Rugby is back at Nun's Cross

We are delighted to have Aidan back visiting us at school and coaching us in rugby. All classes enjoy playing a variety of games each Wednesday. It does get quite competitive at times, but at the end of the day we understand that it is all about the fun and laughter. We have been very fortunate with the fine weather each week which has allowed us to get out and about in the fine weather and fresh air. Take a look at 3rd and 4th class in action…

Celtic Creations by 5th and 6th Class

September’s topic was all about the Celts and we are finishing up with wonderful creations of Celtic jewellery, weapons and cooking utensils. Have a look at the first stages!

Child initiated learning

3rd class have been learning about the Stone Age, and on Friday, a group of children from the class decided to build their own hut at lunchtime. They were inspired by the round huts built by hunter-gatherers long ago and by the Viking settlements 4th class made recently as part of their learning. The children also constructed a stone wall which resembled the walls built by Stone Age farmers to keep their sheep in. 

It was lovely to see them applying their learning on their own initiative and in their own free time outside the classroom. They worked together as a team and had interesting conversations about how people lived back then. They were also heard using the topic-related vocabulary learned in class, and lots of problem-solving was observed. 

Maith sibh! 

Nun's Cross Builders

The Junior Infants are learning all about materials and how they are used in the world around us. We are exploring this topic in our play by being builders and are really enjoying all the planning and building that we are getting up to. Mrs Gannon isn’t so keen on all the hammering though!

Student Council

This week 3rd class have been working very hard on completing their applications to join the Student Council in our school. Our current members in 4th, 5th and 6th class have the very difficult task of reading all applications and awarding points to determine who will be joining us.

We have a very difficult task as the applications are all really good and it is clear that the boys and girls in 3rd class have put alot of work into making them.

It is lovely to see how much the students value our school - the play areas, the flowers, colours, pond and all the sports we enjoy.

Lots of great ideas have been put forward to improve our school which will definitely be noted. These will make up our action plan for the coming weeks. These include:

1. Bringing back our Friday Whole School Assemblies. Next week Student council will draw up a rota for assemblies. If weather is permitting, we will have short assemblies on yard. These will be socially distanced. If the weather does not permit, we can use our whiteboards and connect with the other classes.

2. We would like to freshen the school up with some colourful paint on our windowsills.

3. We would like to add more flowers to our garden. Some great ideas were shared on the applications - like giving each class a flower bed of its own or a pack of seeds to sow. We may need to think which flowers grow best in the different seasons to make the most of this idea.

Stained Glass Windows

The Junior Infants learned about how glass is made this week and we made stained glass windows of our own! We think they look amazing in our classroom windows!

Autumn is here!

Junior Infants created some spiky hedgehogs today!

Well-Being

In 3rd class, we have been working through the Weaving Wellbeing programme and we have spent extra time outdoors this month. We have engaged in a variety of activities which promote good mental health and wellbeing. These include mindfulness colouring, daily affirmations, breathing exercises and meditation. Each child has their own 'wellbeing toolkit' of simple strategies and tools that they can use to help regulate their feelings. We will continue to build on these as the year progresses. We also have a feelings check-in board where the children can identify how they are feeling at different times of the day and we have re-introduced our worry box as a way for the children to express any worries they may have.

Back Together Again

All of the children and staff were delighted to see the sunshine remain with us this morning as it meant we could go ahead with our first assembly of the new school year.

Unfortunately we have been unable to have our usual weekly school assemblies due to the covid restrictions but this week Senior Infants were able to help us gather together for a wonderful assembly. Each class was able to sit in their class groups in socially distanced groups and enjoy the performance from Senior Infants.

“We have all really missed gathering together, listening to a bible story, singing a hymn, sharing news, celebrating birthdays and a variety of successes from each class. Lets hope the weather keeps up for a while longer so that we can gather together again! ”

Romero Britto Art in 3rd class

3rd class created self-portraits inspired by the work of Romero Britto. They focused on line, colour, direction, value, pattern, form and shape. Once they had finished their self-portraits, they decorated the background with shapes that symbolise their own individual interests. Well done everyone!

All About Me

Junior Infants have been learning all about themselves this month. They have looked at different body parts, the stages of growing up, they have shared information on the things they like and don’t like and have learned that there are lots of different types of families.

Today they created little people, with thanks to this lovely art activity for one of the boys birthday! It was a wonderful art activity which tied in with their topic beautifully and the children loved making their own little person!

Art in 1st and 2nd

1st and 2nd have been learning about the different elements of art. We focussed on our use of colour and texture when creating our flower paintings. We used our art to brighten up the corridor outside our classroom

One Million Words!

5th and 6th Class have a competition running this year to see who can be the first to read one million words. I never expected it to be reached after just 4 weeks in school! What an incredible achievement for Harriet Nielsen in 6th Class. We are all so proud of her! As you can see from the graph, there are many more not far behind her. It’s great to see so many avid readers in the senior end of the school. Harriet won a voucher for Bridge Street Books so she can read the next million. Well done, Harriet!

5th and 6th Class Film Club

5th and 6th Class had their first film viewing this month. We watched Song of the Sea - a beautifully animated story about a little girl who has magical powers that help her save the selkies in an ancient mythical world. We all enjoyed it and it sparked lots of lively discussion about the topics it dealt with. Afterwards, we created our own ‘Selkie Coat’ - an item that allows us to have magical powers and become who we want to be. Here are some of our creations.

Gaeilge in 1st & 2nd

This month 1st and 2nd class are working hard learning all about the theme ‘Mé féin’ in Irish. With the weather being so fine lately, they took advantage and did some life size chalk drawings around the yard which they labelled the different body parts on. It is a great reminder to passers by to try and use Irish around the school as often as possible.

Sorting

The Junior Infants have settled in so well to big school and have adapted so well to their new routine. They are enjoying learning lots of new things. Look how well they can already sort groups of things in our classroom!

All About Me

Junior Infants are very proud to share their first art project with you all. We are learning all about ourselves this month and so we made our faces on paper plates. We looked at the colour of our eyes, the colour and style of our hair and most importantly, how we are all different!

1st Day of School

All the teachers and staff are delighted to welcome our new Junior Infants to school this year! They have all come to school with big smiles on their faces.

Graduation 2020

Last Friday, Nun’s Cross NS bid farewell to 6th class of 2020 through our virtual Graduation ceremony which was a rollercoaster of emotions from start to finish. We were joined by staff, parents and students from other classes along with Reverend Rue in wishing them the very best of luck as they move on to secondary school. There was a great sense of being together though far apart as our whole school community came together in wishing the young ladies and gentlemen well. The class of 2020 will go down in history in Nuns Cross NS.

Video courtesy of www.hippyandbloom.ie

Covid-19 going down in history

This week 5th and 6th class were set the challenge of designing a history chapter documenting Covid-19 which could appear in a text book for senior primary school pupils. Take a look at one of our outstanding efforts below.