Autumn
Autumn is our theme in Junior Infants this month 🍂 We have been very busy learning all about the animals that hibernate during this season. We also learned lots of facts about bears around the world and during the week Junior Infants read the story ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’ by Michael Rosen. After reading the story, we received a special letter from the bear, inviting us to go on our very own bear hunt on the school grounds. 6th class kindly helped us to find the bears. Take a look at some of the photos from our bear hunt 🐻 Contributor: Ms Bedell
First class has been busy!
First Class having been enjoying Aistear on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Our favourite activities have definitely been Lego, water and sand! We’ve also been incorporating lots of movement breaks into our day to help our school earn a new Active Flag. Every morning we complete the running track and we always squeeze in some GoNoodle activities. This week we read a lovely story called ‘Millicent and Meer.’ Check out our work that is proudly displayed in our classroom!
In the doctor’s surgery
This month Senior Infants are enjoying the Aistear topic of ‘The doctor’s surgery & the hospital’. They have been role playing doctors and hospital scenarios in Aistear and learning about the bones in our skeletons. We have also started literacy stations in English. The children are really enjoying the variety of activities. The children have also been bringing in lots of beautiful and interesting things for the nature basket and observing the beautiful colours of Autumn. Contributor: Angela Morrissey
Helping the community
With the guidance of Jennifer, the children of 4th class gathered donations together for asylum seekers. On Friday 29 Oct Bridging the Gap Ireland distributed the donations and some suitcases to friends in the Esplanade Hotel Direct provision center.
Sunny Self-defence
The kids enjoyed a self-defence/karate demonstration by Faith Cullen and her daughter Faith out in the lovely sunshine.
Busy Junior Infants
Junior Infants Oak have been very busy this month. We have been learning our nursery rhymes and we made our own ‘Incy Wincy’ and lambs for ‘Mary had a little Lamb’. We have been learning all about our shapes and colours too! Contributor: Lynne Cashell
Dia daoibh
Táimid ar ais i rang a sé ag foghlaim Gaeilge. I rith Meán Fómhair táimid ag caint faoi na mothúcháin, agus na briathra neamhrialta. Gach maidin nuair a tagann rang a cúig agus rang a sé thar líne san halla in aice leis na seomraí, tá Iníon Ní Mhuireagáin agus Iníon Ní Réagáin réidh chun Gaeilge a labhairt leis na páistí, b’fhéidir níl gach páiste réidh ach sin scéal eile! Contributor: Sinéad Regan
Exciting new start
“Miss. Flynn’s new First Class are settling really well. We have been so lucky in welcoming new students to our class, whom we hope feel welcome and happy in their new school! We’ve been enjoying some Aistear (this month has been playdough, lego and sand) – check out just SOME of our amazing creations so far… Our focus this term for Visual Arts will be ‘print.’ So far we have made gorgeous pointillism rainbows (see in the school news letter) and sponge name trains using lego, forks and sponges!” Contributor: Rachel Flynn
Rainbow Moments
Last week, 1st Class Elm discussed their Rainbow moments. These were moments in school that they have really enjoyed. Contributor: Sam Donohoe Last week, 1st Class Elm discussed their Rainbow moments. These were moments in school that they have really enjoyed. Contributor: Sam Donohoe
Garden clean up
1st Class Elm spent some time this week in the garden. The did a great job of cleaning up the strawberry bed and replanting the runners. It will be great when the strawberries are ready to eat, but in the mean time, the grapes from the poly tunnel are a great snack to have! Contributor: Sam Donohoe
Ice Cream Treat
Thank you to the PTA for a lovely surprise and treat to finish off the school year.
Rang a Dó
Contributor: Wendy Morgan Rang a Dó (Hazel) enjoying paired work on Fractions using concrete materials. Rang a Dó had their school tour to St. Crispin’s Cell and The Cove
4th Class Amber Flag
Contributor: Ailbhe Murphy In 4th class we had a wonderful day last Wednesday. We proudly raised the Amber Flag, and the fantastic Niall Breslin signed our wellbeing flags on the day. We also planted a tree to mark the occasion. We have affectionately named the Alder tree ‘Amber’ in celebration of the day and our achievement as the Amber Flag committee.
2nd Class Update
Contributor: Sam Donohoe 2nd Class Holly have worked hard this term, working especially hard to learn about the needs of people in the world around us. They learned about Helen Keller and the amazing contributions she made for the deaf community and brought them courage and hope. Following this, they wrote their name in braille and created their own braille name card for the classroom. As well as this, they had an exciting visit via zoom from Jenny, a sign language teacher. She taught them all how to say everyday phrases like ‘hello’, ‘how are you?’, ‘I am good, excellent and ok’ and their names. She also taught them how to say its nice to meet you and ‘would you like to play (and showed them signs for plenty of activities they might be playing)?’. 2nd Class also took a trip to the Warnocks house for a picnic! They had a great day out playing games, having competitions and exploring their beautiful garden.
Amber Flag raised by Niall Breslin
Contributor: Gill Sheil Images courtesy of Alan Rowlette (www.alanrowlette.ie) On Wednesday 9th June, 2021, we were very honoured to have the famous Niall Breslin come to our school to raise our Amber flag (for promotion of positive mental health) and also to officially open our Sensory Room. We know Niall from the band The Blizzards, being a Judge on the Irish version of “The Voice”, playing GAA and playing on the Leinster team for rugby. But more recently, Niall has become an advocate for children and adults promoting mental health awareness and much needed supports such as mindfulness. He has successfully written 3 very informative and entertaining children’s books on the topic so no better person to come to our school and be part of our celebration. Here’s what the children have to say about his visit… I was very excited to be asked to showcase the sensory room to Niall. In the beginning, Niall officially opened the sensory room by cutting the ribbon that was at the door. I felt so lucky to see that as I was inside the sensory room and the door was open at the time. Niall then came into the room and I told him why people go there and how everything works. I showed him the different lights and settings, the tiles on the floor and the different things you can touch. Then we had a chat and I felt good about that. He said that he has a sensory room his own house, I’m a bit jealous it that. He told me that he is dyslexic and that when he was in school that he would get really tired and need to sleep. He said he would have loved to have had a room like ours to go to at those times. We also got lots of photos too. This was a good experience and I’d like to thank the people who nominated me to be part of something so special. (Theo Palfi, 5th class) So I met (my Dad) and Niall Breslin and I asked him 2 questions: how many books he’s written. He said he’s made 3 so far, and he’s making a new one about how you have to mind yourself, like how bad it was in the lockdown, being stuck in the house and you couldn’t go out, and you had to all mind each other. Then I went out with Niall Breslin and Zach to the Sensory Garden. Then we went with him to the art room to make a clay wing. Then he raised the flag. All the senior classes were there. I was there with my Dad, my Dad was taking pictures of Niall Breslin. Then we went back to class. (Hugo) Before leaving, Niall spoke to the senior classes about how he found mediation techniques helped him to stop being as anxious, and realised that he could make his worries seem worse than they really are. He also talked about managing anger, and said to ignore comments on social media as nearly everything is just not true.
Environmental care
Contributor: Emma Hickey 5th class have been covering the topic of ‘Caring for the environment’ this month and have been busy designing posters, constructing junk art and making energy chains.
Lambing season
Last Friday, Sophie Dobbs from 5th class very kindly brought in the lambs she is raring. It was absolutely fabulous and such a lovely surprise on a drizzly Friday. Definitely a highlight for senior infants. 🐑. Thank you to Sophie for organizing this – it was brilliant.
Wellness Week…watch this space!
Contributor: Ailbhe Murphy 4th class have been excitedly planning wellbeing week which takes place next week. We have some great ideas for the week and are looking forward to promoting positive mental health and wellbeing throughout the school. The week will be based around the 5 ways of wellbeing: Connect, keep learning, get active, take notice, and give. We are excited to fill you in on our plans later this week. We have also decided to fill up our ‘Amber flag’ notice board with lots of good news. If you have good news to share, you can share it with the whole school on this noticeboard. You just need to write out your news and pop it into our post-box which will be in the yard every morning.
Spring along with Junior Infants
Contributor: Lynne Cashell Junior Infants have been working very hard since our return after the Easter holidays. We have been exploring the theme of Spring and were lucky enough to have a visit from three baby chicks! We have also been tracking the development of the frogspawn from our school pond. We were delighted to see how big they are now! We have been taking full advantage of the sunny days and doing some of our lessons outside. We had great fun practising writing the number 5 with our chalks.
Eggciting Easter
Contributor: Sam Donohoe Before the Easter holidays 2nd class holly did plenty of Easter themed arts and crafts. 2nd Class Holly looked at colour and shade. To show their new knowledge off, they painted a beautiful evening sky for their bunnies. They also made and Easter Bunny suprise!
Rang a Dó (Coll)
Contributor: Wendy Morgan Rang a Dó (Coll) have been busy for the last few weeks making the most of the good weather and doing lots of activity-based learning. Read our reports to see what we got up to!
An Easter Message from David Mungavin
Dear Parents We hope you enter the Easter holiday well and in good spirits. Thank you all for working together with everyone at St Patrick’s to do the very best for all our children in challenging circumstances. Attached is an Easter Story outline . We invite all our parents to have a look over the Easter weekend in the hope that it will lead to learning and discussion on the meaning and relevance of Easter in the absence of assemblies and services this year. May this season of flourishing encourage us all with the hope and promise that new beginnings are on the way ! Take care, God be with you all.
Where We Belong
Contributor: Wendy Morgan. Back Together, Where We Belong writing. We were loving the sunshine the week of St. Patrick’s Day. 6th Class read a poem written by a former pupil and we talked about what it means to be Irish.
Congratulations
Contributor: Ms Harper Congratulations to everyone who participated in the M.S readathon!
The Garden with 2nd class
Contributor: Mhairi Nicoll 2nd class have been working hard in the garden over the last few weeks with Ms. Morgan and Ms. Nicoll. We have been planting, watering, weeding, clearing up and generally getting ready for spring. We are currently propagating our own mangetout in the classroom and have some growing out in the Polly tunnel too. We are also growing our own tomatoes. We have some tomato seedlings in our classroom and we have potted on some into their own pots to strengthen their roots. Hopefully they will give us some delicious tomatoes.
Happy St Patrick’s Day!
Happy St Patrick’s Day!
Welcome Back Busy Bees
Contributor: Miss Flynn Miss. Flynn has been thrilled to welcome back her busy little bees this week! After a big catch up we headed out into the sunshine in search of some special visitors. We were amazed to see real life frog spawn in our school garden pond. Only last week, we had been learning all about the life cycle of frogs… some of us even made frogs for art! What a wonderful co-incidence it was to find the real thing!! We spent the morning on a 2D and 3D shape hunt around the school grounds. We were surprised to find so many real-life shapes around us! We even discussed how the frog spawn was spherical – integrating our learning. We had a fantastic first day back to school and look forward to our senior pupils returning, when it is safe for them to do so!
World Book Day
Contributor: Sinéad Regan World Book Day finds us extra busy this year – some of us are getting settled back into school life and others looking forward to getting back into the classroom on the 15th. As a result, we are not focusing on this one official day to celebrate books and instead will engage in a variety of activities throughout the next few weeks. Currently 2nd and 6th Oak are busy working on their Write a Book projects where children are given the opportunity to become authors and see the process of planning, writing and editing a book. There are a wealth of activities, videos and other resources in the worldbookday.com site which is well worth a visit and the children will be receiving their World Book Day vouchers shortly too. However busy we are there is always time to read a book and even though our lovely school library is out of bounds to the children this year there are many other facilities including worldbookday.com and the online catalogue of Greystones library where digital and audiobooks can be availed of. Reading every day has many benefits here are some of them: Promotes mental health Reduces stress Improves general knowledge Develops empathy Expands vocabulary Improves writing skills Analytical thinking skills are strengthened Memory, focus and concentration are improved Boosts sleep Make sure you find some time to read today!
Engineering Week
STEPS Engineers Week will be celebrated from 27th February – 5th March. This is an opportunity for the children to explore the world of engineering through activities and challenges. This year a range of resources have been made available online. We would like to encourage all the children in St. Patrick’s to get involved in Engineers Week if they can. Here are website links with information and ideas to inspire our young future engineers!! https://www.engineersireland.ie/Schools/Engineers-Week/Primary-Schools https://www.folens.ie/books-and-programmes/primary/folens-explorers/digital-resources/all?gclid=CjwKCAiA1eKBBhBZEiwAX3gql3a3u2PvClP4KlyNpQ2wzWb0M2QBOyAGnpobtA-oGBzvHy-oes2_mhoCMXUQAvD_BwE
Book Face
Contributor: Angela Morrissey Senior Infants have been doing wonderful work at home and their teacher, Ms Morrissey has been so impressed with how attentive they have been on zoom and how creative they have been at home. It’s no wonder Ms Harper calls them ‘Sensible Senior Infants’! Here are some pictures from their recent book face challenge where they were given the task of choosing a book and dressing up to complete the character on the front cover. Some people’s dogs even got involved in this task!