We have been looking at some famous artists such as Vincent van Gogh and Modigliani as well as exercising a few brush strokes while reading about Tom Crean's fantastic Antarctica Adventures.
Growing Pumpkins
Flick through a selection of pages from our book that we wrote recording our experiences of growing pumkins for a local competition, guess what..........we won!
Watch Our Pumkins Grow!
Monaghan Fire Brigade Visit Rang 3 & 4
We recently had a visit from two Fire Officers from Monaghan Fire Station. They came to speak to third and fourth class about 'Fire Safety' so that we could become leaders of the 'Safety Team' in our own homes. They arrived in their fire jeep and wearing their work uniforms. The two fire officers spoke to us about practical ways we could keep our homes safe such as always using a fire guard, never leaving a chip-pan unattended and switching off and unplugging appliances such as radios and T.V.s. They also told us that we should check our smoke detectors every Monday to be certain that the batteries were working.
The Fire Officers taught us what to do if a fire starts in our house. They told us we should close all the doors and that we should crawl on the floor as there is more oxygen to breath at this level. They advised us that we should have a clear escape route planned with our family at home and be certain everyone knows the escape route. We should have a family fire assembly point outside our homes and once we get to this assembly point we should never, ever try to go back into the house.
The officers told us how sometimes people can make their jobs very difficult. They told us we should never start a fire on purpose and never make a hoax call to any emergency service including the fire department as this can mean someone who really does need help may not get it when they need it most.
We enjoyed the visit from the Monaghan Fire Officers and learned lots. We had our photo taken with the jeep and the officers sounded the siren as they left. We hope that they keep safe in their very important job.
Environmental Awareness and Care
In Science we have been investigating the importance of light for healthy plant growth. Outside in our Seomra Glas we planted three different pots of cress seeds. We chose cress seeds as they are a fast growing plant. One plant pot had full access to the light. We covered the next pot with cardboard so that the seeds got no light and the final pot was covered in cardboard but this time the cardboard had a small hole in it. We made predictions as to what we thought would happen to each pot.
We were so surprised how fast the cress seeds grew. The pot with full light had the healthiest growth of tall, green cress. The seeds that were completely covered in cardboard did germinate but the growth was poor, with weak, yellow coloured cress while the pot with the cardboard that had a hole in it had healthy cress where the hole was but poor cress in the covered area. The cress in this pot also grew in a slanted way, leaning towards the light.
As part of our environmental awareness and care work we had the job of looking after the flower pots and display areas in the school. We started by removing any unhealthy plants and cutting back our daffodils. We had to be careful not to pull up the daffodil bulbs to make sure our daffodils will appear again next year. Next we added some new peat-moss to our containers and then we got planting. We planted a selection of container plants such as petunias and trailing bacopa. We will have to feed and water our new flowers from time to time to make sure they all bloom. Keep an eye on our website page and hopefully you will see some photos when everything is in full colour!
Our Class Novel
We have been reading our class novel called 'Stanley'. It is a very funny book that has made us giggle quite a bit. Have a listen to some of our book reviews.
SESE Our Historical Walk of Clones
On the 21st of June third and fourth class, Scoil Mhuire Magherarney went on a historical tour of our near neighbour Clones. The weather was a little mixed but we were lucky that it stayed dry with some sunny spells.
Firstly we went to the Cassandra Hand centre. We met our tour guide Mary there. The Cassandra Hand centre looks like a small church but was in fact a school for infants and girls. Cassandra Hand was married to Thomas Hand who was the rector of the Church of Ireland in Clones. They came to Clones in 1847 at the height of the famine in Ireland. Cassandra began a lace making industry in Clones for the women of the area. She hired teachers from Kildare to help her. This helped the local families earn money which in turn helped them to survive in the hard times. Soon the lace became world famous in the fashion capitals like Paris, London and New York!
Following this we went to see Clones Round Tower and St Tiernach's sarcophagus. Mary told us that there were four windows to face each cardinal point, north, south, east and west. One of the windows faced what would have been the church altar when there was a church built on the site. Today there is just a group of small trees where the church once was. The door of the tower was eight feet from the ground to make it more difficult for enemies to attack. Round towers were built in monastic times for protection. They were used to store valuables and were also used as look-outs. The round tower was built of plain stone with no carvings or fancy trimmings. The top of the tower is no longer there because birds have continuously built nests and dropped seeds in the gaps between the stone which over the years weakened the joints and the top which would have been a conical shape fell. Close to the round tower is St Tiernach's sarcophagus which is shaped like a small church. It looks like a triangular prism. It once had carvings like points that would have looked like hinges on a box but these have been eroded by the weather. St Tiernach was once the Bishop of Clogher. There is a cure associated with the sarcophagus. It is the cure of a toothache. It is said that if you get a pin like a safety pin or a hair grip/pin and put it in the hole that was once at the base of the sarcophagus your toothache would be cured. But now the hole has been plastered over. In the grave yard around the round tower there was a variety of headstones. There were very old headstones that had mortality symbols like cross-bones, skulls and coffins. Some had egg-timers carved to show that time was moving on.
Then we went to Saint Paul and Saint Peter's abbey also known as the 'Wee Abbey.' It was indeed very small but it's walls are very thick. We found it difficult to reach across the wall as the width was so great. In the 'Wee Abbey' there were more mortaility symbols. There were the remains of two carvings of a lions head at the entrance. Again these carvings have been eroded over time so without Mary's expert eye we would not have noticed them. The entrance door is only 5ft 4 which suggests that people were much shorter long ago. At the side of the 'Wee Abbey' there is a carving of a celtic cross. There is a cure associated with it. It is said that if you place your head in a certain spot on the wall and put your hand on the celtic cross carving you will be cured of a headache. There is proof that people have used this cure as there is a hollow shape in the wall where many heads have been rested.
After this we visited a celtic cross on The Diamond. On one side of this cross are carvings based on The Old Testament and on the other side are carvings of The New Testament. One example of an Old Testament carving was a picture of Adam and Eve. An example of the New Testment was The Wedding Feast of Cana. Interestingly one side of the cross was more eroded than the other. This was the North West side where the weather is more severe.To read the cross you must read from the bottom of the cross to the top of the cross as long ago when people walked towards the cross they walked with their heads bowed as a mark of respect. The cross itself is surrounded by a metal railing to protect it from vandals.
Finally we went to see a motte and bailey site. The motte was very obvious. Mary told us it was an unusual motte because it was shaped like a traditional three tiered wedding cake. She also told us that this Norman site did not last a year as the local chieftain burned it down. This was easy to do because it was made from wood.
Over all the walk was fun. We learned many new things about the history of Clones. We enjoyed it alot and we hope other classes get the opportunity to go too. We would like to thank the Parents' Association for hiring the bus and paying the tour fee. We would also like to thank Mary our tour guide. We had a great day.
