Fr O'Growney
In history the children learned all about Fr Eugene O'Growney, whom the school is named after. They visited his statue in the local church grounds and learned all about his life as a priest and as a key figure in helping to promote the Irish language, culture and customs.
Happy St Brigid's Day
We had a very enjoyable St Brigid's Day. The children made a communal St. Brigid's Day cloak with Ms Mangan's class, which is now stuck up between our two classrooms. In groups the children also completed projects about St Brigid which contain details about her life. Many of the children brought in rushes from home and so we all worked together to make some St Brigid's Day crosses. It was a bit tricky at first but we all cooperated together to help make sure everyone went home with at least one cross.
Alien Stories
Second Class worked very hard over the last few weeks writing alien stories for the Infant classes. This was a long process involving planning the story, writing the first draft and then editing their stories a number of times before completing a final draft. When the children completed their final draft they then created alien masks and rocket ships to go along with their story. We then invited Ms Cahill's, Ms Dalton's, Ms McLoughlin's and Ms Kearney's Junior and Senior Infant classes in to read them to. It was a lovely wholesome experience enjoyed by all.
Tadhg even went home and made his own rocket with his mam and brought it in for us to have a look. Well done Tadhg. It looks amazing.
Alien Invasion
For the last few weeks we had great fun learning about outer space and all the planets in it. In art the children used paper plates to make aliens flying around in their spaceships. Each child also wrote an acrostic alien poem to go with their alien and flying saucer.
Class Poem
We worked as a class to create a lovely poem about our school. The children worked in pairs and each pair came up with a sentence about either our class or our school and made it rhyme. Here is the final result.
Acrostic Name Poems
The children worked very hard in English writing lovely acrostic poems using their names. They are extremely imaginative and creative and some children even challenged themselves to make it rhyme.
Our Goals for 2024
3D Shapes
The children were learning about the names and properties of 3D shapes in Maths all week. At the end of the week the children used matchsticks and blutac to create their very own 3D structures.
Elf on the Shelf
We had a visitor this year from Santa's workshop. It was an elf called Marshmallow. She had great fun keeping an eye on all the children for Santa in the lead up to Christmas, and the children loved her. Some of them even wrote letters to her. Here are some of the antics she got up to while in our class.
Christmas Procedural Writing
Here are the children's Christmas themed procedures.
Our Christmas Play
Here is some of our amazing art work and project work to go along with our Christmas play, "Christmas Around the World".
5 Little Snowmen
Christmas Themed Ornaments & Tea Lights
Christmas Snowflakes
The children used patterned fabric, colours, black paper and glitter to make some beautiful and unique Christmas snowflakes.
Christmas Jumpers
Take a look at the cool Christmas jumpers we made for this years Late Late Toy Show.
Snow Globes
The children wrote up procedures in English about how to create a Christmas snow globe. They planned out the materials needed and wrote out the process step by step in order. This then helped them to accurately create their own snow globes. Aren't they amazing???
The children also wrote up procedures in English on how to create a slowglobe.
Gymnastics
We have been focussing on gymnastics in PE for the last number of weeks. Gymnastics lessons consist of teaching the children different jumping techniques, various ways of balancing using different parts of the body, rolls (pencil roll, tucked roll and forward roll) and it encourages them to be creative when travelling from one point to another. Here are some sequences they put together lately in their groups. Enjoy!!
Slime
We made slime!!!!!!!!!!
This linked in with our procedural writing in English as we discussed the process of making slime step by step.
It also linked in with exploring materials in science. We were able to note what materials were needed to make slime and how these materials changed when mixed together.
November We Remember
November is a time for us to think about and remember some of our loved ones who have passed. In religion class we made a November We Remember tree full of friends, family members and pets who have passed on but we still think of often and love dearly.
Fairy Homes
To link with our lesson about different types of homes in the locality and homes around the world, the children made fairy homes. They used toilet roll tubes as a base and then let their imaginations run wild to create a magical and unique fairy home.
Homes Around the World
The class enjoyed learning about and writing up projects on different homes around the world. Home types can vary from place to place due to weather and climate, resources available, wealth or local wildlife. Here are the children's reports on different homes.
Hedgehog Homes
We spent some science and geography lessons exploring homes around the world and the different materials used for building these home. We discussed why certain materials were used in different areas of the world and for different elements of the building. This led us onto talking about animal habitats and homes and the differences between man-made and natural materials. As winter had started we researched some animals that were preparing for hibernation and would need sturdy, strong and cosy homes for the long winter ahead. The class then formed groups and challenged themselves to make a comfortable, strong and waterproof home in the schoolyard using natural materials that would be available to a hedgehog. Here are the results.
Luke's Amazing Projects
Luke completed some extra research at home about snakes, felines and marine animals. Have a look here at his fantastic work full of cool and interesting facts.
Well done Luke. Keep up the great work!!
Rainforest Report Writing
The class have absolutely loved learning and researching about wild animals of the rainforest. We studied the National Geographic website and watched many David Attenborough documentary clips. The children wrote up their own reports about animals of their choice. It was a wonderful and insightful experience. Here are some pictures of the children using the chromebooks to research sloths. Ally and Oscar also brought in their own sloth teddies from home.
We Are All Unique
We are a box of crayons, each of us unique;
But when we come together, the picture is complete.
Hallowe'en Fun
We had great fun during the build up to the Hallowe'en break.
In science we looked at the anatomy of a pumpkin both inside and out. To help the children learn more about the parts, we dissected pumpkins in groups.
In art the children designed and created spooky Hallowe'en masks.
Ally created an amazing Hallowe'en poem at home. She brought it into us and read it aloud. It was wonderfully constructed full of spooky and eerie Hallowe'en imagery and excellent use of rhyming words.
Well done Ally.
Autumn Leaves
We used autumn leaves as inspiration to create two different pieces of art.
First the children gathered leaves and painted them before pressing them down on paper to make prints.
Another day they children gathered more leaves and drew around their leaves. They then used pastels to recreate the original leaf colour. This took some experimentation with colours and a lot of blending.
Leaf Pressing
The children gathered a large variety of leaves from the school yard, their homes and from our Fair Green nature walk. We pressed these leaves using newspaper and heavy books on top.
After a number of weeks we removed the leaves we pressed and the children used them to create some leafy artwork. Look at these amazing and imaginative creations.
Autumn Trees
In art we constructed 3D autumn trees using brown paper bags and autumnal coloured crepe paper.
Nature Walk
Our autumn nature walk was a huge success. The children were split into groups and had to identify a series of different trees in the Fair Green by analysing their leaves and fruit/nuts. It was a wonderful and fun hands on learning experience.
The Senses
The children absolutely loved learning about the five senses in science. We completed some sound guessing games, experimented with percussion instruments to create various sounds in nature, we played games in relation to our sight and the location of items, we used blindfolds to heighten our sense of touch when interacting with an object, we were exposed to a variety of different smells and even got to taste a selection of different foods and flavours. Some tastes and smells were liked more than others!!!!!!
Apple Experiment
After tasting and smelling apples as part of their sensory lesson, the class then incorporated art and science to complete an experiment. They painted apples using paint and baking soda. After the paint dried a little they added some drops of vinegar to create a fizzing effect!!!!
Story Time
Second class worked very hard over the last month on their Recount Writing in English. Recount writing is remembering something that happened and writing about it in the past tense. The class used their imaginations to make up their own 'Crazy Day' recounts. They wrote them initially in their copies and then re-drafted them on paper before visiting Ms McLoughlin's and Ms Kearney's Junior Infant classrooms to read them to the infants. It was a great experience, enjoyed by all.
Mindfulness
The class enjoyed an online mindfulness seminar from Wexford Education Centre. Mindfulness is all about focussing on the present moment, the here and now, and tuning into how your body and mind feels at that moment. The class used playdough during this lesson focussing on how it felt and how they could manipulate it with their hands. After following the video the children each made a beautiful rose. Here are some photos of the results.
Pablo Picasso
In History the class learned about the famous artist Pablo Picasso. They learned some interesting facts about his life and explored some of his work. We focussed on his paintings using the style of Cubism. The children then used this style to inspire them to create their own self portraits.
Butterfly and Caterpillar Hunt
After learning all about the anatomy of the butterfly and it's lifecycle in Science, we all went on a butterfly and caterpillar hunt around the school. They were hard to spot but we found evidence of caterpillars on the leaves of various plants and then two tortoiseshell butterflies sitting together. We spotted some other butterflies too but teacher wasn't quick enough to take the picture!!
The next day Noah brought in a surprise. He found a butterfly and a caterpillar at home in his garden. We all had a close look at them both before releasing them back into nature where they belong. Well done Noah!!!
Butterfly Lifecycle
Check out the amazing display of the lifecycle of the butterfly by Ms Mangan's class. We then added to the display with our painted symmetrical butterflies.
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