Autumn in the Middle Room

• We had a very busy first term and enjoyed lots of opportunities to work outdoors…looking at the trees in our lovely playground as part of our work in Science on Living Things. We learned how to identify five of the deciduous trees growing in the school grounds; the oak, the ash, the sycamore, the horse chestnut and the beech tree. We looked at the tree shape, the shape of its branches, its bark texture and colour, the leaves and the fruit. We can all identify these trees now and we will add more to our list in the spring. We even dropped everything to read (DEAR) outside in the warm September sunshine and had lots of fun on the pitch!
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• We went on a field trip to Seed Savers in Feakle in Co. Clare. We had a talk about what biodiversity means and how it is so important to have a wide variety of species of every living thing on our planet as each species plays an important role in having a healthy environment. We learned about how the people who work there want to ensure that Biodiversity is protected in Ireland. They do this by storing and preserving the seeds of all kinds of plants, vegetables, fruits and flowers. We explored the Seed Savers’ site and then spent time looking for minibeasts and looking at them up close and personal under magnifying glasses! It was both a fun and educational day…more please!
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• Drama in the Middle Room! Our school applied for the Artist in School Scheme from Galway County Council. We were successful and we asked Tommy Baker, puppeteer to work with us for ten weeks to produce a performance for our school community using puppets and ideas from the children. In our room we chose Irish Legends, especially the stories of Fionn Mac Cumhaill and Setanta. We are working on a script in collaboration with Tommy, our class teacher Ms. Fenlon and all our pupils. It is great fun…things change every day…we love the large scale, brown paper puppets of the Irish wolf hound and the dragon. We are improvising a script with Drama tips and devices from Tommy…but December 10^th is our deadline for completion of our project! We will then perform it on stage in Labane Hall on the 16^th of December. It’s almost too exciting!
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• We had a visit from Dawn who works for the Dogs’ Trust. She brought a soft toy called Bobby, as her doggy companion. She was really interesting and told us how to take care of our dogs and all about the work of the Dogs’ Trust. She told us a sad story about a stray dog called Patch but his story had a happy ending because of the work of the people in Dogs’ Trust. We loved her car. Call again please!
• In History, we learned all about El Dia de los Muertos, The Days of the Dead, the Mexican celebration of Halloween and about the Celtic celebration called ‘Samhain’.
• Every year a procession of innovative and imaginative costumes, many home-made make their way through (and even over!) our school gates for our Annual Halloween Parade in our school hall. It takes place on the afternoon of our holidays and parents come in to “Ooh! and Ahh!” We were amazed and scared by a lamp shade wearing Chinese woman, a living Monster High doll, a water meter man and Cruella DeVille. We had a human i-phone, a bin and even Kim Kardashian made an appearance! The decisions about winners were really difficult but in our class they were:
• Erin O’ Sullivan: A Cheerleading Cheerleader
• Liam Conneely: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle
• Timmy Cunningham: A Ghost
• Emma Bruen: Genie of the Lamp

Other highlights this term included our Halloween stories in English writing, read to scare each other, our experiments with Light in Science; Timmy’s drawing to explain how to make a shadow in science and our playing of Galway Bay in Tin Whistle! Well done everyone in the Middle Room!

Happy Halloween everyone!