Newsletter
20 10 2023
Good afternoon everyone,
I hope you have had a nice week. Maths week has been fantastic. Thanks to Padraig for coordinating and all teachers for their support with the initiatives. We even had a visit from News2day asking the children what their thoughts are on the subject.
https://www.rte.ie/player/series/news2day/SI0000001210?epguid=IH10000965-23-0145
Our first swimming session went well will 4th class in Aura De Paul swimming pool. Rowing continues next week for 5th class.
Thanks to all parents who got in touch about the website. I will contact you next week.
Maths Week
That’s a wrap on 2023. A hectic week of activities around the school saw the children engage in a whole range of maths activities. The 6th Class children and Active Committee were amazing as they worked with the junior classes during Katrina’s maths stations. The building was a hive of activity as the children followed Peadar’s maths trail around the corridors and yard area. On Thursday the children were wowed by the robotic dog from the STEAM Academy, thanks to Niamh for coordinating. We also got a visit from Mr S, a mathematical magician who had the crowd eating out of his hand as he made maths fun.
During the week the children also had an opportunity to guess the weight of a pumpkin with Wesley’s class getting the closest so they win the pumpkin for their class this year. There were also some very impressive Lego towers built to find out the height of their teacher in Lego blocks. Grangegorman was the venue for the Shape hunt and thankfully there were a few breaks in the clouds for classes to follow the trail looking for clues.
To top it all Veronica managed to get the News2Day crew back in D7 as Molly returned to her Alma Mater once more to see how the children were enjoying Maths Week. The camera crew visited Mr S as he enthralled the Junior classes and interviewed some of our 1st class mathematicians before taking in a 6th class lesson on the roof. Finally, a number of the classes signed up for Times Table Rock Stars which will help make our tables fun, can’t wait to see those scores reach new heights.
Big thanks to all the contributors that helped to make the week run smoothly and bualadh bos for the children who were eager, active participants. We might even squeeze in a few activities next week as we ran out of time and still have Jack’s quizzes to complete and some Maths Art next Thursday with our amazing Transition Year students.
Padraig
Designing an app
Veronica’s 5th class attended an online Microsoft Teams meeting organised by EU Code Week and Apple on how to design an app. Here is how it went. First of all, we logged into the Microsoft Teams and there was a minute of introductions. Then we started. So, first the organisers showed us a slideshow to explain how to create an app. The unusual thing was we didn’t need our laptops, we used pencils and paper. In our groups, we had ten minutes to come up with ten ideas for an app that would help us in school. We then had to pick our best idea and use that one to develop it further. It was lots of fun. After that we drew 6 different screens to represent the different buttons on our app. We had 2 minutes to design each screen. Then we had to pick ones we did not want and ones we wanted to keep in our designs. The final step was to draw a detailed plan of each screen and a description of what happens in each button. We really enjoyed the online workshop because we got to think about designing an app that is useful in our lives.
By Jake Fitzgerald and Ivy Owens
Bridewell Garda Station
Today Niamh and Enda’s 4th classes were very lucky to have a special visit from Garda Cian and Garda Vicky from Bridewell Garda Station. They did a wonderful presentation about how to stay safe during Halloween and especially around fireworks. The children had lots of knowledge about the dangers of fireworks and asked some very insightful questions during their talk.
D’éirigh thar barr le Frank agus Nora Kenny ar an gclár ‘Peataí’ ar RTE le déanaí. Bhí ceist iontach acu do Ellen an tréidlia maidir lena bpeata Schrodinger. Téigh go dtí 8 nóiméad agus 15 soicind ar an gclár seo chun agallamh Frank agus Nora a fheiceáil duit féin!
Well done to Frank and Nora Kenny for their appearance on RTE’s Peataí. They had a great question for Ellen about their pet Shrodinger. To see \Frank and Nora’s interview go to 8 minutes and 15 seconds of this programme.
https://www.rte.ie/player/series/peatai/SI0000011904?epguid=IP10001597-03-0001
Museum of Childhood Ireland’s new Children’s Advisory Team – Age 10+
The Museum of Childhood Ireland’s new Children’s Advisory Team are seeking to recruit a team of children and young people (ages 10-17) to advise the museum’s management, to make sure the views of children and young people have top priority in the development of our museum. Find out more about the museum at: https://museumofchildhood.ie/
They want to hear from children who are interested in this idea, and might consider joining our team. The team will meet mostly on-line, so children from any community in any part of Ireland are welcome, and support will be available for those with specific support needs.
Full information about the setting up of our Children’s Advisory Team and the important role it will play is at: https://museumofchildhood.ie/childrens_advisory_team/
All the information you and your child will need in order to join up is on the website mentioned above.
The children in first class, like the rest of the country were devastated by Ireland’s exit from the Rugby World Cup last weekend. They decided to take it upon themselves to rewrite history.
Monday morning’s freeplay time was spent constructing the Stade de France and assembling the teams and spectators. A match was played on Tuesday with Johnny Sexton and Bundee Aki getting special mention. However, it was declared that this was only a warm up match.
Wednesday morning in Room 9 started off with a rousing rendition of Ireland’s Call followed by some members of 1st class demonstrating the Hakka for others. The match was then played in earnest with Ireland donning their traditional green and New Zealand becoming the All Blues for the day. Flags for both teams had been made and were waved enthusiastically by spectators. Ireland won the game comfortably 95-1.
Not to be finished with Rugby Union for the week Thursday and Friday saw Ireland compete in the Semi-Final and Final matches to win the gold World Cup.
We have photographic evidence of both our historic win against the All Blues and the Irish team hoisting the Gold Cup.
Thanks to Róisín & Katrina’s First Class for keeping our Rugby World Cup hopes alive!
Sky Blue Stars: The Dublin GAA activity book
Dublin City Libraries have produced a Dublin GAA activity book in co-operation with the Dublin GAA County Board for 6th class children from schools in the Dublin City Council area. The book contains literacy and numeracy puzzles on a GAA theme.
Ask at your local library.
Little Library at Bedtime
Parents of younger children will be interested to know that a new bedtime reading initiative was launched last week. All children aged 0 – 4 in the country can get a free English or Irish bedtime story book from their local library and also a library card wallet. The aim is to encourage parents of young children to read stories with them at bedtime. It is also hoped that they will be encouraged to join the library too, if they are not already a member. The initiative takes place from October to December. For more information on the Dublin City Libraries website.
Have a lovely weekend,
Fionnuala