A Tour of Our School on Photopeach.

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We enjoyed looking at the slideshows

Room 5, Melville School, Hamilton, New Zealand

did which let us see what their school looked like.

We were amazed to see blue skies and sunshine there

during what was our Winter.

Now Summer has at last arrived here,

we thought our school was looking at it’s best,

so we took some photos,

Thanks for the GREAT idea, Room 5.

A Tour of Our School on PhotoPeach

Irish Proverbs Illustrated (Whole School Project)

‘Irish Proverbs Illustrated’ on PhotoPeach

 

In this school we have an annual competition

to remember a much loved teacher

who encouraged children to be the best they can be. 

This year we held a competition asking the children

to illustrate an Irish proverb.

As every year,  it is lovely to see the development

of the children’s abilities

from Junior Infants to Sixth.

In each class three winners were selected.

So we have over fifty prizewinners here.

Congratulations and well done everyone.

Student Blogging Challenge 2013 continued. Week 5; A Secret in the Forest.

We are continuing with the Student Blogging Challenge.

This is Challenge 5.

We were asked to write a story

based on an image of a forest

where there was a signpost saying:

A Secret Hides In This Forest.

 

You can read about the challenge here:

 Student Blogging Challenge 5: Secrets

 

We made a Photopeach Slideshow.

Nicole wrote the story.

Isabella drew the cat.

Clara drew the fairy.

 

The other children in 2nd Class Room 6

had already created the backgrounds.

 

HERE it is….

We hope you enjoy it!

 

The Secret That Lies In The Forest 

‘Signs of Spring’ Twitter Project

Following the fun we had during the first week of October

when we took part in a Signs of Autumn Twitter Project

Click here to read about Signs of Autumn Twitter Project

 

this week we are taking part in a collaborative project about

the Signs of Spring on Twitter.

Read about it here on Seomra Ranga.com

 

We are tweeting photos and comments

about the signs of Spring that we see

using the hashtag  #antearrach

 

Teacher looks forward to this opportunity

to continue using  Twitter with 2nd Class, Room 6.

Click here for the link to our Twitter feed.

 

Boys and girls in 2nd Class Room 6

Can you see the Spring photo you took today? 

 

Would you like to vote for your favourite season?

Click on the page below to vote!

Update 8th March 2013

Signs of Spring Twitter Project chirpstory

Inspired by the Chinese Willow Pattern

Soon it will be Chinese New Year

We listened  to the story of the

Chinese Willow Pattern.

 

 

Then we acted out the story.

To finish we made ‘statues’

of that dramatic point in the story

where Li Chi’s Father tells Chang he must leave

and Li Chi begs her father to let her marry Chang.

We would love to hear what you think of our art.

 

A Song for Chinese New Year from ‘Children’s Music’ by Nancy Stewart.

If you would like to comment,

please double click

‘Continue Reading’ below

and a comment box will appear.

 

A Reminder:

Please don’t leave your child to explore online unattended

The internet is a portal to the world outside.

Children should be accompanied on this journey 😉

‘Leaping Greenly Spirits of Trees’ – Art Project – Part 3

We spent the past few weeks looking at masterpieces of trees:

Van Gogh’s ‘The Mulberry Tree’

Mondrian’s ‘Gray Tree’

and Emily Carr’s  ‘Forest’

Georgia O’Keeffe’s ‘The Lawrence Tree’

and Klimt’s ‘Tree of Life’.

You can see more of this work on other posts 

You can see them here.

And also here.

Now having studied these works of art and trees ‘in real life’,

we will draw our own trees.

Before this project the most popular way

of drawing trees in the class was often like this:

However take a look at this slideshow

of the trees we drew since:

 

Perhaps after looking at our trees you might guess

which artist’s work we liked the best.

 

Was it Van Gogh’s colourful ‘Mulberry Tree?’

or Emily Carr’s ‘Forest’.

 

In fact as you can see from the graph below,

one artist’s work was a runaway success.

 

The children explained their choice by saying that

there seemed to be something ‘magical’

about Klimt’s ‘Tree of Life’

Inspired by Van Gogh and Mondrian: ‘Trees’ by 2nd Class Room 6

When our friend at Junior Art Gallery posted this link on their blog…

encouraging us to do the interesting art, that is on this link in turn

2nd Class, Room 6 didn’t need to be asked twice.

We chose to begin with

Van Gogh’s ‘The Mulberry Tree’

and the very different ‘Gray Tree’ by Mondrian

and tried to create our own versions.

The Mulberry Tree is colourful

and not surprisingly The Gray Tree is very grey.

 

Over the next few weeks

we will take a look at the other trees on this link:

 

‘Lawrence Tree’ by Georgia O’Keeffe,

‘Forest’ by Emily Carr,

‘Pine Tree Screen’ by Hasegawa Tohaku

and ‘The Tree of Life’ by Gustav Klimt.

 

We are working towards then, drawing

our own trees experimenting with

colour, shape, and angle as these

artists have done.

‘Trees’ by 2nd Class Room 6 on PhotoPeach

Many thanks to Junior Art Gallery for pointing us in the direction of this great idea.

DLTK Kids Artwork Ideas (Arbor Day)

This is the link to the 2nd part of this project 🙂

Click on ‘Continue Reading’ below to comment.

Visualizing scenes from ‘The Hodgeheg’ by Dick King Smith

We are following the programme in comprehension:

‘Building Bridges of Understanding’.

We are learning comprehension strategies.

 

As a whole-school, we concentrated on ‘prediction’ in September and October.

Now we are practising ‘visualization’.

We are reading ‘The Hodgeheg’ by Dick King Smith.

We are also learning a lot about hedgehogs and road safety in class too.

Nicole drew this one:

We drew lots of pictures to illustrate The Hedgehog Family:

Ma, Pa, Peony, Petunia, Pansy and Max.

This is Owen’s one to show you the family…

‘… sitting in a flower-bed at their home,

the garden of Number 5A

of a row of semi-detached houses

in a suburban street.
This is Julia’s

Some other children also drew what they could visualize when we read:

‘On the other side of the road was a Park,

very popular with the local hedgehogs

on account of the good hunting it offered.

 

As well as worms and slugs and snails,

which they could find in their own gardens,

there were special attractions in the Park.

 

Mice lived under the Bandstand,

feasting on the crumbs

dropped from listeners’ sandwiches;

 

frogs dwelt in the Lily-Pond,

 

and in the Ornamental Gardens 

grass-snakes slithered through the shrubbery’.


JC included all these special features.

Here are our visualizations:

Visualizing ‘The Hodgeheg’ by Dick King Smith on PhotoPeach

Here is an Animoto of our work:

 

We would love to hear what you think of our work.

If you would like to comment,

please double click

‘Continue Reading’ below

and a comment box will appear.

A Reminder:

Please don’t leave your child to explore online unattended
The internet is a portal to the world outside. Children should be supervised.

Art Activity: Turning our names into aliens!

See how we did this on this slideshow…
Name Aliens on PhotoPeach

See some on Animoto…

Please remember: As entertaining as the internet can be please do not let your child explore the internet unsupervised.

Art Activity: Construction: Our names in ‘found objects’.


This one is Tom’s.

Click on the link below to see all our names on

‘Can you see my name?’ on PhotoPeach

Photopeach is used by teachers and students in hundreds of schools world wide,

for example schools in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, the UK and more.

However please supervise your children when they are online and on Photopeach.

Thank you.

Visualizing ‘It Was A Dark And Stormy Night’ by Allan Ahlberg

We are working on comprehension strategies

in reading, following the

‘Building Bridges of Understanding’ programme.

 

We spent the first six weeks of the school term

predicting what was going to happen next

in the stories we read.

Now we are adding ‘visualization’ to our skill set.

Teacher has read six short novels in class this year.

This one is our favourite by far.

 

“…Outside a light wind was blowing

the last of the storm clouds away.

In the east there was a glow,

and streaks of pink and violet

and duck-egg green tinged

the darker edge of the sky”.

 

From: ‘It Was A Dark And Stormy Night’

by Janet and Allan Ahlberg

 

Teacher thinks Nicole has visualized the sky at dawn, very well:

We all worked hard on ‘visualizing’ as you will see:

‘It Was A Dark And Stormy Night’ by Allan Ahlberg 

As always I would remind you to supervise your child when they are online.

Jake visualizes ‘The Pirate Ship’.

 

Click here to see our book review and to hear our podcast.

Signs of Autumn Twitter Project

We are taking part in a collaborative project about

the signs of Autumn

on Twitter

during this first week of October.


Get your own Poll!

We are tweeting photos and comments

about signs of Autumn that we see #anfomhar.

You can see more details about this project

on the following link:
All about the Signs of Autumn Twitter Project on Seomra Ranga.com

Teacher looks forward to this great opportunity to introduce the class to the uses of Twitter.

Click here for the link.

As always I am very conscious of online safety.

No photographs of the children will be used

and I will only use the children’s first names.

This is the project so far, at the half way point:

 

Can you see the Autumn photo you took today? (PhotoPeach)

Please supervise your child when they are online.
Create your own Animation

October Updates


Kila’s ‘Kind Words’

1.1 1st October : Paired Reading is entering its second week.
It may make better sense time wise if Paired Reading is done as Bedtime Reading rather than as part of homework time.
It is just important to ensure that the book is in the school bag each morning.
Please note:
An important aspect of the paired reading approach is that children choose their own books.
If the book going home is too easy, please note this on the coloured card that comes home with the reading.
If your child has chosen one of the longer books, you might read it with them over two or three nights.

Alternatively you could read every second page to them.
This will be a useful approach to adopt during the year,
particularly as the books your child brings home get longer and need more stamina for them to read.
The other second class teacher and myself will be swapping our paired book boxes half way through so that there will be new books to choose from.

If you haven’t had a chance to read about the yearly plan for reading and to see where ‘paired reading’
and the reading we have done to date, fits in with the scheme of things,
you might like to take a look at the following post
The Yearly Plan for Reading

1.2 Have a listen to our podcasts.
They can be found at the bottom of the right side bar.
We are only learning how to do this.
We are on a learning curve.
Check back in a couple of weeks and we should have become experts in podcasting!

1.3 Reminder: Communion meetings have concluded.
Enrolment Masses were this weekend 29th/30th.


Joseph’s multicoloured coat that his father Jacob gave him’ by Tadhg

1.4 We played this educational game in the last week of September.
The children tell me they played it last year and they enjoy it.
However their responses are rusty.
They might enjoy practicing this at home.
It teaches them the position of numbers on the hundred square.
100 Square Game – Give A Dog A Bone

Other good maths games here
Useful maths games

1.4 Annual Open Night in St.David’s 7-9 on Tuesday 2nd October. This is always an enjoyable and informative evening.

1.5 NB A change in homework for this month.

Homework is changing for this month, as follows:
1. Revising Addition/Take Away tables starting this week with adding 2/take away 2
2. Written work: Take two number facts from today’s homework and change them into number problems to be solved. The children have practiced this in school and there are samples of the number problems in the children’s copies.
3. Paired Reading

Click on this link to see examples of how to change number facts into problems to be solved.

You might also find this post of interest:
Follow this link to read earlier post about the importance of learning tables.

1.6 I read an interesting review of about Dyslexia Font on Seomra Ranga.com

and thought it might be of interest to some parents here.
Dyslexic Fonts

1.7 Attendance for the month of September in Room 6 was 98%.
Just nine school days were lost.
Let’s try to keep this great attendance record up.


Tom’s ‘Kind Words’

1.9 2nd October: As I mentioned: if you think your child would like to take part in the
Kilcoole Feis
they would need to be available to attend some time over the following weekends:
for Verse Speaking: November 9th-11th.
Song singing: from Thursday 15th – 18th November.

1.10 3rd October 2012 We are preparing for our First Holy Communion.
We are learning about the Bible stories in the Old Testament.

1.11 4th October 2012 Your child can vote for their favourite book
of the books we have read in class so far
on the poll on the side bar at the right hand side, underneath the bookshelf.
So far ‘My Naughty Little Sister’ is in the lead.

1.12 5th October 2012 Christmas Card Fundraiser.
To those of you taking part please return the completed templates by Wednesday. Thanks.

1.13  Parents Association AGM on Wednesday 10th October 2012 from 8-9.30 in school hall.

1.14 10th October 2012 The following website was developed for parents as part of the National Strategy to Improve Literacy and Numeracy. See what you think: Help My Kid Learn

You may also find this one of interest:
Resources for Parents of 1st and 2nd class from the NCCA

The short videos about maths activities seem particularly good:
Helping your child with maths in 1st and 2nd Class – videos

1.15 Friday 12th October, 2012
We have swapped our box of paired reading books with the other second class.
To my eye, the new selection seem to have more substance.
They look interesting and perhaps in general slightly more challenging to read.

1.16 Today the children played recorder and for the first time,
pitched percussion instruments: bells, boomwhackers and chime bars.
You can hear how well they got on, on three short new podcasts.
The podcasts can be found at the bottom of the side bar on the right hand side of the page.
Here is a link to the first one.

1.17 Sunday 14th October, 2012
Just in case any child forgets to bring home their homework worksheet
They are asked to turn number problems into number sentences and find the answer:

Do two a night and there are some extra at the bottom:

Monday: 1. Twelve aliens in a spaceship. Four fell out the door. How many were left?

2. Ten ducks on a pond. A fox came along and frightened away four of them. How many were left?

Tuesday: 3. Seven bats hunting for insects. Four went home to roost. How many were left?

4. Five fox cubs playing in the sun. Along came four more. How many were there then?

Wednesday: 5. Five swans on a lake. Five more flew in. How many were there then?

6. Mum carved six pumpkins. Then she carved five more. How many had she carved then?

Thursday: 7. Eight Smurfs are in a village. Five got taken by Gargamel. How many are left?

8. When Teacher was little she had a packet of ten crayons. She ate five of them. How many crayons were left?

And if you want to do extra…..
9. Eight children went to the playcentre in Zoom.
Half of them bumped their heads and went home.
How many children were left?

10. Nine fat sausages frying in a pan.
One went pop and the other went bang!
So how many fat sausages were left?

11. The Seven Dwarfs were working in the mine.
Sleepy fell asleep and Grumpy went off in a huff.
How many were left working?

The last two are trick questions:

12. If you had four apples and five oranges in one hand
and six apples and seven oranges in the other,
what would you have?

If there are ten cats in a boat and one jumps out.
How many are left?

1.18 17th October 2012

Today the boys and girls in Room 6 found this activity about data enjoyable.
Perhaps they might like to try it at home:

Jelly Fish Factory

For reference:
From the archives: September Updates

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.

Inspired by the art work in the Disney Classic: ‘The Jungle Book’.

We watched the Elephant March from the Disney Classic ‘The Jungle Book’ paying careful attention to the artwork and then we did our own jungle pictures.

This one is Sinead’s:

This one is Mak’s:


You can see all of the finished painting by clicking on this link.

Be careful … It’s a jungle out there !
Remember that it is literally ‘a jungle out there’ on the world wide web and always remember to supervise your child’s online activities 🙂

We hope you like our pictures.

A Collage Like Nia’s

When we read ‘Emlyn’s Moon’ by Jenny Nimmo, one of the characters, Nia made a collage.
We thought this was a good idea and decided to make one too.

A Collage Like Nia’s

This one is Aoibhin’s to see the other works of art click on the link above.

What we found out about Jenny Nimmo.

Her Childhood

Jenny Nimmo was born on 15th January 1944.

To start with there was just her and her Mum.

Then they moved to her uncle’s free-range chicken farm.

When she was only six Jenny was sent away to boarding school.

It must have been hard to be so far away from her Mum.

It isn’t surprising that she didn’t enjoy boarding school.

She was was happier when she went to a secondary school.

She was told that she should become an actress.

At school, Jenny was quiet but she could be giddy too.

She loved to make people laugh.

Jenny Nimmo always loved reading and writing.

She read all the books in the junior school library by the time she was nine.

She had to persuade the librarian to let her join the senior school library.

 

Now she is an adult…

Jenny now lives in Wales with her family.

She writes after she has done her chores and fed all the chickens, rabbits and cats!

 

This is how she writes

She uses a soft, 3B pencil

and rewrites, makes changes and proof reads as she goes along.

When she’s sure she has made all the changes, she wants to,

her husband reads the story

and types it for her.

 

Her books

Many of her books are about ‘magic’ in real life situations.

The books that she has written that we have read are

‘Tom and the Pterosaur’,

‘The Owl Tree’,

‘The Stone Mouse’

‘The Dog Star’

‘The Snow Spider’

but she has written many, many more.

by Aoibhin and Nadine

THE STONE MOUSE and THE OWL TREE and THE DOG STAR were all written by Jenny Nimmo.

How are these stories the same?

How are they different?

Of the three books, which is your favourite?

Why is it your favourite?

Project Work in History.

 

Maks’s illustrations really brought his project to life.

Projects about people in history.

Now we are doing projects about people.

Our first project was about Isambard Kingdom Brunel who was born in 1806.

He was an engineer who designed steamships, bridges and tunnels.

He engineered the railway line between Bray and Greystones.

Next we are going to learn about Elizabeth Whitshed

and her husband Colonel Frederick Burnaby.

Lots of places in our local area are called after Colonel Burnaby.

Colonel Frederick Burnaby was a Victorian celebrity: a soldier, adventurer, and writer.

He and his new wife Elizabeth Whitshed travelled to North Africa on honeymoon,

but due to delicate health, Elizabeth returned to Greystones.

She moved to Switzerland for health reasons.

Colonel Burnaby was killed in action (near Khartoum in Sudan) in 1885.

Elizabeth went on to become a mountain climber and alpine expert. S

he married twice more and lived to the ripe old age of 73.

http://www.timetoast.com/timelines/63948

Other projects are planned on
Inventors: Thomas Edison and Albert Einstein.

Did you know that both of them found school difficult?

and

Authors: JK Rowlings and Roald Dahl.