Hello and welcome to our blog! We are Cecelia's senior infants in Balbriggan ETNS. Please feel free to follow us on Twitter and leave lots of comments on our blog. Go raibh míle maith agaibh! :-D
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Showing posts with label Learn Together. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Learn Together. Show all posts

Thursday, 12 June 2014

Photography Fun On Our Field Trip!

Posted in ,,, | 17:50 | by Cecelia


We went on a really fun field trip today! We went to visit a field to see if we could find the plants that we'd been learning about for the past two weeks. We each had a treasure hunt card and we had to try find all the plants on the list. When we found them, we had to take a photo of them. Check out some of our photos here! 



















We did great on the field trip so it's no wonder then that we won the Greenwave photography competition! A piece of good news came through yesterday telling us that our photo of the hawthorn bud burst had been chosen as the best of all. As a result of this we get a digital camera for the school! Fintan was very pleased with us! :-) 

Check it out here!

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Wednesday, 9 April 2014

Conserving Water

Posted in ,, | 14:14 | by Cecelia


For the past few weeks, our Learn Together assemblies have been focussing on water. 

Today was the final day when we looked at all the different ways to conserve and protect water. 

We learned a lot about what wastes water and also what pollutes water (makes it dirty).  

Everyone in senior infants is going to try very hard to be a Wise Water User!

If you need a bit of revision on how to do this, have a look at the scene below!


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Monday, 7 April 2014

Horse Chestnut Bud Burst!

Posted in ,, | 14:14 | by Cecelia


Spring has really hit Balbriggan this week! 

We saw the primroses last week, a hawthorn bud burst and we noticed on Friday that the horse chestnut was really close to opening. 


And then.... this morning when we checked, the bud had burst!

Check it out here! 



Now we need to look out for the bud burst of the ash and the arrival of the swallow!

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Friday, 4 April 2014

Faith Ringgold

Posted in , | 16:37 | by Cecelia


We've spent the last two weeks learning about the American artist Faith Ringgold. 

Faith is a great inspiration because not only is she a wonderful artist but she also worked hard through her life to bring about equality for African Americans and women.
She's a real life human rights defender! 

She is very famous for her story quilts (like Tar Beach).



We used these quilts as inspiration for our own art. 

We chose our favourite memory and surrounded it by the nicest pattern we could think of. 

Our story quilts came out great! Check them out here!

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Field Trip to the Hedgerow

Posted in , | 15:43 | by Cecelia


Today we went on a field trip to the hedgerow.  

We drew some things from the natural environment and also listed some things that didn't belong.  We also did a survey on the plants we saw - hawthorn, brambles, dandelion and goose grass/robin run the hedge. 





                             
We also saw some signs of spring.  We found lots of primroses.  There were lots of beautiful ladybirds on them.  




We saw a dandelion flower too.  Dandelion comes from the French name for the plant 'dan de lion' which means the teeth of the lion.  


                                             
We also saw a hawthorn bud burst.  This was very exciting as it was another of the signs of spring we were looking out for as part of the Greenwave project!


We saw lots of brambles on the field trip too.  We even spotted two snails on one of the leaves.



We really loved goose grass because it is so sticky.  Cecelia said that she used to stick this on her brother's back when they were children and we all had great fun trying this out on each other! 

  



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Thursday, 3 April 2014

The Water Cycle

Posted in ,, | 13:52 | by Cecelia


We were learning about the water cycle in assembly today. 

We were all disgusted to realise that the water we were drinking might one time have been inside an animal - and might even have been urinated out by it! YUCK!!!

Luckily the water is cleaned before it gets to us! 

The journey of a drop of water was really interesting though. 

If you want to go on another journey, click the picture below. 

(You might need an adult's help to get past the quiz questions at each stage.)


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Saturday, 15 February 2014

Greenwave Project

Posted in ,, | 16:14 | by Cecelia


As you may know, our class is currently participating in the Greenwave project for schools. 

 This involves measuring the weather and watching out for signs of spring arriving in the area. 

 The six signs are: 
- Primroses blooming 
- Frogspawn 
- Bud burst of ash tree (emergence of the leaf at the end of the branch) 
- Bud burst of horse chestnut tree (emergence of the leaf at the end of the branch) 
- Bud burst of hawthorn tree (emergence of the leaf at the end of the branch) 
- Arrival of swallows. 

 Over the midterm break, please keep an eye out for these happenings. If you spot any of them, please email cecelia.class@gmail.com (or comment here!). If possible, please also take a photograph and send it on to accompany it as Greenwave are also running a photography competition for schools this year too. 

 Primroses and hawthorn can be found in the hedgerows around Balbriggan, including the hedges beside our school. You will find ash and chestnut trees in the park behind St. Peter & Paul’s church carpark and also in the small park to the left of the church. Keep an eye out for swallows nesting in sheds or warehouses. You may be lucky enough to find frogspawn in ponds or ditches, but please be careful when you are near water. 

Additional information and guides to identification can be found on www.greenwave.ie.

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Friday, 14 February 2014

International Mother Language Day - 21st February 2014

Posted in | 00:00 | by Cecelia


Human rights education is one of the key aspects of the Learn Together curriculum for Educate Together schools. In Balbriggan ETNS, we do a lot of work on human rights - not just during our Human Rights Month of October but right throughout the year! 

One of the rights highlighted in both the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child is the right to a language. 

To celebrate International Mother Language Day on the 21st February, we decided to do a video project celebrating the first languages of the members of our school community (including English and Irish of course!). 

We asked the families who spoke different languages to translate some key phrases from English into their first language. The student council then assisted one of the teachers to collect together the children who chose to be identified with the different linguistic groups (and of course who wanted to participate in the project!) to create a video of them teaching others some key words in their language or singing the song Frére Jacques in their language (for those who were so inclined). 

Huge and heartfelt thanks to all the children and families who participated for sharing their languages with us! 

Check out the project here!
http://languagesinbetns.weebly.com/

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Wednesday, 22 January 2014

Martin Luther King

Posted in , | 13:53 | by Cecelia


Today we were learning all about Martin Luther King.


We read Martin's Big Words by Doreen Rappaport. 



We also watched a video about him.  We learned a lot.









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Tuesday, 17 December 2013

A little taster....

Posted in , | 16:30 | by Cecelia


Here's a little taster of what to expect tomorrow... 

This video is from our rehearsal yesterday.

To see the real thing (with our now completed props!) come in to the sports hall tomorrow for 10.30 SHARP!!! :-)

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Friday, 6 December 2013

Nelson Mandela

Posted in | 13:45 | by Cecelia


Today we were learning about Nelson Mandela. If you want to learn some more, you can check out the BBC website about him. There are a lot of words though so you will need an adult with you to help you read it.  

If you want to complete more of the challenges, you can go to them by clicking on videos. 



 Then you click on games. 


 Have fun!

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Tuesday, 3 December 2013

Making bird feeders!

Posted in , | 16:25 | by Cecelia


We made bird feeders for the birds around the school because it's getting colder and colder as we get deeper into winter and during winter it can be hard for birds to find enough food. We stirred some bird seed into gelatine and used cookie cutters to make nice shapes. We left them for a few days to dry and then we hung them up on the trees outside the school. 












Be sure to keep an eye out for them in the morning - I wonder will we see the birds eating them? How exciting!

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Thursday, 14 November 2013

Painting Our Barrel Top Wagons

Posted in , | 14:40 | by Cecelia


We painted our barrel top wagons today! We did a great job and were really devoted artists who concentrated really well! :-)

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Monday, 4 November 2013

Diwali!

Posted in | 16:07 | by Cecelia


The Hindu festival of lights - Diwali started yesterday (Sunday the 3rd of November). It will be continuing for the next 5 days. 


Today in class we watched a video about the story of Diwali (the Ramayana) and learned a little about how Hindus celebrate this important festival. Here is a video showing one version of the Ramayana.  






You can learn about how Hindus celebrate Diwali here.



Finally, here is a video showing some celebrations from India.





We will also be making Rangoli patterns later this week!

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