Vikings in 2nd and 3rd Class

During the month of September, 2nd and 3rd class learned about the Vikings. We explored different elements about the life of the Vikings. We learned about their clothing, armour, transport and much more.

Did you know that the Vikings used different natural items to dye their clothes? We explored the different things that we have in the school grounds that could be used to dye our Viking clothing.

We put ourselves in the mindset of a new Viking chief who had just put on all of their armour for the first time. We wrote diary entries focusing on how the different elements would have felt. Some of our chiefs were lucky and had soft woollen linings to soften the pain from the cold, sharp chainmail.

We did lots of art base on the Vikings too. We drew our own longship pictures and also designed the dragon heads that could be mounted to the stem of our longships. Finally, we designed our own Viking inspired shields that could be used to protect ourselves during raids.

We finished our exploration of the Vikings by carrying out a Viking inspired raid around the school grounds. We rowed our longship around the school grounds before disembarking and raiding the different villages to find what treasures they held. We had a lot of fun.

Marshmallows and Spaghetti STEM challenge in 4th and 5th

4th and 5th class were tasked with designing and making a tower using only spaghetti and marshmallows. The challenge was to design and make a tower to hold a copy book on top for 10 seconds, with the tallest tower being rewarded with some Cadbury Heroes. Groups were given 30 minutes to complete the task.

We were thrilled to see that 7 our of our 9 towers were successful in supporting the copy book for the 10 seconds, some for as long as 6 minutes before we took the copy off. It then came down to seeing which tower was the highest - with our highest tower measuring in at an impressive 46cm. Look at a video we made to show the last ten seconds of our tower holding the copy book.

Making weather instruments in 4th & 5th class

Today 4th and 5th class made some weather instruments to measure the weather. Among our creations we have a wind vane, a barometer and a rain gauge.

Wind vane: We used some laminated card to catch the wind and some straws/lollipop sticks to hold these on. We will place our different vanes in different areas around the school to compare parts that may be more and less windy and to see if the vane is always pointing the same direction in all locations. Will the wind change direction much during the day/week.

Barometer: We also made a barometer to measure the pressure in the atmosphere. We used a balloon, a straw, a glass jar and some paper card.

Anemometer: We designed and made an anemometer to measure wind speed and direction. We used some paper cups to catch the wind and spin. We will count the number of times the cups spin around to make a full rotation. To help us with this, we coloured one of the cups black.

Rain gauge: We used a plastic bottle with the top cut off to make a funnel. We marked our measurements on the side. We were very resourceful and borrowed some spoons from the staff room to dig a hole to sit the rain gauge into.

We will be observing our instruments carefully this coming week and recording our weather at the same time each day to ensure we are as accurate as possible.

Student Council Update

Last week our student council met to decide how best to gather the views, opinions and ideas of all students as we plan for the year ahead. We are keen to keep improving school for the students and to see where they think these improvements may be identified. We also put the feelers out there for ideas for a school fundraiser. One of our senior members developed the survey which the council approved before circulating to the children for completion. Today we collected the surveys and we got to analyse them in groups to figure out which ideas were most popular. We listed the most popular/practical ideas and tomorrow we will discuss the ideas from each class and make a further survey to decide our priorities in the year ahead.

GAA returns to Nuns Cross

Today GAA coaching returned to Nuns Cross. We were visited by Darren who will be working with us all year. This term Junior Infants and Senior Infants will be learning the basic skills of gaelic football. Today they had lots of fun!

Weekly dose of yard comedy

Today one of our 4th class students took to the stage on the basketball court for the first time to perform some comedy for those who were interested to listen at breaktime. A lot of preparation had gone into organising this event and it seems that all the hard work paid off by the sound of laughter coming from the court. An impressive production team worked hard to ensure there was a stage, some interlude music and a working microphone for the performance. Our comedian and crew were blown away by the huge support they were shown today and are eager to make this a weekly event in school.

Creative Schools inspiration wall

Inspired by our whole school mural which was completed during Creative Day last June, our Creative Committee set their sights on decorating another external wall of the school. We noticed that there was a lot of interest in using chalk to draw and create on the yard, but there was nowhere for children to draw on apart from the ground. So we put our heads together and we decided to create an inspiration wall on our yard. We chose to paint it slate grey as opposed to black as we the idea was to make our school a brighter and more colourful place rather than making it duller and darker. Take a look at some of the creativity which was on display today.

We were delighted with the finished product which was decorated beautifully on it’s first day of use. We are excited to see the wonderful creations which will be visible on this wall. We would also like to say a huge thank you to Chris and our caretaker Michael for helping us to make this possible.

Karate at Nun's Cross

Today we were treated to a special visit from Felisity and her daughter Faith who is a past pupil of Nun’s Cross NS who came in to do a karate demonstration for all of our classes. Felisity is the mother of two students in our school and we are very grateful for her taking the time to come and visit us ahead of her return to after school karate classes from the 28th of September. Among the skills we learned were how to punch properly without hurting ourselves, the outward block & the inward block and fighting stance.

We look forward to welcoming karate classes back into the school on Tuesdays and Fridays beginning on the week of the 27th September.

Assembly

Every week in Nun’s Cross the whole school gathers for a school assembly. This is a special time to come together as a school to celebrate the ethos of our school. We listen to bible stories, sing hymns, celebrate birthdays and share our good news. We are very lucky to have Rev Rue in attendance every week and we look forward to a variety of assemblies which are delivered by a different class, or school committee, each week.

First week Of Big School

Its hard to believe that the first week of school is already over! And we cant believe how busy we are in Junior Infants and how hard we are working already! This bunch of Junior Infants are busy little bees!

Cutting skills are so important and as you can see we are delighted to be working on them!

This month we are learning all about ourselves and we learned a beautiful little poem to remind ourselves just how special we all are! We even decorated our poems with a painted handprint!

We have spent lots of time talking about our likes and dislikes and we decided that our differences are something to be celebrated because if we were all the same the world would be boring!

We love to practice our writing everywhere we go and these huge chalk sticks are great fun in the playground!

And of course we are making the most of our schools wonderful outdoor space while the weather is still good and the sun is shining!

First Day of School

There is lots of excitement in Nun’s Cross this week as we welcome back all of our students, with a particular warm welcome to all our Junior Infants and new students throughout the school.

Our amazing new Junior Infants have settled in really well and are enjoying making new friends and engaging in all the fun activities on offer in Nun’s Cross!

Teddy Bear’s Picnic

Junior Infants had a very special day today! We all brought our teddy bears into school this morning and it’s lucky that we did because before the day was out we needed their help with a big challenge!

After some fun in the classroom, and introducing our bears to each other, we went outside for our break! When we came back in we found Mr Bear in our room and he was lost!

He left us a note to say he was lost and asked us to help him find his friends! Of course, we were delighted to help and were glad we had our bears to help us too! Thankfully Mr Bears friends left some clues outside so we followed the clues to see where they would lead us….

The tracks lead us to the park where we found Mr Bear’s friends having a fruit picnic! We were so grateful to them for having enough fruit for us too which we enjoyed while our teacher read us the story ‘we’re Going On A Bear Hunt’

After our fruit snack and a story we were filled with energy for some games and activities. We played Musical statues and showed our cool moves! We won some cool prizes along the way too!

Our favourite game to play in school is Duck Duck Goose so of course we had to play that for a while which was great fun!

There was great excitement for pass the parcel. We had to listen for the music to stop and when it did the person who had the parcel got to unwrap it and see what was in side! There were some very exciting treats!

It was then time for lunch and afterwards we went for a play with our friends in the park! It was great fun and everyone had so much fun!

This wonderful day could not have happened without the help from some wonderful parents - thank you to those who helped leave the magical trail, to those who set up the picnic in the park and for helping to supervise the children. Also a very big thank you to Eammon Sweeney who very kindly gave up his morning to open the Heritage Centre for us so that we could use the toilets - without which we wouldn’t have been able to enjoy our day.

Creative Day 2021

Our creative juices were flowing today in Nun’s Cross as the whole school rotated around to a variety of different creative projects. Our Creative Day was inspired by our Creative Schools Committee who range from Senior Infants to 6th class pupils who represent the whole school as part of the Creative Schools Initiative. and we are very grateful to them for all their work. Today we got to explore a wide range of art strands and got to experiment with lots of different materials also. Many of the projects worked on today are long-standing projects which will remain in the school for years to come and will be a constant reminder of the creative spirit that is inside all of us.

Acrylic Wall Mural

With huge thanks to the wonderful artist, Judy Cobbe, we got to create a wall mural based on murals done by a famous LA Artist under the name ‘ThanksX’. We each designed and created our own interlocking cubes which were on a wall in school which we identified as being in need of a makeover. This is an area in the school which is very visible to visitors and it forms a great part of our courtyard and our forest area also. We worked together as a school to create this wonderful piece of art.! A huge thank you to Judy and her daughter Jane for their hours and hours of work researching and preparing for this project!

Willow Construction

With thanks to Wicklow Willow, we now have a new willow hut and tunnel in Nun’s Cross. Each class worked to build the structure, planting, weaving, and shaping the willow. This structure will grow each year and is a fantastic addition to our outdoor space! The boys and girls from a number of classes contributed willow to this today also.

Clay

With thanks to Christien Van Bussel, the children had a fantastic clay lesson. Each child got to explore clay and make a clay tile. They each created their own design, painted it and Christien will return them to school after firing them in the kiln. When we get them back the tiles will be used to create a mosaic on the school grounds - another physical representation of how creative the children are.

Tie Dye

We explored with fabrics and dyes! Each child brought in a white t-shirt and had great fun using a variety of techniques and colours to create wonderful tie dye t-shirts! The absolute height of fashion from Nun’s Cross!

Drawing

We looked at some very famous pictures from famous artists such as Monet and Van Gogh and we recreated our own drawings based on the original

Dream Catchers

Each class got the chance to create their very own dream catcher using a paper plate. They got to decorate them with a variety of beads, feathers etc and everyone went home with a very bright and colourful dream catcher to collect all their dreams

It was a wonderful day, filled with excitement and energy and we already cant wait to see what creative day brings next year!

Sports Day 2021

Sports Day 2021 was a very special day. It was a little different than we are used to because parents could not stay and cheer the children on but a huge amount of fun was had. Our Active Committee had put weeks of planning and preparation into the day, deciding on activities and races to be included and all their hard work paid off.

On the day we all met up at Ashford GAA pitch and we started the day off with a thrilling obstacle course. Here the children did some hurdles, some ball balancing, cargo net crawling, and sack races to get their hearts racing. It was super fun!

This was followed by our class relay races which included fly swatter golf, three legged races, wheelbarrow races, pass the baton and the capacity race. Following the relays, each class visited stations which were led by the teachers to complete activities. These rotated every 15 minutes. The stations included activities such as crab soccer, water dash, spill the sponge, caterpillar relays, hit the target, tug of war and no mans land.

Our day finished with a wonderful barbecue of hot dogs which were provided and cooked by our wonderful Parents Association. The surprises did not end there, and just when we thought it was all over we were visited by an ice cream van which again was organised by our Parents Association.

We would like to say a huge thank you to Ms Bennett and our wonderful Active Committee who arranged and pulled off an amazing day.

6th class visit Splash Valley

Today our 6th class pupils continued their final week of fun in Nun’s Cross with their class trip to Splash Valley. They used the money they raised on No Lunchbox Day to pay for their admission. We would like to say a huge thanks to the parents who drove their children to Rathdrum today for the trip.

Discovery Primary Science Award 2021

We are delighted to announce that we have been awarded our 7th Discovery Primary Science Award - an award given to schools in recognition of an outstanding commitment to the teaching of science, STEM, maths and engineering. Below is what the committee had to say on our application:

“Well done Nun’s Cross National School. A very comprehensive log of all the activities undertaken in each class in each category during the year and clearly presented and labelled. So many wonderful examples of STEM - your Viking video, your Earth Promises, your use of the new ipads, your artwork associated with projects (penguins, stained glass, lego rainforest models. You seemed to get great value from SeeSaw - particularly liked the kitchen measuring video with the little puppy looking on!
You should certainly apply for the Badge of Excellence next year. it has a slightly different focus but well within your capabilities
Congratulations on this year’s award.”

— Discover Primary Science & Maths Team

Below is a sample of some of of our work across the school which has helped us achieve our award!

Congratulations to the children and teachers on their achievement!

No Lunchbox Day

On Friday last our 6th class pupils held a ‘No Lunchbox Day’ for all pupils and staff in our school. This involved a week of planning and preparation where students did some market research - this involved brainstorming ideas of foods we could provide within our class group along with identifying foods which would satisfy the different dietary needs and preferences of all children. We also had to bear in mind how we could do this during covid. We also made up some posters to promote this day in school and we informed parents and pupils of the foods which would be on offer on the day.

Our final menu included hot dogs (including vegetarian hot dogs), salad rolls, pasta, fruit skewers and home baking which included an assortment of treats for the sweet tooth. This could be washed down with some fruit juice. Items ranged in price from 50c to 2 euro and we agreed to use the funds raised for our 6th class school tour to Splash Valley. Students completed their order forms and all classes visited the food stalls during the day.

No lunchbox Day 2021 was a huge success and the weather allowed all classes to dine for the day alfresco. The hard work and long hours put in by 6th class did not go to waste as some students paid a second visit to the food stalls until they eventually sold out. When the money was counted the children raised over 780 euro which not only was plenty for their trip to Splash Valley, we are also able to have a pizza party for them on their last full day of school.

World Ocean Day in Senior Infants

World Ocean Day took place on Tuesday the 8th and to celebrate Senior Infants learnt all about the five different zones in our oceans; The Sunlight, Twilight, Midnight, Abyss and the Trench Zones. We then took a closer look at the characteristics of each zone and its creatures. After that we picked a creature to draw and filled it in using tissue paper. Once the children were finished making their sea creature they had to place it in the correct ocean zone. It was lots of fun and we learnt so many interesting facts about our wonderful oceans!

Money, Money, Money!

It is all about the money in Junior Infants this week as the children are exploring money! We are learning o identify 1c, 2c and 5c coins, learning about their value, learning how to read price tags, how to count out the right amount of money and even calculate change! We really are a clever bunch!

The World Around Us

Junior Infants have been exploring some different countries and learning how some countries have things which are different and some similar to Ireland.

The first country we looked at is France. We found it on the map and learned about lots of things to see in France. We learned about some of the foods they eat - did you know its common to eat snails in France? yuck! We were really interested in the Eiffel Tower and we made our own towers out of paper straws!

We have also learned about a few countries in Africa. Africa is not a country, it is a group of countries that make up a continent. We read some picture books and we were most interested by the food and the animals in Africa

Some of the books we looked at got us interested in different foods and animals! One of our stories is a traditional African folk tale about how the giraffe got his long neck but we aren’t sure if we believe it!

We were really interested in some exotic fruits that grow in Africa after we read the story of ‘Handas Surprise’. We got to taste a variety of exotic fruits and decide if we like them or not!

We also looked at some different animals that are found in Africa. We learned about the Serengeti - a huge park that has nothing but nature where the animals can roam free. We looked at some beautiful pictures of African sunsets and we got to practice our colour blending and stencilling skills to create beautiful sunset pictures, inspired by the African animals and landscapes

We hope we can visit the Serengeti to see these amazing animals in real life when we are older!