We have been busy bunnies during spring and I couldn’t be more proud of all of the work and participation that has taken place in my  classroom over the last few months.

In English, we have spent lots of time working on our comprehension skills, looking at explanation writing and focusing on the use of prepositions, plurals, pronouns and synonyms.  We wrote our own explanations, using the features of explanation writing. We used procedural writing to write a procedure on how to make a Leprechaun mask. The children also designed and wrote about their own Fairytale characters.  They  also completed their own spring acrostic poems and shape poems within Easter Eggs.

In Gaeilge, we focused on the themes of Caitheamh Aimsire, Bia agus An Cháisc and have learned lots of vocabulary around these themes.  We loved taking part in the Irish songs and poems. We participated in various role plays surrounding the themes mentioned and I loved the drama we did in the restaurant, in particular.  You can see this on our Facebook page.

Maths involved lots of practical challenges around the topics of multiplication, division , fractions, decimals, weight  and length  and we used lots of different strategies to work out math’s problems.  As always we got plenty of use out of our Six Bricks in our challenges and in our tables activities.  We completed lots of practical challenges and we also loved playing games on the Toolkit4maths and Topmarks websites, to help consolidate newly learned skills. We have introduced an ‘Estimation Station’ to our room, giving the children a chance to guess the answer to a question relevant to the topic being taught.  The person with the closest answer gets a small prize.

In S.E.S.E, we learned about farming in the past and changes that farming has undergone over time.  We learned about Ireland and each child researched a different county.  All research was combined to make a class book, which we have sent off to be published! We learned about the Romans and Italy and worked in groups to make fantastic booklets on these. We learned about rocks and soils in Science and looked at different samples of these and examined their properties.

In S.P.H.E.,  we learned dealing with strangers, how to be a good friend, road safety and how we grow and change over time.

In Music, we learned lots of songs and learned about different Irish instruments.  We are progressing nicely on our tin whistles and can now all play several tunes.  We are also practicing for the First Holy Communion Choir in May.

In Art, to mention a few things –  we made lots of Saint Patrick’s day crafts, made papier maché Roman helmets and used collage to make Easter bunnies and Easter wreaths.

In P.E., we had our Gaelic coach in to teach us lots of games and ball skills. We also were very lucky to get to practice our hip-hop skills in our dance lessons. We have some future professionals in our midst.

We also had a visit from Doran Motors, with a very informative talk on the advantages of electric cars and we even got to see and sit in some cars from the range.  We finished the term with a visit from the ice-cream van and some bun decorating! All round another busy and productive term.  Enjoy your well deserved Easter break everyone! Hope the Easter Bunny comes! See a few samples of our work below!

The girls and boys in 3rd and 4th class have been super busy from Halloween to Christmas.  In Gaeilge, we have been looking at the theme of An Scoil and learning lots of vocabulary around this theme.  We have been singing songs and practicing poems in this subject too. In the last week, we have been looking at An Nolliag, learning lots of Christmas vocabulary, alongside making Irish Christmas cards.

In English we focused on persausive and narrative writing. We discussed the impact of advertising slogans and jingles on our purchases and completed our own persausive ads, trying to convince people to buy ROBOTS. We also composed our own Christmas stories through narrative writing.

In maths, we have been focusing on multiplication and I am proud of how the boys and girls have mastered this. We have engaged in lots of maths games and hands-on activities to come to grips with this topic. We used our ‘maths bags’ to figure out some Christmas themed problems.

For Science Week in November, we looked at Light and Sound and we experimented with reflections in mirrors and identified sounds solely by listening.  We learned about the science of how we hear sounds with our ears.

We learned lots of interesting facts about our county and country in Geography. In History , we looked at Games and Pastimes in the past compared to nowadays, completing interviews with our parents and grandparents to explore this. We learned about the history of Christmas and traditions around the world.

In S.P.H.E.,  we have focused on the negative effects of smoking and also the importance of personal hygiene for our wellbeing.

In religion, we have been focusing on the theme of Advent and Christmas.

In Art, we completed drawings of local buildings, made clay decorations and elf door hangers and entered the Monaghan Shopping Centre Christmas colouring competion.

We have been busy practising for and taking part in our Christmas play ‘No One Wraps Like an Elf’. We have fantastic actors, singers and dancers in our class! They put on a fabulous performance in Lisdoonan Hall!

We took part in Friendship Day, the M.S. Readathon, Crazy Hair Day and also had a visit from Santa.

Well Done Boys and Girls on a fantastic term!  Happy Christmas and a peaceful New Year to everyone!!

We were very lucky today to have the opportunity to dress up for the MS Ireland Readathon Launch. We had a visit from Derek Kielty who gave us a taste of his writing from his collection of books.  He even did some magic tricks for us. Liepa and Luke were chosen from our classroom to be interviewed about their love for reading and they did a fantastic job.  Well done boys and girls on your efforts!!