Monday 22 December 2008

Indian display

Indian Display
Monday, December 22nd, 2008
Adi’s Mum and Dad are from India. They speak English and Bengali. They came to our class to tell us really interesting things about
India…….
....Adi’s Dad had a great presentation to show us. He showed us the Indian flag and map, and told us that it would take us 8 hours to fly to India by aeroplane. He showed us photographs of the Himalayan mountains in the north, the desert in the west, the sea and beaches of the south, and the lovely bay and sea of the east. We saw pictures of peacocks, a tiger, lotus flower, cricket, Taj Mahal, traditional food, clothes, festivals, art and
architecture, travel, and a really interesting piece from an Indian film. It was all so interesting.

Adi’s Mum showed us her everyday clothes, and also how to wear a sari. We were really surprised at how much material is in each sari. We saw Indian jewellery (it was lovely), spices, and home decorations. Adi and his mum and dad showed us how they say their prayers in Bengali, and they also let us try some traditional snacks. They were salty rather than sweet. They were
delicious. Thanks so much to Alok and Tanu for letting us experience India in such an interesting and fun way.

Friday 19 December 2008

Christmas Lanterns

Friday, December 19th, 2008
We made some lovely Christmas lanterns in class today. Look at us holding them.

Santa's Visit

Friday, 19th December 2008
Santa came to visit our class today. He was big and round and jolly, and he wore his red suit. He was really nice and he gave us some chocolates. We can't wait until he comes to our houses on Christmas Eve.

Thursday 18 December 2008

Racing Colours

Thursday, December 18th, 2008
We got tissue paper, cups with a little water in them, and markers. We made spots with the marker fairly near (but not at) the end of the tissue. We put the tissue into a cup with a little water. What happened?The tissue absorbed the water and pulled the marker dye with it. We could see the colours racing, and we could see what colours are made from other colours. We saw purple (red and blue), green (blue and yellow), orange (yellow and red) and brown (red, yellow and blue).

Colour Wheels

Thursday, December 18th, 2008
Teacher had some Quality Street chocolate wrappers. We could look through the papers and everything seems a lovely colour. When we mixed the colours together we could make new colours.

We discovered that:
red and yellow make orange,
red and blue make purple,
yellow and blue make green and
yellow, blue and red together make brown.
Mrs Newell had some coloured plastic sheets. We stuck these to the windows in different combinations and got the same results.

Next we made colour wheels and spun them using toothpicks. Teacher let us spin some with a motor. They spun really well, and made lots of different colours. We discovered that if you make a wheel with the 7 colours of the rainbow on it, that when it spins you can see a white light. Do you know the colours of the rainbow? We do. They are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.

Carol Service

We had our Carol Service last night (Wednesday, 17th of December). It was just lovely. The children sang so well, the junior infants looked gorgeous dressed up as people and animals from the Nativity Story and the "Amen" dance at the end was spectacular. Well done to all the children, teachers and parents who put so much time and effort into making the night a really special one.

Tuesday 16 December 2008

German Display

German display
Tuesday, 16th December 2008 Jordan’s mum Anita came to tell us all about Germany today. She lived there for 8 years. She brought lots of toys, ornaments and clothes to show us. She also had a huge beer mug. Anita had a lovely jigsaw of Europe to show us the countries we are hearing about at the moment. We looked at lovely nutcracker dolls, German jellies and all sorts of Easter decorations. We learned some German words too, and saw the map and flag of Germany. It was all so interesting.

Monday 15 December 2008

Algerian Display

Algerian display
Monday, 15th December 2008
Lisa’s Dad, Mustapha is from Algeria.

He came to our class today and told us lots about Algeria. He showed us his flag, a map of his country, Algerian jewellery,

dates (which we tried eating — they were delicious)

and a traditional Algerian guitar. Mustapha sang us two Algerian songs. He is a great singer. We really enjoyed hearing all about Algeria today.

Friday 12 December 2008

All about Poland

Friday, December 12th, 2008
Marta in our class has parents and grandparents that come from Poland. Today her mum Joanna came to visit our class to tell us all about Poland.Joanna showed us the flag of Poland, and she taught us how to say Hello and Goodbye in Polish. She had a lot of lovely pictures of Polish scenery, winter in Poland (snow angels, bonfires, ice sculptures), Christmas in Poland (wafers, food, Santa), Easter in Poland (Easter eggs, baskets, hare hunts), handcrafts, pottery, traditional costumes and dancing, paper cut outs, Knights and Castles. Joanna brought sweets and biscuits from Poland, for us to try. They were delicious. A big Thank you to Marta and her mum for such a wonderful presentation, and for telling us so much about Poland. We had a great time, and we learned a lot. Now we all hope to visit
Poland some day.

The Story of

Friday, December 12th, 2008We are busy making the story of 10. We use hangers and pegs, beads, magnetic children and blocks, links and hoops and counters to help us. We are getting very good at this activity.

Thursday 11 December 2008

Artists at work

We are doing lots of art for Christmas. Look at us working. Do you like our fabric and fibre angels and our potato print cards? You might even get one this Christmas.

Wednesday 10 December 2008

All About Vietnam

All About Vietnam
Wednesday, 10th December, 2008
Lisa’s Mum Hau came to visit our class and tell us all about Vietnam. She wore a very pretty Vietnamese dress. Hau had a great presentation for us on the whiteboard. She showed us pictures of Vietnamese food, map, flag, clothes, instruments and festivals.
Hau sang us a Vietnamese children’s song, with her daughters Lisa and Laura. It was so different from the English and Irish songs that we know.She showed us prawn crackers and let us taste them and she taught us some Vietnamese sayings and numbers. Vietnamese is very hard. Thank you so much Hau.

Tuesday 9 December 2008

Making a Volcano

Tuesday, December 9th, 2008
We put bread soda into a small bottle. (We also added red food colouring for effect, and wash up liquid for bubbles). Nothing happened yet.
Next Markian poured in vinegar and the volcano exploded, sending out bubbly red lava. This is because bread soda and vinegar react together chemically, giving off lots of bubbles (of carbon dioxide).
We used the gas made to blow up a balloon. This time we started with vinegar in the bottle and the bread soda in the balloon. When we held the balloon upright, the bread soda in the balloon fell into the vinegar. The gas that was made blew up the balloon.