Summer in the Junior Room

Summer is fast approaching and we’re as active as ever in Kiltiernan. While 1st Class were swimming for the first time in Kilcornan, Junior and Senior Infants were brushing up on our Water Safety knowledge and we’ve learned so much. Sarah and Mary’s dad Rory will be coming in on the 28th of June to do a Water Safety Workshop with the whole school so we will learn even more then. Thanks Rory, we are looking forward to it.

All of the testing is over and we’ve worked hard. The Infants had a lovely trip to Kilcornan walled garden while the others were swimming. We played with Frisbees, soccer and all joined in some parachute games. Poor Miss Broderick got captured by some Junior Infants who used the hula hoops very creatively!!

We are still working on our Biodiversity Green Flag and have learned lots about the school habitats and some animals living near our school. We look out for Song thrush, robins, bluebells, thistles, nettles and butterflies all the time now.

We had some new arrivals in Kiltiernan this month. Jack’s dad John brought in an incubator. We set it up in the Resource room where the eggs were kept safe and warm for three weeks. John and Jack checked the eggs regularly to make sure the temperature in the incubator and water levels were at optimum levels.

Around day 13, John brought in a box and torch so we could do some ‘candeling’. Here, we saw the shadows inside the eggs. We could see that one egg had a line of bacteria in it and so the chick didn’t develop in that one. In others, we could identify blood vessels and an eye developing. We had pictures to compare the development in each day in the three weeks incubation period so we knew what to look out for.

We got a wonderful surprise when we came back from the bank holiday weekend. We had eight healthy little chicks surrounding broken eggshells in the incubator. They were taken home to be reunited with the hen and she took to them very well.

John brought the hen and chicks back in for the day so we could see them all together again. The children and staff learned a great amount during this whole process.

Thank you so much John and Jack, it was a great experience and we loved having the chicks in our school. Matthew’s dad Pat has uploaded a video of the chicks onto our school YouTube channel so take a look at it. Thanks Pat!

Our school tour will be on the 23rd of June. We are going to Athenry Castle where we will dress up in medieval costume, partake in archery and hide in the maze. We may need to put a few people in the stocks so beware!!Afterwards, we will head to Busy Bees so we can run off some more energy!

First Class have started to do hurling training with Cian Walsh and Eoin Bermingham every Thursday mornings and are doing well. Keep hurling over the summer everyone.

Congratulations to Emily and her family who welcomed baby Colin this month and also to Matthew Quinn and his family who welcomed baby Rachel. Best of luck to Sheila and family who make the move to America this summer.

Happy birthday to May and June boys and girls- Emily, Amelia, Marlon, Matthew H. Also, a big happy birthday to the summer birthday dudes Ella and Sophia in July and Martha and Nathan in August. We’ll give you a spin on the chair in September!

We welcome the new parents to an induction meeting at 2pm on Friday the 16th. The new infants will come into our room for a few hours on Monday the 19th from 9.20 til 11.20 to sample how life the big school.

We are getting holidays on Friday the 30th of June.

Thanks to all the mums and dads for your great support in teaching your children this year. We’ve had a wonderful, fulfilled year. They’re the best!!!

Have a wonderful, safe and happy summer to everyone. See you in September.