Second Class Blog
September-Halloween whirlwind!
We have had a fantastic start to the school year! Both 1st and 2nd class have settled in so well and have adjusted to the changes like stars. They definitely deserve a well-earned rest during Halloween break!
We have enjoyed exploring new topics and taking part in lots of fun classroom activities. We have also been learning about friendship, kindness, overcoming difficult feelings and, most importantly, teamwork.
Both the children and I are very proud of all the hard work and learning that has taken place so far. We hope everyone enjoys a lovely Halloween break and look forward to another exciting half-term!
Here are a few peeks at the learning, creativity and exploration that’s been going on in 1st and 2nd class over the last few months.
We took advantage of the great Autumn weather in Science and went on a scavenger hunt for different materials found on the school grounds – twigs, flowers, leaves, soil, nuts etc. We investigated their properties – smooth, rough, soft, hard etc. and recorded our findings on our worksheets on our clipboards. The girls worked really well in teams trying to find all the items.
Once again, we head outside in groups with lots of identifying equipment to discover what trees we have on our school grounds. Each group got leaf dial identifiers, twig identifiers, bark identifiers and they discussed in groups what they felt the names of trees and shrubs were. The girls found Holly, chestnut, beech and many more, as well as sycamore and maple (just over the fence). Our tree focus this year is the Maple tree and we will follow how this tree changes from season to season.
We have been learning about seasonal changes too and migration. We learned about lots of birds and animals that migrate and the reasons why. We focused on the Barn Swallow and followed their journey to South Africa, almost 10000kms away.
We also learned about our 5 senses – seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching. Perhaps the girls will sing the song we learned for you!! Next, we went on an Autumn Sense hunt to try and find Autumn items around our school that we can see, hear, smell, taste and touch. Again, our clipboards came out and the girls worked so well as small teams to complete the exercise.
In History we learned and shared a lot about our past, our parents’ past, and our grandparents’ past. Some of the girls brought in photos which they shared and taught the class about what has changed and what has stayed the same. It was really enjoyable watching the children take on the teaching role!
Coming up to Halloween, we learned about traditions in Ireland and compared these to some traditions in other places such as El Dia de los Meurtos in Mexico. The girls also shared some of their family traditions both in Ireland but also in other countries. It was lovely to hear the girls share a little of their homes with our class. One tradition is the Bairin Breac (Irish) or Barmbrack in Ireland. Long ago, there was a rag, ring, coin, stick, pea in the Bairin Breac. Why not ask the girls what each item symbolised about someone’s future! Bairin breacs today only have a ring, so we did some tasting in class and one lucky girl got the ring!!! Perhaps she will marry in the future???
We discovered lots of different surfaces around the school too and created prints for an Autumn Art project. We started out making rubbings using autumnal-coloured wax crayons. Next, we traced our hands on these various rubbings and after this, we washed our hands with watercolour paint. Finally, we cut out our hands once dry and used these to create the leaves on an Autumn tree.
We learned about the life of Wassily Kandinsky in Art and used his inspiration to create concentric circles which we used to create a concentric tree. The girls learned to use oil pastels and to blend colours during this project.
We’ve been enjoying Maths games on Fridays. The girls look forward to learning using board games and online maths games on our ipads too.
We learned a lot about transport around the world in Geography, and the different types of transports used in different places for different reasons – land, air and water. We also learned about air pollution and the girls came up with some really good ways to save our planet! We did a survey of the different types of transport just outside our school. Surprisingly and shockingly, cars had the highest tally and trains and buses had the lowest. Hopefully this will reverse in time to come!
To finish our first half-term, we had an amazing Mission week, helping to raise funds for a charity. And the final day, as always, was the highlight – THE TALENT SHOW! All the girls in Our Lady of Good Counsel were fantastic and it ended a very enjoyable term.
I wish the girls a Super Spooky Halloween break and I look forward to the next half-term to Christmas!
Best wishes from all in 1st and 2nd class,
Mrs. Power
First Holy Communion
Congratulations to the girls in 2nd class who made their First Holy Communion last weekend! The girls worked very hard to prepare for this special day, which was evident in how successful and happy the day was for everyone involved.
Thank you to Fr. Whearty, Mr Nagle, Ms Wemyss and 2nd class in St. Mary’s BNS, and everyone else who helped with and contributed to this special day. Thanks also to parents and families for your cooperation, kindness and consideration in the lead up to the First Holy Communion. Finally, a huge thank you to our special helpers who have been very helpful, patient and kind over the last few weeks.
I hope everyone had a lovely weekend and enjoyed the celebrations!
Space!
Over the last few weeks we have been studying space in 2nd class. We have been researching space missions, astronauts, and the planets. The girls made their own projects on the 8 planets in the Solar System. Each group researched a planet, made a poster, and presented it to the class. They all did a fantastic job!
The First Half Term in 2nd Class
We have had a busy couple of weeks here in 2nd Class! The girls have settled well into their new routines in 2nd class, and we have covered a lot of work since the beginning of the school year.
Below are some pictures of what we have been up to over the past few weeks – including SESE and maths trails around the school, reading dual-language books on European Languages Day, researching Waterford City and barn swallows on the iPads, meeting our 4th class buddies, and celebrating Halloween.
Second Class 2025 – 2026
Summer holidays are almost here!
Can you believe that the school year is almost over. The year just flew by, it only seems like the other day we started in 2nd class.
Term 3 was a very busy one and the girls achieved a lot during this time. In Art the girls got creative with fabrics and fibres and created some sock puppets. They also constructed some kites and they got to test them out on the green area. Our end of year wall hanging took lots of team work and creativity, and the end product shows all of this. With painting, cutting, glueing, stappling, and sewing, the girls transformed a plain hessian piece into a beautiful, under the sea scene.
In Science we learned about germination and photosynthesis and put our knowledge to practise by growing some sunflowers and also writing a procedure on how to grow a sunflower.
To finish off our History class, the girls worked in small groups to come up with their highlights of 2nd class. They then put these ideas together to form a class timeline. To link in with our pastimes in Oral Language we learned some old songs and dances – ‘Nuts in May’ and ‘The alley alley-o’. The girls then found out about some games their parents and grandparents played when they were young, and taught these to the class too.
In Maths the girls aced their adding and subtracting, both with and without regrouping. Well done here girls.
Our school celebrated Africa Day with our girls wearing their traditional clothing and the teachers read some books with African origins.
Thanks to the parents and the children, and especially the parents’ association for the fantastic cake sale. Some really tasty treats and amazing fundraising was done which will go towards activities for the kids next year. Thanks to all involved.
And last but not least, the annual Sports Day. Thanks to Mrs Shanahan for organising such an amazing and fun sports day. From Bouncy castles, to bucket races, obstacles courses to dragon’s den, the girls had a ball and surely slept peacefully that night.
These class blogs are only snippets of the work the girls have covered this year. They’ve put in so much hard work and had fun along the way. They’ve worked so well together and it is that team work which made them a pleasure to teach.
I look forward to teaching the girls in 3rd class next year.
Easter has arrived!
What a busy half term the girls have had and they are well and truly ready for a well-deserved Easter break. I hope the Easter bunny has some nice surprises for these girls.
There has been a lot going on in Maths over the last few weeks. The girls have been learning about Area and came to the conclusion that standard shapes are the best way to find the surface area of an object. They were estimating and measuring using various shapes and sizes. We then compared our answers and figured out that square units are the best way to measure area. Well done on all the problem solving and team work that was needed to do these challenges.
We moved on to Length later on and again used some non-standard items to measure the length of various distances – walls, corridors, distances from classroom to office, length of paths etc. After realising that we all get different answers, the girls decided that using the same item each with a standard measurement was the best way. We then measured using rulers, metre sticks and measuring tapes.
Following this, we did some Capacity work. The girls brought in containers and we learned to estimate and measure using various sizes and shapes. We estimated how many of one container it would take to fill another. We then went to work with our basins of water. We progressed on to using measuring jugs and the girls were able to draw conclusions during and at the end of the activities. Very good problem solving took places here.
We moved on to Graphs in Maths and we did some pictograms, block and bar graphs. We surveyed the traffic outside our school and did a tally on the different colour cars. The girls discovered that silver/grey or white were the most popular cars on the road!
As always the girls have been up and out of their seats creating Irish dramas. It’s been lots of fun for them and great to see them using and creating sentences and dramas with the Irish they know.
In Science the girls learned about friction and how smooth hard surfaces created less friction and soft rough surfaces created more friction. They did some experimenting with different materials and drove some wind up dinky cars across these various surfaces. Some were smooth, others rough, some slippy etc. They presented their findings to the class.
In Science also, we learned about oil and water and how items can be made waterproof. We did a little experiment using oil/wax crayons to do some nature rubbings, and then washed this over using watercolours. It was clear the wax crayons resisted the watercolour.
We continued this lesson learning about various materials and discovering the properties of these materials, which are waterproof, which are not, which ones are transparent, or opaque. The girls investigated and presented their findings.
We celebrated our annual St. Patrick’s Day parade in school. What a great day of fun and cheer. The ceili was great fun and it was lovely to see all the girls mixing and enjoying being part of our school.
In SPHE we have been learning a lot about being healthy and looking after ourselves. We discovered ways we are healthy and some ways that we can improve our health by making some small changes. We have some tasty healthy treats to see if we could try some new foods. There wasn’t much left on the plates at the end of this activity!!
The girls have been learning about milk in Geography. Where does it come from and what are the stages it goes through to get to our glass! We realised there was a lot more going on with milk than we had previously thought! The girls realised that the cow isn’t the only animal to produce milk that we can drink. Some girls made connections with our SPHE and realised they need to have more milk in their diet. They learned some easy ways to do this – why not make a healthy milkshake?? All you need is a blender (of some sort), some plain yoghurt, a mix of whatever chopped fruit you like, milk, whizz it up and voilá – an amazing, fresh, tasty and healthy milkshake. The girls enjoyed trying some milkshakes in class!
We finished Term 2 with a wonderful and positive Friendship and Wellbeing Week, thanks to Mrs Shanahan for organising it. We had a lovely week of mindfulness, friendship bracelets, healthy treats, meditation, mindful walks, friendship quizzes, affirmations, thankful cards and much much more. What a lovely way to finish off Term 2. The girls also discovered that the Easter bunny arrived early with a tasty treat!!
I wish you and your families a very happy Easter break and I look forward to Term 3 in a few weeks times.
Best wishes,
Mrs. Power
