We had a very busy couple of weeks in April straight after our Easter holidays. We had a book fair for the couple of weeks. We really enjoyed browsing the books and buying some. We started our new novel ‘The Butterfly Lion’ by Michael Morpurgo. We’re really enjoying it so far.

In English we read about gardens, plants and gardening. We planted some nasturtium seeds which have sprouted already. We’re looking forward to watching them grow until we can plant them in the garden.

In Geography and Science we learned about Weather and Climate and how animals have to adapt to survive in certain climates. We will complete projects on them in May.

We started Ukrainian lessons and we’re enjoying learning a new language, it’s really interesting!

We started our Stay Safe lessons, which have brought about some interesting chats.

In Art we worked on Hot Air balloons over a couple of lessons, we did a few layers of papier mache and then painted them. They look great!

In Drama we’ve been working in groups to write puppet shows. We’re really enjoying coming up with ideas and working together.

We have also started practising our songs for Open Day.

We had a couple of sessions of a Storytelling workshop online also with Arran Winter. It was really interesting to learn about giving a message through the telling of a story. We enjoyed creating our stories during the workshops.

March news 3rd and 4th

We have had a jam-packed March! In PE, we finished futsol, after 10 weeks. We really enjoyed it and learned a lot. During the last week, Archie and Charlotte ran the class with some assistance from Mrs Prenter. We had a great time and everyone showed the skills and teamwork they’d learned along the way.

We linked History, Geography, Science and Art this month looking at homes. We looked at homes through the ages in History, from Stone Age houses to modern Eco homes. In Geography we looked at different types of homes found in Ireland and building materials used. In Science – linked with Art, we worked in groups to create our own houses using junk materials and shoe boxes. We had great fun creating the different homes out of the materials.

Also in Science we learned about the Water Cycle and water treatment to make our water drinkable.

In Art we created oil pastel and Watercolour pictures and created a paper bouquet of flowers for Mother’s Day. And worked on our 3D homes; which are almost like engineering projects at this stage!

In English we read all about Jacques Cousteau, his inventions and love for the environment. We finished reading Kensuke’s Kingdom, which we loved. The weather was nice enough to read the last 2 chapters together out in the garden. We also read and learned about various artists; Andy Warhol, Jan Vermeer and Marc Chagall. The children gave an oral presentation to the class on an artist of their choice.

For Seachtain na Gaeilge, we played games on the topic of the month; An Teilifís, we had Gaeilgóir an lae, the children received tokens to win prizes for ‘ag caint as Gaeilge’, and we did Irish activities with our reading buddies.

We had World Book Day, where we dressed up in book character costumes, read our favourite books, received book vouchers, designed our own book covers, bunting and did activities with our reading buddies.

In Drama, we performed our group plays for the rest of the school. We loved sharing all our hard work with the other classes and we think they really enjoyed seeing them. It was so nice getting together again!

In Music, we heard and sang some traditional Irish music, we heard and learnt about traditional Irish instruments and saw the performance of the first Riverdance on the Eurovision.

February has been such a fast month. We’ve been really busy!

In History we’ve learned all about The Vikings, their invasions, their settlements and their life. We visited Dublinia to learn all about the progression from Viking life through to Medieval times. It was a great trip, we learned a lot and got to see real life items, homes, merchant ship, dockyard and learn about Viking Dublin. We focused on Denmark in Geography as a country the Vikings came from.

In Art we designed and painted our own Viking shields and in groups we painted a poster of a Viking Longship to display some of our shields. We completed activities based on the Vikings, and write our names in Runes.

In Science we’ve learned how boats float, we’re experimenting to see how things float in fresh and salt water and to design boats to hold weights.

In PE we are still learning and practising new skills in futsol and we’ve got outside to play some games of ‘Capture the flag’. We’ve been focusing on fair-play, friendships and cooperation in our games.

In Drama, we are almost finished practising our plays, hopefully we’ll get to show them to the other class groups in the next week or two.

Finally, in choir, we’ve been practising ‘Breakaway’ by Kelly Clarkson for the choir competition. Everyone is sounding fantastic, there are solos, instruments as well as groups singing harmonies. We’re nervously excited to take part in the competition.

3rd and 4th have had a very busy January. We settled nicely back into school and enjoyed catching up after the Christmas break. Our theme for the month in Irish was ‘ag siopadóireacht’ – shopping  and we all enjoyed working in groups writing our own shopping themed plays (pictures in newsletter). In History we learned about Early Christian Ireland and in Art we made a class model of an early monastery out of clay. We also created Andy Warhol inspired pop art pictures.

We are really enjoying our futsol classes, everyone’s getting involved and our skills are really developing.

As we were learning a lot about Moses, we performed our assembly based on the stories of Moses. The pupils ran the entire assembly themselves, from introduction to prayers, it was great!

We had a visit from John Wells to speak about cyber and internet safety. He answered all our questions and was so informative!

We completed Animal projects in pairs in Science. In English we’ve started our class novel ‘Kensuke’s Kingdom’ by Michael Morpurgo and we’re continuing writing our stories for our ‘We are Writers’ book. Lastly, we’re nearly finished writing our plays in groups, we look forward to performing them for the other classes after mid-term!

We have had a great month in 3rd and 4th. We’ve been so excited counting down the days until Christmas. We really enjoyed looking at and reading lots of different pop-up and picture books in English. We discussed our favourite books and did book reviews on them.

In Art we made pom poms from cardboard discs and wool, we created snowmen from old odd fluffy socks and the inner part of old pillows – how eco friendly!

In History we learned about farming through the ages, which was quite interesting.

We had a ecumenical Carol service with St. Mary’s  and Our Lady of Mercy schools in the church of the Assumption. It was so great to get together and felt so festive.

We’ve been learning how to play Dodgeball in PE and have really enjoyed it!

Following lots of practise for the Carol service, we really enjoyed performing and sharing the service with parents and family.

Lastly we sat by a virtual fire to hand out our presents for Secret Santa, that really got us in the mood for Christmas!

November news – 3rd and 4th class

We have had another busy month in third and fourth class. We’re getting very excited about Christmas! We’ve really been following the World Cup too. We did a world cup team draw (thank you so much to the kind parent – you know who you are - for organising!) Everyone has really been rooting for their team.

In History we have learnt all about Ancient Egypt and Egypt as a country, the climate and culture. We completed mini assignments about it. We learnt about light in Science, we experimented with torches to see how light travels, what materials it can and can’t go through and had discussions on it.

In Art we created a class collage with our own take on Van Gogh’s starry night. We created silhouette pictures with animals and famous landmarks from around the world. In English we read about the Apollo 11 mission, landing on the moon for the first time. In Irish we covered the theme of Sa Bhaile – at home. We drew and wrote about our homes and created our homes for sale advertisements.

In drama we began analysing a character Jack – from a poem. We’re looking forwards to using various elements in Drama to explore him more.

We enjoyed lots of experiments for Science week, along with visits from SEAI to do experiments on energy creation and a visit from a forensic scientist to solve a crime. We enjoyed the experiments and visits so much!

We began practising for our Carol service, which is making us feel extremely festive. Excitement for December is definitely building..

3rd and 4th October news:

Wow! Well, October has been such a busy month! We have enjoyed some Yoga and tried out tag rugby. We have played lots of outdoor games in PE, In Drama we have debated uniforms and the usefulness of pets.

In History have learned all about the three stages of the Stone Age period, we even became hunter-gatherers out in the school garden looking for berries, nuts and other forest forage food. We have created a timeline in History dating from the early Stone Age to 1916.

We will be learning a county per week on a map of Ireland for the whole year – you may spot them coloured in in our homework diaries. During October, the children have been using the ipads to research each county in Ireland, completing a whole class project on each county.

In Art we learned how to use oil pastels and we enjoyed creating our oil pastel pictures. We linked our History with Art and made thumb pots out of clay drawing Celtic designs on them – each one is unique and different and looks great.

We focused on our strengths and talents in SPHE and we all wrote nice things about each other on a piece of paper. Now we each have a sheet full of our strengths, talents and positive attributes.

Science we have learned about the categories of animals, did projects on animals native to Ireland and made Wag the Dog levers, to learn about the force of pushing and pulling with levers.

During Maths week 3rd and 4th teamed up with their buddies in 1st and 2nd class to complete a Maths trail Ms Keane put together for us. We were very lucky with the weather and had a great afternoon in the garden and yard using our Maths skills to complete the activities. Thanks Ms Keane! 

Third and fourth class have had a fun, busy, action-packed first month back at school. We have learned about the origins of Braille and all about Louis Braille’s life and invention. We’ve discovered more about our History, focusing on our family’s history and family tree. We’ve explored Monaghan (virtually) and learned lots about our body; inside and out! We’ve started a ‘word wall’ in English, based on things we’re reading.

In PE, we have planned, created and taught the whole class new games to play. We used some PE equipment, made rules and worked collaboratively to plan and teach them. In Drama, we have had great fun getting to know one another, playing Drama games. We’ve got to know one another’s voices really well at this stage!

We have created Pop Art pictures; inspired by Andy Warhol, made collages from magazine cuttings, we’ve drawn ‘selfie’ self-portraits as well as ‘foreshortening’ perspective pictures.

We went on a lovely, sunny walk to Blackrock library for a climate workshop, led by Ali from the Rediscovery centre, based on plastic waste. The children took part in activities and created collages out of plastic waste in groups. The groups presented what they had learned to the other classes, leaving them with the clear message that we need to Reduce, Reuse or Recycle our plastics.

 We’re also enjoying our yoga classes and really looking forward   to playing tag rugby in October. What a great start to the year!