A baby ladybird in our class

Tuesday, February 8th, 2011

We have a baby ladybird in our class.  It is yellow and black, not red and black, and it is tiny (hard to see in the photo I'm afraid).  We will feed it grass, and raindrops, and see will it turn red.  What should we call him???

Drama dates

We will be performing our drama in Inverin on Tuesday, February 15th.  Scoil Chaitríona Junior will be performing our 3 plays:

• Ms. Conneely's  "Na Trí Mhuc" (Three Little Pigs),
• followed by Ms. Tierney's "Taisteal" (Travel)
• and then Ms. McLoughlin's "Anraith Cloch" (Stone Soup)

starting at 12pm and finishing at 1:10.  The children will be bussed to Inverin, parents and siblings are more than welcome to come watch (we'd love a fan group!), but will have to make their own way there.

If this doesn't suit, why not come along to our dress rehearsal for parents on Monday, February 14th in the school hall.  We will perform our 3 plays, in the same order, between 11am and 12pm on that day.

We will have other dress rehearsals for other classes in our school on Thursday 10th, and Friday 11th, so please send your child to school in a tracksuit on those days, because they will find it much easier to dress and undress without buttons.

With thanks

Shape activities in action

All about trains

Our class has become very interested in trains. We are extremely lucky to have been chosen to take part in the "Keep on Track" http://keepontrack.scoilnet.ie/ project involving just 15 schools, one from each of the stops on the Dublin to Galway railway line.   Do you have any stories or books about trains you could lend us?  Do you have any train toys or models of trains?  Could you come and talk to us about trains or working with trains? Do you know any rhymes or songs about trains you could teach us?  We are really enthusiastic about trains!!!

Dráma: Anraith Cloch

Tá dráma ar siúl againn sa rang seo.  Inniu rinne muid ár gcéad cleachtadh agus muid gléasta suas.  Bhí an-craic againn.  Beidh muid i gcomórtas mar cuid den "Féile Scoildrámaíochta" in Inverin ar an 15ú lá d'Feabhra.  Beidh deis ag na tuismitheoirí muid a fheiceáil in Inverin, nó ar scoil ar an 11ú lá.  Go raibh maith agaibh go léir as ucht an cabhair atá sibh á thabhairt dúinn.

Our class is doing a drama, based on the traditional story "Stone Soup".  Today was our first dress rehearsal.  It was great fun.  We will be taking part in the Festival of Irish Dramas for schools in Inverin on February 15th (at 12pm -  you are all invited, it will be held in Seanscoil Sailerno in Inverin...a little brick school on the right hand side of the road just past the petrol station in Inverin, €5 for adults, free for kids).  If you can't make it to support us, we will be having a full dress rehearsal for parents and friends in the school hall, probably on the 11th (to be confirmed).  Have a look at us, all dressed up as poor villagers.  Many thanks to you all for your help and support, and especially to Len, our unbelievable props and sets grandad!

2D and 3D shape activities

Reading like trains

Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011

Our class is involved in the Keep on Track train project at http://keepontrack.scoilnet.ie/.  We are learning songs and rhymes about trains, playing train games in PE, and even reading like trains.  Fist of all we play a phonic or word list loop game.  (One player calls out "I have pet, who has ten?" and the person with the word "ten" keeps the game moving in the same way.)  Once the game has been played and the cards are laid out in order, in the shape of a train track, we read then at a train pace - starting very slowly and then getting quicker and quicker and slowing down at the end.  We like the rhythm of this game.

Hearing about life in our grandparents time

The Boy Explorer visits our school

Preparing for St. Brigid's Day

Making patterns with counters

Friday, January 28th, 2011 

Today we were making patterns with counters.  With just 4 counters each, look at some of the interesting patterns we made.  We were just proving that 4 counters are always 4 counters, no matter how we have them arranged (sometimes a difficult concept when we are young).

The Forest Child drama

Friday, January 28th, 2011

Today teacher read us a really interesting story about a forest child.  We acted out little bits of it, and we chatted about what it would be like to be brought up by animals, like the little girl in the story.  We chose whether we'd prefer to be the Forest girl, or the Forest boy.  Most of us just wanted to be what we are in real life, but teacher wanted to be the boy, so she could live with both the animals and the humans.  After we finished reading and talking about the story, we made a sound collage.  Each of us had to make sounds that we can hear in the forest, then we tried making the sounds louder or softer by watching teacher's signals.  It was a lot of fun, and we felt like we were really in a forest.

How does teacher's topper work?

Teacher has a great topper to sharpen our pencils.  Sometimes it gets stuck so teacher takes it apart and fixes it so it can work again.  We were wondering how it works, so teacher took it apart and showed us.  There is a little cog wheel in it (like the cogs we play with), and there are 2 little pinchers, like fingers, on a spring to hold the pencil in place.  Unlike the usual toppers, the pencil does not twist, it is the topper itself that twists, when you turn the handle.  It is really interesting finding out how things work.

Paintings of Houses

Learning about colours

We were painting houses this morning (well, pictures of houses).  We didn't always have the colours we needed, so teacher was talking to us about mixing colours.  We found out lots!

Releasing our Moth

Looking at our moth

Tuesday, January 25th, 2011

 We all had a good look at our moth today.  It started as a little green caterpillar, then became a dark brown cocoon and is now a brown and grey moth.  We love looking at it, and feeding it fresh oranges and water.

More houses data

Tuesday, January 25th, 2011

Today we talked some more about houses.  Today's data chart was about the type of house that each of us actually lives in.  Here is what today's chart looks like.

Learning about Houses

We are learning all about different kinds of houses.  We talked about the advantages and disadvantages to living in different kinds of homes.   Then we got to choose which type of house we would like to live in.  We made a DataChart of the results.  Looks like most of our Mammies and Daddies will have to move to a house boat or a three story house, because these are the types of houses we like the best!!

Our Brave Moth

The first spring primrose

Saturday, January 22nd, 2011

Teacher has spotted the first primrose bud.  It thinks spring is coming, and you can see its lovely yellow bud.

Penguin art

Feeding the winter birds

Teacher feeds the birds that come to her garden.  She leaves out peanuts and water for them, and even leaves out chains of monkey nuts (still in their shells).  The birds love to visit her garden.  Here is a picture of a blue tit eating the monkey nuts.  Remember to leave nuts and seeds out for the birds to eat in this cold weather.

Music in the Classroom

Literacy games

Eskimo art

Making Electric Circuits

In class we have been talking about elctricity, how Michael Faraday discovered electricity, how electricity is available from power stations, solar power, wind turbines, water power and battery power.  We talked about keeping safe around electricity in the house, and we made our own electric circuits.  We also had a chat about what life was like long ago without electricity, about what children of long ago couldn't have got from Santa (because there was no electricity back then) and about how machines in the house have changed since electricity became available.

Happy New Year 2011