St Peter’s Post #8

Busy, busy times in St Peter’s! Mr Curran has been in this week sticking up our Christmas lights. The backdrop for the play has been drawn out and the painting has started. The many tubs of costumes have been taken out and lists of props have been drawn up. Actions to the songs have been learned and the lines run like clockwork. The class teachers have taken on a slightly frantic look at mention of class plays and sing the Cinderella songs in the staffroom without realising! We’re in the depths of the Christmas play and it’s as magical as ever! Of course, there’s lots of other things going on too and if you missed anything during the week, you’ve come to the right place to catch up…

• Firstly, we’d like to sincerely thank everyone who has voted for us so far in the Edublog awards. We’re touched by the lovely comments online and in person. The students have really enjoyed getting stuck into the voting process and although we’re currently behind, we know that with a big push for the last few days, we can definitely catch up! If you haven’t yet, feel free to pause for a moment and vote  – it’s much appreciated!
•  On Monday, AaronG, LukeO’B, Sam and Davy from 5th class will take part in the Regional Finals of the Mini-Scientist. They spent this week developing their project – staying back after school every day to write up their new experiments. We’re very proud of all their hard work and we wish them all the best for Monday! Special thanks from the boys and Ms Sexton to Mr Kinsella who is collecting the boys before school to drop them into Intel. Blog post to follow next week! If you missed our photos from the day, you can catch up with them here.
• 4th class had a busy week blogging – in groups, they wrote their own blog posts this week. Jordan, Carl and Tommy wrote about the Hallelujah Choir Concert here.
• Also from 4th class, a report on the Mini-Scientist showcase from Jack, Abhishek, Dylan and Alan.
• There’s a new answer, but do you know the question? Read all about it in this 4th class report from Dylan, Mason, Calvin and Stephen.
• Finally from 4th class, an update from Jack and Luke on their preparations for Christmas!
• 2nd class have the Christmas spirit! Listen to their podcast reading Twas Night Before Christmas here.
• Also in 2nd class, they shared a podcast of their Christmas poetry. Listen to it here!
• The Toy Appeal was a massive success and we were delighted to present 2fm with three bags full of toys. Read all about it here. Well done to the Student Council (and Ms Brennan) for organising the appeal!
• Speaking of toys – Andy and Ben from 5th class blogged about their new corridor display, based on the Toy Show, here.
• This Sunday sees the last ‘Do this in Memory’ Mass of 2013 for 2nd class. Sixth class will also attend the Mass and are asked to bring a non-perishable food item for the Vincent de Paul. There’s also a community Carol Service on Sunday afternoon. You can read all of the details, including all information about Christmas services in St Peter’s here.
• 5th class wrote a thank you post to Ms Kane here!
• 2nd class podcasted about their first Roots of Empathy week here.
• Our ‘Wednesday for Parents’ post this week dealt with the subject of coping with Christmas when you’re bereaved. The post lists many fantastic resources and is well worth a look if you’re in the difficult position of facing Christmas without a loved one.

In other news:

• Homework Club will run on Monday and Wednesday next week. All other clubs have finished for this term.
• 2nd class made fantastic salt dough decorations and then painted them!
• 5th class caught up on their portfolios presenting their best work.
• 3rd, 5th and 6th classes helped out 5th class with their Mini-Scientist testing – some even stayed in over lunch to make sure they tested all three controllers!
• We made a new Voki! Check him out to the right… Eddie the Elf has made quite the stir!
• Afterschool clubs had a festive theme for their last sessions before Christmas. Art club made beautiful Christmas pictures, while Singing Club had a mixture of songs – including the now-famous ‘Winter’s Tale’
• Polly was up to all kinds of mischief! We need to do a catch-up post and fill you in… Maybe later in the week!
• 4th class tweeted what they’d learned from last week’s Wicklow Mountain National Parks visit. You can find it on our @StPetersBray Twitter feed. They impressed a number of schools and Twitter users with their amazing facts!
• The Mini-Scientist group tweeted Xbox some questions about their controllers and got an almost instant reply – an amazing way to use Twitter!

As always, you can read past editions of the St Peter’s Post here.