Our carol service

 

Tonight's carol service was a huge success, thanks to all the parents, teachers, SNAs and most of all to the children who braved freezing conditions to come and sing for all of us.  You were superb, and really helped to bring the message of Christmas to us all.  May you all have a very happy and peaceful Christmas surrounded by those you love.  Thank you to all.

Floating ball

Tissue goal

Here are some photos of us trying to blow a piece of tissue into a bottle goal.  We thought that if you blow very hard (like kicking a football) that it would be easy to score a goal, but in fact, the trick to scoring is to blow very gently right at the ball.  Otherwise the air that you blow goes round the ball, hits the back wall of the bottle, and bounces out again, taking the tissue ball with it.  This looks like a trick, but actually it is based on Science - air hitting a hard object will bounce off it, and change direction, just like sound waves, or light rays bouncing off shiny surfaces.

Making sprays

Straw whistles

We made whistles from straws.  Teacher cut the top of each straw into a point.  When we squeeze this straw between our lips, we can make music.  Some of us could do this, but some of us need more practice.  Some of us even managed to play "Jingle Bells" on our straw whistles. 

Teacher started with a long straw which made a very low sound.  Then, as she was playing her straw she cut it smaller.  Each time she cut the straw it got shorter and the sound got higher.  We can see that long straws make low sounds while short straws make high sounds.

Christmas clay art

Visit from Santa Claus

Santa came to visit us in school today.  We were wondering if that is Mrs. Claus that was with him?  He was so nice, and he even gave us a huge box of sweets fror each class.  We can't wait for him to visit us on Christmas Eve!

Christmas Santas and Snowmen

Nativity Plays in the halla

We went to the halla to see two wonderful Nativity Plays.  We loved all the singing, dancing, and of course the story of Christmas.  Well done to the teachers and to the wonderful casts of these plays.

Dr. Malachy's Space

Today, Tuesday December 14th, 2010 Dr. Malachy Thompson came to tell us all about space.  He had a really interesting presentation for us, with photos of the planets and the sun, moon and earth.  We learned lots and lots of things that we didn't already know.  Thanks so much Dr. Malachy for such an interesting talk!

A sod of turf

Mrs. Newell brought some turf from the bog in to school to show us.  We talked about using turf in the fires in our chimneys to keep us warm, and we talked about where turf comes from.  This turf came from a bog, and is made up of rottted trees, leaves, grasses and mud.  When it is dried it burns well and a turf fire smells really nice.  We each had a look at the turf, and we tried holding it and smelling it.

A Euphonium in school

Food from our school garden

Yesterday, December 10th, 2010 our teacher Ms. McLoughlin and Ms. Conneely got our school garden ready for winter (a little late, but better late than never!).  They harvested all the carrots, onions, scallions and potatoes that were still growing, weeded the beds, and covered the beds with black plastic bags, so that the weeds in them will die and no more weeds will come.  Our strawberry plants got covered too, we wonder will they survive?  Now we just wait till Spring before we need to tend to our garden again.  Then the planting and weeding will begin again.  In the meantime, have a look at the harvest:

Teacher's trumpet

Friday, December 10th, 2010

Our class will be going to a Music in the Classroom concert in Leisureland in January.  We are listening to lots of fun classical music, and learning new songs for the concert.  Some of the music has trumpet pieces in it.  Teacher brought her trumpet to school so we could hear what it sounds like, and get to see and feel it.  We didn't however get to try it out because teacher doesn't want to be spreading germs.  This trumpet is actually a flugelhorn, a member of the cornet or trumpet family.  We thought teacher must be rich to have a trumpet made from gold, but actually teacher explained that this flugelhorn is made from brass, not gold - she can play this instrument in a brass band.  We can't wait to see the full orchestra with trumpets and flugelhorns.

Melting ice, and using insulators

At the beginning of the class, the teacher showed us a picture of a showman, and she asked us to think about whether putting a coat on the snowman would make the snowman melt more slowly or more quickly.  We were all very sure that the snowman will melt more quickly with his coat on.  Coats are lovely and warm, and usually heat melts the snow.  We all thought the same thing.  We took a vote but all decided that this was the right answer.  Then teacher did this ice experiment with us:

Now we can see that coats are good insulators and will keep us nice and warm when it is cold outside, but if you put a coat on a snowman, the coat will stop the warmer air getting at the snowman, so having a coat will actually keep the snowman colder for longer, and so he will be slower to melt!  We must try this the next time we have snow!!!

Humpty Dumpty show

Ms. McGuire's class put on a wonderful show for us in the Halla today.  It was all about Little Jack Horner making a new friend, and Humpty Dumpty's terrible accident.  Have a look at a few of the pictures we took while watching it.

Can you see the judge, Humpty Dumpty, Jack and Jill, Little Bo Peep and the sheep?  We loved this show.  Well done to the wonderful actors, and to Ms. McGuire!

Making Fridge Magnets

Wednesday, December 8th, 2010

We are making some nice Christmasssy fridge magnets.  They are made with Polyfilla and moulds.  Teacher made up the Polyfilla mix and poured this mix into the moulds.  We dried them on the heaters and teacher popped them out of the moulds. 

 They look nice and white and smooth now. 

They need to be painted next, and a magnet stuck on the back.  They will look great on our fridges!

Christmas art - bells and angels

Tuesday, December 7th, 2010

We made papier mache Christmas bells yesterday.  Teacher made glue for us from cooking flour and water.  She had cut up newspapers.  We dipped the bits of newspaper into the glue and put them on a yoghurt pot.  We left them to dry on the heater.  (Teacher took some photos of us making the bells, but they seem to have disappeared from the camera.  That's a shame!)  This morning we painted the bells, and sprinkled them with glitter.  Patricia put ribbons on them so we can hang them on our Christmas trees.  They look great.

We also made angels for our Christmas trees.  Yesterday we painted toilet rolls and left them to dry on the windowsill.  Today we painted angels, stuck on silver wings and halos, cut out the angels and stuck them on the toilet rolls.  (Teacher took lots of pictures of the finished angels, but they too have disappeared, she'll take more tomorrow,  maybe it has something to do with the magic of Christmas, or maybe she just needs a new camera!!!)  They are so nice they almost look like real angels.  Check back tomorrow to see photos of them.