St Joe's Blog

St Joe's Blog

Saturday 26 December 2009





Merry Christmas everybody

Friday 18 December 2009

A splash at Christmas

As it is Christmas and the last swimming lesson for 3/4S and 3/4M the children were treated to a very fun lesson. They were given balls, giant floats and the slide was switched on! It was a great chance to use some of the skills they have learned over the last two terms.





By Mr Sherwin

Thursday 17 December 2009

Later Years Christmas pictures

Some of the Later Years followed up the skills they have learnt earlier in ICT to produce Christmas pictures.

Christmas Carols

Below are a few pictures and videos from today's fantastic Nativity and carol singing.











Christmas carols

We all went over to the church for our Christmas carol concert this afternoon. It was great.



By Mr Sherwin

Our medieval feast

After our assembly we had our feast.,In it their were servants,lords and ladys, the king and the queen.The people to entertain the king and queen where the jester's who where really funny. Most of them where standing on there heads and doing hand stands. The lords and ladys where introduced to the king and queen. After they done that everybody sat down while the servants came around giving snacks and mince pies. Every body was having fun and joining in.


by Megan

Our topic assembly

Today we had our school play. We did the play about our topic and we each had a part each and I am sure we enjoyed it. Our Topic was about knights and castles and liquids and solids. We all were reading out loud and good but some in our practices were fast, not clear and low. The teachers and the children couldn't hear. But when we done the real assembly, we done it fine and Mr.Condon said to all of us at the end that he realy liked it and enjoyed it. Some of us were wearing our costumes and our hats. Our hats we made were for the feast as well. Some of us did not wear the hats and saved them for the feast. I enjoyed it and I am sure the other children and the audience enjoyed it.


from
Lucia

Tuesday 15 December 2009

World Time Zones

This week the Later Years Primary have been investigating world time zones. We looked at countries on our 'Around the world trip' and calculated what time it would be in relation to various times set in London.



Around The World Budget Sheets

Whilst undertaking our 'around the world trip' the Later Years children have been keeping a budget sheet. The children were given a budget of £5000 and needed to log costs of travel, accommodation and activities undertaken such as visiting tourist attractions.

The budget sheet produced lots of learning and presented many challenges such as:

  • Researching the lowest cost of travel and accommodation.
  • Converting currencies
  • Finding out which airliners flew where
  • Discovering some places required a Visa
  • Discovering a destinations tourist attractions and their costs.
  • Finding locations
  • How do you get to the Galapagos Islands?

Photos of our 'Around the World trip'

The Later Years Primary are coming to the end of their 'Around the World' project. Last week we had a special topic assembly to show off our learning. Recently in ICT we have been placing ourselves in pictures around the world. The results look fantastic - check out where we have been!

Mathletics - Hall of fame

Congratulations to those children who recently managed to make it onto the Mathletics Hall of Fame. Below are the scores of some children I spotted on the UK and World leader boards. A special congratulations goes to James in the Later Years Primary who has already achieved all of his initial gold bars!

Well done to all the Later Years Primary for brilliant work and effort at Mathletics - Keep up the good work!

Friday 11 December 2009

PTFA Christmas disco

Some photos of the disco last Friday. It was a great night!

Thursday 10 December 2009

Moving with Year 2



This afternoon I was invited into Year 2 to look at their amazing Design Technology work, making vehicles. They had been developing their team skills as well as their making skills. Well done all!

Wednesday 9 December 2009

During RE, Y5/6P wrote out their Christmas wish lists. The children were then given the task of writing a Christmas list for a child in one of the poorer areas of a country visited during our 'Round the World' topic. This gave the class much food for thought.

Some items from class lists
Nintendo wii
Games for PSP
Arsenal shirt
money
football boots
hamster
sweets
Some wishes for a street child
Enough to eat
A home
A family
Water
Clothes
Somewhere safe to sleep
love


Having completed the lists, the class were asked to write down their thoughts.

"I looked the the lists and felt sad"
"I looked at both lists and I feel embarrassed"
"I have looked at both lists and it makes me feel guilty"
"I have looked at the lists and it makes me feel unhappy"


Christmas is not about presents, it is about the love and joy we spread. We are annoyed when we don't get what we want but we never think about what we need. People who live on the street have one wish and that wish is to be like us. Our families are all we really need; simple donations may help a family have a meal at Christmas. The gift of love from God is greater than any present in the world. A gift to a greedy person means nothing, but a gift to a grateful person means the world. God sent his child to earth to rescue us and where the child was born there wasn't a feast or presents but there was love.
Leigh.

The greatest gifts are: Holy Spirit, forgiveness, friendship and families together. At Christmas they don't have Jesus but they have santas and reindeers. I heard a poem related to this-
Where is life? Lost in living
Where is knowledge? Lost in information.
Where is wisdom? Lost in knowledge.
Where is Jesus? Lost in Christmas.
People on the street have only one wish; that wish is to be more like us. May everyone less fortunate be happier... and they still have hope and Jesus in their hearts.
Kevin

My thoughts about Christmas, I would like everyone to be happy and not to have killing and for everyone to get a present. I would like lonely people not to be lonely. I would like everyone to be friends.
Mateusz.

I think everyone needs a home and family. If I saw a shooting star, I would wish for everyone to be happy and have somewhere to spend Christmas...

Care for the people
Have fun with each other
Remember
In every country there's hope
Stars shine
Together we are united
Make peolpe happy
All nations rejoice in Jesus
Sadness, nowhere to be seen.
James

Tuesday 8 December 2009

Going for Gold

At St Joseph's we love singing and last July we were awarded the SingUp Silver Award. As we are so good at singing we thought that this year we'd Go for Gold! This means that over the next year or so, we will be encouraging singing as a learning tool- we might sing for fun, sing to learn something, sing to energize our bodies, sing to help us remember facts or sing to accompany a special moment in the school's life. Hopefully at the end of the year, we will have acheived our Gold SingUp Award.
We the teachers, are especially interested in any singing ideas that you (parents, children and the wider community of St Joseph's) might have. Either come in and chat with us, or post a reply to this entry.
And if you haven't checked out the SingUp website, then why not have a go? Find it on www.SingUp .org
Have fun singing!

Monday 7 December 2009

Usain Bolt challenges

Recently the Later Years Primary has been studying Jamaica as part of their 'Around the world project'. We looked at Usain Bolt, three times Gold medalist and world record holder over 100 & 200m. Usain Bolt can run the 100m in a world record time of 9.58 seconds. In maths we took this measurement and wondered what we could do in the time Bolt can run the hundred metres (ten seconds). The children needed to each undertake a maths challenge and a challenge of their choice.



Some examples of the challenges undertaken were:



  • How many even numbers can you write down in ten seconds
  • How many multiples of 8 can you jot down in ten seconds
  • How many sit ups can you do in ten seconds
  • How many times can you bounce a ball on a cricket bat in ten seconds
  • How many smarties can you move with a straw in ten seconds.




These results were collected and then displayed as frequency tables and graphs. We had lots of fun undertaking the challenges.






Friday 4 December 2009

Magic Potions




This week in the Middle Primary Years(3/4),the children spent a whole day learning all about solids, liquids and gases and how these states can change. The theme was wizards, witches and scientists, and all 3 classes investigated and experiemented all day long. I was especially impressed with the way in which learners were challenging each other to answer scientific questioning, work well together in teams and wanted to find out more about concepts like reversible and irriversible changes and evaporation and condensation.

I'll be adding some photos next week!!

Mr. Condon

Wednesday 2 December 2009

Poilce Safety

Today we had Alison and Anna the community police officers in our school assembly. We learned about stranger dangers, and how strangers have loads of tricks in thier minds. They told us what to do if a stranger tried to hurt or attack us. We should yell and run to a place where we feel safe then tell a teacher or a parent what happened. So if someone tries to touch you in a uncomfortable way, YELL and RUN AWAY


By Jaylene, Amber and Joe

Tuesday 1 December 2009

Jamaican cuisine

This week the Later Years Primary have been looking at Jamaica as part of their 'Around the World' project. Today we were treated to some delicious Jamaican cuisine, brought in by Amber and Yasmin. We all enjoyed tasting the Jerk chicken with rice and peas.




Our Brazilian Football name

If you played for Brazil, What would your name be?


During the Later Years 'Around the world' project study of Brazil, we looked at Brazilian football and the life of Edison Arantes do Nascimento (Pelé). Many Brazilian players are known by a nickname. Kaka's real name is Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite, or Ronaldinho whose real name is Ronaldo de Assís Moreira. We found out our Brazilian football name using this website.