Green School Travel Theme

Written by

The Green School Committee have worked tirelessly over the past two years on the Travel theme. Travel surveys, walkability audit, mapping activity, Bike Week, bike safety lessons, WOW & COW days, inviting guest speakers are a few of the activities that they planned, organised and engaged in. Our most recent success was partaking in our fun packed Green Schools Travel Action Day.

A massive thank you to one of our parents Gerard Boylan for delivering an inspiring presentation on sustainable travel not to mention the enjoyment we derived from the three show-stopping cars we had on site. Thank you to Gerard and the Doran Motors team for making our action day one to remember.

Thank you to our Green School Committee, 5th & 6th Class, for their dedication and support over the past two years . We appreciate all your hard efforts as we prepare to submit our application for our Travel flag.

Hip-Hop in 2025!

Written by

During the month of March, we have been learning some hip-hop moves with our dance instructor. A massive thank-you to Emma Courtney who has been absolutely fabulous with the children. The children really did enjoy every moment!

Active Breaks 2025

Written by

Our Active Schools Committee of 2025, have been busy planning, organising and playing lots of games with our pupils on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at lunch-time. They are great leaders and the children are all having a ball!

Term 2 in 3rd and 4th Class

Written by

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!!

Term 2 in 5th & 6th Class

Written by

There was lots of amazing work going on in 5th & 6th class since Halloween as the pupils worked co-operatively in their buddy groups to plan, research, display and present outstanding projects on World War 1.

 

In Science the pupils enjoyed experimenting with Lego We Do which involved constructing & coding the most incredible Lego models.

In Gaeilge the senior classes planned and delivered exceptional Irish debates on comparing country and city life. I was amazed by their work and the cross fire was very entertaining!

 

In English we had lots of fun with the procedural genre where the pupils made slime and delved into planning and presenting their own procedures for authenticity of both the process and evaluation.

The lead into Christmas this year was a busy one, commencing even before Hallowe’en as we began the preparations for our very own Christmas Performance – ‘No One Wraps Like An Elf’. The wealth of talent on display from 3rd to 6th class was simply outstanding and to say we are proud of the performance is an understatement. Next stop Broadway!

Lots of Christmas festivities took place over the last few weeks from hot chocolate treats, cupcake decorating, making Christmas tree decorations to a seasonal visit from Santa!

 

Well done to the boys and girls in 5th & 6th Class for their commitment to their work and classroom activities this term. Now lots of treats have been well earned over the Christmas break! Merry Christmas everyone and I look forward to seeing you all in the new year.

 

Cumann na mBunscol 2024

Written by

Congratulations to our boys team on winning the semi-final of  the competition on Wednesday 23rd October.  Well done also on your fantastic display of football in Castleblaney in the final! Although we were defeated, you should be super proud of the quality of play on the day. Well Done Boys!!

Move to Improve 2024

Written by

All classes in our school engaged in the MOVE TO IMPROVE PROGRAMME, over six weeks from  September to October. 

Move to Improve is a fun based, active program that focuses on the development of kids vital motor and social skills. Move to Improve also promotes kids involvement in multi sports, many of which are not given enough exposure. This will help to increase the ratio of kids who continue an active, healthy lifestyle into their teens. A massive thank-you to Ryan Burns and his colleagues, who provided fantastic P.E. lessons for all our pupils!

autumn in 3rd and 4th Class

Written by

Everyone settled back to school well and teacher is extremely proud of all of the work and participation that has taken place in her classroom since our return.

In English, we have spent lots of time working on our comprehension skills, looking at recount and instructional writing and focusing on the use of full-stops, commas and apostrophes.  We wrote our own adventure stories, wrote instructions for our favourite sandwiches and composed instructions for a board game of our choice.

In Gaeilge, we focused on the themes of Mé Fein and Sa Bhaile and have learned lots of vocabulary around these themes.  We loved taking part in the rap song ‘Is Mise Seán’. We have some future rappers in our midst.

Maths involved lots of practical challenges around the topics of addition and subtractions and we used lots of different strategies to work out math’s problems.  We got plenty of use out of our Six Bricks in our challenges.  We partipated in math’s week and completed lots of practical challenges, including a school math’s trail, math’s eyes activities and we also loved playing games on the Toolkit4maths and Topmarks websites.

In S.E.S.E, we learned about various homes and houses and changes in houses over time.  We completed an interview with a family member to discover changes in their home over time.  We learned about people who help us locally and in school.  We also learned about our county and its natural features and compared our drumlin county to County Clare and the Burren.  We spent the last week of autumn learning about Halloween Traditions, listened to Halloween riddles and jokes and we played some Halloween games.

In S.P.H.E. we learned about ways to deal with feelings that we don’t like to experience.  We also learned about balanced diets and how to achieve this with the use of the food pyramid.

In Music we learned several autumn themed songs and started to learn the first notes on the tin whistle.  We have also commenced practising for our Christmas play.

In Art we experimenting with printing using autumn colours, drew our ideal homes and completed several pieces of Halloween themed art.

In P.E., we practised ball handling skills and also participated in the Move to Improve Programme.

We also had a visit from a famous author, a magician and engaged in our monthly assemblies.  All round a busy and productive term.  We are ready to engage in the M.S. Readathon on our return in November. Well Done Everyone!!

First term in 5th & 6th Class

Written by

A spectacular first term has been had in 5th & 6th class. The pupils have settled in really well and have been exceptionally busy! We hit the ground running with a hectic but exciting first week partaking in the MS Readathon advertising campaign.

The pupils have worked so hard engaging in individual & group projects in SESE. They completed a study of various counties of Ireland, helping us to learn collectively about our wonderful nation. They also powerfully illustrated and dramatized the story of Setanta.

In Science the pupils engaged in a variety of light and shadow experiments. They learned about the reflection of light and demonstrated its purpose and function through making periscopes.

In Gaeilge the pupils learned about the topics of ‘Mé Féin’ and ‘Bia’. Entertaining drama scenes were created to illustrate ‘Míshásamh sa Bhialann’. In Maths the pupils did a lot of valuable work in Number and Data. In English we enjoyed engaging in a thrilling creative writing workshop with author Anthony Garvey.

Music, drama and a wealth of talents have merged in the senior classroom as we prepare to showcase our Christmas Show, ‘No One Wraps Like an Elf’. We are so excited for this! The pupils also enjoyed 6 fun-filled, active lessons with Move to Improve.

Of course, one of the highlights of this term was supporting our boys as they won the semi-final of their Cumann na mBunscol School football league. Well done on your wonderful achievement boys. I have no doubt these boys have a promising future ahead in the field of sport and we look forward to the final after Hallowe’en!!

 

Hope you all have a fun Halloween break and looking forward to the adventures that the next term brings!

Community Games Final 2024

Written by

Congratulations to Katie and Lauren in Fourth Class who both got medals for their

fantastic dance performances in Carlow.