Latest News - Mrs Gregson

Year 5/6 have had an incredibly busy week this week! We started off with some drumming practice with Ronan to perfect our performance piece for the show on Thursday.  On Tuesday morning we had our STEM event at the Sollus centre, which you can read about in 'other news'.  Then on Tuesday afternoon we had our first practice on stage at the Alley Theatre.  Wednesday and Thursday were full days spent practising our dance on stage for the dress rehearsal on Thursday afternoon.  We even managed to get a little maths revision fitted in in between dances on stage!!  We got a real buzz being on stage with an audience of around 130 people.  We have worked so hard for the show and now we can't wait for the big performance at 7pm tonight!  The show is sold out! Hope to see you there!  Here are some pictures from the last few days.

On Tuesday 6th of February we started the maths challenges with STEM Aware.  We were put into our groups which we will stay in for the remainder of the programme. This will give us the opportunity to develop close friendships with the other children in our groups.   We started off with some lego multiplication then we were set a challenge to build the longest bridge using lego.  Whichever bridge was able to hold the most weight was deemed the winning bridge.  We had great fun with this and there were some very interesting techniques used.

On Tuesday 20th February, year 5/6 took part in their latest STEM event with Bready Jubilee PS and St Mary's Cloughcor.  Our multiplication skills were challenged through games of 'Back 2 Back', 'Multiplication War' and 'Multiplication Bingo'.  We thoroughly enjoyed getting to know the children in the other schools and we are starting to develop some close friendships.

On Monday, year 5/6 visited a garden centre in Strabane to learn about the different plants and flowers growing.  Our trip was centred around the Pushkin Trust's theme 'Opening Ground'.  We had a quick tour then had the opportunity to plant some daffodil bulbs in pots.  After that we made our way to the Alley Theatre where we had lunch before beginning a creative writing workshop with Frank Galligan.

Our next school disco is on Thursday 8th February. Check our poster, designed by Year 5 pupils, for more information!

Today year 5/6 had a visit from Lynn Greer, an environmentalist who works with the Pushkin Trust. She talked to us about soil which she called “green gold”.

We learned how precious soil is because only 3% of the world has soil which we can use to grow things. She told us that there are about 12 different types of soil in Ireland.

We had a go at making soil. We added sand, clay, water, small fragments of rock, leaves, air and salt for the minerals. We learned about different vegetables and whether they grow above or below the ground. We also learned about animals which we have in Northern Ireland and whether they live above or below the ground.

Mrs Doherty held a meeting for parents to explain the PIN project which is taking place with Year 2 and Year 5 children within our school. The children will be playing Maths games for 6 weeks in place of written homework. For parents who were unable to attend, please view the presentation to familiarise yourself with the project. Happy gaming!

In year 5/6 we are learning about 3D shapes. We have been learning about their properties including how many faces, edges and vertices different shapes have.  We have been completing a challenge to see how many different nets of cubes and pentominoes we can find.  Year 6 have also been constructing nets of shapes such as square based pyramids, pentagonal prisms and tetrahedrons.  Have a look at our learning!

Parents  of pupils in Years 2 and 5 are invited to come along on Monday 29th January at 3.15pm to find out about an exciting new project involving all pupils, parents and teachers in Years 2 and 5. Pupils and parents will get to play maths games instead of some written homework for 6 weeks!

NSPCC Numeracy Day is on Friday 2nd February! To celebrate all pupils in Artigarvan will be playing maths games! A super fun maths day for a really good cause!