Senior Room - April

Hi everyone!

This was a very short month (much to the children's dismay I'm sure!), but we still got in some nice and fun activities.

Religion

We discussed the Easter Story during Religion and gave our opinions on the treatment of Jesus and how he must have felt at the different points in the story. The children drew their own map of 'Jesus' Journey to the Cross.' We also studied the Nicene Creed, which a lot of them recognised from Mass.

Art

The children worked together to create an Easter display over the last two weeks. Last week we designed our own Easter eggs and this week we drew our own Easter bunnies. The children came up with beautiful and colourful designs and they are all so different!

Tests

The children have been working very hard since our last break in February and have learned a lot. Over the course of this week they are being tested in English, Gaeilge, maths and SESE. Please try to have your children in all this week, if possible, to allow them to get their Easter tests done. 

Well done to all the boys and girls in the Senior Room for all their hard work and diligence over the term. You have all earned a nice break. 

May you all have a happy and safe Easter!

Beannachtaí Dé agus beannachtaí na Cásca oraibh go léir 😊

Senior Room - March

Hi everyone!

It's been a very busy month with lots of activities. The children have been working very hard.

Art

My budding artists created lots of beautiful art over the month. We designed our own hot air balloons (some even named them!), made shamrock men with the younger classes for Seachtain na Gaeilge and then painted our initials with warm and cool colours.

World Book Day

We had World Book Day at the beginning of the month and the children really enjoyed it. We did a quiz about famous children's books, made bunting based on our favourite books and finished the day by watching Disney's Treasure Island as the children were curious about who I was dressed as! (Captain Long John Silver).

Gaeilge

Bhí na páistí ag staidéar an téama "An Teilifís" ag tús na míosa agus anois táimid ag staidéar "Caitheamh Aimsire." Ba bhreá leis na páistí cur síos a dhéanamh ar a gclár teilifíse is fearr. Anois, tá na páistí ag foghlaim faoi caitheamh aimsire - na rudaí a theastaíonn leo.  Cuir ceist ar a bpáistí faoi a gcaitheamh aimsire má tá an Ghaeilge agat. 

The children were studying the theme 'The Television' at the start of the month and now we are studying 'Past Times.' The children loved describing their favourite tv shows. Now, the children are learning about past times - the things they like. Ask your children about their past times if you have Irish. 

Something Fishy Projects

Over the last few weeks the children have been learning about freshwater fish in Ireland, the salmon in particular. We are taking part in the Something Fishy project with Inland Fisheries Ireland. We have classified what exactly is a fish, how they are born and develop into adults and how we can help to keep their habitats (homes) clean and healthy. 

The children in their colour groups have been working on Irish freshwater fish projects over the last few weeks. The discussed their appearance, habitat, distribution, diet and life cycle. 

Red - Perch

Blue - Trout

Purple - Pike

Orange - Rudd

Green - Carp

Yellow - Salmon

Well done everyone on the super work, keep it up! 

Slán agus beannacht Dé oraibh go léir! 😃

Senior Classes-January 2019

Dia daoibh! Happy New Year!

Welcome back to school everyone. I hope everyone has happily settled back into school and work by now. I know the frosty mornings don't help! January is a busy month this year as the children have and will take part in lots of different activities.

Rugby

The children took part in a rugby blitz in St. Colman's Pitch, Gort two weeks ago. The blitz was a huge success and the children thoroughly enjoyed it. There were over 400 children from the local area playing that day. Our own team played four matches, one against Kilbeacanty and Doorus, and two matches against Ballindereen. Some of the Connacht rugby players also had the pleasure of playing for St. Thomas'.

Our team was made up by Conor Flynn, Diarmuid Gillard, Ríain Piggott, James Montague, James Glynn, Brian Egan, Jack Hoey, Lewis Brady, Conor Deely, James Fitzgerald, Leona Farrell, Oisín Flynn and Cathal McMahon. 

As well as that, we had a very enthusiastic cheerleading squad on the sidelines shouting for their classmates. The children will also be receiving some rugby coaching over the next few weeks from Dermot on Tuesdays. 

Art

This month the children have and will be working on art under the theme of 'Weather.' They have created beautiful and bright pictures by drawing and also collage. 

The children created caricatures of themselves catching snowflakes on their tongues using pencil and markers.

They created a rainbow using magazine clippings and using them in a collage. 

Gaeilge

Is é 'An Aimsir' téama na míosa an mhí seo. Beidh na páistí ag foghlaim faoi an aimsir and na rudaí a bhaineann leis. Cuir ceist ar a bpáistí sa bhaile faoi an aimsir cosúil le 'cén saghas lá atá againn inniu?' nó 'Conas atá an aimsir?' 

'Weather' is the theme of the month this month. The children will be learning about the weather and the things associated with it. Ask your children questions about the weather like 'what kind of weather do we have today? or 'How is the weather?'

Biz World

Today the children were visited by two people from the Bank of Ireland, Alan Newell and Fiona Halligan. They spoke to the children about a project they will be taking part in called Biz World. This is like Dragon's Den where the children, in groups, will come up with a product that they think they could sell. Next Monday, 28th January, the children will be visited by the "dragon" and they will have to pitch their ideas to them and hopefully get their capital seed (Biz Bucks) to work on their product further. 

Today they worked in their groups to come up with the product. Over the next week, the children will work on their products in their groups at school and at home. 

Once again, welcome back everyone. I hope we have a successful term and that 2019 proves to be the best school year yet! 

Slán agus beannacht Dé oraibh go léir!

December 2018-Senior Room

Dia Daoibh!
I hope everyone is doing well. November was a lovely month full of new learning that the children all enjoyed. This month, there is even more exciting and fun activities we will be working on.

Gaeilge

Bhí na páistí ag foghlaim faoi an scoil an tseachtain seo chaite. D'imir siad cluichí bunaithe ar na rudaí atá ag baint leis an scoil. Anois, tá na páistí ag staidéar na hábhair scoile an mí seo. Is maith leis na páistí na hábhair scoile is fearr a rá. Cuir ceist ar do pháiste 'Cén tábhar is fearr leat?' 

The children were learning about school last week. They played games based on things associated with school. Now, the children are studying the school subjects this month. The children like saying what their favourite subject is. Ask your child 'What is your favourite subject?' 

Art

The children created their own underwater scenes using tints and shades of blue. We learned how there are many different tones of any given colour. This is called colour value. We discussed about the use of white to lighten a colour (make a tint) and black to darken a colour (make a shade). 

We will be starting our winter art this week! So be on the look out for some frosty and cold scenes. 

Maths

The children are learning about money this week in maths. The children helped create a mind map on the whiteboard with everything they thought of when they heard the word 'money.' We talked about the name given to our own currency and different currencies abroad. We talked about the coins and notes involved with the Euro too. 

Projects

The children are working in their groups to create projects based on Christmas in different countries. They will be looking up information about the food, traditions, festivities and Santa Claus in their given countries. They will be working on these over the next week and will present their findings with a poster to the rest of the class on Tuesday 11th December. 

The children can handwrite or type their information. They also may draw or print off pictures to illustrate their points. 

Blue - Russia

Yellow - Germany

Red - Spain

Purple - Brazil

Orange - Mexico

Green - Australia

Finally, I would like to say well done to the boys and girls in my room who have been working so hard for the last few months. We only have a few more weeks left of the 2018 school year and I am sure they will be just as good, if not better, than the weeks prior to them. 

Best wishes to you all agus beannacht Dé oraibh!

November 2018

Hi all!

I hope everyone is doing well and settled back okay after the midterm. I am looking forward to the rest of the term and all of the amazing work the children will take part in. They are a super group and I have been really impressed with the work they have produced so far, keep it up!

Energy and Energy Conservation Workshop

Last week, the children had the pleasure of taking part in a workshop with Will from Brigid's Garden. He spoke to the children about energy - Where does it come from? What types of energy are there? 

Will also drew the children's attention to the importance of trying to use renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind power, as they are much better for the environment than fossil fuels like coal and petrol.

Will showed the children a really interesting experiment where he used the acid inside citric fruit to light a bulb! They also took part in a human-sized board game where they had to answer questions on energy to gain points. Everyone did very well. 

Maths

Last week and this week the children are studying fractions. We have looked at a range of different fractions and discussed where we might see/use them every day, for example, telling the time - half past 2. 

We have in particular looked at the idea of 'equivalence.' The children have worked together to find fractions that are equal to each other like one half and two quarters. I am delighted to say they are all working hard and doing well. Great job everyone!

Projects

Just before the break the children worked in their groups to create projects based ona given Irish animal. The Reds had the Otter, the Oranges had the Red Squirrel, the Blues had the Fox, the Greens had the Red Deer, the Yellows had the Badger and the Purples had the Irish Hare.

The children divided up the topics for each animal amongst themselves and they had to go home to research it. The areas included the habitat, diet and appearance of the animals. 

They all produced wonderful projects with brilliant images and handwriting. They were a great first go at collaborative project work.

Once again, well done to everyone on the work we have accomplished this far and I am looking forward to all of the brilliant things we'll do this term.

Wishing you all the best for the year agus beannacht Dé orthu.

Autumn Term 2018

Welcome back to all the boys and girls in the Senior Room! 

I'm very happy that I'm lucky enough to get to teach you all this year. I'm sure we will have great fun as well as learning lots of new things.

Self Portraits

The children learned about the proportions of the face and how we can use our different features to help us line up our faces. We discussed our individual faces and what makes them special. First we used our pencils to lightly sketch out our features and then we used oil pastels to create these wonderful, bright finished pieces! I'm very proud of these, we have some real artists in the senior room. Try and guess who is who! Can you see your one?

Our Classroom Family

As well as our home family, we have our classroom family. The 26 children in the room will be working together for the year so it is important that we all get along and respect one another. We designed our own puzzle pieces that have lots of information about us, such as our name, age and dream job. In this classroom we all fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. Each of us have our own individual skills and talents that when brought together, create a truly special and unique puzzle.

Report Writing

This term the children will be looking at reportative writing. Already we have looked at samples of reports and identified the characteristics of bad and good reports. Throughout the term the children will be engaged in writing reports on different topics. This is an excellent skill to have as it helps them find the key information about a given topic. Especially for any of us who may want to be a journalist in the future!

Gaeilge na Míosa

Dia daoibh! Beidh na páistí ag foghlaim faoi "mé féin,' i rith na míosa seo. Scríobh na páistí fúthu féin agus a dteaghlaigh. Labhair na páistí faoin a dteaghlaigh le chéile. Anois an tseachtain seo, táimid ag foghlaim faoi chodanna an choirp. Bheadh sé go hiontach Gaeilge a labhairt leis na páistí más féidir libh. Is í an Ghaeilge ár dteanga agus bá chóir bheith bródúil aisti.

Hello all! The children will be learning about "mé féin,' during this month. The children wrote about themselves and their families. The children spoke about their families together. Now this week, we are learning about the body parts. It would be great if you speak Irish with your children if you can. Irish is our language and we should be proud of it.

Word of the Week - Focal na Seachtaine

Every week there will be an English and an Irish word selected and displayed on this board in the room. The children are encouraged to use their dictionaries at home to discover the meanings and to share them with the class the next day. We will also be keeping a record of these words in our copies to help develop our vocabulary. You can never know enough words!

Sports

The boys and girls started training this week for the Mini 7's Hurling and Camogie competition. We are very grateful to one of our parents, Sylvia Egan, for helping to train the children, as well as Joe Quinn. Anthony Gillard is helping with the football.The girls will be playing on Wednesday 26th September, and the boys on Friday 28th September, both in Castledaly at 10am. We wish them the best of luck!

I would also give a huge thanks to another parent, Anthony Gillard, who will be taking the boys and girls out for Gaelic football training. As long as they have a mouthguard - we don't want to give the toothfairy any extra business than necessary!

Once again, welcome back to all my pupils this year, and thank you to all the parents who work so hard with the children at home. I'm sure this will be an excellent year.

Wishing you all the best for the year agus beannacht Dé orthu.