November has been a very busy month! 

We learned all about World War Two this month. We ordered main events on timelines, explored ration posters and books, read newspapers of when Dublin was bombed and examined a variety videos and photos of the war including where Anne Frank lived. We learned so much! We also created chalk drawings of 'The Blitz'. We look forward to making WW2 booklets in December.

In maths we finished the topic of fractions and division. We had fun playing a variety of card games, dice games and loop card games. Sixth class even got to use chocolates to learn all about the concept of ratio! 

In English we read all about World Mysteries like the Bermuda Triangle. We then wrote our own newspaper reports based on a mystery of our choice. We learned that there was a 'Dancing Plague' in the 1500's where people couldn't stop dancing on the streets of France. People believed that the dancing was caused by a tarantula bite!

In Science and Geography we learnt about Climate Change. We explored climate breakdown and learned how long it takes for different materials to breakdown. We also learned about the negative impact marine litter has on our climate and animals. We made posters and comics about the dangers of marine litter. Finally in STEM, we made Wind Turbines out of recyclable materials in groups. We had to make sure our turbine was free standing, atleast 30cm tall and had blades that could rotate freely. We then tested them out with a hairdryer, this was very fun!

In Irish we finished the topic of 'Bia' and learned all the Aimsir Chaite rules. We are now experts in the past tense verbs! We did lots of table quizzes to test ourselves. Well done everybody!

In Religion we learned all about Saints and Martyrs. We made posters about how they stood up for what they believed in. We learned a lot from them. We also explored the Lord's Prayer and discussed the deeper meaning of each verse. 

We celebrated Maths week this month. We participated in a maths week quiz online and worked in teams to solve a series of problems. We then created maths clocks where instead of writing the numbers 1-12, we came up with sums that equal the specific numbers. We had to really think about these sums and made sure to make them difficult! We also completed a data project in pairs where we surveyed our class on a topic of our choice. We collected the results in a tally and then represented our findings on a bar chart and a pictogram. We learned a lot about our class including that our favourite smell is petrol! 

We also completed our first SESE projects this month. We had three projects: Volcanoes, Earthquakes and The Structure of the Earth. Each group was given a rubric and they had to make sure they included all the information. We had lots of time to research and then we presented our project to the class, we learned a lot from one another. We then explored chemical and physical changes in science and conducted an erupting volcano experiment with baking soda and vinegar. 

We did lots of Halloween art this month. Our favourite was recreating 'The Scream' painting by Edvard Munch. We used watercolour paints to paint the scene and then we took photos of our 'Scream' faces. This was very funny and they turned out great!

In English, we started reading our first class novel of the year 'Why The Whales Came' by Michael Murpurgo. We have enjoyed responding to the novel through drama and written activities. We have started taking on roles in our groups while reading e.g., predictor, word wizard, connector and questioner. These roles teach us how important it is to stop, think and discuss our thoughts during shared reading time. We also finished writing and publishing our own Halloween stories this month. We began brainstorming ideas and writing drafts in our copies and making edits. Then, when we finished our drafts, we each typed up our stories with all the edits on the ipads. Finally, we printed them out and created a front cover. We were super proud of ourselves and it made us realise how patient real authors must be as the writing process is very long!

Finally, we finished the month with a Halloween Scavenger Hunt organised by the Student Council. We then had our dress up day for Temple Street and did our first class assembly of the year where we celebrated United Nations Day. 

Welcome back everybody, this month we have been very busy!

In maths, we have covered place value looking at numbers all the way up to tens of millions! We have enjoyed playing lots of games using materials from our maths boxes and making notes in our maths journals. We particularly enjoyed looking at prices of super cars and rounding them to the nearest ten, hundred, thousands and ten thousands.

In English we looked at recount writing. We read all about outstanding animals and then researched an animal of our choice and wrote about their story. We then read all about Malala and her life, we were very inspired by her courage and bravery. 

In Irish we covered 'Me Féin' and enjoyed learning our ceisteanna cómhrá all about ourselves. We played guess who and played 20 questions in Irish about celebrities of our choice. 

In SESE, we read all about plants and animals. We got to invent our own animal and decide how they would adapt to their environment. We also researched Ireland's native trees and made fact files about two trees of our choice. We then dissected a flower and learned the functions of each part. In history, we enjoyed learning about museums and extinct animals. We did a 3d Virtual Tour of the Natural History Museum of Ireland. 

In art we looked at Picasso's continuous line drawings and Matisse's cut outs. We also painted camels which linked with our other history topic 'African myths and legends'. 

We also were very lucky to participate in a mock trial thanks to Barry Ward TD. It was an amazing experience to turn our classroom into a courtroom and take on the roles of solicitors, prosecutors, defenders and the jury.