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

Over the past month we have been settling back into the busyness of classroom life. This month we worked on addition (2nd) and Division /Multiplication (3rd). We also worked on the topic of Money whole class so any opportunities children have to work with coins in the ‘real’ world would be beneficial. Children also explored other Maths topics during our Maths games time.

In reading, our focus was pace and expression and the children have been working so hard on this and have come on so much 👏👏📗. We also worked on synonyms, antonyms and homophones. The children have also been working on developing their cursive writing. They are doing so well. Samples are available to view in their personal seesaw folder. This is what your child is capable of and this is the expectation your child should have each time they write – giving your best effort each time. Well done!

Our wellbeing topic this month was Friendship . Following a discussion on the video, children worked in groups then contributed their ideas as to what qualities makes a good friend. ‘Layers’ was the magic word in Art. We have nearly completed our paper mache heads!! In Gaeilge, we are learning when to use the ‘h’ and ‘urú’ and prepositions – ar an, ag an, in aice leis an, faoin , os comhair.  We are also continuously practising replying to various ceisteanna..An ndeachaigh? Chuaigh/Ni dheachaigh, Ar chuir?- Chuir/Níor chuir , Ar chuala – Chuala/Nior chuala and so on and also correct sentence structure in our written work. We are beginning to realise that Tá isn’t the answer to everything..Maith sibhse!

In Geography we are learning about Provinces and counties in Ireland and we learned a little bit about the Tour de France and Stephen Roche in History. In Science children are exploring the origin of foods and the difference between processed and unprocessed foods. This is tied in with our Incredible Edibles initiative. We also celebrated Catholic school’s week this past week.

We had a Tráth na Gceist (Quiz through Irish) which we will do at the end of each month to promote Gaeilge through fun.

Keep up the reading at home everyone👍.

D. Tyrrell

A little lookback on our first term in 2nd and 3rd class.

Enjoy the Christmas break and see you all in 2022.

Múinteoir Deborah

Best of luck to the Kilcommon football team in their game tomorrow. We are very proud of you and will be shouting for you all the way!!! Cill Chomáin Abù!

A little lookback on the past fortnight in second and third class.

Our focus in Maths has been Data and continuous number work. We are working hard to build fluency with our tables so that we can calculate accurately and quickly when completing number problems.

For Science week🔎 , we investigated and explored BUBBLES and discovered a new interesting word ‘iridescent’. We also explored sound and how we hear.  Finally we had  a cracking time investigating force and momentum in the egg drop challenge.  Lots of fun!

Children have been working well to improve their written presentation and everyone has been trying hard to get into the CUPS club. Keep up the great work! As part of our Wellbeing initiative we are all learning our song Together We Stand.

We are continuing our Fun Friends Programme in school – we are learning to build resilience and how to cope with different emotions. Our topic in Gaeilge is BIA and we will continue over the next 2 weeks with this topic. We also learned uair agus leathuair ar an clog. We are using  games during Literacy stations to work on our Oral language skills .

In PE We are focusing on the Strand of Athletics. We had fun with some reactions Sprints and Throwing techniques.

We look forward to the bookfair next week.

Múinteoir Deborah