P7 pupils Robyn, Adam T, Bradley and Adam B did a brilliant job on Thursday afternoon competing in the local heat of the Sentinus KNEX challenge. The yearly event, which places pupils against other local primary schools, allows them the opportunity to be creative and to build upon their engineering skillset. The challenge for pupils this year was to plan and build a playground using KNEX. An excellent effort from all four pupils ensured a strong model and finishing product. Pupils used their imagination to great effect and should be very proud of their creations. Unfortunately, we did not get into the elusive top two positions but still a very good afternoon’s work for the P7’s. Fantastic behaviour and manners from all involved. A fun afternoon!!
On Monday, the P7 classes enjoyed a fantastic trip to Queen’s University, Belfast as part of our Robert Hart project. The trip was organised by David Weir from Craigavon Historical Society and funded by The National Lottery. Our day started with a lovely Spring walk through Botanic Gardens and a visit to the Palm House to see lots of beautiful flowers and plants. After that, we continued on to the Tropical Ravine and were lucky enough to walk through both the Temperate and Tropical zones, and to see the various different plants and flowers from all over the world. We then visited the Naughton Gallery were we got to see the silverware that Hart had been gifted during his lifetime.
We had a quick stop for lunch and then it was time for our visit to the Special Collections Library, situated inside the McClay Library. In here, the children listened to Dr Emma Weisz, a researcher on the Robert Hart project at Queen’s. We also had the opportunity to view some of Robert Hart’s diaries and have a go at reading them. This was very difficult. Other artefacts relating to Robert Hart were also on display: paintings, photographs, music sheets, coins and much more.
We had a wonderful time at Queen’s and were tremendously lucky to have been given the opportunity of going on this trip.
Our class studied the abstract work of artist Sean Scully and created paintings using his style. We also used chalk pastels to create a picture of a potato plant, relating to our work on the Famine. The children were able to use layering to create different colours and effects in their pictures.
P7 took part in a Sentinue workshop where they had to program a car to follow a route on a floor mat. They worked in pairs to develop a set of instructions to guide the car around a tricky route involving roundabouts without going ‘off-road’.
P7s enjoyed a really fun workshop with Heather and Deborah from Action Mental Health this morning. The ladies shared lots of useful strategies for coping with stress and worry, and discussed different people the children could turn to if they needed support.
Four children from our P7 classes did themselves and their teachers proud on Monday 4th February at St John the Baptist’s Pastoral Centre where they completed in this year’s Credit Union quiz. They finished just outside the top three; a great achievement given how difficult the questions were. A superb team effort - well done!
Today marks the end of Road Safety Week 2018. Earlier, we discussed the differences between the different types of pedestrian crossings and following this, we visited the new Puffin crossing outside the Nursery gate and practised crossing safely. We also discussed the features that help visually impaired pedestrians to cross the road safely - ask the children to find out more.
We had a fantastic day learning how to cook spring rolls and Chinese noodles in October. All of the children had the opportunity to taste these, but only if they could use chopsticks! This proved much tougher than we first thought. Rafaela became our champion chopsticker!!
