At school yesterday, I was chatting about how lots of people seem happier in the past few days. People in the street, people in the Co Op and people on the news on the TV. Mrs Peacock sent me this little story which I thought I would share with you.
A wise teacher once brought balloons to school and blew them up. She then told the children to write their name on one of them. Then the children let go of them in the hall and the teacher moved through the hall mixing them all up. The children were given five minutes to find the balloon with their name on it. They all searched really hard, but no one found their own balloon.
So then the teacher told the children to take the balloon closest to them and give it to the person whose name was on it. In less than two minutes, everyone was holding their own balloon.
The teacher said to the children, “These balloons are like happiness. We won’t find it when we are only searching for our own. But if we care about someone else’s happiness we will then find our own.”
So, I think if you do something nice today for someone and it makes them feel happy, I bet you will feel happy too.
Here is the story which I was going to share with you in assembly today. I hope you enjoy it. There would have been pictures and a couple of songs too, so you will have to use your imagination, and then maybe you could sing the rainbow song at the end.
The Story of The Rainbow
Once upon a time the colours of the world started to quarrel: they all wanted to be the best and the most important.
Green said: “Clearly I am the most important. I am the sign of life and of hope. I was chosen for grass, leaves and trees. Look out over the countryside and you will see that I am everywhere.”
Blue interrupted: “What about the sky and sea. The sky gives space and peace. Without my peace, you would all be nothing.”
Yellow chuckled. “You are all so serious. I bring laughter and warmth to the world. The sun is yellow, the moon is yellow, the stars are yellow. Every time you look at a sunflower, the whole world starts to smile. Without me, there would be no fun.”
Orange started next. “I am the colour of strength. I may be rare but I am precious for human life. I carry the most important vitamins. Think of carrots, pumpkins, oranges and mangos. I don’t hang around all the time, but when I fill the sky at sunrise or sunset, my beauty is so striking that no one gives another thought to any of you.”
Red started shouting: “I am the ruler of all of you. I am blood! I am the colour of danger and of bravery. I am the colour of roses and poppies. Without me, the earth would be as empty.”
Purple rose up to his full height. He was very tall and spoke with importance “I am the colour of royalty and power. Kings, chiefs, and bishops have always chosen me for I am a sign of authority and wisdom. People do not question me. They obey.”
Finally, Indigo spoke, much more quietly than all the others but with just as much determination: “think of me. I am the colour of silence. You hardly notice me, but without me, you all become nothing. I represent thought and reflection, twilight and deep water.”
And so all the colours went on boasting and quarrelling, each convinced that they were the best. Soon, their quarrelling became louder and louder. Suddenly there was a startling flash of bright lightening! Thunder rolled and boomed! Rain started to pour down.
Rain began to speak: “You silly colours, fighting amongst yourselves, each trying to be better than the rest. Don’t you know you were each made for a special purpose, unique and different? Join hands with one another and come to me.”
Doing as they were told, the colours united and joined hands. The rain continued: “From now on, when it rains, each of you will stretch across the sky in a great bow of colours as a reminder that you can all live in peace and appreciate each other.
Now you know that at the end of assembly, I ask what the meaning of the story is. Well, I think this one is all about being yourself and being special, and when we all work together we can be super strong…just like our super Mortimer Family.
Another weekend over and another Monday morning is here. I hope you had a lovely weekend. I know that lots of you have had your birthdays recently and maybe your big party got postponed. That’s what happened in my house this week. Rachel was 21 years old, and when you are 21 sometimes you have a bigger celebration than normal. Ask your mams and dads what they did for their 21st birthday. So we had balloons, music and presents on Wednesday and on Saturday, so she actually got 2 parties. It was really nice, but it was a shame her friends could not have been there too. So when all this is over we are going to have another party. I know that’s what some of you will be doing too. I think we will all be very busy celebrating and going to so many birthday parties. It’s going to be so much fun.
If you are coming into school this week for the first time in a while, I will see you then. Otherwise, I will see all of you hopefully very soon.
Have a marvellous Monday.
Mrs Cunningham
P.S Guess who thought it was all about him!! We didn’t tell him that the 1 had spun around!!
Initial Images, for many years, has provided the majority of our school uniform and sport t-shirts. This year they will be unable to come into school to take orders as they normally do in the summer term.
Parents can order via website and get uniform delivered, or alternatively they are offering a click and collect service. They will accept returns if something doesn’t fit and exchange for another size.
Their full team are not all back at their site yet, although Jean and the team are still working hard behind the scenes.
They will re-open from Monday 22nd June from 9-5pm with social distancing measures in place.
A poetry challenge for Thursday. Your poems about your friends were so lovely. Thank you for making my day!
Yesterday it was my youngest daughter, Rachel’s 21st birthday. It wasn’t quite what she had planned, but we made it special. Lots of balloons and presents. Her grandad came round and gave her a present. He was really sad that he couldn’t give her a hug and a kiss. We had a cup of coffee in the garden and he told us that he had found a mouse in his garage and that he was going to look for it today!! We told him not to and to give it some cheese rather than being cross with it. He said that he would not give it a treat, but he would leave him to do what a mouse does?! We all breathed a sigh of relief.
So, here is today’s poem..
I think mice
Are rather nice
Their tails are long,
Their faces small,
They haven’t any
chins at all.
Their ears are pink,
Their teeth are white,
They run about
the house at night.
They nibble things
They shouldn’t touch
And no one seems
To like them much.
But I think mice
Are nice.
Did you make any sense of the poems from yesterday? I can’t wait to hear some of you saying them when you are back at school.
Today’s poetry challenge is all about friendship. It is only four lines long. Think about one of your friends who you haven’t seen for a while. Maybe you could add another line to describe what they are like.
A friend is like a shady tree on a summers day.
A friend is like sunshine that makes a perfect day.
A friend is like a flower that’s worn close to your heart.
A friend is like a treasure with which you’ll never part.
Although, due to school closures, we could not apply for Games Mark this academic year, schools have been allowed to retain their current status, ours being Gold. In addition, Mortimer has been recognised for our commitment to physical activity. We have been awarded a certificate for our involvement in school sport during the Autumn and Spring terms as well as a certificate for our involvement in Virtual competitions whilst school has been closed.
The results are in! All of our Key Worker children who attended school over the five days that the games took place did very well. In South Tyneside 18 schools and 260 children took part. Our school placed 6th out of the 18 and one of our Year 2 pupils ranked 5th out of 260. This is a huge achievement. Daily statistics collected throughout the week showed that our children performed very highly in individual events from Nursery through to Year 6. Well done children and staff.
Day 2 of the poetry challenge. Today there are two poems. Both of them are very old, as I can remember learning them when I was very little…..and that’s quite a long time ago. They didn’t make much sense at the time. It wasn’t until I was older did I realise what I was actually saying and what they both meant. You might need a bit of help from an adult with these, but let’s hope you like them as much as I do.
Algy met a bear,
The bear met Algy,
The bear was bulgy,
The bulge was Algy!
Mairzy doats and dozy doats and liddle lamzy divey
A kiddley divey too, wouldn’t you?
If the words sound queer and funny to your ear, a little bit jumbled and jivey
Sing “Mares eat oats and does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy, A kid will eat ivy too, wouldn’t you!”
