St. Peter's Primary Bray Blog

Fáilte ar ais chuig Frása na Seachtaine!

Mar cheiliúradh ar Lá Domhanda na Leabhar is é ár bhfrása an tseachtain seo ná…

Is é an leabhar is fearr liom le léamh ná __________!

Bain sult as a bheith ag léamh ar scoil agus sa bhaile gach lá más féidir leat!

We have been learning about the environment and climate change in 6th class and are busy working on our Science Blast submission.

As part of our research into climate change, we studied some shocking facts about the way it affects different countries. We have been learning about Malawi and the economy there. We watched some great Donal Skehan clips about a visit he took there and heard some interviews with locals regarding the changing climate over the past number of years.

We saw how drought affects crop yields and how heavy rain can also be responsible for destroying products. We also learned about how access to clean drinking water can affect people in developing countries. Access to clean water is not something we should take for granted.

We decided to carry out an investigation into water filtration and tried our best to filter water to make it cleaner ourselves. Here’s how we got on:

Materials:

• Bucket of mud to add to water
• Clear plastic cups
• Coffee filters, plastic bags, tissues
• Elastic bands

Method:

1. Collect some mud/ muck from outside to add to clean water.
2. Mix the mud into the water until it’s cloudy.
3. Use 1 clear cup to test possible filters: cover the top of the cup with a choice of coffee filters/ tissue or plastic (or a combination of all) and use an elastic band to keep in place.
4. Pour the water in the cup through the ‘filter’ into another clear sup.
5. Assess the cloudiness of the water after passing through the filter; is it less cloudy? Do you have you to pass it through more than one time?
6. Determine what material works best to filter water.

We were impressed by some of the teams ability to filter the mud out of the water – or so it seemed! We still knew that the water was contaminated and couldn’t be used by humans to drink or wash or cook.

It was apparent that filtering water using a home – made system was extremely time – consuming. We think that everyone should have access to clean drinking water, no matter where they live.

We love to integrate technology into the classroom whenever we can. Children are so adept at using IT now they are practically teaching us! We make regular use of the school tablets to enhance our learning, particularly during Math stations.

We use the IWB daily in the class and children love to get a chance to play games in literacy and numeracy activities.
We teach basic programming throughout the school and love to get a chance to use the Beebots to teach early programming skills and more computer based coding with senior classes.

In November all classes in the school took part in Anti-Bullying Month. We engaged in cooperative games, completed lessons on bullying and discussed what bullying means. We loved playing Chinese Whispers and discussing how rumours start! We concluded bullying has 3 elements;

1. Hurting Someone’s Body or Feelings
2. Lots of Times
3. On Purpose

We finished the month by creating and discussing Anti-Bullying Posters.

For Science week, we tested our senses. Did you know, about 70% of our taste is linked to our sense of smell? We investigated this using skittles and can confirm that it is true! We hope you like our video 🤩

https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/886858276

6th class have been taking part in the Dare to Believe Programme, run by Team Ireland which aims to teach us about Olympic values, hard work and reaching our full potential!

We loved taking part in the programme and learning about the following topics:

• Olympic and Paralympic Games
• Maintaining a Healthy Mind and Body
• Finding Joy in Effort
• Respect and Equality
• Striving for Excellence

We took part in ‘Weekly Challenges’, including spreading kindness and getting active! We created art work based on the topics covered and to top it all off, we had a visit from a Team Ireland athlete!

We were so lucky to have Gráinne Walsh visit our class for an afternoon and that 5th class joined us! Gráinne is a boxer who is aiming to qualify for the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024 🥊 She told us about her career to date, her family and friends, her motivation and the challenges she has faced to get to this point. We were so impressed by her story and even a managed to hold her medal 🏅 and plate from previous victories. We held a press conference and got to ask Gráinne some questions, such as ‘What motivates you?’ and ‘How do you feel before a fight?’ She signed her autograph for us and said she was very impressed with our hard work as part of the Dare to Believe Programme. We hope Gráinne goes on to qualify in February and that she’ll be able to visit us again 😊

Huge thanks as always to Paddy for encouraging to get involved in sports and to work hard!

November is anti-bullying month in school. We learned a lot about different types of bullying and how to deal with it this month.
Bullying is behaviour that is …

• Repeated
• hurtful
• deliberate

We made some anti-bullying posters to stand up to bullying!

In November, our class took part in our whole school Anti – Bullying month. We discussed why bullying happens, how to react if it does happen and who we can ask for help.

We reminded ourselves that bullying is any behaviour that is:

• repeated
• hurtful
• deliberate

We learned more about the different types of bullying, including physical, emotional, verbal and cyber.

We also recognised our role in preventing bullying across our school community as 6th class students. Check out the pledges we made below and some positive messages we want to spread in school.

This week in school, we celebrated science week. The theme we were looking at was ‘HUMAN?’. We have been learning about the respiratory system and exploring how our lungs work and help us to breathe.

We made a model lung using balloons, plastic bottles and plastic bags. The bottle acted as our rib cage, the balloon was our lung and the bag worked as our diaphragm.

Take a look at our lungs!

We also looked at how humans have worked to make advances in medicine and helping humans. We created our own version of a bionic hand. We looked at how bones, tendons and muscles make up the human hand and how they work to allow us to move out hands. Take a look at our bionic hand!

Finally, we did some research of our own. We researched famous scientists and wrote about them to end our science week. Well done 5th class on your excellent work!

This week we celebrated Science Week by looking at the theme ‘HUMAN?’. We looked at electricity and the developments humans have made with electricity over time.

We made our own circuits and then decided to make our own light houses. These lighthouses had to;

• Stand on their own,
• light for 10 seconds,
• be 3D.

Take a look at our lighthouses!