🌎😀Welcome to P6 🌎😀

Goodbye from Miss McGrady - 27th June 2019

My time at this wonderful school has now come to an end after 16 years of glorious teaching at St Nicholas’ Primary School.

I’m now venturing into international teaching life in San Francisco, California. Anyone that knows me well, knows that I love to travel and experience what the world has to offer, so I’m excited to begin this new phase in my life.

I will miss the staff and the children greatly.

They have taught me many things and no two days are ever the same. Each child has brought their own uniqueness into the classroom and I am blessed to have been in their company. 

Thank you so much to my amazing and beautiful children of my P6 class whom I’ve taught for the last two years (and over the last 16 years). I wish you all well as you progress into P7 and in your future. Don’t let anyone tell you that you aren’t good enough because you ARE. You can be and do whatever you want in life as you will find your path eventually. 

Thanks to all the parents (both past and present) who have supported me throughout my time also. 

A big thanks to my amazing side kick and classroom assistant Rochelle Denver who has helped guide the children over the last two years. I’d have been lost without you. 

Thanks for the memories - goodbye and God bless - Mary McGrady xx

“Every ending has a new beginning”🌎

Science Day - 21st June ‘19

The boys and girls travelled into St Mary’s High School for a morning of practical Science activities. This linked in with their previous WAU topic of Electricity. They got to review work learnt previously on circuits and enjoyed learning more from Mr Quinn, the Science teacher there. 

The girls find hidden rocks! 20th June 2019

Caysie and Aoibhin found one of Doc’s Rocks in the school grounds today. They have now hidden it somewhere else so that another person can find it and keep the hunt going!

🌋Erupting Volcanoes 18th June ‘19🌋

The children spent four weeks designing and constructing their own volcanoes during art lessons with Miss Lonergan. Today they spent the lesson using materials to make them explode! Well done. 

San Francisco Earthquake - 13th June ‘19

The children moved from studying Volcanoes to Earthquakes in their WAU topic.

We have been using the San Francisco Earthquake of 1989 or ‘Lomo Prieta’ as a case study. 

The class spent a literacy lesson researching information about it and today we spent our WAU lesson watching interactive resources on the effects of it. 

🥇Sports Day Success🥇- 12th June ‘19

Congratulations to the boys and girls who were awarded medals for first, second and third place in our Sports Day races. Well done to you and well done to all who took part and made the day successful. 👏

📚P6 Taster Day - 10th June ‘19📚

The P6 boys and girls had a really enjoyable day out at Blackwater Integrated College today for a Taster Day. 

They got to experience what life is like in a post primary school and had fun learning. They took lessons in Science, Music, Literacy, Maths, PE, Religion and Technology. Fantastic 👏

🥇Sports Day Fun - 7th June ‘19🥇

Well done to the boys and girls of P6 who ran, jumped and balanced really well during our annual Sports Day. You’re all amazing. 🏆

Outdoor Fun - 22/05/19

We all had a super day in the sun today. We got to practise some activities for our Sports Day and really enjoyed the 3 legged race. 

Afterwards the boys challenged Miss McGrady to a soccer match and it was great fun! ⚽️

Triangular Numbers Investigation - 21/05/19

The boys and girls spent their numeracy lesson working on investigating Triangular Numbers. 

They worked in pairs and had to figure out a formula for the first triangular numbers in 100. 

It didn’t take them long to achieve their learning intention. After, they then had to draw their own patterns of triangular numbers using dots and placing them in the correct sequence. They were fab 👏

🏐Gaelic Fun in the Sun🏐- 16/05/19

Mindfulness - 14/05/19

The children all enjoyed their second session of Mindfulness today. They concentrated on breathing and relaxing to begin. They then worked in groups to fill a page full of colourful pictures, words and objects that make them happy. 😀

🍦Treat Time for P6 - 13/05/19🍦

The boys and girls took some time out after their Numeracy Assessment Tests and went to the local shop for a well earned treat! It was such a lovely, sunny day so we decided to spend our Coppers and Fives money that we’d saved to buy a treat. 🍦

Mindfulness - 7th May

The children had a great time with Josephine from PIPS, who will be taking mindfulness sessions for the next 4 weeks.

P6 is a busy year and the children enjoyed their hour out of normal lesson time to work on relaxation and breathing techniques. They also concentrated on being positive about themselves and others. 

🌋Plate Tectonics - 3rd May 2019🌋

Today, the girls were introduced to their new WAU topic (as the boys were away at St Patrick’s Grammar School for the day) of Volcanoes and Earthquakes. We spoke about how the earth was like a jigsaw puzzle, which floated on a mantle and was called Plate Tectonics. 

The children were introduced to this concept using an apple and at the core was the hot, molten magma. We investigated the 3 types of plate boundaries: Destructive, Convergent and Transform Plate Boundaries. We watched some YouTube videos on how volcanoes and earthquakes occur. We finished the lesson by using a Milky Way to depict the earth’s crust/plate tectonics and what happened when it was pulled apart, pushed together and sliding past each other. They then were able describe what happened and got to eat the chocolate bar!!

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle - 15/04/19

The Eco-Bus visited the school today and the children enjoyed learning about how to reduce our waste and the importance of recycling. 

They also got to make their own badges about recycling. 

✝️Easter Talent Show✝️ - 15/04/19

The children are excited and can’t wait to perform their class song at our Annual Easter Talent Show on Wednesday. 

This year, we decided to sing a song from a new musical that was released in cinemas this year from Mary Poppins Returns - ‘The Place Where Lost Things Go’. We look forward to seeing you there. The children sing it beautifully (you may need to bring a tissue with you).🙂

📱Internet Safety Talk - 12/04/19📱

The class had a visit from PSNI Constable Phil Quinn, who came in to chat and advise the children about Internet Safety. The workshop was very informative and the children are more knowledgeable of how important it is to stay safe online. 

Worried William Author Visits P6 - 10/04/19

Thanks to Ronan Gilchrist from ALPS and Liam, from the Wonderful World of Worried William, who spoke to our P6 and P7 pupils this afternoon. 

Liam is a primary school teacher, who teaches in Abu Dhabi and is the author of the Worried William books. He uses his own life experiences as a child to help children to overcome worrying and anxious moments that they have. The children loved it and was very informative. Thanks Ronan and Liam. 👍

🌷Springtime in P6 - 04/04/19🌷

Beautiful 3D spring daffodils and the children’s acrostic poems adorn the display board outside the P6 classroom. It’s great to see the brighter evenings and all the pretty daffodils in bloom, signifying spring. 

P6 had a special visitor today - 01/04/19

June, one of the residents who was on respite in Ardview Nursing home made a surprise visit to the school to call in to see the children of P6. Since leaving Ardview, she said she missed them all so much and wanted to call in to say hi and to thank them for their little card they made her.

The children were so excited to see her and there were big hugs all round. June said that she’d call back again to visit them. She is very welcome to call in and see us at any time. It was lovely to see her and realise that the Cross Generational Art Project has made a lasting impression and new friendships for us all. 

💐Spring Art - 22/03/19 💐

The children spent some of the morning cutting and painting their 3D daffodils for their Spring wall display, which is starting to take shape. 

Trōcaire Visit - 20/03/19

Maria, from Trōcaire came to visit the children today to talk about the work that the charity does for children in the developing world. She spoke about how this year that Trōcaire would be helping families where their homes and land had been taken away. 92p of every £1 goes towards these worthwhile causes. 

Happy St. Patrick’s Day from P6 - 17/03/19☘️

📚World Book Day - 7th March 2019📚

The class looked wonderful in their costumes/pyjamas today. Well done to Rhys, who won the school art competition and to Erin, who won the class award. 👏

🥞Shrove Tuesday - 5th March 2019🥞

Today the children spent their Literacy hour working in pairs with a comprehension task about how ‘Pancake Day’ is celebrated around the world. After they finished, they had a chance to toast their own pancakes and add some butter, Nutella and sprinkles. They were delicious 😋

Eco-Warriers - Mon 4th March 2019

Lucinda from Down Council called into the class today to show the children how they could make their own pencil cases from recycled cereal boxes. The children really enjoyed it. 

🇪🇸Español🇪🇸 - Thur 28th Feb 2019

The children practised 8 commands in Spanish and we played a few games of Simon Says (Simón Dice...) in Spanish. We then learnt the days of the week and how to ask and answer questions during our conversational Spanish time. 

💯Percentages 💯 - Mon 25th Feb 2019

The children started a new Numeracy topic today on Percentages. We worked on the basics of finding percentages pictorially and used our knowledge from fraction and decimal work to find equivalences. We finished the lesson by working on an interactive game. 

💻Computer Coding with Scratch💻 - 14/02/19

The P6 class were lucky today as they had two Smartboard Interactive Panels in the classroom. A small group of children were introduced to Scratch Junior and enjoyed helping Miss McGrady make the sprites move and speak.

We will be concentrating on Scratch until the summer term.

💻ICT Work - MS Powerpoint💻 13/02/19

The children have enjoyed their independent research about Thomas Edison in our WAU topic of Electricity. They have now been introduced to MS PowerPoint and have been using their skills to make a presentation about him. When this is finished, they will present their knowledge to the class. 

Cian decided to work on the iPad and use Keynote for his presentation. They should be proud of themselves as their work was wonderful. 

Funky Hair Day - 12/02/19

Lots of funky hair in school this morning with our School Council raising £128.50 for play resources. Some really wonderful hair styles in P6.

💷Amazing Entrepreneurs💷 08/02/19

Well done to everyone who participated in our Entrepreneur Market on Friday. Your business plans, marketing and stalls were amazing. It was great to see you all flourish and sell all your wonderful products. 

Some of the children couldn’t believe the profits they made and the class was buzzing with excitement. Who knows..some of you could give Sir Alan Sugar a run for his money in the Apprentice!

Special thanks goes to Aoibhin’s mum, who came into the class and chatted to the children about running their own business. It was a useful insight into the daily life of being your own boss and the children gained a lot from it. 👏

👥Electricity Topic - Independent Learning - 05/02/19🤔

It was wonderful to see Caysie, Kaci and Aoibhin explore their WAU topic through their own independent learning. The girls wanted to investigate the topic further and decided to present this onto a PowerPoint Presentation. They used some free time wisely and worked together discussing how best they could present their information. The animations and transitions were fantastic as they chatted to the rest of the class about what they have found interesting about their new WAU topic. 

The girls will continue to add to their project as they discover more exciting things about ‘Electricity’. Today, we worked on a case study about Thomas Edison - he will be our focus for the next week. The children are already excited about learning more about him and a 6 minute song from YouTube about Thomas Edison, was enough to get them asking questions and wanting to find out more about him! Well done girls and well done P6. 👏

💕Celebrating our Grandparents - 01/02/19💕

Catholic Schools Week ended in school today with a celebration of our wonderful grandparents. 

Grandparents, visitors and our special friends from Ardview Residential Home arrived into the classroom after break and spent an hour with us all. The children played a Grandparents/Special VIP Boardgame based on questions from their school years. Both adults and pupils had to ask and answer the specific questions. 

After this, the children had a Q&A session already planned, with questions in their PDMU books. Our guests gave the children advice and spoke about their achievements and accomplishments when they were younger. They also told them about things they wished they could still do today, but can’t. The childrens’ final question was to ask the adults some good advice they would give to them as they grow up. 

They learned a lot and it was a great morning. The children then presented a little laminated poem, with their hand prints to their grandparents. We also presented a little thank you gift to our new friends (see below) from Ardview House - a little memento of our time spent with them during the Cross Generational Art Project. 

Catholic Schools Week - 31/01/19

The children spent their art lesson working on a nice surprise for Grandparents Day tomorrow as we’ve some special visitors to our class. We hope they like their gift!

Think, Pair, Share Winners - 28/01/19

Congratulations to Adam and Lucy for winning the Think, Pair, Share certificate. They’ve both worked brilliantly and should be proud of themselves. 👏

🗞P6 make the front page news - Wed 23rd Jan🗞 

One half of the class were lucky enough to be snapped by our local newspaper, The Down Recorder, and had their photos taken with some of the residents of Ardview House. Their Cross Generational Art Project is coming along nicely and we can’t wait to see the finished product over the next few weeks! 

🎨Cross Generational Art Project - 15/01/19🎨

The children finished their first weekly session with the residents from Ardview Residential Home and really enjoyed the two hour sessions. 

The first group of children sat with the residents and sketched images of Ardglass; the second group started working on a collage of Ardglass.

It was heartwarming to see the children interact with the residents, who looked forward to spending two hours with the children. They all swapped stories of yesteryear and the children helped the residents with their artwork. The room was filled with smiles and laughter - it was wonderful to be part of this fantastic project. As a teacher, witnessing how well the children interacted with the residents filled me full of great pride in the children. They were amazing and a credit to our school and their parents.👏

Electricity Research - Monday 14th Jan 2019

Thr children spent the afternoon researching interesting facts about their new WAU topic on Electricity. They used their ICT skills to find some weird and wonderful interesting facts about Electricity💡

Anna shows us her pet hamster - 11th Jan 19

Anna brought her pet hamster, Hammy, into school today. She received the pet for Christmas and just loves looking after her. She showed other children and classes Hammy during Golden Time. So cute 

⚽️Welcome Back - 09/01/19⚽️

Welcome back to school to my lovely P6 children. They all had a great Christmas break and enjoyed their gifts from Santa and spending time with their families.

A lot of hard work will be continued into the new term and the children are becoming very independent with their work. 

We began the new year working on new topics in several subjects. In Numeracy, the children developed their skills with Fractions, we continued to look at adverbs in Literacy and focused on Recount Writing in Creative Literacy. Our new topic for WAU is Electricity this term. In PE, the children worked on coordination and balance and will continue swimming lessons each Thursday. 

The class started an Intergenerational Art Project with the elderly residents of Ardview House today. Every Wednesday and Friday, the children will spend two hours working alongside residents producing artwork about Ardglass with Fionualla, the art coordinator. Today, half of the class participated in this project and were a credit to their school and parents. They had a great time chatting and working alongside the residents. The other half of the class will attend on Friday. Miss McGrady is so proud of you all😊.

Holy Joe Nativity - 12th Dec ‘18

Well done boys and girls on your wonderful acting, singing and dancing in our annual Christmas Nativity. Your singing of ‘Three Wise Guys’ was very entertaining. 

ICT/iPad Work - Monday 10th Dec

The children finished off their Spanish/ICT work using the PCs and iPads to help with their learning. They completed a country profile of a Spanish speaking country and finished off with a quiz. 

James wins the Weekly Dojo Award - 07/12/18

Congratulations to James, who won the weekly Dojo award for his wonderful manners. James always says please and thank you lots of times during the day. Well done James - being mannerly is very important in P6. 👍

Erin and Kaci win at Dancing - 05/12/18

Congratulations to Erin and Kaci who participated in the World Dance Masters Event in Donegal at the weekend. The girls had a fantastic time dancing various styles of line, contemporary and hip-hop. Well done girls. We’re all proud of you 👏 

Q Radio bus visits the school - 04/12/18

The Q Radio bus took a detour on its way home from one of our P4 parents house (Chloe Magee, who won a radio competition to host a Christmas event in her house in Ardglass) to the school. The children were able to step on board the bus to get a feel for what it may be like to present a radio show. Thanks Q Radio and Chloe Magee for sending them down to us after your show 🎅🏼

Cian is a Jig-Saw Master - Mon 3rd Dec

Cian arrived into school with one of his latest masterpieces of a jigsaw puzzle. It wasn’t just any puzzle, but a 3D Eiffel Tower that lights up with various colours. It took him 3 hours to construct. It’s great to see children working with jigsaws and they seem to be fashionable again. Cian is looking forward to making his next 3D model - Big Ben. We can’t wait to see it. Well done Cian - you’re very talented. 👏

Amazing Adjectives - Tues 27th Nov

The children produced an amazing display of work on adjectives for two characters and a famous footballer. They used ICT research skills to find brilliant synonyms to make their adjectives sound even more amazing. Some great adjectives were: Frolicsome, altruistic, philanthropic and authoritarian. Brilliant! 👏

📊Data Handling Survey - 23/11/18📊

The children completed a survey around all of the classes. They collected the information by using a tally chart and collated it together to produce a bar chart. They finished the survey by answering some plenary questions based on how they presented their information into their numeracy books. 

📊Data Handling - 21/11/18📊

The boys and girls have been working on Data Handling as their new Numeracy topic. We’ve been concentrating on reading tables and converting the information into bar charts, histograms and trend graphs. We’ll be carrying out various practical surveys over the next week and will be learning about Pie Charts and Venn Diagrams. 

🍫P6s receive goody bags- Tues 20th Nov 🍭

A big thanks to Andrew Telford from Tel’s Fitness Studio in Downpatrick, who kindly gifted our P6 class with goody bags from the Co. Down 5k run that took place on Sunday. He handed them to Miss McGrady this morning. The children were delighted. 👍😀

Patrick is Dojo Champ this week - 16/11/18👍

🏐Gaelic Coaching Fun - 15/11/18🏐

Fairtrade Board Game - Wed 7th Nov 18

The children enjoyed playing a Fairtrade Board Game and learned many things about workers and farmers being treated fairly and unfairly. The game was also in Spanish as well as English. This helped us learn new words in our Spanish!

⚽️IFA Soccer Coaching - Tuesday 6th Nov⚽️

The P6 Class enjoyed working with Marty from

the IFA in their afternoon PE lesson. Today’s lesson was all about Balance and Coordination.

🎃Happy Halloween from P6 - 25/10/18🎃

👻Halloween Ghost Walk👻 24/10/18

The boys and girls enjoyed a day trip to the Down Museum to participate in a Ghost Walk. The children walked in the footsteps of those who were killed, hanged and murdered in the late 1800s around Downpatrick and who were sentenced to life in the Old Gaol. 

💀El Día de Los Muertos - 19/10/18💀

The children spent their Friday morning working on long and short multiplication. Instead of their weekly tables test, they completed a Halloween activity using their times tables.

After break, the children spent their weekly Spanish lesson learning about how Mexicans celebrate Halloween (as we will be off next Friday for our Halloween break). It is customary for Mexicans to celebrate the ‘Day of the Dead’ or ‘El Día de Los Muertos.’ The children learned a few new words in Spanish related to this and worked on different activities during this lesson. The Mexicans know how to celebrate and remember their dead. 

⭐️Congratulations - Mon 15th October⭐️

Well done to Ryan who won the Acti-Sport award and to Caysie and McKenzie, who picked up our Weekly Class Dojo. 👍

🍕Class Dojo Pizza Party - 10/10/18

Well done to the boys and girls who reached their target of 2000 Dojos and earned themselves a pizza party. They earned it by: being kind to others, working hard, using good manners and not giving up. Well done everyone. 

I

🤼‍♂️Cian is a Kickboxing Champion🤼‍♂️ - 08/11/18

Congratulations to Cian who is the Junior National Champion in his category in Kickboxing. Well done Cian. We’re proud of you.

🇪🇸Spanish Day in P6 - Friday 5th October 2018🇪🇸

The children had a great day playing games and conversing in Spanish today. They started the morning by answering their Times Tables in Spanish. They then played an interactive game on Spanish colours followed by having various conversations with each other. They had to ask each other their name, how old they were and where they lived. They had a little party in the class and finished the day off by having their Parental Assembly. They spoke and sang really well. They finished their assembly by singing Baby Shark (Tiburón Bebé). They were fantastic! 👏

Practical Numeracy Lesson - 02/10/18

Today the children put down their pencils and books and went to the yard to participate in their Numeracy lesson. The children had to round 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 digit numbers to the nearest 10, 100 and 1000. 💪

Instructional/Procedural Writing - 1st October 2018

The boys and girls worked on several Creative Writing lessons on how to play Rock, Paper, Scissors. They worked in pairs, played the game and then had to decide on how to draft their ideas onto a planning template. They revised the rules on how to write instructions by including what was needed, steps on how to proceed with this using sequencing words. Their final draft used ICT by designing a poster on how to play the game, with specific instructions. They used MS Word to create their final draft using page borders, headings, bullets and inserted clip art. Well done all!

👏Kaci wins the Monthly Dojo Certificate - 28/09/18👏

Well done to Kaci, who won the monthly Dojo certificate as she accumulated the most Dojo points during the month of September. She earned these points for being kind to others, showing excellent manners, working hard and leading by example. Fantastic effort from her and the whole class - we’re on our way to hitting the target for our Pizza Party! 🍕

ActiSport Winner - 24/09/18

Congratulations to Nathan, who won the award this week for his amazing catching skills! 🙌

Week 3 Dojo Winners - 22/09/18

Congratulations to Ryan and Kaci, who won the weekly award in our Class Dojo. Well done 👏

Annual Ardglass Village Walk - 21/09/18

Sophie wins the Acti-Sport Award - 18th September👏

Happy Birthday Mrs Denver - 17th September.

Happy birthday to our amazing classroom assistant, Mrs Denver. We hope you have a lovely day celebrating and hope you put your feet up as you deserve it. We all think you’re the best and love having you in our class🎂

Week 2 Dojo Winners - 14/09/18

Congratulations to Nathan and Anna who were our Weekly Dojo winners this week. Well Done.

In our Spanish Lesson today, the children were learning the lyrics to Tiburón Bébe (Baby Shark). 🦈

They will be singing it during our Parental Assembly in October, when will be celebrating our school Spanish Day. 💃 

Congratulations  to Kaci who won the Acti-Sport Award today - Monday 10th September 👍

🏆New Individual Dojo Awards- Friday 7th September 2018🏆

This year sees the return of our Class Dojo, which helps create and maintain a positive classroom environment in P6. As well as our 10,000 Dojo Scoreboard (with special activities/awards etc) we are now concentrating on weekly and monthly awards. On our first full week back the children have worked really hard to try and earn individual Dojos. The weekly/monthly award winners will receive a certificate of achievement and can choose some prizes from our Class Dojo Reward Box. This week the winners were Aoibhin and Cian. Super stuff 👏

🌍Fairtrade - WAU topic - 6th September 2018🌍

The children enjoyed the introduction of their new WAU topic of Fairtrade. They reviewed, and spoke about how some farmers in the developing world can be exploited and how the Fairtrade logo and buying Fairtrade products will

actually help these farmers.

📚First Day of P6 - 31st August 2018📚

Welcome back to our lovely P6 pupils who return for another year in my class. Everyone looked very smart in their uniforms and had a nice first day in Primary 6. 

Today the boys and girls spent the morning with a PDMU lesson. They undertook a Classmate Scavenger Hunt and then had to answer a One Year Time Capsule exercise.

After break the children reviewed some basic greetings in Spanish🇪🇸. They did really well and remembered how to greet each other. We focused on ‘Como te llamas/Me llamo...’ They completed a Spanish listening exercise before lunch. 👂

The boys and and girls enjoyed activities on our new Interactive SmartBoard and practised their tables with a new app called Hit the Button. ⭕️

🎨Art Attack Day - Tuesday 26th June 2018 🎨

Martina, our After Schools Art Club teacher spent the whole day with us today as we all prepared a Hawaiian themed lesson for our school float in the Ardglass Festival in August. The children made Hawaiian skirts, necklaces and painted various boards. Thanks Martina - what a fun day!

💯Top marks for Caysie - Friday 22nd June 2018💯

Huge congratulations to our amazing P5 pupil, Caysie Newman, who scored full marks in her weekly spelling assessment all year. A fantastic achievement from a hard working girl. Some of the spellings she had to learn had some difficult units each week. Well done Caysie. We’re all so proud of you. 👏

🐄Dairy Council Visit - Thursday 21st June 2018🐄

The children enjoyed a visit from the Dairy Council and learned all about the different Food Groups that they should have on their plates each day. They were told of how important it is to drink milk as the calcium is good for healthy teeth and bones.

🏆Sports Day - Thursday 7th June 2018🏆

Congratulations to all children in the class who participated in our Sports Day. You're all stars ⭐️

🚲Cycle to School Day/Sustrans - Thursday 24th May🚲

The children enjoyed a great session after they cycled to school with Claire from Sustrans. Claire showed them how to cycle safely around roads and paths. 

📊Data Handling Competition - Thursday 17th May📊

The children spent a numeracy lesson working on interpreting and drawing bar charts as part of their Data Handling topic. 

They were set a challenge to accurately and independently draw and label a bar chart from data presented on the interactive whiteboard. Winners would receive a Homework Pass.

The whole class did very well but the final winners with everything correctly drawn/presented were: James, Rhys, Cian, Maisey, Ellie, Erin, Aoife, Lucy and Kaci. Missing from the photo is Aoibhín. Well done boys and girls👏

🚢WAU - Titanic Groupwork - Wednesday 2nd May 2018🚢

The children worked in groups of 4 and 5 to try and place events of the Titanic in order from its construction to the sinking of the doomed liner. The children had to give their groups a name associated with the Titanic and then use their knowledge of times/dates to try and sort out the laminated cards into chronological order. It wasn’t as easy as it looked and only one group in the end achieved full marks. Our winners were a group of boys called ‘Benjamin Guggenheim’ followed by ‘Harland and Wolff’, ‘The Unsinkables’ and ‘White Star Line.’ Excellent group working skills children! 👏

📸Adam shows us his Titanic photos - Tuesday 1st May📸

Adam visited Belfast City Hall at the weekend and showed us some photos he took of images of the Titanic. He showed us a photo of a table clock that was rescued from the Titanic, a small scale model and a stained glass image of the Titanic. Thanks Adam - the photos were very informative! 👍

🤔Mental Maths Activities - Monday 30th April 2018🤔

Since September, the children of P5/6 have been working on learning their 2-12 Times Tables. The children are assessed using written tests but also they enjoy working on practical and fun lessons to help consolidate knowledge of their tables.  They have also realised as the year has progressed, that knowing their tables is very important for all aspects of their Numeracy work. Throughout the year the children have played the following Mental Maths tables activities: Slap-Clap, Round the World, Multiply the Dice, Show Me, Playing Cards Tables and Cowboys.

Investigating nets of cubes - 25th April 2018

The children have finished off their topic of 3D shape. Our final investigation was to explore the nets of cubes. First, the children had to guess (out of 10 nets) which nets would make a cube. They then had to see if their guesses were correct by cutting and finger folding each net into a cube.

💃Aoife wins at the European Championships - 23rd April💃

Congratulations to our P6 pupil, Aoife Pleasants, who was awarded first place in the Starter Primary Dance Championships held in Blackpool last weekend. We are so proud of you. What an amazing achievement. 👏

📏Finding the Perimeter - Friday 20th April📏

The children worked in groups of 3 to measure objects inside and outside the school. We have been learning about 2D shape and how to find the perimeter in class. We took advantage of a lovely sunny day and used metre sticks, trundle wheels, rulers and measuring tapes to consolidate our knowledge on perimeter.

🏐GAA Coaching - Thursday 12th April 2018🏐

The children have been learning the basic skills of Gaelic Football with Down Coach Liam Hardy. Today they were concentrating on the skill of throwing and catching. 

🎲Times Tables Fun - Wednesday 11th April 2018🎲

The children have been learning and revising their Times Tables all year from the 2-12 times. They are assessed each week but also enjoy having fun with their Mental Maths. They enjoy playing ‘slap-clap’ and Around the World during some time fillers at the start/end of the day. Below are some photos of two pupils playing against each other. The winner must answer a tables question quicker than the other. The aim of the game is to make it around the classroom first!

🚢Titanic Research - Tuesday 10th April 2018🚢

Our new WAU topic on the Titanic was introduced yesterday in class and Tiffany (centre of photo) arrived into school this morning with her own research on the doomed liner. This wasn’t part of our weekly homework tasks and she undertook this research in her own time. She completed 3 full pages of research and two amazing illustrations of Titanic. She read it out to her classmates and wowed us all with her new found knowledge on this topic. What a fantastic achievement and it was wonderful to see her extending her knowledge in her own time, outside of the classroom. Well done Tiffany - super proud of you 👏

Also included are her P6 classmates, Jody-Lynn (left) and Aoife (right) who bought in some items they had purchased from a recent trip to the Titanic museum in Belfast. 👍

Easter Talent Show - Wednesday 28th March 2018

The children sang, acted and danced their way brilliantly through ‘It’s a Hard Knock Life’ from the hit musical ‘Annie.’  They put in so much effort over the last few weeks and their hard work paid off in front of a packed out hall this morning. So proud of you all - it was a pleasure to watch. Well done boys and girls! 🎤👏

Think, Pair, Share Winners - Monday 26th March 2018

Congratulations to our winners over the last few months for their fantastic collaborative skills when working in their pairs. These pupils shared their thoughts and worked really well together when sharing their ideas with the class. Well done Kaci & Maisey and Tiernan & Tiffany. 👍

Abbreviation Work - Thursday 22nd March 2018

Our lesson objective for today was to find out what we know about abbreviations and how we could abbreviate various words. We used our whiteboards and pens to answer a quiz based on 15 questions with extra ‘Challenges.’

☘️Green Day - Friday 16th March 2018☘️

Happy St. Patrick’s Day from P5/6!

📚World Book Day - Friday 9th March📚

The boys and girls looked wonderful in their characters from their favourite books. We spent the day working on various fun lessons to celebrate this in school. Their favourite activity was the Book Scavenger Hunt when they worked with their friends and had fun in the library trying to finish a list on time. The winners received an Easter Egg. 

Alphabetical Order Fun - Tuesday 6th March

We spent 20 minutes at the start of our Literacy lesson working on alphabetical order skills. The children had to rearrange themselves in alphabetical order according to their Christian names followed by their Surnames. They did a great job and were very quick at it. This proves that the previous skills we’ve been working on with our dictionary competences are working well! 👍

💯100 Days of School 💯- 21st February 2018

The class celebrated 100 days at school in lots of different ways. In Literacy, we wrote a newspaper article on ‘100 Day News’ explaining what we have learnt over the last 100 days, what we intend to do over the next 100 years and what we’ll look like 👵🏻🙈.

We played a game of Keepy-Ups with a balloon to see who could perform the most within 100 seconds. We kept quiet and then jumped around for 100 seconds. In art, we coloured in a 100 page and then designed our own collages using 100 breakfast cereal hoops. The winners all received a free Homework Pass.

🧠Memory Game Winners🧠 8th February 2018

Congratulations to L.J. Tiffany and Cian, who won a memory game quiz in the class. Homework passes were awarded to all three pupils. 👏

Using adjectives to describe people - 31st Jan 2018

Today, the children used their knowledge of adjectives to describe people and characters, as part of their Literacy lesson. They all worked really well and came up with some amazing adjectives. Some good ones used were: obnoxious, skilful, handsome, powerful, muscular, heroic...A great lesson. Well done kids!

✈️Flight - WAU Topic. 24th January 2018✈️

Our new topic this term is ‘flight’ and the children have been recently learning about the jobs of a pilot and how planes fly. Kaci and Caysie’s dads both work for a local engineering company that build parts for Emirates Airlines. Kaci’s dad kindly let her bring in some pieces of equipment that he makes and instals on these planes. The tray on Emirates is oak finished and costs £300! The children got to hear about other components of the seat belt and chair. We also watched some videos of what it is like to sit in Domestic, Business and First Class of Emirates Airlines...it was very fancy and really posh.

Thanks to the girls for telling us all the important information and thanks to Kaci Crangle’s dad for sending the equipment into school. 👍

Poetry - ‘Please Mrs Butler’ - 11th January 2018.

Our Literacy genre this term is focusing on Poetry. The children learned about a famous children’s author called Allan Ahlberg. He wrote many (funny) poems for children. Our first lesson was on Please Mrs Butler. We examined the poem and as a class, decided that this particular poem has something to do with the psychological state of mind of many teachers - they are all crazy!! Mrs Butler seems to lose her mind when she is being asked lots of questions by her students. 

The boys and girls worked in pairs (some children missed this as they were sitting CAT tests in the ICT suite)and wowed us all with their amazing acting skills! They were all able to recite the poem off by heart. Well done 👍

Come Follow Me - 8th Jan 2018

Happy New Year and welcome back. Today we had our first session back with the Cathechists. The children enjoyed the session with Gerry. 

🎄Happy Christmas everyone - 20th December🎄

A very happy Christmas from the boys and girls in P5/6. We look forward to seeing you all again in 2018. Have a peaceful, fun and restful break. Only 4 more sleeps until Santa is here 🎅.

🎅It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas in P5/6 - 11th December 2017🎅

The children have been feeling very Christmassy since the start of December and have been working on various Religion, Literacy and Art lessons on Christmas and the Nativity. Today, the boys and girls read The Night Before Christmas from books that Erin and Ellie brought in. They watched an animation of it and had to choose their favourite line in the poem and draw a picture of it also. 

During art lessons with Miss McCann, the children decorated and constructed their own wooden Nativity scene and made angels. They look fantastic!

Fire Safety Talk - 6th December 2017

Ian, a local firefighter, from Downpatrick came in to chat to the class about fire safety within the home. He told us all the importance of having a working fire alarm and a fire safety route out of the house. He reminded the children that THEY were the most important thing in their houses if a fire were to occur.

Code Crackers in P5/6 - 28th November 2017. 🕰

The boys and girls were introduced to their new Think, Pair, Shares this morning during a Numeracy lesson. We have been working on the topic of Time and today we put our problem solving skills into practice. We had to solve some cryptic clock codes and also made our own 3D clocks. ⏰

👥Think, Pair, Share winners - 20th November 2017👥

Congratulations to our September/October ‘Think, Pair, Share’ winners, Patrick and Caysie, who were awarded their certificates in Assembly. You impressed us all with your skills, capabilities and work ethic when you both worked alongside each other. Well done 👍

🚫Anti-Bully Week - 13th-17th November 2017🚫

The P5/6 children were busy all week working on our theme: ‘All equal, all different, all together.’ They completed lessons in Literacy, ICT, PDMU and Art on lots of activities. In Literacy they had to create a group acrostic poem; in ICT the children created their own ‘Word Clouds’ on bullying. In PDMU they watched a PowerPoint on Sandy Bottom Sea Schoolm and chatted about the effects of ‘low-level bullying’ that can occur in schools also. We also tried out an experiment entitled: ‘Can you carry this?’ Children had to work in pairs to come up with suggestions of low-level bullying. Two children were chosen to stand in front of the class with their hands out. As each pair took turns of suggesting low-level comments, the two children were made to hold a book in their hands. Each suggestion made their arms sore (as books were being added). The children were able to relate this to bullying and then had to help remove the weights by suggesting nice comments. Finally, to end the week, the boys and girls produced a lovely art display making their own ‘Friendship Flowers’ 🌹 

🎃Happy Halloween - 28th October 2017👻

The boys and girls enjoyed our Halloween Fest and brought in their Mesolithic Weapons that they had to design as part of a homework task. 

All of the weapons were amazing and ranged from bows and arrows, knives, axes and hammers. They are trying to look scary here with their weapons. Well done everyone 👍

🌍Early Person in Ireland - 24th October 2017 🌍

Miss McGrady’s P5/6 class visited Down Museum today and participated in a workshop all about Early Person in Ireland. The boys and girls are studying this topic as part of their World Around Us (WAU).

They had a great day increasing their knowledge of the Mesolithic and Neolithic people who came to our island over 9000 years ago. They got to hold lots of flint, porcellanite, weapons and animal skins. Pupils tried their hand at flint-knapping, grinding wheat and making clay pots.

📽Cinemagic Film Festival - 19th October 2017📽

The children from P5 and P6 spent the day at the SSE arena at a workshop about film classification. They listened to guests from the BBFC in London talk about their jobs.

They watched the film, Captain Underpants, and enjoyed rating the film and asking questions.

Spanish Day in P5/6 - Friday 6th October 2017

The children have been learning Spanish for 1-2 days per week in school since the start of September and know lots of vocabulary and songs. We spent the day coloring in our Spanish Booklets, singing songs, playing games in the yard (pato, pato, ganso - duck, duck, goose!) and finished the day off presenting our Parental Assembly on 'Celebrating Languages.' The children acted and sang wonderfully. Miss McGrady was so proud of you all. There'll be a homework pass on Monday and fun with our piñata!

Instructional Writing Practical Lesson - 27th September 2017.

The children were placed in new 'Think, Pair, Share' partners for the incoming month. Today, they were involved in a practical 'Card Sorting Activity' with instructions on 'How to make a slice of buttered toast.'

They worked really well working with others and enjoyed the task. They took turns, helped each other and placed the cards in the correct order. Well done. 👍

Annual Sponsored Walk - 25th September 2017.

Here are a few photos of the boys and girls enjoying our Sponsored Walk.

Come Follow Me - Monday 18th September

The children of P5 visited the chapel today as part of their religion lesson. Debbie spoke to the children about the Our Father and concentrated on the line 'Hallowed be thy name.' The children finished the lesson by working with their extension tasks in their books.

Roald Dahl Day Celebrations - 13th September 2017

The children from P5/6 spent their Literacy Hour working on various tasks on our class novel 'The Twits.' We have finished reading the story and will be working on various tasks on this novel in the coming weeks. Today, we focused on Chapter 3, which was all about Mr Twit's disgusting beard! We then worked in our 'Think, Pair, Shares' to design a picture of what they thought his beard would look like with all the decayed food lodged in his beard! 

P5/6 class earn their first 'Class Dojo' reward - 8th September 2017.

The boys and girls of P5/6 didn't take long to earn their first class dojo reward of the new term. Class Dojo is a behaviour management tool that Miss McGrady has been using over the last year, with great success. The children earn 'dojos' for positive behaviour/actions in the classroom. This year, the children earn rewards for: completion of homework tasks, great manners, working hard, taking part and working as a team. The children chose all of their rewards. This year, the maximum amount of dojos is 10 000! Today, the children earned their first 500 Dojos and got to spend 30 minutes of free time in the ICT suite/Library playing games on the computers/iPads or drawing with friends. Well done boys and girls - very well deserved. Next reward is 1000 Dojos. Good luck! 👍 

Come Follow Me - 4th September 2017

The children of P5 joined the P4 class at St Nicholas' Church for their first session of the new term with Fr McCloskey and all the Cathechists. We are looking forward to learning new aspects of Religion and becoming closer to God throughout the year. 

Hello from the new P5/6 class for 2017/2018!  31/08/17

A big, warm welcome to my new P5/6 class for the year. 21 new faces from P5 and 5 familiar faces from the new P6 class. I hope the children have a great year learning and revisiting old work and new topics. September is a 'settling in' month for both the children and their teacher so that we all get to know each other and the classroom routine. 

We spent our first day yesterday playing some fun ice-breaker games and completed Literacy tasks and spoke/sang in Spanish. 

Today, the boys and girls spent their Literacy and Numeracy hour revising work on punctuating and capitalisation. In numeracy, we completed a practical lesson in place value revision of HTU. We even tried to figure out how to read a really big number that went into tens of millions! It was a tongue twister!!

👋Goodbye/Adíos👋- Thursday 29th June 2017

Our last full day took place today and for a large majority of the children, they will be moving on into the P6/7 room next term. The children have been a pleasure to teach. Throughout the year the children have worked hard and we've had some fun times. Each pupil has their own unique character and personality which they brought to the class. Well done on all the effort and hard work you all put in over the last year. For some children, it has been two years in the classroom. 

I would like to wish them all well as they move on and I hope they all have a safe and fun summer holiday. 

Thanks to all parents for their support with your son/daughter throughout the year, not only with their homeworks but with everything that encompassed their school lives.  Thanks also for the support you have shown me as their teacher. I hope you all have a fantastic summer. 

Buena suerte y hasta pronto. 

Mary McGrady 😀

🍦5000 points on our 'Class Dojo' - 9th June 2017.🍦

The children earned 5000 dojos, as part of our positive behaviour rewards that we have initiated since September. As a treat, the children decided that their reward should be a trip to the park, followed by ice-cream/sweet treat at our local Eurospar. They had a great morning. Well done on this achievement. Will we be able to reach 6000 dojos before the term is out? Another treat possibly? 🤔👍

Area Homework Project -19th May 2017.📏

The P5/6 children were set a homework task on Monday 15th May on area. Their task was to design a 'Healthy Park' for a construction firm. They had a booklet to design their ideas and had to produce their plans on an A3 piece of paper. The idea was to design this concept using 'area' (as we have been learning about this in class). They had to plan their ideas and hand in their final draft this morning. 

What a difficult task it was to judge the final projects. They were all amazing and so much hard work was put in to each and every design. The overall winners were Tiffany from P5 and Fintan from P6. Well done both of you.

The whole class deserves a homework pass on Monday for their sterling efforts. Miss McGrady is so proud of you all👍

Making 3D Shapes from their nets - 18th May 2017

The P5 class took advantage of working on their own today without the P6s (as they were completing their cycling proficiency exam). They were learning all about the nets of various 3D shapes and how to recognise them in everyday objects. 

They were then given a net of a paper Rubix cube to make their own. As an extension task, they had to make/build their own Angry Birds from different nets. They produced some

colourful shapes!

🏄‍♀️🏄Hit the Surf🏄🏄‍♀️ 16th May 2017

The boys and girls from P5 and P6 had a brilliant days craic with the RNLI lifeguards, Mr Burns and Miss McGrady, at Tyrella Beach this afternoon. 

They were shown how to rescue someone in difficulty at sea. They loved using the surfboards on the waves. The weather cleared up for us also to make it even more enjoyable. ☀️🌊

⛰Volcano Models - 8th May 2017⛰

The children have been learning about 'Volcanoes and Earthquakes' in their WAU topic. The class have been working on lots of cross curricular subjects with this interesting topic. They have been linking it with their Literacy, ICT, Numeracy and Creative Stuides. Today, they worked in their pairs/groups to paint their models made in a previous art class with Miss Fitzsimons. 

They are really looking forward to a future lesson whereby they will try and make them explode! 

Measures - Finding the Perimeter of objects. 04/05/17

The P5/6 class worked in pairs to use their measuring skills to find the perimeter of objects and places in and around the school. They had to use their knowledge to problem solve and change from cms to metres using the decimal point. 

Come Follow Me - 24th April 2017

The P5 children joined their counterparts from Dunsford today and held their Come Follow Me session in St Mary's Church, Dunsford. Local missionaries joined the children today and watched as Fr McCloskey told them all about the early Christians and the meaning of the Eucharist at mass. 

Angle Hunt around the school - April 2017

In class, the children have been learning about all the different angles and degrees in their Numeracy lessons. The P6 pupils have been working on finding angles on straight lines, within triangles and quadrilaterals. The P5's have been classifying angles.

Their task today was to arrange themselves into groups of 4. Each group was given an iPad and 6 laminated cards with the associated angles on them. The groups were then told to find as many different angles as they could inside and outside the school building. They also had to produce evidence of this by taking images on the iPads.  At the close of the lesson, the children all came together to show where they found their angles. Some of them used their imaginations and came up with weird and wonderful angles!

Numeracy - Coordinates 23rd March 2017.

The children worked in groups of 3 and completed various tasks in working with coordinates on the first quadrant. 

The P6 children became 'teachers' and worked alongside two P5 children to help them use their skills by plotting coordinates to make 'Alien Masks' for a wall display. The P6 children then had to produce their own 'Olaf' picture using coordinates. They worked well with others and had a successful numeracy lesson.

☘️ Happy St. Patrick's Day from P5/6 ☘️

STEM CHALLENGE 8TH MARCH 2017

STEM Challenge - 8th March 2017

P5/6 pupils participated in a Maths STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths)event on Wednesday morning in our school. 

Thanks to Mrs Kennedy and her Key Stage 5 pupils from St Patrick's Grammar School, who provided the Maths activities and help guide the children through them. The children had a great time and really enjoyed the lesson.

🥞Pancake Tuesday - 28th February 2017🥞

Today was Pancake Tuesday, or Shrove Tuesday, and the children learned all about the traditions and customs of how other countries of the world celebrate this day during their Literacy Hour. They also learned about what ingredients are needed to make pancakes and were shown instructions on how to do this. We cheated slightly, as Miss McGrady bought 'ready made' pancakes, but the children toasted them and spread on either chocolate spread, jam or sprinkles. They were yummy! 

Did you know that over 57 million eggs are used on Pancake Tuesday? In some Latin American countries, Pancake Tuesday is known as 'Mardi Gras' or 'Fat Tuesday!' This caused some amusement with the children! 😂

💯P5/6 celebrate the 100th Day at School! 24/02/17 💯

The boys and girls celebrated making it through 100 Days of School with lots of fun activities in the classroom all day. They had to see if in 100 seconds they could: do as many jumping jacks as possible, keep quiet for 100 seconds and hop on one foot. They had to see who could roll a dice first to 100 using a 5 bar gate tally, write 100 times tables, write 100 animals and write 100 words that they know. The winners received a Homework Pass! 

Part of their Numeracy homework for the week was to produce a 100 themed Maths/Art competition. From the photos below, you can see how much hard work and effort was put into each of their projects. They were amazing! Well done all 👍

Static Electricity - Practical Lesson - 21st February 2017.

The children have been learning about Electricity as part of their World Around Us topic. Today, the learning objective was to understand what static electricity is and how we can create it using some materials.

Static electricity is the build up of an electrical charge on the surface of an object. It's called "static" because the charges remain in one area for a while rather than moving or "flowing" to another area.

The children worked in pairs and produced their own static electricity using a balloon.  We were able to make 'Einstein hair' by rubbing a balloon over our hair, causing negative and positive charges.  We then cut up small pieces of paper and rubbed the balloon over our hair and noticed that the static electricity made the paper stick to the balloon.

Finally, we used the balloons to move an aluminium can (without touching it) by using the static electricity from rubbing the balloons onto our heads. It was great fun!

Ty

P5/6 Class Procedural Writing on 'How to Tie a Shoelace' - February 2017.

The children have been working on the genre of Procedural/Instructional Writing as a focus in their Literacy this term. Today, the boys and girls looked at how important it is for instructions to be precise and how it can go wrong if instructions are given in an incorrect order. The class had a practical lesson in pairs on 'How to Tie a Shoelace' and some children stood up in front of the group and showed the class how they can tie shoe laces. One partner had to give instructions to the other on how to tie a shoelace. There were many different variations on how to do this. The children then used their knowledge of procedural writing by designing their own task by formatting their writing using sequencing words using the appropriate rules for this genre of writing.

🍕P5/6 CLASS EARN THEMSELVES A PIZZA PARTY THROUGH 'CLASS DOJO'

25th JANUARY '17 🍕

Since September, Miss McGrady has been using 'Class Dojo' as a behaviour management tool in the classroom, reinforcing positive behaviour at St Nicholas'. Children can be assigned 'dojos' throughout their lessons by: listening well, completing set tasks, handing in completed homework each day, attending school and using excellent manners. 

Information is recorded on students' profiles which are set as 'avatars' which can be reviewed throughout the year.

It has been a huge success and has had a positive and beneficial effect on the children's learning. 

The children decided on their own 'rewards' after they received 1000 dojos. When they reached the first 1000, their reward was 30 minutes extra play in the yard. 2000 dojos was time spent in the ICT Suite playing fun, interactive games. They were recently awarded 3000 dojo points and they wanted a 'Pizza Party!' Today they received their wish and pizzas were ordered and delivered to the school from Dominos Pizza in Downpatrick. They all loved it and had a great time. What willl the children choose for earning 4000 dojo points?! Wait and see! 👏

LOCAL FIREFIGHTER VISITS THE CLASS - 20/01/17

Colin Dryden from Downpatrick Fire Station visited the children to give them advice on:- how to prevent fires in their homes, how dangerous electricity can be, how to plan an escape route out of their homes and what they can do if they witness a fire. It was a very informative session and ties in perfectly with our WAU topic on 'Electricity.'

SMARTIE FRACTION INVESTIGATION - 19th JANUARY 2017

The P5/6 class worked in their 'January' Think/Pair/Share partnership and had to investigate fractions, using Smarties.

Smarties were used as a fun way of tackling fractions and the investigation also extended our mathematicians in the class. The children worked with the concept of finding the 'numerator' and 'denominator' of each colour of Smarties in their tube. They then had to sort and group their Smarties, whilst also finding the fractions of whole numbers. Some pairs were also able to extend their mathematical knowledge by 'simplifying' their fractions into the lowest form. Others were also able to change some of their fractions into decimals and percentages.  They also had to plot their data onto a bar chart. Some of the children quickly realised that their tubes of Smarties didn't contain equal amounts or colours. The most in one tube of Smarties was 35 and the least 30!!  They did enjoy dividing their Smarties in half and eating them when the investigation finished!

The Banana Split Game - 15th December 2016.

The P5/6 class worked in groups today and played the 'Banana Split' game as part of their topic of Fair Trade in WAU. The children had to decide who got what of the 30p for a banana. The class was divided into 5 groups and assigned a role of each of the following: Banana Worker, Plantation Owner, Ripener, Exporter and Supermarket. After the group work and discussions, the children were very surprised to discover that the Banana Worker only earned 1p out of the 30p and the Supermarket earned 12p. They thought that this was very unfair. The fairest thing to do to help poor farmers was to buy bananas with the Fair Trade logo. 

Instructional Writing Practical Lesson - 30th November 2016

The boys and girls have been concentrating on Instrucional/Procedual Writing this term. Last week we focused on how to write instructions on 'How to wrap a Christmas Present.' Today, we put our writing into practise and helped wrap our Christmas Shoebox Appeal in school. The children chose a couple of gifts from each shoe box and wrapped them. They did a great job. Some of the wrapping was perfect! 

28th November - The P5/6 class visit Downpatrick Library

The boys and girls participated in an educational visit to our local library in Downpatrick this morning during our Literacy Hour.  The children received their own library cards and were shown around the library and chose a book that they could take home. Mary, the librarian, read a story to them and showed them how to choose books that they would be interested in.  The bus journey home was very quiet as they were all concentrating on their new books!

Anti-Bully Week - 14th-18th November

The P5/6 class had a busy week with PDMU and Art lessons working on our Anti-Bully Week theme of 'Together We Are Stronger.' We sketched nice 'Partner Portraits' of each other, read the interactive story of 'The Rainbow Fish' and then designed a wall display of 'Friendship Fish' with nice words depicting a good friend. 

The boys and girls participated in a group card sorting activity whereby they had to organise laminated words and sort them into 'Qualities of a good friend' or 'A bully.' Each child then had to tell describe a good quality about each pupil in the class.  They also designed their own poster against anti-bullying. 

Irish Dancing Success

Congratulations to our P5 pupil, Maeve Morgan who participated in a Feis at the weekend in Belfast (13/11/16) She won medals for performing Irish dances in the Jig, Trophy Dance and the Reel. Well done Maeve.

The P5/6 class taste Peruvian sweets.

At the end of Tuesday's Spanish lesson, the children had a chance to taste some Peruvian sweets that Miss McGrady brought back from her Halloween trip to Peru.  The children were able to use their knowledge of colours in Spanish and were able to describe all of the colours of the sweets and their wrappers. The children tried some chocolate bars from Peru, called 'Sublime' and got to taste a 'chupete' which is a lollipop that Peruvian children love which contains a chewy sweet or gum in the middle.

Asked if they liked the sweets/chocolate - their replies in Spanish were 'Me gusta!' which means 'I like it!'

Netball and Gaelic Blitz - 25th Octiber 2016

St Nicholas' hosted our annual fun day blitz in Gaelic and netball. Teams from Legamaddy PS, Our Lady and St Patrick's and St Colmcille's joined us. Our school was represented by the boys and girls from P5, P6 and P7.

The aim of the day was to integrate all of the teams and have some fun showcasing our local schools' future talents and they did not disappoint. A big thanks to all of the teachers, classroom assistants and other staff from our school and our local schools who came along and helped out during the day.

St Nicholas' Netball Team

St Nicholas' Gaelic Football Team

Come Follow Me at St Nicholas' Church with Fr G McCloskey and his team of Catechists this term was a great time for pupils to reflect, listen to and discuss Bible stories.  Pupils learnt about Saints lives including Mother Teresa of Calcutta and Saint Dominic.

National Smile Day - 7th October 2016

The P5/6 class were all smiles for National Smile Day. As part of their PDMU topic, they created their own 'Smile Badges'.

"Smile and the world smiles with you; frown and you frown alone!"

World Around Us Topic -Fairtrade

SPANISH DAY IN P5/6 - 23/09/16

The P5/6 class enjoyed their Spanish Day on completing Spanish booklets with famous Spanish speaking people, colours, numbers, crosswords and football games. They ate some tapas, playyed a Mexican game called 'La Lotería' and won lots of prizes. They finished off the day by presenting their Parental Assembly on 'Celebrating Languages'. They spoke in English, Irish, French, Polish, Lithuanian and of course Spanish. They said the 'Gloria' in Spanish and sang two songs: Buenos Días and El mundo es un pañuelo! 

​FACT FILE ON MR BURNS - Q & A SESSION

The P5/6 class interviewed our principal Mr Burns on a task during their Literacy Hour on Monday 5th September. They had a question and answer session with him and found out some fun and interesting facts about him!

WAU/STEM TOPIC COMPETITION

The P5/6 class recently invited a pilot into the class to discuss his job to the children as part of their WAU/STEM topic of 'Flight.'​ The children have a homework task whereby they will have to design and build their own model airplane. The lucky winner will receive a flight on a Cessna aircraft for half an hour at the Ulster Flying Club in Newtownards. Thanks to Miss McGrady for organising this competition and to the Chief Flying Instructor and Pilot Michael McGrady for the amazing prize!

'Hats and Shades' NSPCC non-uniform day

Road Safety Week

The P5/6 class conducting a Traffic Survey in conjunction with our 'Road Safety Week'. The children were able to use their Data Handling Skills in Numeracy and devise their own Survey. Later in class, the children used their skills to produce lots of graphs from the data they collected.

The class get ready to start their survey.

Terry and William work in a pair.

James and Nathan give us the 'thumbs up'.

Basil and Patrick hard at work.

PIRLS Testing 

Congratulations to our P6 children who were accredited for sitting an exam in PIRLS.