Wow! I am receiving so many wonderful examples of brilliant home learning from the class. It is so nice to see that you are learning and enjoying spending time with your families. Well done First Class! Scroll down to see some of the lovely examples that the children wanted to share on the website.

Lilla sent in two lovely pictures. It looks like she's been very busy and very happy at home.

Ansh has been busy with his Maths investigation at home! Check out his picture.

Look at this lovely picture that one of the students in Martha's class sent in! I love how many different activities they've been trying out!

Issac has doing his own art, science investigations and baking at home with his brother. He sent in these lovely messages and pictures:

I didn’t do any school work yesterday but had lots of fun making origami things. My favourite was origami boats. I put them to the test in water and they float. YAY! My little brother enjoyed playing with me too.

I did some baking yesterday. I made peanut butter and m&m cookies. I followed a video on YouTube. It was very fun making them. They taste delicious!

Those are great activities Isaac! I'm so glad that you are finding exciting things to do and enjoying time with your family! Origami is a great idea. I must give it a go and those cookies sound delicious!

Lora has been busy working on her Maths at home. She sent this picture with this message:
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​After searching for hours at home, I managed to find two items that are EXACTLY the same weight.

Fantastic investigating Lora and I love how accurate your drawings are! 

Liher has been working on his spellings! Keep up the good work Liher!

 James has been busy baking and sent this message:

Yesterday I baked scones, they tasted good if you would like to bake them too the ingredients are:
450g plain flour
2 level teaspoons of baking powder
100g caster sugar
200g butter (cold)
1 egg
110ml buttermilk (we had none so added vinegar to regular milk)
Steps:
1. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees C
2. Sieve flour and baking powder
3. Add caster sugar and butter, Combine with your fingers to a crumble.
4. Create a well in the bowl, add in the egg and then start to pour in milk.
5. Quickly mix together to a soft dough.
6. Transfer the mixture to a floured surface and flatten to 3cm then cut with 5cm cutter(we used a cup).
7. Bake for 20mins.

Let them cool then eat :)

They look delicious James! I can't wait to try the recipe. Well done!

Miron has been busy! He sent some pictures of what he's been doing and a message:

I did a lot of work today: maths, spellings, reading. I did maths test today. I'm proud of my work.

Miron has also been looking at Caitriona's Irish Sign Language page on the main school website and sent her an excellent video. Great job Miron!

Jammal has been in touch to share some of his lovely writing. He has been doing lots of learning at home. I love this interview that he did with his mother. What a brilliant idea!

Alex sent in a picture and a message:

My mam gave me puzzle that I got correct and maths of addition and subtraction which I got correct. I love maths and puzzles.

That looks like great fun Alex! I love Maths puzzles too!

​Hello everyone!

I hope that you are all well! I am missing you lots and I am looking forward to hearing from you this week. Keep an eye on this page throughout the week. I will be updating it with some wonderful examples of your learning. Have a great week first class! 

:-)

Today in our home learning copies we wrote out of home learning plan. This plan tells us what we have to do for home learning everyday (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday). Here it is again to remind us:

1. Read our book aloud with somebody.
2. Write out the spellings and tables and practise them.
3. Write two sentences with two of the spelling words from the list.
4. Do the maths page for that day.

​Happy home learning everybody!

We have been learning how to write letters. Two weeks ago we wrote invitation letters to Caitríona to invite her to look at our brilliant bird feeders and they worked! Have a look at a few:

First Class were very lucky on Friday! We had a visit from the Sam Maguire cup which was won by Dublin for the 5th time in a row! What an exciting time!

Check out some of our recent artwork.

We studied an artist called Wassily Kandinsky and were inspired by his picture called "Concentric Circles." We cooperated to create our own version of his painting. We each designed a square section of paper with circles using either chalk or oil pastels. Then we put them all on the wall together to create a large picture.

After visiting the National Portrait Gallery in the city, we were inspired to do our own portraits. Each of us created a portrait of somebody in our class using a range of drawing materials.

In First Class we have been learning about the importance of washing our hands correctly. We even learned a song to help us remember! During our Science lesson last week, we did an investigation to try and find out what difference washing our hands can actually make. 

For our investigation we sealed five pieces of bread from the same packet into separate bags and hung them on our whiteboard so that we could observe what happens to them.
We numbered and labelled the bags to show what we had done to each slice:

1. Is a control slice - we did nothing to it
2. Everybody in the class touched the slice without washing their hands first
3. One person touched the slice after washed their hands very well with soap and warm water and drying them
4. We rubbed the slice of bread on the table
5. We wiped the slice of bread on the floor

Have a look at the picture to see how we set it up last Tuesday.

This morning (Monday) we came into our classroom to discover some very big changes to our bread! Lots of the slices of bread have started to grow some mould but the slice that was touched by the unwashed hands has grown the most mould whereas the slice that was touched by washed hands still looks fresh. Wow washing your hands makes such a difference!

We will keep you updated on our investigation over the next while.

Wow! What an exciting couple of months we have had! We have so much news!

We moved in to our new school and our new classroom in January and we love it! On our first day we had a special ribbon cutting ceremony and then got to explore. Since then, we been enjoying settling in and have been busy decorating and displaying our learning.

In January, we went on a school trip to the National Portrait Gallery in Dublin City. We went to the gallery so that we could see a piece of art that was created by one of the children in First Class! She entered an art competition and won and so her work was displayed in the gallery for a number of months. We were all really impressed with her work when we saw it! We are very proud of her! In the gallery, we met a lady called Valerie. Valerie showed us around the gallery and talked to us about the paintings. We learned a lot about portraits and since then have been working on creating some of our own portraits. It was a great day!

In January, we had our last visit from the mobile library for this school year. We loved having the library visit our school and made some thank you cards for the librarians to show our appreciation.

We have been doing lots of learning in our new classroom. In Maths, we have been working cooperatively to learn about place value. 

We have been learning all about bia (food) during our Gaeilge lessons. We've been working in pairs to practise speaking. 

,We have been studying some Irish myths and lessons during history. We focussed on the story "How Cuchulainn got his Name." We made shields during our art lessons so that we could act out some of the story during our drama lessons. When we knew the story really well, we made comics retelling it. 

We've been working hard on our reading in school. We love doing buddy reading. During buddy reading, we each have a buddy to work with. We find a comfortable place to sit, we make sure that we can both see the book and then we take it in turns to read. 

Over the midterm break, we all worked very hard on our home learning task. We each created bird feeders using materials that we found around our houses. The projects are so good that our teacher is going to enter them in a local competition! We presented our birdfeeders to our classmates. Then we wrote letters inviting Caitriona to come and see them. She came to our classroom last Friday and looked at every single one. She was very impressed at both our letter writing skills and our crafting skills! 

What a great start to 2020!