St. Peter's Primary Bray Blog

This year in 4th Class we have been learning all about climbing and Mount Everest. In November, a special visitor called Rob came into our class and spoke to us about his climbing experiences.

We were all very eager to ask Rob lots of questions

Rob brought us prayer flags from Nepal in November

He even brought prizes for the people who asked the best questions.

A few weeks later, we were notified that Rob was planning to climb Mount Everest, one of the most daring mountains in the world. At first we were scared. Our teacher came up with a plan. We decided to design and sign a wonderful flag that Rob would bring with him on his adventure and take a photo of it at the summit.

We all signed our flag, including the teachers!

4th Class with our flag

We heard from Rob yesterday. He has safely reached base camp on the Tibetan side of Everest. Keep an eye on the blog if you would like to follow our flag as it travels to the top of the world.

A photo of Base Camp sent to us from Rob.

Senior Infants have been busy exploring and investigating different materials. We have looked at wood, plastic, fabric, cardboard and rubber and have learned that they all look and feel very different. Investigating and experimenting is something we like to try whenever we get the opportunity. After reading ‘The Gruffalo’s Child’ by Julia Donaldson we decided it might be a good idea to try to design and make a coat for the Gruffalo’s Child to wear. We knew that the Gruffalo’s Child liked to explore the woods near his home but it seemed silly that he wasn’t wearing a coat out in the snow!

The Gruffalo’s Child looks cold without a coat!

Since we are really improving at working together in groups we decided to complete this task in our Aistear groups but before we started it was important to discuss why exactly we were choosing to design and make a coat and what type of coat would be best for the Gruffalo Child. There were lots of excellent suggestions from the class. Michael said that the coat should be ‘warm’ and Elif suggested that it should be ‘waterproof’ because the Gruffalo’s Child might be playing in the snow. The Orange group said that the coat should look nice, which the whole class agreed was very important.

After talking about what criteria we thought was most important we looked at some examples of coats. We talked about different materials, colours, shapes and details such as buttons and zips. Cian made an excellent point when he said that ‘some zips get stuck easily’ so maybe we could make our coats using buttons instead.

Some different examples of coats.

We then decided to design our coats using pencils and crayons. Each person in the group designed an individual coat and then presented their ideas to the rest of the group. The group then decided on one aspect of each design that should be used in the making of the group’s coat. For example the Yellow Group thought that Chloe’s pattern was really nice and the Red Group liked the way Lauren had designed a coat with different coloured buttons and decided to use this design for the project.

When designing the coats we used our Maths knowledge about patterns to help us! Some pupils used two colours to make patterns and others used three and four colours.

Some Senior Infant designers!

Presenting our designs.

Some colourful designs!

Each group then chose a variety of materials to work with to make their coat. A big thanks to Ms. Keating and Ms. Fry for lending us lots of different types of materials! Some boys and girls made hoods, others made sleeves and some were in charge of decorating the coat. Team work and cooperation was really important to make sure that the coat was completed properly and all teams did really well. We also practised our cutting and sticking skills which are very important.

We used lots of materials such as different textiles, paper, rubber gloves, crepe paper and buttons. Lots of the designs tried to ensure that at least some part of the coat was waterproof, such as the sleeves or the hood. We knew that materials like rubber and plastic are waterproof because we tested them during Aistear.

Making sure the design is finished properly. We used staples, glue and sellotape to make our coats.

The girls and boys then presented their designs to the rest of the class and talked about how they felt working as a team and how they decided on their designs.

Check out the finished products below!

The Blue Group explain their design to the class.

Well done to the Orange Group!

The Yellow Group worked really well together.

The Red Group added a warm hood and sleeves.

In 4^th class, we are currently learning about Australia. We learned all about the Great Barrier Reef and the amazing plants and animals that live there. This led to a discussion on water pollution and environmental awareness. We discussed oil spillages in the sea and how this damages marine and bird life. With this in mind, we decided to create lava lamps to investigate and observe how oil and water react when put together.

The Great Barrier Reef

First we brainstormed our previous knowledge on water pollution and oil spillages. We discussed this as a class. We then predicted what we thought would happen when we mixed oil and water together. Using their previous knowledge, the children worked together and decided that the oil would float on top of the water because they had seen oil floating in puddles on the side of the road before. However, they did not know why this happened. 

After our discussion, the children were divided into groups of three. Each group was given an empty bottle, some oil and some water. They were given instructions to fill one quarter of the bottle with water and to add an additional two quarters of oil to the bottle. These measurement instructions allowed for the integration of maths through fractions and capacity.

 As soon as the groups added in the oil, they instantly realised that their prediction was correct. The oil floated on the water. With further discussion the children came to the correct conclusion that oil is lighter than water and that is why it floats on top. This knowledge led to a further discussion on water pollution and how the birds and fish are damaged and injured when oil is leaked into the water but just sits on top as a thick layer.

Now it was time to make our lava lamps! Each group was given a bottle of food colouring. Before adding the colouring, we predicted what we thought would happen when it was added. Some children thought it would just mix with the oil and some thought it would sink to the bottom and mix with the water. It was time to find out! They added 8/10 drops of the food colouring into the bottle. It did not take long for the children to realise that the food colouring sank straight through the oil and only reacted with the water at the bottom. The children instantly came to the conclusion that the food colouring was also heavier than the oil and this was why it sank straight to the water.

We examined the bottle as the food colouring sank through the oil and mixed with the water.

 Each group was then given half an Alka-Seltzer tablet. We discussed what this was and the children compared it to Disprin tablets which they have seen dissolving and bubbling in water before. Each group dropped their tablets into the bottle. The tablet sank straight to the bottom of the bottle and started to dissolve. The children observed in anticipation as coloured bubbles formed and floated up and down in the oil from the Alka-Seltzer tablet as they tried to reach the surface.

Our lava lamps were so mesmerising.

The children observed the lava lamps from different angles.

After two minutes of observation we discussed what we witnessed as a class. The children discussed that the thickness of the oil could have slowed down the speed of the Alka-Seltzer bubbles and created the look of a lava lamp.

We examined them very closely.

To conclude, we recapped on what we did today and highlighted the importance of environmental awareness and care. We reviewed the danger of oil spillages and how they can endanger and destroy bird and marine life. The children finally discussed ways on how we could tackle the problem of water pollution and protect our environment.

Having learned about the Titanic last week, the children in first class decided to undertake the challenge of designing their own boats.  First we brainstormed the properties of boats and we decided that they need to float, carry people and have some way of moving.  Then we discussed what types of materials would be good to use when building boats.  We concluded that materials such as paper and cardboard would be no good as they would get soggy.  Instead we would need to use waterproof materials such as plastic and strong materials such as metal.

The first step we took was to see what objects and materials would float in the water.  We had a quick scavenge around our classroom before predicting and testing the items we found.

Floating and sinking

We found that the items which were heavy and had holes did not float.  Materials like wood and plastic floated.  Our favourite thing to test was the orange.  It floated when it had its skin but when we took the skin off it sank.  We came up with the idea that the orange peel was like a life jacket with tiny holes which was helping the orange to float.

Next, we took up the challenge of trying to make our boats using only blu tack.  This proved quite difficult as the blu tack sank to the bottom when we tested it in the water.

Kyra made sure it was a fair test. She measured the blu tack using a ruler to make sure everyone had an equal amount.

At the beginning of the design process, we found that we were concentrating more on making our boats look like boats instead of making sure they could float.

After a while we saw some improvement when we experimented using different shapes.

Liam found some orange peel left on his desk and had a really super idea of how to make his boat float.  He was going to give it a life jacket.

Then we observed how long our shapes took to sink all the way to the bottom.  Flatter pieces took longer to sink.

After some time we finally got a boat floating for each group.  We made some alterations to enable them to carry some passengers.  We then tested them to see how many passengers (pieces of sweetcorn) they could hold before sinking.

Take a look at our winning team!!!

We took a tally of our five boats showing how many passengers they carried.  We drew a graph to show our results.

We really enjoyed making our boats.

Well done to all of the boys and girls in #6thClass who performed and sang beautifully at our lovely Ceremony of Light tonight!

— St. Peter's Primary (@StPetersBray) April 14, 2016

Very proud of all of you! #6thClass #Confirmation https://t.co/4SlmrhkTjX

— St. Peter's Primary (@StPetersBray) April 14, 2016

Thanks to Ms. Olsen for her amazing help on our artwork. #6thClass #Confirmation #ServiceofLight pic.twitter.com/PWI0XiRZHH

— St. Peter's Primary (@StPetersBray) April 14, 2016

Some beautiful readings/prayers were read. We're ready for our Confirmation next Thursday. We can't wait! #6thClass pic.twitter.com/EXiN3lYwzg

— St. Peter's Primary (@StPetersBray) April 14, 2016

A closer look at our #Confirmation dove tree. #6thClass pic.twitter.com/0vTDHKgtRS

— St. Peter's Primary (@StPetersBray) April 14, 2016

Our player of the tournament holding our altar sign as made by the boys and girls. #6thClass pic.twitter.com/WBSGlmVnqN

— St. Peter's Primary (@StPetersBray) April 14, 2016

Our Fruits of the Holy Spirit display. #Confirmation #6thClass pic.twitter.com/dz3zwnH28a

— St. Peter's Primary (@StPetersBray) April 14, 2016

Our symbols of the Holy Spirit display. #Confirmation #6thClass pic.twitter.com/Mn38aQO99y

— St. Peter's Primary (@StPetersBray) April 14, 2016

And finally, a BIG thank you to Ms. Whyte, Mr. Foley and Ms. Olsen for coming tonight and being so kind to all of us. 🌟🌟🌟 #6thClass

— St. Peter's Primary (@StPetersBray) April 14, 2016

The green table tied with the red table for table of the week! They kept their table clean and tidy and were kind to others. They are a great team!

Great work!

Excellent word work!

The red table tied with the green table for table of the week!

This boy has been doing great work on his words.

These boys and girls got a prize and certificates for their lovely  handwriting.

Bhí Tráth na gCeist ag Rang a Trí, Rang a Ceathair, Rang a Cúig agus Rang a Sé, le déanaí. Bhí go leor ceisteanna bunaithe ar scannáin, cláir teilifíse agus ceol. Bhuaigh Abbie, Maddy, Alana M agus Ryan agus fuair siad uibheacha Cásca. Bhuaigh Leanne, Calvin, Brooke agus Brigid duais mar bhí a lán spiorad foirne acu. D’eagraigh Ms Farren an Tráth na gCeist agus bhaineamar an-taitneamh as. Go raibh maith agat, Ms Farren!

Well, here it is! The latest from Tommy Lang’s stop motion production company. He has put his Simpsons lego to good use! You’ll find more of Tommy’s videos on the blog by clicking here, here, here and here.

This was all produced by Tommy at home over the Easter holidays. We love it! Well done Tommy!

‘A Day With The Simpsons’ from St Peter’s, Bray on Vimeo.

We have had a very busy term in Senior Infants and hope everyone is enjoying their well deserved break!

Here is a little update on what’s been happening in our classroom!

Investigating and experimenting is something we like to try whenever we get the opportunity. After reading ‘The Gruffalo’s Child’ by Julia Donaldson we decided it might be a good idea to try to design and make a coat for the Gruffalo’s Child to wear. We knew that the Gruffalo’s Child liked to explore the woods near his home but it seemed silly that he wasn’t wearing a coat out in the snow!

The Gruffalo’s Child looks cold without a coat!

Since we are really improving at working together in groups we decided to complete this task in our Aistear groups but before we started it was important to discuss why exactly we were choosing to design and make a coat and what type of coat would be best for the Gruffalo Child. There were lots of excellent suggestions from the class. Michael said that the coat should be ‘warm’ and Elif suggested that it should be ‘waterproof’ because the Gruffalo’s Child might be playing in the snow. The Orange group said that the coat should look nice.

After talking about what criteria we thought was most important we looked at some examples of coats. We talked about different materials, colours, shapes and details such as buttons and zips. Cian McD made an excellent point when he said that ‘some zips get stuck easily’ so maybe we could make our coats using buttons instead.

We then decided to design our coats using pencils and crayons. Each person in the group designed an individual coat and then presented their ideas to the rest of the group. The group then decided on one aspect of each design that should be used in the making of the group’s coat. For example the Yellow Group thought that Chloe’s pattern was really nice and the Red Group liked the way Lauren had designed a coat with different coloured buttons and decided to use this design for the project.

Presenting our designs!

Each group then chose a variety of materials to work with to make their coat. A big thanks to Ms. Keating and Ms. Fry for lending us lots of different types of materials! Some boys and girls made hoods, others made sleeves and some were in charge of decorating the coat. Team work and cooperation was really important to make sure that the coat was completed properly and all teams did really well. We also practised our cutting and sticking skills which are very important.

The boys and girls then presented their designs to the rest of the class and talked about how they felt working as a team and how they decided on their designs.

Check out the finished products below!

The Yellow Group present their design

Well done to the Orange Group

The Red Group and their design

The Blue Group explain their design to the class

As well as designing and making we have been working on our sequencing skills and are trying our best to use words such as ‘next’, ‘then’ and ‘finally’. We find it is best to practise sequencing some of the stories we have been reading in class, such as ‘The Toymaker’ by Martin Waddell and ‘The Gruffalo’s Child’ by Julia Donaldson. It also gives us another chance to practise our group work.

During our Geography lessons we were learning about weather and were also discussing the climates of different countries such as Australia, Colombia, Norway and South Africa. We learned that ‘weather’ is the word we use to describe what it is like outside on any given day and that the ‘climate’ of a country is what the weather is usually like in that place. We learned about ‘north’, ‘south’, ‘east’ and ‘west’ and where is the ‘equator’ lies. We looked at a video on the Trocaire website http://www.trocaire.org/getinvolved/education and discussed how important it is to be aware of climate change and the impact that our actions can have on the rest of the world. Kristina kindly brought in a children’s Atlas for us to look at.

One of the most exciting things to happen in our classroom all year was the arrival of 3 little visitors, thanks to Mr. McAdam! We were all so delighted when he told us that he needed our help to look after some chicks that were still in their eggs. We promised to be so good and to use our indoor voices so we didn’t frighten them! The eggs stayed in an ‘incubator’ at the back of the classroom and we can’t wait to see if they’ve hatched when we return after our Easter holidays!

The incubator kept the eggs safe and warm

Mr. McAdam taught us so much and his lessons were always interesting and exciting! We learned a lot about farming during Aistear, we read the story of ‘The Children of Lir’, we learned about the story of number ‘9’ during Maths and had the chance to play lots of different musical instruments during Music lessons! Lauren said that she loved learning Gaeilge, Toby enjoyed Aistear and Lee said he loved everything he learned with Mr. McAdam.  We hope Mr. McAdam comes back to visit us soon and thank him for all his hard work!

Last Tuesday, March 15th, in every school across the country, students are celebrating Proclamation Day as part of the celebrations of the centenary of 1916. In St Peter’s, we had a very special ceremony, where every class was involved, finishing with the raising of the Irish flag that was presented late last year by the members of the Defence Forces. We also displayed artwork in the hall related to our projects on the Easter Rising.

Our ceremony started with an introduction from our principal, Ms. Whyte. Next, Amber from 4th class, Finn and Chris from 5th class and Alex, Alana and Ryan gave us an overview of the Rising.

As part of Proclamation Day, schools were encouraged to create their own proclamations to represent their visions of the future. Kyra and Tiana spoke on behalf of 1st class, Ryan, Dylan M, Brooke, Casey, Codie and Brigid spoke on behalf of 4th class and Amy from 6th class read out her version. The Proclamations focused on the importance of education, of helping to end homelessness, the value of the Irish language and the care that we should give to the environment.

As part of our 1916 celebrations, we read ‘The Young Rebels’ by Morgan Llewelyn. Jamie from 5th and Dylan M from 6th shared information about the book and about the activities we took part in.

Toby from Senior Infants, Maddy from 3rd class and Lex from 5th are the great-grandchildren of Martin Ryan, who was a teacher in Scoil Éanna and a good friend of Padraig Pearse. He was also involved in the gun-running before the Rising. Toby, Maddy and Lex really impressed

Women played an important part in the Rising. Caoilynn from 4th spoke about Nurse Elizabeth O’Farrell and Lauren from 5th told us about Countess Markievicz. 3rd class told the story of Grace Gifford, who married Joseph Mary Plunkett the night before his execution. 3rd, 4th and 5th then sang the chorus of song ‘Grace’.

Before raising the flag, five of second class, Amalia, Adem, Tadhg, Ava and Liam, read out facts about the Irish flag.

Then, Ms Whyte presented the flag to Brooke and Taylor from Junior Infants who carried it to Patrick and Leanne from 5th class, who raised it as the rest of the school sang ‘Amhrán na bhFiann’.

Well done to all the readers and the artists who took part in today’s ceremony. We are all very proud of you!

We made a special recording of the Farrells’ research on their great-grandfather as a record for our students in the future. Well done to Lex, who put a lot of effort into researching his family history and wrote the piece with Ms Sugrue, and to Maddy and Toby for their excellent reading!

Martin Ryan, by the Farrell siblings from St Peter's, Bray on Vimeo.