What a special week in our school! We had lots of activities throughout the week. We had Tráth na gCeist, Intercultural storytime, Seanfhocail an lae, Nuacht an lae, Greetings en Espanol, po polsku, and Ukrainian. On Friday we had our National Colours Day with our St. Patrick’s Day Parade and Ceilí Móra sa chlós.

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

Congratulations to the girls in 4th and 5th class on their wonderful performance in Peace Proms. They were just fantastic and according to one volunteer at peace proms, our school brought the party. The girls have worked very hard on their singing and dancing and we can agree, it paid off. They were fantastic.

We continued a busy week with world book day, where the book characters came out in force.

Lots of fun was had celebrating World Book Day here in Senior Infants!

Dear Parents, Guardians, Pupils and Friends of the school,

I hope this message finds you all well and looking forward to some better weather (hopefully!). We sent out a short survey regarding school tours recently via text. Many thanks to those who completed the survey, We will use the information to help us plan for school tours, all going well before the summer holidays.

Peace Proms

On Sunday evening last, the girls in 5th and 6th class represented our school at this year’s Peace Proms in the SETU Area. The classes have been busy practicing all of the songs and the dances for Peace Proms over the last few months and were excellent on the night. It was great to see so many parents there also! Thanks to all for their hard work in preparing the girls and going on the night. We hope you all had an enjoyable evening.

First Confession
Mrs. Power’s 2nd class celebrated their First Confession last night, Wednesday. Well done to all of the girls, we hope you all had a lovely evening. Thank you to Mrs. Power for having everyone so well prepared. We now look forward to the Communion on Saturday, April 27th.

Seachtaine na Gaeilge and Intercultural Week

This week marked the beginning of Seachtaine na Gaeilge and we have lots of activities planned to promote Gaeilge in the classes and in our school over the next two weeks. Some of the activities include Seanfhocail an Lae, Tráth na gCeist, Nuacht an Lae agus Ceilí Mór.

We will be also celebrating Intercultural week next week – celebrating all of the different cultures and languages that we have in our school! Thank you to Mrs. Burke and Ms. Kelly for putting all of the activites together!

World Book Day

Today is World Book Day. The girls and their parents have been busy preparing costumes and outfits based on characters from their favourite books and they all looked amazing coming to school this morning! Well done everyone!

St. Patrick’s Day
St.Patrick’s day will be celebrated in our school on Thursday and Friday of next week. On Thursday, we will have a Special Assembly about St. Patrick. We will celebrate National Colours Day on Friday where the girls can dress in green for St. Patricks day or in their own National Colours. We will also have a Ceilí Mór and a St. Patrick’s Day parade where we will visit the Little Sisters of the Poor located here beside the school!

School Closures
Tomorrow Friday, March 8th – School Closed (Polling Station)

Monday, March 18th – School Closed (Bank Holiday)

Friday, March 22nd – Half Day (Easter Holidays)

Junior and Senior Infants – 12.10pm
1st and 2nd Class – 12.15pm
3rd to 6th Class – 12.20pm

Easter Holidays – The school will close on Friday, March 22nd(Half Day) and reopen on Monday, April 8th at 9.00am.

Getting to and from school safely

The area around the school continues to be very busy due to the North Quays Development. Traffic is moving a little better as the slip lane onto Fountain Street has been reopened but delays continue to be experienced. Please be as patient as possible and allow yourself plenty of extra time.

In the Drop Off and Collect Area outside of the school, you are asked to drive your car in as far as possible before dropping/collecting your daughter – please avoid stopping at the gate. This will help keep everything moving. Thank you for your continued support.

Easter Raffle

Thanks to the Parents Association for organising an Easter Raffle again this year. Tickets in an envelope with information will go home to each family on Monday coming, March 11th and all sold tickets and money are due to be returned to the school by Tuesday March 19th. There are plenty of extra tickets available in the office for any of you who would like more. The raffle will take place before the Easter holidays and there are some lovely prizes to be won thanks to the hard work of the Parents Association. All money raised will go towards the education of the girls in the school and your support as always is appreciated!

Your sincerely,
J. Nagle
Principal