The excitement is building for Christmas for sure and word on the street is the elves are slowly making their way to certain homes 🧐We have tried to keep the focus despite the excitement that the Toy show brought. It really is  a special time of year.😊 The children have been busy learning about Africa in History and Geography. It was really interesting to compare our lives to the lives of the Masai Tribe and the children enjoyed making their African Necklaces. (pictures to follow) We all loved learning about Nelson Mandela and the difference he has made to the lives of black people in History and this present day. The boys and girls also did a little research on their World Cup country just for fun which resulted in múinteoir and children alike learning a little something about 21 countries. For science week the children explored their reaction times and they also participated in a number of SPHE lessons for anti bullying week. We really enjoyed ODD sock day which reminds us that we are all different but we are all equal. We welcomed our little mascot Mick to our circle times.

In PE our focus has been athletics, although at times hampered by the weather.

It was lovely to explore the Bookfair while present in the hall and we are continuing our class Novel The Witches. Children enjoy Predicting, Making Connections and Questioning during novel time and regularly ask for more!!!.  We even had some children quite suspicious of staff members possibly presenting themselves as perfectly normal ladies all the while being nasty, ghastly witches underneath. Watch out for those pointy shoes, gloves and blue tinged teeth!!!

In Maths Rang a dó are working on regrouping and mental maths while Rang  a3 continue to work on multiplication and division.  As gaeilge, bhí an spórt againn ag staidear an téama Bia. Bhíomar ag cleachtadh conas ceisteanna a chur bunaithe ar an topaic agus bhí go leor cluichí againn. Bhí seans ag na pháistí a bhiachlár féin a scríobh freisin.

We continue to learn our poems each week which we regularly revise in class also. Drama has been lots of fun as were our Music lessons. The children created a storm using their body percussion which was hugely effective. We also discussed pitch and tempo. Tin whistle lessons continue and we look forward to performing with the whole school at the school concert on the 20th December.

Well done to the boys and girls who received special awards from the Kilcommon GAA Club. We are very proud of you all and indeed all the boys and girls in the school!

D. Tyrrell

A huge well done to the boys and girls who received special awards at a recent club ceremony. We hope you are all very proud of yourselves.🎉🎉

We are delighted for you all and we are very proud of all the boys and girls in our school. Mighty footballers…Coinnigh Suas É!🖤🤍

Here is a little look back on the month of October. It is so wonderful to see the progress that has been made and the fun that has happened in class since we restarted in September. This month the children also had lots of fun with Múinteoir Aisling who completed her placement with us. We also got to enjoy some fun Maths activities to mark Maths week and we tested our perseverance with some Matchstick challenges!

We have been working hard on the topics of Scoil and Oíche Shamhna as Gaeilge, Data and 2D shapes in Maths as well as practising our addition and subtraction. In English the focus has been on developing reading comprehension using strategies such as visualisation, predicting and making connections. The children wrote a lovely narrative and enjoyed typing it up also to practise those typing skills. Please see below a selection of photos from the various topics covered throughout the month from Lava lamps, journey sticks, parachutes to Spooky Silhouettes….it was all go!

Wishing you all a pleasant Halloween break!

D . Tyrrell

The past month has flown by so quickly! The children have settled in so well and we are slowly getting back into the routine of school life.

In English we have been focusing on basic sentence structure and taking the time to present our work carefully. We have been reading lots and working on expression and pace whilst reading aloud. Children have also being silent reading and Buddy reading with partners, as well as listening and responding to our class novel for this term, The Yuckee Prince. The children seem to really enjoy the novel and sharing their connections and predictions with their peers. Children have received a book from the classroom library which can be used for personal or shared reading at home and returned at a time that suits the child. This is simply reading for pleasure. Our writing genre is Recount and we will continue with this next month also. Our Irish topic has been Mé Féin and much of the work we have done is based around comhrá about ourselves, simple interactive games based on the topic and our poems of course too. Regular revision of our poems and dánta will benefit the children hugely.

Maths focus for the month has been Addition and Subtraction, Place value, Rounding and mental maths calculations. Children again will benefit so much from having their tables revised and practised on a regular basis through fun games such as playing cards/in the bank.

In SESE we learned about Fionn and the Fianna, People at work -Occupations and Myself (Sleep). Drama has been a combination of Mime and Freeze framing and as always lots of fun!  In SPHE our topic was Myself and self awareness, where children have discussed their strengths and qualities that make them unique. PE strand this month has been games with a focus on the fundamental movement skill of throwing /catching. We have learned our Irish song Dilín O Deamhas and as part of our lá gaelach children sang traditional Irish songs and took part in a fun Tráth na gCeist. (Quiz) We also played Fiche cheist (20 questions) which was lots of fun!

Below are some photos from the month.

Well done to the children who took part in the Cross Country qualifiers in Tallagh recently. Despite the fact that nobody got through to the next round, each one of you did yourselves proud!

We wish Erin, Jason, Kayleigh, Kayleigh and Taylor all the best as they venture off to pastures new. Don’t be strangers!!

Well done to all the boys and girls on receiving the Amber Flag Award in June 2022.

We have worked hard on promoting positive mental health in our community.

https://sninbhear.edublogs.org/wellbeing-the-amber-flag-initiative/

A special thanks to Erin, Kayla, Rhian, Peyton, Lorcan, Feagan, Paddy  & Abbie who make up the Amber committee.

Have  a wonderful summer everyone,

Múinteoir Deborah

Where has the time gone? It is hard to believe the summer holidays are once again around the corner. Below are some photos from our time since we returned after Easter holidays. The children have been working on various topics in Maths such as 3d shapes, Fractions, Length and of course our number strands including multiplication and division in 3rd class. The children have completed their standardised testing but we continue to work on various strands right up to the end.

As Gaeilge we have completed topics Sa Bhaile and An Teilifís. Bhí an-spórt ag na páistí ag imirt na cluichí idirghníomhach and na cluichí cartaí i mbeirteanna. Is breá leo an cluiche biongó freisin. Táimid an tam ar fad ag forbairt ár léamh gaeilge agus tá ranga 3 ag foghlaim conas a hathraíonn na briathra go dtí na haimsire difriúl- Aimsir Fhaistineach agus aimsir láithreach. Bhíomar go léir ag foghlaim conas an t-am a insint i nGaeilge, na séasur agus na míonna. Bhíomar ag foghlaim freisin faoina réamhfhocial agus úsáíd an urú. Maidir le tuiscint, léirigh na páistí a dtuiscint ar théacs trí  phictiúir.

We continue to have our monthly Tráth na gCeist (quiz) for fun and each Friday a Gaeilgoir na Seachtaine is chosen from each classroom.

In English we are reading our novel Wildflower Girl which is the 2nd book in the famine trilogy. We completed Under the Hawthorn Tree prior to this. The children like predicting what will happen to the main character and share their opinions and thoughts if they wish after each chapter. We enjoy incorporating our novel into our drama lessons and the children have participated in Conscience Alley and Freeze frame activities connected to it. We continue to work on our reading fluency, pace , expression, summarising and our writing genre these past few weeks has been Persuasive/Opinion writing.  The children enjoyed working as groups in persuading the class of their argument. Topics included were ‘Children should get paid for attending school’ ,’ Fidget spinners should be banned in class’ and ‘Children should attend  school on Saturday’. Some of the reasons offered to support the argument were quite convincing and others very funny! Great team work and a bit of fun! We also enjoyed some oreos as they help us to remember how to get a strong argument across –Opinion–Reasons—-Examples/Explanations—Opinion (restated passionately!).  Our written presentation is improving steadily and some of the children and I were looking back and comparing writing from the start of the year and now. Wow..Look how far you have come!!

We all enjoyed our taste testing . Some children tasted fruits they had not previously and liked them which was a posiitve. Some …not so much🤣..the faces were priceless! Well done I say for trying something new! We also had lessons on the function of various parts of our body with a particular emphasis on the heart.

In PE we have had a mixture of the strands of Games, Gymnastics and Orienteering which we will continue for the coming month.

The children in 2nd class enjoyed their special First Holy communion day on May 7th  and as a special treat to celebrate the whole school got Pizza!!🍕This was a combined celebration for both Communion and Confirmation. Congratulations to all the children.

Looking forward to a productive last few weeks and of course our SCHOOL TOUR!!!! 🎉🚌⏳

D. Tyrrell

We wish our 2nd class, Amy, Chloe, Rocha, Ruby, Seán, James, Iarlaith, Feagan and Caolan the very best on their special day today, May 7th 2022.

May God bless you today and always!

Here is a little look back on term 2 in the middle room.

A little snapshot of the busy month of March. This month our topic as gaeilge was Éadaí. We are continuing to work on Aimsir Chaite and converting it to Aimsir Fháistineach (future tense). The children are working well with their léamh gaeilge and plenty practice at home will help this along too.

In Maths we worked on identifying Fractions, fraction and time word problems , Place value and Subtraction with regrouping . Knowing tables is a must when it comes to working on problems so again practice, practice, practice, as often and as informally as you can at home. In English, our focus in comprehension strategies was summarising, visualising, predictions  and scanning for evidence to back up answers.  For grammar we worked on compound words, synonyms, singular and plural and prefixes.

Written work is improving all the time so well done boys and girls. We celebrated World Book Day and enjoyed a buddy reading session with the little ones.

In SESE we learned about the continents of the world. Children partnered up and researched one continent and reported back to the rest of the class. We learned so much from each other and had a catchy continent song also to reinforce our learning.

We have planted a variety of seeds in school and already we see some of them flourish. We will continue to monitor the growth and transfer them outside in the next week, all going well.

Children learned about Chris Hasfield in History and also participated in a webinar with him. He also has some interesting videos on youtube showing how they do simple activities in space.  For Art the children enjoyed making their Mother’s Day jewellry boxes and we practised lots of our Irish songs in music for Seachtain na Gaeilge. The children also practised keeping a beat to John Ryan Polka using a variety of instruments. Wellbeing week and Seachtain na Gaeilge were combined this year and it was so enjoyable getting together with the other classes to sing and dance once again. In PE our strand unit was Dance and Games. Children were given the same resources and in teams they had to create their own unique game with the resources. They then demonstrated and explained the rules of their games. They were AMAZING! In SPHE we learned about balancing the food we eat and making healthy choices . (The food pyramid)

The children in 2nd class celebrated their First Confession with Fr. Joe. today (April 1st). They were wonderful and we are certainly on the count down to their very special Communion day.😊

Keep up the great effort and support at home. D. Tyrrell

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Many thanks to everyone who contributed to the recipe book. We hope you enjoy trying out some of the delicious ideas.

Thank you to the Well-being team for the beautiful posters that feature also in the booklet.

Click on link to view online recipe book.

Recipe Book 1

Where has the time gone?  Have a look at our past few weeks.

This month we were learning about An tEarrach as Gaeilge, na míonna, na laethanta agus ainmfhocail (noun recognition) in our léamh. We are all the time continuing to work on our independent scríobh Gaeilge, in which there is a steady improvement. In English, the children continue to practise steady paced reading with expression and summarising what they have read. They also chose their favourite poem/dán to date and wrote it in their best writing. They did a great job. We have this work proudly displayed in the school corridor. We are using our poems to identify different grammar focuses. This month we identified contractions and expanded them to original form . We also  identified homophones  and revised verbs, nouns and synonyms. We are all enjoying our class novel Under the Hawthorn Tree which reminds us of our history and the courage and determination Irish people had to have in order to survive such harrowing times.

In Maths our focus has been Time ⏲⏳. Some of us are focusing on telling the time in 1/2, 1/4 hrs and others using exact minute. We are all practising converting analogue times to digital both on a 12hr and 24 hr clock. It is very easy to reinforce this learning at home using home clock and converting time shown. We will continue this after midterm too. We also worked on place value  Tens and Units and Hundreds/Tens/Units. We continue to work on tables which must be practised at home on a regular basis in order for them to become automatic. Doing this means your child will be able to focus on learning the new methodologies the will encounter without the worry of not knowing their tables. See link on blog https://sninbhear.edublogs.org/why-is-learning-tables-important/explaining why tables are just as important as reading and how you can help your child.

In Geography our focus was caring for the environment, History was based on the legend of Setanta 🏑🐺 and Science was based on the incredible edibles task. We also continued our tasks in the incredible edibles programme and the children worked in groups and each had a specific focus eg from farm to fork with specific foods and exploring processed /unprocessed foods. Children developed their IT skills throughout, learning how to search and copy and paste images into word documents.  Our wellbeing focus was Gratitude 🙏and we all have so much to be grateful for. Children completed some lovely gratitude trees following a brainstorming session in class.

You have all encountered the paper mache heads at this stage.🎭 They took a lot longer than anticipated but we live and learn (sometimes the hard and sticky way 🤣🤣)but alas we finally completed them. They ranged from personal representations to cartoon characters to Ed Sheeran. The children did a wonderful job and it reminded me very much of Julia Donaldson’s story A squash and a Squeeze when the children brought them home. The room felt very spacious indeed! P.E . this month we practised games, specifically Rounders, which the children really got into.  Our FMS was throwing (underarm ), catching (cupped hands) and of course striking (using correct stance). Great fun was had and some impressive catching of the ball before it bounced and a home run or two. We continue with regular exercise breaks in class and only recently tried out some drumming cardio which is also beneficial in developing rhythm/beat/pulse and good fun!

Our fun day for Jason’s fundraiser was very much the highlight of the month. The day comprised of show and tell (and playing) with children’s choice of toy, some classroom challenges which were great fun – Squat challenge, Tights challenge, Plank Challenge, Sausages & Soldiers and Foosball and Pinpong mini games just for fun. We had disco music at break and a jig or 2 also.  We enjoyed a part movie and treats organised by the student council… Thank you guys👌👍. A wonderful day for a wonderful friend💙.

Have a lovely midterm,

D. Tyrrell