Welcome to our P.2 &  P.3 Class Page.

We hope that you enjoy looking at

all our photographs and videos

of our school activities throughout the year.

Primary 3 received the Sacrament of First Confession this week. Mrs Norris is so proud of all the boys and girls, the manner in which they all prepared for and how they all conducted themselves during the ceremony. It was a beautiful service, and it was lovely to see so many parents and Grandparents join us for such a personal occasion. Thank you to Fr. Sean for leading the celebration. The day was concluded, as it only could be, with a party in the afternoon in school.

As the sun shone this week, we took our play outside.  There was great excitement as we got to explore the new “Outdoor Area!” with the P.1 & P.2 class. So, with sunglasses and wellie boots on, one project dug holes to bury some bones. We wanted to measure how big the hole was, so we had to figure out what to measure it with. How could we find out how deep it was? There was lots of interaction and cooperation, great language of measure being used. Turn taking was very important, to ensure everyone had a turn and was involved.

In PE we put our Coordination Skills to the test as we navigated our way through the hoops and around the cones. 

In Numeracy we have been reinforcing our Mental Maths Skills. We practised “holding a number in our head” (rather than counting all over again) and then adding on the additional number. We used the same approach when we were subtracting. We used a Number line to check we were correct. We also had the opportunity to “Find the Facts” specific to a certain number. Number cards we laid out in front of us, along with the mathematical symbols + - and =. We then had to select two cards and a symbol that created the target number. Once we checked it was correct, we could then write the result on the IWB.

We had great fun on Friday, when we took part in a “Time Party!” This was to help us understand the length of one minute, and one-half hour. We were all invited to take a working watch or clock to school.   When we arrived at school, we were all given a party hat, a party whistle and a balloon. Throughout the day an alarm went off signalling every hour and half hour. When this happened, we had to stop what ever we were doing and “party” for a minute!! We then had to record the times we partied using both analog and digital notation.

Congratulations to the Winners of this week's Lenten Raffle in aid of Trócaire.

The Focus sound in Phonics this week was "ow." We discovered it could be made using the letters "ow" or "ou." We "Voted with our Feet," to help us realise the correct way in which some of the words containing this sound are spelled. 

We took part in a Problem-Solving Activity, where we had to help the Monsters to bury 10 eggs in three holes. We had to try to find how many different ways the eggs could be shared between the three holes. We all chose some items around the classroom such as beads, cubes or pompoms to represent the eggs and baskets, trays, bowls and desk-tidies to represent the holes as we worked to discover the different combinations, which we recorded using circles on a page.

In Numeracy we had the task of going in search of Number Stories. To begin with, we took part in a “Clustering Activity.” We were all given a card with a number on it. We then, had to find two other people, with numbers, when presented with ours completed a Number Story. After that, we had to find as many different Number Stories as we could, just using the three numbers we had. We discovered that each set of three numbers could produce four different calculations.

Later in the week, we had great fun as we tried to “Find the Facts,” in a number grid. We thought this activity was a mixture of a Wordsearch and a Crossword, except that it was using numbers. It was great fun!!

We then reinforced these Number Facts using ICT.

In Phonics, P2 have discovered that two letters can join together to make one sound. However, they have now realised that the same sound can be made by combinations of other letters too. This week, they were focusing on the “oa” diagraph and they had the opportunity to physically sort words into a group containing the digraph they had.

We had great fun when we combined Numeracy & P.E to reinforce our knowledge of direction (left & right) using DJ Raphi, and “The Cha-Cha Slide.” We practised inside initially and then joined the P.1 & P.2 class to put it altogether outside. It was the best fun!

Using their hands as a balancing tool, Primary 2 were tasked with finding items around the classroom that they believed were lighter or heavier than their indoor shoe. Throughout the activity there was a lot of interaction, discussion, questioning, suggesting and compromising. The language of weight was being used freely and with understanding e.g. lighter, heavier, similar, The task was concluded by using a balance, to determine the weight of items that fell into the similar/same category.

The children in Primary 3 were presented with a selection of balls. They were asked to sort them from the smallest to the largest. When this task was completed they were then challenged to sort the balls according to their weight, lightest to heaviest. This task was to be carried out using their hands as the tools for comparison. This involved a lot of interaction, discussion, questioning, suggesting and compromising. The language of weight was being used freely and with understanding e.g. lighter, heavier, similar, The task was concluded by using a balance, to compare the weight of consecutive balls, to determine if they had been sorted correctly. Working in a different group Chloe, correctly observed that, the smallest ball didn’t mean that it was the lightest one. This group agreed, and, using this principle, they were then asked to sort a collection of boxes, lightest to heaviest. They realised the biggest box was indeed the lightest. 

As the sun shone this week, in Irish we joined forces, with both the P1 & P2 and P4 classes, and went outside to sing (i nGaeilge) “The Wheels on the Bus!”

As we concluded our WAU topic, using cardboard tubes, we created our individual rockets, that are now flying around our planets.

Congratulations to the Winners of this week's Lenten Raffle in aid of Trócaire.

P1, 2 & 3 had the very important role of presenting our “Green Day Assembly.” We had the opportunity to showcase all the Irish we have been learning, through language, poetry, and songs. To conclude we sang the song “St. Patrick’s Story.” telling how he was kidnapped and brought to Ireland, escaped, but returned to tell us about God.

As St. Patrick’s Day approaches, we celebrated “Green Day” at the end of this school week. Didn’t we look fabulous as we came to school in “Forty Shades of Green!”

Using a selection of green paint, cotton buds and cotton wool we created some shamrock that we could wear for Green Day.

Congratulations to Oisín on being the first week’s winner of the Easter Egg Raffle in aid of Trócaire. He is looking forward to eating his white chocolate egg as white chocolate is his favourite.

There has been great excitement in our class over the past two weeks, as Gemma come in to conduct an ICT & Music session with us. Using “Garageband,” on ipads we explored the different ways we could create music on the App. Initially we explored the keyboard and the many different notes and chords that could be played. We experimented with the ‘guitar,’ and Gemma introduced us to some other “stringed” instruments from different regions of the world, such as the Pipa and Erhu. We explored orchestral instruments, such as the violin, viola, cello and double bass. We really enjoyed “playing” these instruments and creating our very own individual symphonies. 

In Literacy, we have been focusing on, how best to describe a character. To do this, we played our own version of “Guess Who?” where we had to try to “Guess the Monster.” At first, we did this working in pairs, where we asked each other questions to try to find out which Monster our partner had selected. After that, we were encouraged to try to describe the monster we had selected to our friend to see if they could correctly identify it.

We were challenged to listen carefully to the description our teacher gave of a monster, and we tried to draw it.

As part of Seachtain na Gaeilge we took part in a Zoom Workshop, teaching us a new Irish Song. We were presented with some badges with our names on them in Irish, which we got to decorate. We wore them in school and were encouraged to use them throughout the week. We had the opportunity to have a "Conversation," with each other to practice all the Irish we have been learning.

In PE we practiced our Fundamental Skills. We tried to control the ball as we moved around the yard and carried out different skills as we went.

P.2 reinforced their knowledge of subtraction by playing a subtraction game, but also trying to have the most cubes on the board when the board was filled. 

We are extremely proud of Maria and Katie who represented our school at Féis an Dúin in Castlewellan last weekend They were both awarded medals for their poetry and Maria also received a medal for her conversation. Comhghairdeachas a chailíní!!

In Numeracy we have all been reinforcing our knowledge of subtraction. We have come up with different words that also mean subtraction, like “take away, count back, loose and hide.” We had great fun playing subtraction games. Working together, we had to turn over a card and write the down the number that was on it. We then threw a die and we had to subtract the number on the die from the number on the card. There were so many different calculations to be found.

There was great excitement on Tuesday as it was Pancake Day. Denise, Anna, and Maggie came to our class to serve us up some pancake treats. They were delicious!!

To celebrate World Book Day on Thursday, we had a “Big Book Swap!” in school. We were all asked to pick a book we no longer needed, wrap it, and write our own blurb or draw a picture on the front to give clues as to what the book may be about, but not giving away the title. There was great excitement as we all received a “new” book.

We  took part in “Readon,” when we silently read a book of our own choice for ten minutes. We were sponsored to take part in this activity, having fun while raising funds for “Cancer Fund for Children.”

Our big news in class this week is how well our boys and girls performed at Warrenpoint Féis. We are extremely proud of all the children who represented our school in the competitions. They were all so confident and spoke out really well. The adjudicator was so impressed that we had five children receive prizes. Congratulations to Nemi, who earned a second place in her class, Éireann and Oisín who achieved third place in their respective competitions and Sienna and Cohen who both were awarded “Highly Commended.”  We also held a “Class Féis” for those children, who had learned the poem, but didn’t travel to Warrenpoint. Congratulations to Katie and Shane, Shéa and Maria on their performances.

Noel Lyons our local Council Waste Management Advisor came to visit our school this week. He spoke about a rubbish dump, and he had a special tin, from which we could get the awful stink that comes from such a dump. He reminded us about what type of rubbish goes into each bin. He showed us some items that were made from recycled materials, soft toys, hard plastic toys, a fidget, and even some jewellery. He helped us to create some plant pots from newspaper. We filled them from compost that was made from the waste that is found in our brown bins, and we sprinkled some cress seeds on top. We took them home and we are going to look after them, so hopefully the cress will grow by next week.

In ICT this week, using Google Docs the whole school helped devise our New School Eco-Code. This meant that everyone could work on the same document at the same time. Each class had the opportunity to contribute. The resulting collaboration reminded us of all we are doing, but also reminded us of the things we still have to continue to do in order to keep our planet safe.

In Literacy, we have been exploring the different ways that we can describe how people speak when writing a story. We looked in our reading books and library books for some clues and then we came up with suggestions of our own. Some of our favourites are, muttered, whispered, agreed, and sniffed. Then using ICT, we had a Teams Meet session with P.1 and P.2 to exchange some of our findings and ideas. They too had a great selection of “said words,” like, explained, argued, and screamed. Altogether we came up with thirty-eight different ways to say “said.”

In Numeracy we have all been reinforcing the Handling Data concept, of “Mapping.” Initially we focused on the Healthy Snacks that the adults in our classes eat. But it was even better when our teacher created a different Mapping Diagram all about our own favourite healthy snacks. We had to focus carefully in order to answer the questions we were being asked. Sometimes it was a statement and we had to say if it was true or false.

We have had a fun packed week on our return to school. In WAU we had the opportunity to create our own “planets.” We did this by mixing and swirling paint with shaving foam to create a marble effect. We pressed a sheet of white paper into the mixture and lifted it up carefully to reveal the result. 

When the creation dried, we cut out some different sized circles and glued them on to black card that we had splattered with white paint to create Space. We were so pleased with our creations.

Our Finished Creations

We have been learning all about the moon. We discovered that the moon rotates around the Earth only once in 28 days. We learned that the moon can look different from Earth depending on its position in space. We have been exploring the phases eight phases of the moon. We had so much fun doing this, using cream cookies. Of course, the BEST part was when we had completed the activity and got to eat the cookies. 

In Literacy, we have been exploring the different key elements in a story. We used the books from our class library to discover how stories can all start in a different way. Some can introduce the characters first, others state what type of day it may be, there maybe someone speaking, or it may begin with “Once upon a time……”

We used characters from our Story Box having a conversation to create our own “story beginning.” We then presented them to our class.

Astronauts wear extremely large and heavy boots when they walk on the moon so that their weight is spread out and they do not float away.  Space Boots cover a bigger area than normal shoes. We were challenged to arrange  5 different types shoes according to the area they cover.

We then had to "measure" the area of the shoes. First, we carefully drew around each shoe. We then used some circles, squares, rectangles and triangles to see which shape would be the best to use for the task . We had to make sure that we used the same shape to measure the whole area. We had to check that there were no gaps between the shapes, no overlapping and that they did not lie outside the outline. We agreed that the best shapes to use were the squares. We were then surprised to find that although some shoes looked different in size, they actually covered the same area. 

Will and Charlene from “Specsavers,” in Newry came to talk to us about taking care of our eyes. They told use that eating carrots, broccoli and fish helps to keep our eyes healthy. They said it is best to limit our “screen time,” to only 45 minutes a day and to ensure that we get our eyes tested regularly. We really enjoyed seeing Anna, Patrick and Annie all help out with an “Eye Test.” Patrick even got to wear the special glasses that are used during an actual test.

The Eco-Team came to talk to us about the “Battery Recycling Scheme,” that is being promoted by Duracell. Our School’s Team have all created special boxes for each class, that we can put “spent” batteries into. They reminded us of the many items around the house that contain batteries and told us that most batteries go to “landfill,” and cause a lot of pollution and disease for animals. So, we are really going to try to take part in the scheme as best we can.

This week was also Internet Safety Week. The theme this year is “Too Good to be True!” In our class we took part in activities that reminded us of what to do if a “pop-up!” appears when we are playing or working on our laptops or tablets. We talked about who would be our “trusted adults.” We took part in a “sorting activity” that helped us to understand the type of information that can or cannot be shared when we are online. On Monday, the whole school will be taking part in a Video Call through Google Classroom, when we all can share what we have learned throughout the week.

We combined WAU and ICT this week when using individual iPads, we had the opportunity to programme Bee-Bot to travel around Space collecting nebulas and returning to the rocket. As we progressed through the levels, it became more difficult as Bee-Bot had to avoid hitting satellites and asteroids as they floated into its path. Throughout the activity we had to make sure that we ‘turned’ Bee-Bot in the right direction, programmed the correct number of moves forward (or backward) and cleared the previous code before entering a new one.

We used ICT to explore Position and Movement in Numeracy this week. We had to follow a set of instructions, select the correct 3D shape with the stated colour and place it on the grid on the given position. We had to follow the letters along the bottom of the grid first and then travel up the grid to the correct number. We then had the opportunity to identify the position on the grid that a particular 3D shape occupied. 

This week we celebrated Grandparent’s Day. We spoke throughout the week about the places we visit and the things we do with our Grandparents and how important they are in our lives. We had fun creating a keepsake for our Grandparents. After our special Grandparents Mass on Friday morning, led by the P.5 class, it was fun to have our Grandparents come visit us in our classroom.

P.3 have been exploring and sequencing number to 100. They too had to identify missing numbers in a sequence. The sequence could be In 2s, 5s, or tens and could be going forwards or backwards.   They had to place non-consecutive numbers in order, sometimes starting with the smallest, and sometimes starting with the largest.

Grow In Love we learned about St. Brigid, as 1st February Is St. Brigid's Day.  We were reminded of the stories that we know about her. Although St. Brigid is remembered for making a cross out of rushes, our favourite one is about her cloak, spreading over the land so that there was enough area covered for her to build a church.

As we continue to explore Space in our WAU Topic, we have had the opportunity to taste the "space sweets" on sale in our "Space Store." We have tasted the "moon rocks," flying saucers," and some authentic freeze dried "skittles," that astronauts actually take to space. Look at our faces and tell if we enjoyed the experience. 

Flying Saucers

Freeze Dried Skittles.

Moon Rocks

In Literacy, we have been learning how to use a "Story Box," to create a story. We all are aware that a story must contain certain elements, such as a setting, characters, a problem, and a solution. To help us with this, our teacher introduced us to three aliens from the planet "Doop." One of the aliens wanted to make "The Best Dress Ever." However, in order to do so he needed the help and encouragement of his friends. 

In PE we had to work as a team to get our "Space Shuttle," to the "Mother Ship." We had to decide what was the best way to travel through "Space," so as not to fall out of the shuttle. This was all done through the use of hula-hoops and a whole lot of imagination!! We finished the session off by having a "Space Race!"

In Play and Maths, we have been "exploring" space, direction and movement using the Bee-Bot. We have been programming the Bee-Bot to travel around our "Planet."  Initially, we travelled in stages, always being careful to clear the previous instructions. Then we tried to programme the whole journey at once.  That took a whole lot of effort and teamwork.

In Phonics, the P.3s have been working on the "ow" sound. It can be made In two ways. They had great fun "voting with their feet," when they had to decide what way to spell a word.

P.3 were also working on Place Value. Working In pairs, they were set the task of counting how many cubes there were In a box. They were quick to realise that the most sensible way to carry out the task was to create sets of ten.

Mrs Woods took a deer's antler to school this week. We were so excited to have it in our classroom. It felt 'rippley' and a bit like a tree bark. it was longer than a metre and one of us were expecting it to be so heavy. We counted eight prongs on it, that is supposed to be the age of the deer the antler came off.

Its been all thing "Space!" In our classroom this week. as we work on our new WAU Topic. During our Play Time we have had the chance to go "exploring" in our HCPS Space Rocket, navigating our way through the Solar System with our specially designed 'Control Panel.'

We have gone on adventures with our astronauts, as they explore new planets in our "Small World Area."

In ICT we have been exploring animation. We had great fun trying to move our planets from one side of the screen to the other. We got very courageous and had astronauts, rockets and comets moving around too. 

We have been reinforcing our money counting skills as we go to "Space Store," to buy our Space Themed sweets. 

There was great fun playing Shéa's game "Rockets and Comets," when he brought it to school.

We had so much fun on Friday when we had the opportunity to take in a toy we received a Christmas to show and paly with our class.  We had talked about our gifts throughout the week, but it was great to be able to share them with our friends (and our teacher.)

In Literacy, we have been working on the skill of Summarising. This means reading a text, deciding what are the important points in it, and then writing a smaller piece of work. We have read the story of “The Old Toy Room,” to help us with this concept. After we read the story, we had the opportunity to retell it, collaboratively, making sure not to use too much detail. We then worked in pairs, to sequence ten pictures of the story correctly. We were encouraged to write a sentence to match each picture, therefore summarising the story.

P.3 have had great fun reinforcing their knowledge on the structure and patterns that can be found in a 100 Square. Using their knowledge, they were able to identify missing numbers on the square. They did this collaboratively on the IWB. Together, both classes, developed the skills of counting on, when adding on using the Number Line.

P.2 were reinforcing the language of position. They used the digits 1-10 to help them with this concept. Each child was presented with a digit.  When they were called, they had to position themselves where they felt most appropriate on a line. They were encouraged to describe their position in relation to the numbers that were already visible, using the words, "before," "after," and "between."

In P.D.M.U. we spoke about the qualities that we feel a good friend should have. We had the opportunity to sort some pictures depicting friendly behaviours and unfriendly behaviours into different sets.

Who knew that coin rubbing could be so much fun? This activity helped use all to become more familiar with the coins that can be found in a purse. We examined the coins closely and discussed their different sizes, shape, the metal they were made from, and of course how much they are worth. 

As this term, came to an end Mr. Hardy awarded everyone in the class with a special certificate to highlight their participation in Fundamental Skills in PE. He presented Cohen, Shane, Saoirse and Erin with a goodie bag in recognition of their great contribution to the PE sessions.

Sprout the Elf returned to our classroom and what a mess he made. We discovered him in the Creative Area on Wednesday morning. He had cut out shapes for us to use to make some Christmas cards, but he had scattered the scrap paper all over the floor. We did enjoy ourselves, as we made the cards he had suggested.

We also made some very glittery Christmas tree decorations and hung them on our Class tree before we took them home to hang on our trees there.

We reinforced our money knowledge through ICT with the games “The Toy Shop Money Game,” and “Coins Game.”

In Numeracy we have been focusing on measure. We continued to practise our measuring skills using non-standard objects. This week we used cubes, glue sticks, feet, and hands. We discovered that our answers were very similar as we used that same unit to measure the same objects.

What an extremely busy week we have had. I’m sure you will all agree that we took the house down with our singing and dancing as we supported the P.1 pupils in their performance of “The Sleepy Shepherd!” on Tuesday evening. We had such fun performing for you all.

There was great excitement when Sprout the Elf paid a visit to our classroom. We discovered him hanging from the “Opticians,” sign on Tuesday morning wearing a pair of glasses. He left us a note saying that he could see us all so much better, and because we looked to be having so much fun playing in the Opticians that he couldn’t wait to visit your room so that he could play too.

In Literacy, we worked collaboratively to create a shape poem about Christmas. We looked at some different shape poems to get inspiration and then we discussed the different aspects of Christmas that we all love. We all wrote one sentence about Christmas, focusing on our sentence construction and correct spelling. We then wrote our idea on a green strip of paper. These strips were carefully laid together from largest to the smallest to create the shape of a Christmas tree. We are so proud of our creation.

In Numeracy we have been focusing on measure. To start, we discussed the language that can be used with measure, such as long, longer, longest, or short, shorter, shortest. We hunted around the classroom to get three object that could demonstrate this concept.

We practised our measuring skills using non-standard objects, such as cubes, counters, and paper clips. We discovered that our answers were all different. That was because we measured different sizes of objects and perhaps, we used different sizes of objects to measure too. So, we were ALL correct with our answers.

In Irish we played a game of “Count-Around” (as Gaeilge,) recalling our counting to a deich. We then had fun playing “Ba mhaith leis an feirmeoir bean.” (The Farmer wants a wife.) We also reinforced our colours singing “Canaimis Tuar Ceatha.” (We can sing a Rainbow.) Mairead told us the beautiful story about the little shepherd with the drum and then we sang “Little Drummer Boy,”

In WAU we explored All our senses when we popped some corn. 

We looked and touched the kernels.  We then heard the popper blow hot air on them. We heard them start to pop. We could smell the delicious aroma! Then we used our sense of touch when they were placed in our hands so that we could taste it.  Yum, Yum!!

We had a lovely Christmas Dinner on Thursday and celebrated Christmas Jumper Day on Friday. We had great fun showing everyone our colourful Christmas Jumpers. Christmas is getting closer, and we are all getting super excited.

In Phonics we were working on syllables. Syllables are the sounds that can be heard in words. We had to listen carefully to see if we heard, one, two, three or even four syllables. We used the "chin moving" method to help us determine the number of syllables in a word. Sounding out syllables helps us with our spelling too. We played a game, where we had to try to match two syllables to make a words. 

In Numeracy we have been focusing on money. We looked very carefully at the different coins that could be found in our teacher's purse. We noticed that there was a mixture of bronze and silver coins with different numbers on each coin. The numbers told us how many pence each coin was worth. The coins were different shapes too. There were circles and heptagons. We were given a selection of items with different price tags, and we had the opportunity to count out some coins from our personal purses to match the amount on the price tag. We also learned that there is 100p in a £1.

As Christmas is approaching, we talked about what we would like Santa to bring to us. We spoke about, how we should make our wish respectfully. We chatted about manners and what words would be best to use for our request. We combined our Literacy and ICT tasks and decided that we would like to create our application using Just2Easy with some text and pictures. There was a lot to think about as we set to the task. We had to look carefully at the keyboard to find where each letter was placed, we had to know what keys to press in order to create a capital letter, how to create a space between words, where to find the full stop and how to “rub out” any mistakes we made. On top of all this we had to think carefully in sentences and concentrate on our spelling. As the task wasn’t completed, we had to make sure to save it, so that we can finish it next time.

Numeracy & PE were combined this week as we took our Shape recognition lesson outside. We discussed the names of our two focus shapes: cylinder and sphere, and their properties according to their faces, edges, and corners. A collection of cylinders and spheres were places around the school playground. When our teacher called out a name, we had to find that shape. If she called out both shapes names, we had to lift one shape and find a partner with the other one. The session was concluded, with a quick game of skittles, using Pringles tubes and balls!!

This week we had a visit from the Neill and Marie from the Neighbourhood Policing Team. They told us that their job was to “Help keep people safe!” However, they reminded us that we play a very important role in keeping ourselves safe while we are out and about. They told us that when we are coming to school that if we are walking, we must use the footpaths, hold onto an adults hand, and wear a High Viz Vest if we have one. If we travel to school by car, we should be in the back seat, sitting on a booster seat, or in a child seat with our seat belts on. They told us about the equipment that they must wear at all times, so that they will ALWAYS be ready to deal with an emergency. The told us that it is vital that we know the number of our house and the name of the road or estate that we live in just in case we ever have to call any of the emergency services.

We have all been working hard on trying to remember “Doubles.” This is when a number is added to itself. If we know these off by heart, it will help us develop our mental maths.  We played Dominoes to help us recognise the pictorial representation of the numbers one to six, but also because we have to ‘match’ using Doubles. We explored doubles through some different card games too.

In Literacy we were read the story “The making of Milton!” As it was being read, we were encouraged to try to make “Connections!” with the story. We did this using “Sentence Stems.” We would select a stem to use to help us making a personal connection to the story. It may have been a time when we felt an emotion that the character in the book was feeling. It may have been an event or activity that was similar to one being undertaken by the character. We were all very keen to share our experiences.

We worked really hard on the concept of "Alphabetical Order."  In pairs, we first, set out the 26 letters of the alphabet in the correct order. Next we were given a set of three consecutive letters to put into the correct  position. After that we had to put non-consecutive letters in the right slot. That task was made a little more difficult, when we were given four non-consecutive letters. Then we had to organise ourselves into alphabetical order according to the first letter our first names. Finally we used our surnames to put ourselves in the correct order. Lots of thinking and discussion took place before we were happy with the result. 

We took part in "GAEILGE 24" when everyone in the school did their very best to use the Irish words and phrases that they knew throughout the day. We learned a new song; "Nigh na hÉadaí!" (Wash The Clothes!) and some new words and phrases too and had great fun trying to use them. We wore green tops to mark the occasion.

To mark the start of "Anti-Bullying Week," we celebrated all our differences by taking part in "Odd Socks Day!" The theme this year is "Respect." We discussed what was meant and thought that it was best described as  “Making a Special Effort to be Extra Friendly Week!”

We have been extremely busy in Irish. We have been learning how to tell the time using "a clog" (o'clock). We have been singing a new song to help us remember the names of the different fruit that we eat. We have been revising the different ways that we may travel to school.  

We took part in our annual "Woolly Hat Day," to raise funds for our local charity Mourne Stimulus. We had great fun, wearing all our hats of different styles and colours.

In Literacy we have been focusing on the different types of books we find in our Library. We sorted the books we found in different ways. Most groups sorted the books according to size but then we realised that books can be sorted into two categories, Story, or Not a Story, better known as Fiction and Non-Fiction Books. We have learned that Non-Fiction books do not tell stories, they give us facts and information. At the start of these books, we usually find a Contents page. This page tells us what we will find inside the book and the page number. We can find the Index and Glossary at the back of the book. The index helps us to find a specific page for exact information. The Glossary is like a dictionary, that gives us the meaning of some of the new words we might find in the book.

In Numeracy we had the opportunity to sort different shapes. We organised them in many different ways, square or not square, tubes or not tubes, card or not card, long or not long, flat or not flat. We discovered that, flat shapes are called 2D shapes and the not flat shapes are 3D. 2D shapes are joined together to make 3D shapes.

We reinforced our knowledge of telling the time using both the analogue and digital clock. We had great fun improving our understanding in PE where we had to; “Find the Time!”

In ICT we all had great fun as we played “Hit the Button!” where we worked against the clock to get as many addition facts correct in one minute. Each time we played, we tried to get a better score than our previous one.

In Irish Mairead played a game of “Ceanna!” (Match) to help us learn the names for different types of clothes.

A lot of scary characters came to school on Friday to help us have our own Hallowe’en celebrations. 

Congratulations to Nemi on being the winner of our first class Spelling Bee!

Mr. Hardy had the tough job of awarding some prizes to those boys and girls he thought made an extra special effort in taking part in the GAA Fundamental Programme. Congratulations to Arthur, Molly, Oisín and Maria.

A lot of our activities were related to our WAU topic of eyes. In Numeracy, we took our learning outside where we had the opportunity to develop our sorting skills a little further, when using a tree diagram. Once again, we had to read the criteria and decide what direction we were to “travel.” However, we had to make more than one decision in order to sort out who had what colour of eyes.

We carried out a little experiment. We experienced how it might feel if we could not see. We worked with a partner who had to guide us around a mini obstacle course. Our partner had to hold us by the hand and give us clear instructions. We had to make sure that we listened carefully to what we were being told. It was great fun, but we realised that it is extremely difficult for blind people in the world

We have an “Opticians,” in our class so during Play we can have our eyes “tested,” and look for new frames for our glasses. They have become quite the fashion accessory in the class. Denise decided that she would like new frames too!

In Literacy we continued our work on Instructional Texts. Our teacher showed us a picture of “Top Hats!” We had to guess what may be needed to make these treats. We had to list the ingredients and the utensils that were needed, and our teacher had them all in her store!! We then were challenged to orally give our teacher the instructions to make the delicacy!! We had to be very careful, making sure that we had the instructions in the correct order, that we used time connecting words and bossy verbs. Of course, we all got the opportunity to make some “Top Hats,” ourselves. The best part had to be when we ate them!!

Our Numeracy was connected to WAU this week, as we worked on data about the colour of our eyes. As a class we created a pictograph showing the different eye colours, in our room. We then interpreted the information by answering questions about what we could see. We also developed our sorting skills. We each were given a 2D shape and we had to set it on the correct position on the Tree Diagram after reading the criteria. We had to decide what direction we were to “travel.” We had the opportunity to explore this concept further on the IWB using Just 2 Easy!! We also investigated the model on our individual laptops.

As this was Maths Week Ireland P.6 had the task of creating and developing a Maths Game for our class. So, on Friday afternoon they came over to our room so that we could play their games. There was such a variety of games to play. Lots of counting to be done. Lots of sweets as prizes to be eaten. Lots of fun!!

In Literacy we examined Instructional Texts. These texts give us instructions on how to do something. We looked at the characteristics of these texts, such as bossy verbs, time related words and diagrams to help understanding. We looked at pictures that showed us how to create a cheese and tomato sandwich. We had to put the pictures in the correct sequence and then we had to think of an instruction that could match them. We then had to think of alternative words to use, so that we would not be using the same words too often. We then looked at the instructions on how to make a “Toilet Roll Dracula.” We had great fun following them to create our own.

We cast our votes for those in Primary 7, we felt would best represent us and our fellow pupils on our School Council. We had the opportunity to watch a video, made by each candidate, giving us their reasons as to why we should vote for them. We then had to decide who would best fill the role of Chairperson, Vice-Chairperson, Secretary and Treasurer. We are looking forward to finding out the results.

In Numeracy we were encouraged to work using a “Tens Frame.” We placed counters on it to represent different numbers. We were then guided as to how to use them correctly, so that we could see the pattern of each number easily. We then were able to use them to help us “count on.”

We put our Problem-Solving Skills to the test, when we had to help Mother Witch, buy apples for her three little witches. We tried to predict how many apples were needed to give each witch 1 or 2 or 5 or 10. Initially, we "acted out," the scenario and the we had to decide what way we could best record our findings. 

We discovered some square shaped objects in our class. We are keeping our eyes peeled for more. 

We had lots of messy fun, creating "square" pictures using nothing but square sponges dipped in paint. 

Of course the best "Squares" were those we could eat!!

We found a note from Tim Triangle. He told us that he and his friends had hidden around the classroom and our job was to try to find them all. They had hidden EVERYWHERE!! We found them in the sand tray, in the home area, under the baby in the cot, in the doctor's bag, in the paint tray, in the pencil pots. We are still finding them. 

We were given a selection of different sized triangles, and we had to try to build them into the shape of a house. We had to think very carefully about where we placed our shapes because, sometimes it took two shapes to fill a space, not one. We then were presented with Tangrams, a set of seven different shapes. We were challenged to make a selection of different animals and objects. This was great fun!

We have all been working on recognising 2D shapes and their properties. We focused on the rectangle. We went on a “Rectangle Hunt,” around the class and school environment. There were lots of rectangles to find. We then looked at some of the “rectangle” artwork that has been created by an artist called Piet Mondrian. Together we created our own version of his work.

Our Class Masterpiece

We also created art in the style of  Piet Mondrian, using Lego.

In Numeracy P.2 have been focusing on the composition of the number 6. They had great sport gathering up sets of six items from around the classroom. They also worked on the different ways a set of six objects can be made. To do this they used a set of six cubes and had to split then into two groups and then write a number sentence to match. 

P.3 have been exploring Place Value. In pairs they were tasked with counting a large number of cubes in a box. They discovered that is was a lot easier to count the cubes if they were built into a tower of ten. They then were able to count up all the tens and add on the extra single cubes. They were encouraged to describe them as Tens and Ones, stating what the whole number was, and then trying to write that number in words.

In ICT we have explored the Just2Easy App JiT. After we logged on and entered our password, we investigated the “paint” option, where we selected a picture template that we could add images to. As we had been talking about our walk in Mourne Park we selected a “wood.” We had great fun putting in the images of the different birds, animals, plants, and flowers.

We had our first Irish Session Mairead this week. She introduced us to her “furry” friends who are going to help us with our Irish this year. We counted up to 10 and we had fun singing and dancing to the Irish “Hokey Kokey!”

We had a lovely end to the week, when the whole school took part in our Annual Sponsored Walk, in aid of the Mourne First Responders.  Once again, the sun shone for us as we walked around Mourne Park. It was a beautiful setting for the event and each and every one who took part really had an extremely enjoyable experience. We used our ears to listen to the sounds of the birds, animals and the river. We used our eyes to see the beautiful colours of the Autumn leaves.

Darcy, Molly and Éireann discovers a pear that had been blown off the pear tree by the wind,  in the school grounds. It was very hard. They took it into the class and it was put in the window to ripen in the sun.  When it was soft, it was washed and cut up. We all tasted the beautiful fruit, some even had a second piece. 

In Grow in Love, we discussed the many groups that we all belong to and how we know we belong to those groups. We spoke about how we all belong to God’s Family. We talked about how we were welcomed into this family on the day we were baptised. We told each other about the special name our parents chose for us and why they picked that name.  We learned about the importance of the Holy Water, Holy Oil, White Garment and Baptismal Candle. Saoirse took in her Baptismal Candle to show us all. 

We put our sorting skills into practise, when we were presented with a variety of objects. Working in pairs we had to decide what would be the best approach to sorting the items. Initially, the majority, decided to sort by colour. Then we had to think really hard about what other ways we could organise the pieces. There was a great variety of solutions, shape, size, use, interlocking ability.

We looked at some of the “circle” artwork that has been created by an artist called Kandinsky. Together we created our own version of his work.

The Finished Product

In Numeracy P.2 have been focusing on the number 5. We have been creating sets of five, with objects that we can find around the classroom. We are making sure that we form the digit 5 correctly in our work. We had great fun, creating the digit using chalk and chalk boards, in rice, in sand, using play doh. We used Numicon and toy figures to study the various number combinations that go together to make 5.

P.3 have been exploring the numbers to 30. Initially we used a number strip with this to see and understand number sequences. We looked at numbers before, numbers after and numbers between a given number. We count forward and backwards in 1s and 2s. We studied a 30 Number array, looking at the many different patterns that could be found. This is going to help us with our mental maths activities.

What fun we had as we were out and about searching for and identifying circles in our classroom and school environment. As Oisín said, "There are circles EVERYWHERE!"

Out in the Sun Shine.

In Phonics we have been reinforcing all our letter sounds and practicing how to blend these sounds when we are reading, but also how to segment sounds when we are spelling. We are also making sure that we are forming our letters correctly. We had so much fun playing “Pairs” on the IWB where we had to match the action to the letter. 

In Numeracy we revised our number knowledge, counting forwards and backwards in ones starting from different numbers. To help reinforce this skill we played “Count Around.” We also focused on “the number before” and had great fun playing “Bingo!”

We were delighted to see Mr Hardy for PE this week. We practised our skills of “travelling” and bouncing the ball, throwing and catching it, and then attempting the all-important toe-tap. We al looked so cool using the new footballs and bibs donated by Atticall GAC Thank you!

Linda came to help us prepare the hymns for the Beginning of School Year Mass. 

We had such fun, playing with our friends all week.