Rev Ben’s Worship- Jeremiah : Down in the well
This morning Rev Ben led our Worship about God's Compassion. We started with a fun listening game where Rev Ben blind folded some children and the rest of us had to make the animal noise of the animal on the screen. The children who were blindfolded were able to realise what it was like to not be able to see, just like the person in this week's Bible story, Jeremiah. We listened and joined in with the Old Testament Bible story all about Jeremiah being stuck in a deep, dark well. We loved joining in with the repeated refrain and we learned that God helped Jeremiah get out of the well. We reflected on how God can help us when we are feeling stuck or in a dark place. We then thought about how God sent His saviour, Jesus to rescue us all and how at this time of Advent, we are thinking about the special birth of Jesus. We finished our Worship singing 'Jesus, strong and kind'.
Year 6 DT - Christmas loop game design
Year 6 continued their unit by designing their electrical loop games. They began by developing a design criteria: - The product should be for young children and have a Christmas theme to be sold at the Christmas fair. - The wire design needs to be made up of one continuous line. - The circuit needs to be concealed in the base. - All of the components used should contribute to a fully-functioning circuit. By developing this criteria, it allowed the children to produce a detailed 3D design of their game with annotations.
Year 3- P.E- Group Sequence
During P.E., this afternoon, Year 3 was tasked with creating a story sequence using the five dance elements - travel, turn, jump, gesture, and stillness. The first step was to identify the term "villain", and some of the words suggested by the children were "evil", "torture", "threatening", "intimidating", and "mischievous". Once a villain was selected, the children worked in pairs and gradually moved into small groups. They then performed their sequences to the whole class, using music by Stealth. The students did an excellent job portraying their villains and worked extremely well in groups, demonstrating great teamwork.
Year 1 PE- Simple tactics
Year 1 have been applying the simple tactics of looking one way and throwing the other way and pretending to throw one way but throwing the other way. They did this as part of a game involving an attacker who had to aim to throw a beanbag into a stationary hoop and a defender who had to try to stop the beanbag from landing in the hoop. They tried very hard to use a good underarm throwing technique during the game and outwit their opponent using the simple tactics that they’ve been taught. Well done Year 1.
Foodie Friends Club- Making chocolate apples
Today, in our foodie friends club, we made chocolate apples. After melting the chocolate in a heatproof bowl, the children pushed a stick on their apple and dipped it into the melted chocolate. The children had a choice of coating the apple in dark or white chocolate. To give that extra touch, the children decorated it with marshmallows and sprinkles. And, of course, there was plenty of chocolate licking.
Year 6 DT
Year 6 started their DT unit by analysing existing games and toys. They discovered that toys serve more functions than just providing entertainment. They realised that they can develop gross and fine motor skills, help concentration, improve hand-eye coordination and aid imagination and creativity. These things were taken into account when analysing 3 real-life products and helped the children to decide whether they were fit for purpose.
Year 3- D.T- Running stitch
This afternoon in Design technology, the little elves have been busy picking their design for their pouch, options were stocking, star, bauble, tree or snowman. They are doing great with the running stitch, although a few need support threading the needle. They are super excited to reveal the end result at our school Christmas fair.
Year 5 - Badminton
Today, Year 5 started their new PE unit on badminton. The children learned the correct way to grip the racket and explored the variety of ways to hit the shuttle using the correct terminology. The children worked on their forehand keeping the shuttle in the air, controlling and alternating their movements to keep the shuttle close by. The children then worked in pairs and began to hold rallies with each other.
First week in Advent- Hope Collective Worship
This morning in our collective Worship we focused on Hope as it is the first week in Advent. Lucy and Charlie lit the first candle on our advent wreath and we said special prayers of hope. We watched a lovely video showing how God promised to send his special son Jesus and people had to wait in hope a very long time for Him but 'Good things come to those who wait'. We then discussed with our friends what we were hopeful for in the future and we had some wonderful answers such as 'For there to be peace across the whole world and for everyone to show kindness to each other.' Over the next four weeks we will be focusing on the hope, peace, joy and love that Jesus brought to the world and how we can show that to others too. We finished our Worship by singing a number of Christmas songs to remind us of the importance of Christmas, when baby Jesus was born. Thank you to our wonderful singers who volunteered to model the actions to the younger children.
Rhyme and story time begins again in January 2024!
Reception’s rhyme time and story time will begin again on Wednesday 17th January 2024. Rhyme time is not on for the rest of December due to our Christmas nativity rehearsals and performance and our Christmas fair. Preschool children are more than welcome to join us and refreshments will be served afterwards.
Christmas Card Competition
This morning in our Celebration Worship I shared the details of our Christmas Art Competition in Aid of Alder Hey Children’s hospital. The competition is for the children to design their own Christmas Card on a square piece of paper (please see the image above for more details and last year’s winners!) All entries will be submitted to the competition, and if selected, the winning entries will be sold as Christmas cards in Home Bargains stores across the UK, with all proceeds going to Alder Hey. School can also win a craft hamper and £100 voucher for resources too! We will also be selecting a handful of amazing entries to copy and display in the Rose Garden at Whitehall Park for our Christmas ADVENTure trail, so any Nativity related entries would be lovely to see. Please can we ask that all entries be handed to class teachers by no later than Wednesday 13th December. We are able to provide squared paper for entries if needed, please just ask your class teachers. If you have any further questions then please ask. We look forward to seeing some wonderful designs! Thank you, Mrs Govan
Celebration Worship - 24/11/23
This morning in celebration worship, we started our worship by presenting our value award winners with their certificates. Well done to Joey, Archie, Olivia, Ivy, Ella, Esme, Wilson and Ross for consistently demonstrating an exceptional attitude to learning and always showing respect, kindness and friendship. Mrs Ham also awarded a special bravery award for Sonny in Year 3. Today marks one year since he was diagnosed with diabetes. This past year, he has taken all of the hospital trips and disruptions to his usual routines in his stride and shown an immense amount of courage. We are so proud of you Sonny! Our head and deputies then awarded Darwen Tower as the overall value award winners this week and Mrs Ham announced Reception class and Year 6 as the amazing attendance winners this week. We then celebrated lots of children who have been achieving great things out of school. Well done to Mila for achieving her drawing badge at rainbows, Eliza for being a superstar horse rider, Annabelle for achieving her drawing badge at rainbows and the rainbows theme award for expressing herself, Desmond for being a super swimmer, Marley for showing kindness, Archie for achieving 20m front crawl swimming, Callie for achieving her stage 3 award at swimming, Penelope for achieving a rosette in her horse riding, Poppy for achieving a trophy for being a fantastic footballer and Skye for displaying lots of new skills in her horse riding lessons. We then applauded Alice in Year 3, Poppy in Year 5, Wilson, Charlie, Lucy and Jacob in Year 6 for their successful entries into the ‘Happy News competition’ which was launched in school a few weeks ago. Mrs Govan then launched our current competition. Mrs Govan explained that Home Bargains are accepting entries into a Christmas card competition that we would love our children to enter into. The winner of the competition will get their Christmas card printed and sold in Home Bargains and the money raised will go to Alder Hey Hospital. What a fantastic cause to support. Finally to end our worship, Rev Ben then said a beautiful prayer and Mrs Ham reminded us about non-uniform day next Friday in exchange for chocolate or a toy for our FOSB School Christmas Fair on Wednesday 13th December. We thank you all for your continued support and we wish you all an enjoyable weekend.