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.
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
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
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.
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
5th Class update
Rang a Cúig had their Assembly on Wednesday 16th March at St. Patrick’s church. Well done to all for celebrating diversity through exploring the themes of Identity and Moving and Travelling. We celebrated Seachtain na Gaeilge by reading Scríobh Leabhar projects from St. Patrick’s N.S. in Bray to our Senior Infant buddies! We look forward to getting our own books back next month. We’re about to spring into serious action in the school garden. 5th will plant spuds as part of their History curriculum learning about The Great Hunger next but for now, the remains of the Brussles Sprouts will have to do… Anyone looking to help out practically with the school garden, please send an email to wendymorgan@stpns.ie
Having a Cracking time
3rd class Holly During engineers week we were learning about bridges. If you have a look around you will see that arches are used to build some bridges. Arches are said to be very strong. We put this to the test using eggs and as you can see, we had an egg-citing time! When you stand on a carton of eggs your foot is big enough to spread the pressure of your weight around all of the eggs and their arch structure prevents them from cracking. Apparently if you squeeze an egg in your hand it shouldn’t crack. If you completely surround the egg with your hand, the pressure you apply by squeezing is distributed evenly. We had a go and as you can see that’s eggs-actly what happened, the eggs all survived!
All you need is love 💕
1st Class Elm Contributor: Sam Donohoe
6th class Art
Contributor: Sinéad Regan In art 6th Class have been creating using clay. Here are some of our finished products:
Guided Reading books!
We are delighted to share that we have a brand new set of Guided Reading books for the school. The mix of Engage Literacy and Collins Big Cat readers have been funded by the PTA and the board. These books will be used across the whole school for all children to read. We have six titles of each books which means teachers can read with the children in groups much more easily. Currently, we are setting up targeted Guided Reading Interventions in most classes. These classes will have an SET and their class teacher running Literacy stations daily. First Class Larch, Second Class, Fourth Class Willow and Sixth Class are the first classes to start and the children are really enjoying the variety in the books. More classes will be starting guided reading after Easter time. We’re all very excited about the opportunity to grow in our love of books and reading. A HUGE thank you to the PTA and Board of Management for funding this exciting new initiative! Contributor: Jessica Boland
Work station toy makers
1st Class Elm finished off their theme of toys by making their own fortune tellers. Contributor: Sam Donohoe 1st Class Elm have been working so hard during station work. We have 4 stations that they do twice a week. Mrs Boland comes in to help us with them and we are both so proud of the improvements they have made.
Maths – Chance
3rd Class Holly had lots of fun last week learning all about Chance. They carried out investigations with coins and dice. They also explored Chance in card games by playing games such as Higher or Lower, Go Fish and Red or Black. Contributor: Karen McCormick
A colourful start to 2022!
Some pupils from Fifth Class started the new term with wonderful creativity by making these gorgeous 2022 posters to brighten up one of the school hallways. Each colour they selected represents something positive they would wish for the year ahead. It was difficult to choose just a few from the long list we made!