As part of the PE curriculum, 4th class recently completed 6 weeks of swimming lessons in Coral Leisure Swimming pool in Ballinasloe. The improvements were amazing and all the children got great enjoyment out of the lessons.
Senior Infants have been learning about procedural texts. We have read various procedural texts such as 'How to make a Smoothie'.
For science the children planted their own cress seeds, they followed up this activity by writing up a procedural text on how to plant seeds.
Friday lunch times have gotten even better thanks to the return of Funky Fridays. Well done to all the students who have volunteered to get up and sing or play instruments over the last few weeks.
Thanks to 4th class and Mr. Cooney for all their organising.
4th class have been looking at the Italian renaissance period in both history and art. As part of this they learned about how Michelangelo painted the roof of the Sistine Chapel lying on his back on top of scaffolding. The children tried this in art by taping a sheet on paper to the underside of their table and lying on the ground trying to draw a picture. Needless to say the results were mixed as it proved how difficult it was for Michelangelo to do.
Bhí rang a ceathair ag foghlaim faoi threoracha i nGaeilge agus conas a thaispeáint duine eigín trí chúrsa lena súile dúnta.
4th class were recently learning about directions in Irish and how to guide some one through a course with their eyes closed.
Our school is taking part in the Food Dudes Programme which is encouraging positive change towards eating fresh fruit and vegetables.
First Class created Solar Powered Ovens and tested the 'cooking' abilities of their self made appliances. They each were well able to explain the science behind the choice of materials used.
5th Class took on the RMS Titanic model as their engineering build this week. They learned a lot about how the Titanic was constructed and why it ultimately sank.
The students worked as a whole class group to create a large scale model of the Titanic. The students were very creative and worked well in a team.
5th class really enjoyed showcasing their construction during our Engineer's Week Showcase.
4th class tried creating the tallest towers they could. The structures turned out amazing. They learned all about how the biggest buildings in the world were built such as the Burj Khalifa in Dubai and the Empire state building in New York.
5th Class began the First Lego League Project on the Theme of Submerged. Students built a lego submersible or submarine and learned about "How a submarine works?".
While 5th class were learning about the vikings in History. They constructed their own longships and created stopmotion videos to imagine what viking adventures and raids would have looked like.
Children throughout the school expressed their appreciation of books by reimagining themselves as their favourite character from stories.
Second class celebrated their First Confession on 26th February in St. Patrick's Church in Bullaun. Thank you to Fr. Kenny for a beautiful ceremony and well done to all the children. Thank you also to the Parents Committee for the delicious treats for the class.
Students in 5th class enjoyed their games of Battleships while they learned about oceans, longitude and latitude.
5th class are taking part in the First Lego League project this year and the theme is submerged so our focus is learning about oceans and water around the world.
First Class learned about the immiscible liquid combination of water and oil due to differing densities. After whole class observation, they created their own potions.
The Autism Class were the deserving winners of our Door Designing Competition for St. Valentine's Day! Have a look at the wonderful show of creativity expressed by each class in our school.
Junior Infants
Senior Infants
First Class
Second Class
Third Class
Fourth Class
Fifth Class
Sixth Class
Junior Infants tried their hands at Reporting. We have been learning about School and we read a Report about School Clothes. Children wrote their own Report about our School Clothes.
Look at their fantastic writing!
Working in pairs practicing turn-taking as Ghaeilge. First Class are becoming more and more confident asking and answering questions.
Junior Infants worked on their Gymnastics skill of balancing. Each group created a short sequence of 5 balances and performed it for their class.
Well done Junior Infants! Olympics here they come!
Fifth class celebrated St Brigid's Day by creating clay art St Brigid's crosses that are sure to be a nice keepsake in each home for the year ahead. The St Brigid's cross provides protection to the home for the year ahead.
Fifth class got creative and created their clay art owls based on the work of Wild Goose Art.
After some homes losing electricity in the aftermath of storm Éowyn, fifth class decided to explore electricity in their science lessons. The groups learned about circuits, conductors & insulators. Each group then took on a project to create a model and project on various lighthouses around the country - Hook Head lighthouse, Valnetia lighthouse, Loop head lighthouse, Poolbeg lighthouse, Wicklow Head lighthouse and Ballycotton lighthouse.
Electricity & Circuits
Lighthouse Projects
Second class enjoyed learning all about the Chinese New Year this week. It's the year of the Snake and we were busy making our own snakes!
First Class engaged with STEAM lessons inspired by the story of The Lorax by Dr. Seuss using sheets of acetate to hold their artwork through static electricity and created silhouettes through the blinds on our windows.
First Class planned and designed birdhouses with a focus on repurposing materials. Each product was wonderfully unique and given much thought and effort. Well done all!
4th class had great fun exploring how the ear works and how we hear. They learned that sound travels in waves. They did an experiment with shouting really loud and watching sugar bounce up and down on a bowl covered in cling film caused by the sound of their voices. They had great fun shouting as load as they could to make the sugar bounce higher.
First Class learned about Ireland's National Bird along with other native species. The Lapwing is a wader and so we looked at the science of reflections in Art.
5th and 6th class students recently took part in The Overlap - a discussion of World War One. The students developed a deeper knowledge of World War One but also gained valuable public speaking experience.
We were very lucky to have the All Ireland club camogie champions visit us this week. The Sarsfields camogie team continues to show how successful they are in winning their 4th All-Ireland title against Truagh-Clonlara from Clare on a score line of 1-17 to 0-6. The girls took time out to come and visit us in the school and there was great excitement from all the children. The girls spoke to us about what it takes to be the best and are a huge inspiration to all the children in the school. Thanks girls and Chairman Frank for taking the time to visit us it means so much to the children.
Making Saltdough Decorations
Decoration stations!
Paired work involving discussion, counting strategies renaming ten units as a ten in the physical sense.
Small group work with guidance for understanding
Scaffolded whole class stations with appropriate challenge
The students enjoyed the freedom of our new school playground today for our snow day.
The children in First Class made their own decade of the Rosary and prayed for our intentions.
Dr. Enda O'Connell from NUIG kindly visited 1st and 2nd class during Science week to talk all about the amazing world of science. The children were amazed at the exciting and interesting experiments Enda had ready for us. The children became doctors while using monitors and stethoscopes to check each other's heart beat and they also made a mess while making elephant toothpaste!
Thank you so much to Enda for taking time out to visit the school and for making Science week very interesting for 1st and 2nd class.
As part of science week, 5th class undertook a designing a catapult experiment. We learned about the history of the catapult and about fair experiments. We tested our designs and revised designs to create our best catapults. As well as learning about forces in science, we also explored shapes and the strength of a tetrahedron.
Amongst the halloween activities, 5th class learned a new poem by William Shakespeare - The Song of the Witches.
While exploring the genre of poetry, the children have gotten a chance to showcase their costumes.
Lots of spooky looking characters arrived into 2nd class this Halloween.
Some say they are still lurking through the corridors of Scoil Éanna!!
Second class were busy mixing primary colours red, yellow and blue to make secondary colours green, orange and purple.
We also looked at the work of Piet Mondrian. Piet Mondrian was an artist who was most famous for paintings that used bold black lines to create squares and rectangles. He then filled some of the squares in using one of the three primary colours. We also created our own Piet Mondrian paintings!
5th class students got the opportunity to use stopmotion this week with some of their clay artwork. The students were very creative and created a variety of stories and scenes. Have a look at this compilation of their claymation videos.
4th class have spent the last few weeks creating 3 different videos to enter into the Reellife Science competition. They explored questions they had about the world around them.
1 group researched 'How do planes fly?'.
Another group researched 'What is ash dieback and how is it affecting our trees.
The final group researched 'What happens to our body when we feel different emotions?'.
The class really enjoyed the process and learned so much interesting facts. They also got great experiece in creating a film. The class did all the research and videoing themselves. Well done Fourth class!1
On Thursday 17th October, all classes walked a combined distance of 230km, 'reaching' the Seal Rescue Ireland facility in Wexford. Our school raised €180 to contribute to the care and rehabilitation of injured, ill and abandoned seals in the name of Biodiversity.
First Class shared what they have learned about Irish Seals through video to the other classes. They travelled from class to class in small groups, answering their schoolmates' questions.
First and Second Class were treated to a visit from Seal Rescue Ireland workers Lauren and Anna who brought a surprise visitor, Selkie the Seal!
Rang a trí have enjoyed visits from Bernie Doherty of the Heritage Council working towards 'Heritage in Schools'.
The children learned all about their local heritage and are already looking forward to Bernie's return. Thank you Bernie!
4th class have recently being investigating how planes fly and were lucky enough to get to travel to Craughwell Airfield to see some planes and pilots in action. The met with former Aer Lingus pilot Captain Owen Fitzgibbon and local pilot Donal Connaire who explained Bernouillis principle to us and answered all our questions.
First Class are using IPads to problem solve in pairs, practicing turn taking, Maths talk and selecting strategies to come to a solution.
Students from Junior and Senior Infants went on an fun educational trip to Carrabane Woods. The children explored through the woods searching for all the signs of Autumn. They learned a new Autumn poem, listened to an Autumn story, gathered some forest finds along their journey and finally returned back to the school where they created art using their natural materials gathered.
Pictured above are Third Class students with their posters displaying their findings on the sugar content of the most popular drinks on the Irish market. They presented their findings to 4th, 5th and 6th class
Students from 3rd-6th took part in a school based healthy eating initiative.
Students from each class were split into small groups to research, undertake experiments and create posters and presentations to showcase their findings. Each small group presented their findings to roughly 100 of their peers.
Each class focused on the following broad themes:
3rd Class - Healthy Choices for drinks
4th Class - Healthy Choices for cereals
5th Class - What is in a balanced diet?
6th Class - What is in our food? - chemicals, preservatives, sweeteners, marketing tactics etc.
As a school, we aim to provide the children with the knowledge and awareness to make good choices when it comes to their food now and into the future.
Students in 5th class created these shoebox history projects to showcase their learning on the stone age. The focus of the project was to visualise life during the stone age. The students then presented their projects to younger classes.
First Class are engaging with Seal Rescue Ireland on their educational programme encouraging awareness of the effect of human behaviour on the safety of Irish seals. The children will be using technology to share what they have learned with other classes.
Between September and Christmas, all classes will get the opportunity to take part in some tennis lessons.
It is great to see the children enjoying something new. 5th class were learning how to "serve" the ball last week.
Thanks to a recent laptop donation from Fidelity Investments Ireland, we have been able to equip the new independent research spaces at the back of each classroom with laptops.
6th class created a wonderful display in our school to showcase Early Christian Ireland.
6th class got creative and created models using concrete, clay and various other materials.
5th class have created artwork to replicate cave paintings from the Stone Age. To give their artwork an aged look, they stained their paper using tea.
They are currently working on shoebox projects to display to other classes throughout the school in the coming days.
First Class have been learning about the Sycamore, Horse Chestnut, Beech and Oak trees. They foraged for their fallen leaves at Turoe Pet Farm working together and following directions from the four expert 'leaf leaders'.
Classes are busy making and doing. Fully embracing the season of Autumn using a variety of Art elements as we start the school year.
Check out our previous school years in the archive section linked below. Press on the green button to visit each year.