#BlogAwardsIE: Nominated in the Blog Awards Ireland 2014

Mirabellen
Photo Credit: *Light Painting* via Compfight

Blog Awards Ireland works to celebrate

the very best in Irish blogging’. 

 

We were excited and delighted to hear

that our blog ‘If Only The Best Birds Sang’

appears on the ‘long list’ of nominations for 

Best Education Blog. We are there among

some very distinguished company.

 

Blog awards are encouraging for those who blog.

Our blog benefits from participating in this award,

just like in the past when we were involved in the

Eircom Junior Spiders Awards 

and Edublogs Awards 2013  

 

These competition encourage us to look at our blog

and think about how it could be improved.

For example we have worked hard on navigation

to make our blog more visitor friendly.  

 

What we like best about these awards is

that it helps us to connect more with others

beyond our own class and the school.

 

We hope that it may bring us more visitors.

We like visitors and we also like visiting other blogs.

We get great ideas from them about features,

designs and blogging tools we could use.

 

We look forward to checking out the other blogs

in the Blog Awards Ireland competition. If you are

a visitor to our blog, we would love to hear from you.

Congratulations and Well Done Molly!

Oh Boy ...
Photo Credit: Emily Jones via Compfight

Occasionally on our blog we say

‘Congratulations and Well Done’

Today we say ‘Congratulations and Well Done’

to Molly from 5th Class.

She won a poster competition run by UNICEF.

You can read more about her achievement here.

Anyone who knows Molly

will not be surprised to read that

 

‘In her composition, Molly revealed

a heart warming compassion and

understanding of the work being done

by UNICEF to help save children’s lives’.  

Congratulations and Well Done Molly!

If  you would like to see other times when we have said

‘Congratulations and Well Done’ click on this link.

Bake Sale in St. Brigid’s, Greystones for ‘The Caroline Foundation’ and ‘The Simon Community’.

Some sixth class students organised a Bake Sale

to raise money for ‘The Caroline Foundation’

and  ‘The Simon Community’.

Well done to Heather, Kieran, Emma, Sean and Jennifer

and all who helped. 

It is great to see the big hearts, generosity

and organizational skills of students.

#eddies13 – Edublog Awards 2013: Full & final results

finalist_best_class_blog-1t3kvkt

Congratulations to all the worthy winners and runners up in the 2013 Edublog Awards. The full and final results are on this link:
Edublog Awards 2013 

We were very happy to be finalists and to come fifth in our category (Best Class Blog). Thank you to everyone who voted for us. We learned a lot by visiting the other class blogs and we made new friends in other parts of the world. We love our colourful finalists’ badge which is a great reminder of this rewarding experience.

We would also like to thank those at Edublogs who made the Edublog Awards happen.

Highlights of School Year

We were asked for the Highlights of our Learning Year

Sparkler heart
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Alison Jackson-Bass via Compfight

for the school newsletter.

We were asked for five or so bullet points.

 

It was hard to choose from all the Highlights of our Learning Year,

so we will put up a longer list on this post.

 

Highlights of our Learning Year – 2nd Class Room 6

–         We were Junior Spider Awards national winners for our class blog

You can see the presentation here: Junior Spider Awards

 

–         We participated in the international Student Blogging Challenge 2013

Student Blogging Challenge 2013

 

– We learned about our digital footprint and digital citizenship.

We made friends all over the world through our blog.

 

– On 22nd January 2013 we the featured site

on the Comments4kids blogspot:

Comments4Kids Blogspot – Spotlight Blog

 

– We followed Chris Hadfield of the International Space Station on Twitter.

 

– We read these books: Our Shelfari Bookshelf

 

–         We learned how to make podcasts

Podcast: Julia reads from ‘The Snow Spider’

 

–         We participated in Digital Art Week 2013

Seasaws: Art Activity for Digital Art Week 2013

 

– We took part in the Twitter Autumn and Spring Challenge

Signs of Spring Twitter Project

 

– We entered Write A Book

Senan had his ‘moment in the sun’ and received the class merit award.

 

–         We prepared for our 1st Holy Communion. This was chronicled on the parish website:

Our Communion Preparations on the Parish Website

 

And the happy news is that

our school tour (5th June),

sports day (7th June, weather permitting)

and the annual seaside scavenger hunt (TBA) are still to come!

 

 

 

 

Congratulations to Today’s First Communicants

Well done to all the boys and girls in 2nd Class

who made their First Communion today.

We were all very proud of how well

you prepared for this special day.

 

You behaved beautifully in the church.

Everyone agreed you sang,

and read very well,

and brought up the gifts

with great reverence.

 

We hope you have had a super day

and that you get a good night’s sleep tonight.

We heard some of you were up very early indeed.

 

Teacher realises you may be very tired on Monday

and has planned the day accordingly

I am looking forward to

hearing all about your Big Day.

 

We will make thank you cards

and write some thank you letters.

You won’t have to work too hard.

Ninja Banana by Senan.

Well done to Senan who today

went to collect his Write A Book Award. 

This is the story he wrote:

Chapter One
There was once a bowl of fruit
and there was a bunch of bananas in it.
Miniature Food Fruit Plate Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Stéphanie Kilgast via Compfight
And there was a little boy banana
and his name was Bobby.
smile Creative Commons License Photo Credit: simon via Compfight
One day a person came
and picked him up
and tried to eat him,
Miniature Food - Fruit Salad 1:12 Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Stéphanie Kilgast via Compfight
but he slipped away and hid behind a curtain.
He opened his eyes
and found he was in the future.
He searched high and low
and found a Ninja Master.
114/365²: Oro parece... Photo Credit: Andrés Nieto Porras via Compfight
He asked him to train him
so no one would try to eat him again.
When the training was over
he was a black belt ninja.
 Chapter Two
Bobby Banana was sent on a mission.
The Sensai Chief told him to go
and defeat The Man Who Took Over The Future.
Monkey Beauty Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Pedro Vezini via Compfight
This was a challenge.
Bobby Banana bravely went off to find him.
To do this he had to get past
a big castle surrounded by robotic guards.
CEC Neomarines Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Dane E via Compfight
The guards saw Bobby Banana
and came at him with high tech futuristic weapons.
He fought the guards with all his might.
Eventually he was victorious.
Chapter Three
Now he was going for their boss,
The Man Who Took Over The Future.
When he got there he saw the man.
He was about to eat Banana Sundae.
Banana Split Photo Credit: Edward Lim via Compfight
That was Man Who Took Over The World’s only weakness.
The Ninja Banana was enraged.
Giant Monkey Cupcake Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Clever Cupcakes via Compfight
He used all the skills he had learned
from the Sensai Chief.
He rescued the bananas
who were about to be split
and made into a dessert.
Black-eyed Banana... a Rare Breed Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Kevin Trotman via Compfight
He rescued the banana
and he bravely defeated
the Man Who Took Over the Future.
The Wild Bunch Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Angus via Compfight

Shane wrote a song.

Shane wrote a song

with his guitar teacher Mark.

We liked it so much,

we thought we should post it.

Frosty Footpath - winter snow
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: blmiers2 via Compfight

Snow is falling all around
in the trees and on the ground.
We all go out to play
on this bright and snowy day.
Winter now is falling down x3
As we’re playing all around.

Snowman in Okaimeden
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Jodi via Compfight

I have a snow ball fight with my friends
I hope this fun never ends
We’ll build a snowman in the park.
We’ll have to leave him
when it gets dark.

3/52 Catching Snow
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Mark Seton via Compfight

Chorus

Tomorrow brings another day,
so lots more time for us to play
Sledging down the biggest hills
is how we like to get our thrills

Fireplace
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Arild Storaas via Compfight

No homework for another day,
Let’s hope tomorrow
the snow is here to stay
For another cosy night by the fire
is really my true heart’s desire.

Updates for Parents and Friends

This is footage of some of the prize giving ceremony.

From approximately 2 minutes 40 seconds 

you may see some children you know:

Junior Spiders Awards 2013 contd (Big Red Engine.com)

 

*******************************

In the following link 2nd Class Room 6

were lucky enough to get a Mega Spider Awards.

Our section is at 8 minutes 30 into the video:

More from the Junior Spider Awards.

 

Highlights from

Eircom Junior Spiders Awards

5th March, 2013

Highlights from Eircom Junior Spiders Awards 2013 from Big Red Engine.com

Well done everyone !

Recent Updates for Parents and Friends

On Tuesday 5th March 2013, 

2nd Class, Room 6,

St. Brigid’s NS.,

Greystones

won the award for best class blog at the

Eircom Junior Spider Awards 2013.

 

They were also honoured to be presented with the Grand Prix,

the overall prize for primary schools

by Coderdojo founder, James Whelton,

who himself had won a prize for Best Web Design

at the awards in 2010.

 

Eircom.net Press Release: Eircom Junior Spider Award 2013: Winners Announced

 

This is the feedback we got from the judges:

“With a diverse range of content

and media types from podcasts to polls,

this blog impressed judges on many levels.

A huge amount of work has been put in

by students to create a blog

which shows off their own work

in a very interactive way.

Readers could easily share their thoughts

and comments were frequently left on posts.

The name of the blog reflects the idea

that every child should be included

and this comes across on the blog.”

 

Here is a link where you can find the photos from the event:

Junior Spider Award photos from the event on Flick’r

 

We still find it hard to believe.

Our blog is young and our students are only seven and eight.

The standard of the other entries was so high

so we had no expectation of success.

We were just so delighted to be shortlisted

and to have a day out.

 

That we did better than that, even now,

a few days later we find quiet unreal.

It might have been a dream

except we have seen the great photos on Flick’r

and Conor McNally’s news report on News2day.

Junior Spiders link to News2Day coverage

 

Participating in the Eircom Junior Spider Awards

gave us a great opportunity.

It prompted us to look at our blog more carefully

and think about how it could be improved

so as to fulfill the criteria of the award,

particularly in terms of better navigation

and interacting with others beyond the class and the school.

It is a better blog as a result.

 

We got great ideas in terms of features and design

from the other excellent entries and

got some good advice on the day too

which will help us to get even more out of blogging.

 

We would like to thank all the people that helped us,

especially both 4th classes, Room 11 and 12

who visited our blog and made many comments,

our friends on Twitter, especially those involved with

William Chamberlain’s ingenious concept  

#comments4kids

Follow this link to find out more

through which we met many of our friends from New Zealand 

Room 5, Melville Intermediate School, Hamilton, New Zealand,

Australia and the US.

 

Thank you Sue for the lovely momentoes.

 

 

Our First Confession

Saturday 2nd March 2013 was a very special day.

We made our First Confession in Holy Rosary Church.

 

Our family and friends were there.

It was a happy day.

We had prepared well

at school with Teacher

and at home with our parents.

We had practiced the readings, songs and prayers.

We learned about the Lost Sheep and The Good Shepherd.

 

Our friend Paul, who works in the parish,

made a sacred space for us on the altar.

In the space was the shepherd and the sheep

that Paul had brought to class one day.

The singing bowl that we love was there too.

 

 

On Friday we all lit candles

and said a prayer that everything would go well.

Everything did go well.

The sun was shining and the sky was blue.

 

The ceremony was at 12.30 in Holy Rosary Church

with Father Liam, Father Denis and Father Owen.

Our parents brought us up and introduced us to the priest.

We told the priest about the times we didn’t show love.

He told us that God Our Father in Heaven forgives us.

That was a good feeling. We felt really happy.

 

Amy said she felt ‘lighter’

JC said he felt ‘amazing’

Tadhg said he felt ‘refeshed’.

Senan said he felt like ‘a clean white shirt

that had just been through the washing machine’.

Nicole said she felt ‘closer to God’

Alice said she felt that she was more ‘grown up’.

 

When we walked back down the church

and we felt that we were walking on air.

It was a good feeling.

 

 

Moments in the Sun – Being Successful – Taking Turns

We were talking in class about ‘moments in the sun’,

how every now and then some one has a day

where their talents are celebrated.

The children who took part in the Kilcoole Feis

had this ‘moment in the sun’.

 

Mark and Fiona had their most recent moment

when they got prizes in the art competition

organised by Junior Art Gallery.

 

More success will occur when the class enter

the Write A Book competition.

Winners and runners up will be picked from each class.

 

We will also enter the Junior Spiders Awards

and the Texaco Art competition

and who knows what might happen.

 

We talked about how we can’t expect

to climb to the top of the mountain

and be successful every day.

 

Being successful takes hard work.

Being successful also takes good luck.

If the weather was sunny every day

we would take it for granted.

The children in 2nd Class, Room 6

agreed that they all love snow days

but if it snowed everyday

they would eventually find this tedious.

Winning the Lotto would be

a dream come true

for many people,

but if it happened every day

we might say:

‘Oh No, not another

Lotto win’ 😉

 

We can take it in turns to be successful

and have our ‘moments in the sun’.

We can congratulate friends

who are successful

and enjoy their success

with them.

 

Today Nicole was successful.

Her lovely picture received praise

from Junior Art Gallery:

Nicole’s picture on Junior Art Gallery.com

Well done Nicole 🙂

This link will bring you to other successes 2nd Class Room 6 have had.

2nd Class Room 6 received an e-mail from Audioboo

Recently 2nd Class, Room 6 made a podcast,

of the class singing this melodic song

by Sara Bareilles and Ingrid Michaelson!

 

 

UPDATE: 27th December 2012.

This morning Teacher received an e-mail from Audioboo

which she thought would interest 2nd class, Room 6

 

Hi  Merrybeau,

 

Congratulations.

Your boo http://audioboo.fm/boos/1126073-2nd-class-room-6-sings-winter-song 

has had 1,000 listens and probably more by the time you read this. 

 

That makes us, and hopefully you, very happy.

Thanks,

 

The Audioboo team”

Amazing!


Lovely work Isabella!

Look! We are on the Parish Website

Saying Thanks

The children’s contributions to the parish website was updated

with a podcast of thank you prayers.

Quite sensibly Grannies, Grandads and chocolate all get a mention 🙂

Well done 2nd Class Room 6, you sound great on the Parish Website.

Click on the link below to hear the class singing ‘Away in a Manger’.

Greetings from 2nd Class, Room 6 this Christmas

The Kilcoole Feis – Preparing for the Poetry Section

Well done to Alice, Clara, Fiona, Julia, Nicole who participated in the Kilcoole Feis.

Well done to you all for taking part and to Fiona who won a medal for 2nd place.

We are proud of you all.

Thank you to Ms Ahern who prepared Clara, Fiona, Julia and Nicole to take part

and to Hazel from ‘Action Arts’ who prepared Alice.

Thanks too to all the parents who helped.

The girls had received a Homework Pass on Monday for all their hard work.

Thanks too, to the adjudicators and the committee who run the Feis each year.

AnswerGarden: Give some examples of ‘kind’ words.

We are doing a whole school poster competition.

We have to design a poster about good behaviour in school.

The theme is:

Respect:

Kind Hands

Kind Feet

and Kind Words.

 

As part of Anti Bullying Week

a.k.a ‘Be Kind and Be a Good Friend Week’,

we were talking in school about kind words.

 

These are the ones we thought of.

John Paul did very well.

He thought of five phrases

and John Paul’s first language is Spanish.

Well done John Paul!

 

We used ‘Answer Garden’ to record the words we thought of.

Give some examples of ‘kind’ words…. at AnswerGarden.ch.

Our Town: Congratulations to Mrs.Mooney’s Sweetshop

Toward the end of June the children in Room 6 answered an invitation

issued by The Irish Times newspaper to nominate their favourite shop.

The children nominated Mrs. Mooney’s Sweetshop.

24 Reasons that Mrs.Mooney’s Shop is Special

Today the Irish Times said that they received THOUSANDS of nominations.

But guess what ?

Mrs. Mooney’s Sweetshop is on their shortlist of the 50 Best Shops in Ireland 🙂

Well done boys and girls and many congratulations to Mrs. Mooney.

Winners of ‘The Enchanted Garden’ Competition

From Killruddery’s Estate, Facebook Page:

“Enchanted Garden Colouring Competition Winners!!
By Killruddery House and Gardens

These are the three winning entries for Enchanted Garden Colouring Competition.

Thank you to all the wonderful and creative kids who entered.

It was a really tough decision because as you can see the standard was very high.”

 

Congratulations and Well Done to Chloe and Rose.  

I’m sure you will have a magical time in ‘The Enchanted Garden.’

Mrs. Mooney’s Magical Sweetshop – Greystones

This review of Mrs. Mooney’s shop was sent in
on behalf of the children in 2nd class, Room 6.

Boys and girls you are famous!
Some of your letter about Mrs. Mooney’s Magical Sweetshop
was printed in today’s Irish Times.
Well done 😀

24 Reasons that Mrs. Mooney’s shop is special!

1.“My favourite thing about Mrs. Mooney’s Shop is ‘Traffic Light Lollipops.’” (Noah)

2.“My favourite thing about Mrs. Mooney’s Shop is you get a lot of sweets

for your money”. (Alexandra)

3. “Mrs. Mooney’s have the best sweets ever!” (Cian)

4. “My favourite thing about Mrs. Mooney’s Shop is buying lots of sweets like candy floss, brain lickers, stickies, bon bons, pop rock, chewy strawberry sweets.” (Hollie)

6.“My favourite thing about Mrs. Mooney’s Shop is that she remembers every ones’ names and that she has nice sweets” (Sinead)

7. “My favourite thing about Mrs. Mooney’s Shop is she is so kind and generous” (Nadine)

8. “Mrs. Mooney’s shop is special because Mrs. Mooney is nice and works hard. My favourite thing about Mrs. Mooney’s Shop is the sour sweets”(Taya)

9. “My favourite thing about Mrs. Mooney’s Shop is that you can buy apple bon bons. Mrs. Mooney’s shop is special because Mrs. Mooney is so kind and friendly.” (Chloe)

10. “Mrs. Mooney’s shop is special because I love the sweets there and Mrs. Mooney works hard.”(Stacey)

11. “Mrs. Mooney’s shop is special because she is so nice to all her customers and she has a big selection.”(Laura)

12. “Mrs. Mooney’s shop is special because you can get a big bag of ‘Toxic Waste’ (Don’t worry it’s not real!) for one euro” (Ryan)

13. “My favourite thing about Mrs. Mooney’s Shop is ‘Alien Spray’” (Max)

14. “Mrs. Mooney’s shop is special because she does a very good job (Jessica)

15. “My favourite thing about Mrs. Mooney’s Shop is she is so nice and

everything is value for money” (Kate)

16. “My favourite thing about Mrs. Mooney’s Shop is she’s cheap”. (Conor)

17. “Mrs. Mooney’s shop is special because Mrs. Mooney is so kind. My favourite thing about Mrs. Mooney’s Shop is that there is dog food there too. My dog Poppy loves it as much as I love the sweets there” (Ríona)

18. “My favourite thing about Mrs. Mooney’s Shop is the candy floss and the bon bons and especially the stickies” (Paris)

19. “My favourite thing about Mrs. Mooney’s shop is blue bon bones, candy floss and stickies and brain lickers, lollipops and pink bon bons”. (Sophie)

20. “My favourite thing about Mrs. Mooney’s shop is everything in Mrs. Mooney’s but my most favourite thing is the stickies and candyfloss” (Billie)

21. “My favourite thing about Mrs. Mooney is candyfloss”, from Luke.

22. “Mrs. Mooney’s shop is very special because it is very nice. It is very low on price compared to Auntie Nellie’s sweet shop and much nicer than Auntie Nellies. My favourite sweet shop is Mrs. Mooney’s. I love and adore the shop because it is cheap and they are really nice”. (Sarah)

23. “Mrs. Mooney’s shop is special because she has my favourite sweets. My favourite thing about Mrs. Mooney’s shop is stickies and jelly snakes and jelly stats and alien spray and toxic waste and golf balls.” (not real… You can eat them!) (Micaela)

24. “Mrs. Mooney’s shop is special because they have nice sweets. My favoutite thing about Mrs. Mooney’s shop is that the lady is so kind.” (Vagif)

We have made a slide show of this work also on Photopeach

24 Reasons that Mrs.Mooney’s Shop is Special

 

 

Congratulations to the First Communicants

The photographer will be in school on Wednesday morning. If your child is having their photograph taken, we suggest that your child comes to school in their communion clothes. They can bring their school tracksuit in, in order to change into it afterwards.

Congratulations to all the boys and girls from Room 6 who made their First Communion.

You did very well and we were all very proud of you.

Celebrating Success in the Texaco Art Competition

Congratulations to Sinead, Stacey, Alexandra, Patrick and Maks who won Certificates of Commendation in the Texaco Art Competition. Sinead drew Rapunzel. Stacey did a self portrait. Alexandra did a picture of Cinderella in the sweetshop. Maks drew a picture of himself on Mars and Patrick did a picture of a forest. Riona won a Merit Award for this picture of herself and her twin.


Riona drew a picture of herself and her twin, Naoise.

There were 26,000 entries. One hundred and sixty one students received prizes and merit awards. The next hundred pictures in each of the seven categories received a certificate. That means that these pictures were in the top nine hundred approximately of 26, 000. That is impressive. Well done.
***CLICK ON THIS LINK TO SEE THE WEBSITE FOR THE TEXACO CHILDREN’S ART COMPETITION ***

Great Homework!

This week for homework the children were asked to write number problems featuring repeated addition.

This is some of the excellent work Patrick did.

How many legs have three dragons got?
4 + 4 + 4 = 12


How many legs have four ladybirds got?
6 + 6 + 6 + 6 = 24

How many legs have four spiders got?
8 + 8 + 8 + 8 = 32

Well done Patrick 🙂 Teacher is impressed!