A visit to Ashbourne library An article by Aidan McLarnon, 3rd class
On Friday the 11th of February 2011 our class went on a visit to Ashbourne library. This library only opened about 4 years ago. It is in the centre of Ashbourne. When we arrived a lady showed us around. She told us about the mother and child group that uses the library. She also told us about the chess and draughts club. There are lots of clubs at the library. The library is open 6 days a week. We were also shown the different sections in the library, like the fiction, non-fiction, adult and children’s sections and a place where you can work on the computer or the playstation. I learnt that every book is numbered in the same way all over the world , except for in some Americian libraries. The computer checks in and out the books. We had a chance to look around at the end and take a book if we were a member. I go to the library every week with my mum. Sometimes I take out music CDs and DVDs as well as a book. I think that the library is a great place to go and it costs nothing!! Everyone enjoyed the library visit.
Grandparents' Day An article by Jane Roche, 3rd class
On the 3rd of February in our school we were having a mass for the grandparents of the pupils in our school. They were all invited to join us and after the mass to come into our classrooms to see how the classrooms have changed and how the work has changed. They also got to listen to our projects about poets.
They enjoyed it. After that we all went down to the 5th and 6th class room they were doing projects on The Renaissance. We were allowed to ask the grandparents questions about what Christmas was like when they were young and what kind of presents they would have gotten. Most of the nanas said dolls but one of the grandads said a cowboy suit. All of the grandparents enjoyed their day and so did I!
DCU Engineers' Week An article by Freya Daughton, 3rd class
On the 15th of February 2011, 3rd up to 6th class went on a trip to DCU for Engineers' Week. It was raining when we left our school on the bus at 10 to 9. I sat beside my friend Amy Mc on the way to DCU. When we arrived at the Engineering building which was very spacious and clean and calm, a lady welcomed us. We were split into four groups. I was in Group Four with all of 3rd and 4th class. A lady brought us upstairs to a laboratory. The lady showed us some optical illusions and a man took some photographs of us. He then put the photographs on the computers. We put our pictures into a picture of a haunted house. After we had finished the experiment we went back downstairs to have our lunch. When we had finished our lunch a lady gave us caps saying “DCU Engineer your Career” which are really cool. The lady also gave us a competition sheet to fill in to win a trip to the Science Museum in Amsterdam. The questions were quite easy and Oisín is certain that he will win! After lunch another lady brought us to a laboratory and she showed us how to build a robot out of Lego. The lady said that our group was much faster than 5th and 6th class. I preferred the robot experiment much more than the computer experiment. When we had finished building the robot we played with it. We stood in front of the robot and it shot plastic balls at us. It was great fun. After that we went back upstairs and had another little break before we got on the bus to go back to school. I sat beside Laoise on the bus on the way home. I really enjoyed my day at DCU Engineers’ Week.
