Irish Dancing

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Irish dancing

Every Wednesday all of students who would like to do Irish dancing go to the halla at the allocated time for Irish dancing. The person who teaches us Irish dancing is called Louise. Louise is very generous to give a time out of her busy day to teach us how to Irish dance and we are very grateful. My group is the oldest group which is the 5th and 6th class boys and girls. This year we do not have a show but every second year we do. This year the 5th and 6th class group are  doing the 8 hand reel followed by the 3 hand. We also worked on the brush dance. I always enjoy going to Irish dancing and hopefully you would too!

Sadhbh O’Rourke

5th class

 

Coffee Morning

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Coffee morning

On the 21st of September Kiltiernan N.S held their coffee morning for the Galway hospice. We had loads of sweet treats such as buns, cakes, cookies and many more. Pupils were asked to bake and bring in as many cakes and buns as possible. My nana and I baked treacle cake. It was delicious. Lagan Construction supported us all the with the coffee morning. Outside the gates of the school we had ‘a coffee to go’ table so if you didn’t want to come in you could stop get a coffee and hit the road fast! At the end of the busy day all our pupils got little goody bags full of jellies and crisps. We raised about 900 Euro for the Hospice which is a great cause. By Adam 6th Class

Grease Lighting

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Grease Lightning

On the 16th of November 2017 kiltiernan N.s went to see Seamount’s production of grease lightning. We got on a bus at 10 o’clock in the morning. We took the five minute journey to Kilcornan hall. The play started off with two groups singing – a group of boys and a group of girls. The main character was a girl named sandy. She was new and didn’t have many friends. The play was very good at moving from scene to scene. They even had an old car that was stripped down as Grease Lightning. It had no wheels and they painted it themselves. There was a lot of singing with songs including ‘Summer Loving’. They could do the American accent very well. It was very cool with all the LED lights and flashing lights .. My favourite part was at the start when the light shone on the group of boys- the girls would stop talking and moving and if it shone on the girls the boys would stop moving and talking. I thought it was very good. They were all good at what they did including the adults and teachers because it must have taken ages to rehearse and get it perfect. I was sitting beside a huge sound system with loads of buttons and dials. There was also a setup behind that; this one was used to control the lights. At the end of the performance all the performers stood at the front of the stage and took a bow to a standing ovation. We had a great morning.

By Adam

Tommy Baker’s Puppet Show

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Tommy Baker’s Puppet show

On Friday the 20th of October Kiltiernan National School got a visit from Tommy Baker. Tommy Baker is a local puppeteer who is going to be performing in Borneo this month, in a puppet festival. He was chosen to open the festival. He came to our school to perform for us. The show he would put on in Borneo. He had chosen the salmon of knowledge. When he arrived we were all so excited.

The show was very exciting. It started when Fionn, the main character looking for someone to train him to be a warrior. He found two old ladies called Grainne and Aoife. They were to train him to be a warrior and a fighter. They asked him to do tasks. The first task was to put Fionn in a sack and throw him in the lake. There were two more tasks to find the hare of Ardrahan and not to get burnt by the salmon. Tommy also put on a second show for the middle and senior room.  They were handmade puppets, made out of sticks and wool. It was about finding his courage and helping his friends to find something they needed.

I really enjoyed the puppet show. It was a lot of fun and we were greatly entertained.

 

By Emma, 6th Class

 

Singing

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Singing

This Term at kiltiernan N.S we are singing 60’s music. We are singing the music for our own enjoyment. We have sang songs such as…….

Happy together-The Turtles

California dreaming-The Mamas & the Papas

With a little help from my friends – The Beatles

Golden Slumbers-The Beatles

For California dreaming as some of you know the mamas and the papas featured two boys and two girls so Ms O Doherty came up with the idea of sending up two boys and two girls and the rest of the class sang the seconds.

We came up with the idea of Golden Slumbers from the new John Lewis ad on YouTube as our next project for Christmas. It is second on the trending list. We practice these songs on Tuesday every week.

I really enjoy doing these songs every week and look forward to it!

By Patrick Nestor

 

Science Week

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Science Week

Science Week runs  from the 13th to the 19th of November. We explored many aspects of science including Magnetism and Electricity. The Senior Room took the challenge of electricity while the Middle Room studied fascinating magnets. In our room we learned everything about electricity. We found out a lot of interesting facts.

The teachers came up with a great idea to merge the two types of science. They made up groups containing people from both rooms and half of the groups went to Ms Leech’s room while the rest went to Ms O’ Doherty’s room. Ms O’ Doherty worked on  magnets while Ms Leech explored electricity. My group started with electricity.

We learned how to make a basic circuit. This circuit included wires, batteries and a bulb. You get great satisfaction out of getting a lighting bulb! We moved to a more advanced circuit with crocodile clips and bulb holder and of course batteries. After that  we made a working switch with thumb tacs, small pieces of wood and paper clips plus your batteries, bulb and holder. It was so cool when it actually worked. There, we were finished for a very interesting day 1.

Moving on… and  day 2 commenced. The groups rotated. My group went on to the magnets. We had a lot of fun. We learned about the different types of magnets. For example we saw a bar magnet, a big bar magnet, ball magnet to name a few. We went around the classroom testing were they attracted to the magnet. Not many succeeded but it was very interesting.

Next we did an experiment. We made a structure and we had to see if the compass would make the magnet turn to North and South. We used Jenga bricks as our structure. We used a ruler and a piece of string to help. After all our preparation it worked very well.

To finish a very busy Science Week 2017 we had a visit from Tom Cuffe. He is an origami artist and birdwatcher. He showed us many incredible pieces of art. Some of these pieces took many months to make and was truly amazing. After he showed us a few simple step to make ancient Japanese envelope. We used many folding techniques.  You need a lot of patience to do this type of art! Moving on we used small pieces of card to make a cube. We folded card in halves and placed them in a way to make a cube. It was really fun.

I would like to thank the teachers and Tom especially for making this week really fun. I love science and would like to do more. Thank You!

 

By Stephen

Cross Country Athletics

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Cross country

On the 9th of November, a  friday morning, myself,  Stephen, David and Paul all were driven by Ms Leech to Renmore Park for cross country athletics. We were wearing our gear and kiltiernan jerseys and were ready for action. I had number 12. We started doing our warm ups- running up and down high knees, slow jogs and stretches.

The junior girls race was first. Orlaith, Lauren, Grainne and Erin were running in this race representing our school. It was followed by junior boys then senior girls and finally senior boys. We all lined up ready to start the race. When the man with the megaphone told us when it was time to go the battery died. We started running. I could see Stephen, David and Paul in front of me. When we finished you had to walk through a line of ropes and have your number taken and told you place. I came 72nd which I guess is better than 73rd. Stephen came first David came second and Paul came approximately 29th. After the race Stephen and David collected some very nice miniature trophies.

On the way back we stopped in Londis and got deli roles but Paul got tasty rashers and chips. When we got back to school Ms Leech said it would be unfair if we went to class so instead we ate them in the staffroom. Kindly Ms Leech asked would we like a cup of tea. We all said yes.

So to sum it we went to cross country collected some silver wear stopped in Londis and had tea with the Principal.  I would call that a good day!

 By Diarmuid 6th class

Hospice Coffee Morning 2017

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On September 15th we had our Annual Coffee Morning in aid of Galway Hospice. We had a great morning and welcomed many old and some new friends to help raise funds for this very worthy charity. As usual our wonderful students (and their parents) supplied an abundance of yummy home baked treats. We were delighted to bake some goodies for Lagan again this year and we’re very grateful to Kate for organising the support of the road workers. We raised €800 for Galway Hospice and we would like to extend a big thank you to everyone who supported this event.

Kiltiernan’s Cute Chicks

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Chickens. Chickens are an important part of our community. Whether it’s for their meat or their eggs or to be kept as pets, we definitely need them!
A farmer by the name of John D thought that it would be a good idea to bring in some freshly laid chicken eggs to show the pupils of Kiltiernan the miracle of life and how all life on earth is important.
So John brought in all 12 chicken eggs on the 23rd of May 2017.
The eggs were kept in an incubator which was the next best thing, considering that John could not bring the mother hen or else she would become defensive and the pupil’s would not be able to take a look at the eggs.
The students of Kiltiernan were introduced to the eggs at around the end of April. John showed the pupils the stages of a chick when she’s in the egg. Their time in the egg lasts for 21 days. From a tiny embryo to a little chick.
John decided that it would be fun to show us what a ‘candling’ is.
‘Candling’ is when you take an egg and put it under a flashlight. When you do this you can see the embryo of the chicken while they’re in the egg. It looks a little funny but it’s also pretty cool.
Some of the eggs, unfortunately, where ‘glogars’ or ‘blind’ eggs. “What does that mean?” you might ask. “And why is it unfortunate?” Well when an egg is called a blind egg it means that the said egg doesn’t have a developing chick in it…the chick’s dead. Which is why it’s called ‘blind’, its empty.
This usually happens because bacteria has gotten into the egg and the embryo inside has died because of uncleanliness. 
During the bank holidays the eggs hatched, specifically on the 5th of June, which just so happens to be the same week as a pair of twins from Kiltiernan.
The students got to meet the chicks, one class at a time. There were eight chicks which means that the other four didn’t make it.
That same day, the chicks had to go home because if they were away from their mother for too long after they hatched their mother might not take them in, thinking that these weren’t her eggs. Luckily, the mother readopted her eggs.
The next week, on Monday, John brought the chicks back but this time he brought the hen as well!
There was a little pen, near the centenary garden that had a big hen and eight little, adorable, chicks. The chickens all stayed there until the school day was over.
Everyone in the school found it amazing and loved that we got to keep baby chickens in our school for a day. It was definitely a fun experience and you can bet that the students of Kiltiernan will be bugging their teachers until they get a school pet.

-Erin P

Drumcondra Tests

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Drumcondra Tests strike again!

For the past weeks we have been working very hard for the Drumcondra tests. We completed the first test which was the English test in late May. We also completed the spelling test in May but some classes were set aside to June. We finished the Maths in June and that was it- all completed.

The preparation was hard and I’m glad they are over. We worked hard on ever topic and soon enough they’ll be back to haunt us. “OH NO!!”

By Adam 5Th Class