Christmas Service 2008

A special thanks to all involved in our Christmas Service.Here are some memories from the night.We will always remember the Chimes and handbells!!!

Christmas Jokes!!!!

What did the dog breeder get when she crossed an Irish Setter with a Pointer at Christmastime?
A "pointsetter"!

What do sheep say to each other at Christmastime?
Merry Christmas to ewe!

What do sheep say to shepherds at Christmastime?
Season's Bleatings!

How do sheep say Merry Christmas in Mexico?
Fleece Navidad!

How do Chihuahua's say Merry Christmas?
Fleas Navidog!

What's the best thing to put into Christmas dinner?
Your teeth!

Why should Christmas dinner always be well done?
So you can say "Merry Crispness"!

Knock Knock.
Who's there?
Mary.
Mary who?
Mary Christmas!

A definition of Christmas:
The time when everyone gets "Santa"-mental.

What’s red, white and blue at Christmas time?
A sad candy cane!

Killinaskully

There she was in our small rural school .We couldn't believe our eyes!! Why was Nurse Moloney from Killnaskully here in Peterswell? Then I thought of the answer, she was here for the show, with Cups and Crowns.The show was called "A stitch in Time"
It was situated in a clothes bank.In the show all the places, they visited were named after clothes such as "Hat Hollow,Single Sock Cave" Gracie the main character tavelled to many different clothes destinations, to find her grand Aunties adventure hat.Three women took part in this dramatic show.In front of us stood Eileen which you would be familiar as Nurse Moloney on Killnaskully.She was an excellent actress, as were all of the actresses.After the show, one of the actresses quized us on the show but we gave into temptation and asked Eileen a few questions as we are big fans of Killnaskully!!!For the final activity we got the chance to act out some of the characters in the show!It was a very enjoyable show and we look forward to their show next year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
By Amy Caulfield and Chloe Caswell in 6th class.

Christmas Arrangements 2008

It was the turn of 5th and 6th to be demoted to the Infant Classroom.Yes, it was that time of the year again where Mrs. O'Donnell and Mrs. Forde exchanged classes for 2 hours.Mrs Forde has agrat interest in Flower arranging and passes on her wealth of experience to the Senior classes annually.Here are the results of their hard work.Thank you Mrs. Forde for being so patient with us.

Christmas Service 2008

The Annual Christmas service for the school will take place on Dec. 22nd at 7pm.It is the responsibility of the Senior classes to organise the Service this year.We are busily rehearsing Christmas Carols,hand bells ,chimes and the readings.We are requesting that all pupils arrive 10 min before in their Formal Uniform.It promises to be a good one!!!!!!!

Star Site!

Congratulations to all in 5th and 6th Class who are responsible for
updating this Blog as we were nominated as ScoilNet Star Site in
the INTO's Magazine "Intouch" for October 2008.
Here is a quote from this issue.
"A somewhat different approach to normal is taken by this small
school in Co. Galway which uses a blog to present information
about the school and its classes."
Congratulations to all in the Senior Classes!!!!!!!!

By Joseph

Cycling Champs

It was a fresh Friday morning in the month of September.The 4 lucky 6th class students were looking forward to missing tests and a day off school.They were
heading for Tuam to compete in the Galway County Council cycling compitition.We were invited to compete after some of the students of Peterswell completed a safer cycling course held in the school.We were competing against 5 other teams from Galway.When we arrived they provided us,with bikes.There were 4 on a team which meant there were 24 of us altogether.We began with an individual competition which was weaving in and out between cones. Amy, one of the 6th class pupils here in Peterswell came 1st out of all the girls.When it came to the team competition, our team came 3rd in the heat!
At the hotel we were presented with "BEST MIXED TEAM" and Amy got a trophy for fastest girl and not far behind her was Chloe in 2nd place in the girls.Our team was Amy Caulfield,Chloe Caswell,Sinead Hegarty and John Massey.We would like to thank our mentor Allan Massey and our mascot Abbey Massey!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Super Session for Peterswell Hurlers

Congratulations to us all in St Thomas National School, Peterswell who were announced as the overall winners of Supermac’s training session with Ger Loughnane.
Supermac’s, in association with the Galway Senior Hurling Team and Cooper, launched an in-store competition last June for all young budding GAA teams. The prize was an intensive training session with Ger Loughnane and a selection of the Galway Hurlers plus €1000 worth of Cooper training equipment.



For John Massey,a 5th Class pupil of St Thomas NS and his class mates, their GAA dreams came true, when they were announced as the overall winners last week. Team member, John Massey wrote the winning entry, stating that “I never leave my hurl down and my dream is to one day wear the maroon and white jersey”. Mrs. Kathleen Forde, teacher and trainer at St Thomas National School could hardly contain the team's excitement before the training session, which she believes is the highlight of their summer holidays.

Ger Loughnane and a selection of the Galway Hurlers gave an intense training session explaining different techniques which finished with a friendly match (1:1). They also had the opportunity to watch the Galway Hurlers train for their forthcoming matches.
There was a phenomenal amount of entries to win this once in a lifetime opportunity and John's Class mates would like to thank him for their very enjoyable Day.

Calendar 2008-2009

Peterswell N.S.

Provisional Calendar 2008 – 2009.

Sept. 1st Re-opening.

Oct. 24th Closing for Halloween Break

Nov. 3rd Re-opening

Dec. 23rd Closing for Christmas Holidays

2009

Jan. 7th Re-opening

Feb. 16th & 17th Closing for Mid-term Break

Apr 3rd Closing for Easter Holidays

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Apr. 20th Re-opening

May 4th Closed – Bank Holiday

June 1st Closed – Bank Holiday

June 26th Closing for Summer Holidays.

Ag Súgradh le Chéile-HSE Work Shop

SuperValu Tokens 2008

This is the third year that schools have been collecting kids in action tokens, for every ten euro you spend you get 1 token.Super Valu double the tokens when you spend 10 Euro on fruit and vegetables.During the first two years, schools across Ireland received 1.3 million Euros worth of P.E equipment.This year Peterswell N.S were proud to collect 11,400 Tokens.We thank everyone who help us reach such a geat number of Kids in Action tokens. We also had a competition among the classrooms. 80% of schools in the Republic of Ireland signed up to the kids in action programme.Again on behalf of all Peterswell N.S. thanks for letting us get a speed Bounce Mat,Tennis balls,Tummy Ache game and many more resources.

By Amy,Carol and Donnacha.

Confirmation 2008

George Joyce,Niall Connors,David Sherry,Ross Caswell,Joseph Mahon,Brendan Farrell,Ronan Devine,Fiona Keely,John Coen,Aine O'Donnell and Clare Caulfield all received the Sacraments of Confirmation, on March 4th.
On that windy,blustery March day we were anxiously waiting to receive the Gift of Confirmation.We sat side by side, some earlier than others.It was the first Confirmation in this diocese. It was in "The Church of the Nativity," in Kilchrest.Confirming us, was none other, than Bishop of Galway, Bishop Martin Drennan. There were six other schools, eagerly anticipating to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation.
The Confirmation was hosted by Kilchreest who had the honour of doing the readings and providing the choir.
Each family sat or stood.Each individual had two sponsors of their choice. Our Confirmation name choices were George Jeremiah,Niall Jack,Joseph Mark,Ross Christopher,Fiona Imelda, David Thomas,Brendan Colm,Ronan Kevin,John Martin,Clare Bernadette,Áine Máire.
We all enjoyed our special day and have received the Gifts and Fruits of the Holy Spirit.

By George Joyce, Niall Connors,Joseph Mahon and Ross Caswell.

"Mamie`s Cart" Dec. 2007

On Tuesday December 11th three members from "Cups and Crowns Travelling Show", came to do workshops with us. During the workshops, we spent our time doing activities. There was a scoreboard: when we completed an activity we were told the scores for the activity we had done. Afterwards, there was a performance.It was called "Mamies Cart". The show was based on a Restorer and he pretended he was very busy and that Mamie would have to wait patiently until two clock in which then he would be able to assist Mamie. Mamie had no itention of moving herself so, she kept herself busy while waiting. The reason why Mamie came to the Restorer was, Mamie`s Cart shook whenever a person was told lies. The Restorer had something in the corner. Eventually we found out what it was, a toy bicycle.Mamie thought it was pretty.The time seemed to be going much quicker than a normal clock. Mamie took a lot of interesting things out of her cart. The Restorer took interest in some of things she had. Finally, Mamie got assistance from the Restorer but he didn`t really fix it at all. Lastly, the Restorer's sister rang and exclaimed on the phone, "I'm having a party, would like to come?" When the show was over, we applauded loudly. It was time for us to return to class and them to leave.
By Fiona Keely and Jonathan Dooley

Hurling 7 -A - Side......... October 2007

The 11th of October 2007 was a misty day. It was a Thursday afternoon in S Thomas'GAA pitch. The first team we faced was Loughrea. It was an exciting game but unfortunately the well managed Loughrea team came out on top, as Peterswell were missing their more experienced players due to an age restriction. The next team we played was our neighbouring friendly rivals Kilchreest. This time it was a very tight game but they had their full team and proceeded to win the game. We were knocked out of the 2007 Mini Sevens. Kilchreest decided to have a challange game for the subs. The team that played the first two matches marched in to the club house for tea and biscuits. A special thanks to our manager Mrs O'Donnell and our trainer and selector Peter Caulfield. We are all looking foward to the championship and hope we do well. The team was David Massey, Jonathan Dooley, John Massey,Joseph Caulfield, Brendan Farrell, Gary Finn and Mark Caulfield.Subs Colin Devine, Dara Fitzgearld, Robert Crosbie, Cathal Connors, Donacha Gutteridge, Peter Fitzgearld, Over age Players David Sherry,Ronan Devine, Niall Connors,Ross Caswell and John Coen.
By Ronan Devine, John Coen and Joseph Caulfield.

Rocket Workshop...........November 2007

It was dry day,but it was blustery,perfect for launching rockets!In accordance with science week,a man named Robert from the Armagh Planetarium came to teach us all about space and rockets.At the end he asked us questions about what we learned.After that we went to build our own rockets!We split up into pairs of two's and we began to construct our rockets.Of course they were only models, but all the same we loved it!Robert explained how to build the rockets, step by step and promised that we could launch them afterwards.We examined each and every one of the rockets and saw all of the different designs.As soon as we had looked at our rockets,we charged outside to launch them.He had brought a machine with him:it had a foot pump and two buttons.First he put the rocket in a little socket and then he pumped air into it.The pair who had made the rocket held the remote.We had a countdown,on the count of five one button was pressed and at zero the other button was pressed.Blast off!We admired the rockets blasting off into the sky,some of them even got stuck on the schools roof!We really enjoyed the day,we learned some really interesting facts about space and we even got to build our own rockets,It was a fantastic day and I will never forget it!
By Carol Santos,Áine O'Donnell and Joseph Mahon

COOLE PARK !!!!!! November 2007

We made our way to Coole Park on Eamonn's bus. We arrived at Coole Heritage Centre, on a dry cool day at 10:30am.First, we watched a short audio-visual about Lady Gegory and Coole Park. After that, we watched another audio-visual about "Bats".Shortly after that, we made our way upstairs to the nursery, where we searched for thimbles and watched an audio-visual about G.B.S. Anne and Catherine. We learned that G.B.S. cheated in the game of "Hide the Thimbles".After that, we entered the Libary where we examined pictures of famous writers.Lastily, we walked into the Study where we studied an "Autograph Fan".Soon after, we examined how the turlough works.Finally,we listened to the names of the different species of birds who lived in the woods at Coole.
Next we munched our way hungrily through our lunch. Soon after,we wandered out to the deer.One had a fawn only a week before.At the Turlough, we stopped at the public toilets to make "Bat" sounds.Next we made our way down to the Turlough.We noticed that some animals had left prints in the mud. We also noticed that the turlough had dried up. On our way back we stopped at the Autograph Tree and the Sun Dial where Brendan stood in the middle and his shadow told the time.All off Third,Fifth and Sixth enjoyed the trip and everyone learned a lot more about Coole.

FOOD DUDES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Food Dudes is a programme developed by Food and Activity Research Unit at Bangor University Wales.It was setup to encourage children to eat more fruit and veg,both at school and at home.
There are two main phases to the programme:
Phase 1 is an intensive intervension which lasts for 16 days.During this time
we were given fruit and veg, while the teacher is read a letter or specialy designed DVD's of the Food Dudes.These superheros on the DVD's that we were given saved the lifeforce from a gang of badies,whose objective is to take all the energy from the world,by depriving it of nutritious fruit and veg.Each day we were rewarded with small prizes for sucessfully eating a portion of fruit and veg.This phase is primarily school based although we kept a diary of fruit and veg which we ate at home.
Phase2 extends the home element of the Food Dudes programme by encouraging us to bring our own fruit and veg to school everyday in special Food Dudes lunch boxes.Classroom wall charts are used to record progress and further rewards upon reaching goals.This phase maintains fruit and veg intake by up to 50% of the classroom bring in fruit and veg everyday.We really enjoyed the "Food Dudes" We think it was a great sucess!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
By Amy Caulfield and Jonathan Dooley