Class 9 have been springing into action this April. It has been a month of trying new things and growing new life. We have been learning how to play golf and the pupils took part in a golf tournament in Gilford Recreational Centre. As part of the Eco Team, our pupils have been planting seeds in the hope of growing new food plants. We have also been considering the real meaning of Easter as we learned all about the Easter Story and how to create Makaton signs for some of the key events. Our pupils have also been industrious in the kitchen. We made Easter buns and decorated chocolate eggs. They also got creative making Easter baskets and embellishing boiled eggs for rolling down the bank in Solitude Park. Everyone enjoyed the shared party break and the Easter disco that followed. Have a lovely Easter Break!
We have all been ‘Mad March Hares’ in Class 9! We have embraced our ‘Celebrations’ topic in a big way. We made our own pancakes for Shrove Tuesday, which is also part of the Mardi Gras Festival. The theme continued with us discovering the many activities associated with the Rio Carnival. We have been attending Samba dance classes and made our own green screen movie to share our learning with other classes. The staff were delighted to discover all the movie star talent we have in Class 9. We celebrated St. Patrick’s day by wearing green clothes and having a green themed party break with our friends in senior school. All of our pupils embraced ‘World Book Day.’ They dressed up as a character from their favourite book. One pupil shared a story with a junior class. We all designed book covers, did some writing activities and took part in a jigsaw treasure hunt. When we put the pieces together we made ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ book cover. Our pupils continue to be active members of the Eco Team. Some pupils were involved in helping to create a willow dome. We hope it will become a place to share stories and sit quietly whilst watching the local garden birds.
Class 9 have fully embraced the ‘Celebrations’ topic. We learned about Hanukkah and made ‘Star of David’ emblems. We celebrated Chinese New Year with a traditional stir-fry including long noodles which were fun to eat. St. Valentine’s Day brought lots of fun. We made our own cards. had a party break with our friends in Senior school, pulled some shapes on the dance floor and took cool selfies at the Valentine Disco.
As part of our Learning for Life and Work, we have been exploring where our food comes from and how it is produced. We made a class favourite, pizza! We looked at labels and were amazed to discover where all the ingredients had come from. We also had a visit from the ‘Meat Council’ and had the opportunity to try some dishes from around the world.
Ship Ahoy from Class 9! The pupils have really enjoyed their topic based on the ‘Shipping Industry in Northern Ireland.’ Going to the Titanic Museum was a favourite and all the pupils learned how the famous Titanic Ship was built by Harland and Wolff in Belfast. They even got to ride in a cable car that took them on a journey to discover what was involved in the shipyard worker’s jobs. They were able to follow the Titanic story to the moment it hit an iceberg and sank. All the pupils were lucky to discover what the shipwreck now looks like at the bottom of the ocean. Back in class we made our own Titanic models using junk materials. We invited Class 11 to join us for a Titanic themed Tea party. Everyone dressed up in period clothes and had a wonderful time eating delicious scones, finger sandwiches and tea cakes, followed by a photo session at the lifeboat and fun games in the hall to complete our event. Bon Voyage from Class 9!
November has been another busy month for Class 9. We continued with our ‘World of Work’ topic and interviewed Doreen our school secretary and Chris our school caretaker. The pupils learned all about their busy jobs and even got to try a bit of shredding in the office. We learned about a florists job and made our own
autumn inspired ‘flowers in jars.’ We showed off our creations at the recent Harvest assembly and one of our children also did a reading. Class 9 is part of the Eco Team. We have been tidying up the school grounds, clearing away leaves from pots and planting new fruit shrubs and lots of spring bulbs in pots. We look forward to watching them grow and to having lovely flowers for spring time.
We have started new topic work based on the shipping industry in Belfast. We have been exploring the story of the famous ‘Titanic’ ship built in Belfast by Harland and Wolff. We are looking forward to visiting the Titanic Museum in December.
We have had an eventful month in Class 9. We have been exploring the ‘World of Work’ and trying some job sampling. The pupils have been busy carrying out their jobs in class. We investigated some of the jobs taking place in our school. The pupils interviewed Jean our School Cook and Chris our Caretaker. Some pupils took photos to record the many tasks that these busy people carry out. We have been learning about jobs in the local community. We explored the role of a Baker and made our own soda bread. All our pupils have been very excited about going ‘Fishing.’ They have been learning to sit quietly and be very patient. We had a visit from St. Johns Ambulance for ‘Heart Start’ week. The pupils had an opportunity to try some ‘CPR’ using the dummies provided. We also had a surprising visit from two famous mice, Mickey and Minnie! Excitement is growing as we look forward to Disney. We hope everyone has a well-earned rest and enjoys their half term break.
Welcome to the new school year! In Class 9, we have welcomed three new pupils who have moved up to Senior School and also a special welcome goes out to four new pupils who have joined Donard School this year! We have had a busy start to September and all the pupils have been getting into the swing of things. We will be studying the “World of Work” as our new topic this term. We have already been taking on new class jobs. We have been embracing the new season and our art work has featured autumn leaves made from clay. We also designed our own hot air balloons that included our name and some of things that interest us.
We will be joining Class 11 for PE and we will also be in charge of Eco-Schools. We hope to achieve our green flag this year and we will keep you informed of all the activities we are planning.
June has brought lots of sunshine and plenty of planting and watering for Class 9. Everyone is proud of our vegetable and fruit planters and we look forward to sampling all our produce. The Eco-team, made up of Class 9 and 11, were very busy creating plant pots to sell at the School Fete. The pots were a great success and we made some money for Summer Scheme. We concluded our ‘Rainforest’ topic, sampling some tropical fruits and making Brazilian fajitas. We also started our pupil’s choice topic, the ‘Seaside.’ We have been looking at summer holiday seaside photos from long ago and comparing them with seaside holidays today. No matter what the era is, everyone has always enjoyed an ice-cream at the seaside. Class 9 took full advantage of having their own cone when the ice-cream van paid a visit to school. We have been exploring marine wildlife found in rock pools. Class 9 have also been considering how to stay safe in the sun. We learned how important it is to stay safe at the seaside and we looked at the job of the RNLI crew on board lifeboats. A big well done to our class Prize Day winners!!! We hope everyone has a great summer holiday!
Everyone has been pleased to welcome the warmer weather this April. The Eco– team have been out and about tidying and checking the bird feeders and bug hotel. We have noticed more birds visiting our school grounds. We even had a friendly robin watch us as we worked! The Ulster Wildlife team presented certificates to our pupils for completing their ‘Grassroots Challenge.’ We started our new topic about the ‘Rainforest.’ We have been using a variety of art techniques, including marbling, to create prints that can be turned into vegetation for our new display. We have also been carrying our theme in our cookery and made yummy Rainforest cookies.
Happy New Year from Class 9 ! The pupils completed work on the final part of their topic based on ‘Our Local Community.’ They carried out a survey to find out what amenities are available in Banbridge town. We learned about the history of the town, the linen industry and discovered Dunbar School, where Donard School first began. We had a go at weaving and all the pupils made their own posters or leaflets about areas that particularly interested them. We have started our new topic about ‘Healthy Eating and Lifestyles’. We had a sandwich challenge and all the pupils had to create their own sandwich.
Classes 9 & 11 are part of the Eco Schools Team. We have been learning about biodiversity and wanted to discover ways that we can improve our school grounds and encourage wildlife to visit there. We have been taking part in the ‘Grassroots Challenge Programme’ organised by Ulster Wildlife. We completed a survey of school grounds to find out where we could make improvements. We learned to identify the variety of birds that visit our gardens and we made bird feed cones and rings to hang up in our school grounds. We also had a visit from a bat and we learned about its nocturnal habits and what it needs to survive. We even made our own bats in art!
As always we have had a very busy month in Class 9, we are continuing with our ‘Local Area’ topic this month. In cookery we made sausages and champ, a dish that went down very well! We have also been learning the address of our school . We had a very interesting visit from the Environmental Council Officer all about ideas we could explore as part of Eco Schools. The pupils enjoyed learning about how to make compost with a little help from our friendly earth worm.
The most exciting day we had this month was our trip to the SSE Arena in Belfast to watch an ice hockey match between two American teams. The pupils and staff had a great time! Thank you to James, one of our staff, who brought in some ice hockey gear for our pupils to try on.
We are very busy with rehearsals for our senior school production of “A Christmas Carole.” We hope you are able to come and support us. We would like to welcome our friend Ryan to class 9.
