The children in a First, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth classes were treated to a visit by Heritage in Schools biodiversity expert, Edel Heeran. at the end of November. Edel brought her beekeeping equipment and some local honey for us to taste whilst explaining the importance of bees and other pollinators to the environment and economy. Her visit included a walk about to look at the biodiversity around the school. Thanks to Laois Co Co and Heritage in Schools for funding the visit.

Third Class and Junior Infants got together last week to share some stories with one another. The Third Class pupils chose some books from the Junior Infant library and worked in small groups to present the stories to their young buddies. It was a genuine learning experience that was thoroughly enjoyed by all.

In Rang 3, we talked about the sciene of lava lamps. We filled glasses most of the way with vegetable oil.

Next, we filled the rest of the glasses with water.

We added a few drops of food colouring, we broke an alka-seltzer tablet into a few small pieces, and dropped them in one at a time.

Then, we watched our lava lamps erupt into activity!

In Senior Infants, we experimented with capillary action during one of our experiments during Science Week. We got paper towels, glasses of water and some food colouring. We discovered that the adhesive force between the paper towel and the water are more powerful than the cohesive force inside the water itself. This resulted in the paper towel pulling the water up. and creating a very colourful “water rainbow”

Science Week 2022 has arrived and all classes have been busy embracing the many strands in the Science curriculum. In Junior Infants we explored forces and magnetism. We spent some time sorting objects according to whether they were attracted to magnets or not. We experimented with objects in water, we had fun with our magnet mazes, we created faces by moving the parts around with magnets and we had races with our magnet powered cars!

Congratulations to the girls from 5th and 6th classes who won the Division 2 Cumann  na mBunscol Championship in O’Moore Park today, 9th November. They defeated a gallant team from Emo in a keenly contested game. Thank you to Mr Conway and Mr O’Mahony for looking after the girls on their way to the final and also to all the parents and supporters who travelled to O’Moore Park to cheer on the cailíní. Thank you also to the Parents Association who hosted the after-match celebrations in Supermacs.

Ghosts, ghouls, witches and wizards were roaming the corridors in abundance on the last day of half term. We played some traditional and not quite traditional games and we all got into the spirit of Samhain. We would like to wish everyone a safe and happy midterm break and we look forward to getting together again on Monday, November 7th.

Following on from the 5th Class bake-off, Rang 6 took over the kitchen on the last day of the week. They proved to be just as creative as their 5th class counterparts and competition was fierce before the judges announced the winners……!

In First Class, we have been working on our self portraits and we have created our very own Fine Art gallery. We created some large portraits as well as some miniatures. Many of the materials we used have been recycled, including lids from ice cream tubs for our miniatures.

We have also got into the spirit of Halloween by making some spooky mobiles which we have hung with pride in our classroom.

In Rang 5, we were busy showing off our baking skills this week during our Halloween Bake-off. We baked and decorated lots of Halloween treats from Graveyard Brownies to Dracula Teeth Cookies. We were judged by Mr Conway, Aine, Joanna and our class teacher , Ms Mulhall. We had great fun and can’t wait for the next bake-off!