Soil investigators
6th class Willow were carrying out a full soil investigation this week testing sand, silt and clay samples onsite at the school!They found mini beasts, man made materials and even carried out a moisture test.
Squid Projects with a Marine Biologist
Sixth Birch completed a series of sessions with Mona McCrea with the Explorers Education Programme. Mona did some amazing research and squid dissection activities. A great hands on experience for everyone.
1st Class Pine ‘Show and Tell’
Here you can see 1st Class Pine proudly displaying their ‘Show & Tell’ items. The children had the opportunity to bring these items into class when they received a full page of stamps in their stamp books. As you can see, their objects demonstrate a variety of talents, interests and personal treasures, which made for fabulous presentations and sparked plenty of questions! Kirstie Jackson – 1st Class Pine
Autumn Art!
The students of 2nd Class Pine have recently showcased their artistic talent through paintings inspired by the beauty of autumn. These wonderful artworks have brightened up our classroom perfectly. Super work 2nd Class!
All about organs!
5th class Hazel learned all about the different organs of the human body. We learned where the organs live in our bodies and what their functions are. We did a group project to put the organs back in their places and share what we learned. Here are our brilliant bodies!
6th Class Birch and Willow go to witness a blessing
Sixth Class Birch and Willow went on a visit to St.Patrick’s Church to witness Canon Mungavin blessing three vans before their journey to Ukraine. The pupils went to observe and support the fantastic initiative and volunteers who will be providing medical supplies to those in need during this difficult time. Our hearts are with those in Ukraine.
Brainstorming on coastal erosion
After learning that 20% of the Irish coastline is at risk of coastal erosion, 6th class Willow were determined to put their thinking caps on, and to come up with solutions what could limit the damage to Co. Wicklow beaches!
Genius Entrepreneurs!
Both 5th classes in St Patricks have been working away on their own business ideas as part of the Junior Entrepreneur Programme. 5th class Birch have had an amazing start to their sales week with their idea ‘Crackin’ Cookies’, all the dry ingredients in a recyclable jar for 18 cookies. It’ll be all hands on deck for their production next week, with all orders being delivered the week after that! 5th class Willow will be taking orders for their amazing business in a couple of weeks – keep your eyes peeled!
Engineers of the Future!
Students in 5th class recycled materials to construct amazing rockets, bridges and aeroplanes for Engineering Week last week.
Celebrating Ukraine Culture day
The Ukrainian and St Patricks school communities came together today to celebrate a Ukrainian Cultural Day filled to the brim with traditional dance, music, drama, food and games. The families of the pupils to organise a special day to showcase their traditions to acquaint the school with Masliana, one of the brightest and most cheerful holidays in Ukraine to celebrate the beginning of Spring. Pupils from junior infants to sixth class were given the opportunity to experience Ukrainian activities from playing a dumpling target game, to partaking in a traditional dance class and even eating traditional pancakes. A drama showcasing traditional heroes, Kosaks, was performed by the Ukrainian students with singing and dancing throughout. Pupils and staff wore blue and yellow for the occasion. “Cultural interaction on a day like today allows you to communicate without words, at an emotional human level. It has enriched us all today and allowed us a deeper understanding of the amazing Ukrainian traditions and culture”, Principal Rachel Harper commented. Last week, to mark the one-year anniversary of the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the pupils in St Patricks N.S. designed and wrote individual messages to be displayed on a Tree of Peace in the grounds of Coolnagreina, Tiglin, the home of many Ukrainian families.
Hockey heroes
The St. Patrick’s hockey teams have been very busy in the last few weeks! The girls team played their final 3 league matches in the last week, with a fantastic 3-0 victory on Monday. The boys had their final match cancelled, sadly, but it was declared a walkover. Continued success to them in their upcoming friendly matches! Well done to the teams, we are all really proud of them!
Write A Book /Scríobh Leabhar
There has been fantastic work going on in various classes for the Write A Book /Scríobh Leabhar project recently. All projects have been submitted and we look forward to reading the work from other schools next week.
Jump into January with Junior Infants Aspen
Junior Infants Aspen have been working really hard to learn their phonics. We have now completed the first three sound sets. We played a matching game which was trickier than it looked but we had lots of fun! Our 6th class buddies came to visit us and we made some dinosaur name art. Our buddies were able to help us with some cutting and counting the letters in our names. Last month our theme was Éadaí and we really enjoyed integrating our Aistear role play materials into our Gaeilge lesson.
Seashore Safari
6th class had a wonderful time searching for marine wildlife on South Beach during their Sea Safari day. We found hundreds of shark and ray eggs as well as a very lively crab. We researched what we scavenged and our discoveries included: Spotted Ray eggcases (Raja montagui), eggcases from Thornback Rays (Raja clavata), which is Ireland’s most common species of egg-laying ray, and Bull Huss and Lesser Spotted Dogfish eggcases.
Some four legged friends came to visit
2nd class Larch has been welcoming some of their furry friends into the classroom as part of their show and tell!
Sea Swimmer says hello!
Triple Crown Sea Swimmer Ger Devlin visited the senior classes today to go through sea swimming safety and the charitable side of raising money through something you love. Victoria Quinn- 5th Class Birch
Arriving back to Aspen
“Junior Infants Aspen have settled back into school after the Christmas Holidays! Our theme this month is Clothing and Weather. We have made some cosy winter hats, exploring materials and their textures, using cotton wool for our fluffy bobble hats. Our Winter snowmen were great fun to make too as we used printing techniques for the snow and explored ‘buttons’ for our fabric and fibre. Aistear is, by far our favourite part of the day – this week we’ve been using playdough, lego for construction and the clothes’ shop/laundrette for role play. Happy New Year everyone!” Rachel Flynn – JI Aspen
Junior Entrepreneur 2023
Oodles of talented young entrepreneurs! Students in 5th classes are in the process of setting up their own business in the Junior Entrepreneur Project. During the brainstorm, there was no shortage of great ideas 💡. The students will be presenting some ideas in front of “the Dragons” in the near future. Watch this space! Victoria Quinn – 5th Birch
Be the ‘i’ in kind
2nd Class Larch were learning about kindness Sam Donohoe – 2nd Class Larch
Native American Nations!
6th class have been developing their research, writing and presentation skills over the past few months. They produced superb informational posters based on different Native American nations. Their enthusiasm and dedication to the project was incredible and this really showed when they presented their projects in front of the class. Liam Morrison Gale- 6th Class teacher
Our Marine biology expedition
In December, Marine biologist Mona McCrea visited the 5th classes in St Patrick’s for Part 1 of a seashore safari workshop. Pupils learned about the plants and animals that can be found on our shores here in Greystones and around Ireland. We look forward to the field trip in January 👍 Victoria Quinn- 5th Class Birch
Magnetic Games
Rang a Cúig have taken the bull by the horns with project work for Science. Watch this space next week to see what they’ve produced for their magnetic games! Contributor: Wendy Morgan
Big in Japan
This month 4th Class Willow are learning about Japan. In line with our theme, we have studied, and written Haiku poems, we have drawn and painted some beautiful pictures of Koi fish using a medium of our choice, and we are reading the novel ‘Kensuke’s Kingdom’ by Michael Morpurgo. In P.E. we have been covering the strand of dance. So far, we have learned three dances: The Siege of Ennis, Thriller and Watch Me. We look forward to sharing our dance video and group Japan projects with you soon. Contributor: Rosie O’Neill
Kimono beauty
4th class birch have been learning all about the history and geography of Japan. Our art lesson was inspired by the traditional clothing so we drew some kimonos with chalk pastel. They turned out beautifully. Contributor: Sorcha Ryan
Junior Infants Oak
Contributor: Lynne Cashell Junior infants Oak are working hard on their literacy skills and learning all their sounds. One of our new activities is using finger lights to search for our sounds in the lovely picture books we have in our class library! It has been great fun working as ‘sound detectives’!
The National Reptile Zoo
4th Class kicked off Science Week early last Friday by attending a brilliant interactive talk hosted by The National Reptile Zoo in our local library! We were spoilt with 2 outings to the library in one week. We also loved our engaging and infornative talk about our amazing honey bees with a local beekeeper. Finally, we also prepped the poly tunnel for winter, harvesting the last of the tomatoes and saving seeds so we can plant our own tomatoes next spring. We’d like to thank Petra and Della for all their work in the school garden.
Pirates & wobbly jellyfish
Take a look at Junior Infants Ash’s wibbly wobbly jellyfish puppets and climb aboard our pirate ship..
Wildflowers
First Class Larch have been learning all about wildflowers and how to spot them. We went on a nature walk around the school and managed to find daisies, dandelions, fuchsias and even a primrose. We studied them in detail and then had a go at drawing them! Contributor: Rachel Flynn
Rocks of fun in Senior Infants
Senior infants recently enjoyed a workshop from a geologist from the Heritage in Schools scheme. This was a brilliant opportunity for the children to learn about rocks and fossils and they really enjoyed it! We have now started our new Aistear theme of Homes and Houses. The children have been very creative in making lollypop picture frames of their families and designing and making different types of houses. We are enjoying reading the story of the Lighthouse Keepers Lunch. Contributor: Angela Morrissey
Some Keys to Literacy for Junior Infants
Contributor: G Sheil (SET) Once the children have been introduced to the majority of the Jolly Phonics sounds, they can be enabled to make their own words/spell. You can use magnetic letters or make the letters out of playdough. Preparation for this stage is also achieved by playing lots of “I Spy” to help the children hear initial/final/middle sounds of words. Help your child to think of a word and break it down into its components. Make the appropriate letters and help your child to place them in the right order. Sometimes what appears will not be in accordance with the conventional rules of spelling (eg ‘c’ for ‘k’ in ‘shark’ in the image. This does not matter. The whole aim of this stage is to encourage the children to express their thoughts in a graphic form and should not be expected to read them back. At this age, children are constantly exploring language and extending their vocabulary. Stories, nursery rhymes, news, naming things are some of the many things you can do with your child which do not require materials or to be done at the kitchen table! The more mindful you are of increasing your child’s vocabulary, the stronger his/her literacy skills will be.