Artist in Residence - Ms Gráinne Duffy Singer/ Songwriter

We have been very lucky to be successful in our application for the Artist in Residence Scheme that is co-ordinated by Monaghan Education Center with the assistance of The Arts Council. Our school has been matched with Singer/Songwriter, Gráinne Duffy and we are really excited to get started on our project where we are hoping to compose the music and lyrics for our very own school anthem!

Music Project Lesson II

Lesson II Wednesday February 28th
Our second lesson with Gráinne took place on Wednesday, February 28th. We were all really excited to see what we would be learning this week with Grainne.

We began by revising what we had learned last week and we corrected our worksheet about the semi breve. We also revised the beats that belong to a minim, a crochet and a quaver. We did a worksheet which was a rhythm sum sheet where we had to add the rhythmic beats together.
Gráinne told us about tempo and that it lets us know how fast or how slow something goes. She said knowing about the tempo of a piece of music was very important as it would help musicians to play in sync.

This week we also learned another new rhythm, the crochet rest. This is a one beat rest. It looks like this on the stave.

We got a sheet that had rhythmic sentences on this and we had to both count the beats and clap them.
Following this Gráinne talked about the tonic solfa and we learned the handsignal for each of the notes on the tonic solfa. In the tonic solfa the notes are seven pitches apart.

Our Music Project Display

Music Project Lesson I

Lesson One with Gráinne
On Wednesday, February 21st we met Gráinne for the first time. Gráinne is going to be our resident musician and is going to do a music project with us. We started by singing her a song.
 
Following this our teacher and Gráinne took us to the hall to do some ice-breaker activities. We were able to tell Gráinne all about the different sections of the orchestra.
 
We played some clapping games showing different rhythms. We divided up into the different groups of the orchestra and we even got to compose some of our own rhythms which the other sections had to try and clap.
 
We learned that listening was very important and also being in sync with the others in our section as well as being able to work as an ensemble.
After this we went back to our classroom and Gráinne taught us lots more about rhythm. We learned that the time signature on a piece of music lets musicians know the number of beats in a bar.
We also learned that:
·  a semi breve = 4 beats
·  a minim = 2 beats
·  a crochet = 1 beat
·  a quaver = 1/2 beat
·  2 quavers = 1 full beat as a 1/2 + 1/2 =1

History Workshop

Our History Workshop Experience

Our History Workshop Experience
 
On Tuesday, February 13th Scoil Mhuire, Magherarney had an amazing History workshop with Michael Moylan. The workshop aimed to help us learn more about History by getting close up to artefacts, looking at them and touching them. The topics for our class were ‘The Vikings’ and ‘The Normans’.
 
After morning break, it was 3rd & 4th class’ turn to line up in an orderly fashion and go to the hall.  We were all very eager to learn more about History. Excitedly we jumped and jigged eagerly to the hall excited to see the artefacts that we had seen earlier that morning when Michael was carrying them in. When we approached the hall we saw that four benches had been set out for us to sit on.  We all sat down beside our friends. Michael introduced himself and explained a couple of ground rules.
 
Michael was a very humorous person.  He asked for volunteers and the majority of us raised our hands high in the air. He soon showed us some Viking clothes on his Viking models, Eoghain and Fausta!  We learned that Vikings commonly wore linen, but sometimes fur and wool. Fausta wore a long beige dress made out of linen with a green apron-style garment that had a hole for the head but no arm holes.  Instead of handbags the girls had pouches around their linen dresses.  The men had very long, shaggy hair, with a knot since it was not groomed and beards and the girls wore their hair up in ponytails.  We also learned that their shoes were made of leather and they rubbed duck fat on their shoes to make them waterproof.  They sometimes put wool in their shoes to make them warmer.
 
Then Michael moved on to the subject of weapons, he first told us about shields.  He showed us a hemi-sphere in the centre of a shield and told us it was there to protect the fighters’ knuckles.  He then asked us if we had ever seen an illustration or photo of a Viking ship and if so, were there any shields on it? We all knew this, but it was nice to get a bit of revision.  He told us that the long ship’s hull was not deep, so it could go in shallow waters and that the Vikings often hooked their shields on either sides of the ship so they would not trip over them or badly injure themselves on shields lying around. A common weapon for Vikings was an axe. Often the axe was hooked so that the Viking could hook on to the clothing of someone trying to run away and pull them backwards.  We also saw some Viking swords. There were lots of different varieties of sword. The first one was a sword that had a big iron sphere at the bottom of the handle. This was used in many ways. One way was to hit the enemy on the top of the head and it would knock them out or even in some circumstances kill them! Another use was to help balance out the sword as it was very heavy. The final way of making use of the sphere to your advantage was that the sphere would prevent your hand from slipping off. Swords changed or evolved some would say. The main difference was the length for example. Norman swords were ginormous! The reason for this was that the Normans rode on horseback and they needed to be able to reach an enemy on foot. Later swords had a horizontal bar at the handgrip so that the enemy could not make his sword slide down the other one and injure the holders hand. Michael told us a fun fact: a sword was very expensive back in Viking times, so expensive that it would be worth as much as a house today! The Vikings also named their swords and passed them down through generations. 
 
Michael then moved on to Normans, who were originally from Normandy in France. In 1169 the Normans arrived in Ireland looking to conquer the country. Normans had a huge advantage as they wore armour to protect themselves.  This was when chain mail, maces and iron armour were designed to match body parts.  In this time they also introduced, the layers of armour including: padding, chainmail and iron sections.  At this time the shields were much longer and bore a coat of arms so attackers knew with whom they were fighting.
 
Michael soon showed us some bows and arrows.  There was flint on the arrows’ head at first and later they were made of metal. They come in different shapes and sizes – just like people! There were also feathers on the neck of the bow to help movement. The bow was made of yew and hemp.  You had to stand still to use the crossbow, though it was easier to aim with but very heavy and slow to load, and the arrow only travelled a short distance. Using a two fingers sign was a sign of having a bow and arrow.  If caught most knights had their two fingers were cut off so they couldn’t use a bow and arrow again.
 
Michael showed us at the end of the workshop some everyday items form the past, including: a mirror, a drill, an ink well, a spinning top which could be used as a toy but also for spinning material and flint and metal. The flint was rubbed against the piece of metal to make sparks and this could then be used to start a fire. Michael then let us touch and hold the artefacts and wear some clothes which they might have worn long ago.
 
I enjoyed Michael’s visit very much as I like the idea of being able to touch and hold the artefacts.  Michael was also a very humorous person so his workshop was very enjoyable for everybody.

By Ellie and Abbey

We have been learning about colour

The basic colour wheel has six parts.
On it there are three primary colours:
red, yellow and blue
If we mix pairs of primary colours we can make secondary colours.
Red and yellow makes orange
Yellow and blue make green
Blue and red Make purple

Complementary Colours sit opposite eachother on the colour wheel. So then green and red are a good pairing when used together.
Warm colours: red, yellow and orange are at the top of the colour wheel
Cool colours: green, blue and purple are at the bottom of the colour wheel

When we mix one primary colour and one secondary colour we get a tertiary colour. So the full colour wheel has 12 colours all coming from the primary colours.

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The Important Book

We have been reading, 'The Important Book' by Margaret Wise Brown. In it she talks about the important things about ordinary, every day things like an apple, snow, grass, a spoon and it ends with the best of all:

The important thing about you
is that you are you. 
​It is true that you were a baby 
​and that you grew,
and now you are a child,
​and you will grow,
into a man,
or into a woman.

But the important thing about you
​is that YOU are YOU!


​We brainstormed together, possible items we could compose some of our own 'important' notes on. this is just a selection, we hope you enjoy them.

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The Important Thing…….
The important thing about family is that we love each other.
Family will fight with each other.
We will eat with each other.
We will cry with each other.
We will always support each other.
But the important thing about family is that we love each other.
​By Eoghain

The Important Thing………..
The important thing about a pencil is that you write with it.
It comes in different sizes and different colours.
It can be thin or it can be thick.
It can be short or long.
It can be made from recycled newspaper or wood.
Sometimes it gets lost or broken.
But the important thing about a pencil is that you write with it.
By Emma

The Important Thing………………
The important thing about your soul animal, it is that it represents you.
It will be your guardian animal for all of your life.
It you are raven, you’re intelligent,
While if you’re a snake, you’re pesky and nosy.
If you’re a terrier dog, you’re playful.
You are your own animal.
It doesn’t matter what others think,
For the important thing about your soul animal is that it represents you.
By Ellie
​
The Important Thing…….
The important thing about nature is that it is not man made.
It is everywhere.
It’s gentle like animals.
Sometimes it is useful.
There are lots of shades of green in it.
Natural things are big and small.
It comes in many shapes or sizes.
It’s not always hard, it’s soft too.
But the important thing about nature is that it’s not man made.
​By Ella

The Important Thing……….
The important thing about the sofa is we spend time together on it.
We watch TV on it.
We relax on it.
But the most important thing about the sofa is we spend time together on it.
By Logan

The Important Thing………
The important thing about a friend is that they look out for you.
They play with you at break time.
They comfort you when you’re alone.
They will help you with anything.
They will always have your back.
But the important thing about a friend is that they look out for you.
By Kasey

Snow Abounds

A Christmas Treat

We were very lucky that on the day of our Christmas holidays, our third class chef brought us in a treat. They were super yummy!

Our Christmas Candle Sticks

As part of our Christmas preparations we made a Christmas Candle stick which we hoped we would use during Christmas in our homes. Tradition in Ireland is that the youngest child in the household lights a candle on Christmas eve which is placed in a window to light the way for Mary and Joseph.

​Some of us lit our candles during Christmas to remember those in our families who could not be with us this Christmas. 

Our Christmas Celebration - After Show Party

We were very lucky that our Parents' Association organized a great Dance Class for us after our annual Christmas Celebration in Saint Mary's Church, Magherarney.  We performed a piece called, 'A Little Bird Told Me', which was all about a little bird who had heard about the birth of Jesus and was determined to fly to Bethlehem to see him. 

​When our celebration was over we all went back to our school where our Mums and Dads were treated to some refreshments while we danced with the ever enthusiastic Godfrey who taught us some traditional African Dance moves.

Drama - Our Trip to The Christmas Panto

We were very excited to visit The Market Place Theatre in Armagh to see this year's Christmas Panto. A trip to a real theatre showed us the importance that sets and costumes have in a production. We also saw how important facial expression, voice projection and use of body gestures are when playing a part on the stage. It not only helps to tell the story but it also helps to hold the audiences' attention. We really enjoyed our trip and it even snowed to make us all feel even more Christmas.....y!

School Council - Christmas Jumper Day

Here we are in our Christmas jumpers. Our School Council held a Christmas Jumper Day to raise funds for their work on The Active Schools' Flag.  It was the most colourful day and we couldn't believe there are so many different Christmas jumpers!

Writing: Information Reports

We have been learning about how to write an information report. We read an example of an information report on 'Firefighters'. We learned that to plan an information report we should think about the following parts in the report:

1. ​Title
2. General Statement
3. Description
4. Evaluation 

​When we studied the example about 'Firefighters' we decided we would write about Teachers in an information report. Here is one group's piece!

                                                        Teachers
 
Teachers teach people how to do different things. They educate people in lots of ways. There are lots of types of teacher.
 
Teachers teach in many different places.  They can teach in local schools, boarding schools, colleges for higher achievers, universities for future meteorologists, teachers, scientists and many more great jobs.  They can also teach in swimming pools in sport centers teaching things like badminton, football and athletics. Teachers can teach students how to achieve new levels in their specialities.
 
Teachers all over the world use the same equipment although they may have different techniques.  Equipment such as the pencil are used to write with in whatever language or subject, erasers are used to rub out mistakes that you make in your copy.  Rulers are used to measure length and draw straight lines and computers are used to type reports, stories and to do research.  Computers let you write much faster.  A sharpener is used to sharpen the tip of your pencil and notebooks or copies are what you write in.  Another very useful item is the globe or map often used when a teacher is teaching geography. A further, very important piece of equipment are boards.  There can be white boards, blackboards or interactive boards which are very useful to schools and teachers.
 
Teachers help people and different individuals.  One way they help pupils is that they motivate students to reach for their dreams and help them realize they can achieve anything.  Teachers give us lots of new experiences; examples are school tours, workshops or even working in a group.  Another way that they help us is to develop some of our skills such as those that are life skills.  Teachers have to plan the whole year’s work.  They need to make room for each subject in the day.  Teachers check their yearly plan to see what they do for their monthly plan and need to check their monthly plan to see what to do for their daily plan.  Plans help teachers to manage their time for subjects each day.
 
In addition to teaching it is very important that teachers take care of students on school tours, workshops and on the yard.  It is also very important for a teacher to be fun and enthusiastic about every subject.
 
We think teachers play a very important role in our lives. Teachers help us to achieve and believe that we can accomplish anything that we want to.  Teachers are amazing people and they don’t know how important to us they are.

Catholic Schools: Called to be a Family of Families (One Year Catechetical Programme)

Our class, Rang 3 agus Rang 4 had the honor of hosting the first 'Moment' of this year's special Catechetical schools' programme to mark Ireland's hosting of 'The World Meeting of Families' in August 2018. Our celebration was held to remember all those from our own families and families within our community as well as all those who have perhaps no one to remember them in the month of November. Our whole school gathered in the school hall, around our Rememberance Tree while we sang , prayed and remembered together. 

Plant Hunt

We went on a plant hunt in our immediate area around our school just to see the variety that was on our school door step. On our short walk we found an oak tree, a horse chestnut tree, lots of ivy, dandelions, nettles, moss, a holly bush and a sycamore tree with some helicopters still holding on dearly to their home-base tree!

Preparing our Garden for Winter

With the harvesting of our pumpkins it was time to prepare our Gairdín Scoile for winter. We have learned in Science that living plants need sunlight in order to grow well. We decided as part of our preparations of our garden for winter we would test this theory. We began by weeding all the beds. 

In Science, scientists often speak of control groups and variable groups. We learned that in a control group scientists will keep all aspects of the experiment the same. In a variable group scientists will vary or change one thing so that it can then be compared against the control group and any differences that happen can be explained by the one factor that was different in the variable group. 

We picked two of the planters, which we firstly covered in newspaper and then a double layer of blackout cloth which will limit the sunlight that these beds get. We left two of the planters uncovered, giving the sunlight full access to these beds. All four planters, which are all equal in size, are located in the same garden so the amount of rainfall that will hit each bed will be the same and the temperature of the beds will be the same. We will not uncover the covered beds until late Spring so then we will be able to compare them to the uncovered beds and see if there has been any difference in weed growth. 

Having set up our investigation we then tried to tame our polley tunnel tomato plants!

Badminton Workshop - The Peace Link Clones

On Friday, November 10th we travelled to The Peace Link in Clones for a morning workshop in the sport of Badminton. To most of us it was a new sport. Our coaches got us to play some warm up games to help us think about the movements needed on a badminton court. These were all about quick movements, changing directions and covering as much of our space as we could while still defending our territory.

Then we were introduced to two different racket grips, one for the fore hand and one for the backhand. We practiced these with a soft pomp-pomp first then we got the shuttlecock. It was much harder to control our shots with the shuttlecock.  We also did a lot of balancing activities.

​Finally we lined up at the net for some shot drills and target practice. It certainly was more difficult to control the direction of our shots than it looks when you are watching professional badminton players.

​We really enjoyed our workshop and it was great to try a new sport. We would like to say a big thank you to our coaches and all at The Peace Link for making us feel so welcome. The time flew which means we must have had great fun!

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 My Book Review of 'Damsel' by SE Connolly

​In the month of September third and fourth class read the novel, ‘Damsel’. The author was named SE Connolly. She is very creative and smart with her words. The illustrator was called Axel Rator. Axel drew many inspiring drawings throughout the book in black and white. The publisher of this book is Mercier. Mercier’s symbol has lots of swirls giving a sense of movement through it.

The main characters of this book are soon to be damsel, or so they think, Annie, Rodger the servant, Chestnut the gallant horse and Squire the reassuring dog.  The target or goal of the story was to save Annie’s daring father, Tristan the Brave who had been captured by the extravagant wizard Greenlott. The story is situated in an original, imaginary world where dragons flame and heroes fight and girls were assumed to be the dainty damsels. But Annie does not want to be a damsel for the rest of her life, trembling in fear instead of defeating and slaying dragons.

At the beginning of Annie’s journey she came to a deep, dark forest. The ground was soggy and covered in leaves. Then she heard someone screaming in the distance. She followed the noise and as Annie got closer it became louder and louder until she found herself in a plain field. Then she saw a gigantic spider web with a boy stuck in the middle of the sticky web. “Help, Help, get me out of here!” Well what was Annie supposed to do? Leave him there to get eaten by a humongous spider? So she decided to help him. She grabbed his sword which was lying on the ground and cut him free. But then Annie heard the gigantic spider returning. Annie instinctively shoved the sword in the middle of the spider’s head, slaying the humongous spider.

Annie and the boy, named Rodger, continued their journey through bogs and forests until they came to a suitable place to set up camp. When they were settled down beside a lake suddenly Annie saw a little frog and his leg was stuck in some weeds. Annie acted fast and yanked his leg out saving the frog’s life. Soon it was time to rest. When Annie was dozing off she thought she saw dozens of eyes staring at her but of course she thought she was dreaming. She wasn’t though for when she woke up she found herself in a damp cave with millions of frogs in it along with their leader, a giant frog called Hertzog. Hertzog proclaimed, “You saved one of my frogs so now I will marry you and we must have a feast!” Hertzog pushed a plate of flies towards Annie, she was disgusted but Hertzog would not take no for an answer. Suddenly Rodger swooped in and saved the day, defeating Hertzog and rescuing Annie.

As Annie and Rodger carried on their journey they came to the mountain where Greenlott lived. They saw a shadow and flames around the corner and they knew it must be Pepperzine the dragon who was tackling yet another hero who had come to kill her. Rodger crept up quietly and said, “Hey what lovely scales you have, what’s your secret?” Pepperzine babbled and babbled, on and on, until they had all become friends and Annie asked her if she could fly them to Greenlott’s castle. Pepperzine agreed. She was in fact not a bad dragon just misunderstood by everyone.

When Annie and Rodger arrived at the castle Annie had a plan. They would disguise themselves as servants. Greenlott accepted the offer of new servants and Annie and Rodger began to search the castle hoping to undo the wizard’s magic. A couple of days later Annie decided to take action. She grabbed the wizard’s amulet and tossed it over his head to Rodger. Rodger quickly threw it into the fire making all the wizard’s magic disappear and revealing all the missing heroes and best of all Annie’s father!
​
This book was very exciting and inspiring. I think all of third and fourth class really enjoyed this book written by SE Connolly.

​By Abbey - Rang 4

Halloween Art & History

In September we had learned about the colouring technique of gradation where we tried to vary the same colour by bringing it from dark to light or light to dark all by leaning more lightly or heavily on our crayons or colouring pencils.  For Halloween we revisited this technique but this time using paint. We learned that how we leaned on our paint brush did not have the same effect so to vary our shades of a colour we had to learn about mixing shades of the same colour. We worked with the colour blue. We learned that by adding white to blue we could get a lighter shade of blue. The more white we added the lighter the shade of blue became. We tried to vary the shades of blue we used in our night sky.

​We also learned about silhouettes. These are simple outlines of an object that do not include much details, much like a shadow.

Día de los Muertos

​The Day of the Dead is celebrated in Mexico and other parts of Latin America. It is known there as Día de los Muertos. People who are from Mexico celebrate the festival in other countries as well. The festival is celebrated to remember loved ones who have died. It also helps people accept and deal with the idea of death. It takes place over two days, on November 1 and 2.

The Day of the Dead is a joyful time that helps people remember the deceased and celebrate their memory.

Halloween Dress up for Temple Street

Have a look at some of our fabulous costumes, many home made, that we wore on the last day before our mid-term break to help raise funds for Temple Street Children's Hospital. It was great fun to see everyone's fantastically, clever ideas.

Colouring Techniques

In art we have been looking at some simple colouring techniques. We learned that there are 6 different ways we can colour. These include colouring lightly and darkly. We learned that to do these two techniques we really need to think about our grip on the crayon or colouring pencil and how heavily or lightly we lean on it. Another technique related to these two is called gradate. To gradate a colouring space we simply started at the top of the space colouring lightly and then bit by bit got darker. Gradation could also go from dark to light.  

​Another technique is called hatching. This is where we use the pencil or crayon to draw diagonal lines across the area we want to colour, leaving a small gap between the lines. Cross hatching is hatching first and then drawing more diagonal lines in the opposite direction so we end up with a small grid or box-like pattern. Our final technique was called layering where we simply coloured the space with one colour first and then put another colour on top, making sure not to colour too heavily as we wanted to see the first colour coming through.

​Who knew there were so many different ways we could use our colours!

Vincent Van Gogh

We have been learning about the Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh. Vincent painted lots of landscapes, portraits and still lives. He often used his paintings to express his emotions. We saw that when he lived among poorer people he was upset at seeing how difficult their lives were and many of his paintings from this time are in dark colours like 'The Potatoe Eaters'.

​He spent some time living in France and here he loved the colours of the landscape in the sun. He loved the bright sunlight as he believed that yellow was a sign of life and hope.

​'Starry Night' is an interesting painting as it is a mixture of some lovely bright colours but also darker colours. We talked about the importance of 'line' in this painting and how it the sky the curved lines and brush strokes give a sense of movement. Looking at this and other paintings where line is important we could see that lines can give a sense of slow or fast movement and a sense of organization or disorganization.

​We also learned how to zone a painting or photograph by talking about its: background, middle ground and fore ground to help us locate things we wanted to talk about.

​We used chalk and paint to create our own abstract paintings using line to create a sense of movement. It was amazing to see how different each one was!

Paintings by Van Gogh

Our School Garden

We harvested lots of our vegetables during the school holidays such as our lettuce, cabbage and rhubarb. Our pumpkin patch has some pumkins which are still growing and we are waiting for them to change colour in time for Halloween. Our polley tunnel had a great crop of tomatoes this year, it is nearly like a jungle in there now! This year we planted our red cherry tomatoes again but we also planted a different variety which were yellow and yummy. Teacher brought us some cheese and crackers to eat with our tomatoes, it was a real treat.

Mé Féin

Éist le Abbey agus Kasey, ag bualadh le chéile don chéad uair.

Our First Day Back at School

The new third and fourth class came back to school on Wednesday, August 30th. Ms. Payne was going to be our teacher this year. Everyone was excited to come back to see their friends and to experience the new school year ahead.

First we got up and then got dressed in our new, clean school uniforms. Next we went downstairs and ate our breakfasts. After doing our hair and brushing our teeth we put our school bags on.

​When we arrived at school we lined up and our teacher welcomed us in. When we came into the classroom we saw where we were going to be sitting. We were all very happy with who we were sitting beside. Next we organized our new books and copies and put them into our baskets.

​Before our morning break we went to the hall to meet new teachers like Ms Marron and Mr Finlay and the new Junior Infants and other new pupils too. Then it was time for 11 o'clock break. When we got outside we played with our friends. It was fun to play with them after such a long time apart over the holidays.

​After break we sorted more books and put some of them in our bags to get covered. Next Ms Payne explained how the classroom works and how we should behave now we are part of the senior end of the school.

​Everyone enjoyed the first day back. Everyone really likes their new teacher Ms Payne too. It was fun and different to last year. It was a great way to start the year and we hope we have a brilliant year together.

​By Abbey, Caolán, Ieva, Seán, Greta and Meagan.

 Recount Writing

We have been learning about Recount Writing in English. Recount Writing is used for retelling an audience of readers about something that has happened. The plan for a Recount piece of writing is:

1. ​Title
2. Orientation
3. Sequence of Events
4. ​Personal Comment.

​In the title you tell the reader what they can expect to read about. The orientation answers important questions like where and when the event happened, who was involved and what it was generally about. The sequence of events tells the reader what happened in the order it happened The personal comment is where the writer gives their own opinion about the event. We worked in groups to write a piece of writing about our first day back at school after the summer holidays.