Active Schools GAA Training Day

Today the whole school participated in a GAA training day as organised by our Active Schools Committee. Having worked with Kevin our GAA coach since September, we were eager to test our skills and teamwork by having a training blitz. The junior end of the school played their matches at the school and our senior pupils made the trek down to the Ashford GAA grounds. We were absolutely blessed with such a wonderful day weatherwise, and the talent on show was top class.

Classes were each split into 4 teams and times were allocated for each match as decided by the Active Committee. We played across the main pitch where we were able to have 4 matches played at a time. Each team played every other team in their class and the winners after all of that competed in the finals.

We would like to say a huge THANK YOU to Kevin our coach and Brian and Vicky our referees on the day. The day was a tremendous success and has really inspired us to do days like this more often as a school. There was a great energy all day long and we are certain that the children will all sleep soundly tonight after their busy day. We look forward to getting our GAA goalposts in the school in the coming weeks so that we can practice a little more.

Maths Week in 3rd Class

During Maths Week, 3rd class were very busy solving riddles, using their ‘maths eyes’ to spot maths in the environment, participating in an ‘all about me’ maths activity, playing board games, making a ‘human clock’ outside and learning how to tell the time on an analogue clock. Well done everyone!

Maths Week in 5th and 6th Class

We had a great week celebrating Maths week in 5th and 6th Class. We developed our problem solving skills by creating mazes outside on the basketball court - most seemed ‘impossible’! We also explored Maths outside with lots of different Maths trails which provided so much learning. We developed codes using Caesar Cipher and tried to prove and disprove the theory of the Vitruvian Man. All while learning how to do long division in 5th Class. They deserve a medal! Well done to everyone!

Maths week in Junior Infants

The Junior Infants have been busy working on patterns for maths week this week.

We looked at some places where we might find pattern and discovered that lots of animals have patterns and its what helps us to recognise them. We also realised that lots of our clothes have patterns on them - can you see the patterns in our clothes?

We made our own patterned socks!

Sometimes patterns repeat themselves! We learned that repeat means to do something again and once we could identify a pattern we were able to repeat it over and over to make a repeating pattern. We had lots of fun making repeating patterns on peg boards, with a variety of manipulatives and in our art too!

Of course, it wouldn’t be maths week in Junior Infants if we didn’t make maths hats! I think you will agree that the creative skills of this years hats are outstanding! Well done to all the children for their efforts!

During assembly, we shared our creations with the rest of the school with our maths hat parade!

Maths Week 2020

This week we are celebrating Maths Week 2020. We are enjoying playing maths games, solving maths puzzles and integrating maths into as many other subjects as possible.

“Today in Ms Ward’s class we enjoyed grappling with the E puzzle as designed by the English puzzler Henry Dudeney. ”

With this puzzle players began with their 4 coloured counters on their end of the E. The aim of this puzzle is to get the same coloured counters to the opposite end of the E first. Players played against one another to test strategy and game reading skills. Some players were able to complete this task successfully while others adopted a strategic defensive approach and were unable to succeed in completing this. We then re-did this challenge to work together as partners in completing this puzzle.

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“We also played some PE games like ‘hit the target’ where we through and kicked different sized balls against the target board. We added together our scores at the end of each round.”

Gaelic football

On Wednesdays we enjoy Gaelic football coaching with Kevin. So far we have practiced hand passing, picking the ball off the grounds, kicking and soloing the ball.

Our Student Council are hoping they can work together with our Active Schools Committee to raise enough funds to purchase a set of gaelic scoring posts. This will give us ample time to practice our shooting over the crossbar.

Zoom Assembly

Last week our student council shared their desire to bring back our whole school assemblies which they greatly missed. We looked at how we could make this happen in a safe way.

Today 4th class treated us to a very special whole school Assembly through zoom. We were delighted to be joined by Reverend Rue as we reflected on the challenges of the past and present. We were reminded that we can always talk to God and ask for God’s help when times are difficult. 4th class also sang ‘Father I place into your hands’ and shared their wonderful art display showing the things they are placing into his hands for him to take care of.

Autumn Art

In 1st and 2nd class we have been learning about the different seasons in maths and have also been using our inferring skills to decipher the time of year being described in tests or through pictures.

After much discussion surrounding Autumn, we began to create Autumn trees. We used our arms and hands to create the trunk and branches of the trees. We then used our finder prints to create all the leaves. All of our trees were unique and truly personal.

Positivity and Well-Being in 4th Class

All of the children in 4th class have been working really hard on their positivity. They have been developing their growth mindset in a positive way and are trying their best to always see the glass as half full, rather than half empty! No matter what you think you can’t do, if you put your mind to it, you might be surprised to realise that YOU CAN!

4th class are also trying to follow six very simple words!

KIND HANDS, KIND FEET, KIND WORDS!

If we can all follow these simple words, we believe, the world will be a nicer place!

Autumn is here!

The Junior Infants are currently learning all about different types of materials, but we are learning lots about autumn too!

Spotting seasonal changes is so easy when you go to school in Nun’s Cross. We are so lucky to have the garden that we have and be able to see the changes in nature right on our classroom door. We enjoyed going on an autumn hunt around our school garden and were able to spot most of the signs of autumn including horse chestnuts, mushrooms, berries and lots of different coloured leaves! Afterwards, we completed a list of all of the things we found in the garden.

We have an autumn inspired funky finger station where the children are invited to exercise their fine motor skills by making a hedgehog from matchsticks and marla! A tricky task for little fingers!

We have also looked at the colours of autumn and the variety of colours on the trees around us. We used these colours to create our own finger print autumn trees

We have also learned about some of the animals which are very busy in autumn getting ready for hibernation. We have read lots of stories about them and have really enjoyed creating pictures of them including making marks and patterns with paint and using tissue paper to create a textured collage.

Rugby is back at Nun's Cross

We are delighted to have Aidan back visiting us at school and coaching us in rugby. All classes enjoy playing a variety of games each Wednesday. It does get quite competitive at times, but at the end of the day we understand that it is all about the fun and laughter. We have been very fortunate with the fine weather each week which has allowed us to get out and about in the fine weather and fresh air. Take a look at 3rd and 4th class in action…

Celtic Creations by 5th and 6th Class

September’s topic was all about the Celts and we are finishing up with wonderful creations of Celtic jewellery, weapons and cooking utensils. Have a look at the first stages!

Child initiated learning

3rd class have been learning about the Stone Age, and on Friday, a group of children from the class decided to build their own hut at lunchtime. They were inspired by the round huts built by hunter-gatherers long ago and by the Viking settlements 4th class made recently as part of their learning. The children also constructed a stone wall which resembled the walls built by Stone Age farmers to keep their sheep in. 

It was lovely to see them applying their learning on their own initiative and in their own free time outside the classroom. They worked together as a team and had interesting conversations about how people lived back then. They were also heard using the topic-related vocabulary learned in class, and lots of problem-solving was observed. 

Maith sibh! 

Nun's Cross Builders

The Junior Infants are learning all about materials and how they are used in the world around us. We are exploring this topic in our play by being builders and are really enjoying all the planning and building that we are getting up to. Mrs Gannon isn’t so keen on all the hammering though!

Student Council

This week 3rd class have been working very hard on completing their applications to join the Student Council in our school. Our current members in 4th, 5th and 6th class have the very difficult task of reading all applications and awarding points to determine who will be joining us.

We have a very difficult task as the applications are all really good and it is clear that the boys and girls in 3rd class have put alot of work into making them.

It is lovely to see how much the students value our school - the play areas, the flowers, colours, pond and all the sports we enjoy.

Lots of great ideas have been put forward to improve our school which will definitely be noted. These will make up our action plan for the coming weeks. These include:

1. Bringing back our Friday Whole School Assemblies. Next week Student council will draw up a rota for assemblies. If weather is permitting, we will have short assemblies on yard. These will be socially distanced. If the weather does not permit, we can use our whiteboards and connect with the other classes.

2. We would like to freshen the school up with some colourful paint on our windowsills.

3. We would like to add more flowers to our garden. Some great ideas were shared on the applications - like giving each class a flower bed of its own or a pack of seeds to sow. We may need to think which flowers grow best in the different seasons to make the most of this idea.

Stained Glass Windows

The Junior Infants learned about how glass is made this week and we made stained glass windows of our own! We think they look amazing in our classroom windows!

Autumn is here!

Junior Infants created some spiky hedgehogs today!

Well-Being

In 3rd class, we have been working through the Weaving Wellbeing programme and we have spent extra time outdoors this month. We have engaged in a variety of activities which promote good mental health and wellbeing. These include mindfulness colouring, daily affirmations, breathing exercises and meditation. Each child has their own 'wellbeing toolkit' of simple strategies and tools that they can use to help regulate their feelings. We will continue to build on these as the year progresses. We also have a feelings check-in board where the children can identify how they are feeling at different times of the day and we have re-introduced our worry box as a way for the children to express any worries they may have.

Back Together Again

All of the children and staff were delighted to see the sunshine remain with us this morning as it meant we could go ahead with our first assembly of the new school year.

Unfortunately we have been unable to have our usual weekly school assemblies due to the covid restrictions but this week Senior Infants were able to help us gather together for a wonderful assembly. Each class was able to sit in their class groups in socially distanced groups and enjoy the performance from Senior Infants.

“We have all really missed gathering together, listening to a bible story, singing a hymn, sharing news, celebrating birthdays and a variety of successes from each class. Lets hope the weather keeps up for a while longer so that we can gather together again! ”

Romero Britto Art in 3rd class

3rd class created self-portraits inspired by the work of Romero Britto. They focused on line, colour, direction, value, pattern, form and shape. Once they had finished their self-portraits, they decorated the background with shapes that symbolise their own individual interests. Well done everyone!