This morning some of our P5 - P7 children went to Ballymena to take part in the live radio broadcast on Radio Cracker. They were introduced on air by Billy Bell. The children sang three pieces, ‘Holly and Mistletoe’, ‘Countdown to Christmas’ and ‘He is Immanuel’. They sang really well and their performance will be available to listen to on Radio Cracker website from 6th December. Thanks to all the parents who came along to support us today. We are really proud of our School Choir.
In Rasharkin Primary School we will be focusing on Anti-Bullying on Wednesday 11th December. The focus of Anti-Bullying Week this year was on the theme ‘Change Starts With Us‘. Whether it is verbal, physical, online or in-person, bullying has a significant impact on a child’s life well in to adulthood.
By making small, simple changes, we can break this cycle and create a safe environment for everyone, where everyone is heard. Because together, we can end bullying.
Change starts here.
Change starts now.
Change starts with us.
To help children remember this important message, children are invited to change their school jumper or cardigan for a Christmas jumper, t-shirt or wear a casual jumper and a Santa hat, or tinsel on Wednesday 11th December. During this day children will be doing some work on this theme in school.
The three pupils chosen to receive Lunchtime Awards for November were. - Lucy P6, Harvey P1 and James P5
November assembly awards were presented for the following achievements ‘Being Kind and Caring’, ‘Honesty’, ‘Great Writing’, and ‘Always Remembering to Choose a Healthy Break’.
Some of our P4 - P7 children have been enjoying Scripture Union at lunchtime, over the past few weeks. Thanks to Bob, Hazel, Laura and Lorna for taking time to prepare and deliver the Bible lessons and activities each week.
Following on from the three joint Art sessions which our P3 and P4 children have had with P3 pupils of St Patrick’s Primary School, parents and friends were invited to an ‘Art Exhibition’ to view the children’s work. This was held in St Patrick’s Assembly hall on Tuesday 26th November. We were delighted that so many parents from both schools attended. Mr Noel McCann, Principal of St Patrick’s Primary, welcomed everyone and explained how Shared Education works. Miss Richmond then spoke about the Art Project, which was on the topic of Autumn.
All the children spoke a few words about their favourite part of the Art Sessions, and about their trip to the Roe Valley Country Park. Refreshments were served and then everyone went to view the beautiful art work that the children had done.
Thanks to Miss Richmond and Mrs O’Ceannubhain for their hard work, coming up with ideas and then setting up the Art Sessions and the Art Exhibition, over the past number of weeks.
During their Wheelworks ICT Session on 14th November, P6 and P7 continued working on creating their games, using Sketch Nation Create. They had to decide on their game type eg. platform, scrolling, multiplayer.
They took photos of their drawings for their:-
Character
Enemies
Power ups
Backgrounds
They then edited their photos to remove unwanted background and to enhance the colour, size etc.
They inserted their character into their games.
Over the past number of weeks, our P4 and P5 children have been enjoying the Sports Taster Sessions with P4 children from St Patrick’s Primary School. The children have had coaching on four sports:- Football/Soccer, Gaelic Football, Quick Cricket and Olympic Handball. Today was their final session and at the end they each received a medal for participating.
A huge thanks to John, Mark, Nigel and David for all their hard work coaching the children.
A sports coach from Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council will be coming into school to provide five Hockey coaching sessions for children in P4 - P7 after school. Wednesday was the first session and the children all enjoyed learning new skills.
In Part B of the Wheelworks Project, the P6 and P7 children will be working to design and make their own digital games on iPads. They will be using the Sketch Nation Create App. During their last session on 24th October, they had to decide on a theme, background, game story, players, enemies and obstacles for their games. They are looking forward to being able to play the games they will create.
October assembly awards were presented for ‘Being Kind and Caring’, ‘Quick Recall of Table Facts’, ‘Great Group Work’, and ‘Lovely Manners’.
Accelerated Reading Certificates were presented to pupils in P4-P7 who reached their Accelerated Reading Target for this half term.
Everyone enjoyed the Harvest Hoolie yesterday. Children were divided into groups and had five harvest related activities.
chocolate apples
harvest craft activity
harvest scavenger hunt
ducking for apples
Harvest games and dancing
Thanks to all the teachers and classroom assistants for organising the Harvest Hoolie.
Congratulations to Joe P7 who won the Accelerated Reading Cup for this half term with an amazing 114 points.
We all know that Autumn time is the time to harvest crops. P1 and P2 finished harvesting the vegetables that had been growing throughout the summer. They had some corn to harvest. They also planted the daffodil and crocus bulbs for Spring time. They were very excited when Charlie found a millipede.
Our annual Harvest service was held in school on Wednesday 23rd October. We were delighted that so many parents and friends were able to come along to support us at this service. P1 - P3 sang ‘Big Red Combine Harvester’.Click here to view video The charity being supported by our school this year is NSPCC. Mrs Shirley Parkhill from NSPCC reminded us of some of the things that our children had been learning, when they visited our school back in September. The NSPCC are promoting the programme ‘ Speak out, Stay Safe’.
P4 - P7 sang ‘God Created them All’. Rev Roy Gaston used a tin of vegetable soup to remind us that that God has created all the fruit and vegetables that we eat. God has created the trees which provide us with the paper for the labels on the tin. He has created a world that has minerals in the ground to provide us with steel for the tins we use. At harvest time we thank God for all the people who grow, process and transport the different foods that we eat, from all over the world. Psalm 104 V 14 says ‘He makes grass grow for the cattle, and plants for people to cultivate - bringing forth food from the earth’.
Members of the Parents’ Association served coffee and tea afterwards.
On Monday 21st October P5 had a visit to Coleraine Town Hall to the Sam Henry exhibition. Sam Henry was a famous writer and folklorist from Coleraine. The exhibition entitled ‘Sam Henry: Culture Connects’ features personal artifacts, documents and audio clips for visitors to explore. The children explored the artifacts that were on display, to learn more about Sam Henry, his job and his collections.
In pairs, the children wrote short stories about three items from the exhibition. The children were given the opportunity to hold and talk about some of the pieces on display. They even saw a pair of binoculars that had been to WW1 and back.
We had an exciting day in school yesterday as the photographer was in school. Thanks to Ken for being so patient and funny as he encouraged everyone to have a fantastic photo taken. Photographs will be available within the next few weeks - great presents for Christmas!
In May this year, Armagh Planetarium ran a competition to design a logo to mark the 50th Anniversary of the first man to walk on the moon. We were delighted that Demi, who is now P6, won the competition. Her logo, along with other prize winning entries, has been made into bunting. Demi’s prize was a trip to the Planetarium for pupils from our school. P5,6 and 7 travelled to Armagh on Monday 14th October and enjoyed an exciting day there.
The children made rockets and launched them. They also saw the Boveedy Meteorite which was found by Mrs Gilmore’s husband when he was a boy. The children got to hold meteorite rock and they discovered that it felt heavier than ordinary rock and that it smelt of metal. Most meteorites fall in the ocean or in Russia as it is the largest country in the world. They saw a model of the international space station and were given lots of information about it. The toilets on the space station cost £12 million. The astronauts sleep upright, zipped in their sleeping bags. The children also saw a film in the dome theatre.
As part of the Shared Education Project, P4 and P5 have been joining with P4 children from St Patrick’s Primary School for Sports Taster Sessions on the pitch at the Community Centre. These sessions have been funded by a grant received from Building a United Community Fund.
The children are enjoying coaching on four sports:- Football/Soccer, Gaelic Football, Cricket and Olympic Handball. Today was their second session and they all had great fun learning new skills and then playing matches in their groups.
