Hello to our new friends from The Basque Country

We say,

Welcome (in English) 

‘Céad míle fáilte romhat!’

(in the Irish language)

to Erin’s friends from The Basque Country.

 

‘Céad míle fáilte romhat!’ 
means 
‘A hundred thousand welcomes’ in Irish.
  

Ireland is sometimes called ‘The Emerald Isle’

and people say there are forty shades of green

in the country side. We have never counted,

but we think there might be more. 

 

Here in Greystones, we live close to the

Little Sugar Loaf Mountain.

 

The Three Trout River is our nearest river

 

The name of our county is Wicklow

This means ‘Viking Meadow’.

 

The Vikings were fierce warriors

who came to Ireland 

from countries to the North 

from 795 AD

 

In the 1800s the sailors who sailed past

our coastland would call it ‘The Grey Stones’.

They would say

‘There was a storm at the Greystones’,

or ‘There was good fishing at The Greystones’.

This is how our town got its name.

 

The name of our school is Saint Brigid’s.

She was born over fifteen hundred years ago!

But people remember her because

she was good to the poor, the sick and the old.

Her Feast Day is on February 1st.

 

A Special Post for Mr. Geiman’s Class in Pennsylvania, USA

 

 

Hi there to the students from Mr. Geiman’s class in Pennsylvania, in the USA

who are doing the Student Blogging Challenge.

We thought you might be interested to read about the differences between

the way we speak English here, in Ireland

and the way you speak it in America.

 

If any of you were coming to visit us here in Ireland,

the different way

we use English might make things a bit confusing.

If you asked for a scone this is what we would give you:

Scone eltpics via Compfight

We would serve it with jam and cream.

By jam we mean jelly.

raspberry jam Christa via Compfight

Mmm, this looks like raspberry.

If you asked for jelly, we would give you this;

Jelly poppet with a camera via Compfight

We call these crisps

Builders Breakfast Edward Kimber via Compfight

Though we wouldn’t eat them with a knife and fork,

we might put them in a sandwich.

We call these chips:

Large Chips - Zest Wraps QV AUD4Creative Commons License Alpha via Compfight

unless we are in McDonald’s, in which case

we call them ‘french fries’.

We think it is interesting, that

although both the Irish

and the Americans speak English,

they speak if differently.

Blogging Buddies: A Response to Mrs.Todd’s Class in the USA. Irish Food Imports & Exports

Mrs. Todd’s Class from Rocky River Elementary School, Northern Carolina are doing a project about agriculture around the world. We have collaborated with her class ‘The Roadrunners’ before. You can see this work here.

‘The Roadrunners’ asked us some questions about Irish food imports and exports.You can see their class blog ‘Going Global at Rocky River’ here.

Do we import a lot of food in Ireland?

Yes we do. Half the annual 16 billion euro spent on food and drink in Ireland is spent on goods that have been imported. That is 8 billion euro’s worth.

Every Cloud Has A Silver Lining

Melanie W. via Compfight

Some imports are a result of our climate. Here in Ireland we can’t grow coffee, cocoa or oranges.

OrangesCreative Commons License

Quinn Dombrowski via Compfight

Many food brands that we assume to be Irish are in fact imported.

Boyne

Andrew Becraft via Compfight

For example the Boyne Valley is a beautiful place in Ireland but Boyne Valley Honey is imported from Europe and South America.

honey dipper

Brenda Anderson via Compfight

This is because of our wet climate, the lack of beekeepers and the decline of Irish bees.

So sweet.

Mixy Lorenzo via Compfight

Siucra is the Irish word for sugar. Last century we had sugar beet factories but they have been closed down.

Now we import sugar from Germany on account of a political decision to shut down the factories.

What foods do we export?

We import 8 billion euros worth and we export €10 billion euros worth.

IMG_1719

The.Rohit via Compfight

One third of our exports and meat and livestock.

little calfie called mopsy

cskk via Compfight

We also export a lot of prepared foods (e.g. fat-filled milk powders, cooked meats, pizza, sauces, bakery and confectionary) accounts for 1.65 billion euros worth.

Soda bread. Turned out nice again.

quimby via Compfight

We are an island nation surrounded by the sea so it is not surprising that we also export seafood.

Nearly half our exports go to our neighbours in the United Kingdom. We also export a lot to Europe. We export beef and dairy to the USA and luxury speciality foods.

 

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Irish people living in the USA like to eat Irish rashers and sausages and other products. It reminds them of home.

Do we have an international aisle in the supermarket?

We have lots of international food in the supermarket.

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The Census in 2011 tells us that nearly 3% of our population are Polish. There are also a lot of people from other parts of Eastern Europe living in Ireland. We also have many European, Asian and African people living in Ireland.

Irish people who have travelled abroad enjoy foreign food. The result of this is that we find lots of international food in the supermarket.

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We like to eat Chinese, Italian and Indian food. You can see this on the supermarket shelves.

The people from other countries like Poland like to eat food from their country.

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Oreos from the USA are a popular product here among the children in Ireland.

Mmmmmm. Delicious!

Cookies & Cream (Oreo) Bark

I Believe I Can Fry via Compfight

However when we looked at where the packets of Oreos in the supermarket, we discovered they were made in the United Kingdom under license from the USA.

We were asked are there food shortages in Ireland? Do people go hungry?

IMG_1197 Tim Brown via Compfight

Sadly the 2014 Census tells us that In 11% of children (aged 0-17) lived in poverty and so would not have enough food to eat.11% is is one in nine children.

Update: Collaborative Project: Comparing Proverbs in Ireland & New Zealand. Using Abair.tcd.ie – The Irish Language Synthesizer

graphicconversation

Marc Wathieu via Compfight

We are doing a very interesting collaborative project with Mr. Webb’s class, Room Three, Auroa Primary School, Taranaki, New Zealand. We are comparing Irish proverbs and proverbs from New Zealand. You can see the work Mr. Webb’s class is doing HERE. We are going to compare their proverbs with ours and see the similarities and differences. Click on THIS LINK to see the work we have done so far.

Mr. Webb asked us to record the proverbs in the Irish language, so his students could hear them being spoken. We work in a ‘shared area’ in a very busy room and it is hard to record. However before the Halloween break we got received a really useful hint telling us about the speech synthesizer at ABAIR:

Comment5

You can find Abair.tcd.ie  HERE . We wrote Irish proverbs into the box on this page and Abair.tcd.ie produced a sound recording of it.

website

It was interesting and easy to use. Many thanks to Aonghus for that advice.

Here are the sound recordings we made of the Irish proverbs we had chosen:

A country without a language is a country without a soul (Tír gan teanga, tír gan anam)

Hunger is a good sauce. (Is maith an t-anlann an t-ocras).

A rainy day isn’t a day for children (Ní hé lá na báistí lá na bpáistí).

A beetle recognises another beetle (Aithníonn ciaróg ciaróg eile) in other words ‘It takes one to know one’.

A (real) friend’s eye is a good mirror. (Is maith an scáthán súil charad)

He who is not strong must needs be smart! (An té nach mbíonn láidir ní folláir dó bheith glic)

Everyone is goodhumoured until a cow strays into his garden. (Bíonn chuile dhuine lách go dtéann bó ina gharraí)

 

Collaborative Project: Proverbs in Ireland compared to those in New Zealand.

Seanfhocail

In September we got an encouraging message all the way from New Zealand.

‘I just wanted to say how inspirational and how exciting it is to know that your blog is up and running again because your students are posting. We still have our Leprechaun as a big part of our classroom display and focusing on the world and we are so grateful for the comments and feedback that we have received.

Our students have been able to have a little window into your life and culture and we are so much the better for the experience. Although we are never going to meet in person it is such a wonderful learning opportunity to have the learning connected through the internet and the connections that we have made.
Mr Webb and Room Three, Auroa Primary School, Taranaki, New Zealand.’

mrwebbauroa.blogspot.ie

We have know Mr Webb’s classes since 2013. We have worked with them in the past. For example we learned about how Maori people introduce themselves using a ‘mihi’. We made an Irish version HERE. We also explained Halloween Traditions in Ireland to Mr Webb’s previous class in Melville.

We were excited to get this message and we replied:

Dear Mr Webb and Room 3,

We were very happy to hear from you all the way from New Zealand. We are glad to hear that the leprechaun we posted over to you is still doing well. We agree that it is fun to make connections with you in New Zealand and all over the world over the world wide web. 

We were wondering do you have saying or proverbs in New Zealand that are unique to New Zealand. We have some Irish ones here (that we have translated into English so you can understand them). Would you have any sayings like them in New Zealand?

A country without a language is a country without a soul (Tír gan teanga, tír gan anam)

Hunger is a good sauce. (Is maith an t-anlann an t-ocras).

A rainy day isn’t a day for children (Ní hé lá na báistí lá na bpáistí).

A beetle recognises another beetle (Aithníonn ciaróg ciaróg eile) in other words ‘It takes one to know one’.

A (real) friend’s eye is a good mirror. (Is maith an scáthán súil charad)

Many a time a man’s mouth broke his nose. (Is minic a bhris béal duine a shrón) A row is often caused by something said.

He who is not strong must needs be smart! (An té nach mbíonn láidir ní folláir dó bheith glic)

Everyone is goodhumoured until a cow strays into his garden. (Bíonn chuile dhuine lách go dtéann bó ina gharraí)

We think they are colourful and different to the ones we would hear in English.

Would you mind telling us a few of your Maori proverbs? We would be VERY interested.

With every good wish

And we got a reply:

We would love to do a proverb exchange with your students – we have a set of Maori Proverbs that we are going to be working on at this end.

We’re going to create them as a unit of work. We are going to start by looking at your proverbs and we were wondering if there was some way that they could be spoken? A vocaroo or another digital way? Its a little hard for us to read them in Gaelic.

We will be looking at a proverb, exploring its meaning then presenting them as art.
Mr Webb and Room Three, Auroa Primary School, New Zealand

We have been working on digital art for this project. We have used Canva and the photo editing tools on Pho.to and Befunky. You can see the posters HERE. We will add an audio to them shortly using Vocaroo.

UPDATED: Today we got a new message from Mr Webb. He said:

Yes! We are very excited about this project. This week we have a special day at our school. We have our Lamb and Calf Day where students are able to bring one of these animals for a show. Most of the students who are showing animals have been preparing them for Thursday since the animals were born! Half of the students in our class are bringing either animals. Once we’ve got this out the way we’ll complete the proverbs work and we’re very excited about it.

Mr Webb and Room Three, Auroa Primary School, Taranaki, New Zealand

We are interested in what Mr Webb had to tell us. Lambs and calves are being born in New Zealand now. It must be spring time there. We will be waiting until February and March for new lambs and baby calves here in Ireland.

We are really interested that the students would be allowed bring lambs and calves to school. A kind farmer brings two lambs in every year, but the most we would be allowed bring in is a rabbit or a hamster. Just one student at  a time and it would be unusual. We can’t remember the last time anyone brought a pet into school.

A Short History of Greystones

 

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Creative Commons License Photo Credit: long may she rain ☂ via Compfight

History of Greystones

Long ago no one lived in Greystones.

It was too wild and wind swept.

Then King Heremon built a rath

Sheep of Kings
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: mollydot via Compfight

in a more sheltered spot to the north of Greystones.

This was at Rathdown.

This was 500 BC.

 Pestle and mortar - Choquequirao - PeruCreative Commons License Mark Rowland via Compfight

Early farmers lived at Rathdown too

By the Middle Ages there were 500 people living at Rathdown.

DSC_2425 Joachim S. Müller via Compfight

The Vikings came by boat and by land from Dublin.

Viking swords
Photo Credit: Arild Nybø via Compfight

Greystones is in County Wicklow.

Wicklow means ‘Viking Meadow’.

85 Haithabu Herbstmesse WMH 02-11-2014 Kai-Erik via Compfight.

Vikings were fierce warriors from the North of Europe.

Later the Normans lived at the castle.

They were skilled soldiers from the North of France.

William's silhouette
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Matthijs via Compfight

 

In 1301, the wild, Wicklow tribes,

the O’Tooles and the O’Byrnes burnt down the castle.

They came on foot and horseback.

Greystones (Na Clocha Liatha in Irish) is a coastal town in County WicklowCreative Commons License William Murphy via Compfight

In 1800 no one was living at Greystones.  

Described as a ‘wild headland’,

English speaking sailors

sailing on the Irish Sea

used call the area ‘the grey stones’

because of the grey rocks.

In 1825, there were 7 fishing families living there.

Noose Mike Dean via Compfight

The arrival of the railway changed all that.

Now we are a town in the ‘commuter belt’.

People live in Greystones

and commute by train to Dublin city to work.

Lots of tourists come and visit us on the train.

It is a good place to visit and a GREAT place to live.

 

204 of 365 - …upon the mountains like a flame

Fearghal via Compfight

 

 

 

Food: Difference between American English and how we speak English in Ireland.

Mrs. Todd’s Class ‘The Roadrunners’

are from North Carolina in the USA.

They have a blog called

‘Going Global as Rocky River’. 

They are learning about other countries

and other cultures.

 

Hi there Roadrunners,

If any of you were coming to visit us here in Ireland,

the different way

we use English might make things a bit confusing.

If you asked for a scone this is what we would give you:

Scone eltpics via Compfight

We would serve it with jam and cream.

By jam we mean jelly.

raspberry jam Christa via Compfight

Mmm, this looks like raspberry.

If you asked for jelly, we would give you this;

Jelly poppet with a camera via Compfight

We call these crisps

Builders Breakfast Edward Kimber via Compfight

Though we wouldn’t eat them with a knife and fork,

we might put them in a sandwich.

We call these chips:

Large Chips - Zest Wraps QV AUD4Creative Commons License Alpha via Compfight

unless we are in McDonald’s, in which case

we call them ‘french fries’.

We think it is interesting, that

although both the Irish

and the Americans speak English,

they speak if differently.

 

Click on this link if you want to read more

about the food we eat in Ireland.

Differences between the USA and Ireland: Distances and Area.

To our Blogging Buddies,

Mrs. Todd’s class The Roadrunners

 

We can see where North Carolina is.

Can you see us?
2013-09-12 ThankingCreative Commons License

Denise Krebs via Compfight

The main thing is we are so much smaller than you are.

The US is 9,826,675 sq km sq kms.

Ireland is 81,638 sq kms.

Ireland would fit in the United States 120 times

with room to spare.

 

If North Carolina is 139,390 km² in area,

Ireland would easily fit into North Carolina

with even more room to spare.

 

At its longest from Antrim down to Cork, Ireland is 486km.

At its widest from County Down across to Mayo, it is 167km.

 

So we are small, but we say

‘the best goods come in small parcels.’

169/366 Father's Day Nuwandalice via Compfight

#stubc15: Great opportunity for class & student bloggers: Student Blogging Challenge begins early March 2015. #edchatie

BeFunky_Underpainting_242.jpg

 

Participating in the the biannual

Student Blogging Challenge

is an excellent opportunity

for individual students and classes who blog,

to learn new blogging skills,

to develop their blog

and make contact with students and schools

all over the globe.

 

It is conducted over ten weeks

in September and March of each year.

The next challenge is in early March.

Here are the Frequently Asked Questions

about the challenge.

 

We can’t recommend it highly enough.

Our own experience was

that as a result of participating

in the Student Blogging Challenge

we made contact with many schools

from all over USA, Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand

and we learnt many new blogging skills.

 

Here is a flipboard of the work that was posted globally

during the challenge this time last year.

BeFunky_Underpainting_242.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We found it was a wonderful opportunity

and we really ‘took off’ as a result of participating

in the ‘Student Blogging Challenge’.

Why not try it?

You have everything to gain

and nothing to lose !

Here are the details of how to register.

#BeautifulGreystones – We live in a beautiful place: Greystones, County Wicklow, Ireland

bray to greystonesCreative Commons License
Rach via Compfight

 

We go to school in St. Brigid’s National School

in Greystones, County Wicklow in Ireland.

Most of us live nearby.

We love living in Greystones.

It is a good community where people look out for each other.

 

Visitors to our blog often ask what Greystones is like.

Take a look at this video created

by a talented young photographer Seán Daly

and you will see what a beautiful part of the world we live in;

an hour away from our capital city of Dublin,

beside the sea and near the Wicklow hills.

Another Milestones: 50 Thousand Visitors to Our Blog :D

50 thousand

Today we reached a new milestone on this blog.

We now have had 50,000 visitors.

 

We really appreciate because

in our first year blogging 2011-12,

we had just 1,000 visitors.

In 2012-13 we had 14,000. 

Year beginning  Visitors   
30th August 2011-2012    1,000
30th August 2012-2013   14,000
30th August 2013-2014   24,000

 
 
 
 

 

Now we have had a total of 50,000 visitors.

 

Thank you for visiting,

and call back again soon.

@YollisClass; Thank you for visiting us in Ireland

We say, ‘Céad míle fáilte romhat!’

to visitors.

This means ‘A hundred thousand welcomes’ in Irish.
We would like to say Go raibh maith agat! (Thank you)
to Mrs. Yollis’ class who visited us here in
Greystones, in Wicklow in Ireland.
and especially Aryana, who left a great comment.

 

Ireland is sometimes called ‘The Emerald Isle’

and people say there are forty shades of green

in the country side. We have never counted,

but we think there might be more. 

 

Here in Greystones, we live close to the

Little Sugar Loaf Mountain.

 

The Three Trout River is our nearest river

 

The name of our county is Wicklow

This means ‘Viking Meadow’.

 

The Vikings were fierce warriors

who came to Ireland 

from countries to the North 

from 795 AD

 

In the 1800s the sailors who sailed past

our coastland would call it ‘The Grey Stones’.

They would say

‘There was a storm at the Greystones’,

or ‘There was good fishing at The Greystones’.

This is how our town got its name.

 

The name of our school is Saint Brigid’s.

She was born over fifteen hundred years ago!

But people remember her because

she was good to the poor, the sick and the old.

February 1st is her Feast Day

 

Welcoming Visitors to Ireland; What we think you should see!

 

To Visitors to Our Blog,

 

Thank you for visiting us 🙂

We are from Ireland.

Did you know that Ireland is an island?

Our closest neighbour is Great Britain.

Ireland is in the North Atlantic Ocean.

Europe sept. 1938
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Erik Daugaard via Compfight 

You will see from this map that Ireland

is the third largest island in Europe.

Iceland is the largest island in Europe.

Can you guess what is the second largest island?

(Hint: It is our nearest neighbour.)

 

Ireland is the twentieth largest island in the world.

Australia is the largest island in the world.

 

Ireland is divided up into 32 counties

(like states in the USA).

26 of these are in the south of Ireland

and 6 are in the north.

Killruddery.jpg

We live in the County of Wicklow.

It’s nickname is ‘The Garden of Ireland’

because it is pretty.

 

Wicklow is on the east coast of Ireland.

We live 39 kilometres south of Dublin.

Dublin is our capital city.

Night reflection on River Liffey Carlos Bustamante Restrepo via Compfight

Dublin, is our largest city.

There are 859,976 people living in Dublin.

 

There are 4.5 million people living in Ireland.

Ireland is 84,421 km squared.

Ireland would fit into the USA

120 times approximately.

 inishowen light
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Janek Kloss via Compfight

The most northern part of mainland Ireland

is the Inishowen Peninsula in County Donegal.

It lies at latitude 55.38ºN.

The most southern part is  Mizen Head.

It lies at latitude 51.45ºN

Mizen Head
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Dave Brookes via Compfight

The most easterly point is the Ards Peninsula,

County Down at longitude 5.43ºW.

Dingle & Peninsula, Ireland
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Andree & Edward via Compfight

The most westerly point is on the Dingle Peninsula, County Kerry.

It lies at longitude 10.51ºW.

People joke and say that the next stopping point is the USA

(which it is, over the sea!)

Carrauntoohil, Killarney
Photo Credit: ritesh3 via Compfight

Our highest mountain is Carrantuohill, County Kerry,

which is 1,041 metres above sea level.

Carrick on Shannon
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Michael Hanisch via Compfight

The longest river in Ireland is the River Shannon  (386 km) 

Lough Neagh (396 km²) is our largest lake.

Powerscourt Waterfall
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: safahmy via Compfight

We live near Ireland’s tallest waterfall.

Powerscourt Waterfall is in County Wicklow.

The water falls 106 metres.

 

However there are three places in Ireland

that we think you definitely should see.

One is the Giant’s Causeway.

Giants causeway.
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Martina (Tina) via Compfight

The Giant’s Causeway  resulted from

the eruption of a volcano in ancient times.

It is a very interesting formation of

40,000 basalt columns that fit together

as if a giant had laid them down.

Lots of tourists visit the Giant’s Causeway.

You can read a legend about how it got its name here.

68.jpg

Then there is the Greystones Bear

Mrs.Mooney's shop

and last but not least is Mrs. Mooney’s sweet shop.

Her sweet shop is beside our school.

UPDATE: Happily for Mrs. Mooney, she is now retired. Sadly for us, we have to walk further for our treats 😉 

A ‘Storify’ about Blogging Buddies: Class ‏‏5/6 Clark/Smith

One of the things we love about blogging is the friends we make.

Alex and Bruno have just begun to code using Scratch.

This week they got great encouragement from a 5th/6th grade

class from Hobart, in Tasmania: 5/6 Clark/Smith.

 

They are further along in their coding than us.

They are doing really interesting projects using Scratch.

Click on this link and see the great work they are doing.

 

Below is a Storify of the conversation we had with them

Bruno and Alex were amazed and encouraged

to get a message from a class that live 17,739 km away!

This is the first time we used Storify. It was easy and it was fun.

Back to School

Dionne Quintuplets - School Days / Quintuplées Dionne - Journées à l'école
Photo Credit: BiblioArchives / LibraryArchives via Compfight

Tomorrow is our first day back in school.

Here in Ireland, it will be the first  day

of the new school year. Students will be in

new classes and may have new teachers.

 

In some other parts of the world

students move up to their new classes

early in the new year. This is true of

Australia and New Zealand for example.

 

Schools are busy places, no matter where you

are in the world.

 

Have a look at this video to see how busy

it got in Mr. Spice’s class in Aurora School

in New Zealand, on their first day back

in school in early February. They are a Year 5/6.

In Ireland that would be a 3rd and 4th class.

We love this video.

One of the best things about blogging: Making ‘Blogging Buddies’

• • • Happy • • •
Photo Credit: David Robert Bliwas via Compfight

One of the best things about blogging

is making ‘Blogging Buddies’.

We have made friends with children

and their teachers from nearby Bray.

and faraway USA, Canada,

Australia and New Zealand.

We have exchanged messages, packages

and even had a visitor from Tasmania.

and we even had a visitor from Tasmania.

One of the best things about blogging: Interesting things we learn

Seated, six feet off the ground.
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: David via Compfight

When we blog we learn interesting things

about people and places all over the world.

We learned that New Zealand is ahead of us.

When it is Sunday evening here,

the students are back in school for Monday.

 

We learned when it is Winter in Ireland,

it is Summer in Australia.

 

Did you know that students in New Zealand

do not wear shoes in class.

This wonderful video is how we found out.

We also see how hard they work.

 

Thank you to Mr. Spice and his students in

Room Three, Aurora School,

Taranaki, New Zealand.

Have a look here.

It is amazing 🙂

 

If you want to know more about

students going barefoot in school

Izzy, Emily and Gemma

from Mr. Webb’s Room One

Aurora School made a short film

about it. You can see it here.

A Visitor from Tasmania; So this is how the visit went!

We had a visitor to our school.

Ms. Wyatt had travelled from Hobart in Tasmania.
 
Visitor
 
According to our research,

this is a distance of 11,023 miles

or even more kilometres; 17739.7989
 
She told us all about Australia and we sang for her.

47.jpg
 
We also taught her some Irish.
 
51.jpg
 
Ms.Wyatt was a quick learner.
 
39.jpg
 
Then we went for a walk to see ‘The Greystones Bear’.
 
65.jpg
 
‘The Greystones Bear’ has had lots of visitors.
 
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But we think Ms.Wyatt must have come from furthest away.
 
93.jpg
 
No visit to Greystones would be complete

without calling into the best sweetshop in Ireland

and the wonderful Mrs. Mooney.
 
99.jpg
We hope Ms. Wyatt enjoyed her visit as much as we did.  

You can read what Davo the Tasmanian Devil

thought of his visit to Greystones here.

He and Ms. Wyatt also went to visit

our good friends in St. Peter’s, Bray.

We thought it was a happy and successful visit

and we hope Ms.Wyatt agrees.

@tasteach; Blogging Buddies: A Visitor from Tasmania

Sentinel Range - Tasmania
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Bill Higham via Compfight

On Wednesday we are having a visitor to the school.

Her name is Sue Wyatt and she is visiting Ireland from Tasmania.

She is a very busy and dedicated,

former teacher from Hobart in Tasmania.

 

In 2011 she visited schools in USA and Canada.

She travelled 10,000 miles in three months.

She is visiting some schools in Ireland while she is here.

 

Miss Wyatt is a special visitor and is very welcome.

She has been a very good friend to St. Brigid’s.

We first met her in March 2012

when the students working on the class blog,

‘If Only The Best Birds Sang’ took part

in the international Student Blogging Challenge.

 

Miss Wyatt runs this blogging challenge biannually.

It gives the opportunity to individual students

and classes who blog, to learn new blogging skills

and to develop their blog in a systematic way.

 

Through the well designed weekly challenges 

students make contact with other students

and schools all over the globe.

Miss Wyatt was very encouraging to us at that time

and we learned a great deal.

Click HERE to see one of the challenges we did.

 

Earlier in this school year,

(along with Ms. Brennan

and Ms. Sexton, from St. Peter’s, Bray),

Ms Wyatt nominated us for an Edublogs Award. 

(Ms. Wyatt will be visiting St. Peter’s too.)

 

We were very proud of this nomination.

A good ‘blogging buddy’ of ours from

Taranaki in New Zealand,

Mr Webb said that being in this competition

meant that we were

‘up against the very best educators

and class pages around the world’.

 

When Ms. Wyatt comes we would like to hear

all about her visit to Ireland.

We will ask her about Tasmania.

 

If the weather is fine,

we hope to have our photograph taken with

‘The Greystones Bear’.

 

Ms.Wyatt has travelled about 10,000 miles to get here.

We reckon she will be the longest travelled visitor

to meet our lovely ‘Greystones Bear’ to date.

 

We will also go to Mrs. Mooney’s.

Mrs. Mooney owns a wonderful sweetshop

and she has featured in our blog.

 

It is good to have something to look forward to.

It is lovely to have visitors.

We are looking forward to meeting Ms. Wyatt this week.

Hello to the boys and girls in Room 8 @ Aurora (South Taranaki, New Zealand)

Recently we visited a lovely blog

recommended to us by our ‘old’ friend 😉

Mr. Webb from Aurora School, in New Zealand.

This blog is Room 8 @ Aurora.

Room 8 is a 0-2 Class. In Ireland we would say

a Junior and Senior Infants class.

Like ourselves the school is not far from the beach.

Their school is surrounded by farmland.

Why not visit their blog!

Call in and say hello! You can find it here.

Ms Nicholas's Blog

We left a comment on this blog

and their teacher Ms.Nicholas kindly replied:
From Ms Nicholas

So hello to the children in Room 8, Aurora.

It is nice to meet you.

Let us tell you a little bit about our school.

The teachers are kind and fair and the students are friendly.

You can see our school here:

There are lots of good things about Greystones,

the town where we live too.

It is beside the sea.

There are lots of things to do for children.

 

You would like living in Greystones if you like

football, rugby, tennis, karate, running,

cycling, swimming and skateboarding.

 

You would also like to live in Greystones

if you were interested in music, drama or reading.

There is a very good library in Greystones.

Hi.jpg

 

Bye for now.

We hope you have a good week in school.

We will visit again, soon.

Blogging Friends & Global Connections – Say Hello to Isabelle from New Zealand @Izzy Incredible iBlog

Isabelle's Blog

Say hello to Isabelle.

She is from Mr. Webb’s class

in Auroa School

in New Zealand.

She has been blogging for approximately 6 weeks

and has had over 2,000 visitors.

She is good at making global connections.

She has left two comments on our blog in that time

and she has written a post about a package

that we sent to her class.

Do drop in and say hello!

You will find her blog 

‘Izzy Incredible iBlog’ here.

Making Connections for St. Patrick’s Day

We sent St. Patrick’s Day Greetings near…

to blogging friends in St. Peter’s Bray:

DSC01642

and far ….

all the way to Auroa School, in New Zealand

IMGA0354]

Click on this link to see what

Room One, Auroa School in New Zealand

had to say about the bits and bobs we sent them.

 

Below is Larry the Leprechaun in

St. Peter’s in Bray.

 

Why not leave a message for our blogging buddies

in Bray and New Zealand.

They are a friendly bunch and we know

they would LOVE to hear from you.

BeFunky_St Peter's Tweet.jpg

Larry the Leprechaun certainly

got around in the past week or so!

 

@SummerBuzz THANK YOU! You are a Bee in a Million :)

Brigid the Biodiversity Bee got a surprise this week.

envelope.jpg

A package arrived in school addressed to her.

It was the first time she ever got anything in

the post and she was terribly excited.

summerbuzz.jpg

It was from a good friend of ours. Her name is

The Summer Buzz Bee.  Brigid is on an mission.

Her mission is to help children learn about

Biodiversity.

Summer Buzz is on an important mission too.

She encourages children to love books and to read.

book.jpg

The Summer Buzz Bee knows all about Brigid

and knew exactly what she would be interested in.

open.jpg

She sent her a book about how kids can be green.

book2.jpg

And a book about an ant and a honey bee.

letter.jpg

Summer Buzz says Brigid can leave these books in

the school library when she is finished with them.

Summer Buzz is very kind.

Thank you Summer Buzz.