Responsibility

One of our Gospel Values is Responsibility.  This week we wrote an acrostic poem about what it means at our school and in our class.  This is Samuel's poem.

Michael Mangan visits

Michael Mangan, an Australian composer whose religious songs we sing, visited us today.  Michael was very impressed with our involvement and enthusiasm.  Mrs Neilson was too.  We look forward to getting the new songs to sing in class and at Mass.

The Crayon Box that Talked

Today Mrs Jackson had us draw two pictures.  For the first one we were only allowed to use one coloured crayon.  For the second picture we were able to use as many colours as we liked.  Mrs Jackson asked us to think about which picture we would choose to display and why.  Most of us chose the one that used lots of colour because we felt it was a brighter, more interesting picture.   We then watched a clip called The Crayon Box that Talked.  Each crayon has a purpose and life would be boring with only one colour - a little bit like us.  We are all unique but together we make up the bigger picture just like a box of crayons.  It is important that we respect the uniqueness in all of us.

Rice Day

Every year just before Easter, we have Rice Day.  This is the day we think about how lucky we are to have food and experience what it might be like for those children around the world who go without food.  We do not eat morning tea and for lunch we have a handful of rice.  We drink a lot of water though!!  To help support CARITAS we have a raffle.  The lucky winner gets to choose a friend and Mrs Neilson takes them to McDonalds.  This year, it was Samuel from our class who won! Before lunch, we have a special liturgy and today Thomas (our Head Boy) blessed the rice. For some of us, going without food is a challenge but we did get to eat breakfast and we had afternoon tea when we left school.  This is more than some children!

Jesus' life

Today in RE we remembered all we knew about Jesus' life.

Below is Hana's work.  She gave specific examples of what Jesus did in his life.

Tapa Cloths

This year Caritas is helping our Pacific neighbours.  In Tonga, assistance is given so groups can make tapa cloths.  These cloths are sold to tourists, used at weddings and funerals and worn as a dance costume.  Christine's mum showed us some designs used on the tapa cloth and Mrs Jackson used the power of Google to show us some other patterns.  We had a go had recreating some of these patterns.

Prayer Time

We being each morning with prayer time, where we share our own prayers, listen to a bible reading and sing a hymn.  Mrs Jackson has been very impressed with those who have organised prayers so far this year.

Burning of the Palms

On Wednesday, we participated in the Ash Wednesday Liturgy.  Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent, the time we prepare for Jesus' death and resurrection.  Prior to Ash Wednesday, we burnt the palms we had from Palm Sunday last year.  It was the ashes from these burnt palms that the sign of the cross was made on our forehead.

Respect

At St Mary's, we have 3 Gospel Values - Respect, Responsibility and Reconciliation - that we try to live by.
We started this term talking about and coming up with ideas as to how we can show respect to ourselves, others, the environment and God.