Another month has just flown by.  The children worked really well this month and the lovely weather is just brilliant 🌞🌞We had some lovely walks down the shore road when the sun was shining and it was great  see all the sings of growth.  We also celebrated two class birthdays this month🎂🎂🎉🎉

We learned three Nursery Rhymes this month-‘Little Jack Horner,’ ‘One, Two Buckle My Shoe’ and ‘Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.  We worked on two lovely stories ‘A Tree is Nice’ and ‘Are you My Planet?’  The children also learned the poem ‘A Real April Day.’  We are continuing to work on the UFLI programme and the children are working very well on the material.

We worked on the theme of Sa Bhaile this month and the children worked really well on learning the new vocabulary. In Maths, we revised Time and word on addition and Weight.

The children made beautiful butterflies and space scenes in Art and we completed the Fitness4Class programme this month.  The boys and girls loved getting their completion certificates, stickers and pencils. Also, the children worked on the Food Dudes programme this month. They worked really well on tasting the different fruits and vegetables.  We are keeping a close eye on our cress seeds that we planted as part of the programme and they are growing really well 🌱🌱

To finish off the month, on 29th April the children visited the Wild Nephin Park in Ballycroy.  We had a fantastic day and learned a huge amount of information about the flora and fauna in Ireland🐞🐝🪻🦅

We all had a fabulous day travelling to Ballycroy to visit the National Park.  We started off the day with a very informative tour of the museum and then we headed outside to explore the wonderful flora and fauna.  We were blessed with fantastic weather and we completed the day with some lovely treats in the sun.  The boys and girls had a great day and learned a vast amount of knowledge.

April was a shorter school month, but we certainly packed a lot into those few weeks! We were delighted to complete the Food Dudes programme on our first week back after the Easter holidays. There was great excitement as everyone had the opportunity to taste a variety of fruits and vegetables, alongside engaging in a range of fun cross-curricular activities! To celebrate our achievements, we finished with a whole-school fruit salad buffet on the last day in Múinteoir Lisas classroom — a colourful and delicious way to mark the occasion!🍐🍍

A very special highlight this month was on Saturday the 18th, when our 2nd class pupils made their First Holy Communion. They did an amazing job on the day and made us all incredibly proud. A sincere thank you to Fr Nallen for celebrating the beautiful mass, and to Múinteoir Diane for the time, care, and dedication she gave in helping our class prepare in the run up to their big day. On Monday we had a lovely day celebrating the 2nd class children  with more cake, a small party and lots of dancing at a disco! We had great fun!🎂🪩🕺

Back in the classroom, there was great excitement as we introduced yoga balls (stability balls) for the children to trial using during the school day. We hope these will encourage active sitting, support improved posture and help with concentration when used for short periods of time! They’ve been a big hit so far with everyone in the classroom requesting a turn!

Last week we were all incredibly excited to find that our class caterpillars had finally hatched from their cocoons and had transformed into beautiful butterflies over the weekend! 🦋We were blessed with some beautiful warm weather🌞- perfect for releasing them back into the garden! The children engaged in lots of creative and educational activities around the topic of the Monarch butterfly; we painted beautiful butterflies, made paper plate lifecycle wheels and wrote detailed reports on everything we had learnt since first bringing the caterpillars into our classroom in March!

Finally, huge congratulations to Larry in 4th Class, who represented our school so brilliantly at The National Championships karate competition in Balbriggan last weekend. Bringing home both a gold and a silver medal is an incredible achievement, and we are all very proud of his success.🎖️🥋

Well done to everyone for making April such a fun, active, and memorable month!

At a meeting of the Student Council, it was proposed that hoodies be introduced for Sixth Class pupils in their final year at the school. The pupils proceeded to explore the various options available and had an input into the final design.  The finished product can be seen below.  They look fantastic and we are absolutely delighted with them👏

The Food Dudes programme is an evidence based healthy eating programme.  It aims to encourage children to eat more fruit and vegetables.  This week the children were given the opportunity to taste a fruit and vegetable each day that was delivered fresh each morning from the Food Dudes team.  The menu for the week was as follows:

Monday: banana and carrot

Tuesday: blueberries and peppers

Wednesday: apple and cucumber

Thursday: mandarins and tomatoes

Friday: apple, blueberries, courgettes and carrots

The children worked really well on tasting the food and loved watching the videos and completing the assigned activity each day. One of the activities for the Junior Room was to plant cress seeds.  We will observing the pots very closely over the next few days for signs of growth🪴

On Friday, all classes came together and were given the opportunity to taste a variety of fruits and vegetables such as watermelon, melon, pear, pineapple, strawberries, grapes, blackberries, raspberries, peppers, cucumber and cherry tomatoes We all had a lovely time and the children really enjoyed ‘tasting the rainbow’🌈

Finally, a huge thank you to the Student Council who were a fantastic help all week.  Keep up the healthy eating 🥕🍊🍉🍇

Our class has been very busy and we have had lots of fun over the past few weeks! One of our favourite activities has been watching our class caterpillars grow and change each day🐛. The children have been recording daily observations and are very excited to see the caterpillars grow into beautiful butterflies in the coming weeks !🦋

Second Class also celebrated a very special milestone this month as they made their First Holy Confession⛪. We were all so proud of them and how well they prepared for this momentous occasion, we celebrated with some lovely ice cream later in the day as a special treat to mark their big day!

This month we welcomed Múinteoir Lisa into our classroom to start Maths Stations every Thursday– the children have been learning through lots of fun, hands on activities and games, which has made maths even more enjoyable and engaging for everyone! 🎲🎲

There have been lots of opportunities for lovely art lessons this month with us celebrating St Patricks Day, Mothers Day, preparation for First Holy Communion and Easter! The children especially enjoyed working collaboratively on their art projects, where they shared ideas and created beautiful art pieces as a team. 2nd Class worked on their art for the Church display while 3rd and 4th class created a beautiful religious art piece titled ‘He is Risen’.

With Easter approaching, we got creative in our class and made some delicious Rice Krispie Nests with mini eggs on our last day. They were great fun to make (and even nicer to eat I am sure!)🥣 The children took part in a wonderful Easter Egg Hunt that was organised by the parents committee and had some yummy ice cream to end their day! 🍦

It has been a wonderful and busy time in our classroom this month, full of learning, creativity and lots of fun!

What an extremely busy month March has been with lots to celebrate-Seachtain na Gaeilge, Saint Patrick’s Day, Mother’s Day and Easter.

The children learned the following Nursery Rhymes-‘Five Little Men in a Flying Saucer,’ ‘Here is the Beehive’ and ‘Ten Green Bottles.’ We also worked on the poem ‘Saint Patrick.’ The children listened to the story of Saint Patrick and the Easter Story as well as continuing to work on Report Writing.

In Gaeilge we worked on Eadaí and an dán ‘Cúig Ubh.’  We also took part ins some lovely events to celebrate Seantain na Gaeilge such as Kahoot as Gaeilge, practising some lovely songs such as Trasna na dTonnta, Lá Glas, a colouring competition and learning some traditional Irish dances-see videos below.

We worked really well on Fractions and addition in Mathematics and First Class are working really well on learning how to add two numbers together using the regrouping method.

In Science, we learned about the flowers that we see growing in spring and the Life Cycle of the Butterfly.  For History, we worked on the story ‘The Ugly Ducking’ and for Geography we studied the weather.

We had a lovely Well-being afternoon and the children really enjoyed working with children from the other classrooms.

For Art, the children made beautiful Mother’s Day cards and pictures.  We made leprechauns, pots of gold and a collaborative colouring piece to celebrate Sant Patrick’s Day. We also made Easter chicks and a bunny wreath.

We learned abut Palm Sunday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday in Religion and went for a little visit to the church in preparation for Holy Week.

We would like to give a huge thank you to the Parent’s Council for organising a lovely Easter egg hunt for the children and for our lovely treat at the end of the day.  It was fantastic and we were so excited to see the ice-cream van…. yummy.

Wishing you all a very Happy Easter.  Have a lovely break. Múinteoir Lisa

Bhí rang a cúig agus a rang sé ag obair go dian an tseachtain seo agus iad ag cleachtadh damhsa an Dreolín. Bhí an-spraoi agus fuinneamh sa seomra ranga agus na daltaí ag foghlaim an damhsa agus ag obair le chéile mar fhoireann.

Is traidisiún álainn Éireannach é damhsa an Dreolín, agus bhí na páistí ar bís é a chleachtadh. Anois, tá siad réidh a gcuid scileanna a thaispeáint daoibh!

Féach ar an bhfíseán thíos. ↓ 🕺🐦

Our 5th and 6th class pupils recently took part in the JEDI Programme, an exciting engineering initiative facilitated by University College Dublin (UCD) — and what a fantastic experience it was!

Throughout the programme, the children discovered what it takes to become an engineer. They explored the importance of spatial awareness, problem-solving, creativity, and teamwork, and quickly realised that engineering is all about thinking differently and finding innovative solutions.

The pupils then put their new skills into action with a fun design challenge. Working in groups, each team was given a set of criteria to design their very own teabox. From brainstorming ideas to building their prototypes, the classroom was buzzing with creativity, collaboration, and determination. It was wonderful to see the pupils sharing ideas, testing solutions, and supporting one another as they worked towards their final designs.

A very special thank you to Áine Hughes, a biomedical engineer, who visited the class to give expert feedback to each group. She also gave the pupils a fascinating insight into the world of biomedical engineering, explaining how engineers design technologies that help doctors and improve patient care. The pupils were captivated and asked some fantastic questions!

Well done to all the pupils for their enthusiasm, creativity, and teamwork throughout the project. We may well have some future engineers in our midst!

Take a look at the photos below to see our young engineers hard at work! 📸

This month we read some lovely stories- ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears, The Smartest Giant in Town’ and ‘Spring is Here.’  We also learned the nursery rhymes-‘Old McDonald’s had a Farm’ and ‘There were Ten in the Bed’ and the poem ‘February Promises.’

In Gaeilge, the children worked on the topic of An Aimsir and began Eadaí.  They also learned the poem ‘Sneachta.’

In SESE we worked on Saint Bridget, the snail, France, designing and making towers, Walt Disney and the homes of people in different countries.

The children made beautiful Valentine’s art, pancakes and spring flowers. To celebrate Pancake Tuesday we all had some yummy pancakes with our favourite topping😋

This month we concentrated on Money in Maths.  The boys and girls loved playing shops and taking turns being the shopkeepers and the customers.

We are continuing to work on the Fit4Class programme and are really enjoying the lessons.

We were delighted to have a member of the Coding Ireland team visit our school and delivered an engaging STEM workshop on Scratch Jnr. The children learned how to use ScratchJr to create their own characters, animate them, and bring their ideas to life through coding.  A fantastic fun and engaging session.

Ryan O’Donoghue visited our classroom and the boys and girls were lucky enough to get a photograph with him.

This month the children learned the song ‘Killeagh’.’  Below is a little video showing their fabulous voices👏

Our 5th and 6th Class pupils recently took part in an exciting and engaging STEM workshop where they explored the world of Micro:bits and coding. It was a fantastic hands-on learning experience that sparked creativity, problem-solving, and teamwork.

During the workshop, the children learned how to write and design their own code using Micro:bits. They explored how coding instructions control actions and experimented with different commands to see how small changes could produce different results. Once they were happy with their programs, they inserted their coded Micro:bit chips into mini-cars and the real fun began!

The classroom was filled with excitement as the mini-cars moved according to the pupils’ own designs. Some cars sped forward, others turned or stopped based on the code the children had carefully created. It was wonderful to see their sense of achievement as their ideas came to life.

This workshop links perfectly with the new curriculum, promoting creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, and digital literacy.

Well done to all the boys and girls for their enthusiasm and fantastic effort. We may have some future engineers and programmers in the making!

January was  another fast and busy month. In English, we worked on the following stories: ‘Guess How Much I Love You, Chinese New Year, The Tiger Who Came to Dinner and Giraffes Can’t Dance .’ We also worked on three new Nursery Rhymes-‘One Elephant Went Out to Play, Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat and Three Blind Mice.’  The children worked very well on Explanation Writing and we learned the poem ‘ Little January.’

In Maths, the children continued to work on time and began working on Place Value.

In Gaeilge, we worked on the theme of Caitheamh Aimsire.  We learned lots of new vocabulary and began working on the dán ‘Sneachta.’

In Art, then children completed personal calendars, gratitude cups and the class worked collaboratively to complete a fabulous piece of Art based on Saint Brigid as well as making crosses.

In History we learned about The Olympic Games and Famous Irish Olympians.  In Science, the children learnt about the benefits of exercise and The Life Cycle of the Butterfly and in Geography we learned about various sports and completed a treasure hunt.

In PE, the children are working on the FIT4CLASS programme-an initiative by Athletics Ireland. It promotes physical activity through non-competitive games, focusing on fundamental skills like balance, coordination, and agility.

Also, we are working on the Croke Park Challenge Active Schools”-the involves the children taking part in an active break each day.  We are really enjoying the challenge.

Catholic School’s Week took place this month and the children took part in various activities to celebrate this and we also enjoyed a lovely Well-Being afternoon.

The BLAST Residency programme is a creative learning experience for primary schools, designed to inspire pupils through hands-on, collaborative activities delivered by professional practitioners.

We had the absolute pleasure of working with Mary Curran to complete our project which began in early December.

We are very thankful to Mary for sharing her knowledge and expertise with us.  We really enjoyed working on the project and have gained much knowledge.  Below is a snapshot of the three wonderful days.

The following are happening over the next couple of weeks:

16th of January- Catholic Schools Mass in the Sacred Heart Church in Belmullet at 7;30pm. All welcome

19th January- 13th of February, all classes will take part in Croke Park Movement Breaks in the classroom and outside for those four weeks as part of Welling and Be Active activities.

26th January- Catholic School Week takes place in all schools for this week.

2nd February- St. Brigid’s Day- School Closed

4th February- Staff Training for New Primary Curriculum – School Closed

12th of February- Circus

18th of February- Coding Ireland will visit our school. The children will engage in an hour long workshop to upskill their knowledge in STEM activities. The Junior Room will work on Scratch, the middle room designs Arcade Games and the senior room engage in micro computers activities. We look forward to those interesting workshops.

19th/20th February- Midterm