Mr. Sherwin's Class

Unfortunatley today, Mr Sherwin is not in school, because he is unwell. The good news is, I get to spend some time with his class.

The children have been thinking about Christmas and how we prepare for visitors. These are some of their ideas :-

• You could give them some tea (by Niamh)
• You could give them some Turkey (by Stan)
• You can be nice to them (by Adly)
• You can make them fell welcome (by Eve)
• You could put up a welcome sign (by Ruan)
• You could give them a present (by Leyahn)

All the children remembered that advent is a time to prepare for the the birth of Jesus.

Christmas Party

I had a great time at the PTFA disco on Friday. There was lots of dancing and fun - thats for the hard work of all the parents involved.

Points West Filming

We were a bit disappointed when Points West didn't turn up to film the infants perform their second nativity play this morning.

However, just as parents were leaving and children were getting changed there was a phone call - Points West - could they film the show? Mrs. Rollings and the team quickly agreed that we could manage one last performance!

At 11am the children performed in front of a TV camera and Year 5/6 children. Another great performance.

Later this afternoon Alex from Points West phoned to say the story would be shown next Friday. I can't wait.

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Amazing KS1 Nativity!

We enjoyed an amazing performance by the Infant Children this afternoon. The sing and acting was fantastic and we were joined by an old friend - Mrs. Dineen.

Yesterday, Alex (presenter) and Philip (cameraman) from Points West News came in to talk to some children about the Christmas story. The children were great - they told the story and made us all laugh! Hope fully the story will be on TV tomorrow evening.

Mrs. Patton's class and their learning environment

I'm spending some time with Mrs. Patton's class this morning. The whole school had a great Singing Assembly and we lit our first advent candle. I explained to the children that the first candle reminds us that we need to follow Jesus' example and forgive each other.

In Mrs. Patton's class I have had a great discussion about what things in their class supports their learning. These are some of the things they find the most useful:-

Their Literacy display which gives them ideas for connectives, vocabulary, sentence openers and punctuation; their 'Don't Use Said!' display; their speed sound chart; computers in class; their Successful Learning display (outside class) and a great cooperation poster.
Well done Y5P!

Ollie has just shown me a great book all about Christmas. His writing is very neat and he did it all by himself. Well done Ollie!

It was lovely walking around the school today, looking at all the classes working hard - lots of learning going on!

In Mr. Sherwin's class the children were putting some great connectives into their writing and making sure they remembered the correct punctuation.

In Miss O'Toole's class the children were making their very own Christmas books. I was very impressed by Laura who was using her sounds to spell her words and was remembering her finger spaces in between her words. I look forward to reading those stories.

In Mrs. Ford's class I was AMAZED by the children as they were learning about halves and quarters. The children have taken real pride in their books - they look great!

We have also got lots of FAB Pe (basketball) in the hall for the Junior children. They seem to be having a great time.

Once upon a time there was a kind girl called
Cinderella she was a nice girl but one day
A messenger came to the door
“There is going to be a ball at the palace”
The stepsisters gasped in excitement!
“May I go to the ball?”
“No you may not go to the ball!”
Cinderella cried.

by Ellie (Y3/4T)

Great writing Ellie. I love the word 'gasped!'

Today lots of exciting activities were taking place in school; animation in Y5/6C, preparing for a puppet show in Y5P, collage art in Y3/4BN, digital image manipulation in Y3/4M and making model buildings (lit by electricity) in Y1/2F and S. In particular I was impressed by how groups of children were working together independently with a clear purpose. Towards the end of the day Cameron in Year 3 came to my office and shared a great piece of story writing with me - his handwriting was amazing and he used lots of good punctuation - well done!!

Wow!

I look forward to sharing many of the exciting things we do at St. Joseph's, in this blog!!