Our annual Spring clean is always an excuse to get active. Cleaning up our school grounds, local playground and surrounding woodlands is part of our green school initiative but incorporates getting active too. Especially when playtime in the playground is the reward for a job well done. Additional outdoor play time is often used as a reward and is very effective.
Movement breaks are now part of the culture here at KETNS with each class taking 1 to 2 short structured movement breaks each day. These movement breaks often include running laps, skipping or dance- all of which help with our Fundamental Movement Skills.
Celebrating Seachtain na Gaeilge with each class learning the Dreolín and coming together to enjoy dance at our Céilí mór.
Our Tuesday Tunes are back to help us through January.
Our laps to Lapland is in full swing! Together we are running to Lapland and back, using our map as a tracker. Each lap will equal 1km and we need to reach 8286km collectively. We are currently in Copenhagen, but should make it home in time for our winter holidays!
Our Parents Association put on a host of Active Halloween activities in our local hall for all the children in the school. Well done to all the volunteers who put in so much effort. Such an enjoyable day had by all!
Our Halloween disco was a great success during yard time today. Dry weather and a spooky playlist were all we needed.
6th class volunteers were a great help putting up Halloween yoga poses on our Active School walkway in preparation for next week.
Playground leaders
Playground leaders are back at work this new school year with renewed enthusiasm and new games too. Well done to all the 6th class who volunteered and trained to be playground leaders.
Forest Walks
We are so lucky to be able to explore Autumn in our beautiful woodlands that surround our school. Here Senior Infants are out for a September walk, collecting Autumn treasures and enjoying a ‘Sit Spot’.
TUESDAY TUNES
Each tuesday during June we have music in the yard. The kids just love it!
Each tuesday during June we have music in the yard. The kids just love it!
Senior Infants out practising their skipping as they take part in the 'Climb the Heights' challenge. This year we are skipping up Irish mountains with each skip equalling one foot in height.
Our PE shed needed a Spring Clean too. Some of our active school committee busy organising and auditing our equipment.
Seachtain na Gaeilge
Great practise pays off- We had so much fun dancing the Siege of Ennis in the beautiful sunshine!
We celebrated St Patrick’s day at school with plenty of music, movement and fun!
Below our Junior Infants started us off with a little parade and above is a video of 6th class girls showcasing some wonderful Irish dancing.
Our poster competition winners with their winning posters and active prizes! Well done Gemma, Lilianna and Erin!
Our Slogan Poster Competition
After our Active School slogan was chosen we decided to make posters to spread the word. Here is a sample of just a few entries.
Action makes the heart grow stronger!
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Our climbing wall has been a wonderful addition to our school playground and is used daily. As our classes rotate around the various yard zones it means that all have an opportunity to use it!
An active prize for an active winner! 2 tickets to jump lanes for coming up with our new Active School Slogan. "Action makes the heart grow stronger". Well done Carla!
Our school outdoor Valentines Disco was a great success!
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A little clip of our wonderful playground leaders at work!
Our Amazing Playground Leaders
We are so lucky to have such wonderful and dedicated playground leaders in our school. Below is just a snapshot of the daily work that 6th class volunteers do to provide structured play during breaktimes for Junior and Senior Infants. Volunteers are rotated on a weekly basis.
This December our Active School Committee teamed up with our Student Council and together they supported the 'Sprint for Simon'. This was both a Christmas running initiative and a student council goal- to raise money for an important local charity.
Each child in our school sprinted, ran or walked 1km each day for 12 days. We mapped out 4 routes for some variety and to ensure multiple classes could do their sprints simultaneously. We ran up and down the avenue, laps of our yard, through the forest, in our local hall and around our school grounds, and together our school raised 1490 euros! We are so very proud to support the work of the Simon Community.
Each child in our school sprinted, ran or walked 1km each day for 12 days. We mapped out 4 routes for some variety and to ensure multiple classes could do their sprints simultaneously. We ran up and down the avenue, laps of our yard, through the forest, in our local hall and around our school grounds, and together our school raised 1490 euros! We are so very proud to support the work of the Simon Community.
Our wonderful Active School Committee members!
These wonderful students filled in an application form and blew us away with their ideas to become part of the Active School Committee- We look forward to working together to achieve our second flag!
These wonderful students filled in an application form and blew us away with their ideas to become part of the Active School Committee- We look forward to working together to achieve our second flag!
Our 6th class Active School committee members were out in the sunshine today, getting organised for our December 2021 running initiative. Today we measured various routes for the upcoming running challenge.
5th Class out enjoying the lead up to Halloween 2021 with a Halloween scavenger hunt and Halloween spooky yoga trail. All out in our beautiful forest!
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Our Christmas Rudolph Run for Down Syndrome Ireland 2020
Junior Sports Day 2019
A few pictures from our Junior Sports Day last Friday. Parachutes, dancing, egg and spoon, obstacle courses and sprints, to name just a few of our fun activities this year!
10 Year Anniversary School Disco!
Our whole school Disco event was a wonderful way to mark our schools 10th Anniversary and it was a great way for everyone to include physical activity as part of our celebration!
Dance practice for our whole school flash-mob!
This week each class took part in some dance sessions given by one of our lovely parents, Áine from our Parents Committee. Each class learned a simple routine that will then fit together in a WHOLE school Flash-mob at our 10 Year Anniversary Ball.
Our Active school Survey
Our Active School Committee carried out an activity survey in each class to find out what activities our children engage in regularly outside of school. Such variety!
The Daily Mile continues...
Our fitness levels are increasing!
Linking Maths and PE- 4th Class Maths Trail
Getting active around our school grounds with a Maths trail.
Playground Leaders
Our Playground Leaders are continuing their hard work all year round and are here creating throwing and catching games on the Junior Yard.
The Daily Mile- March and April
Each class have committed to running for 15 minutes each day for the next 4 weeks. Here we have Junior Infants and Senior Infants on Day 1 of our challenge. One of our Active School Committee members is demonstrating the route and leading the children in a warm up game.
Our February Skipping Challenge- Climb the Mountains of Europe!
This month we took on the challenge of climbing Europe's highest mountains. Each class choose a few mountains to climb as part of our skipping challenge. 1m = 1 skip! Needless to say there was ALOT of skipping done this month! Children participated in group skipping, skipping chants and improved their own individual skipping skills. The Active School Committee members were then responsible for calculating and measuring our daily progress.
Story time and free play with Second Class in the walled garden
4th Class Biodiversity Survey
Fourth Class enjoying their walk around our local forest while completing a biodiversity survey. This was part of their interaction with the Burren Beo program.
A Winter Scavenger Hunt with Senior Infants
Senior Infants took on the frosty weather to explore our local walled garden for signs of Winter. We really enjoyed our brisk walk and exploration of the nature that surrounds our school. We did need to run a few laps to stay warm but we all had a lovely afternoon!
Our Activity week and Laps to Lapland
This week we completed a dance break, an exercise break and a running break each day. Our dance break consisted of a variety of gonoodle dances and the ever popular 'Santa Dance' from Just Dance. Our exercise breaks were a mix of games, yoga, bizzy breaks and stretches.
Finally our running initiative was a great success as we collectively ran a whopping 3,955 laps together as a school. This meant we actually ran 304 laps over our target. We converted each lap to a Km and mapped our way to Lapland, Finland. Each day our 6th Class committee members counted our laps and plotted our route to Lapland on our notice board. Teachers were also emailed daily with our progress on google maps. A great way to end our first term and to get into the Christmas spirit!
Finally our running initiative was a great success as we collectively ran a whopping 3,955 laps together as a school. This meant we actually ran 304 laps over our target. We converted each lap to a Km and mapped our way to Lapland, Finland. Each day our 6th Class committee members counted our laps and plotted our route to Lapland on our notice board. Teachers were also emailed daily with our progress on google maps. A great way to end our first term and to get into the Christmas spirit!
New Yard Games
Our playground leaders are great at coming up with new activities for break times! Here they are using our tug-of-war rope for a group skipping game!
Our Active School Slogan competition
After sorting through over 60 entries our Active School committee choose Chloe's slogan as the winning entry.
Keep active and fit, by doing it bit by bit!
Chloe (5th Class) won an active prize- 2 tickets to jump lanes.
Keep active and fit, by doing it bit by bit!
Chloe (5th Class) won an active prize- 2 tickets to jump lanes.
Active Lines
This week we completed Active lines at line up time. There was an activity for the end of both little break and big break. Our Active School committee demonstrated the exercises and the best line got the line star for the day! Our activities included hip rolls, pencil jumps, jumping jacks, squats, high knees and arm rolls. The line with the most stars gets 10 minutes extra playtime!
4th Class school visit to Galway
Where possible we always try to fit in some physical activity on our school trips. This is often through walking to our destinations and finding a playground on the way!
Maths Trails during Maths week
We incorporated exercise and teamwork as we completed a Maths trail around our school grounds for Maths week. Here Senior Infants and Third class are working together to solve Maths problems outdoors.
Playground Leaders working hard again this week!
This week our playground leaders set up an obstacle course for the children on the Junior yard. These games help all children to be active at break times and encourage children to join in and make new friends. Our playground leaders model the games and demonstrate new skills for the younger children,as well as developing their own leadership roles.
We like to incorporate Physical activity into our school trips.
Our 5th Class students walking to Clarinbridge for the Cuan Beo Festival.
Our 5th Class students walking to Clarinbridge for the Cuan Beo Festival.
Incorporating physical activity into our Halloween celebrations through games!
