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Here are 2 maps of Ireland comparing the populations in each county. The first map is from 1841 and the second map is modern day Ireland.

The 1841 map makes the population of Ireland 8.2 million, whereas the modern day map makes the population of Ireland 6.9 million (5.1 million Republic, 1.8 million Northern Ireland). There was 1 billion people on planet Earth in 1841 compared to 8 billion today.

Is the 1841 map fake?

Getting outdoors this time of year is so important both in school and at home, it has being a long wet winter and we don’t know when the weather might turn again. Whether it’s the garden, Maths, Art or PE we will be spending a part of the each day outside when the sun shines. Today we have a short but fun art activity planned.

Which shape doesn’t belong here?

Good morning, did you get a chance to discuss our Staysafe lesson with a parent last night? If you have a signed sheet drop it up to me so I can file it away.

We have two Staysafe lesson left, Secrets & Telling and Strangers. In Secrets and Telling we ear about a story where someone who is asked to keep a secret.

We are outside again for Maths today where you will be working on time, averages and length. You will work in groups of 3 and you will have 2 questions to answer. Using what you learned yesterday you will mark out a 100 meter track. All 3 members of your group will run the 100 meters, you will record the times and you will average out the 3 times. Your second question is – Usain Bolt has joined your 100 meters team and when you average all 4 times this new average equals 10 seconds. What time does Usain Bolt run?

Today’s Maths Challenge

Which one doesn’t belong?

We will complete another Staysafe lesson today which will leave just 2 more to do. Today we will discuss Emma’s dilemma. A worksheet will accompany the lesson which you bring home to sign.

Olympic podcast auditions today, I know some of you have not completed your script yet but take a few minutes to tie it together today and go with what you have.

Is this a fair game (In a fair game, each player has an equal chance of winning)

Which one doesn’t belong?

Grab your white boards and try this question. Remember there are many ways to get the correct answer.

And one more

Take your whiteboards and markers and try to figure this out with your partner. How many combinations can you find?

Take a look at this video and find out how it is played. We will play it this morning also.

Its looking like we will be indoors for PE today. We will play an invasion game called bucket ball and another called The Great Wall.

To conclude my Olympic stories, I am today going to teach you about one of the greatest innovators in sport. What is an innovator?

Any spare time today, we will work on our podcast scripts. Let’s learn about another Olympic event today – The Decathlon.

Scenario of the Day

Boys footgolf championship today followed by the girls in a few weeks. Try to bring a change of footwear and a football.

Yesterday we looked at similes and metaphors, they are quite similar in what they do but there is a difference. Can you recall any of them from yesterday’s work?

Today I am telling you about an Irish athlete I will be keeping a close on this summer in Paris. His name is Rhys McClenaghan. He will be performing in the Pommel horse.

Rachel sent in this photo yesterday evening, it is of Olympic Gold Medalist Ronnie Delaney visiting Blessington showing off his medal. Ronnie won gold at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, Australia.

It’s May 1st , the first day of summer. How has your Olympic research going? I have so far told you about an Olympic story I had never heard before (Emil Zatopek) and yesterday I told you about my Olympic memory. Today I’m going to tell you about an Irish Olympian from the past and in my opinion the best Irish athlete of all time.

I spoke about Emil Zatopek yesterday. I had never heard about him until recently, he was a Czech runner who won gold in the 5,000m, 10,000m, and marathon at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. Legend has it that he only decided to enter the marathon 20 minutes before the race began. One of my Olympic memories is of a Canadian athlete Ben Johnson. He ran in the Olympics blue ribbon event, the 100 meters in Soeul, South Korea at the 1988 Olympics. He set a world record of 9.79 seconds defeating hot favourite Carl Lewis in the final. However this glory was short lived as he failed a drug test a few days later.

In Staysafe yesterday we spoke about Coping with Bullying. We talked about Good Body Language and being assertive. To be assertive you must

• Stand tall and be confident
• Look the bully in the eye
• Use a strong firm voice and say ‘Stop it’ or ‘Go away’ or I’m going to report you to the teacher
• Stay calm even though you feel upset and very angry

Some questions currently on the list are:

My amazing Olympic story is about Emil Zatopek. In 1952 at the Helsinki Olympics Zatopek had won the 5000 meters and the 10,000 meters gold medal. 20 minutes before the marathon began he decided to enter it even though he had never ran an marathon before. In the race was Jim Peters , a British athlete who had just broken the marathon world record by 5 minutes the previous month. Peters was the hot favourite. Not only did Zatopek win the gold medal but he broke the world record by 6 minutes.

We have not yet completed the short lesson on Roger Bannister but after we do we will as a class run 1 mile and try to complete it in under 4 minutes. To be exact there are 1609 meters in a mile. There are 26 of us in the class leaving us 68 meters each to run. Can we break the 4 minute mile?

I’m not sure how it came about but Alex 9one of our rugby coaches) was challenged to a race by members of our class. Let’s see how he did.

Our movement break game today will be a game called hula hoop squeeze.

Photo of the Day

Attention test

I was fascinating to see the different tactics play out in Capture the Flag yesterday afternoon. As the circle of protection grew larger in each round it became more difficult to defend the cones, as a result you’re tactics needed to change. Groups that had concentrated on protecting the cones in the earlier rounds were now stretched thin and new tactic was needed to succeed. It was great to see how some groups evolved.

Rugby again at 12:25 today. Literacy group will be shortened as a result. We are half way through the Satay Safe lessons and today we will look at different types of bulling and identity based bullying (Racist Bullying, Homophobic bullying and bullying because of a disability). The fence wire is supposed to arrive today and some members of the class will be asked to help. As a result remaining members of the class will be doing some Nature Art outside. You will find natural objects around the schools grounds and use them to create a piece of art. This is one of the activities we must try to complete during ‘Earth Week’.

It was a fantastic Creative Schools week and Ms. Kenny was delighted to see so many pictures coming into the creative schools e mail account.

Great to hear about the work going on at home during Creative Schools Week. There is baking, drawing, photography and loads of getting out and being active. Well done. The teacher swap was loved by many yesterday and we may try something different with another teacher in May. Reminder, tomorrow is a bake sale in the atrium.

Today we will spend a good part of the day in the garden, the next stage of the chicken fence needs to be completed and the cobble lock needs to be prepared before Tony Lays it in the coming weeks.

One of our reading groups will move onto a new novel next week while the other 2 groups will complete Iceman very soon, it hs been a fantastic book to read with a wealth of new vocabulary. I have been very impressed with every group and how they look for clarification on vocabulary, identifying important details and making connections.

News Story of the Day

Construction is underway in Morocco to build the largest football stadium in the world.

Money has been allocated and architects have been chosen to help create the Grand Stade de Casablanca.

When finished, it will accommodate a whopping 115,000 spectators!

The Moroccan men’s national football team is known as the Atlas Lions. They surprised everyone in 2022 when they made it to the World Cup semi-finals – the first African team to do so.

The country will co-host the 2030 World Cup alongside Spain and Portugal. 

The hope is that the huge new venue might be chosen to host the final match ahead of the massive Spanish stadiums of Santiago Bernabéu in Madrid and the Nou Camp in Barcelona.

Who knows? If the Atlas Lions can get to the final in 2030, maybe they’ll be playing in the biggest football match in the world in the biggest football stadium in the world. We’ll have to wait and see.

Did You Know…?

The largest stadium in the world is the Narendra Modi Stadium. It’s a cricket stadium in India and can host an incredible 132,000 people! The Camp Nou in Barcelona is the largest stadium in Europe. It can currently hold over 99,000 spectators but renovations are increasing the capacity to 105,000! Wembley is the largest stadium in the UK, with a capacity of 90,000. However, there are plans to upgrade the Manchester United stadium which would make it larger and able to hold an incredible 100,000 people! Come on United !

Scenario of the Day

As part of creative schools week, there is a Teacher swap at 11:30 today. You will be going to Ms. Kenny’s and I will be taking her class. What will she have in store for you? Her class were very kind to come and show us how to make PomPoms yesterday, its great to see them on display along the stairs.

How did your creative schools homework go last night?

We looked at map symbols and scales yesterday. We will look at a particular map in more detail this week also. Can you spot any symbols on this map? We spoke about contour lines yesterday, what are they?

French Athlete Breaks Rope Climbing World Record

Anouk Garnier broke a world record last week by climbing to the second floor of the Eiffel Tower.

She didn’t use the stairs or ascend the outside of the structure. No, she climbed up a vertical rope!

“My dream has come true. It’s magical,” Garnier said afterwards.

It took Garnier 18 minutes to climb to the second floor of the famous monument. At 110 metres up, that’s roughly the height of a 27-storey building!

She said she rope climbed the Eiffel Tower because she was looking for a new challenge and to raise money for a cancer support charity.

The Olympic Games are taking place in Paris later this year and Garnier will carry the Olympic torch as it passes through the city of Marseille in May.

Good morning, most have you have decided to do the Creative schools homework this week instead of our usual written homework. If you wish to take photos send them to creativeschools@stmarysns.ie

As part of creative week each class contributed to a doodle board yesterday. Today we make POmPoms, tomorrow there is a teacher swap and a bake sale on Friday.