Welcome to our Junior Blog Archive Page
October 2018 - 2019
2018 - 2019 was a very busy year for us in the Junior Room, busy but exciting! Have a look at some of the active learning, investigating, discovering, practicing and having fun that we did!
We tried to sell our homes in Gaeilge
We wrote menus "As Gaeilge" and used them to learn how to order food in Irish when we were doing Drama.
We interviewed one another in Irish
We baked completely in Irish! It was great fun.
Waiting for the baking to dry!
We love Maths in the Junior Room:
Infants learned about numbers
1st and 2nd Class learned about Tens and Units
We made symmetrical paintings
Do you know that we study Algebra in the Junior Room? It's all about patterns and filling in the missing pieces
Board Games and Jigsaws help us with our Maths
Things got a little messy when we were learning about capacity!
The Junior Room is like an Art Gallery:
Bats in the Moonlight
Our Whole School Advent Calendar, we all got to open doors.
In the new year we printed with marbling paints.
We used the marbling to make 2019 Calendars.
We made these paintings after learning about Vincent Van Gogh and his painting "Sunflowers"
We constructed lots of castles
We have a giant timeline on the wall in our classroom, we use it to help us learn about people and events in the past during History.
The legend of Cuchulainn
Roberta McConkey spoke to use about school when she was little (she went to our school!)
One of our favourite topics was Helen Keller, a lady who became sick when she was 2 years old and was left blind and deaf.
We do lots and lots of investigations in Science:
We learned how rainbows are created. We made rainbows using torches.
We painted rainbows too!
We investigated with magnets
We have a school garden, we planted wildflowers and vegetables with the seniors.
We had a visit in school from some birds of prey, we learned all about them:
In Geography, we did a project about Poland, we can all find Poland on a map, we learned about the cities of Poland and we all agreed we would love to go there on a holiday!
In English, we learned about writing genres, have a look at this one: Persuasive writing. We had to try to persuade people to buy our cars!
Lots of fun, games and learning in PE:
The Seniors set us up an obstacle course
We like to make music in Drung!
Playing music we have composed ourselves
September, October 2018
Welcome back, everyone, to a new school year and a special big welcome to our 4 new Junior Infants. We have been busy in our classroom since the start of September - have a look...
Gaeilge
We have learned all about Me Fein - we can name our body parts and tell you a bit about ourselves as Gaeilge.
We wrote about ourselves and the new infants learned the story of Sean, who hurt his leg playing football - they made a book of the story.
In October we learned about Bairin Breac - we brought in a bairin breac and found the fainne in it
English
We were very excited to learn about the cinema - we learned vocabulary associated with the cinema (Quiz question: where else, besides the cinema, would you see an 'usher'?).
As part of English and Drama, we had a cinema day in school, we set up a ticket booth, refreshments stall, seats, aisle and screen.
When everybody in the class had a job to do, including the usher with his waistcoat and torch, our cinema was opened for business - what a great day we had!
After watching a film, we talked about and read film reviews. We wrote a review of the film - infants drew their favourite scene and gave the film a rating
(up to 5 stars); 1st and 2nd Class wrote about characters, the storyline, parts of the film they liked or didn't like and whether they would recommend it or not.
Science Art and English
In October, we learned about Harvest and Autumn in Science, Art and English. We studied Irish trees throughout the seasons and learned about what animals do in Autumn (did you know that squirrels build a nest, called a drey?). We learned all about pumpkins (they come in lots of different colours, not just orange) and together with the Senior Room, had a fun afternoon carving pumpkins. Having learned about procedural writing, infants sequenced pictures while 1st and 2nd Class wrote instructions to carve a pumpkin. We extended our learning in art, painting lines in Autumn colours to match our Autumn poem, and working with the Seniors to create a Harvest display.
Maths
1st and 2nd Class have been working on addition.
Junior Infants have been matching:
Senior Infants have learned that the "equals" symbol means "the same as":
Science
We discovered that flowers really do need water to survive when we added food dye to water and watched the flowers change colour as they drank the water!
SPHE
In September, we had a healthy eating day - we harvested our school vegetables, had a fruit and vegetable tasting session and then learned how to make 2 different types of soup using vegetables.
Why not try out the healthy soup recipe for yourself:
Vegetable and Oatmeal Soup
Ingredients
- 1kg chopped, mixed vegetables (e.g. 200g each of carrots, broccoli, celery, onion, leek)
- 75g porridge oats
- 1.5L water
- 3 vegetable stock cubes
- Salt and pepper
Method
- Heat the water and stock cubes in a large saucepan.
- Add the oat flakes and allow to simmer for 5mins.
- Add the chopped vegetables and season to taste.
- Cover and allow to simmer for 30-40mins. (if using broccoli, add it towards the end of cooking to keep the green colour)
- Blend and serve garnished with parsley (and a spoon of cream if you wish).
Christmas Newsletter
17th November 2016
Dear Parents,
As we head towards the season of Advent and begin the countdown to Christmas, the following are some dates for your diaries:
OM Ireland
On Thursday, 1st December, OM Ireland will be coming to the school with their puppet show
"The Night Show". There is no charge for the show, but a €2 donation for OM Ireland would be very much appreciated. Children may bring their donation to school with them on Thursday, 1st December, the day of the show. You may be familiar with the OM Ireland team and their Big Red Bus (they have visited the school on a number of occasions to date) OM Ireland are an interdenominational Christian charity which seeks to transform lives and communities through relief and development, education, creative arts and community development. OM works in partnership with churches of all denominations as well as community groups and other charities. To find out more about OM Ireland and their work please visit www.ie.om.org. The show is due to start at 10:00am on 1st December please feel free to come along to the Parish Hall to watch the show, we would love to welcome siblings and friends along too!
No Uniform Day
On Friday, 2nd December, the school will hold a no-uniform day. The children may each bring in €2 and wear their own clothes for the day. All monies raised will go to the Parents Association of Drung (No.2) Central NS.
School Book Fair
The Scholastic Book Fair will be visiting the school from Monday, 5th December until Friday, 9th December. Parents and families are invited to come to view and /or purchase books from the Book Fair on Tuesday and Thursday of that week between 8:50am and 9:30am and between 2:30pm and 3:00pm. Pleased find attached a sample catalogue, which shows a selection of some of the books on offer. During the week, the children will also have opportunities to look at the books and may buy books themselves, if they wish.
The school receives free books in return for every euro spent at the book fair. This is a fantastic opportunity for the school to increase our library resources we would really appreciate your support during this event. Please feel free to come along and bring grandparents, friends etc., who may have an interest in purchasing books (think Christmas presents!) everyone is welcome!
Christmas Pantomime
The children will be going on a trip on Thursday, 15th December to see a pantomime in the Garage Theatre, Monaghan. Details to follow.
Christmas Nativity and Party
The Christmas Party is to be held in Drung Parish Hall on Friday, 16th December at 4:00pm. The children are very excitedly rehearsing the play "Fishing for Stars" in school at the moment. The play will be performed at 5:00pm and Santa is scheduled to arrive at 6:00pm approximately. As usual, there will be no school on this day. Everyone is welcome to the party and play, bring along family and friends.
A huge "Thank you" to the Parents Association for organising this event and for all of their hard work in planning and preparing for the night.
Christmas Holidays
The school will close at 12:30pm on Thursday, 22nd December for the Christmas holidays and will re-open on Monday, 9th January.
The school staff and I look forward to enjoying these events with you!
Regards
Georgina Smith
Principal.
May 2016
Burroga Rice Krispie
The good weather of the past 2 weeks has us all in a great mood in the Junior Room and we have had a lot of excitement in our classroom
We have been very busy learning about Bia (food) "as Gaeilge". We have learned a poem about a hungry boy, a stick and an apple tree and busied ourselves learning the names of our favourite (and least favourite!) foods.
The highlight of our week this week was baking "as Gaeilge": we studied the recipe for Burroga Rice Krispie and on Thursday, 13th May we made some in class. Everyone in the Junior Room had a job to do and Mrs McConkey and Ms Kells lent a hand too! A big thank you to Mrs McConkey who washed up for us!
If you would like to try these at home, here's the recipe
Burroga Rice Krispie
Comhabhair
- Seaclaid
- Rice Krispies
Uirlisi
- Babhla
- Spunog adhmaid
- Micreathonn
- Casanna burroga
Oideas
Bris an seaclaid
Cuir an seaclaid i mbabhla
Cuir an babhla sa mhicreathonn
Lea an seaclaid
Cuir Rice Krispies isteach sa seaclaid
Measc na Rice Krispies agus an seaclaid
Cuir na Rice Krispies agus an seaclaid sna casanna burroga
Fan
Ith iad!
April 2016
Owls
In April we were very excited to have a visit from Mr Ian Patterson and some of his beautiful birds of prey. Mr Patterson visited our school in the past and we were delighted to catch up with him and his birds again. Mr Patterson brought some owls and a kestrel to visit us. Alba and Tito are Barn Owls. Alba is 12 and Tito is 3 years old. Fluffy is a 6 year old Wood Owl and Klee is a 3 year old Kestrel. Mr Patterson told us all about the birds what they eat, their habitats and their calls. We also got to try on a special leather glove to protect our hands from the birds talons, and the birds flew to us and landed on our arms It was very exciting
2016
So, we've been really busy in the Junior Room since Christmas, have a look at what we've been up to!
Collaborative Art with the Senior Room Children
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 vs 14. Each pupil designed their own penguin and individual snowflake. Some of the Penguins even have speech bubbles!
SPHE
We were very lucky to receive a visit from Sergeant Niall McKiernan. He told us all about his job and explained how we can contact the Gardai if we ever need help. The most exciting part of his visit, though, was Sergeant McKiernans squad car! Sergeant McKiernan gave us a tour of his squad car and some of the equipment in it. We were super excited when Sergeant McKiernan gave us a chance to sit in the squad car and use the sirens. We are very grateful to Sergeant McKiernan for taking time out of his busy day to visit us and we will all remember what he told us about how important it is for us to wear seatbelts, even on short journeys.
English
Everyone in the Junior Room learned about the Hairdresser and the Barber in English. We listed tools and items that you would find in the Hairdressers or the Barbers and learned how to describe lots of different hairstyles. We learned all about recount writing where we remember something that has happened. We recounted trips to the Hairdressers or Barbers and then we wrote about them. In art, we painted self-portraits to go with our recount writing we made hair by blowing paint with straws! Have a look at our results...
Babies
Over the past number of weeks, we have been learning all about babies. We talked about the things we couldnt do as a baby that we can do now and all about looking after babies. During one SPHE lesson, we discovered the right way to give a baby a bath – we learned to test the temperature of the water with our elbow, laying out all the equipment before starting and how to gently wash a baby. We used a doll to practice giving a baby a bath and had great fun!
December 2015
Lego Exhibition
On Thursday, 3rd December 2015, an exhibition of Lego was held by the children, families and friends of Drung (No2) Central NS. Visitors to Drung Parish Hall on the night were treated to a large display of Lego with a mix of pieces built from imagination and Lego kits. Lego pieces on display included construction machinery, an airport, train sets, princess castles, animals, Christmas themed pieces and an impressive array of trucks. Visitors travelled from all parts of the county and further afield to enjoy the night. A big "thank you" to everyone who built pieces and displayed Lego at the exhibition, and to everyone who made donations in aid of Drung (No2) Central NS. All who made donations on the night were entered into a free draw for a Lego storage box, kindly donated by Toymaster, Cavan.
November 2015
Lego Exhibition
Dear Parents, On Thursday, 3rd December 2015 the school will be holding an exhibition of Lego in Drung Parish Hall. The exhibition will be open from 6:30pm until 9:00pm and will be free to come and view, although donations will be welcomed on the night. The exhibition will be to showcase the Lego construction skills and talents that the children in the school (and friends, family and parents!) have.
We invite children, brothers, sisters, Mums, Dads, past pupils, friends and relatives to construct Lego for the display:
- Display pieces can be constructed from specialised Lego kits or from imagination
- Duplo and other makes of construction bricks will be accepted (Kreo, Mega Blocks etc)
- Display pieces can be tiny or huge!
- We particularly welcome Advent or Christmas themed display pieces
- There are plenty of ideas to get you thinking on the internet, check out 'Pinterest' and search 'Lego'
- There is no limit to the amount of display pieces that anyone (child or adult!) can submit, in fact, the more display pieces, the better the display!
Display pieces can be dropped off to the school on Wednesday, 2nd December or on Thursday, 3rd December. We will photograph everyones Lego to ensure that it is returned to the correct owner.
Every family will be provided with labels to fill out about their constructions if you need any extra, these will be available from the school. We will also provide every family with flyers to share with friends, family and anyone with an interest in Lego to encourage a good turnout on the evening. If you would like to post a flyer on your Facebook, Twitter account etc, email the school at drungcent.ias@eircom.net (with the subject 'Lego exhibition') and we will forward you one to use.
We're looking forward to seeing what you build!
Kindest regards
Georgina Smith
October 2015
Our first month back has been quite busy in the Junior Room everyone has settled back in and our new infants are really enjoying themselves in school. Did you spot their photograph in the Anglo Celt newspaper?
During September, we have been exploring Ordinal Numbers. We discovered that the word "ordinal" comes from the word "order" we use ordinal numbers to describe the order that items appear in a list. We noticed that the "st" in "1st" comes from the end of the word "first". This also happens with 2nd and second, 3rd and third and so on. In art 1st and 2nd Classes made an ordinal number display we called it the Ordinal Number Grand Prix! Everyone made a racing car. We played an adding-up dice game to decide where our cars would come in the race.
