March in the Middle Room
March in the Middle Room
Write A Book: We worked on finishing our Write-A-Book projects right up to the last day, when our last three authors published and bound their books. Then we sent away our books to the Galway Education Centre to be read in another school. Every time a book ‘crossed the line’ we sang ‘Hallelujah!’…so in all, over 3 weeks that was 29 renditions of the song… Apologies to the other classrooms! We look forward to seeing the books from the other school…Special thanks to Bridget our SNA who is a star!
Book Week: During Book Week, 4th-7th of March, we indulge ourselves in everything to do with the pleasure of reading and books. On Monday we began our reading buddy programme by introducing our senior buddies to their junior buddy. Everyone enjoyed the experience and looked forward to their daily reading session. First Class really enjoyed ‘The Man’ by Raymond Briggs, author of ‘The Snowman’. A broad selection of picture books, fact books and novels were read in all classes. On Tuesday, Jonathon Gunning, a storyteller, entertained the children with three great stories, humorously told with great energy. On Wednesday we visited the lovely librarians in Oranmore Library to borrow some books and learn about how a library works. On Thursday, we met Patricia Forde, who is not only a children’s author but has also worked as a primary teacher and a scriptwriter for Ros na Rún and Fair City. Her wise insights included “To become a writer you have to first be a reader” and “Writers simply tell lies in print!” We really enjoyed her visit and seeing the work that went into her Lola series of books and we got a preview of a new picture book she is currently working on. During the week, we listened to some of our parents share their favourite books…books by Enid Blyton, Miriam Moss and Roddy Doyle were recommended by Colette, Michelle and Anne…Thank you so much for your enthusiasm…it was infectious! We also Skyped a published author, Greg Baxter who is Diarmuid’s uncle. He generously shared his experience of being a full time author, the joys and the hard work it involved. Our young authors were very inspired.
Website Launch: The end of Book Week coincided with our website launch. We are very proud of the work that Ava and Mark’s mums did to bring this to fruition, along with Stefano, our staff and of course our pupils. Ciarán Cannon came to help launch it and we were very impressed with his IT knowledge and rapport with the children. He even joined in on the keyboard with our musicians from 4th to 6th when they played his favourite song, Fields of Gold. After a quick cup of tea (thank you Parents’ Council!) he left in his Ministerial car to an event in Kildare…the children in our room were very impressed by his Garda chauffeur!
Seachtain na Gaeilge: Rinneamar ár ndícheall chun Gaeilge a labhairt sa seomra ranga agus nuair a bhíomar ag súgradh sa chlós. Fuaireamar ticéad speisialta nuair a labhraíomar Gaeilge. Bhi tráth na gceist againn agus bhí an spórt againn i rith na seachtaine. Bhuaigh Patrick agus Seán an duais sa tráth na gceist agus bhuaigh Tara agus Hannah duaiseanna freisin.
St. Patrick We learned about how St. Patrick brought Christianity to Ireland and we made lots of lovely cards and did a wordsearch about the great man.
Drama: In Drama we had a mock court room to decide if Alexander T. Wolf was guilty of blowing down the houses of the Three Little Pigs…The verdict was that he was guilty as charged! It was great fun…
Preparations for First Holy Communion We have learned our Confiteor and Act of Sorrow in preparation for our confession in April. Stephen and David read at mass in Labane. We are learning hymns and our current favourite is ‘Connected’…this may change!
Class Novel: We are reading an American novel by Louis Saarch (author of ‘Holes’) called ‘Marvin Redpost: Class President’. It’s very funny as it describes the day the President of America unexpectedly visits a Primary School when it is celebrating ‘Hole Day’…a day when everyone, including the staff, have to wear their raggiest clothes! Thankfully we have lovely uniforms and we had advance notice of Ciarán Cannon’s visit…
