• Music

Music

Music is taught by the class teacher. The children have the opportunity to learn the piano and guitar from 1st class onwards if they wish. Every second year, we have a group called the “Funky Kids Workshop” in our school to help us put on a wonderful show. Denis and Olivia from the Funky Kids group teach us songs, dances and we then perform them at a Christmas Show for parents and the school community. We also record the show on DVD for parents to purchase! Each week in Assembly, we sing a song and once a year, we attend a Children’s Choral Festival with the other schools in the Diocese.

Here’s to a great 2023 in the Middle Room!

Date posted: 15th February 2023 | Category Blog, Class Work, English, History, Middle Classroom, Music, Religious Education, Visual Arts |

We have had a busy few weeks in school since we returned after the Christmas break! We wrote about all the things we got up to in English!

In History, we learned all about the Titanic and wrote about it. The children also drew great pictures of the ship that was once called “unsinkable”….

We learned all about Chinese New Year. 2023 is “The Year of the Rabbit”.

We made Chinese New Year Dragons….

In Music, the children were given a challenge to make a musical instrument from recyclable items. They did such a wonderful job and we had great fun listening to them and seeing how they work!

We also listened and responded to “The Typewriter” by Leroy Anderson…

In English, we read “The Twits” by Road Dahl and completed book reports. We discussed our favourite characters and the setting and plot…The children really enjoyed this!

In Religious Education, we learned about the life and work of St. Brigid and wrote acrostic poems and created her cloak by weaving paper….

In Art, we designed “Racing Rockets”…

We learned about St. Valentine and created cards and hearts for our loved ones…

We drew pictures and wrote about things in our life that we love….

To raise money for Heart Children Ireland, we dressed up in red for the day! Thank you to everyone for their support of this great cause!

We hope you enjoy the midterm break and well done to all the boys and girls on a great start to 2023!

Date posted: 15th February 2023 | Category Blog, Class Work, English, History, Middle Classroom, Music, Religious Education, Visual Arts |

Happy New Year from Junior & Senior Infants!

Date posted: 15th February 2023 | Category Blog, Class Work, Drama, English, History, Junior Classroom, Mathematics, Music, Our Work on Display, Religious Education, SPHE, Sports, Visual Arts |

We have made a great start to 2023 in the Junior Room. We made New Year crowns to ring in 2023.

We had fun in Maths measuring the length and width of items using lollipop sticks.

Junior Infants have learned the number 3 and Senior Infants have been looking at number 8.

Junior Infants also learned about 3D shapes that can roll and ones that don’t. We sorted them accordingly.

Our theme in Music was Teddy Bears and as well as singing songs we listened to the song The Teddy Bear’s Picnic and drew pictures of it.

Our Play themes were The Post Office and The Hairdresser.

Building a Post Box in Construction
Using Magnet tiles to build a Post Office
Getting our Dog Licences
Role Playing in the Post Office
Creating Post Boxes in Junk Art
Creating hairstyles and doing puzzles

Making hair styles from Play Doh
Getting our hair styled in the Wandesforde Salon!

In SESE we learned about different sports played in the Olympics as well as how important it is to do exercise to keep healthy.

We learned about famous Irish Olympians, Katie Taylor and Gary and Paul O’Donovan, then we designed Olympic Medals for different sports.

In SPHE we read stories and discussed being kind and good friends to each other. We drew pictures of us being a good friend.

Finally it was St Brigid’s Day on February 1st and we learned all about this Irish Saint and the work she did. We used felt to create colourful cloaks for St Brigid.

Date posted: 15th February 2023 | Category Blog, Class Work, Drama, English, History, Junior Classroom, Mathematics, Music, Our Work on Display, Religious Education, SPHE, Sports, Visual Arts |

A Busy November in the Junior Room!

Date posted: 25th November 2022 | Category Blog, Class Work, English, Geography, History, Irish, Junior Classroom, Mathematics, Music, Our Work on Display, Physical Education, SPHE, Sports, Visual Arts |

As ever we have been busy bees in the Junior Room, learning lots of new things and completing colourful work! In Play we learned all about The Fire Station.

Making fire engines in Junk Art
Putting out fires in the sand box
An emergency in Small World!

Starting to build a fire engine in Construction
Building a Fire Station from magnets in Construction
Doing puzzles and activities based on the topic

We discussed fire safety in SPHE and learned how to call the fire brigade if we ever need to.

In SESE we learned about music from around the world, tin whistles from Ireland, bagpipes from Scotland, castanets from Spain, djembe drums from Africa and didgeridoos from Australia. We listened and identified each instrument playing. We also learned all about the composer Mozart and listened to some of his music too!

We also heard the legend of The Giant’s Causeway in History and drew our favourite part of the story.

In English we are learning more sounds in Junior Infants, we learned the letter sound ‘l’ last week.

In Maths Junior Infants learned all about items which were heavy and light.

Our topic in Gaeilge was ‘Bia’ and we know lots of different foods in Irish now, we drew food in our own Bosca Lón (lunchbox) in Art to go with the theme.

We have also learned the letter ‘u’ recently and to go with this we created colourful umbrellas and rain showers in Art.

Finally we continue to learn new skills in GAA each week, we’ve been doing football skills for the last few weeks.

Date posted: 25th November 2022 | Category Blog, Class Work, English, Geography, History, Irish, Junior Classroom, Mathematics, Music, Our Work on Display, Physical Education, SPHE, Sports, Visual Arts |

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.

Role playing in The Garden Centre
Making Play Doh flowers – Lilacs
Roses and Morning Glory
Gladioli
Building Patio Furniture to sell in the Garden Centre
Building A Garden Centre in Small World

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 |

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!

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 |