Today we were visited by the lovely Mairead today who took us on a trail of the school grounds in search of minibeasts. We had great fun searching for minibeasts and we couldn’t believe our eyes with the variety of insects we discovered. Have a look below.
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!
We were delighted to welcome Mark from Skipnrope to our school to do a skipping workshop with all the classes. Skipping is key fundamental movement skill that is so important for the children to master and is also a great fun exercise!
Mark showed the children lots of different skipping skills and games that they will be able to use in the playground! We have invested in a large number of skipping ropes to add to our PE equipment which the children can use to exercise their newly acquired skipping skills!
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!
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!
First class developed the drawings which were made by senior infants and did some printing. Take a look at some of our work below:
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.
Today al the children in Nun’s Cross enjoyed a fantastic Easter egg hunt, which was organised by our PTA. A huge thank you to all the members of our wonderful PTA for organising such a great treat on the last day of term!
We are absolutely delighted with a new feature in our schoolyard - a climbing wall. This wall was funded by fundraising events organised by our Parents Association. All thanks go to them, and all the parents who have contributed to fundraising over the last year! This fantastic feature in our playground will be enjoyed by children of all ages for many many years to come!
5th and 6th class have been learning about The Blitz that occurred in London during WW2 and how the people at the time had to adapt to their new norm.
Our first task was to design an Air Raid Shelter. The children were split into groups and came up with a layout for their shelters using recyclable and natural materials. Once they had finished planning they gathered their resources and started to make their shelters. Using the Stop Motion app on the iPad, the children had to recreate a scene from the Blitz in WW2. Afterwards the children presented their stopmotions to their classmates.
Diary Entries
We also wrote some imaginative diary entries sharing detailed accounts of our days during The Blitz.
The Rock Cycle – Investigating how rocks are formed
During the first lesson 5th and 6th class learned about the layers of the earth and how rock can both be in the form of a liquid and solid. For the next lesson we focused on the rock life cycle and we carried out three experiments using sweets. The first experiment represented sedimentary rock. We combined all the sediment (sweets) using pressure. Next we formed metamorphic rock by heating the sweets using a dryer and adding more pressure. Finally, we formed igneous rock by putting the sweets into the microwave and leaving the sweets to harden overnight.
Erupting Volcanoes
5th and 6th class were learning about the different parts of a volcano and what causes them to erupt. We designed volcanoes using the paper maiche method to form the structure. Then they explored how chemical reactions occur by mixing vinegar and baking soda. We had lots of fun making these!
5th and 6th class have been learning all about how the people of WW2 communicated with one another during the war. Using a Morse code key, we cracked a few premade codes in pairs but then it was time to make our own Morse code machines.
Our first task was to experiment and investigate how to get a light bulb to work using the electricity materials. This took a bit of trial and error but eventually using our prior knowledge of energy we all created a successful circuit. However we observed that some lights were brighter than others and some groups were able to light up two bulbs in the one circuit. Before moving on to the next task, each group came up with some recommendations to improve their circuits.
Our next task was to create a circuit with a switch 1 metre from the bulb. Once each group had created their circuits, they began sending their own messages to one another. We had so much fun creating our circuits and sending messages. However, we also discovered how much patience people must of had reading all those Morse code messages!
Our neighbour, Charlie Bird, takes on a tough challenge this weekend as he sets out to climb Croagh Patrick to raise awareness and money for Motor Neuron disease which he suffers from.
We can only imagine the courage that Charlie will need for this event and we wanted to spur him on and show our support. Our 4th and 5th class made him posters of support and recorded our version of ‘Shine A Light’ by Michael English.
We would like to say a huge thank you to Rachel Factor for coming in and playing the piano to accompany our song - without her help, this would not have been possible!
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!
There was great excitement around the school last week as we celebrated our annual Seachtain Na Gaeilge.
Each class took part in various events and projects which culminated in a special Gaeilge performance for assembly.
Junior Infants treated us to a little show of the story of An Buachaillín Sinséir (The Gingerbread Man)
Senior Infants told us a poem all about Teidí Beag Álainn.
1st class learned the Haca as Gaeilge and not only performed it for us but taught the whole school how to do it too!
2nd ad 3rd, who is never afraid of a challenge. learned and performed the song ‘Tar Liom Go hÁrainn‘ from start to finish!
4th and 5th class showed us their musical skills by performing Faolán Faolán with chime bars.
5th and 6th class treated us to a spectacular performance of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs through Irish!
All of the classes put in so much effort to each of their performances and should be incredibly proud of themselves!
We finished the week with a very exciting leprechaun hunt in the garden! The infant classes hand to hunt out six leprechauns and match them to their numbers but it was a little more difficult for the bigger boys and girls who had to find 12 hidden pictures in the garden and use the information found on each to crack the secret code! Great team spirit was in the air and the children were all good sports!
A huge thank you to all who donated to our collection of Aid for Ukraine. We facilitated a collection of aid which was added to the overall community collection organised by Ashford GAA! We are delighted to have been able to contribute over 3 car loads of supplies and we thank you all for your generosity!
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.
We are delighted the first addition to the front part of our garden as part of our over plan to make it a sensory garden for our school.
At Nun’s Cross. we are fully inclusive and it is important for us to ensure that all our children are able to fully enjoy all aspects of school. For some children, running around, playing ball games and being loud with their friends is not their idea of enjoyable playtime. This space will serve as a quieter space for children to spend their outdoor time in a calm space, away from the fast running and loud noises of traditional playtime.
This colourful raised bed has been filled with beautiful flowers which will continue to bloom over the coming month as we add more to this area of our playground. It will help us to keep this area of the playground at a slower and quieter pace than the rest of the outdoor space. We would like to thank all of the parents who contributed to the fundraising efforts last year in order to enhance our outdoor area and we are excited for the rest of the additions to come! Bi thank you, also, to our amazing PTA, without whose efforts none of this would be possible!
We absolutely love our school garden and we love all the wildlife we share it with too! From frogs in our pond to bird and bat boxes around the school grounds we enjoy all the opportunities we can to help look after our wildlife friends! This week we were delighted to have the addition of bird feeders to the garden. Ellie, who is a keen garden bird fan, was the instigator in this addition and she very generously donated a large number of feeders and nut free bird food. All of the feeders have been carefully placed around the school grounds and filled with yummy treats for our small friends to enjoy! Watch out if you’re in the garden to see what birds you might spot at the feeders!
The Junior Infants have been looking at the story of The Three Little Pigs this month. They wanted to see if the wolf was really able to blow down their houses so they made their own. They worked in groups to create a straw house for Horace. He moved in, but unfortunately, his house didn’t stand up to the Big Bad Wolf.
Horace and his house builders moved to the wooden house where Borris lived and they worked hard to try and make a stronger house for the two pigs. Unfortunately, it still wasn’t strong enough!
Horace and Borris ran to Percy’s house and they worked hard to build a strong brick house. Thankfully, no matter how hard that wolf tried, he couldn’t blow down the brick house as it was the strongest house by far!
The Junior infants had to engage in lots of problem-solving and creativity to complete this activity and they did a wonderful job!
