American Indians

When   Columbus  found  America  he thought it was India  because the Spanish didn't  know about America and Columbus wanted to go to India .He called the native people Indians. Later he realised that he had found a new country. He went back to Spain and told King Ferdinand and Queen Isabelle.
Later many of the white emigrant that came to America built railway lines across the country and killed most of the buffalo. The native American people couldn't survive without the buffalo and  had to go and live in reservations.

Then the native Americans started a war to get their land back the war was deadly many died it was horrible . There were loads of Americans so the English transported more over and they had more advanced weaponry but still the Americans won they went down to Canada. The Spanish started running out of food so they asked the Americans to help by the next couple of months they could hunt as well as the Americans Then the Americans started getting sick they realised that the Europeans had brought sickness and many died they only stopped when they found a cure.

posted by Jonathan

New York is a very big city. It has many tourist attractions Central Park, Empire state building and the Statue of Liberty. The population of New York is 8,337,000 (8.3 million) people in 2013. New York is divided into five boroughs Manhattan, Queens, The Bronx, Staten Island and Brooklyn. The Statue of Liberty was given as a present by the people of France to the Americans. It weighs as much as 115 cars and is 30 storeys high. Lady Liberty is not in New York it is on an island out side of New York. The Statue of Liberty was made of copper but the colour changed to green by the atmosphere.

posted by Killian

Halloween Podcast

In our podcast we share some of the interesting topics that we are working on in our class. We recorded our second podcast just before Halloween. Listen for our fun song Disco Oiche Shamhna a song in the Irish language about a Halloween disco at the end.
Well done Karl. You did a wonderful job as presenter of the podcast and thanks to Jonathan for organising the items.

Who has the Greenest Fingers?

Which group has the greenest fingers? That was what we set out to find five weeks ago when we started a mini garden contest.

First we got three plastic containers and filled them with compost. Next we gently sprinkled the seed on top of the compost.  We watered the seed every two to three days. Over the weeks the seedlings grew bigger and bigger and changed into a variety of salad leaves green, red, frilly and curly.

In order to decide which group had the greenest fingers we harvested the salad leaves and weighed them. Group 2 had 22 grams and were the winners. We then ate some of the leaves. Some were soft and delicious but others were very peppery.

 This is the prize winning lettuce.

If you have ever planted anything why don’t you leave a comment? We would love to hear from you.


Posted by Sophie

Journey of the Spoon-billed Sandpiper

This charming animated video is the work 500 children from 8 countries Russia, Republic of Korea, Japan, China, Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar and Bangladesh. These countries lie on the migration route of the Spoon-billed Sandpiper one of the world's most critically endangered birds.
The birds face many threats mostly manmade on its migratory journey from the Far East of Russia to South-East Asia.It gives us a brief glimpse of school life in classrooms along the route.

Katie the Caterpillar and the Parasitic Wasp

                                                   
Katie the caterpillar was the best caterpillar in the jar. She was the funniest because she escaped.Then my teacher put Katie back into the jar but she got right back out again.
One morning Katie was resting on a twig in the jar. Tiny larvae from the parasitic wasp came out of her body. We could see them moving. It was horrible.
I was very sad. She was like a child to me she was the best caterpillar ever. I loved that caterpillar the day I met it. But when I found out that the larvae of the parasitic wasp ate her I was very sad.


Post written by Katie



Listen to Katie recounting the sad tale of the caterpillar that she was taking care of in our classroom.

  If you have the courage watch the National Geographic video below.The Parasitic wasp has injected eggs into the caterpillar. Now they are ready to hatch. Be warned that this is a gory, gruesome story.

Metamorphosis from Caterpillar to Butterfly

The word metamorphosis comes from the Latin words for changing shape and in this movie you will get the opportunity to see three  stages in the life cycle of the the butterfly. First the caterpillar, next the chrysalis and finally a beautiful butterfly emerges.

These are the caterpillar of the Cabbage White butterfly. They are great eating machines and have been living on the underside of the cabbage leaves in our school garden.
The larger ones look ready to pupate but you will have to read Katie's post to find out their fate.

The Peacock butterfly lays her eggs on the underside of a stinging nettle.When the caterpillars emerge they are highly conspicuous. In order to protect themselves from predators they cover themselves in a type of web.  If you look carefully at this picture you will see tiny caterpillars feeding inside a type of web. When they have eaten all the nettle inside the web they move on to another part of the nettle.

These caterpillars are much larger, are jet black in colour and their bodies are covered in tiny spikes. They moult several times as they outgrow their skins. On the right of the picture you can see the remains of their protective web.

Bull Island is about one kilometre as the crow flies from our school. I was fascinated to find that a butterfly conservationist counted 298 Marsh Fritillary butterflies there one morning last June.

Click here to see some of the beautiful pictures that he took of the Marsh Fritillary. Be sure to scroll down to the bottom of the page so that you can see a mass of butterfly eggs on the underside of a leaf.

Exploring Local History

Last Tuesday Fifth class pupils from Scoil Eoin went on an  exploring local history trip around our local area of Kilbarrack. We walked around out area and we were accompanied by Sophie's mon.                       
First we walked to Howth road to see a milestone. The milestone was a road signpost from the 19th century. This one was  made out of a single granite stone and a cast iron metal plate containing the information was embedded in it. 

P.O.refers to the Post Office in the center of the city of Dublin and in the early 19th century Howth was an important port and the mail station for Dublin. At that time the ferry boat brought the mail from Holyhead in Wales to Howth.

We walked one  mile further down the road where we saw another milestone. If you examine this one carefully you will notice a mark similar to a bird's foot chiseled on the base of the milestone.This is a benchmark and was put there by the Ordnance Survey when they made maps of Ireland in the 19th Century. We checked up an Ordnance Survey map and discovered that  our area is only  23 feet ( 7 meters ) above sea level at low tide.

In the early part of the 19th century Howth became the mail station for Dublin. Thomas Telford a Scottish engineer who was involved in designing the London to Holyhead road was contracted to improve the road from the GPO to Howth.
Thomas Telford was a famous engineer and completed numerous projects during his lifetime including the road from  London to Holyhead in Wales. Milestones on the road are similar to the one near our school.  Click here  if you would like to see one.

This plaque  erected in 2007 on the Dublin road to Howth commemorates the 250th anniversary of his birth.

After that we went to Fox's Lane and examined a thatched cottage.
The walls are very thick, the windows are very small and the thatched roof is thatched made from  reeds.The walls are painted white.
This type of house was common in many parts of Ireland in the 19th century.

Later on we walked on the sea wall watched some Oyster catchers  on the mudflats.  Soon after we saw some crazy looking spiders.

Sophie's mum was fortunate to get a picture of a Red Admiral butterfly feeding on the Buddlia bush.

Finally we got to the old cemetery. St. Bearach set up a monastery there in the 6^th century. St. Bearach moved to Kilbarrack because it was a peaceful place and it had streams which provided him with fresh water. He got shellfish, mussels, winkles, cockles, crabs and mackerel from the sea.
Kilbarrack is named after St.  Brearach. Kilbarrack means the church of Bearach.




Work prepared by Killian.