Reception, Year 1 and Year 2-Science Show
This morning, Reception and KS1 had a special science assembly about light and sound led by Adrian. First of all, we started by learning about shadows. We learnt that the closer that we get to the light source, the bigger the shadow gets and the further away that we get from the light source, the smaller the shadow gets. Some volunteers came up the front to show us this using puppets and the projector. Adrian then asked us to predict whether we thought that one person could make two shadows and most of us said no. However, Adrian showed us that this is in fact possible by using two light sources. We were amazed! Adrian then asked us to think about a window. He asked us whether a window lets light through or not and we said no because it is made from glass. From this, Adrian then showed us the shadow for a magnifying glass and how the plastic on the outside made a circular shadow but the glass in the middle made no shadow. We then explored colour mixing. Adrian chose a volunteer to come and colour a bottle of clear water. Yellow and blue were added and then Adrian asked us to predict which colour they would make once they were mixed together. Most of us predicted green and we were correct. Adrian explained that these colours had been mixed in water so we couldn’t undo them. However, he showed us how we can mix colours using a spinning propellor controlled by a motor and undo the colour mixing by stopping the motor. We had great fun predicting what colours would be made when the motor was turned on and the colours were mixed together. Then Adrian wowed us all by making a rainbow on the ceiling using light and water. This was definitely one of our favourite parts. For the second part of the assembly, we learnt all about sound. We started off by listening to same rain shakers. We then thought how we could make a rain shaker louder. The children predicted that we can either shake it harder or add more objects into the rain shaker e.g. peas. We then listened to the difference between a shaker with 1 pea, 10 peas and 100 peas and found out that our prediction was correct. Wow the 100 peas were loud! Adrian then showed us how you can make quiet objects louder by scraping them against hard materials, by using our mouth or by adding more force. Lyla demonstrated adding more force to make things louder by hitting a drum with a tube. We then explored high and low sounds using the keyboard. We listen to Adrian’s sound on the keyboard in a high pitched voice and a low pitched voice using different sides of the piano and we also listened to Adrian making high and low pitch sounds by changing the length of the straw whilst blowing into it. Finally, Adrian left us with two challenges. He asked us to think about the following questions next time it is sunny: How can you make your shadow not touch your feet for a moment? How can you make your shadow disappear? If any of the Reception, Year 1 or Year 2 children complete any of the experiments themselves at home to show you, please send any pictures via Class Dojo as we would love to see them.
Friday Celebration Worship
Today, we started our celebration worship by signing the trinity and talking about how we started our week on Monday by celebrating World Earth Day and having a special worship with Willow the guide dog. Some other highlights from the week have been our wonderful worship about forgiveness with Rev Ben on Tuesday, Leonora and David attending the RE conference and our wonderful Year 5/6 netball team for performing amazingly last night and winning their match against St Edwards 13-0. We then presented Thomas, Evie, Martha, Miley, Brodie, Bella, Jake and Jay as our individual value award winners. Well done to these children for consistently demonstrating an amazing attitude to learning, always showing kindness and respect to their teachers and friends and working incredibly hard across the curriculum. We also congratulated Reception and Year 3 on being our amazing attendance winners this week and Whitehall Park as the overall value award winners this week with an a wonderful 226 points. We then congratulated our out of school achievers. Well done to Callie for achieving 3rd place out of 28 people in her recent gymnastics competition on the vault and beam, James for taking part in the St George’s Parade as a Beaver and achieving the chief scout’s special bronze award, Lyla for trying incredibly hard in her dancing, Charlie for achieving the ‘Little Darreners’ Player of the Week award, Renee and Carmen for being brave and challenging themselves on the high rope and the zip wire at Go Ape, Carmen for being very thoughtful at Little Voices after school club, Archie for concentrating and working extremely hard towards achieving his red belt at martial arts, Noah for achieving a trophy for demonstrating incredible skills in his football, Finn for being awarded a certificate for showing skill in his football, Tristen for achieving his orange belt at kickboxing, Luke for being awarded ‘Man of the Match’ in his most recent football match, Jack for achieving his Stage 4 and Stage 5 swimming certificates, Lola for achieving several medals for her dancing including one for completing a recent exam in her acro and another for her commitment to dancing, April for achieving her 200m swimming certificate after working extremely hard to progress to that level, Elsie for attending Brownies for a year, Daisy for her commitment to Brownies by attending for 2 years and achieving lots of badges such as her recent aviation and Scarlett for demonstrating amazing concentration in her jiu jitsu. To end of our celebration worship, we had some lovely prayers from Seb, Lilly, Darcy and Mrs Ham for those caught in war, prayers of thankfulness and prayers about protecting our planet and we sang ‘We Can Make a Difference.’ Finally, we thanked all those who attended celebration worship and we wish the the rest of our school family a lovely restful weekend and thank you for your ongoing support too.
Year 1 and 2- Hop, Skip and Jump for East Lancs Hospice
This afternoon, Year 1 and 2 hopped, skipped and jumped 1k (18 laps around the infant playground) to raise money for East Lancs Hospice. They showed lots of perseverance to complete all 18 laps- well done to them all! If you haven’t yet donated, please consider donating to this very deserving charity.
Mrs Ham's Weekly Message
Good afternoon parents and carers, we have had another wonderful week of living life in all its fullness. The highlights of the week have been: *Celebrating World Earth Day through crafts at lunchtime and special class worships * A visit from Willow, a guide dog for the blind, as part of National Pet Month * WOW group members David and Leonora represented our school at the Pupils' RE conference * Our netball team won their first match of the league 13-0 against St Edwards * All of our children took part in the hop, skip and jump event today to help raise money for East Lancs Hospice. They all received a chocolate treat too. Donations to this very worthy cause can be made via parent pay. To hear about all the great things we have achieved this week in Celebration Worship, please click here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/news/2024-04-26-friday-celebration-worship For all of this week's news, please click here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/news A quick reminder that school is CLOSED on Thursday as our school is used as a polling station. Thank you for all of your support and dedication to our school family. Wishing you all a lovely weekend and I hope the sun shines for you all, Mrs Ham
Year 1 Science- Exploring Seeds
Today in Science, Year 1 learnt about what happens to a seed. They looked at lots of different seeds and had to predict what type of tree, fruit or vegetable it would grow into. We talked the importance of plants including trees for survival. Year 1 came up with some amazing ideas such as plants providing us with food, helping us to breathe, providing wood for furniture and houses, providing us with paper, providing a habitat for animals and making the environment a brighter place. We also talked about how many plants are used in medicines. Tomorrow, they will be planting a tomato seed and we will hopefully get the chance to see it grow over the next couple of months. We hope to see the roots, stem, leaves and fruit (tomatoes) that it will develop as it grows.
Year 1- Local Geography Fieldwork
Year 1 are studying their local area as part of their most recent geography unit. Yesterday, they were busy exploring their local area with the help of a map. There were various symbols on the map and they had to investigate what human features the symbols were representing e.g. Whitehall Park, Bolton Rd Laundrette, St Barnabas Church and the cemetery. As part of their fieldwork, they also identified and created a tally of the types of houses that they could see on route e.g. terraced, detached, semi-detached and bungalows. When we got back to school, we discussed what types of houses were most popular in the area of Whitehall and we came to the conclusion that it was terraced houses. We thought that this might be because we can fit more terraced houses into a small area which means that more people can live there. We also linked this back to our previous learning on the Victoria era when Darwen was a very popular cotton town. We thought that maybe Darwen would have needed to provide somewhere for all the factory workers to live in those times hence why there are so many terraced houses.
Year 1- Capacity and Volume
Today in maths, Year 1 learnt about capacity and volume. They learnt that the capacity of a container is how much it can hold and the volume is how much it is currently holding. First, they looked at some containers and had to decide which ones they thought would have the greatest capacity and why. After that, they learnt how to describe volume using the language of empty, nearly empty, full and nearly full. Then they had to use this language to describe the volume of liquid that they could see in various containers and use water to fill various containers using the language that they were given e.g. Pour water into this container until it is nearly full.
Collective Worship-Forgiveness
This morning in Rev Ben’s worship, we started with a challenge. Dougie and Jake had a minute each to catch as many fish as possible using a rod and transfer them to another bowl at the other side of the room. The whole school gave them lots of encouragement which spurred them on enormously. This then led us on to a story of a fisherman called Peter. In the story, Peter realised that Jesus was more than a friend, he was God as he did such amazing things such as save him from drowning and heal his mother. When Jesus told Peter that he would betray him by not knowing him three times before the cockerel crowed, Peter didn’t believe him. Peter told Jesus that he would never betray him as he was his best friend. However, later in the story Peter did in fact betray Jesus when he denied knowing him three times. Then, the cockerel crowed. This is when Peter had the realisation that he had betrayed Jesus after all and he was extremely upset with himself. He wasn’t sure if Jesus would ever forgive him but Jesus did because Jesus loved him very much. Peter became a forgiven man and he spent the rest of his life telling everyone about Jesus and how amazing he was. He spread the word of God. Rev Ben asked us about the story and what we could learn from this. A lot of our Year 6 children shared their views and said that making mistakes can be good as you can learn, grow and improve and that Jesus will always forgive you for the mistakes that you make. We ended our worship with a lovely prayer and a sing along to ‘Jesus Strong and Kind.’
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Whole-School Worship - Guide Dogs
As it is National Pet Month, Mrs Ham invited some special visitors from the guide dogs charity into our collective worship. They came to tell us all about how guide dogs are selected, how they are trained and how they support blind people in their daily lives. Keith asked us to put our hands over our eyes in order to imagine what it must be like to be blind. Haydn said you might not see things on the floor so might trip up and Cici said you wouldn't be able to see where you were going. We were also introduced us to Willow, a working guide dog, and he showed us how to spot a guide dog by their harness. He also showed us how to spot if a blind person is in need of help. The children asked some great questions about blindness and about the charity. They were especially shocked to learn that each guide dog costs around £55,000! Two of our children have already sponsored a guide dog puppy and hopefully more families might choose to do the same. We ended our worship talking about Earth Day and how we can look after God’s creations. We all agreed that everyday should be Earth Day and we finished by singing 'I can make a difference in this world of ours'.
Earth Day- EYFS and Key Stage 1 Lunchtime
The children enjoyed celebrating Earth day this lunchtime as a reminder to look after our planet by making their own Earth creation using collage materials.
Mrs Ham's Weekly message
Good afternoon parents and carers, it has been another wonderful week at St Barnabas! It was brilliant to hear in Celebration Worship about how each class has lived life in all its fullness and about all the great things that have been achieved this week both in and out of school. Please click here to read all about it: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/news/2024-04-19-friday-celebration-worship Thank you to everyone for your support for autism awareness today by dressing in blue. A special thanks to Finn for being courageous by telling us all about his big brother Declan, who has autism and to our Harvey who loved showing us his special blue autism awareness t-shirt and how he loves to blow out our worship candles. This week we found out that 30 new children will be joining our school family in September and we can't wait to welcome them. Next Friday we are looking forward to our Hop, Skip and Jump in support of East Lancs Hospice. Donations can be made via parent pay. For all of this week's news, please click here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/news Thank you for your wonderful support and in particular with our walk to school initiative, which saw lots of children being awarded with their first WOW badge this morning. I would like to wish you all a fabulous weekend and I hope the weather is kinder to us next week. Take care and God bless, Mrs Ham
Friday Celebration Worship
Today, we started our celebration worship by talking about why we are all wearing blue today which is for Autism Awareness Day at St Barnabas as part of Autism Awareness Month. Finn very bravely stood up in front of the whole school and told us a little bit about his brother Declan who has Autism. He told us that Declan doesn’t like walking in the rain as he doesn’t like the sensation and he told us that he doesn’t like very loud noises and will therefore sometimes wear his ear defenders. Despite this, Finn said that Declan leads an amazing life and it’s wonderful having a brother with Autism. Harvey, who has autism, also came to the front to show everyone his t-shirt which spread awareness for Autism and he loved blowing the worship candles out. We heard a little about how Harvey loves to sing rhymes and songs just like many of us. We then thought about how we’ve lived life in all its fullness this week with our wonderful worships led by both Mrs Ham and Rev Matt and all of our wonderful after school clubs including Little Voices, Mad Science Club, Forest schools and Cricket and Rounders Club. We then presented Hollie, Lydia, Frankie, Iris, Oliver, Olivia, Talia, Charlie, Betsy and Jake as our individual value award winners. Well done to these children for consistently demonstrating an amazing attitude to learning, always showing kindness and respect to their teachers and friends and working incredibly hard across the curriculum. We also congratulated Year 1 and Year 4 on being our amazing attendance winners this week, Jack and Sofia for receiving their pen licenses, Darwen Tower as the overall value award winners this week with an amazing 611 points, the children that completed the big plastic count for being super eco warriors, all of the children who have achieved their badge as part of the WOW initiative which involves walking to school or from school at least once a week and we said a special well done to Year 5 who have won the schools walk to school challenge by completing the most walks or park and strides so far. We then congratulated our out of school achievers. Well done to Lenny for achieving his starfish swimming badge, Ella-Grace for achieving a trophy for coming first in her recent 3x3 football tournament, Sonny, Charlie, Leo and Desmond for winning the cup in their recent football tournament, Iris for being a wonderful gymnast and swimming several lengths to raise awareness for diabetes, Sofia for achieving her level 4 in gymnastics, making her promise at Brownies, being part of Brownies for two years and achieving an award at musical theatre, Betsy for being awarded a medal for amazing ballet, Isaac for being awarded a merit in his swimming, Lyla for achieving her Stage 4 certificate at swimming, Eliza for achieving several rosettes in her horse riding, Alexis for making her Brownie promise and achieving 100m in her swimming, Alice and Grace for achieving their Brownie Promise badge, Annabelle for gaining her silver certificate for demonstrating several skills at swimming, Lydia and Ella for achieving their Level 1 at swimming, Leonora for achieving her 100m freestyle and 100m backstroke in her swimming, Harry and Eli for being awarded their 100m certificate at swimming, Archie for getting Man of the Match during his semi-final football match, Eden for attending Brownies for a year and achieving her Brownie Eid badge, Mila for achieving her badge for visiting the Fire Station at Rainbows, Marley for getting Olivia doll at Rainbows for being kind, Thomas for getting his 15m swimming certificate, Callie for achieving Stage 4 in her swimming and Cassidy for making her Brownie Promise and being awarded her badge. Wow, what a busy week of celebrations that we had! Rev Ben then led us in prayer and to end our celebration worship, we thanked all those who attended and we wish the the rest of our school family a lovely restful weekend and thank you for your ongoing support too.