5th Class St.Mary’s, Blessington

Eye on Nature Calendar

‘Eye on Nature’ – Class Calendar

Our 2027 Class Calendar. You are being asked to focus closely on the natural world around them and take photographs that capture something interesting, beautiful, unusual or special in nature.

The idea is to get you to really notice what is around you. The photographs should be of nature only, with no humans or pets in the pictures. Insects such as bees are fine. Think carefully about the photographs you take and make sure that they fit with the theme of ‘Eye on Nature’.

You should be able to explain what you have photographed and why you chose that particular image. The emphasis is on you noticing something yourself and having a reason for taking the photograph. When you send in the photograph make sure to give your photo a name.

Once the photographs have been submitted, we will look at them together as a class. We will select the 13 best photographs. The selected photographs will then be developed and used to create our class calendar.

The overall aim is to encourage you to slow down, look carefully at the world around you and see the nature that is often right in front of them. See winning photos from last years calendar

ScienceBlast 2027

🔬 Science Blast 2027 – What Will We Investigate?

Last year, our Science Blast experiment investigated dead hanging and handwriting. Half of the 6th Class took part in a dead-hanging programme, while the other half did not. We tested everyone’s handwriting before and after the experiment and collected lots of data to see if dead hanging had an effect. We then used our results to create graphs and draw conclusions.

This year, we want to try something new but it will involve dead hanging again.

So, what should our Science Blast 2027 experiment be?

What could we investigate as a class?

What could we measure and collect data on?

What experiment could we carry out over a number of weeks and use our results and graphs to answer a scientific question?

It’s over to you… What should we investigate for Science Blast 2027? 🧪🔬

LunchTime Gaelic Football League

Boys – 2 groups of 3

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ScienceBlast 2027

🔬 Our Science Investigation: Does Upper Body Strength Improve Running Speed?

Thanks to our discussion yesterday we have chosen our next whole-class science investigation! Our question is: Does improving upper body strength make us faster runners? To find out, all three 5th classes will have their running speed tested next week. Each student will run the same distance, giving their best effort, while their time is recorded using a stopwatch. We will then repeat the same test at the end of our six-week investigation.

Our class will be the high-frequency dead-hanging group. Five days a week, we will complete five attempts at dead hanging from the bars. Each time we hang until our hands can no longer hold on, that counts as one attempt. Miss Gilligan’s class will be our lower-frequency group, completing five dead hangs twice a week for six weeks. Miss Nugent’s class will be our control group and will not complete any dead hanging.

At the end of the six weeks, we will compare everyone’s September and October running times and calculate their improvement. We expect everyone may get a little faster as they grow stronger and practise running, but we want to find out whether the students completing dead hangs improve more than those who don’t. This will help us decide whether increasing upper body strength has an effect on running speed. We will collect, analyse and graph our results before reaching our final conclusion!

Class Website Logo 2026/2027

We will design a new logo for our class website in the next week. You will work in groups of 3.

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