Many thanks to our sponsors Please contact the school if you would like to advertise in our magazine.

St. Mary’s Primary School, Barr Wishing all our parents and pupils an enjoyable summer. Looking forward to another successful year!

Good Luck to all our P7 children in their new school.

June 2012 2nd Edition £1.50

Successful launch of School Magazine All copies of the first edition of the school magazine were sold out within a week. We had a great response from all the children and we made enough money just to cover our costs. The school council would like to pub-lish the magazine every half term and to get sponsorship from local business. We hope with the money raised that the children will be able to decide what resources they can buy to improve the outdoor facilities we have.

Health Action Heroes visit

St. Mary’s

Pupils were reminded of four important rules to lead a healthy lifestyle: 1. Eat lots of fruit and vegetables. 2. Play fun games and get lots of exercise. 3. Don't smoke. 4. Be safe in the sun wearing a hat and sun cream.

Many thanks to all those children who contrib-uted to the Trocaire Campaign this year. We raised £381. The children in Pri-mary 5/6/7 took part in a sports activity afternoon and raised ex-tra money.

Strictly Glenn Dancing Mrs Diane Mackin is representing the school in Strictly Glenn Dancing on Sunday 26th August. This is part of the Glenn Festival Weekend. Keep Dancing Mrs Mackin! We are all cheering you on!

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First Communion

Emma

The Children from P4 would like to thanks all those involved in preparing and celebrating their First Holy Communion. It was a wonderful day.

Service Of Light Our Service of Light was on the 24th of April 2012. In the service the P.7 pupils had to tell the Families in the church what name we had chosen. Sean— Maxamillion,

Patrick— Sebastian,

Lucia— Genevieve,

Shauna— Theresa,

Danielle—Veronica

Cliodhna— Anastasia.

When our parents light the candles they pass their faith onto us. Then our parents give the candles to us and we read out a bit of information about our Saints and why we picked them.

By Sean Hughes & Danielle McHugh

Confirmation Confirmation was a really important day for all of us. We all looked outstanding, and enjoyed every second of it. The mass was very interesting, and we all did our own special part. The bishop was a very friendly person, as was the priest. After the mass we went into Barr hall, and had a celebration. Then Master MacLennan brought us out a gorgeous cake. We all enjoyed our evening very much.

By Shauna McEvoy & Lucia Hughes

Confirmation

Matthew made a spider and Cormac made a cat in junk art when we were

learning about ‘Pets’.

We had a visit from ‘Pet Connection’, one of our local Pet Shops. We enjoyed holding corn snakes, a bearded dragon, guinea pigs and rabbits. We also saw a

tarantella.

Ciara brought her 2 goldfish into school and we looked after them for 2 weeks. We had to feed them and change the water in their fish

bowl.

Niall brought his rabbit Chris in for a visit. He answered all our questions about taking care of his

pet. Jimi brought in a kid and Micheal’s hamster also paid us a visit. We met Dominic’s cat too.

P1 Fun at School!

We learned all about ‘Pets’.

We also learned all about ‘Dinosaurs’.

We drew pictures of dinosaurs on the Interactive Whiteboard.

Caoimhe

Aine

We love making things with junk in Primary One!

“Ahoy Me Hearties!”

We Learned all about Pirates and had a Pirate themed day. We talked like pirates, followed a treasure map to find treasure and had a pirate party. It was fantastic fun!

P2: Busy Bees!

Our Summer Topic is ’Minibeasts’. We have been learning all about the different creepy crawlies that are found in our local Environment. We went on a minibeast hunt around the school grounds and recorded all the creatures we found. We have been dressing up as different minibeasts in the role play area and learning songs about creepy crawlies!

We planted lettuce and peas in the vegetable patch. We have been wa-tering them and caring for them. They have grown beautifully and we are ready to pick them and eat them!

We have been looking after the plants and creatures in our environment!

Authors Corner Jill Murphy

A famous children’s author has been the topic of conversation in Primary 3. All the children actively took part in role play scenarios to re-enact different parts of “ The Last Noo– Noo.” Well done Aoibheann; you gave an award winning performance and had all your classmates laughing loudly. A star in the making!

Maths Area Capacity We carried out measuring activities at the water tray. As a class we estimated initially how many jugs of water a container would hold and then we worked out the actual amount in litres and millilitres.

Gardeners Corner Planting Spinach

In our class we learned how to plant spin-ach. Firstly we put soil into the pots. Then we had to put the seeds in separately. Then we watered the seeds. We put our pots out side the classroom to make sure they would get plenty of sunshine. We need to water our seeds often and watch them grow into spinach plants.

By Emma Mathers

Primary 3

Minibeasts We love bugs!! We have been learning about Minibeasts this term. All pupils loved getting their hands dirty during the Bug Hunt around the school grounds. Pupils enjoyed identifying minibeasts and learning about their characteristics. Minibeast Facts

♦ Beetles are the common insect in the world. ♦ Bees never sleep. ♦ There are about 2000 different types of

bees in the world but only 4 make honey. ♦ Not all spiders spin webs. ♦ Slugs have 4 noses but only 1 foot. ♦ After having their heads cut off, cockroaches can live for 9 days By Niamh Morgan

This term the Primary 4 children have been learning about on Gardens and Growth. We have looking at Living things in our gardens. We have planted seeds and plants and carried out bird watching and mini beast activities. We recorded what we found out using our ICT skills using Writer and Painter.

Using ICT in Primary 4

Sean & Katie Lou

Emma & Dylan

Lorcan & Maegan

Natasha & Conor M

By Conor Hughes

By Stephen

By Micheal

Catherine

Catherine

Caitlin

Using ICT to paint minibeast pictures Ellie used recycle garden containers for planting flowers. Liam and Grace watering our Strawberry plants and waiting patiently for them to ripen.

The Olympics In class this term we are working on the topic of ‘The Olympics’. We have learned that the Olympics games started in 776 B.C. at a place called

Olympia in Greece and went on until 396 A.D. In the beginning it was just a race but now there are lots of different sports in the Olympics. The symbol for the Olympics is 5 coloured rings joined together. This is a sign of peace. These rings stand for 5 continents. Black is for Africa. Green is for Oceania, Blue is for Europe, Yellow is for Asia and Red is for America. Pierre de Coubertain started the modern Olympics in 1896. The motto is Citius, Altius, Fortius. (Swifter, Higher, Stronger.) The Olympics are held every 4 years. This is called an Olympiad. This year at Sports Day Primary 5 decided that we should have 5 teams. One team for each Olympic colour. By Shea Byrne and

Cross Country Competition On Tuesday 22nd May we went to a Cross-Country competition in Kilbroney. It was for P.4 – P.7. with four races each. The course had changed from last year. It was a tough run but it was fun representing the school. All our teams ran well and finished the course. The P.5 girls came second overall with 23 points, beaten by just 2 points! The P5 results were Stephanie Hall 1st Catriona McNally 2nd Anna Mulligan 7th Cliona Brooks 13th A great day and fantastic results!

By Cliona Brooks & Stephanie Hall

News from Primary 5

Easy steps to Green Fingers Anna Mulligan from Primary 5 has some top tips to help your garden bloom Gardening is easy and fun once you know how. Here are some simple steps to help you become a gardener. All growing plants need three basic things 1. Sunlight

2. Water

3. Good soil Therefore it is important to choose where you are going to grow things. Where you are going to locate your garden has to be sunny and slightly shaded. Gardening is …... Fun, Eco friendly and great exercise! 

earnt how to do a drag back turn and then shoot low. In the second we learnt how to do an inside hook & outside hook. I really enjoy soccer practice. I have my next today. Joseph Garvey,p.5

Soccer practice costs £20 per person and only the first 20 people are allowed in. I was number 21! It lasts from 3:00~4:00 every Wednesday.

In the first lesson, we learnt how to do a drag back turn and then shoot low. In the second we learnt how to do an inside hook & outside hook. I really enjoy soccer practice. I have my next to-day. Joseph Garvey,p.5

Newry Feis We all went to the feis on the 2nd of May, we had to say the poem ‘Smile’. I came 1st, Lauren 2nd, Niall 3rd and most others got a certificate. It was so much fun! I had to go to the finals on the 5th of May in the Town Hall. Leah Rogers in P2 and Emma McArdle in P4 came 1st too, and they were at the finals as well. We got a plaque and certificate for taking part. By Aimee Connell

P6

This term P.6/7 are learning about bridges. We all had to research famous bridges. An engineer called Micheal came to us to talk about bridges and what types you can have. We are trying to make a bridge for a competition. It is going to be OUTSTANDING! It has to be a bridge going over a valley. We have to plan, do and review our bridge. We were drawing plans which were birds eye, elevation (side view) and isometric (3D). We had to do the measurements and the designs of it. We all enjoyed making bridges. We cant wait to go to W5 for the Northern Ireland competition! By Leah & Niamh P.6

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St Mary’s Barr V St. Patrick’s

Our Gaelic coach Sarah, organized a friendly match against St. Patrick's in Maghralin. 20 students went on the bus We played on St. Michaels Gaelic pitch. We dominated the first two thirds scoring point after point and goals too. St. Patrick's, in the last third, started making up some ground from their earlier errors and recovered some points but we were just too strong for them. Winning by 8 points, we had food served to us afterwards by the school, before getting onto the bus and going home VICTORIOUS! It was a great, great day for St. Mary’s Barr.

By Patrick Brooks P7

Primary 6 & 7

The School Jumble Sale was a great suc-

Bridges

New bug hotels opened for business at St. Mary’s.

Made from old pallets and filled with lots of recycled materials from the garden such as flower pots, garden canes, twigs, straw and off-cuts of wood, the bug hotel was created and designed by pupils and took just a couple of hours to build. As well as providing shelter for all kinds of mini-beasts the hotels are interesting creations in their own right. This is definitely five star accommodation, and we are sure guests will be checking in very soon. Many thanks to Danielle Begley the Biodiver-sity Officer in Newry & Mourne for her help and advice.

Play Zones A Great Success

The school council have made zones for each class to play in at break time. In these zones you have two items to choose from. The zones have been a great success and all the pupils enjoy them. We are now working on what things we can have inside on rainy days.

Plant to Plate Project takes root! Well done to Eoin Sands and Liam Rice for making a great job on our School Garden. They have created a ‘Bootiful Butterfly’ feature which has recycled Wellingtons packed with flowers to attract butterflies to the garden. Each class has planted vegetables for our Plant to Plate Project. Primary 1 pupils have already tucked in to their school grown salad sandwiches. Other classes are waiting patiently to enjoy St. Mary’s strawberries, potatoes, sweet corn, peas and cabbage. We hope to make these into tasty treats, if the sun comes out and helps them along!

April Primary 1— Sean, Aidan. Primary 2— Ruairi. Primary 3— Emma, Cavan, Lucy . Primary 4— Lorna, Maegan. Primary 6— Ciara, Lauren,

May Primary 2— Sophia, Mollie. Primary 3— Aoibheann, Sofia Conor. Primary 4— Sean, Eireann, Emma. Primary 5—

June Primary 1— Emily, Eve, Eva, Sarah, Thomas. Primary 2— Luke, Gavin Primary 3— Annie-May, Niamh. Primary 4— Stephen, Micheal Primary 6— Aimee C.

25th of May 2012

11th May 2012

23rd of March 2012 30th of March 2012

18th of May 2012

29th May 2012