Creative Day 2023

Creative Day 2023 was a day filled with fun, happiness and creativity. Our Committee were constrained by a lack of funding which we enjoyed over the previous 2 years thanks to the Arts Council, however with lots of last minute improvisation and creativity, the committee members organised a superb day which was enjoyed by all.

On the day the activities included tie dye, painting and character drawing, making crafts for sale on Family Fun Day, clay, sports games, jewellery making, singing, scavenger hunts, face painting and coding. The day was jam packed with only enough time to eat and play in between creative activities. We would like to say a huge thank you to the parents who volunteered to help out on the day, only for your generosity the day would not have been the same. Also a huge thank you to the Creative Committee, some of whom painted faces all day long and led scavenger hunts and others led the coding station for the entire day, having developed engaging activities for all class levels.

Minibeast Hunting in 1st class

Today 1st class made the most of the weather and got outside to do some minibeast hunting. The children worked in groups to see if there were any spiders, insects or other creepy crawlies on the school grounds. We used magnifying glasses to find the minibeasts, the best place we found was under rocks and pieces of wood. We used pooters and magnifying pots to collect them. It was great fun! We collected so many worms, woodlice, millipedes (these were really really fast!), centipedes, spiders, ants and ladybirds. We then gave them some food in the form of leaves and places to hide under rocks and soil. Take a look at our pictures below.

With the help of the magnifying boxes, we were able to view our minibeasts in great detail. When we got back into the class we viewed what we had collected and drew some really detailed pictures before releasing them back into nature again.

Stop Motion with Create Schools

Today Ms Turner’s class were treated to a Stop Motion taster session with Peter. We had a fantastic day creating Lego Stop Motion videos. It was so interesting learning how to piece together different movements, a lot of thinking, patience and problem solving was needed. The children worked in groups using two characters, the Lego board and some blu tack. Take a look at some of their creations below…

The 3rd & 4th class Stop Motion production December 2022

Creative Day 2022

All of the children in Nun’s Cross took part in our annual Creative Day this week. It is a very special day in our school which is totally dedicated to being creative in all sorts of ways.

Our Creative Committee has been working very hard over the last few months to put this day together. All of the children in the school were asked for their input via a survey and the creative areas that were most popular were brought to life on the day!

The first activity that was voted for was a music and drama station. This station was brought to us by Kerry Patterson from Spot Light Studios in Wicklow Town. Spot Light Studios is a state of the art studio in Wicklow town which offers a full timetable of drama, dance, filmmaking, costume design and performing arts classes, to name but a few! Kerry very kindly took time from her very busy timetable and gave up her day to join us for Creative Day. Kerry came to meet our Creative Committee a number of weeks before the day and planned very exciting activities for each of the different age groups.

The infant classes were treated to lots of musical activities with some acting games and dress up too!

Back by popular demand was our tie-dying station. Each child brought in a white piece of clothing and had a choice of a variety of tie-dying designs to choose from. Their colourful creations are a fantastic souvenir from a colourful day!

We love to take every opportunity to bake in our school, so it wasn’t much of a surprise when baking was a very popular choice in our surveys! Chris has worked very hard with the creative committee to design a range of creative baking stations for the children to enjoy! The Creative Committee transformed a classroom into Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory and got into character too! There was not only 1 baking opportunity on offer, but 4! The children created chocolate apples, made rice crispy buns, decorated biscuits and baked their own shortbread cookies. A big thank you to Chris for all her work on this and also to Lisa Armstrong who helped out in the baking room all day!

We got to use our senses while painting today by painting blindfolded! We explored the textures of the paint and the paper and noticed how the paper felt when it had paint on it and when it didn’t. We also explored warm and cold colours and enjoyed making a creative mess! This station was a competition prize, which was won by one of our students who entered a competition run by Louise Cherry -Roberts recently. Louise is a local artist who runs her art studio in Wicklow town and also runs a variety of art camps for children. A big thank you to her and her many helpers, for bringing us this creative opportunity.

A very exciting creative station was brought to us by Ciaran Coughlin and his team of helpers! All the children had the chance to explore computer coding and got to use their creative skills with technology! The children got to create a variety of movable images by creating the background coding which tells the image what to do! Ciaran runs a number of after school coding camps in our school and is also running a series of coding summer camps. If your child is interested in enrolling in a coding camp you can find more information on https://coughlanweb.ie/

We were delighted to have Peter and Dave from Createschools in to do a Lego workshop with us. The children made all sorts of creations and turned them into stock motion animation videos. Check out some of our creations in the video below!

This day could not have taken place with out all the hard work and commitment of our Creative Committee members who worked tirelessly in the lead up to the day and on the day itself. A huge thank you to them and all the teachers and staff for all their time and efforts!

Also a huge thank you to all our artists for their time and efforts that went in to each of the stations! A massive thank you also to all the parent volunteers who gave up their day to come and help run the stations, and of course the big clean up operation which took place after all the creativity was finished! There were so many people involved in making the day successful - thank you to each and every one of you!

5th class Creative Sessions with Jane

5th class worked with clay and we focused on some important techniques, like making coils, scoring , making slabs and slip . We used habitat as an inspiration to ‘go free style ‘ look at this brilliant gangs creative work!

Junior Infants Creative Schools sessions with Jane

This week the junior infants were talking about habitats again , this time focusing on a spider’s web which was introduced with a lovely picture book. We worked with soft coloured clay and made shapes and blended the colours. We used the clay then to form some insects and a variety of other items that the children chose themselves. We exercised our fine motor skills with a nail board to make spider webs with elastic bands. We made individual webs and then worked together on a collaborative project to make one giant web. We used our webs and clay insects to create a story and finally, we went outside and worked as a team to make a giant web from a variety of fabrics and materials. There was so much creation and so much hard work - it really made us appreciate how hard spiders work!

Creative printing session with 1st class

First class developed the drawings which were made by senior infants and did some printing. Take a look at some of our work below:

Creative Schools sessions with Jane Groves

In our latest session before the Easter Break our senior infants were investigating colour and mark-making, examining seeds and buds. Take a look at some of our fabulous work below.

Creative Schools Art Project

Jane returned for another session this week. This week she worked with 2nd and 3rd class who explored some of the different techniques that can be used when working with paper-folding, tearing, twisting etc. Using these techniques, the children then created 3D habitats

Jane also did session with our first class who did some nature scavenger hunts, made nature pallets with all the different colours they could find in the garden, played follow the leader using only mirrors positioned on their nose so they could only see the tops of trees/sky. They then went on to create ‘Tree Spirits’ out of clay. They moulded the clay to the tree and made individual creations. Most of the children made different animals or people.

We are excited to see what next weeks session brings!

Creative Schools

Last week we began our Creative sessions with local artist Jane Groves. She spent the day working with our 4th, 5th and 6th classes where they focused on the local natural environment and drew maps of the area. The children really enjoyed the interactive session and it really got them thinking about their surroundings which can at times be taken for granted. Take a look at some pictures from our session.

Creative Schools inspiration wall

Inspired by our whole school mural which was completed during Creative Day last June, our Creative Committee set their sights on decorating another external wall of the school. We noticed that there was a lot of interest in using chalk to draw and create on the yard, but there was nowhere for children to draw on apart from the ground. So we put our heads together and we decided to create an inspiration wall on our yard. We chose to paint it slate grey as opposed to black as we the idea was to make our school a brighter and more colourful place rather than making it duller and darker. Take a look at some of the creativity which was on display today.

We were delighted with the finished product which was decorated beautifully on it’s first day of use. We are excited to see the wonderful creations which will be visible on this wall. We would also like to say a huge thank you to Chris and our caretaker Michael for helping us to make this possible.

Georgia O'Keeffe Inspired Art in 3rd Class

Inspired by the flowers outside our school and the art of Georgia O'Keeffe, 3rd class were very busy creating these beautiful pieces of art!

"If I could paint the flower exactly as I see it no one
   would see what I see because I would paint it small
   like the flower is small. So I said to myself - I'll paint what I see - what the flower is to me but I'll paint it big
     and they will be surprised into taking time to look
        at it – I will make even busy New Yorkers take time to see what I see of flowers.” Georgia O’Keeffe

Creative Schools voting

In Nuns Cross National School we are incredibly fortunate to be taking part in the Creative Schools Initiative. This initiative in association with the Arts Council is aimed at fostering and harnessing the creative potential in all children.

So far this year we have been working with our Creative Associate, Eamon Sweeney. We recruited two creative councils within the school, a Junior Council and a Senior Council who meet regularly to discuss progress. Our teachers have had a staff meeting to introduce them to the initiative and we are all very eager to jump aboard this adventure. So far we have sent out our feelers to the whole student population to collect ideas for activities each and every student enjoy doing or would like to do more of in school. This week we are hoping to put a list of themes/options based on these findings out to vote. We will need every child in every class to vote on this and the most popular project or idea will be completed.

Additionally, this year we have a 6th class council. As it has been quite a fractured year for them and with it being their last year in the school, we are eager for them to have their say in their own project.