3rd Class 2015-2016

Our junk art- we made creations in groups out of recycled materials

Our Geography Field trip to the local shop

Area Maths- The children are practicing their floor designs and blue print structures using lollipop sticks, I think we have some future architects on our hands

Our Irish dancing performance

The last day of seachtaine na gaeilge all the girls in the class did a dancing display for the rest of the school.I taught them the ceili dance the "Rakes of Mallow" and then three of the girls danced their easy reel by themselves.They did a fantastic job.Well done to Therese that made our fantastic pota focail in the back ground.

Proclamation Day agus Seachtaine na Gaeilge

Dojo Competition 2016- Here is samples of our work

Well done to all the girls who entered this competition over 250,000 students entered this competition from all over the world. 3rd class girls are extremely creative.

What do you think of our classroom??

I am personally bias but I think we defiantly have the best classroom in the school.We are absolutely blessed with all the space in the room.The prefab is amazing and we all love it.As there is so much space in the room we can really create a fantastic learning environment and partake in many active learning activities.We are able to display all our hard work and move around the room to get the best learning opportunities possible.I am delighted I am able to teach in such a gorgeous environment it makes all the difference to both my teaching and their learning.A big classroom makes all the difference.

Maths is all around us
Here we are in the playground measuring area and practicing our teamwork skills.

Maths
Here we are measuring the area of the classroom

Symmetry patterns and sequence- Maths

3rd class never miss a photo opportunity

We started Gymnastics this month!!

Samples of our recent school work!

Baking, decorating and most importantly TASTING our delicious fairy cakes!

Firstly came the hard work! Aprons on, ingredients out and we were set to go! We mixed, folded and then divided our mixture between 12 bun cases before putting them in the oven to bake for 15 minutes. Waiting is not easy so we were put to work washing and drying our utensils and making sure the staff room was as clean as when we arrived in this morning!

Next came the even better part when we were set the job of decorating our fairy cakes. Therése melted chocolate and we spread a little on top of each fairy cake. We brought in lots of toppings - sprinkles, marshmallows, food colouring, flowers, chocolate chips and lots more besides and we turned our fairy cakes into buns that would make cake shops envious of!

The results were spectacular!!

Finally we were given the very hard task of having to taste our fairy cakes - just of course to check that they were cooked right!!
Let's just say, they were simply AMAZING!!

There's more than just one building under construction!

You may think that the new classrooms being built is the only construction work taking place here in our school but you'd be mistaken! You see, we have been working on planning, designing and building our own buildings from the Boosterstown area. Firstly we went for a walk around Boosterstown and took photographs of the buildings. Then we were put into groups and given one building to focus on. We sketched the building using the photographs we took as a guide. Take a look!

After that we planned in our groups how we would make our building, what materials we would use and who would bring in what. We spent time then constructing our buildings from recyclable materials and adding paint and colour to them..
Like all good building work we ran into some difficulties that slowed up progress and decisions needed to be made but we had a lot of fun!!

The finished products!

Healthy Eating and Living Week

With the new year in full swing, what better way to start it off than with healthy eating and living week which is taking place in our school this week. On Monday, we focused on fruit and vegetable little break and the girls were great at bringing in lots of different varieties of both. From mini cucumbers to delicious fruit salads and everything in between, all these wonderful fruits and vegetables meant we had very sharp and active minds for the rest of the day!

As part of their homework the girls designed healthy eating restaurant menus and I was blown away by the research, detail and incredible illustrations that went into their menus. They looked so professional and they certainly gave restaurants a run for their money! Healthy breakfast suggestions included porridge and poached eggs on toast. For lunch you might have been tempted to try homemade soup with brown bread and for dinner, salmon in cous cous! They certainly tingled my taste buds!

Brown bread was our focus on Tuesday and the girls brought in many different types of brown bread - brown rolls, wholemeal pittas, homemade brown bread, sliced brown bread, wholemeal wraps and even brown bread they had baked at home themselves. After eating such tasty, healthy foods, the girls had plenty of energy for a spot of dancing in between!

We had a chat on Wednesday about the importance of calcium and taking care of our teeth and we remembered some of the things Rosa's dad Robert said to us when he did an oral hygiene lesson with us earlier in the year. The student council girls Orlagh and Éabha Mai then taught us about the hidden sugar in foods and how they can harm our teeth if we eat too much of them. I think we were all a little surprised by what they had to say but it certainly made us think more about how important it is to brush our teeth properly and visit the dentist regularly.

On Thursday we were focusing on mindfulness and becoming aware of how our mind feels sometimes. Through circle work and Tara's mind jar, we discussed times our mind feels clear, frazzled, when it's racing with worries, anxious, full of thoughts, and so on. We listened to Tara's story about her day and we shook her mind jar to show times when her mind felt confused. In our own time, we can make our own mind jar and fill it with things to show how our mind feels. Taking care of our mind is just as important as taking care of our body and teeth and it's good to spend a few minutes becoming aware of how our mind feels in a particular moment.

We were treated today to a wonderful healthy food buffet organised by the PA. We tasted some delicious foods some of which were: banana bread, butternut squash soup, melon, carrot sticks, hummus, peppers, cucumber, sugar free flapjacks, blueberry muffins, lime water, smoothies and brown breads to mention but a few. We had a great time and even though it's the end of healthy eating and living week - it's certainly not the end of all of us leading healthier lives!

Settling back in after Christmas!
Samples of our recent school work!

Fabulous Flapjacks!

Today in school we baked delicious chocolate flapjacks. We worked in pairs and we were each responsible for bringing in our ingredients and utensils. We followed the recipe and with the help of our teacher and Therése, we all made the most beautiful and tasty treats - even if we do say so ourselves!! The best part?? Well of course, the eating!

Then came the decorating!! So this was great fun - we each brought in sprinkles, jellies, marshmallows and basically anything we wanted to decorate our flapjacks. Our teacher sprinkled melted chocolate on top and then we set to work! We don't actually think we even put enough decorations on them although you may disagree!!

Now for the eating!
A definite thumbs up!

Getting ready for Christmas!

Nativity Silhouettes

We made our own Christmas crib

Our Family Trees

We have been studying our family history over the past few weeks. We interviewed family members to find out more information about our relations and ancestors. We brought in items from home about our family history such as family calendars, birth certificates, family tree albums and old photographs. Using the information we gathered, we each made our own family tree showing three generations. It has been really interesting finding out new information and we'd great fun making our family trees.

What a noisy classroom!!

Last week in school we were learning about how to make sounds using different instruments. We started with the glass test. We filled four glasses (all the same size), with different amounts of water. After predicting which would make the highest pitched tone when banged, we began - well......banging!

We used a pencil and tapped each glass and even made up musical tunes. The glass with the most water made the lowest tone while the glass with the least made the highest pitched tone. This is because small vibrations are made when you hit the glass, this creates sound waves which travel through the water. More water means slower vibrations and a deeper tone.

After that we used balloons to make sounds. We blew up balloons and by releasing the air at different intervals and in different ways, we were able to make different tones. We also put the balloons up to our ears and tapped lightly no the other side. Despite us only tapping lightly on the balloon our ears can hear the noise loudly. When you blew up the balloon you forced the air molecules inside the balloon closer to each other. Because the air molecules inside the balloon are closer together, they become a better conductor of sound waves than the ordinary air around you..

Then the fun went up a gear and we all blew up our balloons and released them all at once, making LOTS of sound, LOTS of laughs and LOTS of ducking and diving!!

We became party planners!

We are learning about 'money' in maths this week so today we became party planners. We were each given a budget of €15.00 and we had to decide what we were going to buy for the party. Our teacher gave us a selection of choices and each item was a different price. We worked in pairs and chose what we wanted from the selection.

At the end we had to add up the total cost and make sure that we were within our budget. After that we calculated how much change we had leftover. The photos above show you how hard we were working and how much fun we had!

Fun that money can't buy!!

Our creative, wonderful and extraordinary sock puppets!!

Our first 'real' class debate!!

We have been learning how to hold a debate and a week ago, two teams of three were picked to prepare for our debate today. The motion was 'children should not have to wear school uniforms.' One girl on each team was the captain and she had to introduce her team, put forward her arguments and conclude with any rebuttals. We had one week to prepare and during breaks, lunches and even play dates, we got together in our teams to plan what we were going to say. This is dedication!!!

A chairperson was allocated and she was in charge of welcoming everyone, introducing the motion, informing us who was on each team and thanking all those for their part in it. A timekeeper was allocated to ensure each girl had 2 minutes to speak and in those 2 minutes she had to persuade the audience to agree with her and put forward her arguments to the opposition. The timekeeper rang a bell after 1 minute 30 seconds and again at 1 minute 50 seconds and this helped the girl speaking to know how much time she had left.

Finally, three judges were picked. They had to stay totally neutral in their opinion on the motion but instead listen to each girl and decide together which team put forward the best persuasive augments and points. They took make things into consideration and in the end, they felt that the team stating children should not have to wear school uniforms, were the winners. After the debate, the audience gave feedback and constructive criticism to everyone speaking on their good points and how they could improve. Some things suggested were: to speak slightly louder, the look at the audience more, not to repeat points made by other members of the team and to use the word 'and' less. The good points were that the girls were confident, well prepared, had done research and were excellent at their rebuttals.

The teams in action!

We had a great time today and we're already getting excited about our next debate in two weeks time! Watch this space and we'll keep you posted....!

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We finished our first term on a high! From goblins and fairieis to dead babies and zombies, we really did try to scare our teacher on Friday morning! However, she wasn't going to be fooled and she got her own back by scaring us as well!
We had great fun that day singing our Halloween Rules song for the school, having a class debate about the merits of Halloween, making marshmallow top hats in class, playing Halloween games and enjoying some Halloween treats. Everyone got into the 'spirit' and it was the perfect start to a well deserved mid term break for us all!

Maths is Magnificent!

We have been really enjoying maths week in our school this week. On Monday we went on a trail outdoors. We had to work together to complete a questionnaire. From counting cars in the car park to window panes and garden patches, it certainly got the brain thinking on a cold Monday morning!!

On Tuesday we went to the hall where we were given the opportunity to play different maths games. We played Snakes and Ladders, Jenga, Connect 4 and the maths activities on the Nintendos and I Pads were great fun. Our brains were ticking and the buzz around the hall was great!

On Wednesday, we were treated to a great maths lesson from Greg Fields, Darcey's Dad. He came in and split us into 7 groups, each representing a rugby World Cup team. We each had to answer a set of maths questions and at the end there was a tie-breaker between team Argentina and team New Zealand. These two teams went head to head and they had to challenge their thinking with some great maths questions. In the end Argentina won but because we had all played so well, we were all rewarded with a treat! A big thank you to Greg for such a great lesson and for teaching us that Maths really is fun!

Spook-tacular Displays

We have been busy turning our classroom into a spooky haunted room with our Halloween chalk pastel art work. From cauldrons to bats and witches to pumpkins - we think we have created a Halloween spirit!

Creepy Crawlies have invaded our classroom….
but we think it’s fang-tastic!!

These strange looking spiders with googly eyes and long legs have made their home in spider webs on our classroom wall. They are sneaky, wriggly and move about quietly! We should warn you -one spider is missing from the web! Are you feeling it crawl down your spine right now? Ha Ha – that’s the spirit!!

A new school year is well underway!

The girls in third class have settled really well into their new school year and new classroom. They have been catching up with each other after the summer break and getting used to their new teacher and being on the senior side of the corridor. The girls have been busy planting bulbs in our garden patch which will hopefully bloom next Spring. They planted daffodils and crocuses and have been out watering them regularly. because the weather has been surprisingly dry. We hope they bring a little colour to our patch next year!

Bee-ing Kind and Caring!

A lovely way to start our new school year was by marking kind and caring week, which took place in our school this week. We did a range of different things to make sure that we were all focused on being kind and caring towards each other and respecting each other too. Sometimes it's not always easy to get along with everyone all the time but we know it's important to be tolerant, respectful and to treat others in the same way we would like them to treat us. By doing that, we hope to make a classsroom that is warm, welcoming and safe for every girl.

We are one but we are many...

September Artwork!

Bringing the outdoors in - we've been lucky to have such a lovely warm start to the new school year with the sun shining through our windows most days. We tried to recreate an autumnal feel in our class by working in pairs to make an Autumn pastel scene!