Science Blast progress in 5th and 6th class: Week 1

This year, 5th and 6th class are taking part in Science Blast at the RDS on the 3rd of March. Our project challenge is ‘Can we design and make some marble runs which take 60 seconds to complete?"‘ This week we have started to get stuck in and explore some design features - taking into account friction, use of materials, momentum etc.

At this stage in our engineering journey, we are aware that the 60 seconds is a huge target to reach. It will be incredibly difficult and we had contemplated reducing this to a 30 second challenge which we may still do.

Take a look below at our progress to date.

Well being week in 5th and 6th

Last week was well being week in our school and we really enjoyed taking some time out from our busy lives to concentrate on being well. We enjoyed a wonderful talk on nutrition, pilates and we also took the week off homework. Our amber flag committee also challenged us to make some well being posters which can be seen below.

We also had great fun making a wall display to remind us to always be mindful.

Amber Day

Nun’s Cross turned Amber today as we celebrated the end of our Well-Being week. We held a fundraising day for Pieta House and for resources for our sensory room. Many thanks to all the children and parents for supporting this day, we raised a very impressive €356!

Dentist Visit To Junior Infants

Today Junior Infants were very lucky to have a visit from a real dentist, Brendan Fanning. Dr Fanning is our local dentist from Apollonia Dental Centre in Ballinalea. He came in to visit the children as a community link to our current topic of healthy bodies and personal hygiene. The children are currently busy working away as dentists in their Aistear role play area and Brendan was very impressed by their knowledge of his job. He showed the children how to brush their teeth properly and answered some of their questions.

We are very grateful to Dr Fanning for coming to see us this morning.

Nutrition Lessons

A huge thanks to Maija Tweeddale for coming in and delivering a very interactive and informative session to all class around the topic of nutrition and in particular, the impact that good nutrition has on our well-being.

Junior Infants - 3rd class got a lesson, split over two levels, on just how important good nutrition is in order for our stomachs and brains to be able to communicate to each other and also learned how important it is to get 12 hours sleep each night. The children also learned about good and bad bugs inside our bodies and why they are important for a healthy body.

The senior classes extended the material by delving in to how they can use this knowledge to inform good choices in their own personal diet and nutrition and discussed how their food choices has a direct impact on their well-being.

Thank you so much to Maija for her time and knowledge, the sessions were very informative to all the children!

Barrington Stokes Books

We are delighted to have received a massive order of specialised high-low readers from Barrington Stokes which were sourced for us by the wonderful ladies at Bridge Street Books.

These books are specially printed specifically for children who have dyslexia or who find reading more of a challenge, to make reading more enjoyable and achievable. A large amount of money was invested in these books with thanks to the Parents Association and we were very grateful to Bridge Street Books who helped this go even further by giving us a 10% discount on our order.

We hope the books will be enjoyed by many children for years to come!

Construction Project from 3rd class

Some children in 3rd class spent a long time working together today to build this very impressive rocket. It took time, patience and a lot of team work! Well done to all!

Worry Boxes

Each class has had a worry box introduce to their classroom. This is an idea brought forward, and made, by the Well Being committee as a way for children who have something on their minds but are unable to express it. The children can now, in confidence, put anything that is on their mind into the box which will be monitored by the teachers.

Well Being Committee

We are delighted to have set up our schools first Well Being Committee which is made up of a group of very enthusiastic students from 2nd-6th class. We are looking forward to how we can improve and develop the well being of our school community.

Yoga in Nun's Cross

Allyson Dowling kindly came in a do 3 yoga sessions with the younger classes. Each class got their own session, which they fully enjoyed and were nice and relaxed afterwards!

Well-Being Week

All next week there will be a big focus on all things well-being in Nuns Cross and we celebrate our first well-being week. Each class will focus a little extra time on activities such as mindfulness colouring, DEAR time (Drop Everything And Read), extra classes outside (weather permitting), breathing and relaxation activities and more. 

We are also thrilled to have some visiting experts to help us this week. Allyson Dowling has kindly offered to come in a do 3 yoga sessions with the younger classes, Claire Andrews, who runs Wicklow Yoga (www.wicklowyoga.com) is kindly giving her time to do yoga with 3rd and 4th class and Nina Scott, who runs Nina Scott Pilates (www.ninascottpilates.com) has made space in her busy diary to come and do some pilates with 5th and 6th class. We really appreciate the time these 3 mums are giving to come and do these classes with the children. The effect that good nutrition has on our well-being is something that is well known and we are delighted to have another one of our fantastic mums, Maija Tweeddale, who is a nutritional therapist, coming in to spend two days teaching the children all about good nutrition.  

We will be ending the week with a fundraiser by holding an Amber Day. We hope to see as much amber/orange around the school as possible and this will be to raise funds, and awareness, for two causes. The first is for Pieta House, a fantastic charity who help so many people who are in their darkest place. To find out more about their services please go to https://www.pieta.ie/about.  Some of the money raised will also go towards developing our sensory room. Our sensory room came up as the number 1 resource the children feel that Nun's Cross has to help, and to care for, their mental health and well being in our school. It also came up as the number one thing the children would like to see improved in our school so we will be trying to invest in it as much as we can this year. The sensory room is a small space, but a very valuable space to any child in our school who just needs a safe space for a while, some where to decompress, let off some steam or to just be calm. We hope that this fundraiser will be something you will support generously.  

Finally, all children will receive well-being focused homework this week in place of the normal writing, tables, spellings etc. This homework is based on the wheel of well-being which highlights 6 different areas we should focus on in order to have good mental health and well-being. We are all good at looking after some areas but not as good at looking after others so this is designed so the children will have choice over what area they would like to work on each day. If there is something outside of the suggestions that your child would rather focus on for their personal well-being then, of course, that is fine. No documentation needs to be done each evening however your child may be asked, over the course of the week, to feed back on activities they have engaged in for homework. 

Well being homework for Junior Infants - 2nd class

Well-being homework for 3rd-6th class

Fruit and Veg Tasting In Junior Infants

Its a new year and we have a new topic in Junior Infants. We are focusing, for the month of January, on different aspects of having a healthy body. First up, eating a broad and balanced diet!

Today we had a very exciting tasting session where we got the chance to taste lots of different fruits and vegetables! We tried bananas, sugar snap peas, peppers, pears, carrots, oranges, strawberries, mushrooms, lettuce, celery and pineapple. Most children tried everything, with lots of children discovering lots of new foods that they like!

We kept track of our tasting and noted our opinions on each food. There wasn’t any food left at the end as the children hoovered up all the healthy goodness! Apologies to mum and dad if there is no room for dinner tonight!

Gingerbread houses in 5th and 6th

This week in 5th and 6th class we attempted to bake gingerbread houses. In a week which saw us perform our Gogglebox Christmas Special play for our parents, we knew this was always going to be ambitious. On Wednesday we made our gingerbread dough. We used a template to which was carefully measured to ensure our house would assemble correctly. On Wednesday and Thursday we baked the gingerbread. On Friday, having collected our gingerbread, we noticed that there were a number of casualties. We took great care in mixing up some edible glue using icing sugar and water we carried out some running repairs. Having done this we carefully assembled our houses. In a number of cases, we opted for 2-d or even flat packed houses, but there were also a number of successes!

Having enjoyed the baking so much this week, we have decided to set up a Friday Treats system in the class where the students will operate a rota system of baking their speciality for the class.

Christmas Art In Junior Infants

The Junior Infants have been so creative this week and have completed lots of Christmas themed crafts! We have been colouring, cutting, sticking and painting all week! Look at all their wonderful creations!

Santa Visit

We thought we were losing our minds this morning when we saw Santa out the window! But it really was him! He came to our school, with some of his elves, and visited each class with his very special book. Thankfully all of the children in Nun’s Cross were on the good pages and were lucky enough to get a present from Santa!

Christmas Shows

Each class has put a tremendous amount of work into their very special Christmas productions this year. Hours of work have gone into singing, dancing, acting, art and scriptwriting! From learning lines, performing songs and making props and backdrops, there hasn’t been a minute to spare! All shows were incredibly well attended and many thanks to all the parents and family members for taking the time to come along. The children all enjoyed their time on the stage and it is a great opportunity for them to show off the variety of wonderful talents we have in our school.

Christmas Jumper Day

On Friday 13th December we celebrated Christmas Jumper Day in our school. We all dressed up in our Christmas jumpers and donated money towards Crumlin Children’s Hospital. Having added up the proceeds, we raised a whopping total of 250 euro. Many thanks for all donations.

One Planet!

In October three of our 5th class students started a group called One Planet. Three of our classmates joined the group a little later on. This group aims to raise awareness about our planet and also to raise money to help our planet. So far we have raised 150 euro by making and selling pencil pets. They are basically pets for putting on top of pencils. There wasn’t a set price for these but donations were welcomed, with one euro being the standard amount. The students sold them at their parents work. We have donated this to the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) and Seal Rescue Ireland.

Making snow in Seniors and 1st Class

The children had a lovely time making snow for this months small world. They worked together in groups using baking soda and hair conditioner to create a very life like representation! Great fun was had by all exploring and playing.

Christmas Story Evening in Seniors and 1st Class

On Tuesday, 10th December, Seniors and 1st Class had a magical evening in school with their teddies. They had hot chocolate and listened to stories in their pyjamas. Lots of their brothers and sisters came and it was a very special evening enjoyed by all.