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School Tour 2018!
Date posted: 18th May 2018
Category Blog, Junior Classroom, Middle Classroom, School Outings, Senior Classroom, Sports, Visual Arts
We had a great day by the seaside and then bowling on our school tour this year. The Junior and Middle Rooms went to the Hook Lighthouse where we climbed 115 steps to the top! We heard lots of interesting information about why and how the lighthouse was built.
Here we are in the Watch Tower where the lighthouse keepers worked in years gone by.
The first lighthouse keepers at the Hook Lighthouse were actually monks and we saw where they lived in the tower 800 years ago!
The view from the top!
Later on we had an art workshop with resident artist Rose. We made colourful 3D scenes on slates.
We were treated to a magic show by our guide Noel, somehow the water in the jug just would not pour out on any pupils, however the teachers were not as lucky!!!
Poor Ms Hall!
The Senior Room went coasteering along the rocks near the lighthouse. They had great fun exploring and jumping into rock pools.
Before we left the Senior Class joined us for a picnic in the grounds of the lighthouse.
In the afternoon we came back to Kilkenny and went bowling, finally we had chips and pizza before heading back to school after a great day!
Date posted: 18th May 2018
Category Blog, Junior Classroom, Middle Classroom, School Outings, Senior Classroom, Sports, Visual Arts
Merry Christmas Everyone!
Date posted: 22nd December 2017
Category Blog, Christmas, Class Work, Drama, Drama, English, Fundraising Activities, Geography, Junior Classroom, Local Visits, Our Work on Display, Religious Education, Science, Visual Arts
December has flown by in Junior and Senior Infants and we’ve been very busy in the run up to Christmas. Here are some of the activities we completed this month.
To get into the Christmas spirit we went carol singing with the whole school in the Discovery Park.
In art we made owl babies by sponge painting after we read the book Owl Babies.
We painted and used crepe paper to make Christmas robins and also created a choir of singing reindeer!
In play we created Santa’s Workshop. We had great fun making toys and wrapping them, building his workshop with bricks and making our own toys in junk art.
We wrote letters to Santa and posted them and we were very excited to get a letter back which the postman delivered to us!
Senior Infants were working hard learning tricky words this month and practiced making them from play dough as well as writing them in sentences.
We learned lots of information about nocturnal animals such as owls, bats, badgers and foxes.
We performed in our school play ‘Superstar.’ We were angels and animals.
We learned all about the Nativity and birth of Jesus in Religion and practiced our cutting skills to create these Nativity scenes.
As a treat for Christmas we went to the cinema to see ‘The Star.’
Finally we were thrilled to receive a visit from Santa and have a Christmas party! 🙂
Merry Christmas everyone and Happy New Year from everyone in the Junior Room! 🙂
Date posted: 22nd December 2017
Category Blog, Christmas, Class Work, Drama, Drama, English, Fundraising Activities, Geography, Junior Classroom, Local Visits, Our Work on Display, Religious Education, Science, Visual Arts
A Busy November in the Middle Room!
Date posted: 12th December 2017
Category Blog, Class Work, English, History, Irish, Local Visits, Middle Classroom, Our Work on Display, Visual Arts
The year is flying by and we are well into December at this stage. Have a look at what we got up to in November in 1st, 2nd and 3rd Class!
In Art we created pictures with 4 tiles that are both colourful and symmetrical. We then stuck them together to create these lovely designs!
In History and English, we learned about “Thanksgiving” in America. We looked at a Powerpoint Presentation about the first Pilgrims that settled in America and how they travelled across the Atlantic Ocean on the “Mayflower”. We then created our own “Thanksgiving Turkeys”, the most popular choice of food at this time of year!
To mark Science Week which was from 12th-19th November 2017, we spent an afternoon in the library with Rob and Ciara, making catapults. The children were divided into teams, given a box, full of LEGO and instructions to make their own catapult. They did a super job!
We then had to put our catapults to the test to see if they could launch a rubber ring at a target! This was great fun for everybody!
When we returned to school, we wrote a report and drew a picture to display on the wall!
We were also asked to join in the “Yulefest” celebrations in Kilkenny by painting some stars that can be spotted around the city over the Festive Season. Here is one of our stars painted by the children in the school!
In Gaeilge, the 3rd Class were learning all about “Sa Bhaile”. They drew pictures of their bedrooms and labelled them in Irish.
Well done on all your hard work this month, boys and girls!
Date posted: 12th December 2017
Category Blog, Class Work, English, History, Irish, Local Visits, Middle Classroom, Our Work on Display, Visual Arts
October & Halloween Fun with 4th, 5th & 6th Class!
Date posted: 3rd November 2017
Category Blog, Class Work, English, Geography, Hallowe'en, Local Visits, Our Work on Display, Science, Senior Classroom, SPHE, Visual Arts
October has come and gone so quickly! The children have once again put in a lot of hard work. In Art, the children designed their Annual Christmas Card so creatively and so well! These will be back to the school in November for parents and families to purchase 🙂
The children visited the local library to select books for our classroom library.
In English, we have been reading the novel “Kensuke’s Kingdom” by Michael Morpurgo. The children worked so well at designing their own front cover for the novel as well as completing a character profile pyramid.
The children studied trees and plants in Science and in support of the work they covered in this area, they created their own colourful leaf collages.
The school welcomed Heritage Expert, Paddy Madden in October. He engaged the children in a very interactive and educational workshop on ecology. The children explored all the resources he had on display and they also enjoyed exploring our school’s outdoor environment and the aspects of nature we are so fortunate to have there.
Two pupils in 5th Class completed projects with Ms. Brennan over the past number of weeks. They presented their projects to the class through Powerpoint which was very impressive! Well done boys on all your hard work and for presenting 2 great projects to the class, one on the Titanic and the other on the Celts! A big thank you also to Ms. Brennan for all her knowledge, guidance and support during their project work.
We had to say a fond farewell to Santiago and Jacobo who have been pupils in our school for the past 7 weeks. They will be sadly missed by the Senior Room and Ms. Wilson. We hope you both are well settled back into school and family life in Spain 🙂
In Art, the children made their own “Abstract Apples for Autumn” having looked and responded to works of abstract art.
The children designed a Fire Safety Poster with their own fire safety message for Halloween in SPHE
In preparation for Halloween, the children created their own spooky hand puppets. They also designed their own Halloween costume for a Folens Art Competition.
The children took part in a lantern making workshop for the Festival of Light which will take place in Castlecomer on Friday, 1st December. The children made their own paper cut out pictures in preparation for the lanterns they will make back in class during November.
Finally on the day of the Halloween Holidays, the children dressed up “spooktacularly” in full Halloween costume! Well done on all your creativity. You all made a super effort once again!
Enjoy your well deserved Mid Term Break and we’ll see you all in November!
Date posted: 3rd November 2017
Category Blog, Class Work, English, Geography, Hallowe'en, Local Visits, Our Work on Display, Science, Senior Classroom, SPHE, Visual Arts
Senior Classroom Visit the Creamery House in Castlecomer
Date posted: 12th October 2017
Category Blog, Class Work, Geography, History, Local Visits, Senior Classroom
In support of work covered on Buildings and Settlements in Geography, the Senior Classroom enjoyed a trip to the Creamery House on Friday, 22nd September.
The children enjoyed learning about the History of the house which dates back to 1750s. It originally belonged to the Wandesforde family, however in the early 1900s it became a pram making factory which brought a lot of employment to the town.
Here are some samples of some of the labels that were found between the floorboards when the house was renovated in 2015!
We also found out that a lot of the prams that were made were called after townlands like Ardra as well as provinces like Leinster! Here are some pictures of these prams!
In the 1970s, the house became known the residence for the manager of the Creamery in Castlecomer, hence why to this day it has the name “The Creamery House”
During 2014/2015, the house went under renovation and it now has a music academy on the top floor and there are other rooms being used for offices and conferences.
The children enjoyed seeing all aspects of the house. They saw the outside well which is underground and also the cellars which originally stored coal in them for their homes. Did you know there are stalactites in the cellar of the Creamery House?
They learned about the gardens around the house as well as the large orchard which would have spread up along Barrack Street. The children visited the basement of the house where the servants worked and prepared meals and washed clothes for the family living in the house.
On the ground floor, there was a large, front room which had the original floorboards and it was here where the family would have entertained its guests.
On the first floor, there were rooms which would have been the bedrooms and there was also a kitchen area where the family may have practised their cookery skills as a hobby. In this room, the builders found an old range which was fueled by coal hidden behind a wall. They refurbished the range for us all to see 🙂
The children thoroughly enjoyed the view from the top floor. It was amazing to see the view of the Discovery Park and its surrounds from such a height. We tried our best to see our school but the lime trees along the street had it so well hidden!!
Originally, you would have been able to see Castlecomer House (the Wandesforde Family home) from the Creamery House before it was burnt down in 1798 by rebels in what became known as “The Battle of Castlecomer”
Thank you to SaibhÃn, our tour guide and John Comerford (owner of the Creamery House) for kindly opening up the house to the children out of their seasonal hours. We really appreciate it and the children thoroughly enjoyed it too! We completed a worksheet on what we had seen and learned on our tour back at school later that day. Below are just a few photographs of some of the children’s thoughts and memories of The Creamery House.
Date posted: 12th October 2017
Category Blog, Class Work, Geography, History, Local Visits, Senior Classroom