We have been learning about the famous author Roald Dahl. Did you know that:
We studied the writing genre of report writing and wrote a report on the well-known author.
3rd- 6th class have been learning about the Great Irish Famine. The Great Famine or the Great Hunger (An Górta Mór) is the name given to the potato famine in Ireland between 1845 and 1852. The famine was caused by a fungus called the potato blight which quickly destroyed the potatoes in Ireland and across Europe. The effect was particularly severe in Ireland because potatoes were the main source of food for most Irish people at the time. It is believed that between 500,000 and more than one million people died in the three years from 1846 to 1849. Another million became emigrated because of the famine. Many people who left Ireland emigrated to Great Britain, the United States, Canada and Australia.
What's through the keyhole?
Symmetrical Bugs!
Can you spot our names within these symmetrical creatures?
Scríobh gach duine scéal faoin ár éadaí scoile. Déanaimid leabhar leis na scéalta!
One of our Art lessons integrated with Maths when we created Minecraft Selfies. We each formed a portrait of ourselves on squared paper. We then calculated the area and perimeter of the figure during Maths time.
We have been covering the topic of heat in Science over a number of weeks. One of our experiments looked at insulators. We performed an investigation to see what material was the best insulator. We used 6 identical glass jars. We covered these jars in different materials- newspaper, tissue paper, cotton wool, plasticine and fabric. We used one of the jars as our control- it did not have anything covering it. We then placed warm water in each of the jars. We had to be very careful that the warm water was the same temperature- this proved to be tricky! Our results showed that the best insulator was the fabric, with a heat loss of just 9 degrees over a two-hour period. Cotton wool followed closely in second place with a loss of 10 degrees; plasticine was 13 degrees; tissue paper was fifteen degrees. The worst insulator was the newspaper with a heat loss of 16 degrees.
Some of our 3rd class pupils have been very busy writing, illustrating and compiling their own book which they prepared all by themselves! "Dog Diaries" is a fantastic story about some much loved four-legged animals! We really look forward to the second book!
Our English theme for January was snow. We studied the writing genre of persuasive writing and wrote a letter to our principal, Mrs Smith, to try and persuade her to close the school for a day or two because of the bad weather!
We have had a very busy time in school over the last two months. We visited the Garage Theatre in Monaghan in December where we watched the pantomime "The Bockety World of Henry and Bucket". We were also very busy preparing for our Christmas Nativity play "Midwife Crisis" on Friday 13th December 2019. The children worked very hard on their drama skills and put on a fantastic show for everyone- well done! We also had a very special visitor on the last day of term- Santa made an appearance in Drung No.2 N.S. and brought some special gifts for everyone. Here is just a snippet of some of the work we have been doing!
Scéalta- Ag siopadóireacht san lárionad siopadóireachta
Did you know that one of our Special Education Teachers Mr. Paul Brady, is a handball five-time World Champion? Mr. Brady came in to speak to us all about how he rose to the top and then showed us how to play handball! We all had an opportunity to play the World Handball Champion. Here are some facts about handball and Mr Brady's experiences
We began a school draughts league, to be continued in the new year!
A very warm welcome to the senior room blog for a new school year 2019 - 2020. We have had a very busy September and October as usual. Here is just a snapshot of some of the tasks and activities we have been taking part in.
We learned how to draw our names in simple block letters. We learned about the vanishing point and used one-point perspective to make the letters look 3-D. Our 3-D names are displayed with our Gaeilge pieces of writing.
Scéalta- Mé Féin
We are covering the English writing genre of narrative writing this month through the theme of dreams. Here are some interesting facts about dreams that you might not have known before!
Some wonderful facts about the human skeleton:
Did you know that Cavan is known as the Lake County? There are 365 lakes in Cavan- one for every day in the year!
Can you figure out these simple equations to find out more about us?
Thank you to one of our sixth class pupils who brought in his pet duck which hatched over the summer holidays. We really enjoyed his visit!
The senior room pupils are entering the Credit Union art competition again this year. The theme for this year is "Walk of Life".
Our work is in progress on our fantastic entries!
We have been learning about our teeth. Did you know that an egg is like a tooth? Both contain calcium compounds which can be attacked by acid. We put a fresh egg into a cup of vinegar. The shell of the egg got weakened by the acid making it soft and more fragile. When teeth are exposed to acids in the mouth, they become more vulnerable to cavities. Teeth and eggs can be both protected by fluoride.
Try the experiment out for yourself! Here is the link to the instructions:
https://www.stem.org.uk/system/files/elibrary-resources/legacy_files_migrated/8480-catalyst_20_2_442.pdf
Some circuit building in Science during the month of October!
We were very fortunate to get a special invitation from Minister Heather Humphreys to go to visit Dáil Éireann in Leinster House. We were so excited to meet with Minister Humphreys, the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation in Leinster House. We had an in-depth tour of The Dáil and The Senate and we even got a special shout-out in the Senate.
Have a read of our newsletter which some of the senior room children wrote about our wonderful trip.
Dear Parents,
We are writing to you to tell you about our wonderful trip to Leinster House yesterday. The bus arrived at the school a little bit later than anticipated but when we were finally on our way, we watched out for some attractions between Drung and Dublin. Some of the attractions were Lavey Inn, Ramor Theatre, the Luas and the Tower of Lloyd. Just as we were approaching Dublin city centre, we could see The Spire and we received an unexpected phone call from Minister Heather Humphreys (Minister for Business, Innovation and Enterprise). In the call, Minister Humphreys said she was going to meet us personally, whenever we got off the bus. We were very excited!
We met with Minister Humphreys and her P. A. (Personal Assistant) Eamonn, at security. We then got a photograph on the steps of Leinster House. We were escorted inside the building where there was strict security. Minister Heather Humphreys had to go to Leader's Questions in Dail Eireann and we were lucky enough to be able to watch this. We saw Simon Coveney (Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade), Richard Bruton (Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment) and Katherine Zappone (Minister for Children).
We were given a tour of Leinster House by a security guard. Did you know that the Fitzgerald family lived in the house when it was first built in 1745? There were nineteen children in the family.
After that, we were escorted to the Seanad. The Seanad is where ideas are discussed before bringing them to the Dáil. Minister Humphreys was speaking in the Seanad when we arrived. We were given a very warm welcome by the leader of the Seanad (Cathaoirleach). We saw Senator James Reilly, whose wife's family is from Drung!
On our way home, we stopped at McDonalds in Blanchardstown where we had a long-awaited lunch!
We had such a memorable day and we would like to thank Minister Heather Humphreys for the kind invitation to Leinster House and also, to the Parents Association for providing us with a bus.
A picture of the whole school with Minister Humphreys on the steps of Leinster House.
Kind regards,
Abby, Nathan, Otto and Sarah (on behalf of the Senior Room).
Piet Mondian was a Dutch artist. He was born in Holland in 1872 and died in New York when he was 72 years old. At first, Mondrian liked to paint the countryside where he lived. Some of his paintings were unrecognisable as they contained many brush strokes and lines. As the years went on, they became more and more abstract and only contained the three primary colours. Mondrian had a keen interest in shape and balance and he became very famous as he was one of the first painters to produce a completely abstract painting. Today, the influence of his art can be seen on shoes, clothes, electronics and homeware.
We used rulers to draw vertical, horizontal and
diagonal lines. Can you spot any shapes in our work? We have included
triangles, rectangles,
squares, circles and some
irregular shapes to make our paintings more abstract. Red, blue, yellow, black and white were the only paints that we used. The black outline makes our work look even more effective.
Scríobh gach duine biachlár.
Ian Patterson came to speak to us about birds of prey. He brought Tito, his barn owl Fluffy, his tawny owl Bill, his kestrel falcon and Joe, his harris's hawk. We learned a lot from his visit and had the opportunity to fly his birds.
Some interesting facts:
As part of Cavan Sports Partnership, the children took part in a four week Zumba dance programme with an external teacher. We really enjoyed learning some Zumba dance moves and we thank Aisha for the time she spent with us!
These are our God's Eyes. It is a Mexican tradition that people keep these in their houses so that God can keep an eye over them!
A lesson on colour and texture.
We went on our annual school tour with Kilmore N.S. to Causey Farm in Co. Meath. We had a tour of the farm and handled some of the animals they had there. We then went bog jumping and tried to get as dirty as possible!!
The senior room pupils have been doing a lot of work with magnets recently. We have been testing items which magnets attract and repel. We have also been testing the strength of different types of magnets by investigating how many paper clips various magnets can hold. One of the most interesting tasks we did was make our own magnets! We stroked a needle against a magnet for around one minute (40 strokes approximately). This magnetised the needle and then the needle was enabled to lift other items on its own!
This photo shows a magnet lifting the needle and paper clip. If you magnetise the needle by stroking it against the magnet, you will make your own magnet out of the needle and you won't need the magnet at all. Try it for yourself!
The senior room pupils have been working on clay bowls for Mothering Sunday. We were inspired by the work of Vincent van Gogh. One of Vincent van Gogh's most famous paintings is "Sunflowers". Our bowls are a recreation of his work! Our sunflower bowls needed support while drying, we used ceramic bowls to hold our clay bowls and we lined them with Vaseline and clingfilm to ensure a safe exit!
6th class have been working on their 3-D shapes. Here are some of the models they have made.
Reamhaisneis na hAimsire. Weather forecasting as gaeilge.
The senior room pupils are falling from the sky in these art pieces. We studied the area of perspective and discussed what someone standing on the ground would see if we were falling from the sky. We linked this Art lesson with Maths by revising symmetry. The soles of our feet are symmetrical- they are both the same!
The whole school had a busy afternoon one Friday, working together to clean out our fruit and vegetable boxes. We have planted some new fruits this year- blackcurrants, blueberries and raspberries. We look forward to some delicious fruits during the summer. We planted some onions, carrots, leeks, lettuce and rocket in our other vegetable boxes.
We also did some indoor planting. We learned that some plants need the heat to grow. We planted celery, sweet peppers and chillies in pots indoors. If it gets a little warmer, we might replant the celery outdoors! We also planted some beautiful sunflowers as we were inspired by Vincent Van Gogh's famous sunflower painting!
Come to space with us! We have been learning about the theme of the solar system in English. We studied the structure of a formal letter and we wrote a letter to someone to persuade them to join us on a space travel trip.
We took part in the National Spring Clean Programme this year. This is an anti-litter initiative operated by an Taisce and takes place every April. Our clean up day took place on 12th April and everyone was eager to lend a hand to pick up any litter on our school grounds.
One of our 6th class was inspired by the structure of a fortune cookie and designed and created this shark puppet! The attention paid to fine detail on this piece of work is fantastic.
During Science week in November, we visited Cootehill library to meet a marine biologist. He spoke to us about living creatures under the sea and he brought a range of interesting bones and shells.
A jaw bone of a whale
Desperately listening for sounds of the sea!
Part of a vertebrae of a whale
The junior and senior room children held an exhibition of their lego on Saturday 1st December 2018. It was a huge success and generated great excitement in the run up to Christmas. Visitors travelled from far and wide to come to the event and we thank everyone sincerely for their generous donations.
We were delighted to have the Minister of Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Heather Humphreys open our exhibition. Minister Humphreys was thrilled with her present of a Lego version of herself and said she had never been Lego'd before! We also welcomed Deputy Niamh Smyth and Bishop Ferran Glenfield on the day.
In the run up to our Lego exhibition, we got creative and transformed ourselves into Lego people. Can you recognise us? Can you pick out the school staff?
3rd and 4th class have been learning all about China and created a mini project on this Asian country. In contrast to this, 5th and 6th class have been studying European countries and created a mini project on the Scandinavian country of Norway. Some facts for you:
A map of Norway
A map of China
The Mona Lisa
Leonardo da Vinci
We have been studying the life and work of Leonardo da Vinci and we examined the Mona Lisa in detail. We then re-created our own Mona Lisas! Here are some facts we learned about this famous artist and his piece of work The Mona Lisa.
Leonardo da Vinci is a famous Italian master of art, who became known in the time of the Renaissance. He was born in 1452 and died in 1519. He was an expert painter, sculptor, architect, engineer, scientist, inventor and writer. Da Vinci's most famous painting is the Mona Lisa. It was painted in Florence in Italy during the Renaissance and it is now on display in the Louvre Museum in France. It was one of da Vinci's favourite paintings and he kept it with him every day until he died. The identity of the woman with the mysterious smile was unknown for hundreds of years. It is widely agreed that the woman was Lisa Giocondo. Her husband, Francesco di Bartolomeo del Giocondo, was a wealthy silk merchant. He commissioned da Vinci to paint a portrait of his wife. Did you know that The Mona Lisa has been vandalised and stolen a number of times? In 1911, an ex-employee of the Louvre stole the painting because he believed it belonged in Italy. He walked out of the museum with the painting under his coat. Police detained him two years later when he tried to sell the painting to a gallery in Florence, Italy. The Mona Lisa was returned undamaged to the Louvre. In 1956, a vandal threw acid on the lower part of the painting. In the same year, someone threw a rock at it and a tiny chip of paint was dislodged. Since then, the Mona Lisa has been kept behind bulletproof glass.
These are our re-creations of The Mona Lisa
In Art, we covered the strand of clay before Christmas. We made some pinch pots in the shape of turkeys to hold all of those Christmas nibbles during the festive period!
We took part in a Physical Education initiative which was ran by Cavan Sports Partnership for four weeks before Christmas. We were delighted to welcome Roisin, a community sports development officer from the area to teach us how to play spikeball. We really enjoyed it and hope to play spikeball during the year as part of PE.
The whole school travelled to the Garage Theatre in Monaghan for our annual trip to see the Christmas pantomime. This year's show was called "Little Miss Muffet's Christmas Mix-up". We had a really enjoyable day out which included an obligatory trip to McDonald's on our way home!
A special visitor made it to Drung (No. 2) just in time for our Christmas holidays!
We have been learning about perspective and how things look different when you are looking down at them from a height. This is called an aerial view or a bird's-eye view. We created an aerial view of a snowman, as if we were looking down at the snowman from the sky!
The senior room have been experimenting with colour in Art and have been learning about colour and tone while creating some Winter Wonderland pieces. We used different shades of colour while painting concentric circles to make a beautiful effect in the sky. Our silhouettes are all different. We hope you like them! You can try it for yourself using the link below.
http://terristeachingtreasures.blogspot.com/2013/01/winter-wonderland-art.html
Scriobh gach duine sceal - M'eadach Scoile.
Is aoibhinn linn siopadoireacht! Scriobh gach duine sceal faoin larionad siopadoireachta.
The senior room studied the English writing genre of report writing while learning about sharks. We became aware of many interesting facts about sharks. Did you know that sharks belong to the family of Chondrichthyes? Sharks have been around for about 400 million years. They have the most powerful jaws on the planet. A shark may grow and use over 20,000 teeth in their lifetime. If they lose a tooth, another tooth will replace it straight away. Sharks have rows and rows of back-up teeth. Almost all sharks are carnivores and some sharks will each other sharks.
We each had one shark to research. We used books, laptops and iPads to source our information. We then compiled our information in the form of a report.
Our classroom is like an aquarium! Each senior room pupil made a shark using a balloon and the paper mache method.
The junior and senior room children worked collaboratively on a piece of art based on Spring time. We covered the art strands of paint and colour and construction.
Some of our senior room boys represented Drung (No. 2) N.S. in the Ulster Schools Table Tennis Tournament last month. They played against other teams representing schools across Ulster and we are delighted to announce that they won first place in this tournament, taking home a beautiful plaque. The boys will compete against other regional winning teams later on in the school year and play for the All-Ireland champions title. Best of luck boys!
3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th class have settled back in to the senior room after our summer holidays. We welcomed our new 3rd class into the senior classroom in September and we look forward to the year ahead. We have had a very busy two months in school. Here is just a snapshot of some of the work we have been doing
Marvelous Me: "I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful, I know that full well." Psalms 139:13 Everyone has qualities to be proud of. We identified our qualities and strengths during the first few weeks in September and displayed these on the outline of our bodies.
"Give thanks to the Lord. He is good." Psalms 107:1 We have been learning a lot about the harvest festival during October. The senior room and the junior room children worked collaboratively on this harvest display which can be seen in our school hallway. We covered the art strands of paint and colour, fabric and fibre, printing and construction. A lot of work went in to this project and the pupils paid close attention to fine details. Some clothes had to be salvaged during this project but we are very proud of the finished product!
To encourage and promote healthy eating in our school, we ran a healthy eating week in October. The theme of healthy eating was integrated across many subject areas over the week. The pupils have been very busy studying the food pyramid, examining healthy and unhealthy menus and discussing healthy and unhealthy food choices for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. The children planned a healthy lunch for the final day of healthy eating week and we talked about our healthy choices.
We also took part in a tasting afternoon where we tasted many different fruits and vegetables. Some fruits we tried were mango, pineapple, honey-dew melon, canary melon, kiwi, raspberries, blueberries, mandarin oranges and pears. Some vegetables included carrot sticks, celery, cucumber, sweet peppers and mangetout. We were surprised by some and not by others!
The senior pupils learned how soup is a healthy option on the menu and they researched delicious soup recipes. The pupils covered the English writing genre of procedural writing when they wrote their first draft of their recipes, edited their work and later, redrafted their work in digital form.
As part of healthy eating week, the children learned how easy it is to make soup while observing the teachers make two different types of soups. Mrs. Smith made vegetable and oatmeal soup with the whole school and Ms. Gould made her specialty- sweet potato and leek soup. The pupils were eager to lend a helping hand with reading the recipe, washing the vegetables and weighing out the ingredients. We enjoyed tasting our samples of soup when they were cooked.
The pupils had a crazy hair day here in the senior room! We studied line, pattern and complimentary colours in art. Each pupil had the opportunity to create a new, desirable hair style for themselves. We hope you like them!
In Maths, the senior room pupils have been learning about 2D shapes their names and their properties. We have been learning about parallel and perpendicular lines, lines of symmetry in shapes, corners and edges. In Art, we examined the colour wheel. Do you know that some colours are considered to be warm and others are considered to be cool? Have a look at the wheel below to see the difference! We integrated Maths and Art while completing this shape and colour project. It took a lot of concentration but the finished products are amazing!
The senior room pupils entered the Credit Union Art competition this year. They have worked very hard on their entries for Cootehill Credit Union. The theme this year was "The Force of Nature". We wish them the best of luck!
We have been doing lots of work on the theme of Autumn and Harvest. During a collaborative lesson with the Junior room, we categorised lots of different vegetables and examined real pumpkins. Did you know that the pumpkin is part of the gourd family? In small groups, we designed a face for a pumpkin and used Sharpie markers to draw the face on our pumpkins. The teachers then carved our designs! We hope you like them!
We are continuing to connect with students in the United States of America in the form of email this year. We are writing letters to a group of 4th grade pupils in a school in San Diego, California. Each student corresponds with one or two students in Rio Seco school in Santee, San Diego. Each month we send a letter to and receive a letter from our e-pal(s) through email. During our correspondence, we learn so many interesting facts about their school and home lives and the culture of west America. Did you know that the time difference between Ireland and California is 8 hours? California is 8 hours behind us, so when we are typing our responses, our e-pals are probably still sleeping!
We have been learning about sound in Science over the past number of weeks. We conducted an investigation to find out what materials muffle sound the best. We worked in groups to design and make a pair of ear muffs. Here are our creations!
We were selling our family cars in English this month
Here are some of our fantastic creations using the basic running stitch.
Scriobh gach duine sceal faoin siopadoireacht.
These are snow globes which we created by pointillism using cotton buds.
We listened to the story "Snowmen at night" by Caralyn Buehner. This inspired us to create our own chalk pictures based on what snowmen could be doing while we sleep!
Here are our winter trees mosaics. We needed lots of different shades of blue so we put our paint mixing skills to good use!
The whole school took part in the Readathon last October-November in aid of Multiple Sclerosis Ireland. Huge thanks to everyone who sponsored the children during their busy month of reading. With your help the children have raised a huge amount for Multiple Sclerosis Ireland.
Two of the students in the senior room brought musical instruments in to school which they got for Christmas. We enjoyed a sing-song while one of our fifth class students played the guitar.
We learned about the properties of 2D shapes through Art this month. We studied Paul Klee (pronounced 'Clay') who was a Swiss artist, born in the late 1870s. He was an Art teacher in Germany and he loved children's art. He often used the children's artwork to inspire his own! Klee was an abstract artist. Many of his paintings do not look like anything at all. He liked to use warm, cool and neutral colours.
We learned about the life of Paul Klee and examined some of his most famous pieces. We were inspired by Klee's cityscape. We integrated Art with Maths and we discussed 2D shapes and their properties. We listed all of the 2D shapes which can be seen in Klee's cityscape called "Castle and Sun". We then created our own cityscapes but put our own twist on them! These pieces of work are wax-resist paintings. Firstly, we drew our scenes. Then we used oil pastels to colour our pictures. We painted over our pictures using black paint and finally we wiped off the paint to create a textured cityscape.
Paul Klee (1879-1940)
As a follow up from Paul Klee, we learned more about warm and cool colours. We created two paintings- one was concentric circles and the other was a selection of abstract patterns. We painted one of the paintings using cool colours and the other was painted using warm colours. We then put our weaving skills to the test! We cut the patterned sheet up into strips and weaved them through the concentric circles.
O.M. Ireland visited the school with their puppet show "Oops... Lost Something...?" We really enjoyed their Christmas performance.
The whole school went to the Garage Theatre in December to see the Christmas pantomime "Little Miss Muffet's Christmas Caper". We enjoyed our day out at the theatre and our lunch in McDonalds!
Paul Klee's "Castle and Sun"
This month, as part of the Cavan/Monaghan Science Festival, the Senior children were invited to Cootehill Library and a Science show was put on for us! We thoroughly enjoyed our time there!!
On Monday 9th October, we visited Cavan library to listen to a French author, Juliette Saumande showcase her book 'Disaster David' which was released earlier this year. We really enjoyed listening to Juliette, while she told us about herself and read her book. We also got time at the end of the session to freely browse through some of the books in the library.
The senior room entered the Credit Union Art competition this year. They have worked very hard on their entries for Cootehill Credit Union. The theme this year was "Set your imagination free". We wish them the best of luck!
We have been learning all about the topic of sugar. Did you know that sugar is a carbohydrate that gives us energy? Our brains need around 130g of sugar every day to cover our basic energy needs. Sugar is present in most foods. It is found naturally in foods like fruits but is added to numerous foods too. There are many different types of sugar available now, for example, granulated, caster, demerara and icing sugar. In English, we learned how granulated sugar is made. This is the sugar you might put in your tea! We studied the English writing genre of explanatory writing. We wrote explanations on how sugar is made from the plant and brought straight to our plates! In Science, we discussed the sugar content in different foods. In Maths we examined food labels and weighed out the content of sugar in some of our much-loved treats and foods!
We studied Austrian symbolist painter Gustav Klimt. We learned some facts about this talented artist. Klimt's Mum was a musical performer and his Dad was an engraver of gold. From an early age, it was clear that Klimt was very artistic. He began painting murals in museums in Vienna in Austria and this is when Klimt became well-known for his talent. His work was based on many different topics and themes. He used lots of symbols and paid close attention to detail in his paintings, adding lots of patterns and designs. We examined his famous piece of work "The Tree of Life" and created our own "trees of life" inspired by his work and the colours of Autumn.
The Tree of Life
Gustav Klimt (1862-1918)
It was Maths week from 14th to 22nd October! The whole school worked together to compile a Data project based on the topic of transport. Throughout the week, we studied different types of charts, for example, pictograms, bar charts, block graphs, bar-line graphs, multiple bar charts, trend graphs and pie charts. We carried out a traffic survey outside the school and collected a range of information, for example, type of vehicle which passed the school, vehicle colour, registration of vehicle, gender of driver and make of car. We then examined the data we collected and worked in pairs and small groups to graph the information in different ways.
This year, the whole school took part in a Tug of War workshop as part of the Irish Sports Council Initiative.
A coach from Cavan Sports Partnership joined us in Drung (No 2) NS to teach us some of the basic skills of Tug of War. We were then very eager to put these new skills to good use!
Here we are in action!
The whole school planted crocuses this month, in memory of the 1.5 million Jewish children who perished in the Holocaust. The crocuses will bloom around the end of January, about the time of international Holocaust Memorial Day (27 January). When people admire the flowers, the pupils will be able to explain what they represent and recall the children who perished in the Holocaust.
We have been doing lots of work on the theme of Autumn and Harvest. During a collaborative lesson with the Junior room, we categorised lots of different vegetables and examined real pumpkins. Did you know that the pumpkin is part of the gourd family? In small groups, we designed a face for a pumpkin and used Sharpie markers to draw the face on our pumpkins. The teachers then carved our designs! Hope you like them!
Welcome back to the senior room blog after a long summer. We have had a very busy September settling back in to the routines of the senior room classroom.
We welcomed five new pupils in to our classroom this year- A warm welcome to Ava, Sarah, Jamie Aidan and Sarah who are now in 3rd class!
We hope you enjoy browsing through our photographs of our hard work so far this year!
We wrote a piece about ourselves in Irish and displayed our work with some art pieces. In Art, we have been exploring our differences and similarities and we designed some flip flops. Some of these were displayed with our Irish work to show that we are all different.
In Maths, we were discussing the RUDE strategy for problem solving and we each created a puzzle to represent ourselves. You need to work out the sums to find out about us and our families!
These are our life timelines showing the most important things that have occurred in our lives so far.
The photographer visited the school in September. This is our whole school shot!
We have been studying the colour wheel. We mixed colours to make our own colour wheels in the form of eyes!
We all fit together! We each represent one piece in the puzzle. We designed a piece of the jigsaw to best describe ourselves. We then put the jigsaw together!
"We are like a box of crayons; Each of us unique but when we get together, the picture is complete"
The junior and the senior classrooms came together for an Art and Religion lesson. We talked about our differences, similarities, likes and dislikes. We examined the bible verse from Psalms 139 verse 13
"I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful, I know that full well".
One of our 5th class pupils created a campsite scene out of match sticks, lollipop sticks and felt.
Science: Our School Garden
We have been very busy planting out new fruit and vegetable boxes. We have planted lots of different herbs, strawberries, cauliflower, onions, lettuce, kale, peas, beans and wildflower.
We joined up with Kilmore Central National School and we went on our school tour to the Chocolate Factory in Walkinstown and then, to Fort Lucan in Lucan, County Dublin. We were blessed with the weather and we all had a very enjoyable day.
We put our problem solving skills to the test when we had to make electrical circuits to light one, two and even three bulbs at the one time!
More weaving using paper plates and wool!
One of our 4th class students knitted an imaginative frog !!
Well done to one of our 5th class students who represented the school in the County Regional of the Eason Spelling Bee competition. Well done!
We have been learning all about different fruits Many different fruits are grown in Ireland but other well-known fruits are imported. In Geography, we have been learning about where in the world these fruits are grown and imported into Ireland from. In Science, we had a fruit-tasting session. Some fruits were enjoyed more than others!!
On the 22nd February, we held a fundraiser for the school. We brought in our favourite boardgames and spent time during the day playing our own games but also got an opportunity to play with others
Andy Warhol was a popular American print artist. He completed most of his artwork in the 1960s. Andy got the subjects of his art work from popular culture. He helped create a style of art called Pop Art. He printed pictures of ordinary objects and famous people. Andy liked to paint many pictures of the same thing.
We created some Pop Art of our own, inspired by the work of Andy Warhol!
We have been very busy compiling both History and Geography projects. 3rd and 4th class have been working together and studying the areas of the Celts in History and France in Geography. 5th and 6th class were working together on the topics of the Maoris in History and Britain in Geography. 3rd and 4th class's work was bound into books which have been put in the class library.
We learned about the Maths topics of area and perimeter by creating Minecraft selfies! We created a selfie on squared paper and calculated the area and perimeter of it.
Here are some of our paper weavings for Mother's Day!
We welcomed the Scholastic Book Fair to the school for one week in December and enjoyed short periods of story time during the week. Every book we sold at the book fair allowed us to earn some free books for the school. Many thanks to the pupils and parents who kindly purchased books from the Book Fair.
Here are some of our Christmas tree decorations we made in the Senior room. With lots of beads, ribbon, different sized felt circles and a needle and thread, we created these colourful Christmas trees to decorate our own Christmas trees
Following our Digital Schools of Distinction award, we completed an integrated project based on computers in both the Junior room and the Senior room. Here is some of the work we completed in each subject.
Scriobh gach duine sceal 'Ag Siopadoireacht ar an Idirlion' agus rinne gach duine pictiur freisin.
The whole school worked in pairs examining information and different data based on the topic of computers. Each pair compiled their data on a different type of chart. In the senior room, we have
Each pair then wrote three things which they learned from completing the graph and examining the data.
We studied the history of computers through the writing genre of report writing in English. We sequenced the history of technology and compiled a large timeline. You can see clearly from the timeline when technology really did take off!
In Science, we learned some computer terms and took a real laptop apart to learn about the different internal parts of a computer
The whole school learned about a German band called 'Kraftwerk' who combine electronic music with pop music. We listened to and sang the song 'Pocket Calculator' by Kraftwerk. We also integrated Music with PE and responded to this song through movement and dance.
We learned about different computer companies in Geography and we expressed what we had learned through report writing. We then mapped each company's headquarters on the world map. In Art we created the logo for the computer company we had researched.
Internet Safety
Here are some photographs on a display of us using Go Noodle. Go Noodle is an interactive website which we use regularly in class. It gets us up and moving
Welcome back to the Senior Room Blog. We have all settled back in to our new classes after the summer holidays. Our first two months back have been very busy! In Irish, we have been doing lots of work around the theme of
"Myself". Everyone wrote a piece about themselves in Irish. We were learning about selfies in Art and each of us created a selfie to accompany our Irish writing.
In SPHE, we have been talking about our strengths and personal qualities. We identified words which best describe us and wrote them around our body outlines. They are a colourful addition to our classroom!
In Science, we have been investigating minibeasts. We went on a minibeast hunt around the school in search of different creatures. We found a range of different ones, both fast and slow movers! We examined and identified what we had found back in the classroom. Dont worry, we returned all of these little creatures back where they were found!
...woodlice live in dark, damp places under rocks and logs? They have 14 legs and a dark grey shell. As they get bigger, their small shell falls off and they grow another one.
...butterflies taste with their feet? They dont have mouths but drink with a long tongue.
...a fly beats its wings 200 times a second? They walk upside down using their sticky toe pads.
I lay my eggs on leaves. I have 4 multi-coloured wings. I come out of a chrysalis. Who am I?
I have six legs. I am the same shape as a ladybird. I am black and shiny. Who am I?
I am very strong. I live in a nest. I work for my queen. Who am I?
In History we have been learning about homes from the past and have been comparing our own homes with those from the past. We brought in some old items that we had at home. Can you guess what each item is and what it has been used for?
One of our 4th class students created this from an old book. Can you figure out what it is?
In English, we have been learning all about the Olympics and the English writing genre of Explanatory writing. Explanative texts tell us how or why something happens. Each of us wrote an explanation on a different Olympic sport.
When something plays tricks on your eyes, it is called an Optical Illusion. Optical Art is artwork that plays tricks on our eyes. We studied the work of M.S. Escher, who is famous for creating lots of optical illusions in his art work. We have been learning about 2-D shapes in Maths and we created an optical illusion with lots of different 2-D shapes by using two colours.
On Monday the 13th June, the senior room pupils went on their school tour to "Baysports" at the Hodson Bay Hotel in Athlone and then McDonalds. The children took part in a variety of different activities such as obstacle courses using go-karts; bushcraft survival challenges which included lighting a fire with a flint and building a shelter; pedal karting and obstacle courses on the water. Baysports has the largest inflatable waterpark in Ireland which was a massive hit with each of the pupils.
Machines are used every day and make our lives much easier. In Science, we have been learning about simple machines. Some simple machines include: a lever, an inclined plane, a pulley, a wheel and axle, a screw and a wedge. We looked at how machines are used in the playground. As a homework project, we built our own playgrounds with moveable parts. Our playgrounds had to be suitable for "Littleton" people and could be made out of any materials which were available. You will see that we have used a selection of supplies like lollipop sticks, wood, metal, plastic and cardboard.
Here are our clay bowls we constructed using spiral shapes made out of clay. We enjoyed painting them using different colours and patterns!
As part of an ICT, History and Art project, one of our fifth class pupils designed and created a powerpoint presentation on Picasso. We enjoyed learning more about Picasso with the use of the different effects and animations which were used in his presentation.
We studied the British artist Bridget Riley who is famous for optical illusions. An optical illusion uses light, colour and patterns to trick the eye into seeing something which may or may not be there. We examined optical art and were inspired to construct a cube with different optical illusions on each face of the cube.
Another optical illusion!
We held a Pyjama Day in school on Friday the 20th May. We were very cosy in our PJs for the day!
Here are some of our cross-stitch coasters.
Here are some other cross-stitch patterns created by the children.
Schools across Ireland have been asked to take part in "Walk in My Shoes" which is an awareness and educational campaign of St. Patrick's Mental Health Services in Dublin. Here is our "school selfie"! You can find out more information about mental health on the following link http://www.walkinmyshoes.ie
#MindYourSelfie
Mr Ian Patterson visited the school after the Easter holidays. Mr Patterson raises birds of prey and has 13 birds in total. He told us all about the different types of birds he has and how he cares for them. Mr Patterson has had some of his birds for many years but he told us that they are not and will never be pets. He brought two barn owls, a fluffy wood owl and a kestrel with him. The children were delighted to hold the birds using the special glove.
One of our 5th class pupils will be representing the school in the County Regionals of the Eason Spelling Bee Competition. Well done and we wish him all the best!
One of the children brought in their new puppy for us to meet. This is Molly. She is a cross between a Cocker Spaniel and a Miniature Poodle. We were delighted to meet this gorgeous puppy!
The whole school completed an integrated project on the 1916 Rising. We learned about the Rising through every curricular area, from English to PE. We worked independently, in pairs and in groups. Our work was displayed in both the Junior and Senior room classrooms.
We were delighted to welcome the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Minister Heather Humphreys on Tuesday the 15th of March to the school for Proclamation Day where we raised the flag. Minister Humphreys was given a tour of our project and was very impressed with all of our work. We were very excited not only to have Minister Humphreys with us on Proclamation Day, but also, Northern Sound Radio, Cavan TV and the 1916 Commision.
We studied the 1916 Rising through the different writing genres in English. We worked in pairs and we each wrote about the Rising in a different style. We used report writing, recount writing, persuasive writing, poetry writing, procedural writing, explanatory writing and narrative writing.
The whole school worked in pairs and examined photographs and different data from the 1916 Rising. Each pair compiled their data on a different type of chart. We have pictograms, a trend graph, a block graph, a multiple bar chart, a trend graph, a pie chart and bar charts. Each pair created some questions to go with their charts.
The whole school learned some songs for our 1916 Commemoration. We learned the hymn "Treoraigh me". It asks God to give us guidance in times of conflict. We learned the song "Together we can change the world". It reminds us that if we work together, we can bring about great changes. Ni neart go cur le cheile. The whole school also learned the Irish National Anthem which we sang when the flag was raised.
We learned about the important buildings of the 1916 Rising. We studied their architecture in Art class and we made detailed models of these buildings which included the GPO, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin Castle, College of Surgeons, Liberty Hall, Jacobs Biscuit Factory and the Four Courts.
A Non Uniform Day was held in the school on Wednesday 17th February. The children wore their own clothes and were delighted to get out of their school uniforms for the day!
Junior Room
Senior Room
Some of the children won first place in the Ulster Primary School Tournament. Pictured here are the Under 12's Mixed Team and the Under 9's All Boys Team. Well done to both teams!
Scriobh gach duine sceal Eiri Amach na Casca as Gaeilge. Rinne gach duine pictiur freisin.
We studied the 1916 Rising through the different writing genres in English. We worked in pairs and we each wrote about the Rising in a different style. We used report writing, recount writing, persuasive writing, poetry writing, procedural writing, explanatory writing and narrative writing.
We studied the 1916 Proclamation and learned all about how it was printed. The Proclamation was printed in secret in Liberty Hall on an old Wharfdale Printing Press. The top half of the Proclamation is darker than the bottom half as it had to be printed twice due to its size. Did you know there is one letter which is upside down in the Proclamation?
This is our display of our new proclamations. We imagined what we would like Ireland to be like in the next 100 years. We each wrote our own Proclamation but the senior children worked together to write a Proclamation for the whole school.
One of our 3rd class pupils has done some wonderful work on knitting this year! This scarf will keep the chill off his neck!
Snow is falling! We imagined what is behind the door and then drew and painted the scene.
In Art and Religion class, the Junior and Senior room pupils worked collaboratively to complete this fantastic display of penguins. We talked about "Limited Editions" and we studied the bible verse "I am a limited edition, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made" Psalm 139 verse 14. Each pupil designed a penguin and a snowflake. Some of the penguins even have speech bubbles
All pupils from Junior Infants to 6th class entered the "Doodle 4 Google" competition. The theme this year was "Ireland is..." We made a lovely book out of all of our doodles!
Roald Dahl is a famous author from Llandaff in Wales. His parents were Norwegian. His first book was called "The Gremlins" and here are a few more of his books: "The BFG", "Matilda", "Esio Trot" and "The Witches".
In school we wrote a report on Roald Dahl. In our report we included his early life, his books, his achievements and his later life and death.
Did you know that Roald Dahl had 2 steel hips and 6 operations on his spine? He loved chocolate but not chocolate cake or ice cream. Roald Dahl always wrote on yellow paper and with a HB pencil.
Check out how we made these on youtube. It is amazing what you can make with a white sock and some rice!
We practised the running stitch and created these cute felt decorations for our Christmas trees!
By Lucy
As a follow up on the lesson of Picasso before Mid-term, the children created clay faces inspired by this Spanish artist.
Here is a piece of Christmas art which we worked on with the Junior Room. Each senior pupil was paired up with a junior pupil. It is a Christmas nativity scene. There are angels, a camel, wisemen and their gifts gold, frankincense and myrrh, Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus, and some straw. Each pair painted a different character, animal or object from the scene. At the bottom of the board is an advent calendar. The numbers are on the presents decorated with a bow, Christmas wrapping paper. The presents are numbered between 1 and 24. There is a different picture under each present. We started opening the presents on the 1st of December.
By Andrew E
On Wednesday the 4th of November, the senior classroom of our school got to go on a science trip to the Abbotts factory in Cootehill after completing the Junior Achievement programme which we took part in. Our volunteer was Emma Gould. She works in the laboratory where they test the levels of protein, vitamins and calcium contained in their products.
We got a bus from school at 10:00 am and arrived in Abbotts at 10:20 am. We entered through the large glass doors at the front of the factory and then went straight into the lobby. We met Emma and she led us along the various corridors all the way to the meeting room. In the meeting room we all sat around a large table and had to keep very quiet while we watched a safety video and a slideshow about the history of the plant. We were also given a safety demonstration on how to put on the safety clothing. Once the briefing was finished, we went to the changing rooms where we got into our safety outfits.
We had to put on a big zip-up overall and then a pair of shoe covers. We also had to wear safety glasses and a hair net. Then we went over to the sinks where we had to follow a procedure on washing our hands. First we dampened our hands, then put soap on them and then we washed our hands for 15 seconds and dried them. Next we entered the factory. We went into the sector of the factory where the packaging and forklifts were kept.
We got to see all the forklifts whizzing around and they even had an electric one! The electric forklift had no driver and found its way around by receiving a signal from the various sensors dotted around the storage hall. After we had a good look around, we followed Emma into the lab and then we got to see an experiment. Once we were finished in the lab we went back to the changing rooms. We took off our protective clothing. We walked to the cafeteria where we got Ribena and crisps.
After we had finished our snacks, we went back out to the lobby. In the lobby we received certificates to certify that we had completed the Junior Achievement programme. Once we were finished in the lobby we got on the bus and started the journey back to school.
We all sang "Hit the Diff" on the way back. We all thoroughly enjoyed the day. Thank you Emma!
Abbots in Cootehill
Suited and Booted for the lab.
Enjoying our snacks
Presentation of our Junior Achievement certificates
The MS Read-a-thon came to an end on November 9th. We are delighted to announce that the children have raised 967.60 Euros for Multiple Sclerosis Ireland. Well done to everyone for collecting sponsorship during their busy four weeks of reading and many thanks to everyone who sponsored them!
We have entered this year's Credit Union Art Competition. We have been working very hard on our entries. The theme this year was "Happiness is...." We hope you like our finished products!
5th and 6th class have been learning about the seven continents. They mapped out where each continent is on the world map and researched one continent each.
We have just completed our five sessions of the Junior Achievement Programme. We thank Ms. Emma Gould for delivering this interesting science programme to us. We have been learning about topics such as the skeleton, the immune system, the heart, rainbows and forensic science. We look forward to visiting Abbots in Cootehill after the Midterm break.
Following learning about toys and games from the past, some of the pupils designed and created a toy of their choice.
We were learning about dreams in school and here are some of the most interesting facts: Did you know that 100,000 drivers a year crash, going in and out of sleep in their cars? Within 10 minutes you forget 90% of your dreams. Blind people can also dream.
We wrote some stories with the last line in each story being "I can't help but think if it was all a big dream". To make it fair, everyone picked a different picture out of a hat. Everyone got an interesting picture to write a story on, for example, a picture of a man riding a hen or a picture of a dinosaur with eggs.
We made story cubes first to plan our ideas. Our stories had to have an interesting first paragraph, exciting characters, a problem and a resolution. We edited them and re-wrote them again on the laptops and then displayed them at the back of the room.
We were reading a book in school called "A Bad Case of Stripes". In the book, there was a new pupil in school and her name was Camilla. That morning she couldn't choose what to wear. She was afraid of what everyone would think of her. Then she came out in "a bad case of stripes". Specialists were called in and they never saw anything like it before. She loved lima beans but she did not eat them because she was worried about what everyone would think and that's what the problem was. If Camilla was herself she would have been less noticeable as she wouldn't have come out in stripes.
We were learning about declunking when we were reading this book. Declunking means breaking up words that we cannot read, for example, sounding out the word, breaking it up into small parts or reading on and trying to guess what the word is.
In Art we drew self portraits. We used mirrors to draw ourselves and rulers to measure out our faces. We covered our portraits with designs like patterns, spirals, spots, stripes, stars and patch work just like Camilla!
We have taken part in a writing competition aimed at promoting positive attitudes towards disability in schools. This competition has been launched by Minister of State Aodhan O Riordain (T.D.) and rugby pundit Brent Pope.
The theme of the writing competition was "Someone like me". With over 53,000 children under 15 years of age with disabilities in Ireland, we are celebrating the differences which make both ourselves and our schoolmates unique. The children put a fantastic effort into their pieces of work. Unfortunately, only one of our pieces from the whole class could be chosen to enter the competition.
Well done Edel! We wish Edel the best of luck in the competition!
We typed our work during computer class and produced a lovely book for our class library!
Pablo Picasso was a Spanish painter who along with George Braque, invented cubism. Picasso became very famous for his cubist paintings. This was an abstract art style which abandoned the tradition of perspective drawing and displayed many different views or perspectives on the one piece of art. Check out our Picasso inspired pieces just in time for Halloween!
Pablo Picasso 1881 - 1973
Welcome back to the Senior Room Blog! Everyone had a lovely summer and are ready for our new school year. We have been working really hard to make our classroom look bright and inviting again. We hope you enjoy browsing through our work!
We produced a lovely display around the topic of Mé Féin during the first few weeks back in school. Everyone wrote a profile about themselves as Gaeilge. Andrew will tell you about how we created our names.
These are our names in one perspective. We drew our names in block writing and measured the page for spacing. We found the vanishing point by measuring the length of the page and finding the middle. We were able to draw our names on the bottom, top or side of the page. Can you see our names disappearing in the distance?
We were studying Piet Mondrian for two weeks in Art. Piet Mondrian is a Dutch artist who is famous for his abstract paintings. We decided to do some abstract paintings inspired by Mondrian. This took us two weeks to complete. Firstly, we drew some shapes. Can you see any triangles, squares, rectangles or circles in our work? We then painted our shapes and we used primary colours. They look really effective.
Please check back in for updates of the projects we are working on