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Term 2 has been busy!

This term has been shorter than normal and the girls have been busy in all subject areas. They love to get outside and get their hands stuck into learning. I think they will all deserve a really happy St. Patrick’s day, and Easter break is just around the corner too.

We have covered a lot in Maths this term. We like group work and learning from each other. The girls learned how to estimate, and then measure capacity while keeping a tally. We also moved on to bigger numbers and learned about place value – 10 units = 1 ten, 10 tens = 1 hundred, 100 units = 1 hundred. Using hands on materials, the girls could see the differences. It also made adding and subtracting easier. Strangely enough, the units (love heart sweets) disappeared soon after!! More work in Place Value and Capacity helped the children have better estimates too. How many cups (units) to fill a jug (tens), how many jugs (tens) to fill a basin (hundreds).

We moved on to weight too and had fun measuring, comparing, balancing, estimating, before moving on to weighing scales finding greater than, equal to and less than 250g, 500g, 750g, 1000g/1Kg. When we were learning about time, we made sundials and placed them in the yard at different times of the day to see how time was told years ago. We learned about Spatial Awareness too and created routes around our school, giving instructions and following instructions.

Finally, the girls have been learning about Area, Length and Capacity and how to measure using non-standard and standard units of measure. We also went on a school 3D maths trail to find as many 3D shapes as we could in our school surrounding.

In Geography the girls learned about direction. This linked in nicely with our Maths lesson. We then learned how to use a compass and went outside to give and follow instructions.

The girls got creative in Science and used many materials to create different sounds – high and low pitch. They worked in teams to plan and choose their materials and then set to work to make and create. I think we all had a headache going home on this day!!

We also were learning about Force in in Science and how air and water can exert force. But instead of telling the girls what air and water can do, the girls were given materials and some vocabulary. They had to discover ways that air and water could make things move or float. And also how to make things stronger.

We looked at Friction also and used various surfaces and toy cars to investigate where there was more or less friction.

In Geography we learned about the Water Cycle and we carried out an experiment where the girls could see the different parts of the cycle – Condensation, Precipitation, Collection, Evaporation. We also dramatised it which was very entertaining!

The girls had so much energy in our PE class where we did Creative Dance for 6 weeks. Well done on your creativity, partner and team work.

The girls created some lovely clay pieces in Art this term which linked in with our other theme of transport. To experiment and become familiar with working with clay, they created a pinch pot. The following week, they could choose a form of transport to shape and finally they created a fossil of some toy vehicles. To finish, we spray varnished them to take them home. Here is a video reel of all their work – https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_TgwSVQzaHoBpcJfxnRItOI3T70h320T/view?usp=drive_link

The girls got creative with Fabric and various other materials to create Dreamcatchers. They were very good to follow directions and create individual pieces to hang at home.

And finally, here are a few snippets of some special celebratory days in Term 2 – Little Red Kettle, Pancake Tuesday, World Book day, Safer Internet day, Irish dancing in the Little Sisters, St. Patrick’s school celebrations. Here is a video clip of the girls dancing in the Little Sisters.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_UAUnKgBcFzaaXQHoxmSVRRVLdo-kY5V/view?usp=drive_link

Happy St. Patrick’s Day everyone.

Mrs. Power

Happy Christmas 🎄

Wishing everyone a very Happy Christmas break with friends and family. The girls really deserve some time off after a very busy and enjoyable Term 1.

After many weeks of researching, writing, re-drafting and editing, in English the girls have created very impressive reports on The Barn Swallow. We will publish these in the New Year and the girls will enjoy sharing them with everyone.

In maths we have been learning how to use money. We played money bingo and created a toyshop for buying and selling.

In geography we were learning about maps and we compared flat 2D posters, atlases and the 3D globe. Following this, we tracked Santa’s route on Christmas Eve. The girls realised that Santa must follow this route as the earth rotates and he must stay ahead of daylight. In history we learned about traditions from around the world and it was lovely to hear the girls share their traditions and hear from parents on Seesaw. In Science we looked at how we can care for the environment especially during the Christmas period. Remember to use the correct bins….the recycling fairies will be on alert over Christmas!

We created nice memories in art which will look great on the Christmas tree.

We work really well as a team in 2nd class and we look after our feelings. How do we deal with our feelings? What do we do? By talking about positive and negative feelings we learn to deal appropriately with them.

This week was a fun week filled with Christmas spirit. The whole school shared their Christmas Carol service with The Little Sisters and families. Well done everyone, it was a fantastic week.

I look forward to seeing the girls in the New Year.

Best wishes

Mrs. Power

Winter Wonders!

The girls have been busy this months in all subject areas. It’s been wonderful seeing the girls participate in a range of fun activities.

In English the girls have been using tablets and photocopied material to research information about the Barn Swallow. They will soon produce very interesting Report genres. They have also been enjoying working and learning from their 4th Class Buddies. Each Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday the two classes work together doing Buddy Reading.

We’ve had a few interesting weeks learning about the past, present and future in History. As well as this, we have looked at what has changed and stayed the same. We looked at different images of Ferrybank and Waterford and went on a little trip around our school to see if we could find evidence of change and continuity.

The girls have had fun discovering what magnets do and are used for in Science. Some materials are magnetic and some are not. We also looked at how magnets attract and repel! They created a fun fishing game showing how magnets are attracted to metal objects. The fishing rod had a magnet and the fish had a paper clip. To add to this, they wrote a sum or tricky word on the back of the fish which the fisherwoman had to figure out! Check out the video!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YA-Gj3HA-zej4nHzePrVZyxnyy815jdq/view?usp=drive_link

Art has been very constructive this month. The girls started off with a shoe box, got some tips and inspiration and created a Jungle Box incorporating parts of George’s Marvellous Medicine ideas. The final product was fantastic and the team work was very impressive. Well done girls.

We have been learning about symmetry and fractions in Maths. The girls learned what halves and quarters were by cutting pizzas! Let’s just say the pizza didn’t last long after they learned about fractions!

“That time of year” is quickly approaching. I hope you are all looking forward to the festive season.

Best wishes,

Mrs Power

Start of year – Get in gear!

What a fantastic few weeks we’ve had in 2nd class! Everyday the girls have been so well behaved and really engaging in their learning. September was settling in month and now we’re almost through October and the girls are used to their new routine and enjoying all the fun activities we are participating in.

There are so many things we could include but here are just a few snippets of the work your girls are undertaking in 2nd class, so far this year. In Maths the girls did a lot of hands-on activities. Here we can see the girls making and creating 2D shapes on geoboards and using cocktail sticks and marshmallows. In groups they described the properties of their shapes. However, the marshmallows disappeared at the end of the activity!!!!!

We also went on a ‘Right angles’ hunt around the school. The children made their own right angle by folding a circle into quarters. They used this to find angles that were greater than, less than or exactly a right angle.

In Art the girls were very creative in making their own jigsaws. We had fun sharing and making each others’. We are designing and making some Halloween costumes currently and we’ll share some images when we’re done!

In Science, we have been learning about Autumn and seasonal changes. The girls used some tree keys to find out the names of the trees in our school grounds. They picked out their favourite tree which they drew. They will repeat this activity in Winter, Spring and Summer to see how their tree changes through the seasons. We paid particular attention to the Maple tree which 2nd planted last year. We will focus on this over the year.

In History the girls were learning about Halloween and all the old traditions. Ask the girls about the items that were found in the Barmbrack long ago and what they meant. Or what was mumming? And did people carve in Ireland long ago? Thank you the the mams, dads and grandparents who contributed to our History class through voice recordings, video recordings, pictures and photographs on Seesaw. It really added to our class. We also had to find out who would get the ring in the barmbrack and had a little taste…

We had a guest speaker in our school telling the children all about Climate change. They had fun doing a information hunt and can bring a lot of what they learned home with them to help our planet for future generations.

In Maths recently, the girls have been learning about sequencing and time. Well done on the use of language and ordering stories and images in stories. To finish, the girls sequenced a recipe, and made some beautiful Rice Krispie buns for themselves and the staff. Thanks for the snack girls.

I think the girls deserve a break after a very busy but fun start to the year. We are looking forward to the Talent Show on Friday.

Take care,

Mrs. Power

A busy month of June!

We have had lots of fun designing and making our ‘Under the Sea’ wall hanging in Art. The girls started with choosing colours to paint hessian. Following that, they cut felt and filled their sea creatures with cushion filler and created nice designs to make them unique and different. To create a 3D feeling, the girls made holes to stick crepe and wool through for the seaweed. They also added their Science experiment fish. Earlier in the year, the girls were learning about mixtures and floating. They learned that oil floats on water and so we used marbling ink which floated on water, mixed these, placed white card flat on top and hey presto – beautiful coloured fish resulted! Thanks to Mr. Nagle, we have displayed our wall hanging in the reception area. Well done girls.

We went on a habitat study and discovered and identified many unusual and common insects and plants in Science. Following their investigations, we did a photostory. I think you’ll learn a lot from what we found out – I know I did!

We also learned about the life cycle of a seed from germination to photosynthesis. The girls took great care to look after their plants and will get to bring them home to look after during the summer. Be sure to send some pictures during the summer on Seesaw. Alongside growing plants, the girls worked really hard during Term 3 to finish their Procedural Genre – How to grow a _____. Each child chose a different plant and I’m sure you’ve enjoyed reading their final product. Super work here in English writing class over the last few months.

Camogie training for the last few weeks has been so much fun. The sun shone for each class and our trainer, John, had fantastic lessons each day. Ferrybank camogie club may have a few new recruits after it!

The highlight from this week was of course, SCHOOL SPORTS DAY. A huge thank you to Mrs. Shanahan for all the organising for this very successful day. It was most enjoyable, as you can see…….

And we’re not finished just yet. We have our school tour to look forward to on Monday.

Best wishes,

Mrs. Power

Sunny Term 3

Summer is well and truly underway and the girls have been working really well doing lots of interesting and fun activities in Term 3.

In Maths we were learning about graphs and so the girls took some time out of the classroom and went investigating the number and colour of cars that passed out school in a 10  minute period. We started with a tally chart and afterwards we created a pictogram to show the results.  It definitely beat sitting in the classroom!

We were learning about milk in Geography – From grass to glass!  The girls found some interesting information about the product that they enjoy most days.  We also made connections with our Science and SPHE class, as calcium in milk is so important for healthy bones and teeth.  To finish we all enjoyed a simple glass of milk.  The following week, we took over the staff kitchen to make some very tasty milkshakes!

We also enjoyed a Zumba class during Wellbeing Week, thanks to Rachel.  The girls absolutely loved it as you can see….

It was such an enjoyable week with so many lovely activities organised by Mrs. Shanahan and the Wellbeing Warriors.  We had meditation, team building exercises, bright colours day and much more. 

The girls have been really creative in Art class in Term 3 and created some very funny and entertaining sock puppets.  They also created some beautiful landscapes for ‘The Owl and the Pussycat’ poem.  They learned a little about ‘Print’ in Art class too and how to create some wonderful and bright landscapes by printing.  The girls also figured out how to make a kite from various materials.  And of course we had to test whether they would fly….and they did!

The girls also figured out how to make a kite from various materials.  And of course we had to test whether they would fly….and they did!

The girls have been learning about the life cycle of a plant in Science and also writing a Procedural genre in English.  Along with this we have been experimenting to see what a seed needs to germinate.  They girls made their predictions and we set up out experiment.  We will find out this week what we can learn from the experiment!

We also planted some seeds for our outdoor learning area – Garden peas, courgette, and mixed leaf lettuce.

What a busy Term 3 so far.  And we have lots more exciting and fun learning experiences ahead over the last few weeks of school.  Enjoy the sunny weather and ask the girls what they have learned about being Sunsmart in this sunny weather!

Happy Easter!

What a busy Term 2 it has been.  The girls are well and truly ready to take a break from school and concentrate on enjoying the spring air and some rest and relaxation.  They have been very busy bees over the last few weeks and need to recharge over the Easter break and get set for the final Term 3 of 2nd Class.

The girls did a lot of work in the ‘measures’ area of the Maths curriculum.  There were a lot of out of seat activities where we used different non-standard materials to measure length.  We estimated and then measured the length of corridors, furniture and rooms.

We also learned about Capacity and amounts we could pour and fill in to various containers.  We estimated and measured how many small tubs (i.e. yogurt pots) it took to fill a 1litre bottle, 500ml bottle or 250ml bottle.  Over time we learned about standard measurements, millilitres and litres.  The girls did most of the teaching in this lesson!

The girls finished their final draft of their Persuasive genre entitled ‘Spring is the most important season’.  Well done girls on all the weeks of planning, researching and editing.  No doubt you will enjoy having these read to you over Easter.

In History, we learned about the life of St. Patrick and did our first Kahoot quiz on the tablets.  The girls enjoyed the buzz and the podium results!

We have been spending a lot of time in SPHE learning about healthy living.  The girls identified things that they did that were healthy and also things they can try to improve.  They designed a beautiful Food Pyramid using materials from home and also magazines.  Ask them what they have learned about the different layers and what size servings you should have!  To finish, we enjoyed some time in the staff kitchen where the girls identified and created their very own Fruit and Vegetable Kebabs.  A nice healthy treat for the lunchboxes!

We have been learning about the properties of materials in Science and what materials are made from.  As a challenge, the girls were given a number of materials – leather, wool, hessian, rubber, plastic, steel, cotton wool, felt, pvc.  The girls predicted and then investigated using magnifying glass, which materials were waterproof and why.

And finally, this week as part of National Tree week (19th – 26th March), 2nd class planted a Maple tree on the school grounds.  Firstly the girls had to go on a “Tree-sure Hunt” which was “easy-treesie!”  Our Principal, Mr. Nagle, kindly helped out with the process and informed the children how to best look after their tree. Together we had a very enjoyable time.  This will grow as your children grow and we will look after it for many years to come.

Wishing you a very happy and safe Easter.

Best wishes, Mrs. Power