Summer By The Sea

Finding out this year, we are one of the closest schools to the sea in the whole of Ireland... was amazing!! So we decided to do some summer art this week.

Walk for Water 2019

Engineers Week 2019

This year for Engineer's Week, Ms Terry gave us all a different selection of construction items and a brief. Some groups had to make a moving catapult, some a bridge, some a house big enough to fit one of us inside etc. It was really challenging and we didnt succeed on our first try. We had great fun experimenting with all our designs. 

Free Play- Golden Time

Golden Time is really popular in our class. It is when we get to chose an activity of our choice for the last half hour on Friday or another special day. We can use all the great games here, draw, type or play with the equipment for areas like Science.

ART LESSONS

Every Friday, we have Art and Craft... Today we made Dragon Art to celebrate Chinese New Year. Last week, we explored the theme of Vikings and made Viking Ships! It is always great fun.

knitting

The children are busy knitting scarves.  A massive thank you to Ann for sharing her talent with us and teaching us how to knit.  We are also very grateful that Ann is always so patient when we ‘drop a stitch,’  Some children have advanced to knitting pearl.  Our boys and girls will no longer be bored with this fantastic life skill

water safety

We would like to thank Denis, the local Irish Coast Guard, who came in to talk to us about Water Safety.  He gave us a fun filled pack with rules to stay safe and also games.
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magnetic madness

We were exploring different types of magnets, their forces and their uses.  We experimented with the magnetic field and tested different objects to see were they magnetic.  For fun, we built cars and moved them using magnets

Ccoffin Ships

We have been very busy learning about life in Ireland during the famine and the Irish Emigrant Ships, also known as ‘Coffin Ships’.  We worked together to recreate some of these

First Holy Communion

Congratulations to the 2nd class boys and girls who made their First Holy Communion.  It was a beautiful celebration for them and their families.  Thank you very much to everyone who helped out in any way.  We would like to say a special thanks to the fabulous choir for their beautiful singing that enriched the mass and the Parent’s Association for the tasty treats

An April Evening

Many thanks to the children who shared their singing talent and performed in ‘An April Evening’ in Saleen Church.  We were very proud of our children who sang ‘Thank you for the Music’ and ‘This Little Light of Mine.’ They represented us so well and they gave up their Sunday evening to help raise money for the autistic classes in Saleen and Aghada School. We would also like to thank their parents for bringing them to both the rehearsal in the morning and to the performance that evening.

Cá bhfuil na huibheacha Cásca?

​Easter wouldn’t be Easter without a good old fashioned Easter Egg Hunt!  The children cracked out their best Irish and unscrambled the clues.  Then, as fast as lightning they ran to find the hidden treasures.  Of course, sharing is caring and all the treats were divided out.  It was eggselent!  Happy Easter everyone!

Persuasive Writing and Imagine If Books

​This term we were focussing on persuasive writing.  The children are now putting forward very strong arguments to persuade me not to give them homework!  The children also let their imaginations run wild and came up with many wonderful ideas for their ‘Imagine If’ books.

Junior Achievement

We would like to thank David for coming to us from Irving Oil and opening a window on the wider world! The Junior Achievement programme shows the children the many opportunities there are for them to use their talents, imagination and creativity when they grow up.  The children are exploring the theme ‘Our City.’   The children examined the different zones in a city, measured buildings from blueprints and built their very own city.   They also planned their restaurants.  Watch out, there may be a new and exciting restaurant coming to Whitegate soon! 

Hhelen of Troy

We thoroughly enjoyed reading the story ‘Helen of Troy.’  We explored the variety of dilemmas in the story through drama work.  We summarised the story beautifully in a comic strip.

Lá Fhéile Pádraig sona duit!

We wrote about all the interesting things we learned about Saint Patrick.  Last year we won the trophy for the best float in the parade.  Hence, this year we were very excited about entering again as snowmen and snowwomen from ‘Frozen.’  Our inspiration of course came from ‘The Beast from the East.’  Go raibh maith agat do gach duine a thug cabhair linn don pharáid.

Water Competition

As part of our efforts to earn the third Green Schools Flag for water we entered a Water Poster Competition.  We put on our thinking caps and thought about ‘Water and Environment.’  Unfortunately, we didn’t hear anything from the judges but ‘If you’re not in, you can’t win!’

Make a wish!

Please check out our beautiful Dandelion Wishes art.

Grandparent's Day

​Grandparent’s Day was one of the highlights of February.  It was such a wonderful experience having our Grandparents in school telling us about the good old days.  We heard lots of stories about pets, hobbies, life without electricity and transport and school long ago.  We are very grateful that school is very different today.  Isabelle’s Granny even brought her guitar and we had a little sing song.  We kindly returned the favour by singing our new song ‘Grandma’s Feather Bed.’  Many thanks to all the Grandparents who took the time to come in and share their stories with us.  It really was a very special day.  

Poland

​Two of our classmates are from Poland.  Therefore, we decided to learn more about Polish culture and traditions.  We had great fun locating Poland on a map and discussing it’s cities, mountains, rivers and neighbouring countries.  We looked at some famous tourist attractions that we might visit if we go to Poland some day.  While over there we might also see some Wycinanki Art.  We were lucky enough to taste some Polish food like beetroot soup, chicken noodles, polish sausage and some delicious donuts.  We even learned ‘Frere Jacques’ in Polish.  Go raibh míle maith agat do Olivia agus Oliwia for sharing their knowledge and experience of Poland.  They were the best resource of all!
 

Christmas

The Christmas festivities kicked off in Scoil Cholmáin with beautiful carol singing at Spar.  After that, we let our little light shine at the lighting of the Christmas tree in Whitegate.  Thank you most sincerely to our number one fans who came to support us and joined in.  Our classroom was transformed into Santa’s Workshop as my little elves got busy making Christmas decorations for the Christmas Fair.  They also made fabulous, fun toys for Santa who ran out of toy ideas this year.  During the month of December, we were all singing and all dancing in preparation for our Christmas play ‘Straw and Order.’  We were delighted to get the opportunity to work with the talented senior classes and Ms. Carey.  Go raibh mile maith agat for helping with learning lines and costumes.  Nollaig sona duit!

Recount Writing

This term we have been focusing on learning to write recounts.  Perhaps the most interesting one we wrote was about the day our snowman came to life.  We hope you enjoy them.

Bonjour! Ça va?

2nd and 3rd class are officially multi lingual.  They have spent the last 6 weeks learning French with Fiona.  Who knew that learning about numbers, myself and my family could be so much fun.  Peter was the first child this year to holiday in France and put his French to use.  He even asked for an ice cream – Je voudrais une glace s'il vous plait.  Well done Peter.  Merci beaucoup Fiona.  We really enjoyed this new learning experience.

HOT, SPARKY SCIENCE WEEK

During Science Week we explored heat.  Look at the photos and see what body heat can do to a chocolate button!  We did various experiments and found that heat changes the state of food, heat rises, and metal is a good conductor of heat. 
After learning about digestion from the Lismore Science Group.  We decided to investigate the food pyramid and learn what vitamins and nutrients the various food groups give us.
We also made candles from scratch, just in time for the Christmas Fair.  Bright Sparks sent a Nutty Professor to visit the school and we learned all about electricity.  Some people’s hair produces lots of static electricity.  We learned about circuits, how to make them and what materials are good conductors of electricity.  We were bright sparks by the end of Science Week. 

BUN FRIDAY

It was our pleasure to host Bun Friday in November.  The mouth-watering cakes were very much appreciated and brought a smile to all our faces at the end of a busy week.  The children were as proud as punch showing off their parent’s home baking.  Míle buíochas to all who gave in cakes and supported Bun Friday.

HAppy HALLOWEEN!

Reporters in the making

​The children have been examining and writing reports for the last few weeks.  We decided to write a report on our very own sporting hero, Conor Lehane.  The children drew up a list of questions to ask Conor and we sent them home with his Mum, Anne.  We put all the information together into a short report.  

Pet week

Scoil Cholmáin was full of furry friends on Pet Week.  From ‘Myrtle the Tyrtle’ to Donald and Black Jack, we were greeted by pets of all shapes and sizes.  The children all spoke very highly of their pets and told us all about their likes and dislikes.  Some pets even did their party piece for us, rolling over, giving the paw, lying down and so much more.  Míle buíochas to the parents for taking the time to bring in the children’s pets.  It was fabulous to be able to put a face to the names.

Lines in art

We have been studying lines in art.  Firstly, we explored all the different types of marks that we could make with lines.  Secondly, we created paintings inspired by the work of Piet Mondrian.  Finally, we traced our hands and decorated the page with cool coloured, curved patterns.

 So much fun with a scrunched up piece of paper! 
What do you see when you unravel a piece of paper?  2nd and 3rd class drew the setting around their object to give you clues as to what they saw.