everyone. They all had a great time.
NI Air Ambulance sent this letter to thank everyone for their support.
Congratulations to Alexander P7 who won the Accelerated Reading Cup for this half term.
Congratulations to all our P1-P3 children who showed brilliant acting and singing skills in their school play ‘Chicken Licken’! The P4- P7 children shared the Christmas story in their play ‘Night of all Nights’. We saw great talent as the children acted, sang and danced their way through the story. Thanks also to Andrew, Isaac and Grace who played some carols on the piano and also to the group of violin, clarinet and bells players who entertained us with ‘Jingle Bells’. Thanks to parents, relatives and friends who attended the performance and also thanks to the Committee of Rasharkin Presbyterian Church for the use of their halls for rehearsals and for the concert.
As part of their energy topic, P5/6/7 were learning about renewable energy. They wrote an explanation of one type of renewable energy, then added text, photos and audio to make these super interactive books.
P5/6/7 were set a challenge to make a wind turbine from everyday materials. Lots of problem solving and team work skills were required. The turbines were tested using a hair dryer to see if they worked. There were some very impressive wind turbines!
Thank you to the Leaney Kitchen staff for providing such a fantastic Christmas dinner. Mrs Calderwood, Mrs Morrison and Mrs Wilson had a very busy time getting the dinners served to everyone. We really appreciate all their hard work. We also want to thank the pupils who played Christmas Carols during lunchtime. They are all pupils of Mrs McAleese who teaches piano in school.
We are all looking forward to seeing everyone next Wednesday night, 19th December at 7pm at Rasharkin Presbyterian church hall for our annual Christmas Concert. Here are a few pictures from our recent performances of ‘Chicken Licken’ P1- P3 for the playgroup. P4 -P7 performed their play, ‘ Night of all Nights’ for the P5 pupils from St Patrick’s Primary today. Thanks to those children who had to stand in for some of the cast who were sick.
P6 and P7 children and some pupils from St Patrick’s Primary enjoyed a Shared Education, Forest School Session, to Portglenone Forest. As well as learning interesting facts about red squirrels, the children searched for evidence of the grey squirrels being in the forest. They found cones that had been eaten by them. The children also made dreys at the base of some of the trees.
P1 and P2 have been busy writing their letters to Santa. Today they walked down to the post box at Fullan’s Supermarket to post them to Santa. Hopefully they will arrive at the North Pole well before Christmas!
Today, we all travelled to Green Pastures for their production of ‘Mary Poppins’. Everyone really enjoyed the show which was full of singing, dancing and great acting.
On 6th December some of our children went to sing on Radio Cracker in Montgomery’s Restaurant in Ballymena. They sang ‘Come and Join the Celebration’, ‘O Little Town of Bethlehem’ and ‘It’s Christmas Time’. The children sang brilliantly. We were delighted to see so many parents, grandparents, relations and friends enjoying a cup of coffee as they listened to us. Thanks also to Montgomery’s for providing a snack for everyone.
In Personal Development and Mutual Understanding (PDMU), P6 and P7 have been looking at Children’s Rights and the UN Convention on the Rights of Children. They took part in a Webinar with the N.I. Commissioner for Children’s Rights, Koulla Yiasouma where they had an opportunity to ask questions. Two questions asked by the children were answered.
What do you think is the most important right?
What is being done to help children living in poverty in Northern Ireland?
After discussing the different rights, the children made a quilt illustrating the ones they thought were most important.
Congratulations to Harley, Archie, Tyler, Kelsey, Anna and Jane who received Lunchtime Awards for this half term.
Congratulations to all the children who received Headteacher’s certificates for November. The certificates awarded were, ‘Quick Recall of Table Facts’, ‘Excellent Listening’, ‘Great Writing’ and also the ‘Kind and Caring Award Certificate’.
