English

English is taught to all children from Junior Infants to Sixth Class. Oral language, reading and writing are all encouraged and promoted throughout the school. The child’s reading and writing experience in school can contribute greatly to their cognitive, emotional and imaginative development. The children love to write stories, complete projects and post their blogs on the school website.

Summer Fun in the Junior Room

Date posted: 27th June 2022 | Category Blog, Class Work, Drama, English, Geography, Junior Classroom, Local Visits, Music, Our Work on Display, Science, SPHE, Sport, Visual Arts |

The last few weeks in school have been full of learning and activities in the Junior room. We learned all about the Garden Centre in Play.

Building Patio Furniture to sell in the Garden Centre

In SESE we learned all about the country of Italy, we discussed landmarks, food and where Italy is located. We also learned about fish, things we do at the seaside, the season of Summer and starfish.

We also made butter from cream. We shook the bottle for a few minutes and slowly but surely it turned into butter!

In Art we made sunflowers using tea leaves to create the centre of them and ice cream cones for Summer from puffy paint.

To tie in with the Garden Centre we also sowed some sunflowers for our own gardens.

To celebrate the season of Summer we had a Teddy Bears Picnic with ice-cream and strawberries and played some outdoor water activities and games.

In SPHE we learned all about road safety and practiced crossing the road safely at the Pelican Crossing in town and outside our school.

In English we continued to learn our Tricky Words and in Music listened to the song “Under the Sea” and drew pictures in response to it.

Wishing everyone a fun and happy Summer and see you at the end of August!

Date posted: 27th June 2022 | Category Blog, Class Work, Drama, English, Geography, Junior Classroom, Local Visits, Music, Our Work on Display, Science, SPHE, Sport, Visual Arts |

Hello Summer!! From all in the Middle Room :)

Date posted: 22nd June 2022 | Category Blog, English, Middle Classroom, Religious Education, Science, Visual Arts |

It is hard to believe we are at the end of another term! It has been a busy one, so have a look at what the boys and girls in First, Second and Third class have been up to!!

In English, we wrote about our school tour at the end of May. The children had a great time in Dunmore East and Rathwood..

We also read a story called “Flower Power” in Religious Education, which tells us about telling the truth and saying sorry when we do something wrong.

In Science, we learned all about the Solar System, and read a poem called

“Funny Space Rhymes”…

In Gaeilge, we learned and wrote about “An Sorcas.”

In Visual Arts, we learned about the life and work of Monet and made our own version of “Waterlilies”….

We also made minibeasts out of clay…

We created lovely “Lighthouses” and learned all about these structures along our coast….

To mark those important Dads in our lives, we created “Footprints” and cards…and had so much fun making them!!!

We created “Rock n Roll Vests” with very cool designs!

First and Second class wrote about the Summer and facts about the season…

We enjoyed a picnic outside with the Infant classroom and enjoyed strawberries

and ice-cream!

We drew pictures of our favourite memory from the year…

We hope you all have a wonderful Summer! See you all at the end of August!

Date posted: 22nd June 2022 | Category Blog, English, Middle Classroom, Religious Education, Science, Visual Arts |

Spring in the Senior Room!

Date posted: 15th April 2022 | Category Blog, Book Week, Class Work, Easter, English, Funky Kids, Geography, History, Irish, Local Visits, Mathematics, Music, Our Work on Display, Religious Education, Science, Senior Classroom, Visual Arts |

During Spring, the Senior Classroom were busy with many seasonal and school activities. They learned how to weave and made some lovely “Woven Hearts” for Valentine’s Day!

As well as this, they made some God’s Eyes using craft sticks and wool.

Ireland was a topic explored in preparation for St. Patrick’s Day in SESE, Religion & Art.

The children enjoyed learning about Coordinate Geometry in Maths. They created their own Spring pictures by following the coordinates given.

The school had a Dress Up in Green Day for the people of Ukraine and in preparation for this, the children learned about their country and their culture in SESE.

They also learned about the Water Cycle and how important water is in our lives.

Funky Kids has been a great experience for the whole school this term. The children have been making their costumes, singing & performing their songs and taking part in some fun drama activities with Denis & Olivia each week.

Well done to all the children on a great performance at the Funky Kids Show. You were all stars on the stage and you did a fantastic show!

Mothering Sunday was also celebrated during Spring. We made some beautiful flower bouquets to thank all the people who mother us in our lives.

In Gaeilge, the children made some very creative posters of adjectives (aidiachtaí)

They also enjoyed playing Biongó to help them learn their numbers in Irish.

Book Week was also another successful event in our school this term. The children designed their own book covers for our We Are Writers Book. Didn’t they do a great job!

In Art, the children engaged in a Still Life Drawing activity and drew some beautiful daffodils in a jug. They worked on the elements of tone and texture in creating their drawings.

The children participated in the Bishop’s Easter Poster Competition in Religion. This year’s theme is HOPE and the children brought their ideas to life in their work below 🙂

In the lead up to the Easter Holidays, the children did a Spring Eggbox Scavenger Hunt in the Discovery Park.

Walking across the new footbridge in Castlecomer!

Easter Eggsperiments were also carried out in Science. We did experiments to find out if an egg is fresh or stale. Did you know that a stale egg will float in water whereas a fresh egg will sink in water.

We also found out how to work out if an egg is raw or hard boiled by spinning it. A hard boiled egg will move in a smooth spinning motion whereas a raw egg will tend to wobble!!

We also explored how to make a fresh egg float. We did this by adding some salt to the water which increases the density of the water resulting in a floating egg!!

One eggsperiment we all really enjoyed was the egg in the bottle! Believe if or not the egg does go into the bottle once a small piece of lit paper is put into the bottle!! This happens because when the match goes out and cools down it causes lower pressure inside the bottle. The air pressure outside the bottle is higher resulting in the egg being pushed down into the bottle!!

Finally, we worked with clay in Art and made our own egg shaped bowls some of which we turned into chicks!

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Well done to the Senior Classroom on all their achievements this term. Enjoy your well deserved break and have a very Happy Easter!

Spring Fun in the Middle Room!

Date posted: 12th April 2022 | Category Blog, Book Week, Class Work, Drama, Drama, Easter, English, Funky Kids, Geography, Irish, Middle Classroom, Music, Religious Education, Science, Special Occasions, Visual Arts |

What a busy term it has been in our school! The children in 1st, 2nd and 3rd class have worked so hard over the past few weeks. Have a look at what we have been up to!

Signs of Spring have been popping up everywhere and we wrote about these signs in Science and Geography!

We were very lucky to have Willie, Eddie and Alan from the local Fire Brigade visit us to talk about fire safety in the home. The children had to complete a checklist at home ensuring they are following safety guidelines in the case of an emergency.

To mark Engineers’ Week, we were very lucky to attend the local library where Karyn read a story called “Rosie Revere, Engineer” to us all. We then had to make helicopters using paper and paperclips. The children tried out different ways of making their helicopters fly faster and slower and had so much fun!

We had fun making St.Patrick’s Day art and craft…..

We dressed up in in green to raise money for those affected by war in the Ukraine.

In Gaeilge, we were learning about “Sa Bhaile” and learned a poem called “Mo Chaitín”.

To celebrate all those lovely women in our lives and to mark Mothering Sunday, we made paper bouquets and bookmarks.

We worked hard on projects over the past number of weeks and the children did an amazing job researching and presenting a topic of their choice to their classmates! Topics included Dinosaurs, Visionary Women around the World, Horses, Imaginext, Farming, Cooking & Baking, Cats, Tigers, The Solar System and so much more!

To celebrate Easter, we read and learned about the Easter Story. The children completed pictures for the Bishop’s Art Competition based on the theme of “Hope”. Here are some of their wonderful entries…..

We read a story called “Lovejoy’s Song.” It is based on the Easter Story from the viewpoint of a bird and drew pictures….

We created some lovely Easter art….

The children received a treat box filled with eggs….

We wrote super Easter Acrostic Poems in English……

The children designed super book covers for the book fair held in our school………..

We had the Funky Kids Show on 31st March after ten weeks of singing and dancing with Denis and Olivia. Each child was a superstar on the day! Well done boys and girls!

On the last day of term, the 3rd class who have been working with Mrs. Joyce on Minecraft Maps and designing islands, presented their work to the children in 1st and 2nd class. It was great to see how their ideas were transformed from an idea on a piece of paper to a computerised drawing! Well done boys and girls and thank you Mrs. Joyce!

Happy Easter to you all! Well done on a great term’s work everybody!

Spring has Sprung in the Junior Room!

Date posted: 11th April 2022 | Category Blog, Class Work, Easter, English, Funky Kids, Geography, Junior Classroom, Local Visits, Mathematics, Our Work on Display, Religious Education, Science, Visual Arts |

Junior and Senior Infants have been as busy as ever in the last few weeks. In play we learned all about The Farm. We had fun making animals in Play Doh, planning and making farms in the Sand and Small World. We also made items in Junk Art and went outside to create farms as well as building barns in Construction.

Creating nests and homes for farm animals in Junk Art.

We learned lots in SESE about the season of Spring and various things which happen during this time of year. We read books and watched videos learning about this season and wrote some things which happen in Spring.

We learned about the Life Cycle of Chicks and made life cycle pictures.

We read the stroy “What the Ladybird Heard” which takes place on a farm and mapped the route the thieves took on the farm.

We also went on a nature walk to Castlecomer Discovery Park and spotted some signs of Spring. After we had some fun exploring and playing in the playground.

For Mother’s Day we made finger paintings and poems for our mums.

Junior Infants continue to learn their numbers in Maths and made Number 5 pictures.

In English we learned a Spring rhyme about daffodils drew illustrations to go with it.

We went outdoors and used chalk to practice sounding out and writing different words associated with farming.

In Art and RE we learned the story of Easter and created paintings based on this story.

Also in Art we created colourful St Patrick’s Day rainbows and shamrocks.

Finally, after 10 weeks of fun playing games, learning songs and creating costumes it was time to perform our Funky Kids Show! The pupils had a great day performing and watching their friends in other classes performing too.