Sports Day Success

Our Sports Day was held during Active Schools' Week. We got to relive all the great memories at the end of the year when we celebrated being awarded our first ever Active Flag with our Co-Ordinating Teacher Ms Fahy.
​Ms Fahy also presented us with our Sports' Day Awards.

Active Schools' Week 2022

Daily Activities 

​Active Homework 

Active Homework replaced all written homework for Active Schools Week.
Each teacher set their class various Active Challenges to complete at home as part of their homework for Active Schools Week.Teachers used a variety of the following - Busy Breaks Active Homework Challenges, Active Schools Homework Challenges, Swim Ireland Active Challenges and some teachers made their own Active Homework Challenges. The children recorded their homework either by circling the activities completed on their challenge sheets or by uploading videos to  Seesaw to show their teacher.
Here is a selection of some Active Spellings Homework, Ribbon Skipping for all the family and some Yoga for a relaxing end to our week's active homework. 

Active Spelling Homework

Family Ribbon Skipping

Relaxing home yoga

Active Lines 

Volunteers from Fifth and Sixth Class help us to add some additional active challenges into our timetable each day. Just after our small break our entire school meet outside in the playground and line up class by class to do our Active Lines.
​Each day we have two exercises to perfect. One of our teachers explains the exercises each day and we follow along carefully to ensure we are completing the exercises correctly.
Our super volunteers demonstrate the exercises for us and help us with the challenges.
​ We love adding this extra 10 minutes of activity into our day! 

We always begin our Active Lines by repeating our Active School Slogan together. 
​​

Meet our Active Line leaders from Rang 5 & 6 

​

​​Friday - Day Five 
May 13th 2022

​
​Sports Day 2022 

Sports Day was included as part of the activities for our Active Schools Week.
​We all were so excited to spend the whole day outside with our friends, being active and having a good time in the sunshine!

We had a busy schedule, rotating between stations including a race station, a yoga station, an obstacle course station and a games station. 
​
To finish off our Sports Day in style our Wonderful Teachers took on our Wonderful Sixth Class Students in a Teacher V Students Challenge.
​Have a look below to find out more!

​Games Station 

We loved being able to use different equipment and play new games at the games station.
We tried our hand at Shotput and Javelin.
​We also got the chance to use quoits and practise our throwing skills when attempting to place our rings on top of markers. 

​Infants Games Station

First and Second Games Station
​

Third and Fourth Games Station
​

Fifth and Sixth Games Station
​

​Race Station 

We enjoyed the spud and spoon race, the sack race, the 100metre sprint and some fun races too!
The pictures and videos speak for themselves!
​

 Rang 1 & 2
​Sports Day Review,
so much to do!

Mindful Colouring

After Yoga we practiced some mindful colouring. After all the days' activity it was time to give our thoughts a workout too.

​Some action shots of 5th & 6th racing to the finish line!

​Action Shots from Rang a 3 & 4 in full flight!

​Obstacle Course 

Some action shots below of all classes taking on the Obstacle Course Challenge. 

Yoga Station 

We loved our last yoga session with Claire our yoga teacher. After all of the excitement of the races and games it was a treat to take part in some relaxing yoga in the sunshine on Sport's Day!



​

Teachers V Pupils Challenge 
​

Our Wonderful 6th Class Pupils took on their teachers in this years Teachers V Pupils Challenge. They decided to have a head to head race on the Obstacle Course. 
It was a close race with a sprint finish, we still haven't decided on the winners!!
​

PAWS

Each class in school focused on the Strand of Swimming during Active Schools Week.
​Each class learned about water safety and completed the series of lessons from  
Water Safety Ireland’s PAWS programme (Primary Aquatics Water Safety). 
Paws outlines outlines the essential life saving guidelines that every child needs to know. 
Our entire school are now LAND PAWS Heroes!
​

Junior and Senior Infant PAWS HEROES!

​

Seniors and First Class PAWS HEROES!

 First and Second Class PAWS HEROES!
​

Third and Fourth Class PAWS HEROES!
​

Fifth and Sixth Class PAWS HEROES!

​​
​Active Walkway Challenges 

Each class took to our Active Schools Walkway Track to complete various
cross curricular challenges with an active twist!
We had so much fun and worked really well together in partners and teams. 

Junior and Senior Infants - Active Walkway Patterns 

​Junior and Senior Infants incorporated patterns in Math and Literacy into their Walkway Challenge. In pairs the children stopped at each of the 14 points on our walkway and drew and coloured the various patterns along the way. Great teamwork! ​

Senior Infants, First and Second Class  - Active Walkway Orienteering, Math & Literacy  

​Seniors, First and Second Class paired up in teams to complete their Math, SESE, Literacy and Orienteering based Walkway Challenge.
The boys and girls, using their mapping skills had to read their map and explain the key/legend. Then using the map the children had to locate the control point.
When they reached the control point the children had to record the letters and the time on the analogue clock and then convert to the digital time!
​ Talk about a busy cross curricular challenge! The boys and girls loved it!  

Third and Fourth - Active Walkway Literacy and Math 
Fifth and Sixth - Active Walkway Math
​ 
Third and Fourth Class used the Walkway to create sentences using the letters found at each point along the route.
They also completed some Multiplication problems at each point too! 
Fifth and Sixth Class worked on their time skills converting analogue times to digital while also testing their knowledge of shapes and their properties!  
​Some great cross curricular challenges!

Thursday - Day Four 
May 12th 2022

​​

​Teacher Challenge -   Ms Fahy & Ms Fitzpatrick

Ms Fahy was up next for our teacher challenge aided kindly by Ms Fitzpatrick. This challenge involved testing our reaction skills and speedwork. In pairs we worked together on some tasks involving quick reactions and even quicker feet! We had fun and worked well as a team!

When is a challenge even more of a challenge?...............in the wind! 

Whole School Fun Event Water Relay 
​

Today our whole school split up into mixed teams to take part in a Whole School Water Relay. We loved being in teams with children from all classes and working together was so much fun! 
We had 12 teams in total and after some very competitive heats, 3 teams made it to the final!
Have a scroll down to see the overall winners.....and more importantly what their prize was!

Meet the Overall Winners - Team Number 8

The winning team got the best prize of all.....sponging and soaking one of our teachers!
​How unlucky for Ms Payne that her name came out of the hat! 
​Some say it was a fix.............others say it was destiny!

Happy thoughts.............happy thoughts! 

​Yoga with Claire 
​

Today we continued with session two of our Yoga Classes with our local yoga teacher Claire Brides. We went on some more exciting adventures and even went exploring under the sea!
We saw lots of things under the water and we tried to pose like
​some sea creatures we found along the way!

Whole School Use of a Local Amenity - A trip to the Park 
​

All classes walked to our local play park in our beautiful village of Smithboro. Each class got the opportunity to rotate between playing football on the pitches, running races on the grass, playing on the swings and slides or taking a relaxing walk around the park to view the birdboxes our First and Second Class pupils painted last year. 
​What a lovely treat!

Wednesday - Day Three 
May 11th 2022
​
​

​Teacher Challenge - Ms Fitzpatrick & Mr Mc Cague 

Wednesday kicked off with a super teacher challenge from Ms Fitzpatrick and Mr Mc Cague. Each class was set a different task using a roll of toilet roll. This challenge tested our concentration, balance, gross motor skills and strength. We had so much fun trying this challenge!! 

Our balance, co-ordination and concentration were put to the test!

Monaghan Sport's Partnership - Coach Francis 

Our local Sports Coach from Monaghan Sports Partnership is working with us over a 4 week block of lessons based on Athletics and Volleyball. Francis is focusing on Athletics skills with Junior Infants up to Second Class and is introducing Volleyball to the older classes, 3rd to 6th. 

Junior and Senior Infants Athletics 

Senior Infants and First Class Athletics 

First and Second Class Athletics 

---

Third and Fourth Class Volleyball 

Fifth and Sixth Class Volleyball 

​Tuesday - Day Two 
May 10th 2022

​

​Teacher Challenge - Ms Payne & Ms Groarke

Ms Payne and Ms Groarke teamed up to set us our next Teacher Challenge for Active Schools Week. Using balloons we had to work in pairs to ensure we moved from cone to cone without dropping or bursting our balloon. First we began by walking and then once we mastered that skill we practised running! This was an enjoyable challenge for us all. 

Let's have a look at our efforts below!

---

---

Oodles of Noodles

Day Two took off to a flying start with some fun and varied challenges as part of our Oodles of Noodles activities for Active Schools Week. We played tag, had some competitive horse jumping races, took part in team building games and finished off with some Noodle drumming! 
These challenges were aimed at our Junior Infants to Second Class children. Look at us go!

​Teamwork makes the dream work!​

Horse Hop and Hay Derby!

We also took our noodles indoors to practise some noodle drumming
​ to some of our favourite songs. 

Golf Taster Session with Local Rossmore Golf PRO 
​

Our Third to Sixth Class pupils were treated to some small group golf taster sessions from our local Rossmore Golf Pro John Mc Quaid.
​The children learned about the various golf clubs, how to hold the club correctly and how to practise and perfect their golf swing.
The boys and girls really enjoyed learning about a new sport and we hope that some of the children will be "on par" to be future budding golf stars. 

​

Monday - Day One 
May 9th 2022  

​

​Teacher Challenge - Ms Mulligan & Ms Brennan 

We began our Active Schools Week this year with a teacher challenge set by Ms Mulligan and Ms Brennan. After a very clear demonstration our classes took on the challenge of the 'Penguin Walk' in pairs.We practised walking like a penguin using a soft ball and then progressed to passing to our partner without dropping the ball.
Look at some images of our great teamwork!

#​Local Hero Challenges
​ 

We are so lucky in Scoil Mhuire Magherarney to have some incredible local heroes on our doorstep to inspire us with their talents and achievements. We were so excited to meet our heroes below and to get the opportunity to take them on in our Feel Good Friday Local Hero Challenge!
​

Clare Mc Elroy - Monaghan Special Olympics
​

We had the privilege of working with our local Monaghan Special Olympian Clare Mc Elroy as part of our Active Schools Week. Clare demonstrated some excellent basketball skills for us all to try at school. We watched Clare's video carefully and tried our very best to complete Clare's challenges taking note of some of her important teaching points. Clare set us 7 challenges in total.

1. Dribbling 
2. Two Handed Dribbling
3. Ball Control 
4. Dribbling Around Cones 
5. Running Between Cones
6. Passing 
7. Shooting 

We really enjoyed practising these skills. Have a look at us below!
 

​Aaron and Stephen Mc Kenna - International Boxing Champions

Next up our local boxing heroes Aaron and Stephen Mc Kenna put us through our paces by setting us some boxing challenges to put us to the test. As past pupils we are very proud to be able to work with both champions while they displayed their skills and spoke about their achievements. The boys and girls watched Aaron and Stephen's Video Challenges and were put to the test in school to try and emulate our local heroes. 

​Active Schools' Week 2021- Monaghan Sports Partnership

We were delighted to work with Monaghan Sports Partnership during our Active Schools' Week and host a very special visitor Darren Freeman who put us through our paces! 

Largy College - Active Week Challenge

The PE teachers, famous Female and Male Monaghan Senior County Footballers Ellen Mc Carron, Ryan Mc Anespie and Dessie Mone in Largy College, Clones set us some challenges to master during our Active Schools' Week. One of these challenges included the 'Bean Bag Challenge.' Here is Rang 1 agus 2  trying the challenge in their classroom just after watching the PE teachers set the challenge on-line. Then we did the challenge at the end of the week after lots of practicing! 

Sports' Day- Orienteering Station 

As part of Active Schools' work we identified 'Outdoor and Adventure Activities' as a strand we wanted to develop. This year we decided to include a station as part of our Sports' Day based on 'Orienteering'. We used our Geography Mapping Skills to locate different points on our Active Schools' Walkway. At each 'Control Point' we had to perform one set of specified exercises. We also recorded the letters at the 'Control Point' on our record sheet and then thought of a word that included the two letters of the control point. 

Active Schools Week - Whole School Movement 

Our School Council sub committee who form the Active Schools' team led the way with each class teacher on planning an co-ordinating a whole school movement break every day of Active Schools' Week. They also organised additional activities at lunch time.