Pupil
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Gaeilgeoir na Seachtaine
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Times Tables Champion
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Lunch Box
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We have been reading the novel, 'Damsel' by S.E. Connolly. The heroine Annie tries to rescue her father from the evil wizard Greenlott and although her father thought she was a damsel in waiting she really is the hero of the story who has lots of adventures on the way to saving her father.
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In art we looked at the painting 'Starry Night' by Vincent Van Gogh. We noticed that Van Gogh used short paint strokes with gentle, soft lines. These help to represent a sense of movement. The lines in the sky stood out because they were like whirls. It made us feel like there was a breeze and that the stars and moon were twinkling in the night sky. When we painted Annie, our heroine from the novel 'Damsel' we tried to paint the night sky like Van Gogh to make the moon and stars shine brightly.
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The School MasterThe school master was very, very strict. He taught the children about the 3R's which means reading, writing and arithmetic. Some children put their elbows on the table and he smacked his cane against the table to get everyone to stand up straight - everyone jumped to attention!
Long ago they used a quill and ink to do cursive writing. The children long ago also used a slate to practice their letter formation. People then, used many different styles and sizes of writing. The school master had a pen set with many different sized nibs. People had to look through a magnifying glass to read very small print or writing. The school master showed us how to wax or seal a letter closed. Wax was melted and dropped on the letter and then it was sealed with a personalised stamp. This made the sender immediately recognisable. |
The GardenerThe estate's gardener woke up at 6a.m. sharp to start his work. His worked included planting the seed potatoes. When the potatoes were ready for digging out he would put them in his wheel barrow and bring them to the housemaid. Crop rotation was very important when planting in the garden to make sure that each plant had the right type of soil with the right vitamins and minerals to help it grow well.
Castle Leslie estate built walls around the gardens to keep out thieves who would try and steal the vegetables for food. The head gardener was very protective of his garden and he was the only person allowed to smoke in it. The gardener was paid in shillings and pence. |
The HousemaidWe met the housemaid who worked in Castle Leslie long ago. The breakfast that the housemaid prepared for the family was meat-pie with beer, wine and brandy! In the kitchen they used a lot of spices and made their own sweets. The maid told us that they drank punch. She explained that the punch was made from blackberries, spices and red oranges. The punch was served in a very pretty punch bowl with carvings on it. We got to taste some-it was delicious! The housemaid also made butter for the house. She used butter paddles to shape the butter into a block.
Castle Leslie's maid told us that there were 30 bedrooms in the house. She showed us a toilet that was one of the first flushing toilets. It had a handle to be pulled up. The toilet bowl had painted designs on it, much fancier than today's plain, white toilet bowls. Before these toilets the people would have used chamber pots. The morning bath was taken standing up. They used eight jugs of hot water for it. The maids were up at half past five in the morning and the family rose at eleven o' clock. The staff were finished only whenever the family went to bed. |
The Game KeeperLong ago hunters and the Game Keeper on the estate used gun powder instead of bullets. The Game Keeper's job was to protect the animals on the estate because these animals were a source of food for the house. Poachers would often try to steal the animals for themselves.
The Game Keeper also used traps as well as guns. He had a trap for foxes who would often try to kill the estates chickens and ducks etc. To set the fox trap it had to be covered with leaves so the enemy would not spot it. The Game Keeper even had man traps! These were used to stop local men who often tried to shoot or steal the estate's animals. A man trap was set the same way as a fox trap and it was able to take a man's leg clean off! People at the time in the grand baronial house ate rabbits and ducks. The Game Keeper had to regularly target the crows because the crows often tried to steal the duck eggs. |
SESE: A Look at RocksWe have been studying the structure of the earth and rocks. We have learned that the earth is made up of three layers, the core, the mantle and the crust. The crust is made of rock covered by land and water. Amazingly the crust is in fact cracked into sections! These huge sections are called plates. These plates sit on the semi-solid mantle layer and are moving. Sometimes plates collide and sometimes they pull apart. We, who happily live on the crust, only become aware of this movement when we see such things as earthquakes and volcanoes. A geologist studies rocks and the earth's structure. Rocks fall into one of three groups igneous rocks, sedimentary rocks or metamorphic rocks. Who knew there was such amazing things happening right beneath our very feet!
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Young Geologists ! |
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As we prepare to apply for our third Green Schools' Flag on the theme of water we have been
busy revising The Water Cycle which we learned about back in September when we studied the weather in Geography. In art we made a 2D representation of the cycle using a variety of media and techniques including chalk pastels, mosaic with paper and also paint. We recorded some interesting facts about water that we have learned in Science, Geography and S.P.H.E. on some cool raindrops. In English we were learning about the 'Descriptive' writing genre. We decided to use The Water Cycle as one of our topics to write a piece on. It begins with an introduction. Then we wrote about the characteristics of our topic, in this case the stages of the water cycle and finally we finished with a short evaluation of our topic. Have a listen to our piece of descriptive writing below. |
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Some interesting facts about Gustav Klimt Gustav Klimt was born on 14th July 1862 in Baumgarten, Austria. His mother wanted to be a musical performer (but never fulfilled her dream) and his father was an engraver of gold. In the 1880s, Kilmt became well-known for his mural painting. He even received the Golden Order of Merit from the Austrian Emperor for his murals in the Burgtheater, Vienna. Gustav’s brother, Ernst, and father both died in 1892. This brought about a change in Gustav’s artistic style. His work included lots of symbolism and pattern in his paintings. He incorporated gold leaf into his work. Klimt lived a simple life. When at home he wore a long robe and sandals. He painted all day, every day. In our pieces of work we sectioned our background into different parts and created different patterns using pencil and pen. Patterns are all about repetition. We not only used repeated shapes to create a pattern we also used only two colours, black and white so that the colour also forms part of the pattern. |
Have a look at some of Gustav's workWe worked on repeated patterns in black pen |
