Friendship Week
On Monday 29th September, Friendship Week began in Mercy Primary School. Every class did something to show their appreciation for Friendship Week.
Junior Infants made beautiful Friendship Flowers. They made a Friendship Train and a Friendship Wreath. This was brought up as a gift in the mass at the end of the week.
Senior Infants had great fun! They did plenty of Friendship Art including a Rainbow Fish based on the story of a very generous fish. They used their handprints to make a Friendship Tree and a Friendship Chain. They played co-operative games to teach them how to share and they made a poster showing what a good friend should be.
1st class made little people holding hands to show Friendship. They also made lovely flowers and put pictures of themselves in the middle. They did a lot of chatting about what makes a good friend.
2nd class, who are preparing for their First Holy Communion enjoyed many Friendship related activities. They, along with 3rd class led the whole school in the hymn Circle of Friends at the Friendship Mass. At the start of the week they received a secret, special friend. They had to be extra nice to this friend for the week. Most of the classes did this – even the staff! Their teacher created a word search with all the girls’ names inside. They had great fun finding their names along with their friends.
3rd class learned a Friendship song called Viva la Compagna, which means “long live friendship”. They also made a friendship jigsaw – each child got a blank piece and wrote about themselves on it. At the end they put all the pieces together, showing how each child is different. 4th class took part in this with them.
As a matter of fact, 3rd and 4th classes did lots of activities together that week. They made lovely cartoon character posters of friends – Minnie and Mickey Mouse, Scooby-Doo and Shaggy and SpongeBob and Patrick. They also made Friendship Bunting in lots of vibrant colours. They had buddy reading together and really enjoyed this.
5th class painted their window with a Friendship theme. They had a conversation about cyber-bullying and wrote positive things about their friends. 5th joined forces with the two 6th classes to create a Friendship Café. Every girl in 5th and 6th got a chance to visit the café. They were given orange juice and buns and were allowed to chat freely for half an hour. The girls loved this and some new friendships were formed! 6th class made board games and 5th were invited to play with them also. They were very creative and artistic. Both classes put a lot of work into their Friendship Quotes on their classroom windows.
We held an art competition from 1st class to 6th class on the theme – “I can make a difference if I see someone being bullied!” What amazing entries we got. It was easy to see that everyone really understood what we were trying to teach this week. It was very hard to pick winners but, somehow we managed. They are displayed outside the school hall.
Last but not least we had a very successful Friendship Mass. There was a great atmosphere and a very good turnout. The girls sang wonderfully and everyone was very proud of them. 6th class played the tin whistles and were lovely.
Overall Friendship Week was a huge success in Mercy Primary and we plan on making it an annual event.
Article written by: Megan Hough, Mia Byrne, Brodie Sheils and Eve Murray, 6th class students.
