December 2020
Christmas Animations
For the past few weeks, 5th and 6th class have been working on animations. Animations take a long time but they are really easy when you get the hang of it. Some groups did 2D animation and some did 3D. We decided to make some Christmas animations. We hope you enjoy them!
Written by Amy McKeon, 5th Class.
Job Share Information Letter
Please click here to view an information letter relating to the job share arrangement for 5th/6th Class for the 2020/21 school year.
February 2020
Credit Union Quiz 2020
Congratulations to all children who took part in the Credit Union Quiz on Monday 3rd February 2020. We had 3 teams entered in the quiz. The children represented themselves, their families & their school very well. Well done to Matthew, Luke, Diarmuid and Ingrid who came 2nd in Group B of the quiz! We are very proud of everyone’s participation in the quiz which was held in the Gaelscoil, Carrick-on-Shannon.
Accelerated Reading
Fifth and Sixth Class are really enjoying the new programme of accelerated reading in the school. The children have been given a great opportunity to enhance their vocabulary and reading ability.
SESE – Topic for the Month
We have just began studying the topic of ‘The 1916 Rising’. The children will be creating group projects. We will keep you up-to-date on our learning.
January 2020
SPHE Class – New Year – Goal Settling
Fifth and Sixth Class students have settled back into the New Year. During our first week back after the Christmas break, we have learned about setting goals for the New Year and reflecting on year of 2019. Have a look at our display!
Geography/Science – Something Fishy Project
We have finished our Geography lessons on the topic of ‘Something Fishy’. We have been very busy over the last eight weeks learning about ‘The Lifecycle of a Salmon’. The children have worked in small groups to create many fact-files, safety posters and fish art. At the end of February, a guest who works with Irish Fisheries will be visiting our class. We will be showing them all our hard work and they will give us a presentation of their role in our local area.
Literacy & Numeracy Stations
Each week, the children have an hour of literacy and numeracy stations with Ms Stephenson and Ms Prior. The children have been developing a range of skills which is broadening their understanding of Maths and English. Ms Stephenson and Ms Prior work with a station each and we have two independent stations. Stations last for one hour, after fifteen minutes, the children move to the next station. The children are really enjoying this.
Physical Education – Soccer Training
Every Tuesday we have a soccer training with an external coach. Unfortunately, the weather has not been great. Hopefully, it will get better in the coming weeks. We would like to thank Master Gannon for organising this and also teaching the children some valuable skills when our coach was unable to attend due to weather conditions.
April 2018
Following our Easter break, the Senior Room got settled back in again by continuing with our morning run which we have now built up to 15 minutes each day. We are all feeling the benefit of this extra exercise and it was a great boost for us all as we took part in a Senior Room run during the course of this month.
It was a very busy month in the classroom as well with lots of activities happening in different subjects. In History we started work on our new topic of World War I and learned a lot about how the war started and what life was like for people and soldiers at that time. This also helped us as we began our art activity this month in which we created models of the World War I trenches we had been learning about. We looked at the areas of capacity, volume and weight in Maths with lots of practical tasks, while in English we got the chance to write our own blogs and looked at the poem “Mid Term Break”. In SPHE we focused on the area of hygiene and it’s importance.
We also took part in some project work this month based on some other countries around the world. 4th Class learned more about China while 5th and 6th Class did some research on Latvia. We then put what we had learned together to make a country booklet and were able to share it with our classmates.
Preparation of the choir for our upcoming Confirmation continued this month while we were all delighted with the efforts made by our boys and girls soccer teams at the competition in Lecarrow. While the girls were very unlucky not to go through, the boys team have qualified for the finals which will take place next month.
Some of the models of World War I trenches we created as part of our study of World War I and our art activities this month:
March 2018
With Easter just around the corner, we began preparing as part of our art activities by creating some Easter themed wall hangings to use as decorations for this special celebration. We made use of a variety of different types and textures of fabric to create lots of colourful and interesting designs. Meanwhile, we continued to examine a number of different topics in Maths such as Lines & Angles, Length and Area, making use of lots of different parts of the classroom and school to learn more about the practical uses of some of these different ideas.
As we made final preparations to submit our application to receive our 5th Green Flag, Suzanne Dempsey from Roscommon County Council visited our class to look at all the work we had completed on the area of Global Citizenship. She was very impressed with the projects we had completed on a range of issues affecting the global environment and also the steps we were taking to help improve these areas in our own schools and homes. This included our new composter which, with the help of Bernie, our caretaker, got up and running this month.
As we moved into the final term, pupils in 6th class continued their preparations for Confirmation. As part of this they took part in a retreat in Knock during March. While the weather wasn’t perfect everyone really enjoyed their trip and took part in lots of activities to help prepare them further for this important upcoming event.
Our new composter which Bernie helped us to set up this month:
February 2018
We were all busy in the Senior Room again this month as we started looking at lots of new areas and topics in our different subjects. This included the The Great Famine in Ireland in History and examining lots of different 2-D and 3-D shapes as part of our Maths activities. We also got to work on our Maths stations again which gave us the chance to try out and work together on lots of new and interesting Maths tasks.
We also started work on our class novels for this year with 4th Class reading the book “Holes” by Louis Sachar and 5th and 6th class working on “Carrie’s War” by Nina Bawden. We’re looking forward to seeing how each of the stories progress as we continue working on them next month. In SPHE we also did some important work by looking at the area of drugs, including their effects, dangers and decisions people may have to make around them at different stages.
We spent quite a bit of time this month doing work based on our Green Schools theme of Global Citizenship Litter And Waste. We worked in groups to create projects based on different issues and problems affecting the environment around the world. These included Global Warming, Deforestation, Water Scarcity, Pollinator Decline and Endangered Species. We also got the chance to present our completed projects to each other and to the other classes and we all really enjoyed learning about the difficulties these problems can cause and the small ways we can help to improve things for everyone.
January 2018
With lots of our class having travelled to different places over the Christmas break we started this month looking at different ways of travelling by train and bus. We examined and completed lots of different Maths activities based on Bus Eireann and Iarnóid Eireann timetables and also worked on our Geography skills by looking at the routes some of these different buses and trains travelled on. We also got to try out lots of different probability and chance activities in a station teaching lesson in our class. We all really enjoyed moving between the different tasks and helping each other complete the different activities.
As part of our art this month we looked at the ancient Maori people from New Zealand and examined samples of their different pieces of artwork. We then had the chance to create some abstract Maori art of our own. In another link to our History activities we learned about the Chinese Emperor Qin Shi Huang and looked at some of the features of Chinese dress at this time. We then designed and created our own Chinese dragon masks as people might have worn at that time.
We discussed and debated many different topics over the course of January. In particular this month we looked at the interesting question of whether Carrick On Shannon should get a bypass. Our music activities with Ms. Foley also continued with everyone enjoying listening to and starting to learn the song “Consider Yourself” from the musical Oliver. A number of people in the class also got started on learning the ukulele and we’re looking forward to seeing the progress they make over the coming weeks!
December 2017
With Christmas just around the corner preparations continued in earnest for our special Christmas carol service. We were all very excited to be having the opportunity to perform with the fantastic Eleanor Shanley. With the help of Ms. Foley we spent lots of time this month practicing the different songs we were due to perform including “Count On Me” by Bruno Mars and “Feed The World” by Band Aid. We also practiced some more traditional Christmas songs like “Silent Night” and a song from Eleanor’s new album called “Forever Young”.
On the night of the show we got the chance to meet Eleanor Shanley before making our way to the church. We were all delighted to see that such a large number of our family and friends had come to see us perform. With our Christmas jumpers ready we made our way onto the altar and our concert began. Everyone sang and performed wonderfully and the show was greatly enjoyed by everyone who attended.
The following day 5th and 6th class got the chance to visit the cinema in Carrick On Shannon to see the film “Wonder”. We had been studying the book of the film in class and were very interested to see how the movie compared. While we were all a little tired from our performance the night before everyone really enjoyed the film and the day out.
In our final week we took part in lots of different Christmas activities including some upcycling as part of our Green Schools programme. We created our own snow globes using old jars and Christmas decorations we otherwise would have thrown away. Santa Claus was a special visitor to our class on our last day before we headed off to enjoy our Christmas break!
October 2017
There was lots of music and song to be heard coming from the Senior classroom this month as a number of pupils prepared to take part in the Scór competition being held at the end of October. Lots of work has been put in by all those involved and everyone was very impressed during their final rehearsal in front of the rest of the school.
In class we started work on some important Maths topics this month such as long division, while 4th class began some paired reading activities at home. Everyone also had the chance to try some “Brain Training” activities together. In Science we looked at the life cycle of plants and also our own digestive systems while in History we had the opportunity to interview our grandparents about life and school when they were our age and think about some of the ways things are different now. We also did project activities based on some young history makers and people from around the world. As part of this month’s art activities we looked at examples of observational drawings and then had the chance to try some observational drawing of our own.
In other activities the whole school took part in a special prayer service to celebrate World Prayer Day and the senior pupils also learned about the importance of the Rosary and took part in saying it together each day. Our Green Schools Committe also made a presentation to the class letting us know about this years theme “Global Citizenship Litter & Waste”. On our last day before the mid term break we held our Trick Or Treat party to help raise funds for Temple Street Hospital. There were lots of excellent costumes on show and we all enjoyed seeing who our classmates had come dressed as!
September 2017
In the Senior Room everyone got settled back into school this month after the long summer break. It was a busy month with lots going on both in and outside the classroom. To help with this we began each morning with some running on the yard to help ourselves to fully wake up and to fit some extra activity into our day.
Along with looking at the lives of the ancient Romans and the Aztecs, beginning our new novels “Wonder” and “The Iron Man” and getting started on our Jolly Phonics grammar, we also examined the features of some different living things and studied the work of the famous artist, Vincent Van Gogh. Having looked closely at his work “Sunflowers” we had the chance to try some observational drawing and painting using some sunflowers of our own. Maidir le seo, bhíomar ag déanamh scrúdú ar an pirimid an bhia as Gaeilge freisin.
Last week the whole room also got the chance to visit Dublin Zoo thanks to a competition won by Aoife Mc Gowan last year. We were very lucky that the weather stayed good and everyone really enjoyed the day out. Our new school choir got up and running with the help of Ms. Foley who will be visiting the school each week over the coming months and our GAA coach made his first visit to the school and will be coaching us over the coming weeks. We also got to see the results of the planting of the school garden last year with Michael and Bernie helping us to dig up a variety of fresh vegetables and using them to cook up a school dinner for us all to taste.
