Fáilte go Rang a Dó
Welcome to 2nd Class
1st and 2nd Class Participated in a
Road Safety Event!
Student Led Conferences
Fun with Music
Edel Coughlan our very talented music teacher brought in her fiddle and her harp (made by her very talented husband Brian) and she played music with second class. She also very kindly allowed the children to try out playing the harp and the fiddle. We also had wonderful performances from some of our harpists and fiddle players from within the class. This inspired us to do a talent show for St. Patrick's day. The result was fantastic, we had singing, dancing, harp, fiddle and drum playing. We all had a great time!!
All About Bats
Raymond Stephens is the forest ranger at Coole Park. He came in to teach us about bats. We learned about echo - location, bat habitats and the different Irish bat species. The children even got to hold real bats!!
Engineers Week in 2nd Class!
Thank-you Stephen O'Brien Bromley!
Stephan is an very special kind of engineer who is responsible for the integrity (safety) of colossal under sea oil pipelines and drilling operations for an oil company. -That is a lot of responsibility!! He told us all about his fascinating work and even how large sharks sometimes attack the pipelines! He also explained that there are hundreds of different types of engineers. He even told us about all the different types of engineers involved in the music business. We got to see his colleague play the electric guitar and he showed us some of the technology that is involved in creating rock music. What a cool morning we had!
We enjoyed a little bit of snow!
We made it rain!
Have a look at our slideshow and see if you can guess how we made it rain using ice and boiling water!
We had a visit from a dinosaur expert!
Dinosaur expert and John Murray from NUIG came and did a talk. He is a lecturer in Paleontology
Earth & Ocean Sciences. He taught us about the common myths about dinosaurs, put into perspective their enormous scale, their complex anatomy and their bizarre feeding habits!!! John showed us dinosaur, bones, skulls, teeth and also he showed us some incredible fossils. He very kindly left us with samples of dinosaur egg shell ans some very cool magnifiers to add to our science resources!! Thanks John.
Water Colour Painting
We looked after our local birds by making bird feeders and learned about native Irish bird species!
2nd Class Create a Solstice Wonderland
at The Christmas Art Show
2nd Class choose the theme of Winter Solstice to inspire their art work. They explored this theme through the mediums of had built clay and Mono-printing. The children’s brilliant talents really shine through in this magical installation which embraces the mystery and traditions of the Winter Solstice. Winter Solstice historically recognises the turning of the light or the turning point in winter when the days begin to get longer again.
The children and I would like to thank: Ceramics Artist Michelle Delaney, Painter & Print Artist Denise Hogan, The Parents Council especially Rachel and Deirdre for their professional input & support
The children and I would like to thank: Ceramics Artist Michelle Delaney, Painter & Print Artist Denise Hogan, The Parents Council especially Rachel and Deirdre for their professional input & support
The 2014 Book Fair
Our school book fair was a great success during the first week of December. The children got to browse and choose from a huge range of books from Irish and international authors. The enthusiasm and excitement of the children just shows the really positive reading culture fostered in our wonderful school! A big thank you to Patsy too for making it all possible! You could hear a pin drop in the classroom when the children were given some time to read their new books!
We learned about using microscopes!
We are very privileged to have the use of a suite of eight microscopes, slides, magnifying glasses and other observational equipment. We looked at all sorts of materials such as sugar, salt, herbs, insects and seeds. We talked about the importance of using microscopes for scientific research and diagnostic work. The microscopes will be returned next week to the Royal Microscopical Society. Many thanks to them for the fun and great learning experiences they brought us for the past 8 weeks!
We were very blessed to have my lovely friend and talented local artist Denise Hogan come and do a mono- printing work shop!
If you are curious to see the results you will have to come to our school's Christmas Arts Show at Kilcornan on the evening of Friday the 12th December.
Still images from a drama lesson with Karen the student teacher
2nd Class made wind socks wth Karen to measure wind direction
Can it hold Water???
2nd Class looked at different materials and figured out which ones are waterproof. They experimented with materials like tin foil, cotton wool, baking parchment. Thanks again Karen.
We have been so lucky to have Edel, Ewan's mum coming in to teach us music on Fridays! She even brought in her beautiful glockenspiel.
We Learned all about ceramics! We even got to use a pottery wheel.
Michelle Delaney, Poppy's mother came in to give us a lesson on using clay. Michelle is a ceramics teacher. She showed us how to make hand built pieces and even gave everyone a chance to use the pottery wheel and make a pot! Michelle even fired and glazed them in her kiln for us. They looked amazing when they were finished!
We learned all about 3d shapes.... and space stations.
We learned all about 3-d shapes, their properties and how they tessellate together. We also learned about space stations and rockets. The children in groups sat down with large pieces of paper to plot their designs and discuss the functions required.
They constructed the stations based on their designs and then painted them. The results were fantastic!! Many had launch pads, escape hatches, telescopes and even bathrooms :-). Well done guys!
They constructed the stations based on their designs and then painted them. The results were fantastic!! Many had launch pads, escape hatches, telescopes and even bathrooms :-). Well done guys!
We Talked About How We Could Make Our Class a Happier Place!
These are the class rules we came up with!
Our Recount Writing!
Fact or Fiction?
2nd Class did some fantastic recount writing about their holidays. They also did some fictional recounts of spooky holidays and magical tales of faraway adventures. We learned about the difference between factual and fictional recounts.
We Made Timelines
Children explored their personal histories through photographs, stories and memories. They also thought about what they would like to be able to do when they are a little older!
*~+*~*Congratulations!! *.+*~*
Gauher and Dara O'D.
The results are in!!!! We had our nominations for Student Council. The class did amazing work on their speeches. The made great posters. The ran fair, honest and sincere campaigns. We had the final hustings. The votes were cast and counted and.... our winners are ........ Gauher and Dara O'Dowd!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We Celebrated Tree Day
On the 8th October we teamed up with 1st class to take a trip to Kilcornan Forest. Our Coilte guide Michael Donnelan gave us a really interesting tour. He taught us all about our native trees and the seasonal changes that occur. We gathered lots of samples of seeds, nuts, leaves and fruit and brought them back to the classrooms to do some fun and creative follow up activities.
We saw The Elves and The Shoemaker as part of the Barbaró Festival.
We went to see the Elves and the Shoemaker in the Black Box Theatre. What an adventure! A double-decker bus took us to Oranmore Library on the way for story - time. We met Kay who talked us through some library etiquette. Then we settled in for storytime!
After staying good-bye to Kay and the folks at the library we set off for the Black Box Theatre and what a bunch of comic surprises lay in store for us! Have a look at the fun we had...
After staying good-bye to Kay and the folks at the library we set off for the Black Box Theatre and what a bunch of comic surprises lay in store for us! Have a look at the fun we had...
Music with Edel Callan.
Edel captivated us with her mystical musical wizardry and we were spellbound (literally speaking!) by here amazing demonstrations and insights into music theory and song singing. Thanks so much for sharing your talents with us!!
Happy Halloween
On Friday the 24th October our classroom was filled with all manner of ghouls, ghosts, vampires and other spooky folks. We had great fun carving a pumpkin, playing traditional Halloween games and eating old fashioned treats like Barin brack and apples (thanks a million Deirdre Bennett for all the apples!). The children bobbed for apples, played a tension filled game of balancing a grape on a mountain of flour and made some frightfully beautiful masks!
Happy Halloween everyone!!!
Happy Halloween everyone!!!
