2013-2014 Archive

'Snowy Waring The Explorer' has returned

We were delighted to see Snowy Waring the Explorer return to school today after his expedition to The Antarctic with BAM Nuttall (British Antarctic Survey). 

Mr McAdam, one of our parents, hosted a teams call with Samie (the BAM Pre-Deployment Officer who made it possible for Snowy to travel) and Simon (one of the BAM engineers who's just returned home from the Antarctic) in which our P4 pupils got to ask lots of questions about Snowy's adventures. Harry, another member of the BAM construction team in the Antarctic, was tasked with bringing Snowy home from the Antarctic and after a few weeks staying with Harry Snowy is now back in school. Our pupils have been following Snowy's journey through the blogs (two of which are attached) and pictures provided by Billy Thursfeild (BAM Sub-Agent) who looked after Snowy during the whole adventure. Today was a great way to welcome Snowy home and bring the team together who made it all happen.

A huge thankyou to all involved for making this happen and to Anna from Eco Schools NI who joined us today to welcome Snowy home.

Click 'read more' to see some images of Snowy's Expedition

Primary 4 Read To The Nursery And Primary 1

As part of our celebrations for World Book Day in P4, we planned, wrote and illustrated our own stories.  We were then invited to Nursery and Foundation Stage classes the next day to read our stories to the younger children.  We enjoyed reading our own stories and other books while the children in Nursery and P1 really enjoyed listening and chatting about what they had heard!  The activity was such a success we hope to do it again!  Take a look at our pictures.

Primary Four Go Back in Time to 1939!!

Primary Four classes had great fun experiencing life as an evacuee in our Living History Day. Along with staff from Craigavon Museum Services, parents and teachers we endeavoured to recreate life experiences from almost eighty years ago!!

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Children first took their journey to their new homes in the country. They were then sent to their 'Billets' and the adventure began. In teams named after wartime nations, part of both allied and axis powers, the children participated in a variety of interactive activities. These included rationing, war time air raid drill, handling a museum of artifacts, cracking a secret morse code message, as a special agents, baking carrot cookies to a war time recipe and tasting sandwiches fillings from during the war. These were fillings such as Mock Banana (parsnips and banana essence), spam and carrot, cheese and mayonnaise. Spam was the favourite filling by quite a majority. We completed the day by producing our WW2 propaganda posters. A great learning experience and enjoyable day was had by all.

Sincere thanks to Craigavon Museum Services and our parent helpers along with classroom assistants and teaching staff for all the hard work.

Thanks also to all the parents who ensured each child came to school in 1940's clothing - this added to the whole atmosphere of the day. P4 boys and girls will certainly remember their Living History Day for many years to come!

Please click READ MORE to view the full gallery of over 100 images from the day.

P4 Trip to Palace Stables

In preparation for our World Around Us topic - " Life in the Recent Past" which includes the war years, P4 made a visit to the Palace Stables in Armagh. We were evacuees for the day and enjoyed a day steeped in the 1940's! We started off with an interactive discussion about how WW2 actually started which was very informative. After this we entered a 1940's school room - very different to our own where children were "seen and not heard". Here we made our identity cards and personal labels which would have been with us at all times on our evacuation. Following this we met the evacuation officer Mr Percy, who told us all about how and why evacuation took place. He also told us about the importance of "black outs" for homes and air raid shelters to keep us safe from German bombs. We even visited an air raid shelter in the grounds of the Palace Stables. Our final visit was to "Bo" the GI soldier from Texas who from historical records, was actually stationed at the Argory during WW2 and often at Armagh driving his commanding officer to important meetings. We finished off the day with an interactive information session looking at the contents of an evacuee's suitcase and learning about what life was like in homes during the war as well as looking at gas masks for babies and children. We enjoyed a picnic lunch before heading back to school. This day has really made us excited for all that we will be studying in World Around Us! While it was great fun we are all glad however, that we live in 2014 and not 1940!

Primary 4 visit Armagh Planetarium

As part of their topic of celebrations P4 had a day out at Armagh Planetarium to hear the story of 'The Mystery of The Christmas Star'. The children enjoyed a workshop on electricity and hearing the wonderful story of the Christmas Star.

P4 Assembly led by Mrs McClelland’s class

Mrs McClelland's P.4. class assembly took the theme " Wanted". The children reminded everyone that we are all "wanted" and that we should be aiming to do our best and live for God! P.4 had great fun reading their own poems about things they liked as well as sharing about their own talents and hobbies. We even had some boys showing us some Jui jitzu moves! P.4. reminded everyone how different people throughout history, like Grace Darling, Dr Barnardo, Amy Carmichael and our own Charlene Barr were and how they used their God given talents to help others.

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The children dramatised the story of "The feeding of the Five Thousand" and reminded everyone that the young boy gave all that he had to Jesus and in Jesus' hands even a small talent can be used in an amazing way! Primary 4 concluded by singing a chorus "I'm Ready To Go". The final message reminded everyone that all of their talents can be used by God and they can all do something to help others. The children in P.4. thoroughly enjoyed preparing and participating in their assembly. It was a great experience for all involved!

Don't forget to click READ MORE to have a look at our photos!