ThinkWithYourInk
5th Class St.Mary’s, Blessington
Friday 26th of October
Another fantastic artefact yesterday, Leon brought in a book with the speech JFK made in the Dáil in 1963. He also had a memorial card of JFK who died later that year after he was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. We had so many questions for Leon and he did fantastic to answer as many as he could. We asked how his great grandfather got the book, was the book from the Dáil that day or was it purchased in a shop after. Why was it such a big moment to have JFK in the Dail and was his great grandfather a big fan of JFK.
Halloween walk at 9:30 and we will finish and race rubber band cars today also.
Thursday 26th of October
Assembly at 9:30 this morning, we will have a short Circle Time before it. In it we will talk about winning and losing.
After assembly we will be making rubber band cars. Before we will begin we will look at words such as chassis and axle.
I hope your placenames of Ireland research is going well, we will be making electronic quiz boards after Halloween. The theme of the quizboards will be placenames of Ireland. After the Halloween break there will be another homework project that will run over 2 weeks. You must research a charity, who founded it and why, what work to they do, where do they work and find out about a person who they have helped. Your information will be put on an A3 sheet of paper. Each project will be presented to the class, I will choose a winning presentation and we will then have an opportunity to donate to that charity on the app. You will donate beans with every 25 beans equalling E2.50
Good to see the reading record coming in each evening. I will be keeping track of the entries. We will read some of the now.
Placename of the day
An Neidín, meaning “the little nest” as it is nestled in among the mountains of Kerry.
The name Kenmare means Ceann Mara, meaning “head of the sea”, referring to the head of Kenmare Bay.
Wednesday 25th of October
Ms Nugent received poems from Cian, Síofra and Daniel yesterday. She will read and select one of them as the winner at assembly tomorrow.
Fantastic work by everyone in the new woodland area yesterday, it was great to see how you organised yourselves and werent afraid to get your hands dirty to complete the job. Well done.
Football teams have been selected. There will be a group stage followed by a knock out round.
Should there be a question mark at the end?
Placename of the Day
Donard (historically Dunard, from Irish: Dún Ard, meaning “high fort”) . Another anglicised name.
The highest mountain in Wicklow and one of the highest mountains in Ireland, second only to Carrauntoohil in Co. Kerry is Lugnaquilla, which can be accessed near the village of Donard. This mountain has a height of 925 metres.
Tuesday 24th of October
The weather looks ok today so we will attempt to clear out the garden after lunch. We will also have Circle Time when the Maths group return this morning, we will discuss a common theme that popped up on the slips of paper where you wrote about things that worry you. We will also talk about ‘How to make friends’ and what does ‘staying present’ mean?
Beans are updated, I forgot to remind you all to now log your reading record on the app. You can begin tonight. Thanks to Daniel and Ryan who logged theirs.
As I mentioned yesterday all longer pieces of writing will be published on the website. We will be writing newspaper articles and they will be published on the site. Can you remember the parts to a newspaper article? Our newspaper article will be about this photo.
We will be submitting 3 pieces of poetry to the Halloween poetry competition today. We will be writing them before and after 1st break. Your poem can be acrostic or rhyming couplets.
Let’s complete a very quick talktime on the word humble.
Placename of the Day
Kill = Church
Clon = Meadow
Baile = Town
Dún = Fort
Clon = Meadow and Mil = honey. Clonmel means the meadow of honey.
Anglicisation of Iriah Placenames. The anglicisation process took place over the course of several centuries. Officially, however, towns were renamed as part of the Ordnance Survey of Ireland in 1830. The method was simple. The Irish words that made up the placenames were transcribed into traditional English spellings
Monday 23rd of October
The photography votes have been counted. 3 points were awarded to a photo in the number 1 spot of your voting form, 2 points to a photo in the number 2 spot and 1 point for a photo in spot number 3. For a finish 18 photos were selected with 2 photos on the months July to September. The overall winning photo was Cathedral Rock by Hannah W on 11 points.
We had another fantastic artefact in last week. Suzie brought in a slide rule that belongs to her grandfather. The slide rule is a mechanical calculator, hand-operated by sliding two rulers to perform multiplication and division primarily, and possibly exponents, roots, and trigonometry. The slide rue was used to help scientists and mathematicians land people on the moon. The slide rule today has been replaced by calculators and computers that perform complicated equations. What a fantastic artefact Suzie and ver well presented.
Basketball continues in PE this week and I need two volunteers to go to the 5th/6th class classrooms daily to announce details and fixtures to students about the Lunchtime Soccer League. The boys soccer lunchtime league will be run off first followed by the girls lunchtime soccer league in a few weeks.
Briathra Gaeilge Challenge
He finished the cake?
He was finished the cake when the dog walked in?
He will close the door
Reminder old shoes if you have them as we will be clearing the garden some day thus week.
Placename of the Day
The place name Tallaght is derived from the words támhleacht, meaning a plague burial place. The
earliest mention of Tallaght in recorded history is the account of Parthalon in the Annals of the Four
Masters. Parthalon the Greek was one of the early invaders of Ireland. A plague killed 9,000 of his
followers in one week and they were buried in Tallaght and its environs.
Friday 20th of October
It was great to have a presentation from the History Society on the Blessington Railway yesterday. What do you remember from it?
Apologies to Suzie, we ran out of time yesterday and she will present her artefact today. I think it will be another artefact where you will be scratching your head.
Photography votes will be counted this morning and the results will be posted here on Monday morning. To conclude Maths week there will be a fun Maths Quiz this afternoon.
There will be a small change to your reading record from next week which I will show you now. There will also be a few other changes to the homework also.
Thursday 19th of October
Who voted on photos last night, votes will be counted tomorrow morning.
We finished our agamographs yesterday, they look fantastic and well done to everyone for the effort you put in.
Tables Championship this morning. For each game one player will have the choice of game.
Scratch continues this evening and you will continue what you were doing yesterday, in addition to that you will adding a maze to the background and the ball must navigate its way around.
Map of the Day
Wednesday 18th of October
Apologies for the mistake with the Irish spellings this week, they are
tionscnamh- project,
duine cáiliúil – famous person,
agallamh – interview,
galf – golf,
ag cleachtadh – practicing,
laoch spóirt – sports hero
For Maths week today’s game is PIG. PIG is a fun dice game: A battle of wits, math, and chance. Competitors roll the die and choose whether to ‘bank’ their score or to roll again for a chance to bank the total of all rolls. However, if a player rolls a 1, they lose their turn and their points! The game is up to 50. depending on how long players want the game to last. PIG is a great way to exercise your arithmetic skills while having a lot of fun. Launch Game ?
Along with a Maths quiz this week we will also have a tables championship with the winner receiving a Maths Week certificate and the most improved receiving a Maths week certificate also.
Well done to Síofra, Caoilainn and Rachel who ran in Valleymount yesterday, from what I heard they gave everything they had and did very well. As a result we didn’t get a chance to see what photos they wanted to keep so we will complete that and hand out voting slips before 1st break.
Briathra Gaeilge Challenge
I walked to the shop?
Will you walk to the shop?
I was walking to the shop
Photo of the Day
This is a photo of a train parked in Blessington. This train line, effectively a roadside railway, ran 20¼ miles from Terenure in south west Dublin to Blessington and Poulaphouca in County Wicklow. Scroll down to see the difference in rail lines in the last 100 years. Why is there such a reductions?
Tuesday 17th of October
Thanks to Cian and Rachel who jumped in and recorded our introduction to the podcast yesterday morning. Fantastic work from everyone who interviewed, your interviewees, everyone who auditioned and those who were recorded. Well done.
When the Maths group return at 10:15, I will be tidying up the photography page and looking for the top 5 photos of those who have submitted more than that. You will each receive 2 voting cards, one for you and one for someone at home. You cannot vote for your own photo.
We have another project day coming up next week. We will be building quizboards but it will be on a topic that we are going to study in depth over the next week.
It is Maths week and we will be doing a Maths tables treasure hunt this morning. We will also play a game called Fraction war today. There is a Maths Tables quiz later this week also.
3 new irregular verbs on display today, that’s 9 in total leaving just one more to be revealed (a really important one).
Our class have also been assigned a big garden project, we are to create a woodland area and we will have to put in a few hard hours work to prepare it.
Monday 16th of October
We forgot to record the introduction to the podcast on Friday but the rest of it is ready. We will pick out 2 people this morning to read the introduction and we will listen to the complete podcast just before 1st break.
Our tables game this week is called MD10. In it we learn how to multiply and divide by 10, 100, & 1000. What do we know already about this? We begin adding and subtracting fractions with different denominators in class this week.
2 new verbs added to our Irish Irregular verbs list, they are hear and say.
We begin tin whistle this week and it will be our music focus up to Christmas.
I will be handing out voting cards tomorrow morning, we must first whittle down the list of photos first. Have you selected your best 5?
Briathra Gaeilge Challenge
Did you come to school in a car?
Will you eat lunch tomorrow?
He goes to school everyday
Photo of the Day
This is a photo from an Athletics event in London 3 years ago. It’s an amazing sports moment .The guy about to vault is Sam Kendricks, the men’s 2017 World Championships gold medalist and American Record holder. The guy holding the umbrella is Mondo Duplantis, the men’s World Record holder, who was raised in the U.S. but competes for Sweden (his mother is Swedish). They are, without question, the two best male pole vaulters on the planet at the moment. .It was 10° and raining during the meet. At the moment captured in this picture, they were both attempting the same height, yet Mondo, the world record holder, was holding the umbrella for his biggest competitor.It’s a moment of humility, character, and friendship between the two best athletes on Earth at their discipline in the middle of a professional competition at the very highest level. In such a meet, world rankings, bonus money, sponsorship deals, and their very livelihoods are at stake. Yet, there was Mondo, keeping his biggest athletic rival out of the cold rain so he could focus on his next jump.
Friday 13th of October
Another fantastic Artefact Thursday yesterday, Hannah W brought in a sharpening stone for a scythe. It was her great grandfathers and it is over 100 years old. It is a tool for harvesting crops and cutting down grass. Scythes have been used back as far as 5000BC. They are still used in some parts of the world today but machines have have mainly replaced their use. Fantastic presenation Hannah W, who is next week?
We have the final few Desert Island Discs presentations to complete today. Those going forward to recording will be announced straight after. All presentations have been excellent so far and it will be a flip of the coin to decide who goes forward.
I hope you all passed along the note for parent teachers meetings next week and Christmas cards are due back on Wednesday or before.
Thursday 12th of October
Desert Island Discs auditions today, between 7 and 10 of you will be selected to record their piece tomorrow. Hopefully the podcast will be ready to listen to on Monday morning in class.
Hannah W is presenting her artefact today. It is another fantastic artefact and this one will have you scratching your heads as to what it is used for.
Síofra, Zoey, Glodel and Hannah’s chromebook password are been reset this morning so we are good to begin Scratch this afternoon.
Briathra Gaeilge Challenge
Did you stop the ball?
Will you wait at the door?
I come to school everyday
News Story of the Day
Wednesday 11th of October
New photos in from Síofra and Clayton. Deadline is Friday for photos with voting taking place next week. If you have sent in more than 5 photos you will have to select your favourite 5 before voting begins.
We begin Chromebook’s today and if we get everyone logged in we will begin Scratch.
I have read around 10 Desert Island Discs reports so far, they are fantastic. they will be completed today and you will practice reading them before auditions tomorrow. Those playing in the blitz tomorrow, you will have your auditions before or after football.
Briathra Gaeilge Challenge
Did you get the question correct
Will you get the question correct?
He gets the question correct everyday
Photo of the Day
Astronauts lose so much muscle in space because there is very little resistance on their body. When they return to Earth their muscles are weak and they find it difficult to do everyday tasks until their strength returns.
Tuesday 10th of October
We launched our rockets yesterday, unfortunately we didn’t get all the rocket names in the video before the launch took place. The winning rocket is at the 2 minute mark. Well done to every group.
Last Thursday Síofra presented her artefact. She brought in her grandmothers home-economics book. Her grandmother first got the book when she started secondary school at 13 years old. She is 67 now making the book 54 years old. Every week she cooked something new from the book, she and her friend each brought in ingredients for a recipe. Síofra’s great grandmother also used her daughters book to learn and find new recipes. Excellent artefact Síofra and very well presented. This week Suzie presents.
Great start to the Desert Island Discs podcast yesterday, we are definitely on track for auditions on Thursday, it would be great if we could record on Friday.
Briathra Gaeilge Challenge
He went?
They will go?
Did he go?
Map of the Day
Monday 9th of October
New photos in from Suzie, Friday is the fina day for photos before voting thakes place next week for our 2024 calendar.
It is another busy week, we will be launching rockets either today or tomorrow and you will begin writing your Desert Island Discs reports before auditions on Thursday I hope.
PE this afternoon, we will be playing the Jedi game and 4 corners and 4 passes in basketball We will also be introducing you to irregular verbs in Irish and playing a new Irish game today also.
Briathra Gaeilge Challenge
Did you leave?
I will leave?
We left
Map of the Day
What is the longest distance you can walk on planet Earth?
Friday 6th of October
Friday tests followed by homework corrections again today. The rockets have been painted white so we will be painting them this afternoon.
We have been asked to set up the composters this afternoon and the Green schools committee will be putting fruit in their from now on. I got caught up talking about recipes yesterday and I forgot to take Síofra photo for the artefact wall.
The chromebook timetable has been set up and we will begin using them next week. We will be learning scratch for the next month.
Briathra Gaeilge Challenge
Did you fall?
I will fall?
We fell
Map of the Day
Thursday 5th of October
It was fantastic to get stage 1 (fins and nose cone )of the rockets complete yesterday, it was even better to see most groups work well together, there was an eagerness to their work and when decisions were to be made it was good to hear polite discussions taking place and finding a middle ground in their decision.
The rockets will be painted white and then you will add the final colours and a name.
Було фантастично вчора завершити етап 1 (плавники та носовий конус) ракет, було ще краще бачити, як більшість груп добре працювали разом, було завзяття до роботи, і коли приймалися рішення, було приємно чути ввічливі дискусії та пошук золотої середини у своєму рішенні.
Ракети будуть пофарбовані в білий колір, а потім ви додасте остаточні кольори та назву.
Artifact Thursday today, I’m sure we are in for another treat. Rachel’s photo has just been added to the artifact board joining Ryan and Isabel.
Артефактний четвер сьогодні, я впевнений, що нас чекає ще одне задоволення. Фото Рейчел щойно додано на дошку артефактів разом із Раяном та Ізабель.
New photos from Rachel and Isabel have been added, there are some cracking photos in it.
Додано нові фотографії з Рейчел та Ізабель, на ньому є кілька тріщин.
To celebrate Blessington ladies reaching the County Senior Football final this weekend, there was a poster competition in the school. 2 posters from each class goes forward, here are our two.
Щоб відсвяткувати вихід жінок з Блессінгтона у фінал футбольного турніру серед старшокласників округу цими вихідними, у школі відбувся конкурс плакатів. По 2 плакати від кожного класу йде вперед, ось наші два.
Wednesday 4th of October
Im hoping to have all Desert Island Discs questionnaires today, we will being writing your reports tomorrow or Friday. Auditions to take place next Wednesday with recording taking place on Thursday.
Project day today and we are straight into building rockets after the notices. Today we will complete construction of them followed by painting them on Fri/Mon. The launching will take place later next week.
Parts of a Rocket
The payload could be cargo, a satellite or humans.
The space shuttle allowed for some parts of the rocket to be reused
Modern spacecraft reuses all parts of the rocket.
The way a water rocket works is by filling it up partially with water and then pressurizing the inside with air. When the bottom nozzle is opened the internal air pressure forces the water out of this nozzle at high speed causing the rocket to shoot straight up at high speed.
Your goal is to make your rocket go higher into the sky than anyone else’s. To give you all a head start, the exhaust has been attached. An important element of the rocket is the fins, these fins will allow the rocket travel straight and they will also reduce drag.
You must discuss and design 3 fins to attach to your rocket.
Tuesday 3rd of October
More photos in from Síofra, Daniel and Rachel yesterday evening. Monday 16th is the final date for photos. The vote takes place later that week.
That’s it for notices this morning as we are going straight to the lesson on Apollo 13 in preparation for our rocket project over the next week.
Monday 2nd of October
Fantastic new photos in from Oisín and Hannah W over the weekend.
Desert Island Discs questionnaire is due in this week, in class you will turn it into a report and read it out in front of the class. Between 7 and 10 of you will be chosen to record their interview in class. All recordings including music will be put stitched together and we will listen to it in class next week.
12 new vocabulary words this week, you analyse 5 of them this week and write them into your homework copy.
PE after lunch and well done to Sam on his NIM championship victory on Friday. New jobs for October are being handed out this morning also.
The Blessington Senior Ladies team are in the County Final next Saturday v Tinahely. The club are looking to give a big send off to the girls and there is a poster competition in all Blessington schools. The winning poster will receive a boot bag and Blessington hat.
Ukranian Phrases
Привіт! (pry-vIt) — Hello
Як справи? (jak sprA-vy) — How are you?
Мене звати… (me-nE zvA-ty) — My name is…
Па-па![pa-pa] – Bye-bye
Briathra Gaeilge Challenge
I burned the paper.
Will you burn the paper?
We burned the paper
Photo of the Day
Friday 29th of September
Your 1st month of 5th class is now complete, it has been a great start and it is fantastic to see the effort that you are putting in.
Non uniform day today, and thanks to Eve and Oisín insurance putt you have one test off again this week (one catch, you must take a different test off this week).
Please try to have all your written homework in for correction today.
We had an amazing presentation from Rachel yesterday for Artifact Thursday. Rachel brought in her great grandfathers primary cert and along with photos of her great grandfathers confirmation photo and the buses he made after he finished being an apprentice with CIE. He would have been 101 years this year
The primary school cert was a proper state exam that lasted until 1967, many students did not go on to secondary school as secondary school education was not free. High marks in the primary cert may have earned some students a scholarship to secondary school.
For Golden Time today we will play NIM an old Chinese strategy game. In order to win you must make your opponent remove the final matchstick.
English Vocabulary Challenge
Give me a synonym and antonym for descend and put it in a sentence.
Briathra Gaeilge Challenge
Did you hang the pants?
They will sing tomorrow.
Thursday 28th of September
New photos in from Caoilainn, Daniel and Zoey yesterday evening. Fantastic work from the 3 of you.
It’s Artifact Thursday again and I think we are in for another treat with Rachel today following Isabel’s and Ryan’s great presentations.
Unfortunately we didn’t get to play ‘The Unfair Game’ yesterday but we play today, we must complete the Anti-Bullying survey following Ms Sheward’s talk to all 5th and 6th classes yesterday.
It is fantastic to see the effort that many are putting into their Maths tables both in school and at home. It is so important to have these tables quick and accurate. Would it be a good if there was a summary of the incorrect tables when the time is up to help you ask for help and identify a strategy to get them correct the next time you encounter that same table? It may be added to the app soon.
Next Wednesday will be a full project day, we will be making rockets but we have a lot to learn about space travel and pressure before then.
Some rockets from last year
English Vocabulary Challenge
Give me a synonym and antonym for foil and put it in a sentence.
Briathra Gaeilge Challenge
Did you walk to the shop?
He will gather the books.
Photo of the Day
Wednesday 27th of September
We have 2 new students joining us this morning, Ostap and Tamara. I know you will make them feel very welcome and we will play some Circle time games and ‘The Unfair Game’ today so we all get to know one another. We will hopefully get outside to play Rock, Paper, Scissors tag also.
How are your Desert Island Podcast interviews coming along? When you complete your questionnaire and bring it back into school next week, you will rewrite it and turn it into a report. I’m hoping to have auditions the following week with recording taking place the day after auditions.
Rachel has sent in 3 more cracking photos. Just over 3 weeks to go before we begin the vote, has everyone sent in a photo at this stage?
One Shot Wednesday again today and we will also play Great Goal at some stage.
You will complete an anti bullying survey today and there will be a talk in the atrium this afternoon.
English Vocabulary Challenge
Give me a synonym and antonym for wit and put it in a sentence.
Briathra Gaeilge Challenge
We lost the game yesterday
Will you the game tomorrow?
Photo of the Day
Guess the year?
What is happening in this photo?
Who are these people?
Tuesday 26th of September
How did your vocabulary go last night? What word did you select?
Zoey has sent in another smashing photo, she is prolific. Well done Zoey.
To confirm there is no Monday to be done on Master your Maths this week due to my mix up and I will go through the Irish sentences for homework later today.
The beans have been updated and I know many of you want to check your bean balance. To save you the hassle of logging in here is your current balances
Some phrases we will be using in Maths for the rest of the year. Wat are other common phrases we use in class?
Gary’s Story
Why would Gary liked to have been as good as James Keane?
Did Gary feel pressure to succeed? If so where does this pressure come from?
What do you think Gary’s reaction to the disappointment might be?
Reminder to tell story from Co.Clare
When athlete Iván Fernández Anaya realized his rival ahead had made a mistake, he decided to help him win rather than snag the first place.
I didn’t deserve to win it. I did what I had to do. He was the rightful winner. He created a gap that I couldn’t have closed if he hadn’t made a mistake. As soon as I saw he was stopping, I knew I wasn’t going to pass him.
Monday 25th of September
The photos continue to come in, this weekend I received some fantastic photos from Isabel and Zoey.
Last Thursday Ryan presented his artifact. It was a disc man belonging to his Mom from 1998. How music is distributed has changed drastically since then. Although the disc man still works it is obsolete now. Ryan’s photo will be added to the artifact wall this week.
In homework this week we begin ‘TalkTime’. It will help us to examine and learn some of our vocabulary words.There are 5 sections to it, Synonyms, Antonyms, definition, sentence and change it up. We will practice right now with the word obsolete.
PE later today, we will be playing 3 ball and introducing basketball skills.
We will be runnning/walking 1km on 2 occasions this week. Learning Mental Benefits of Exercise
Photo of the Day
Friday 22nd of September
Busy morning ahead, Friday tests followed by homework corrections followed by Wordwise corrections. We will be playing a new game this evening for Golden Time.
Well done yesterday on completing the ‘Bottle Cap Hot Air Balloon’. It will be placed on an exterior wall on the school grounds very soon.
You all received the questionnaire for the Desert Island Discs podcast. Before your interview please mark 10 questions that you would like to ask your interviewee. Try to go into a bit of depth on those questions as opposed to short answers for all questions.
Finally we also have an incredible new photo in from Rachel, I can’t wait to hear about what is going on in the photo.
News Story of the Day
Thursday 21st of September
Two new cracking photos with brilliant names in from Sam & Zoey, just 1 month left to get photos in. Hopefully we get another spell of nice weather in the coming weeks to get some photos taken.
Cian has been very busy in his own time drawing flags of countries and finding out about them. He has over 10 countries done so far and I think he may even fill a copybook full of flags. Here are his favorite 2 so far. Fantastic Cian, I’m looking forward to seeing more.
Thanks to our Leitheoireacht volunteers yesterday, here is some reading examples.
We will be finishing up the Baloon Bottle Cap project today. We will divide into 3 groups and circulate every 15 minutes.
Ryan is on artefact duty today, we are all looking forward to it. Finally, I’m sure everyone would like to thank Daniel for his amazing putt yesterday and gives everyone a test of their choice off tomorrow.
Wednesday 20th of September
It is fantastic to see the honesty and effort you are putting into Maths each morning, not just are you all correcting honestly but when you are making errors you are trying hard to find the mistake and then being brave and responsible enough to raise your hand if you can’t figure it out. Well done.
It is our 1st ‘One Shot Wednesday’. For 5 minutes, just before 1st break every member of the class will get the opportunity to hit one putt (it is not an easy putt). If any class member hits a putt, everyone gets to take a test of their choice off on Friday.
Fantastic effort in our short art lesson yesterday, here are some of our eyes.
We will begin a new Sketchnote today on the Cuckoo, we will complete part 1 and 2 today (Part 1 – read and listen to all the information, Part 2 – Identift key information (5 W’s))
Map of the Day
What fact is this map trying to tell us?
Tuesday 19th of September
You will receive your Desert Island Discs Podcast interview sheets either today or tomorrow, you have until the 2nd of October to complete the interview giving you two whole weekends. I mentioned that you can voice record your interview and write down the interview after to make it easier on your interviewees. Here are some of the questions that you came up with yesterday. Not all these questions will make the final list.
Where have you lived over the course of your life (countries & counties)
What was school like? (uniforms, favourite teacher, favourite subject)
What were you like as a child?
Have you got many siblings?(names and where they are in family)
What were you like as a teenager?
How have houses changed since you were my age?
How did your family travel when you were my age? (if a car can the remember the type of car)
Tell me about your first job and how many jobs have you had throughout your life
What is the best decision you ever made?
What is your best childhood memory?
What is the most memorable gift you ever received?
How were birthdays celebrated when you were young?
Did you play sports growing up? (what were playing facilities like?)
What was your favourite food growing up and do you still like it?
Do you have a family pet when you were my age?
What did your parents work at?
What were you parents like?
What was your first car?
What do you think is the best invention in your lifetime?
Who was your nest friend at my age? (what did you do together)
What was the main form of entertainment in your family when you were a child (board games, reading, listening to radio etc.)
What would you tell your 12 year old self?
Do you have any funny stories from your past?
If you could give me life advice, what would it be?
Finally
Ask them to name a song that reminds them about a time in their life or it could just be their favourite song.
How did your multiplication tables go last night? What strategies and tricks do you have to remember difficult tables. Do you know a trick to help with the 9 times tables.
The photos just keep getting better and better, really creative shots from Quinn. At the back of the room you will see an incomplete project, we have been asked to complete it, time will be set aside over the next 3 weeks to do so.
Our PE time is Monday after lunch but we ill also try get other short games in during the week. Today we will play a game called Far Away
Puzzle of the Day
Monday 18th of September
Daniel and Zoey have sent in more photos, keep them coming in.
Girls indoor hurling for 5th class at lunchtime today for anyone interested.
Well done in the Friday tests last week. It was great to see a big improvement in English vocabulary, there will be less Irish spellings this week so hopefully we will do better on Friday.
Every 2 months we will publish a podcast. Our 1st podcast is called Desert Island Discs. As part of your homework you will have to seek out the oldest person you know (grandparent or great grandparent) and interview them. You will ask them a series of questions some that I have already prepared and other questions that we will come up with in class. One question that you will ask your interviewee, what piece of music would you bring to desert Island and why?
We will listen to a small snippet of the actual show ‘Deserts Island Discs’. In it we will hear Billie Jean King the famous tennis player talk about the first time she played tennis. She won 39 Grand Slam titles: 12 in singles, 16 in women’s doubles, and 11 in mixed doubles.
Photo of the Day
This is Mrs. Smith.
What is she doing and why?
Can you guess the year and location?
Friday 15th of September
We had an amazing presentation from Isabel yesterday. Isabel went above and beyond with her research and presentation. Well done Isabel.
She brought in a knurling tool and leather hammer that once belonged and was used by great great grandad, his name was Seamus Cleary and he was a harness maker. The tools are over 150 years old.
Isabel’s great great grandfather started working as a harness maker in 1880. The knurling tool went back and forth to give the harness a nice finish.
He worked 6 days a week and had just Sundays off. He went into work one day and his boss told him, ‘I have to let you go’, he asked why and was told that the boss’s nephew needed a job. He then started to work for himself in Smithfield.
We completed our 1st Sketchnotes yesterday. It was fantastic to see you draw images for keywords that told a story.
Super work in your tower building yesterday, it was especially great to see how groups faced the problems they encountered as they build their towers.Well done to Clayton, Leon and Daniel who built a tower with height of 2m13cm.
Jack has also sent in more photos and we will play the ‘Blanket Game’ for Golden Time today.
News Story of the Day
Plan would see cars banned from parts of Dublin city
Thursday 14th of September
Our first mini project day of 5th class happens today. We will be learning about towers and building them this afternoon.
It is fantastic to have Isabel presenting her artifact today, we are all really looking forward to it. More photos have come through for the photography competition, thanks to Precious, Síofra and Rachel. Keep them coming in.
Beans have been updated in the database so you may buy items today.
SketchNote
In Step 1
we read and listened to all the information on Morrocco and the earthquake that occurred there last week.
In Step 2
we turned all that information into key phrases.
3000 deaths in Morocco,
Atlas Mountains,
Trying to find survivors using sniffer dogs and listening devices
an earthquake occurs when when tectonic plates collide, get stuck and then suddenly release pressure.
volcanoes mainly form in the fault lines between tectonic plates
Everest grows 50cm every 100 years
452 volcanoes and 1000’s of earthquakes around Pacific Plate every year (Ring of Fire)
Japan has 5 earthquakes a day
Mud bricks Morocco
Charles Richter invented a scale to measure Earthquakes
9.6 earthquake in Chile
fault lines betrween plates
Plates colliding and pushing make mountain ranges (e.g Himalyas)
Step 3 – Say More with Less
Turn all those key phrases into 8 – 12 keywords. For each keyword you write down you must have a picture in your head explaining its meaning. Some of the keywords we wrote down are
Chile, Atlas Mountains, Pacific Plate, Volcanoes, tectonic plates, Mount Everest, Ring of Fire, Japan, Fault Line
Step 4 – Sketch
Today you will sketch,
Don’t just sketch your keyword, you must sketch an image showing how this keyword is relevant.
Wednesday 13th of September
You will complete your first individual sketchnote today on earthquakes. Some of your work will be shown here tomorrow. Can you remember the discussion around this picture yesterday?
It was a good start yesterday with the Irish stations and it will continue tomorrow, we will also be looking at Is Féidir Linn again and going through questions in the past tense. Attached is some members of the Leitheoireacht group ag léamh.
Once again, more photos have been sent in,. Jack and Zoey have been very busy and have taken some excellent shots.
PE today and we will also play the Blanket Name Game in class.
Photo of the Day
This is a pack of wolves.
Can you identify which of these 25 wolves is old and sick?
Can you identify which of these wolves is the strongest?
Can you identify which wolf is the leader?
Tuesday 12th of September
Brilliant to have received 9 new photos yesterday evening from Zoey, Sam & Daniel. They are all fantastic photos, keep them coming in, it is great to start each morning looking at and discussing them.
We will play a game called ‘Deadly Dice’ in the classroom later today and in the PE hall we will get to play Freedom Catch.
Indoor hurling for 5th class boys begins today also.
For Irish stations beginning today, there will be 3 groups. Group 1 is reading(leitheoireacht) (conversation recorded), Group 2 spellings & sentences (litriú & abairtí), Group 3 is book work (obair leabhar).
Some of your drawings from – How to draw a horse lesson from yesterday.
Hannah W has also being very busy digitising our new logo. Thanks for your work Hannah.
We will also write up our Artefact Thursday list today.
News Story of the Day
Monday 11th of September
We have 5 fantastic new photos sent in over the weekend from Suzie and Rachel. Great work by both of you.
Along with our English stations, Irish stations will also begin today. There will be a reading group, sentences & spellings group and comprehension group. Following stations we will introduce you to ‘Is Feidir Linn’ which will help us learn verbs and their tenses this year.
Congratulations again to Quinn, Síofra and Precious on winning the logo competition. Some class members have offered to turn the logo into digital format over the weekend, how did it go for you?
It is our first project day on Thursday. We will put books away after 1st break to learn about towers. You will then be divided into groups of 3 and given 2 A3 sheets of paper. With your group you will then be asked to build the tallest tower possible with them.
Photo of the Day
Friday 8th of September
Friday tests today, all I will ask every Friday after the tests are completed is, ‘did you do your best this week’. The scores you get in the tests does not matter provided you put in an honest weeks work. We had very little focus on your spellings (Irish & English) and Irish sentences in class this week but that will change next week.
Half self portraits art lesson will take place before lunch today.
We had 9 excellent presentations yesterday and it was a really hard decision to pick a winning logo. Unfortunately I can only pick one.
The winning logo is by Quinn, Síofra & Precious. Well done girls, it was a really difficult decision. It will be uploaded on the app and website next week. You will also receive your app logins today so that you can buy items with your beans.
Thursday 7th of September
Our 2nd photo of the ‘Eye on Nature’ competition is in from Leon. What a photo it is and it is called ‘Loving Life in Laragh’.
I’m really looking forward to seeing the final logos and hearing the presentations today, however I’m not looking forward to picking a winner 🙁
It was great to make a start at English stations yesterday and it will continue these stations for the foreseeable future.
Artifact Thursday begins today also.
Photo of the day
Can you guess the year, the country and what is going on in this photo?
Wednesday 6th of September
It was super to see that almost 10 members of the class have already taken photos for the Class 2024 Calendar.
We had our 1st photo sent in from Rachel yesterday evening. It was a fantastic photo with a great name. It is called ‘A Surprise Visitor’.
All photos can be viewed in the Photography page (see menu).
All our longer writing pieces will be posted on this site but from time to time shorter pieces will be posted on the notices. We did our 1st piece of writing this year, ‘A Letter to Future Me’. Here are some samples.
Logo Designs will be completed today and presentations will take place on Thursday. The winning logo will be posted on the site on Friday morning. English stations will begin today also.
News Story of the Day
How Ireland was powered over the last 24 hours and how Ireland has been powered since 1990 (see how it has changed)
Tuesday 5th of September
Excellent work yesterday, it was great to see many of you asking questions during the Maths lesson and even better it was great to see several ask questions after the questions had been corrected. I’m here to help and your job is to find questions that you are struggling on and get me to help. I will introduce you to the tables games this morning.
We will begin English stations later this week, the stations will include be novel reading, vocabulary work, cloze & handwriting.
While the weather is good it is a fantastic time to get out and take some photos for the ‘Eye on Nature’ competition.
There is no written homework this week but there is some spellings, vocabulary and Irish sentences to learn. We will be working on them in class every day, spend a little time on them each night and say that you have done your best after the tests on Friday morning no matter what scores you get.
We learned about logos yesterday, how they are designed and the goals that designers try to achieve when designing them.
We want our logo to show
we are a creative class
we try hard every day
I feel good about myself
I am resilient
I learn from my mistakes and I am a responsible learner
I am confident
I want to make friends and be a good friend
We are kind
You will begin sketching today.
Monday 4th of September
We have had a great start to 5th class, it is great to see how many of you are cooperating well with your desk mate and have been putting in a great effort in class activities so far.
This morning we will complete the putting sheets in our Maths folders and I will introduce you to the app. We must design a logo for the app and website and we will be leaning about logos later today. What is your favourite brand logo?
You will be put into groups of 3, you will spend 2 days designing and preparing your presentation. The presentations will take place later this week and the winners will be announced here on Friday morning.
The ‘Eye on Nature’ photo competition began on Friday and remember to email your photos to cforde@stmarysns.ie. The closing date for photos is the 20th of October. A vote will take place the following week to select the best 13 photos. Remember to put a name to your photo when sending them in. There can be no pets or people in the photos.
Síofra and Sam became our class accountants for the month of September. You can hand in beans to them during eating time. I will show you how beans can be spent today. Someone will be appointed to manage and distribute devices for the month of September this morning. They will also receive a wage of 5 beans every Friday.
LongBall is our PE game today.
Once upon a Picture
- Where do you think this is? How do you know?
- How many cats are in this class?
- What time of day is it? Why do you think that?
- Why is the white cat putting its paw up?
- What are the other cats doing/thinking?
- How is the black cat feeling? Why?
- Which cat is the cleverest? Which cat is the best behaved?
- Draw/describe what you think their teacher looks like.
- What do you think the other classes in the school are like?
- What lessons are taught in cat school?
Friday 1st of September
Well done yesterday, we got a lot completed on our first day. I hope the story Enemy Pie was enjoyable and that we learned something from it. Our folders are now half complete and we will go close to completing their contents today.
I will introduce you to beans today, how you can earn them, how you can spend them and what to spend them on.
In PE today we will play a game called Yoshi.
Do you know what the word empathy means? Today we will read a book called ‘Stand in my Shoes’ where we will learn all about it.
Today I will also explain details of a class calendar. You will be taking nature photos between now and Halloween and the nest 12 photos will be selected to represent a month of the year.
News Story of the Day
Thursday 31st of August
Welcome to 6th class. ThinkWithYourInk.com is the name of our class website this year. It contains helpful resources that I will introduce to you over the next few weeks.
We will begin each day reading the notices on this page and on many days we will also read and discuss a current news story. Today, we will introduce ourselves, we will look air our first ‘Photo of the Day’, we will read Enemy Pie and we will spend time organizing our folders. Every few weeks we will put the books away for the complete day and complete a Science/Art project. You will hear about Artefact Thursday and One Shot Wednesday.
We will have some movement games in the yard, one of which is called Hula Hoop Rescue.
To help us learn this year we will also be using an app in class called 5th Class St Mary’s. Every app needs a logo and you will begin working on designing the apps new logo today with logo presentations taking place next week when the winning logo will be selected.
Once Upon A Picture
Imagine that you have just walked into your kitchen to find this. Choose:
- Role play the conversation you might have with the octopus.
- You can only ask 3 questions to the octopus. What would you ask and why?
- The telephone rings. It is the RSCPA and they are concerned: they have had reports from a neighbour that you are keeping sea life in your kitchen sink. What do you say?
Questions:
- How did the octopus get here?
- Why is it wearing a hat?
- Is it speaking your language? Do you understand what it’s saying?
- Where did the plants come from?