Junior & Senior Infants An article by Ellie Nolan
The junior and senior infants have been doing activities around the themes of ‘The Home’ and ‘Ourselves’ in September. These themes are explored during ‘Aistear’ play (meaning journey). They dressed up as Mammies, Daddies and children in the drama corner. In art, they made clay faces and painted them. They also made constructions of houses with bricks.They have done some writing about their families. In maths they have been learning how to count. In October, the Aistear theme is ‘Witches and Wizards’ and ‘autumn’. In October they did some leaf printing and made scary bats! They also have been taking part in a lot of activities such as basketball every Tuesday and Irish dancing on Friday. The junior infants have been doing a lot of letter sounding. They had a great time visiting our school library where they got a chance to read interesting books.
1st and 2nd Class An article by Jenny Deering
1st and 2nd class have been very busy so far this year. Firstly, they have been doing projects on the Rugby World Cup. The countries they have done projects on are: Scotland, USA, Samoa, Japan and South Africa. The main theme their class have been focusing on is ‘Africa’.They have been learning about famous African people like Nelson Mandela and Edward Tinga Tinga. They learned about and did some research on Ancient Eygpt. They made African masks, and learned an African song called ‘Tsamina mina’. They learned about native African animals for example the African wolf and the giraffe. I rith na míosa, bhí siad ag déanamh na téamaí ‘Mé Féin’ agus ‘Bia’. At the end of the month, they did a class vote, and Africa was picked as their favourite topic covered so far. They are looking forward to starting their new theme ‘Buildings’ where they will learn about famous buildings in the world. This year, the children in 1st and 2nd class are working in groups to collect as many stars as possible to get a prize!
3rd and 4th Class An article by Megan Munnelly
The first thing they started learning about was Antarctica and the race to the South Pole. They learned about a famous explorer ‘Tom Crean’ and 28 other men who went to the Antarctica on an expedition. They wrote diary entries as Tom Crean and wrote newspaper articles about the race to the South Pole. After learning about Antarctica and the South Pole, they moved on to the GAA and learned about all the local clubs in Meath. They created a map of Curragha and the GAA team. They learned all about the national clubs in Ireland and the history of the GAA, which started in Ireland in County Tipperary. For science they have learned about materials which are solids, liquids and gases. They enjoyed experiments which included testing and seeing if solids turned into liquids then into gases. They tested by boiling water in a kettle and noticed that it turned into steam. Like the rest of the classes in St. Andrews, 3rd and 4th class are enjoying music classes with Amy where they are learning to play theodhrán. They started to read class novels and their own books every morning. As well as reading their class novel ‘Iceman’, which was about Tom Crean, they are reading their own novels every morning! 3rd and 4th class commented they are enjoying the school year so far, and 3rd class are enjoying being seniors!
5th and 6th Class An article by Evie McSweeney
5th and 6th class have been busy this term! We have been practising speaking aloud and have had two class debates of the motions “In the future teachersshould be replaced with computers” and “Books are better than television.” When we are debating, we have a for and an against team. We have worked together in groups to come up with points to argue for our team. In sports news we have a Gaelic team who are very good and they are in the quarter final of Cumann na mBunscoil! We also have a horse riding team who came 3rd in the inter schools last year and have come 5th this year so far. This year 5th and 6th class have been getting rugby training and have participated in a rugby blitz in Ashbourne Rugby Club. In class, we also have learned about the native people of Australia who are called the Aborigines. We have learned about their culture, pastimes and beliefs. The Aborigines believe in ‘Dreamtime’ and we created art pieces in groups to show a ‘Dreamtime’ story using a dotting technique, like how the Aborigines painted. We have also worked in small groups to create projects on the different territories of Australia. In our groups we collected information and used it to make a large display! This month, we have been learning all about the Great Irish Famine. We have been sketching famine scenes, working together to construct coffin ships, and reading a novel based on the famine, ‘Under the Hawthorn Tree’. We also made a large famine timeline to show the events leading to, during and after the famine. This year has been very busy so far, we are now looking forward to preparing for our Christmas Liturgy and our class tour to The National Concert Hall and the GPO!
