Reception: all about rockets
During our space themed week, we learnt all about rockets. We watched a rocket launch, found out how they fly and looked at where they go. We looked at photographs of space and the different planets, investigated the shape of a rocket and learnt how fast they fly. We then created our own rocket and launched it. Quite a few of our class would love to become an astronaut so watch this space!!
Monday worship: Hope
Today in our sunny outdoor Monday worship, we looked at the word ‘hope’. Mrs Ham read out a bible passage about hope. During these next few weeks, we will be thinking about our Year 6 and we hope they will continue to shine when they move to high school. We discussed our hopes. Lyla said that she hopes she can go in her paddling pool, Harry hopes that everyone has a roof over their heads, Dominic said he hopes that COVID stops and Aidan hopes to be a doctor. Mrs Ham shared a piece of artwork by Banksy that says ‘there is always hope’. Some children agreed with this but some children didn’t. Ella said “things don’t always go your way”. Instead of just saying ‘I hope’, we could do something to make things happen. We could also ask God for help if we ever think there is no hope. We ended our worship by singing ‘we need hope’.
Friday Celebration Worship
This morning in celebration worship, we heard from our Infant and Junior teachers about how all of our wonderful children have been living life in all its fullness and preparing to move up to their new year groups in September. We also heard about the amazing time that our Reception and Year 2 children had on their trip to Blackpool Tower and Blackpool Zoo and our Year 6 children on their recent trip to London. Well done to these year groups for making the most of the experiences and representing St Barnabas amazingly well. We heard from some of the children in Year 6 who shared their London highlights. Dominic enjoyed the absolutely incredible acting during the Matilda performance, Noah enjoyed the boat cruise and learning about all of the famous landmarks and Sienna enjoyed singing the national anthem outside Buckingham Palace. We then congratulated many of our children for their sporting achievements. In the infants, we celebrated James, Lottie and Grace with certificates for their swimming success, Martha for being the star of the week at gymnastics, Alice for super listening and concentration at Rainbows and Eliza for taking part in the Bolton Iron Kids 1K run last weekend and gaining 9th place. In the Juniors, we celebrated Ted on for his sports success at Turton young farmers and our Year 6 Bee Stinger Netball Team who represented Blackburn with Darwen at Lancashire School Games on Tuesday. Mrs Gardner commented that the team embraced the experience and had a blast. Finally, we ended with some beautiful prayers from Mason, Seb and Lily and a blessing from Lillian. Also, just a reminder that it is our St Barnabas Summer Fair. FOSB have been working incredibly hard to make this a success and they look forward to welcoming you all tomorrow for a fun filled day on the school field.
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Reception Making 10
In Maths, Reception have been focusing on how to make 10 in different ways. They have been using the Numicon to find different pieces that fit into 10 and have been looking at ten-frames to support their learning. They have done amazingly well and can now remember lots of different number bonds to 10 without help! Well done!
Reception Science - Super Sandcastles!
As part of our Science, Reception have been learning how to make the perfect sandcastle. We discussed what is needed for the perfect sandcastle and experimented with the sand to see which would make the best one. We found that dry sand doesn't make a good sandcastle as it is too soft to hold. We found that we needed to mix dry sand with water to make a paste and then pat it into a bucket tightly and smoothly - this made the best sandcastle! The children then experimented in the sandpit outside to make their own.
Reception’s visit to Blackpool Zoo
Reception have had a brilliant time at Blackpool zoo! They have seen sea lions, penguins, camels, birds, a crocodile, orangutans, giraffes, elephants and monkeys! We also enjoyed being explorers when walking around the dinosaur safari! What a brilliant day!
Monday Worship: The Lord’s Prayer
Today we discussed where the Lord’s Prayer came from. It is a special prayer that Jesus taught his disciples. We discussed how we will hear this throughout our lives. To start our worship, we said the Lord’s Prayer altogether. We then discussed what this prayer meant in more detail. We discussed what having the best Daddy in the world would be like. David said “funny”, Mathew said “helpful”, Dominic said “cool”, Jacob said “playful”, Kaylen said “someone who listens” and Elsie said “brave”. Mrs Ham continued and said someone who is strong, patient, gentle and dependable. Everyone in the whole world has a special Dad in heaven. God is there to support you, help you and will always listen to you. Today we watched a video called ‘The Prodigal son’. We learnt that one son spent the money on nice clothes, a holiday, parties and nice food. After he has spent all of his money, he had to go back to his dad. He felt miserable, full of regret and embarrassed. Instead of his Dad punishing him, he welcomed him back with open arms. His Dad forgave him for his actions. Mrs Ham explained that in the Lord’s Prayer, we ask for forgiveness when we do things wrong. God will always forgive us as long as we ask for forgiveness and learn from our mistakes. We reflected today on how sometimes we use God’s name inappropriately. We need to think carefully about how we use those words as they are very special and very holy. We then watched a video of the parable of the mustard seed. We discussed what we think about heaven. Grace said “dreamy”, Lily said “calm”, David said “fluffy clouds”, Ella said “peaceful” and Seb said “comfortable”. The mustard seed grew into a big bush and all of the birds were welcome to come to it. This is just like heaven where everybody is welcome. Small things can make a huge difference. This links with our kindness tree, small acts of kindness can make a huge difference and our school can reflect heaven on earth. This week we will focus on how we can live life in all its fullness just like God would want us to. We ended our worship by singing ‘The Mustard Seed’.
Celebration Worship
This morning in celebration worship, we heard from our EYFS, KS1 and KS2 teachers about how we have been living life in all its fullness. All of our teachers mentioned how all of the children showed wonderful resilience and encouragement at our sports day last week. We then celebrated some sports achievements that have been happening in school. On Tuesday, we had three of our Year 5 children take part in a gymnastics competition at St Bedes and on Thursday, we had some boys attend the Year 4 Football Festival at Green Lane. Both teams represented school amazing well and showed true St Barnabas spirit. Then we celebrated some out of school sports awards. In the infants, we awarded Lyla in with a certificate for swimming 15m without armbands, Elliott for player of the week at football, Alexis for super listening at Rainbows, Eliza for achieving brilliance in her horse grooming, Annabelle for improving her speed in cycling and Eden for attending the Jubilee Sports Day in the Lake District. In the the Juniors, we celebrated Archie, Ross and Charlie for their footballing abilities . They played at a tournament in Blackburn and got to the finals for Mill Hill Juniors. They didn’t come first but they got the fair play award which is absolutely amazing- Well done boys! We also congratulated Manni for achieving a yellow belt in jiu jitsu. Finally, Lillian ended our worship. She asked us what we were thankful for and we said thank you for our teachers and school staff, our houses, our amazing world, our school, our trees, everyone that is alive, churches, our families, our food and drink, our toys and teddies. We also said a beautiful blessing, ‘May God bless you and keep you.’
Reception Treasure Map Making
As a part of Understanding the World in reception, the children have made a treasure map of our outdoor yard using natural recourses and loose parts. They were amazing at telling us where each area was located in the yard and finding the right materials to represent each part.
Reception Junior Jam
Today the children had a junior jam session. They started with a dance session to warm up and they were given some scarves to use. They then had a go at singing ‘A Whole New World’ from Aladdin. They were amazing at remembering the lyrics to the song ! The next session was Music where they learned all about the instruments Boomwackers. They were shown how to use the boomwackers and discussed how they make their sound. They even had a go at using them and learned the names of the different notes. In the next session they watched some clips and they were asked to identify how the characters were feeling. They then used a new app this week called Toon Tastic to make a setting and characters to create a story- they had to create a beginning, a middle and an end for their story.
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Darwen Library- Summer Reading Challenge 2022
This morning, Angela who works at Darwen library visited school to invite us all to participate in ‘The Summer Reading Challenge 2022.’ The challenge is free of charge and involves children reading 6 library books between 1st July and 30th September, including picture books and audio books. There are various prizes awarded for each book that is read and returned, and those who complete the challenge will receive a certificate and a medal. If your child completes the challenge, we would love for them to be bring these into school so that we can present them during whole school celebration worship. Anglea told us that there is something for everyone at the library. However, if there is a specific book that the children are looking for but they don’t have it, it’s her promise that they will get it for them on request. If your child does not yet have a library card, the library can quickly and easily enrol them as a library member for free and no ID is required. Children without library cards may still join the Summer Reading Challenge, please enquire at Darwen Library about this. We hope that as many of our children as possible will take on the challenge. Happy reading!