Mairead McGuiness

 

                                                                             Kiltiernan N.S.

                                                             Kilcolgan

                                                                        Co. Galway

                                                                 Ireland

Dear Mairead Mc Guinness

My name is Colman and I am in 6th class. I am writing on behalf of Kiltiernan N.S. We have been part of the Blue Star programme. The Blue Star Programme a primary school initiatave to engage students with the E.U.

So far in the programme we created a factfile and powerpoint on a country in the E.U., projects on historical European events, researched European artists or inventors and researched how the parliament works, an E.U. cuisine tasting day and now we have to select an Irish M.E.P to come to our school.

The reason why my school choose you is because you have a special connection with Kiltiernan N.S. In 2014 you came to our school while you were touring South Galway. It was a real honour to have you come.

If it was ok could you take some time off your job and visit our school so we can complete our programme. If you could come, we would be very appreciative.

Kind regards,

Colman

6th Class

Blue Star programme

Blue Star programme

Kiltiernan N.S. has taken part in the Blue Star Project. The blue star project is a kid friendly project that helps kids learns about Europe. To take part in the project you have to cover certain areas. We did a project on a European country. I was doing the country Croatia. It was such fun to do. I learned so much about the country. We also did a European artist. I did Leonardo da Vinci. He is also an artist from Italy. We also did a food day when we were supposed to make or bake a food from Europe and bring it into school so everyone can taste it. The Scottish tablet made by Toby won (it deserved to win). To finish it off we would like Mairead McGuinness to come and visit our school and talk to us about what she does in her job. We have prepared questions to ask her.

I hope she can answer them all!

Helen Butler

Helen Butler

 

On the 19th of January Helen Butler came in to talk to us for the transition to secondary school. Helen is a youth worker and also talks to parents.

 

The day started off by Helen and her partner giving us sticky notes for our positive and negative thoughts we have about secondary school.

 

Then we did a warm up game. After, we clarified the rules of the day. The rules consisted of respect and do your best.

Next we wrote a sheet about you think of yourselves called “I am a legend” -it was like a self-reflection. She gave us lots of secondary school rules. We did an exercise about safety, behaviour and learning.

We then did a section of bullying where Helen would call out different scenarios and we would choose the right thing to do.

 

She also taught us how to read a time table and we had a relay so we could read it quickly.

 

She gave us a sheet about how we found the day and what we learned. Then we got certificates for completing the course and sadly had to leave.

 

Sean

5th class

Helen Butler Visit

Helen Butler

A lady called Helen Butler came into are school.

She told us about moving to secondary school.

She gave us stuff we need to know to go to secondary school. She was a youth worker. Then she introduced us to a game called bomb. We threw a ball to people in the circle.

After that she gave us a self-reflection sheet. It asked us what we thought about ourselves.

The last game was called timetable. What you had to do was they put a timetable on the ground and you had to read as fast as you can.

When we went in we had to fill a sheet about what we thought about the workshop. I enjoyed it. I left a good comment.We all enjoyed it.

By Paul

5th class

 

 

 

F.A.I. Five Aside – Colman

F.A.I Football 5 Aside Competition

This year Kiltiernan National School have decided that we would put forward a team into the F.A.I 5 a side football competition. It is a competition that was founded mid-1990s.

The matches start in March and April. The winners from each county go to their provincial finals and then the national finals. The national finals take place in the Aviva International stadium. Last year over 24,000 students competed in this competition.

Our school is lucky enough to have two coaches, Jerry and Rory to train us for this competition. Training takes place in the Ardrahan astro pitch.

On match days you’re allowed to have 5 players on the pitch at one time (Including the goalkeeper). You can also have a roll on roll off substitute system.

By Colman 6th class

Helen Butler’s Visit

Helen Butler’s Visit

On the 19th of January, 2017, a youth worker named Helen Butler and her assistant, Rosa came to teach us about transition year.

At first I thought that she would talk to us about transition year and secondary school and that would be it. Boy was I wrong!

We all sat down on benches in the halla when we finally got started.

The first thing that we did was, Rosa passed out a pink and a green sticky note. Rosa also gave us a pen or pencil.

On the pink sticky note we wrote what we were looking forward to for secondary school and  on the green sticky note we wrote what we weren’t looking forward to.

We gave all of the sticky notes to Helen and she read a few out loud, stuck them on the white board and moved on to the next thing.

The second thing we did was play a game called bomb.

Bomb is a game where we form a circle and throw a small ball to whoever you want. If someone drops the ball everyone would begin to count from ten as the person who dropped the ball threw it to other people. Whoever has the ball at zero was out of the game.

The third thing we did was make some rules.

Helen put us into groups of five.

In your group you would help your team mates come up with rules.

After all the teams each had four rules written down Helen would call on your group and you and your team mates would call out your rules.

In the end we got four rules. Rule one: listen. Rule two: respect (each other). Rule three: do your best. Rule four: have fun! (my team came up with that one)

Then fourth we played a game called silent ball.

Silent ball was like ball but no one was allowed to talk except for Helen. When someone dropped the ball only Helen was allowed to count from ten. If anyone else made a peep they were out.

Next we did a bullying workshop.

Helen put us in groups and gave us four categories on and a few activities.

 

We had to put the activities in the correct categories. For example, no talking in class would be in the behaviour category.

After all the groups were finished Helen told us to call out each category and all the activities within it.

Then Helen asked us why we put each activity where they were.

Then sixth we learnt about time tables. Helen told us that on a time table there would be the class you would be going to next, the initials of the teacher of that class and the time so that you know when it starts.

Then we played a game outside about time tables. Helen put us into groups (again) and Rosa explained the rules of the game.

Helen would call out a question for example, “What time if English on a Tuesday?” or “Who teaches science on Fridays?” Then we would write down the answer on a sheet of paper.

Then when we went back inside Helen taught us about bullying.

So while Helen called out a situation where someone was getting bullied while Rosa put pieces of paper around the room that each had a different way to solve the problem. When Helen gave us permission we would go look at the pieces of paper that Rosa put up and if we liked that solution we would stand in front of it. There was also a piece of paper you could stand in front of if you had your own idea.

When everyone found a solution Helen would go to a couple of people and ask them why they chose this solution.

At the end of the day Helen gave us a sheet of paper that had some questions on it that said things like, “What did you learn today?” and “Did this help boost your confidence for secondary school?”

Then Helen gave us a certificate and left with Rosa.

She’ll be coming back in two years to teach the next 5th and 6th class the same things.

I for one, really enjoyed my experience with Helen it was very fun and educational.

 

By: Erin. P. J

 

 

Pantomime Preparation

Pantomime Preparation

 

On the Seventh of April 2017 Kilteirnan National School will be doing two plays from the senior class room and the middle class room.

The senior classroom will be doing the play ‘alas in blunderland’ while the middle room will do ‘Jack and the beanstalk’.

I will be telling you all about the preparation for the play!

The first thing that we did was our teachers gave us a script of the play for each desk.

We would get to read any line we desired if given permission via the teacher.

We read the scripts over and over again in class whenever we had time.

After we read the script at least ten times our teacher told us to write down three of four roles that we would want. We wrote the roles in the order of which one we wanted most and least.

The next day the teacher called out each role for each person.

Some kids got two or three roles. Others got only one. It depends on how many lines they have. (personally I have two)

From there on every day we would go into the halla and rehearse.

For the first couple of days we were allowed to bring a script and read off all our lines as we acted. Then after a week or so we were no longer allowed to bring a script to rehearsals and would have to stand on the stage and act out all of our lines that we had learnt off by heart.

Next our teacher told us that we would have to bring in a prop that would help us “get into character” for example if you were the king you could bring in a crown or if you were an ugly sister you could bring in a wig.

I’m really excited for the play and I just know that it will be absolutely positively fantastic and amazing.

By: Erin. P.

Letter to Mairead McGuinness

Letter to Mairead McGuinness

 

Kilteirnan N.S.

Kilcolgan

Co Galway

2-3-17

Dear Mairead McGuinness

My name is Erin. P.

I go to school at Kilteirnan National School.

For a couple of months now we have been trying to achieve the Blue Star Programme.

The blue star programme is a programme that engages kids to learn about the EU and how it works.

We’ve done a lot of different projects this school year.

I’ll list my favourites-

We did a power point on a part of European history. I did mine on how Europe got its name. You can see it if you visit.

We also did a word document on a European artist. I researched Michelangelo. We printed all of the word documents and stuck them on the walls of our hallway.

We also did a day where we each brought in a dish from countries in the EU.

I made a delicious Italian sandwich!

If you come to visit I might make and bring some! (hint, hint, please come to our school)

It would make the entire school and I very happy if you visited.

Our principal, Miss Leech says that you came to visit us in 2014 but I wasn’t here then. I came to Ireland during 2015 from Ecuador. I was born in America though.

Our classmates have at least twenty questions to ask you!

I hope that you come to visit!

 

With love,

Erin. P.

5th Class

Green School Post

Green schools 2016

  • The 2016 Biodiversity green flag is launched the Kiltiernan N.S this term
  • The committee for 2016 is Ava 6th class ,Melanie 5th class, Katie Scully 4th class, Orlaith 3rd class, Corey Greaney 2nd class and Eoin 1st class
  • We usually like to have meetings once or twice a week so we can keep update on all biodiversity awareness issues.
  • We have our wonderful teachers Ms leech, Ms O Doherty, and our S.N.A Bridget to help us along the way.
  • What we have been working on is getting our fellow class mates to (a) understand the meaning of biodiversity (b) teaching them some tips on how to save water, how to use the bins correctly and how to save energy.
  • We issued a newsletter to all Parents in November
  • Next for us is our Biodiversity slogan Competition-get your thinking caps on!

 

 

By Melanie

 

Blog For Training

Blog for training

Since September 1st we have had great trainers for football and hurling. We have had Darren the football coach and Bosco the hurling coach. Bosco would sometimes do a few drills with us like hitting the ball back and forth while running. Bosco often would go straight into a match. The teams would be Ardrahan vs Ballindereen. Ardrahan would usually win. Darren is the football coach he sometimes gives us a really tricky drill before a match. The drill would be something like running ten yards without dropping the ball. I know it sounds super easy but believe me it’s hard. When we finally complete the drill he will let us have a match. In my opinion the drills are the best.  Kiltiernan NS really appreciates Bosco and Darren’s efforts.

 

By Patrick