Keep up to speed with (some of) our class work here...
Sports Day 2019
What a fantastic day we had on Friday! Despite our fears, the weather stayed dry and having the events happening in the school was a big hit too! Well done to all the teams and especially the red team who emerged victorious after a great day of challenges and a head to head battle having tied with the orange team.
Comic book heroes!
Last week the children eagerly completed a project where they had to invent their own comic book super hero and then write an adventure for that hero and design their own comic! This was a very welcome distraction from their very tough maths tests. This project is a lovely combination of art & English, allowing the children be artistic and use their creative writing skills at the time. To make it more fun Mr Damien offered some incentives for the winners in the form of VIPs and some small prizes. Such was the quality of work produced choosing a top 3 was impossible so a top 6 were chosen! The children loved sharing their work, reading the work of the others and giving/receiving feedback from their peers on their projects. well done to the winners who were: Aleksander, Shauna, Emily, Alice, Ella & Mateusz. A lovely way to end a tough week :-)
Climate change - our class Padlet
At the moment in science/geography we are learning all about the greenhouse effect, global warming & climate change. This is a massively important and engaging topic for our 4th class who as a generation will face lots of different challenges in their lives relating to this issue. The children are all really interested in learning about what the causes are but they are really keen to learn what they can do to help solve the problem. They are currently working on a project in class where they must engineer, design and construct a future city for the year 2050, keeping in mind things like energy, transport, waste disposal and biodiversity as they do so. The next step will be for them to construct their city design in art class.
The Padlet aspect is one that will allow the children to share with each other all the amazing things they discover when investigating climate change on the internet. By simply copying links and pasting them to the wall they can each share what they find, making for a really fascinating shared interactive project! We will be working on this in the coming days and will share it here when we are finished. Here is a link to use to access the Padlet: padlet.com/damienabu/encdj2tmmgx3
The Padlet aspect is one that will allow the children to share with each other all the amazing things they discover when investigating climate change on the internet. By simply copying links and pasting them to the wall they can each share what they find, making for a really fascinating shared interactive project! We will be working on this in the coming days and will share it here when we are finished. Here is a link to use to access the Padlet: padlet.com/damienabu/encdj2tmmgx3
Planting seeds - growing grass heads!
This week we learned all about seeds and what a seed needs to grow - sunlight, water, soil and space. To explore, each child has designed their own 'grass head' figure and we will watch what happens over the coming weeks as the seeds grow. Mr Damien has kept one grass head in a dark closet which will also not be watered so we can see the difference. This is called a 'control' or something we can compare our results to.
A Titanic project!
Wow, what a gripping topic this is for the children. We spent the past 3 weeks learning all about the ship called Titanic and exploring it's demise on April 14th/15th 1912. We explored everything from it's construction in Belfast to what an iceberg is but the children's absolute favourite part of learning about the sinking of the Titanic was when they were asked 'who was to blame'? There was much discussion and sharing of opinions and we even held a walking survey to see who was most to blame in their opinions. Then they learned who exactly was held accountable by both official enquiries held after the ship sank - Captain Lord of the ship called The Californian!
This topic is one of HUGE scope for the children as they really become enthralled in the story as they explore the class differences, the construction, the big players in the tragedy and the social impact of the sinking.
The children absolutely worked their socks off while exploring this project and created a fantastic whole class project which is now on display in our room. After Easter we will finish construction of our Titanic model ships too!
This topic is one of HUGE scope for the children as they really become enthralled in the story as they explore the class differences, the construction, the big players in the tragedy and the social impact of the sinking.
The children absolutely worked their socks off while exploring this project and created a fantastic whole class project which is now on display in our room. After Easter we will finish construction of our Titanic model ships too!
Shared reading on world book day
What excitement on World Book Day as we had a school full of amazing book characters. To celebrate World Book Day we engaged in a shared reading session with the children in senior infants. This was a HUGE hit with both classes and one we may look at including more often going forward.
Learning how to play uni-hoc
LEGO WeDo kits for engineers week
There was great excitement during engineers week as we were lucky enough to secure some LEGO WeDo kits from the education centre for a few weeks! These kits use bluetooth to combine building really cool LEGO projects with gears, motors and computer programming to make the projects move and come to life!
LEGO club
The LEGO club is a huge hit with the children which is great to see. So far they have explored the themes of Transport and Construction (for engineers week!) and this week we will use the LEGO WeDo kits (involving gears & motors and using tablets to make them move!!) Here are some pics to date
Seachtain na Gaeilge - ag ullmhú don chéilí mór
Táimid i lár seachtain na Gaeilge agus inniu i gcoirpoideachais bhíomar ag cleachtadh don chéilí mór a bheidh ar súil Dé Céadaoin seo chugainn. An rince is fearr leis na páistí ná An Dreoilín! Seo libh an t-amhrán....
Pancake Tuesday - Máirt na hInide
To mark pancake Tuesday, at the end of the day today we went to the hall and everyone got to enjoy a pancake or two :-) A huge thanks to Ms Margaret for her help too!
Engineers week - making catapults!
As it's engineer's week and we are in the process of learning all about the Romans, today we explored the science behind the catapult. The children explored making the lever and then when they had conquered the design and made a working catapult, they were challenged to make modifications and create a better version. Such great hands on exploring and learning - we have some great budding engineers in rang 4!
Zeeko online safety & information talk
We were very lucky to have a visit from Zeeko on Monday who provided the children with a really engaging and interesting presentation on internet safety and content. The children were given some very eye opening facts about some of the more popular apps and also about how to keep safe online. Zeeko also gave some hints as to what kids can do to keep entertained that don't involve going online and they had a very interesting technique some parents might find useful which was the 5:1 ratio. Basically, this involved a jar of lollipop sticks which have activities written on them. To get access to their tablet the children must first complete 5 tasks. The children really enjoyed the chat and they learned a lot!
Ooh la la!!! Vive la France
Our French theme has been great fun over the past few months as we undertook our 'run to Paris' challenge. The children have been enthusiastically learning all about France by completing some fantastic project work and they also wrote poems and constructed some amazing model Eiffel towers. Overall it was a great way for the children to explore a really interesting country while getting fit too! Here are some pics we took along the way :-)
Grandparent's day & St Brigid's Day
On Friday we will celebrate both St Brigid's Day and our much anticipated Grandparent's Day. The children are busy making St Brigid's crosses in school and at home and we are also planning a lovely celebration to be held on Friday at 1pm in the halla. Here are two songs we will be singing so if you would like to practice click below :-)
Tom Crean, Antarctic explorer.
Wow, what a reaction from the children to learning about this most amazing man. The children were glued to the stories of his adventures and loved hearing all about the life he lead. They have also been working hard on their own Tom Crean projects which will be finished and on display on Friday (pics to follow). A really good website for info and pics is www.tomcreandiscovery.com . Here is also a fantastic documentary from TG4 on the life and adventures of Tom Crean.
Learning with Lexia!
We are so lucky in rang 4 as we have been chosen as one of the classes that get to try out the amazing new Lexia literacy software. Lexia is an amazing resource that challenges the children at their level and which adapts as they progess. The programme is interactive and designed to be real fun! Lexia is proving a real hit with 4th class so far.
Long multiplication!
This topic is very possibly THE toughest topic in maths in 4th class. However, when broken down it's really just 2 simple multiplication tasks followed by an addition problem. So, as the children have already mastered simple multiplication (i.e. 24 x 7) we began this week by learning how to multiply by a ten such as 20 or 40 etc.
The children need to learn this as when doing long multiplication, multiplying by a ten is the second step, having first multiplied by the number in the units column (simple multiplication).
So, if for example we are multiplying the following: 85 x 32
Step 1: multiply the top number by the number in the units column below i.e. 85 x 2 (simple multiplication)
Step 2: Multiply the top number by the number in the 10's column below i.e. 85 x 3 (remembering to first put in the zero. Remember, the 3 is really 3 tens or 30 and we learned how to do this earlier this week)
Step 3: Add my answers.
To prevent a huge amount of space being used we write the problem as seen below. To help the children remember what to do they are learning these simple steps:
1) X units
2) X 10's
3) add.
The children need to learn this as when doing long multiplication, multiplying by a ten is the second step, having first multiplied by the number in the units column (simple multiplication).
So, if for example we are multiplying the following: 85 x 32
Step 1: multiply the top number by the number in the units column below i.e. 85 x 2 (simple multiplication)
Step 2: Multiply the top number by the number in the 10's column below i.e. 85 x 3 (remembering to first put in the zero. Remember, the 3 is really 3 tens or 30 and we learned how to do this earlier this week)
Step 3: Add my answers.
To prevent a huge amount of space being used we write the problem as seen below. To help the children remember what to do they are learning these simple steps:
1) X units
2) X 10's
3) add.
Here's one of my favourite websites to use for video tutorials on tricky math topics. Here is a nice step by step video with an explanation too!
Rugby with Seán Brosnan from Munster rugby
We are very lucky to have Seán Brosnan the schools coach from Munster rugby / Tralee rugby coming for the next 6 Mondays to teach us all about rugby and help 4th class develop the skills.
Secret Santa excitement!
Christmas came early in rang 4 as the children shared their secret Santa gifts. The class was buzzing with excitement!! Great fun
Art - construction
Just before Christmas the children worked on a construction project in art where they each brought in a cardboard box and then they cut out walls & roofs etc and made their own house! The results were fantastic, our own little village.
The Fibonacci sequence & the Golden Ratio
While this is obviously not on our 4th class maths or science curriculum, the beginning of the sequence appeared as a question in our mental maths yesterday and so the children were interested to hear more about the Fibonacci sequence and the Golden ratio. So, we watched this short but very interesting video about it and while much of the concept was too complex to grasp for most they all enjoyed watching the video and understanding that maths can be used to help us understand the world around us, while the more mathematically minded in the class enjoyed seeing that maths has real world applications and how science, maths and nature are often connected. :-)
Exploring our feelings
As we slowly begin to engage with the stay safe programme we begin by first exploring what feelings are and how we recognise emotions. The children are encouraged to remember that it is normal to feel all emotions at some point or other and that they are not expected to be 'happy' all the time. Our feelings are what make us human after all and learning to identify our emotions is a key part of development.
To introduce this topic we used a fun, interactive task where the children got to generate a 'word cloud' in real time using the tablets. The word cloud appears on the classroom whiteboard as the children enter their words - the more a word appears the larger it becomes! It was refreshing & positive to see that Happy was the most listed emotion by the children :-)
To introduce this topic we used a fun, interactive task where the children got to generate a 'word cloud' in real time using the tablets. The word cloud appears on the classroom whiteboard as the children enter their words - the more a word appears the larger it becomes! It was refreshing & positive to see that Happy was the most listed emotion by the children :-)
Learning all about night & day & our planet earth in space.
In geography & science recently we have been exploring where night and day come from. To explain this we first looked a the properties of light and how it travels in straight lines. Then we explored the different categories of objects that affect light which are opaque, translucent and transparent objects. The earth is obviously an opaque object and so the sun's light does not shine through it, meaning one half of the planet is in the light (day) while the rest is in the shadow (night)!
Then we began exploring our location in space & our solar system and the children really enjoyed watching this mind boggling video which shows exactly how big the universe is.
In the coming days & weeks we will explore further about our planet with items like our environment, global warming, environmental awareness & care all on our upcoming science & geography scheme.
Then we began exploring our location in space & our solar system and the children really enjoyed watching this mind boggling video which shows exactly how big the universe is.
In the coming days & weeks we will explore further about our planet with items like our environment, global warming, environmental awareness & care all on our upcoming science & geography scheme.
Viking projects
This week the children finished and presented their Viking project work either in pairs or individually (they had a choice of partnering up or working by themselves). They presented some fantastic projects which were full of facts and great images & illustrations.
SPHE - our friendship tree.
Meet our friendship tree! This term I am putting a huge emphasis on friendship and I will be teaching directly all about how friendship works, what a good friendship is and also how good friends should act & treat one another. We will be emphasising and focussing on being kind to each other and treating others with kindness.
So, I have placed our Friendship tree on display. In order for the tree to bloom, the children must catch each other being kind. This works when a child sees or hears another child in our class doing or saying something kind to a classmate. Then the child that witnesses the act of kindness writes a note of what happened and pops this note into our friendship note box for me to see. For every note, a leaf appears on our tree explaining the act of kindness and who was responsible and so the more acts of kindness, the more our friendship tree blooms. As an added incentive I have told the children that if we get to 50 leaves before Christmas they will get a night off homework! I'm really looking forward to seeing their friendship tree bloom. Here are some pics and examples of acts of kindness from today :-)
So, I have placed our Friendship tree on display. In order for the tree to bloom, the children must catch each other being kind. This works when a child sees or hears another child in our class doing or saying something kind to a classmate. Then the child that witnesses the act of kindness writes a note of what happened and pops this note into our friendship note box for me to see. For every note, a leaf appears on our tree explaining the act of kindness and who was responsible and so the more acts of kindness, the more our friendship tree blooms. As an added incentive I have told the children that if we get to 50 leaves before Christmas they will get a night off homework! I'm really looking forward to seeing their friendship tree bloom. Here are some pics and examples of acts of kindness from today :-)
Video - Halloween poem
After a week of learning off the words, today the children had great fun putting together a small performance of the poem called Halloween. They really enjoyed learning and reciting the poem and they came up with some great moves to go along with each verse. The performance was made all the more spooky by the fantastic Halloween costumes the children were wearing!
Science - making a bubbling witch's potion!
Bubble, bubble, toil & trouble! In science this week we explored how when mixing certain materials together we sometimes get a reaction. For this investigation the materials we used were vinegar, washing up liquid, bicarbonate of soda with some food dye thrown in for spooky effect! The results were some frothy, smelly, foamy witch's potions which were real fun to make!
Spooky Halloween art.
This week the theme of lots of our lessons was all about Halloween and the same went for our art class. To create these spooktacular night time spooky scenes the children first used black & white paint to create the creepy moonlight night effect with the idea being to create a scene where the moon was rising on a calm, foggy night. Then, once the paint had dried they used orange & black card to cut out and stick on their creepy Halloween silhouettes. Such fun and creativity!
Fun at the fair - the MATHS fair!
Today's maths fair definitely proved that maths is FUN! We spent a whole day engaged in maths activities that ranged from gussing how many sweets were in a jar, guessing weight of objects and wellie throwing to solving puzzles and constructing paper cup castles! The children absolutely LOVED the day and had a fantastic, maths filled week :-)
Maths week - teaching senior infants maths games
Wow! What a creative and clever bunch we have in rang 4! Today the children very proudly taught the children of senior infants a huge 13 new and unique maths games, all of which were invented and made by the children in 4th class. The senior infants had an absolute ball playing card games or racing cars or rolling dices etc all while learning maths! The 4th class children must be commended too for their fantastic teaching skills and kind, gentle interaction and guidance of the younger boys and girls in seniors. What a great day of fun and learning!
Concrete materials to learn about fractions
Fractions is always a challenging topic for children to get their minds around and using concrete materials or manipulatives really goes a long way to helping them understand exactly what is happening behind the maths. Using fun activities and toy figures Ms Lorna really introduced this tricky topic well and the children were engrossed in the tasks so much that they barely realised they were actually doing maths!
Exploring the science of sound!
How does sound travel? Does it travel through objects? These are some of the questions we were exploring in science this week as Ms Lorna taught the children all about sound. They learned about sound waves and vibrations and even made their very own working telephones! Using string and plastic cups the children were absolutely amazed to find that the sound of their voices actually travelled clearly through the string from one cup to the other! One child even remarked 'wow! I thought this was a complete myth!' It's great to see such excitement in learning :-)
Spooky skeletons
We have some really spooky looking skeletons in the halls of Caherleaheen after a great art lesson with Ms Lorna. The children really loved exploring the different shapes and creating their own unique spooky skeletons! Here are some snaps of their work...
Fun with tangrams
Carrying on our learning about 2-D shapes the children had great fun exploring how different shapes can tessellate (link together with no gaps) while exploring different tangram challenges.
Learning about 2-D shapes in maths
This was great fun for all the children when they learned all about 2-D shapes, polygons and regular/irregular shapes. Then they were challenged to construct some shapes in pairs which was a great opportunity for the children to create the shapes they had just been learning about.
Group reading & geography
The children really enjoyed this group activity with Ms Lorna which involved reading various short information texts about equality & fair trade. They learned all about the tea trade, where tea grows and the challenges facing the people who work in the tea industry. They explored the inequality that can exist and the concept behind the Fair Trade movement.
PE: With a hop, skip and a ... rock, paper, scissors!??
This is a really fun game and without even thinking about it the children are developing their hopping skills which is a key part of the athletics strand of the PE curriculum. This game involves two teams attempting to defeat each other by hopping successfully to the other side of the line of hula hoops. If two children meet, then they play rock, paper scissors to decide who progresses, while the other child must return to their team. Super fun in the sun this morning.
Fionn MacCumhaill & The Salmon of Knowledge
This week in history we were learning all about Fionn MacCumhaill and the famous tale of the salmon of knowledge. Then on Friday for art the children each chose their favourite part of the story and created an iimage of it using oil pastels, markers, pencils and various other colouring materials. The results were really creative and expressive with some great colours on show, as you will see from the selection in the pics below.
Victorious footballers
A huge well done to all the boys and girls on the team today on their 3 superb wins against Listellick, Moyderwell & Castleisland. A special mention to our 4th class players who played outstanding football and looked totally at home against boys in older classes. The future is certainly bright for our school :-)
Hurling skills on Fridays
Last Friday saw the beginning of our hurling skills sessions with Patrice from Tralee Parnells. Despite the showery conditions there was great fun had as the boys and girls got to grips with using their hurleys :-)
Art - working with clay
For art this week the children created model beehive huts which followed on from our previous history & geography lessons on monks, early christian Ireland, Skellig Mór and the main islands of Ireland. Clay is always a popular form for the children as it's messy and fun, and if a mistake is made it's very simple to start again. They began the process by designing quickly on paper what they wanted their beehive hut to look like. For this lesson they used the technique for making clay thumb pots which they then flipped upside down and designed to look like beehive huts. The results were fantastic and we look forward to finishing the process when we paint them next week.
Science - exploring life in the schoolyard
Today in both English and science the children were learning all about how different animals have different homes and how they prefer to live in different places. They learned about habitats and different types of creatures such as nocturnal animals or what a rodent is etc. Then, in science we engaged in some team fieldwork where the children worked together to identify the different types of habitat in our school yard and also to explore the life that is all around us. To do this the children used quadrants which act like a window that allows the children focus on or zoom in on a particular area of ground and explore all the items they see there. This was a really engaging lesson for the children and one they really enjoyed. On returning to class they then completed some brilliant reports & illustrations about their fieldwork. Here are some pics of the children hard at work.
SPHE - learning about bullying
Today we began exploring a very important topic - bullying. The children began by identifying the different forms bullying can appear in, and we listed together some examples of how the children might see these types of bullying taking place. We then watched a very powerful anti-bullying advert (below) and using a simple lesson involving a sheet of paper the children then explored how bullying damages a person in ways that may not be visible. Overall, the children were very keen to learn about such a serious topic and they showed great enthusiasm for developing an anti-bullying awareness in our class and around the school. Tomorrow we will consolidate today's lesson by designing posters to promote inclusion and promote an anti-bullying message.
English reading & spelling: Our declunking buddies
Today we met our declunking buddies who are a great help when it comes to figuring out how to get past a tricky word (a clunk!) when we are reading or trying to spell. These are simple techniques that good readers use all the time, and they are a great help when it comes to spelling too. :-)
Science - investigating Starling murmurations.
Today in science the children learned all about starlings. These common birds may not be much to look at but in the evenings when the conditions are right they create the most amazing flocks called murmurations. The children loved learning all about the starling, its colours, food and its behaviour. Tomorrow we will investigate how we think these amazing murmurations are formed.
Music - learning about body percussion.
In music this week we were exploring how our bodies can actually be used to make music and in particular how body percussion works. We even replicated a thunderstorm using clicking, clapping and stomping. Our inspiration was taken from the superb choir called Perpetuum Jazzile and their rendition of Africa by Toto can be seen below.
PE - football in Mitchel's
For the coming weeks we are lucky enough to have the astro turf pitch at John Mitchel's available for us to use for PE so we have combined 4th, 5th and 6th and are using these sessions to practice our football skills. 4th class completed their own warm ups before joining their 5th & 6th class school friends for some passing and kicking practice, finishing off with a small game (4th class only). A huge thanks to John Mitchel's for the use of their fantastic facility!