Christmas Fun at School!

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We had a very special visitor at school today. The children were very excited to see Santa. They performed some Christmas songs and poems that they have been learning in class. Santa had a gift for every child which  can be enjoyed over the holidays.

Our Christmas jumper competition was a success. Well done to all those who made an extra effort, Winners received a beautiful Christmas book – see pictures below.

On behalf of everyone here at St. Michael’s, we would like to wish everyone a very Happy Christmas. See you all in 2020.

 

A trip to the Theatre

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We had an excellent time at the Iontas Theatre in Castleblaney on Friday. Snow White was a fantastic show and even the teachers took to the stage!

Well done to our own students who had a role in the show – Lauren, Erin, Neasa, Lucy, Katie, Isobel and Grace; Hollywood, here they come!

Relax Kids in Saint Michael’s National School Donaghmoyne!

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The children in our in our school really enjoyed their first session of Relax Kids on Thursday 30th January 2020 and are excited about their next class.

The sessions are aimed at primary school children and run in 6 week courses.

They involve warm up and movement, relaxing mindfulness games, stretching and breathing exercises, massage, affirmations, storytelling and visualisations.

The sessions take children from high energy to low energy and encourage them to relax while developing their creativity and imagination.

Each session has a theme which brings the child on a different adventure each week, from pirates to outer space to wizards. The sessions not only enable the child to learn the beautiful art of mindfulness but also equip them with tools to deal with stressful situations and anxiety, building their emotional resilience and self esteem along the way.

A huge thank-you to Olivia Monaghan for coming and teaching our children such wonderful skills, in such a fun and meaningful way.  This is another initiative which goes hand in hand with our ongoing Health Promoting Ethos in our School.

St.Brigid’s Day Activities

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To mark the feast day of Saint Brigid the Infants made crosses using lots of rushes, and what an amazing job they did. Happy Saint Brigid’s Day everyone!

Relax Kids with Infants

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Junior and Senior Infants were totally engaged in their Relax Kids class this week which involved meditation, postural energetics, massaging each other and much more. We can’t wait for next week’s class!!

St Bridget’s Day

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The children in Mrs Lennon’s classveach made a cross in preparation for St Bridget’s day.

To some it was an already mastered skill, while to others it was something brand new!

Either way, every child was successful in the end!

Serious but Silent!

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The children in Mrs Mc Guirk’s room really enjoyed this activity, were they had to work as a team to complete a challenge set by their teacher.

The children worked in groups and their challenge was to make the highest tower possible using a set number of sheets of A4 paper and paper clips. The children had to complete this challenge in silence.  It was interesting watching the children work as a team in silence to complete this task!

 

 

Serious Scientists in Mrs Mc Guirk’s Room

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In January we have been discovering what ‘Forces’ are. We investigated different ‘push’ and ‘pull’ forces in a group sorting activity. The pupils played with playdough to investigate how materials can be changed using a ‘push’and ‘pull’ force.  Vehicles were used to ‘push’ and ‘pull’ varying numbers of cubes. We also tried using our breath to ‘force’ varying objects of different weights to move.  We investigated how friction can be used to slow things down and moved objects along surfaces with different textures to test this theory. We placed a book on pencils to investigate how much easier and faster things move when on rollers.  The children recorded their results and they really enjoyed discussing reasons why various results had happened.

Nursery Rhyme Challenge

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Amid all the excitement of Christmas the children in Junior and Senior Infants still managed to work really hard on learning and reciting their rhymes with the result that they successfully completed their second Nursery Rhyme Challenge.

Congratulations everyone!!

Christmas in the Infant Room

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We had so much fun in the Infant room with our Christmas theme. We learned Christmas songs and rhymes and did a great job making Rudolf decorations for our Christmas trees. The most fun however took place in the Aistear room where the excitement of Christmas filled the air as the children engaged in an array of activities such as making Christmas playdough treats, printing wrapping paper and some even managed the difficult task of wrapping their boxes with the paper. The construction & small world stations had a hive of activity from making Santa’s sleigh and loading it with presents to delivering them all over the world. Some traffic jams were encountered along the way and would you believe there were even bad guys trying to steal the presents but the Gardaí soon sorted those guys out! At the home corner Santa’s workshop was buzzing with lots of calls to be made to ensure all the elves were on target for Christmas and most importantly there was always someone to make Santa a cup of tea!

Have a magical Christmas one and all!!