2nd class have been working hard over the last few weeks learning all about different rainforest animals. They put together information reports and created a class art project of a rainforest habitat. All the children and parents enjoyed an open afternoon in their classroom displaying all their hard work
The whole school went on a trip this week to The Dominican College in Wicklow Town and were treated to a showing of their annual musical production which, this year, was Mary Poppins.
It was a fantastic show filled with fantastic singing, dancing and props. The children really enjoyed it! Thanks so much to DCW for having us and well done for all their hard work!
Last Thursday, two fifth class students went to Kilcoole to be trained as Young Whistlers. This means that next year when they are in 6th class they will be refereeing Cumann na mBunscoil football competitions for younger classes. As part of their training they learned the rules and the importance of concentration. They also received a whistle and a windbreaker to use for competitions.
“ The young whistlers course was really inspiring! I learnt so much about refereeing and concentration! everyone should try it! "
On November 21st, Raoul Empey, father of Thibaud and Marius, joined former US Vice President Al Gore and The Climate Reality Project for 24 Hours of Reality: Truth in Action, a global conversation about the climate crisis and its solutions in communities around the world.
For one full day, Vice President Gore and members of Climate Reality’s network of more than 20,000 Climate Reality Leaders from 154 countries participated by sharing the presentation first made famous by the Academy Award-winning documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, in their own communities across the globe.
Over 1,000 Climate Reality Leaders presented across the globe in community centres, places of worship, homes, schools, businesses, and even on social media. Climate Reality Leaders put truth into action and brought the hopeful message about today’s climate solutions directly to their friends, family, and neighbours.
As a trained Climate Reality Leader, Raoul Empey, presented to the older students in 3rd-6th Class, with the hope of inspiring local action. The children will also have the opportunity at a later date to participate in planting some trees in a local Native Woodlands Scheme in Ashford, as well as spur meaningful action under the school’s green flag.
Raoul’s presentation focused on the local impacts and solutions of the climate crisis in Ireland, especially as they relate to our children. It was thoroughly enjoyed by all the students and very inspirational.
“I have two environmentally minded boys at Nuns Cross, Thibaud aged 10 and Marius aged 8. Naturally I am concerned for their future and that of their friends in a heated world. The scientists and politicians have been speaking about climate change since the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 – that’s nearly 30 years – to little effect. Compare what children like Greta Thunberg have done in one year under the school climate strike movement Fridays for Future. Climate change is happening now, and it is their future we are talking about.”
“Millions of people around the world are fed up and demanding urgent action on the climate crisis,” said Al Gore. “The tide is turning, thanks to dedicated activists speaking truth to power every day – including the tireless work of more than 20,000 highly trained and dedicated Climate Reality Leaders. I’m thrilled that this year’s 24 Hours will lift up the voices of the inspiring people carrying the climate movement on their shoulders, and I’m honored to join them for this exciting day of grassroots action and education.”
Those who attend the presentations have the option to have a tree planted on their behalf through a collaboration between The Climate Reality Project and One Tree Planted.
The children had a great week during Science week. On Monday, they made towers from spaghetti and playdoh and lots of clever ideas led to some very tall structures! On Tuesday, the children learned about ways to save energy in a workshop by the SEAI and already they have begun to become more aware of energy saving in the classroom. On Thursday, we made slime using glue, water and salt - the children were amazed at the results! The class were also inspired by listening to the stories of Stephen Hawking, Marie Curie, Rachel Carson and Alexander Graham Bell. Anything is possible once you put your mind to it! On Friday, we shared science experiments that the children prepared at home. It was a great end to Science Week 2019!
All this week, in celebration of science week, all children were working hard all week on a science experiment of their choice. The children got a chance at the end of the week to share their experiments with their friends. There were some explosions, including some unexpected ones, a few accidental spillages and numerous broken eggs throughout the day but the children did a great job at demonstrating their scientific knowledge! Well done to all the children for all their hard work and to all the teachers for their help with all the experiments throughout the day!
5th and 6th class were given the challenge of designing and making parachutes to take their boiled eggs to the ground safely. Before embarking on this challenge, we made sure all of eggs were boiled and we set the parameters for success and fair testing. We decided we all needed to drop the egg parachutes from the same height. This was agreed to be the classroom window - which is on the second floor.
We also decided to be kind for ourselves and agreed on the rule that successful completion of this task would result in homework passes being given to all members of successful teams. Eggs were carefully inspected at the beginning of the challenge and any cracks were noted.
Students worked in pairs to complete this challenge and 30 minutes were given to the students. We used a variety of junk art materials which were kindly given by parents of the students. Take a look at some of the action ….
The anticipation was immense.
We quickly scrambled downstairs to check for survivors …
In a number of cases casualties were noted.
However not all attempts were in vain.
This week in 4th class the students were given the challenge to design and make a magnetic boat that could float. We investigated and proved that magnets could attract certain materials through other materials such as water. We had great fun designing the boats and all our designs turned out so different.
The children from 1st-6th class had a visit from the SEAI this week and got to take part in some very interesting workshops.
The children talked about the ways in which energy is used and the different things they can do to save energy. They were introduced to Guzzler the puppet who wasn't very good at saving energy and desperately needed them to teach him, for example, by turning off the light when he leaves a room or turning off the television when he is not using it.
Individual children took turns to mime some of the different ways in which we use energy while the others guessed what they were doing for example, brushing their teeth, ballet dancing and playing sports. Some children were involved in a clothes dressing race where they were encouraged to put on an outfit over their own clothes, as quickly as possible, while the other children cheered them on. They then discussed how they had used energy, which generated heat and that this had warmed up their bodies. Guzzler then told the children that he 'ate sunshine'.
There were many puzzled faces at first but some children then demonstrated how the sun shines on plants and that when we eat plants, we harvest energy from the plants, that begun as sunlight. Guzzler had therefore 'eaten sunshine' because he had eaten the corn that had grown after being exposed to sunlight.
The children enjoyed the workshop and had great fun. There were smiles all round.
On Tuesday 3rd class had a visit from Glendalough Outreach. Anne-Marie taught us about some of the mammals living in the local area.
We learned lots of facts and even got to see some of the wildlife up close. We stroked a badger, a stoat, rabbit and a red squirrel.
We also tried to avoid being pricked by a hedgehogs quills (they are as sharp as they look). We really enjoyed the visit and would be delighted to have another visit in the future.
This year, the children of Nun’s Cross collected a very impressive 157 shoe boxes for Team Hope, that is one shoe box from every child in our school! All of our shoe boxes will travel to Lesotho in Southern Africa and will be distributed to children who are much less fortunate than ours.
A huge thank you from us all for your generosity in supporting this wonderful cause!
This week we have been learning about famous scientists who made an enormous contribution to the world we live in. Our understanding of the world and so many of the items we take for granted have been hugely influenced by the world of science. Take a look at some of the scientists whose lives and work we have studied. Can you guess their contribution to the world?
Senior Infants and 1st Class were thinking about what they would like to be when they grow up and decided to represent this using fibre and fabric. Super masterpieces were created and the children really enjoyed looking at all the different interpretations.
Our School sports kits have finally arrived and we are so excited to share them with you.
Last year, we held our annual Active week which included our most popular fundraising event, the Race To Galway. We raised €1000 and were able to design and create our own school sports kit with this money. The sports kit consists of a soccer set of 12 jerseys and goalie kit and 20 athletic kits in a variety of sizes. They will be well used in a variety of sporting events over the coming year and, hopefully, for many years after this one too!
Many thanks to all the parents who supported the fundraising event and made it possible to get this wonderful addition to our school. We hope you like them as much as we do!
See below a collection of artifacts which were brought to school on Thursday the 7th of November. The students have kindly provided some information on their historical treasures.
this is a shell on the right of the picture. it was shot in 1912 in the war. on the left is my great great great grandad. his job during the war was to train the horses for the soldiers that went to war. he had a horse of his own called joey . he was poisoned 5 days before the war ended.
Another student brought in another shell which was dated 1917 and was used during the First World War.
These are German glasses from the Second World War. They are meant to be worn under a gas mask.
These are jail keys from Kilkenny Castle in the 1850s. All the keys are different shapes and the top and bottom.
an old world war 1 shoe last
This was my great grandads shoe last during World War 1 the piece of it facing north was for kids shoes the bit facing east was for adults shoes and the bit facing east is for adults shoes and the bit facing up is for the heel.
Queen EliZabeth’s 25th commemoration coin
This coin was placed in my house in 1978 years ago. About 41 years ago the people that lived in our house got the living room done up. When they did they found the coin in the supporting structure and put it back. Then when I was in first class we were getting the house done up one of the builders found it in the support beams and we put back a 2 euro coin.
From Left to Right: A medal from the coronation of King Edward VIII, 1937.
We were so lucky to have a visit from the Big Bear Planetarium. It took up the whole multipurpose room!! Each class got a session inside the planetarium and we learned so much about space, the planets and the stars. It was really dark inside and it felt like we were really in space!
Many thanks to Mike Fry who completed the Three Peak Challenge to raise funds for this and to all who sponsored him last year.
The junior infants are learning all about glass this week. Did you know that glass is made from melting sand? We have discovered that glass is rigid, brittle and fragile.
We made stained glass windows for our art lesson this week. It took lots of patience but the results are worth the time and effort.
The Junior Infants are learning about materials for the month of November. We are very busy in our construction site, building and repairing all sorts of things. We are having great fun using our imagination in our small world area and there is no limit to our imagination when we are using our lego to construct buildings!
Today we had a wonderful visitor to our school who shared some of his prized pieces of history with us and some of the amazing stories behind them. Students from 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th classes spent time with Aidan and got the opportunity to share some of their own artifacts with him and their classmates.
Take a look at some pictures from today…
See below the thoughts of some of the 5th and 6th class students about the visit…
It was really interesting learning about his Uncle Joseph who died in World War 1.
I really liked Aidan.He was really helpful and interesting . He is a huge stamp and coin collector and has countless cool artifacts.
What I really liked was the way he told us all about his family. It was really interesting how he had some of his Uncle Joseph’s possessions.
It was so interesting! He told us about his uncle Joseph who got shot through the belt he was wearing and died. Aidan has the belt at home and he said it has a big bullet hole in the back of it, and 3 days before his uncle died, he wrote a letter to his mum to say that he was fit and healthy. He was so interesting and ms Ward was taught how to hold a cigar.
He read us a poem about war called ‘the box’ and it was really moving.
I liked when you were talking about your uncle Joseph and when you were showing me the golf stuff at the end. He had a hat signed by Shane Lowry.
I loved seeing all the amazing antiques people brought in!
I loved how he spoke about antiques and the sad story of his uncle.
I loved it! It was so interesting. The display was really nice! The best part was when he did a poem called ‘The Box’. One of the letters that Joseph wrote was really gruesome and in the trenches, Joseph was fighting and a shell blew off one of the soldiers’ heads. Mainly I loved it!
He is a very interesting man and he had so many things.
I found it interesting when you talked about your uncle and showed us things from World War 2 and World War 1.
Thank you so so much Aidan.
I loved the poem the box because it taught everybody how bad war actually is because when you see it on the news you feel sad for the people in the country but you don’t know how horrible it is and you know that the person that started it is selfish and really mean.
I liked when he was talking about his uncle and I really found it interesting that he had so many different stuff and he put a gas mask on someone.
Aidan was a really nice man who taught me what the biggest lake in Ireland witch is Lockney and about ww1,ww2 and about his brother in the war he was very helpful when people were asking questions. thank you, Aidan.
I loved learning about the stamps and coins and postcards.
Today 5th and 6th class showcased our October projects. These were based on our SESE topics from October which included space, climate change and natural disasters. It is clear from the projects on display that Space Week had a big influence on project topic choice. We invited some classes to come and view our projects and our parents were also invited in at the end of the school day. Take a look at some of our great work below…
More pictures to follow shortly!
