5th and 6th Classes took a day out from the classroom this week as they set off on their school tour. Rang 6 headed to Dublin where they visited Croke Park and The Awesome Walls while Rang 5 travelled to the Adventure park in Castlecomer. A great day was had by all!
The End of an Era!
RatheniskaFor almost 24 years, the “big room” has been home to Infants in our school. It started off in 1953 as the 2 teacher school and evolved into an all-purpose room when the school expanded in the 1980s. It was always used as a classroom however and in September 1994, Junior and Senior infants took up residence in what was surely the largest Infant classroom in the country. Many eager little ones started their education in this room and it has lots of memories for all.
The era came to an end on April 16th when Junior Infants moved into a beautiful new, cosy classroom with a spectacular view over the GAA pitch and further beyond. We look forward to many years of happiness and adventures in our new home.
The first class in the new Junior Infant room 2018
The Great 5th Class Bake-off!
Ratheniska5th Class have been busy in recent weeks perfecting their culinary skills. They ticked the boxes in many subjects such as English, Science, Maths and S.P.H.E. as they created several masterpieces which would definitely be approved of by Mary Berry! They learned lots in the process, not least that the washing up at the end is the worst part!
They followed him to school one day!
RatheniskaIn Senior Infants we felt like we were part of the nursery rhyme “Mary had a little lamb” last week when one of the boys brought his 3 pet lambs to school. They certainly did make “the children laugh and play to see a lamb at school”. Once we had learned all about the work of looking after them, the lambs had enough of school and were happy to be taken back to their field!
Class to 3K – 2018
RatheniskaTerm 3 always starts very energetically as this is the time when training for the Class to 3K starts for 4th, 5th and 6th Classes. Regardless of varying fitness levels , every child takes part and as the weeks move on, everyone reaps the benefits of their ongoing training.
They will complete their 3 kilometre run at the end of June.
TSI in 5th.
RatheniskaAll the boys and girls in the higher classes love TSI . The chatter and discussion can be heard as you walk down the corridor outside the classrooms. To find out what TSI means, click here to visit our TSI page.
TSI 2018 Blog#16
RatheniskaIn 5th Class we are just finishing our second cycle of T.S.I. This is our fourth cycle of T.S.I since we began in fourth class and overall it’s been a very enjoyable experience.
During this T.S.I cycle we have read a large variety of books including The Honest Truth, Brock, The Butterfly Lion, Mr. Stink, Faraway Home and The Boy in The Girls Bathroom. These books have covered a broad range of topics. For example, David Williams’ Mr Stink is very humorous while also discussing current topical social issues such as homelessness. Some other books have covered dark themes such as Marilyn Taylor’s Faraway Home describing the struggles of World War 2 and The Honest Truth telling the story of a boy fighting cancer.
We find this greater in depth analysis of these books has helped us in other areas and subjects. For example, Faraway Home helped us to empathise with the suffering of people during World War 2. Other books like The Honest Truth and Brock taught us very important life lessons such as resilience and determination.
T.S.I has evolved for us since we began two years ago. We now read more, write less and have more meaningful discussions. We now clearly focus on different comprehension strategies each week while consolidating strategies already learned in previous TSI cycles. This TSI we focused mainly on inference, determining importance and summarising.
One of the main advantages of TSI we believe is working independently in small groups. This allows us greater book choice so that we can pick books that suit and interest all of us in the group. Also, it has given us more reading time which has improved our fluency greatly. We are more comfortable in small groups and not as self-conscious about making mistakes.
TSI has greatly improved our vocabulary which has helped our comprehension across all areas. This has had a hugely positive effect in our writing and would you believe it, it has even improved the way we speak.
All in all we have found T.S.I a fun and easy way to enjoy books and learn. We definitely read more books independently now as a result of the confidence TSI has given us.
Grass Heads!
RatheniskaSenior Infants love sowing and growing, so two weeks ago they sowed some grass seed in plastic containers, put their photos on the front and waited and waited…..! What a surprise they got when they arrived to school one morning and discovered their “heads” had hair! A few days later and they even had to give their Grassheads a haircut!
1st Class Tangrams!
Ratheniska1st Class have been exploring the world of 2D shapes since Easter. They experimented with Tangrams whi=ch inspired ideas for their own shape pictures. They found shapes everywhere in the school environment – even shapes within shapes!
Artist in Residence in Rang 2
RatheniskaArtist in Residence , Mary Slevin, completed her term of work with 2nd Class just before Easter. Over a period of 9 weeks they explored many different art forms. The work culminated in the unveiling of a giant-sized Fionn Mac Cumhaill who now stands proudly in the foyer. Mrs Stapleton will be putting some of the creations together for the children’s upcoming First Holy Communion while Mr Fennelly created a short film of the work that went on during the nine weeks. Click HERE to see how busy they all were!
