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The Middle Room bring the house down and build a crib!
Date posted: 21st December 2016
Category Blog, Christmas, Drama, English, Funky Kids, Middle Classroom, Religious Education, Visual Arts
The highlight of December activities had to be the Christmas show where the Middle Room performed a mix of modern and classic musical numbers, including some from Frozen and Oliver. All the children’s practice and hard work paid off as the children brought the house down for both shows. Well done all!
Art during December was all about making a Christmas Crib diorama. The children covered a shoe box, created a background scene and created clay figurines for their crib. It was like Santa’s workshop every week during art!
The budding writers in the Middle Room penned some Christmas stories and poetry. The children spent a lot of November planning, editing and writing stories about a mysterious person on a roof. We eventually ‘published’ the stories in a book entitled ‘The Man on the Roof and other stories’. The book is available in the classroom for everyone to read.
The children in 3rd and 4th also wrote some diamante poems about The Grinch and Santa also. A diamante poem is a concise poetry form that extracts the essence of two opposing things and uses the children’s knowledge of nouns, verbs and adjectives.
For example
Grinch
Selfish, nosy
Stealing, bullying, tripping
Lair, dogs, elves, reindeer
Laughing, giving, sharing
Jolly, fat
Santa
Second class wrote an acrostic poem about Santa.
The children also enjoyed their trip to cinema to see Moanna (the teacher’s also enjoyed the trip). The children gave the film their 5 star seal of approval.
And finally, just to wish everyone a very happy and peaceful Christmas and a prosperous New Year. Nollaig Shona agus Athbhliain faoi mhaise daoibh go léir.
Date posted: 21st December 2016
Category Blog, Christmas, Drama, English, Funky Kids, Middle Classroom, Religious Education, Visual Arts
November News from 5th & 6th Class
Date posted: 7th December 2016
Category Blog, Christmas, Class Work, English, Local Visits, Our Work on Display, Senior Classroom, SPHE, Visual Arts
November has been another fun and busy month in the senior room. We began the month by learning all about keeping dogs as pets and safety around them when The Dog’s Trust came to visit.
In Art we created candle holders from jars, we painted them in bright and vibrant colours!
We also looked at the artist Piet Mondrian and created our own paintings in his style.
It was interesting to read all about polar bears in English and learn more about these fascinating animals. We wrote up the information we learned.
We were delighted to be invited to paint up a Nutcracker character to go on display in Kilkenny as part of the Yulefest celebrations in the city. Here is our Wandesforde Nutcracker!
Finally as November drew to a close we went to the Discovery Park to greet Santa and Mrs Claus as they arrived and sang some Christmas Carols.
Date posted: 7th December 2016
Category Blog, Christmas, Class Work, English, Local Visits, Our Work on Display, Senior Classroom, SPHE, Visual Arts
Middle Room brought to their senses!
Date posted: 3rd December 2016
Category Blog, Christmas, Class Work, English, Geography, History, Middle Classroom, Religious Education, Science, SPHE, Visual Arts
November saw the Middle Room becoming more acquainted with their own senses. Our topic in science was ‘Sound’ and as part of that we learned all about our ears. We also looked at how sound is actually made. In SPHE we tried out Mindfulness. As part of our introduction to Mindfulness, we undertook some ‘mindful eating’, paying full attention to the eating experience and all the senses involved, sight, touch, smell and taste.
Continuing on the same theme we wrote a sensory poem called ‘Winter’. Below is a sample of some of the amazing poems that the children wrote.
Winter
Sounds like fire burning, people laughing and snowballs.
Smells like turkey, Brussels sprouts, carrots and Christmas pudding.
Tastes like chocolate and sweets.
Looks like a Christmas feast.
Feels like Santa’s coming!
Winter
Sounds like children playing in the snow and people putting on fires.
Smells like Christmas dinner and Christmas pudding.
Tastes like hot chocolate with marshmallows and hot tea.
Looks like sticks being brought in and fires lit.
Feels like warm, cosy duvets.
To link with the work on the season of winter we used the technique of using a ‘vanishing point’ in art to give perspective to our drawing of a winter scene – a tree lined avenue. It was beautiful to drive into Castlecomer during the last week of November and see the trees looking just as sparkly as our pictures.
Another theme for this month was ‘Egypt’, forming a central part of our history, geography and RE lessons. The children learned some fascinating facts about Ancient Egypt. They compared the similarities and differences between life in Ancient Egypt and Modern Egypt. In Art the children made Egyptian collars which look very ornate on the wall.
At the start of the month Dogs Trust came in to visit the children. They learned all about the work they do. They learned specifically how to safely approach a dog without spooking it.
As we are nearing the end of November minds are beginning to turn to Christmas.The children painted giant toy soldiers for display in Kilkenny’s new Yuletide festival. They will be displayed in the gardens in Butler House in Kilkenny City.
They also made some lovely decorations to hang around the classroom. Won’t they look lovely!
Date posted: 3rd December 2016
Category Blog, Christmas, Class Work, English, Geography, History, Middle Classroom, Religious Education, Science, SPHE, Visual Arts
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas at Wandesforde!
Date posted: 30th November 2016
Category Blog, Christmas, Music, Special Occasions
Christmas has started early at Wandesforde School! As you can see, we all have been very busy preparing our Christmas Shoeboxes for Team Hope.
The school has sent 46 beautifully packaged shoeboxes to children in poorer parts of the world for Christmas. Thank you to all the families who took part in this very worthwhile cause 🙂
As well as this the children have been busy designing, painting and decorating soldiers which will be on display on the Parade during Yulefest in Kilkenny!
Make sure to pop into Kilkenny with your family at the weekends during December to see the children’s artwork on display and also to explore all the Yulefest activities of music, food, craft and entertainment for friends and family. See visitkilkenny.ie for more information.
Not only this, but the school was invited to the launch of Christmas at the Discovery Park! They got to meet Santa and Mrs. Claus and went on a little walk through the Elf Village with them too!!
We then enjoyed singing some Christmas Carols together with Santa, Mrs. Claus and members of our families and the local community. It was a great day and thank you to everybody who came along to see us on the day!!
Date posted: 30th November 2016
Category Blog, Christmas, Music, Special Occasions
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas in the Junior Classroom!
Date posted: 30th December 2015
Category Blog, Christmas, English, History, Junior Classroom, Religious Education, Science, SPHE, Visual Arts
The Christmas Preparations have begun at Wandesforde National School. To begin with, Junior & Senior Infants enjoyed a short trip to the Post Office at the start of December to post their letters to Santa!
The children then enjoyed putting some decorations on the Christmas Tree in the school hallway!
At the start of December, the children enjoyed learning about various aspects of Farming from Vincent O’ Sullivan, a local Heritage Specialist. They got to see and use a churn and even made their own butter!
Not only this but they also got to use a mill which ground the grains of wheat into flour!
In Support of the work covered on “Friendship” in SPHE during November, the children made their own ‘Friend ‘ship’ & wrote down the qualities they like in a friend on their ship.
In Gaeilge, the children designed their own Christmas Jumpers. Didn’t they do a wonderful job 🙂
The children worked with clay in Art and made Christmas Owls in support of work covered on owls and nocturnal animals in SESE this month!
They also enjoyed making their own reindeer using toilet roll inserts!
In support of work the children covered on “Light” in Science, they made their own Christmas Candles.
The children also did an In-Class Colouring Competition of Christmas Wreaths. Well done to all the children for such bright and colourful work!
As a little treat before the Christmas Holidays, the children decorated their own Christmas Cupcakes. Mmmmmm!!
Finally, Christmas would not be Christmas without the Nativity. Junior & Senior Infants played the role of donkeys, cows and sheep in our School Carol Service. A big thank you to all the parents for doing such a fantastic job on their costumes!!
Happy Christmas everybody and best wishes for 2016 . See you all in the New Year!!
Date posted: 30th December 2015
Category Blog, Christmas, English, History, Junior Classroom, Religious Education, Science, SPHE, Visual Arts