Aistear

Last week all of the children got into role as architects and chose a building to design for our town. They created blueprints of their buildings and then used clay to make a model of it. Fiachra also brought in the blueprints of his new house and Mr Larke let us look at the blueprints of our new classroom! 

This week for playtime we have a construction station and the children at this table are setting up a construction site and getting into role as builders! 

Many thanks to all the children who brought in tools, hard hats, etc.! 

Building Site

For May our theme is going to be the building site, taking inspiration from all the work going on for our new classroom! We began today by discussing what needs to happen before the builders can even get started. The children learned about architects and blueprints, and we decided everyone was going to plan, design and create their own building this week. We began the process today with a bit of research. In pairs, we went for a little walk around the town and noted the architecture on some buildings. If the children noticed anything they really liked, they drew it on their sheets to use for their own plan tomorrow! We're excited to continue on from today's work!!! 

Seachtain na Gaeilge

Broken Irish is better than clever English! 

Seachtain na Gaeilge runs from 1st-17th March 2017. This festival celebrates the Irish language and culture and is a great opportunity to try and use your own cúpla focail! 

This week Juniors and Seniors have obair bhaile as Gaeilge. Monday is a colouring page which gives them a chance to practice their dathanna. Dé Máirt is a game they all enjoy, Deir Ó Grádaigh. Wednesday is making a card using a greeting as Gaeilge-Lá Fhéile Pádraig Sona Duit! These are some fun activities to encourage Gaeilge to be a living and spoken language and hopefully to encourage interest in our country's teanga! 

More eolas can be found on the Seachtain na Gaeilge website here. 

There are some helpful phrases to be found here too! 

Leprechaun Traps!

Last week the Juniors and Seniors worked with their partners to design and create leprechaun traps to mark Engineer's Week and the start of Seachtain na Gaeilge. They did an incredible job on their traps and worked really well in the groups, developing social skills, oral language, problem solving skills, creative thinking and motor skills! 

Over the weekend, when the school was quiet, a little leprechaun got into our classroom! He was too clever to fall into our traps though...and he made a big mess of our classroom!!! 

However, he did leave some special chocolate coins and shamrock stickers for the boys and girls to show them how impressed he was with their traps! 

What a crazy morning!!! 

Farm Trip

Juniors and Seniors want to say a big that you to Norris and Alison Beattie for showing us around their dairy farm last Friday! We learned loads about what they do there and we got to eat loads of yummy dairy products, such as milkshakes, cheese and ice cream! We had a fantastic and educational day, thanks to the Beatties!

Weather

Our theme for January was Weather!

We learned lots about different types of weather, weather forecasting and meteorologists. 

We even became meteorologists and made some instruments to help us understand the weather better. 

We made:

a rain gauge 

a thermometer 

a wind vane 

and an anemometer! 

The meteorologists recorded the weather data each day last week using our new instruments and compared each day's weather.

We also looked at the water cycle using this poem: 

and this video:

 

The children in Juniors and Seniors are ar fheabhas at An Aimsir in Gaeilge and know LOADS of phrases for talking about the weather if you just ask...

"Conas atá an aimsir inniu?" 

"Cén sort aimsir atá ann?" 

Cén saghas lae é? 

Gingerbread Men

We had a lot of fun last week baking and decorating some gingerbread men! We learned about recipes, ingredients, following a method, sieves, spoons and more! The best part was decorating our treats Friday morning and eating our delicious gingerbread men before hometime!