The Sam Maguire comes to St Catherine's!!!

Monday was such an exciting day for us all in St. Catherines, a day that the children will always remember I'm sure! We are huge supporters of the Dublin team and we were delighted that Eamonn Fennell and Michael Daragh McCauley called out to us to show us the Sam Maguire cup. We were able to ask the two players questions and we made sure they realised how delighted we are to have Sam back where he belongs! :)

Maths Stations

Every morning, we now have maths stations. Our theme for this week was 2-D shapes. Four children from Mr McGrath's class are helping us to learn more about 2- D shapes. At one station, we have a feely bag and we are blindfolded. We pick out a shape and have to describe it and then draw it on the chart. We are really quick at doing this so then we play shape bingo!

The second station involves us looking at 2-D shapes and learning about the larger shapes we can make from 2- D shapes. We then arrange the shapes to make a picture and when we have our shapes positioned the way we want them, we trace around them. You would be amazed at the pictures we have created!

At our third station, we use elastic bands to create 2- D shapes on geoboards. The children start off by making basic 2- D shapes and then they go on to make more difficult pictures. We have had some great boats, houses and robots so far!

The final station is the maths trail. There are a number of clues on classroom doors around the school which the children have been trying to guess the answers too. Nobody has gotten every answer right but there is still one day to go and then we will do the trail together on Friday to find the right answers together.

This has been a great way of revisiting a topic we have already learned about. We will be revisiting a different topic every week!

Symmetry

Second class have been learning about symmetry in maths. The children had great fun trying to draw mirror images of the pictures shown. Some of these pictures were quite tricky to complete but we took our time and the end results were fantastic! These photographs show our practice run but you can see the finished products on the door of Room 2.

Gaeilge

Tá muid abalta abairtí a chur le chéile anois!! Ansin, scríobh muid na habairtí sin in ár gcóipleabhair. An-chliste ar fad!!

P.E.

We have been practising our kicking skills for the last two weeks. This week, we had fun shooting penalties. David and Tee-Jay were excellent goalkeepers and the children found it tough trying to get a shot past them.

Working Together

We read the story 'Oh Boris!' during the week, a story about a bear starting a new school. We began to think about how someone would feel if they joined our class. We all agreed that they would need to understand the school values to make sure they would know what is expected of them. Mr McGrath's 5th and 6th class came down to our room to help us understand each of the values and they also helped us to design cool posters. We had such fun working with the older children and we have agreed to work together again very soon! Hopefully next time, I will be able to get more photos but I think this one photo sums up the patience and kindness shown by 5th and 6th class towards the children in Room 2. Thank you to Mr McGrath and all the boys and girls in Room 13- we really understand the school values now!

Autumn Trees

We have been paying very close attention to the trees this last while and we have noticed some very exciting changes occurring. In autumn, leaves begin to fall off the trees and they turn lovely shades of yellow, orange, red and brown. We love stepping on leaves and hearing how they crunch! We painted our own autumn trees which you can see in the photos. The children worked so well and really enjoyed this lesson! You can see these paintings outside Room 2.

Freddie the Frog

Our class went on an imaginary walk in a forest a few weeks ago and who did we meet but Freddy the Frog! Freddie remembered the children from when they were in Junior Infants and was delighted to see how well behaved and grown up they all are. In the photos, you will see the children chatting to Freddie and telling him all about what they like best about school. Freddie really enjoyed his time with us and he comes back every week for a little visit.

Hi everyone and welcome back to St. Catherine's. I hope everyone had a lovely summer and are now settled back into school. We have been very busy since we arrived back but one of our highlights has been our harvesting and tasting activity with Mary. We were able to see how well all the vegetables have grown- potatoes, brocolli, cabbage, carrots and radishes! Mary told us about the different parts of each plant that we eat and we were then able to go inside where Ms Horgan and Ms Dunne had laid out a feast for us! We tried carrot and coriander soup, stir fried cabbage, puréed turnip and roasted potatoes seasoned with rosemary. It was a great opportunity for us to try something different so a big thank you to Mary, Ms Horgan and Ms Dunne for organising it.

The Enormous Crocodile

On Monday, Ms Deery's class invited us down to the hall to show us the mini books they made based on The Enormous Crocodile. Each of us were paired up with a buddy from Ms Deery's class and they read us their version of the Roald Dahl classic and showed us their illustrations. We hope that we will be able to show off our own mini books based on Dirty Bertie very soon!!! Thanks to Ms Deery and all the boys and girls in room 9...we loved listening to your stories!

Try it Tuesday and Fruit on Friday

Here in Room 1, we have been doing our best to bring in different fruit and vegetables as part of the Incredible Edibles programme. A big thank you to all the children who have brought in fruit and vegetables to share with their classmates..we have really enjoyed tasting new things! Last Friday, Ms Ryan brought in watermelon, pineapple, melon and tomatoes for the children to try and the children made a huge effort to taste everything! Please keep up the good work!

Easter egg hunt photos