St Joe's Blog

St Joe's Blog

Saturday 27 February 2010

Swinging Sixties Animation

Ailis and Sophie in the Later Years Primary created this brilliant animation to go with our Swinging Sixties project.

GoAnimate.com: swinging 60s by CheesyBubbles

Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It's free and fun!

Thursday 25 February 2010

Swinging Sixties Topic Assembly

Today the Later Years Primary finished their topic on the swinging sixties with an assembly. The assembly showed off some of the learning that had taken place in the project and described some of the important events and changes in the decade. The assembly saw some excellent dancing and brilliant performances.





During the assembly some children read out their Martin Luther King 'I have a dream' speeches, which we saw earlier on the blog. Click here to see them again









In the afternoon the Later Years Primary also enjoyed a 1960's party!




National SingUp Day

National SingUp Day is going to be celebrated at St Joseph's on Wednesday 3 March.
It will be an exciting day of singing to help you with your learning or just for fun, both in your own classes and perhaps with other classes.
Maybe your class might like to pair up with another class for a bit of a sing together, or share some songs with each other?
At playtime, you could have a go at one of the Playground songs and games that are displayed in the window- if you need help you could always ask one of the Choir members, they know all the songs and games and are happy to help you.
At the end of the day, the whole school will come together to share songs with each other. Don't forget to practise the song your class has decided to share!
There are also games and quizzes to play on the SingUp website which have been especially designed for the National SingUp Day- why not have a go?
Above all have lots of fun singing with your friends!

Wednesday 24 February 2010

Year 1 Preparing for Lent.


Year 1 have made a calender to help us remember that there are 40 days in Lent. We have learnt that Lent is before Easter and is a time to remember Jesus. Children helped make the calender by each drawing a special picture of Jesus. Each day we will open a window and look at and think about Jesus.

Monday 22 February 2010

High Concept Movies!

Here are 2 BLOCKBUSTER movies from last term's High Concept project in Y5/6. Flood Day and System Shutdown!


E-safety Week


Today is the start of our e-safety week. We have been learning about different methods of communication and how they are used. We've also been discussing what information is personnal and shouldn't be shared online.
It's important to keep some information private. If you have an online profile please check your privacy settings and make sure you haven't got personal information available for anyone in the world to read.
To find out more and to play some activities you can have a look at the cybercafe from the think you know website.

Welcome Back - A Special Cafod Assembly




Mrs Harris from Cafod came into school this morning to tell us all about the charity's important work. I wonder how we can support Cafod in school this lent?

Monday 15 February 2010

Baptism - Stained glass windows

In RE the Later Years Primary have been looking at Baptism. We studied the story of the Baptism of Jesus and found out more about the symbols of Baptism. Below you can see stained glass windows we created on the theme.


Friday 12 February 2010

Bonds...Number Bonds

The tables clubs have been such a success in school that Mr Conlon has brought out a new club- The Number Bonds Club. Children can demonstrate their knowledge of their number bonds to 10, 20 and even 100!
If you want to practice your tables or your number bonds you can find the tests on the school Number Crunch website.


-- By Mr Sherwin

Wednesday 10 February 2010

Wheely Good Inventions in the Middle Primary Classes

Some great designs!







I have really enjoyed talking about marketing and selling inventions in Mrs Mantle's Class.

Tuesday 9 February 2010

Safer Internet Day 2010

Today is Safer Internet Day 2010. Lots of things are happening around the country to help children know how to be safe on the internet.
Our school is having a whole safe internet week! Our 'e-safety week' will be the first week back after the half term break. We will be looking at a whole range of topics including:
Safe searching
What information is safe to put online and what is not
Online profiles
Cyber-bullying

If you would like to find out more about e-safety before our e-safety week you can find lots of information from these websites:
www.thinkuknow.co.uk/
www.childnet-int.org/
www.saferinternet.org/

Remember, if you are worried about anything that you see on the interent you should contact an adult and report it by clicking on the report button which looks like this:

Saturday 6 February 2010

Camp 2010

We had an amazing time on camp, undertaking so many fantastic activities. Here are a few photographs to show you some of the things we got up to.

Friday 5 February 2010

High Concept!




This week all of the Later Years children in school studied storytelling through film. The week kicked off with groups looking at different types of films made in the 20th century. We looked at Laurel and Hardy films and how they used music and sound effects. We also looked at the 1950s film Twelve Angry Men learning about creating a simple but powerful story. We then looked at 1980s blockbusters learning how to create a simple concept with univeral appeal, a strong character and a twist. Most importantly the groups had to write a summary of their idea on no more than 25 words - very difficult!

The groups created their own 'High Concept' ideas, created storyboards and created their own short films.

Teams also created their own film posters and even wrote their own film reviews.

At the end of the week all groups presented their films whilst the rest of the children evaluated what went well and things that could be even better.

Thanks to Mrs Mizen and Mrs Patton for all their hard work on the project

Films coming soon!

Thursday 4 February 2010

Middle Primary have been learning about writing instructions this week. We have been trying out giving safety instructions when flying. Do you recognise these instructions when you were last on a plane?


Wednesday 3 February 2010

Help for Haiti

Well done everyone for helping to raise money for Haiti. The school managed to raise an amazing £547.60!
Special thanks to the cookery club and all the parents who donated cakes and helped run the cake sale.
Also, well done to all the children for all the prayers you have written to add to our Haiti display.



-- By Mr Sherwin

Tuesday 2 February 2010

Touch typing

Mr Sherwin's class have been learning typing skills at the end of ict lessons. The children are getting very quick. As a challenge they have their hands covered so they cannot see them. It's very difficult!



-- By Mr Sherwin

Monday 1 February 2010

Blaise Toy Museum

Today the Year 1 children ventured to Blaise castle to have a look around the toy museum. The children were able to hear a talk from Marie who worked at the museum. She taught us all about the Victorian toys - we were even allowed to play with and investigate some replica toys. The whole day was interesting, fun and exciting. The children in year 1 were very well behaved and sensible. A great day - well done year 1.