Welcome to Ms. Longe’s class!
Take a look at what we got up to this year.
May
May was a very special month for all the pupils in our class. We celebrated the Sacrament of Confirmation on May 6th in St. Brigid’s Church. And despite the weather on the day being somewhat damp, it certainly did not dampen our spirits as we had a wonderful celebration with our family, friends, Fr Pat Hughes and Bishop Denis Nulty. After our Confirmation we had another reason to celebrate as the girls won the Cumann ns mBunscol Football competition! This was their first time to win since 2011. Their opponents from Kildavin on the day proved a challenge but were no match for the Clonegal girls and ultimately, we were triumphant in bringing home the trophy which is now placed proudly and prominently in the school trophy cabinet.
The Cumann na mBunscol competition for Hurling and Camogie is running this month. The boys won their matches against Drumphea and Old Leighlin and are through to the semi-finals on Wednesday 1ST June. The girls who won their camogie matches against Old Leighlin, Kildavin and Ballinkillin. They are readying themselves for their Final against Kildavin next month. We are hoping to make it a double win for Clonegal N.S. this year.
We had a visit from the transition year students from Carnew Secondary School, Coláiste Bhríde, who presented a very interesting project to our class entitled ‘Be aware, Don’t compare’. It made us aware of how images on the internet are not real and how they are modified to look a certain way. Because of this, many images we see are unrealistic and so we should not try to replicate these or indeed compare ourselves to them. The TY students gave us images we had to identify, those which were modified, we looked at how they were modified and explained why. We have also been very busy in class too, getting our end of year assessments completed and looking forward to what June has in store for us.
April
April was a short month for us in school as we had our Easter holidays to enjoy in the middle of the month. However, we were still busy bees in class getting our experiments ready for the RDS Science Blast competition. In groups with our friends, we explored our ideas and made predictions on various ideas. We constructed experiments to see if our predictions were correct and presented them in front of the Judge from the RDS Science blast competition. Our experiments included testing the absorbency of materials to help clean up oil spills in the environment, Is bigger better ?- Which boat size can withstand a sea storm, A demonstration of Hydroelectricity and How to make the best balloon blowing volcano. We had a great time and lots of fun exploring our ideas.We completed our trip around Europe and we each studied a different European country and shared our learning in class.
As we mentioned in last month’s update, we had been busy practising for the Cumann na mBunscol competition. The semi final was held in Old Leighlin with both the boys and the girls playing their best games on the pitch while also demonstrating their skills on the day in question. The boys fought a great fight, however, were just pipped at the post and unfortunately lost the semi final by a very small margin. They showed great skill and sportsmanship throughout the game and we were very proud of them. The Girls were successful on the day and have now earned their place in the final which will be held in Fenagh in early May. We will look forward to starting the hurling and camogie Cumann na mBunscoil part of the competition in a couple of weeks. We are also very much looking forward to our Confirmation next month and enjoying the last weeks in school together before the school holidays.
March
March saw us celebrating our national culture and heritage by taking part in a number of activities. We spent the start of the month getting our steps ready to take part in the annual céilí. We practised and performed The Siege of Ennis on the last day of school before the St Patrick’s day weekend. On this day we also wore green to school for our Lá Glas. Chanamar ár amhrán ranga, Shotgun as gaeilge. Bhí an spóirt agus spraoi againn. Chomh maith le sin, rinnemar cartaí Lá Fhéile Pádraig. Cheiliúamar ár dteanga náisiúnta i rith seachtain na gaeilge ag glacadh páirt i gcluichí éagsúla as gaeilge is ag caint an t-ám ar fad as gaeilge. In addition, the Mini Sevens took place in Netwatch Training Centre, Fenagh. Our school representatives were Donnacha, Cian and Ellie from Ms Longe’s 6th class. They had a fantastic day out and all three were excellent representatives for Clonegal N.S. Finally, in preparation for the Cumann na mBunscol competition, we prasticed in our teams for the start of the competition which will kick off next month. We are looking forward to putting our best boot forward in the matches !
February
February is always a very special time of year as we spring into Spring time. We marked the first day of February by making our very own St. Brigid’s Day crosses. Donnacha and Ellie R. kindly brought in rushes for the class and we helped one another to weave our crosses. Some of us loved it so much that we even made two or three of them! It was tricky at first but we soon got to grips with the technique! In Science, we are taking part in the RDS based Science Blast programme and have submitted our project or investigation that we shall carry out in the coming weeks. We shall have an assigned judge who shall examine all the details of the experiment and see how we have used and built upon our Math and Science skills throughout the investigation that we will carry out in class. Our investigation is ‘Can Lemons produce electricity?’ We shall keep you all updated on our progress and most importantly what Science skills and knowledge we are exploring and developing! In History, we are learning about the ancient Aztec tribes and loving our art lessons where we made Chimalli’s, masks and sundials used by this ancient tribe. We are continuing to prepare for our Confirmation in school and are looking forward to the ceremonies and preparation we shall have in the lead up to May 6th. And finally, we are also taking part in the Primary school athletic programme called Fit 4 class. This is fun introductory programme that engages in fun non-competitive games that is helping us to develop a greater level of fitness, co-ordination and agility. We are learning new games and skills that will equip us for taking part in more structured athletics activities. As you can see we have certainly been busy this month.
January
After a well-earned Christmas break we returned to school on Thursday, 6th January and we got stuck right back into work again. We had great fun learning about the Forces of Nature and use of renewable energy in SESE. We took our learning a step further and created Land Yachts which we had races with. This enabled us to integrate our learning with Maths as we measured lengths and distances travelled. We examined the designs of each yacht too, in order to see why and how some travelled further than others.
In History, we learnt about the Renaissance and we created fantastic frescoes made from plaster of paris. Using pastels, we created a still life drawing of a bowl of fruit using the technique Sfumato, famously used during the Renaissance.
We have started and are completing a large 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle which is keeping us occupied! Teamwork is key and we take turns to work at it with a partner.
December
Our Christmas celebrations coincided with the Late Late Toy show when we wore our Christmas jumpers to raise money for a little girl in Uganda. A collection was held and we were very proud to say that it was a great success. We wrote a letter to this girl which was emailed to her personally. We are continuing our learning in Geography, exploring Food and Farming in Ireland and how food makes it’s way from the farm to our fork. We also learnt about Seánchaí’s and discovered new Myths and Legends of Ireland. We examined these in great detail and entertained our class by retelling these in the Seanchaí’s style! We prepared ourselves in Advent for the arrival of Jesus. This Christmas we are looking forward to sharing time with our families during the holidays.
November
In November, we continued to learn how to play guitars with Music Generation. We have our own guitars that we can use and take care of each week at home. We enjoy practising at home what we are taught in class each week. In Art, we discovered how to create Monoprints using lino and sculpting tools to design a unique image. Images are celebrated and displayed in our classroom.
October
Our class also dressed up for Halloween in ghoulish and fun costumes, some of which were fantastic homemade costumes. We took a walk about Huntington castle in the village and had our picture taken outside. We had a class party and enjoyed spending time with our friends. Take a look at some of our special memories from the day!
September
All twenty nine pupils from fifth and sixth class returned to school after their Summer holidays. After a well-earned rest, the boys and girls made great strides into settling into what is to be some of the classes last year in Clonegal N.S. We also welcomed some new faces to our class and made sure they settled in readily. We moved into our new classroom and began learning how to present our learning in what we call Talk Abouts. We also had great fun with Seamus who came to the school and played GAA games with us.