Lots to report since our last blog and lots of pictures to share. Thanks for the comments to the blog last time too!
During November the school had a focus on Health and Wellbeing where we came up with some Big Questions and tried to answer them, it was interesting for instance, although a bit complicated, to learn how ibuprofen works in our body – we got the gist though. There was also a Daily Mile at 8.30am on a Wednesday and Friday, lots of us managed that – even Old Man Burns made it out every time! Seriously though, Mr Burns said he was proud of us because we were by far the class with the most people taking part on a regular basis. It’s actually a really good way to start the day and we know that we can have a wee jog in the morning without it being officially organised. There was also a ‘Move it Monday’ exercise class with Miss Ionta in the MUGA with the rest of P5 and P6 which was fun and again a great start to the week – I think that’s why Mr Burns has P.E. on a Monday morning, to get the week going. Obviously the best bit though, about Health Month, was the Ninja Challenge! What a great way to learn, wish we could do that every day. I’m sure we’ve told you about it already and the multitude of pictures speak for themselves so we’ll move on.
It was our turn a couple of weeks again to try and do a community litter pick, as part of being a Laudato Si school – being more aware of our stewardship of our planet. We’re used to taking a turn at litter picking at school (unfortunately it’s still needed at times) but we hadn’t been out and about before with the class. So, with the help of Sarah’s mum, we headed up to Fairweather Park. It was a bit sad because there was so much litter in parts, but there’s no point in being sad, you just have to roll up your sleeves and do something about it and then hopefully being a role model will educate and rub off on people. We managed outside 4 times out of 5 that week and again it felt good, and extremely worthwhile, to do something for others, our school and community.
Catholic Education Week (well fortnight) was from 16th November, the feast of St Margaret of Scotland, until St Andrew’s feast on 30th November. Some of us kick-started it on the evening of the 15th November with the St Ninian’s Cluster Mass at St Joseph’s church. Mr Burns had never been before to that particular celebration, but he’s now saying that he would try and never miss it in the future because it was so good, lots of St Ninian’s pupils (ex-St Cadoc’s) were there, and all the other feeder schools too, the St Ninian’s music department, Isobel Mair, you name it! He was getting all emotional again, as he does, saying that it was good to be part of something bigger and that it was also good sometimes just to step back from your daily life tunnel vision and have a look around. He kept going, but we switched off…….. There was also a St Cadoc’s Sunday mass in the middle of the fortnight which was well attended too. In class we made invites to this mass, we also made little churches, and other places of worship, out of envelopes and lollipop sticks – they were quite cute. We got a visit from Stephen of AGAP, Archdiocese of Glasgow Arts Project, inviting us to become the next superhero! We signed off CEW with some St Andrew’s celebrations in school thanks to our resident piper Mr McLaughlin. Oh, we also remembered every day in November all the Holy Souls and, in particular, those on the class November List.
This leads us nicely to our Advent preparations. We had the crib up nice and early, we’ve done well with the school Advent collections and also Mr Burns’ class does a Missio Bauble appeal – we’re nearly there with that too, one last push. Mr Burns has got some extra money to put to that from the staff World Cup Sweep. We did a sweep in class too, minus the money of course, which has made the World Cup even more exciting. We’ll see who wins the prize very soon! (Argentina v France – Umair Z v Menaal). We have been trying to concentrate just on preparing for Christmas but sometimes you just can’t help getting right in there! The Christmas Fair, Beat the Goalie and all, has been and we made Christmas springy things which were cool! We’ve also had Christmas / Cosy Jumper Day, Christmas Lunch and the Panto too! – can’t believe there’s still another week to go!!!!! Aaaaarrrrgggghhhh!
Talking about the World Cup we had a bit of fun, not to mention setting aside normal homework for 2 weeks, doing some tasks of our own choosing. We’ll have more to say and show next time. Obviously, we’ve been squeezing lots of schoolwork in as well. In Maths, between us we’ve covered some Data Handling, Weight (especially estimating everyday items), Area and Perimeter, Multiplication and Division, Symmetry, Function Machines and Basic Equations, Compass Points and Angles and a bit of Place Value, not to mention working on our Problem Solving and mental strategies every day. In Language, our Reading Books have given us a wee opportunity at non-fiction and we’ve also been practising our Reading Strategies, in particular predicting and identifying similarities and differences. In Writing we’ve done some non-chronological reports and instructions, it was good to do a second one each time based on what we wanted to write about. We signed up for a Biodiversity live lesson in Science, we’ve played a bit of netball during P.E. and our RRS Ambassadors also ventured around the school with an Anti-Bullying message. Lots of other stuff but here’s a flavour – hope you enjoy!
Merry Christmas!
p.s. Mr Burns says thank you very much for his gift
p.p.s. we also welcomed 3 new pupils to the class but they didn’t hang around
