*Orla O and Roisin*

This week really began with our Family Mass held on Sunday where we lit the second candle on the Advent wreath. Well done to Aoife, Grace H, Roisin and Jude for reading and thank you to all of those who attended.

Fantastic well done to all of Year Nursery, Reception, 1 and 2 for their amazing performances, acting and singing, in The Noisy Nativity and Baubles. We really enjoyed watching them both and were really proud of you.

Thinking about what Christmas really meant to us led us into our RE where we carefully considered the preparations we make for the coming of Christ and what these truly signify. We created Advent Preparation Recipes to instruct others of the things they could do and why in this special time leading up to Christmas.

My Advent Preparation Recipe by Finn McDermott

First, prepare the house by putting up decorations such as a tree, wreath and tinsel. Do this to show that this is a time of happiness and celebration.

Next, give Christmas cards and gifts to friends, family and people in need. You don’t have to give a physical gift; you can give the gifts of time and prayer too. This reminds us of the gifts the Three Kings gave to Jesus and the biggest gift of all; Jesus.

Now, say some Christmas prayers and read your advent calendar. Go to church and attend Christmas Day Mass to watch the last candle being lit on the Advent wreath and be close with God.

Then, open the gifts you have received. This represents unwrapping God’s love, hope, peace and joy, It also shows respect for the people who have given you the gifts.

Finally, share a Christmas dinner with loves ones and have a good time. We do this to celebrate the birth of Jesus and share our love.

In the afternoon we had collective worship with our prayer friends, as we do on a weekly basis but this week we were lucky to spend even more time with each others as we created, backed and decorate our own Christmas decorations!

As always, we have been working hard in Numeracy learning about percentages and fractions. Mrs Hartwell even gave up teaching for the day when she let Ben S, Orla J and Grace B loose on the whiteboard to teach others what they had learned!

In literacy, we discovered whether our predictions for the end of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas were true when we finished reading the book.We put our creativity to the test as we created a drama for a particular scene within the book. Here are a few of the freeze frames of the performances:

We have been learning the features and skills needed in order to write our own newspaper report based on the significant event in the book. Stay tuned to read the latest news on a boy called Bruno and a place called Out-With.

This week ended on an amazing high with a great trip to Planet Ice where we spent time with Year 5 finding our feet (or bottoms for the majority of us!) on a slippery surface! Some of us wouldn’t let go of the sides for dear life at the beginning but by the end were gliding across the middle like graceful swans (sort of). There were non stop giggles and hopefully some great footage caught on camera by Mr Youson!

Superstars this week were: Ciaran for helping Mrs Hartwell, Amie for always offering her time and asking how she can help and Callum K for tremendous effort in Numeracy! Well done to all three of you *5RT each*

Outstanding Homework Award: Issy for her outstanding effort and appropriately challenging herself. *2RT*

Outstanding Work Award: Finn for a thoughtful Advent Preparation Recipe. *2RT*

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We would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate all of Year 6 for entering the recent Primary Maths Challenge but a particular well done to all those who received certificates:

Bronze: Annie, Grace H, Maticia, Kelsey, Catherine, Ciaran and Orla J

Silver: Michael, Roisin, Kupa, Joseph, Ciaa, Ben and Lewis

Gold: Finn, Orla O, Cecilia, Ben S and a super duper well done to Henryk for a whopping high score of 23!!!

Well done all of you!!