Christmas Play

This year my class performed a play called 'What, No Santa Claus? It was about Santa Claus, Mrs.Claus and Santa's elves, Jingle, Dingle, Winky, Blinky, Holly, Jolly, and Mistletoe. Santa Claus gets very sick on Christmas Eve. Santa keeps trying to get up to go to deliver all the presents but Mrs.Claus wouldn’t let him go. It was a very funny play.

In the end Mrs.Claus wouldn’t let Santa go to deliver the presents so she dressed up as Santa and went off herself to deliver the presents. We performed the play on Tuesday 16th December for the other students in the school and on Thursday 18th for our parents. I loved playing the part of Mrs. Claus. I had lots of fun performing in the play.

posted by Rachael



My Christmas play was about Santa being sick. I was Santa and I had to be sick. My friend was Mrs. Claus. It was lots of fun. Playing Santa was so exiting but at the same time it was hard to learn my line as well. Everyone I told about it was supportive. I was not allowed to tell anyone else that I was playing the part of Santa Claus because it was a surprise. I have friends in the other classes so it was hard not to tell them. In the end the play was a great success.

posted by Oke

Class Christmas Card

Christmas greetings to all our visitors from around the World and to our eTwinning partners in Spain, Poland, Romania and Ireland.

Christmas Pantomine

Today in Scoil Eoin Mo Mo productions came into our school to present a Christmas Show " Crisis in Toytown " for the pupils that had paid to watch the show. Mo Mo Productions performed a Christmas play. There were four charaters in the show. Their names were Bertha the Brilliant, Santa Claus, Rosy the doll and also Clippie the Clown. Bertha was trying to take over Christmas. She sprayed the room to make them sleepy. They all got drowsy and she stole the presents. In the end Rosy the doll found all the toys. We sang lots of Christmas songs together.



posted by Vicky

Christopher Columbus

Learn more about Christopher Columbus

European Digital Girl of the Year 2014

Ten-year-old Lauren Boyle was recently named European Girl of the Year 2014.Lauren website Cool Kids Studio will be of special interest to anyone between three and twelve years old. It's actually a series of sites focusing on such diverse topics as life skills, healthy eating and making things. Have a look at Cool Kid Studio Trailer







Take six minutes time out and relax while you listen to Lauren's suggestion for
guided meditation and allow this guided meditation to heal and refresh you.

Rachael's Post Showcased on 100 WC

100 Word Challenge is a weekly creative challenge for children under 16 years of age. Each week a prompt is given usually either a series of words or a picture and this provides the inspiration to get writing. Students can use up to 100 words and post the finished piece on their own personal blog. Finally the individual posts are linked to the 100 Word Challenge blog.

Since September we have been working on the weekly challenges set by 100WC. It has been hugely motivating and many class members have been eager to participate. It is an opportunity for them to have their writing read by and international audience. We have also been learning about how to make constructive comments and using our skills to write comments on the writing of others. This provides the opportunity to continue the conversation and to gain an in depth understanding of the various topics.

This week we are really delighted to have the work of Rachael one of our pupils showcased in the 100 word challenges. This is an exciting development for us and we are all thrilled.
I know that this will provide an impetus for many more students to get writing and hope that their work will be showcased in the future.

Link to Rachael's post

We got a surprise tweet this morning congratulating Rachael

Fabulous Fifth

Welcome to all the new students in Fifth class. To commemorate the occasion Jemelah a marvellous artist in the class drew a great sketch of us all in her free time. I particularly like her image of the class teacher.

Calling Tarn, France

Calling Tarn

On Thursday we got the opportunity to make a Skype call to one of our eTwinning partners in Tarn in the southwest of France . it was great meeting and speaking to the students that we had worked with during the year.We thanked them for the beautiful lapbook featuring puzzles and information on the five countries participating in the eTwinning project that they had sent us. At the end of the session they sang La Marseillaise the French National Anthem. We ended the session by singing the song about Molly Malone.

Junior Achievement

Junior Achievement is where someone volunteers to go to schools and teach the children for a few weeks about the skills that you need for a job,the resources that you need for your business and a few other things.It was great fun and I would like to do it again.Ruth from Top Oil came to work with our class. She told ue about natural resources, man made resources and human resources. We learned the skills you need for a business and how to make one. We had to work in groups to set up our own business and make out own advertisement.
by Jonathan

Working on the Global Connection activity with Ruth our tutor .

We are all connected globally through the products that we purchase. Here we are playing the Global Connection activity. We read from Global Needs Cards about a car manufaacturer that deals with workers and products from all over the world.We learned how the company's jobs and locations are connected.We had to listed to the explanation of how the cards connect and then pass the twine to the cardholder mentioned in the description.

Ruth presented us with our certificates.

One day a girl called Ruth from Top Oil came into our class to teach us lots of different things about becoming entrepreneus. She told us about the importance of the four STEM skills. These skills are science, technology, engineering and mathematics. We has to fill in a Job Skill Shart and make a bar graph to show the skills that are needed for the workplace. Our teacher interviewed Ruth for a job. It was really funny as Ruth did a lot of stupid things and was very rude at the interview. We had a laugh and then Ruth showed us the correct way to do the interview.
by Katie

My Dog

Earlier in the term we participated in Digital Art Treasure Hunt 2014 and were introduced to a sculpture called My Dog by one of Japans most popular contemporary artist Yoshimura Nara. We loved the childlike simplicity of this sculpture and decided to investigate its history.

© Credit : Public Delivery

We were fascinated to discover that a version of this art work has been reproduced as a very special Doggy Radio in a glossy white plastic.The dog's red nos lights up when you turn it on. The volume control can be found underneath the dog's chin.

© Credit : New Art Editions

Warren has great hand eye co-ordination and made his own version using Paint software. We were impressed by his efforts.

Tagxedo Competition

My students are enjoying exploring Tagxedo and experimenting with various design combinations.We hope to write a post on Internet safety later in the month and I'm hoping to include a few of the Tagxedo designs.
Please help me with my final selection by scrolling down to the end of the post and voting for the design of your choice. Check under the design to find the name of the creator.

Sophie

Jessica

Mystery

Karl

Jonathan

Fourteen of my students have created designs. Be sure to scroll down to the end to see all their names and to find the submit button.

European Lap Book

Last month our class received an amazing surprise from our eTwinning partners in the Tarn region of France. It was a European lap book. It had two fun games in it. The first one was a game of Dominoes. You had a card with a flag of a European country on one side and the name of a European Union country on the other side.

 At first we found it a bit difficult as the names of the countries were in French but we finsished the game. We used Google translate to find the English names of some of the countries.

The other game involved sorting images and names. They gave us images of monuments, famous authors, buildings and artists from the five eTwinning countries. We had to sort the various items and then match the words with the pictures. 
We also had how to say hello, how are you and thank you in French on the side. The lap book also the information on the population ,language, national anthem and the area of the participating countries. 

They also had some information about the European Union.  We also got a few lovely photographs from their skiing trip to the Pyreneese. finally there were tiny little cookery books featuring recipes from all five participating countries. If you would like to test your knowledge of the Flags of Europe Click here

Posted by Sophie

Experimenting with Tagxedo

We have been learning how to use Tagxedo
Joyce loves reading and choose words from her current novel to incorporate in her design.



The thing that I like to do the most is read books. The books that I like to read are Henderson Boys a series of books written by Robert Muchamore. I've read the first and second book, so now I'm on the third book. The main characters in the book are Rosie, Paul, Marc, Mr Henderson, PT and Dormant. The character that I like the best is Rosie because her mum and dad are dead and she has to make sure that her little brother Paul is ok. They all work together and make sure that they leave before there is another war. The next series that I really want to read is The Hunger Games.The three main characters are Katniss Everdeen, Peeta Malark and Cato Hadley. I've watched the movie but I'm also going to read the books. I love reading!!!!

Sophie is a fan of the Hunger Games



The Hunger Games is an amazing book trilogy . There are currently two movies The Hunger Games and Catching Fire . The last book , Mocking jay is getting split into two parts because it is a big book . The four main characters are Katniss Everdeen, Peeta Melark, Effie Trinket and Haymitch Abernathy . Katniss is just an ordinary sixteen year old girl most of the time she skilled at archery. Peeta is good at baking and is very strong, he's also sixteen .Effie is district 12's escort, born in the capitol she is always overly dressed and pink .Haymitch is always drunk but at the times he is sober he can be very wise and kind. The actress who plays Katniss Everdeen is played by x-mens Jenifer Lawrence . The actor who plays Peeta Melark is played by Josh Hutcherson. The actress who plays Effie trinket is Elizabeth Banks . The actor who plays is acting legend Woody Harleson The secondary characters are ,District one Marvel and Glimmer, District two Cato Hadley and Clove Sevina, District 5 fox face, District 11 Thresh and Rue.

Ryan loves football and decided to select his dream team.



My favourite payers are mostly Brazilian or they play for Liverpool. Suarez is my favourite player because he scores lots of goals for Liverpool. Pele and Rivaldo are two Brazilian legends. Pele played for Santos FC when he was 15. Rivaldo played for Barcelona and scored a chest and an over head kick for them. My favourite players on Liverpool are the three s Suarez, Sterling and Sturridge. These are most of my favourite players if these were all on a team that would be one of my dream teams.

By Ryan

Vote for our entry in Map My School competition

Ordnance Survey Ireland are delighted with the response to their competition Map My School. A total of forty seven school participated and their entries are displayed here.
Please click on the this link Scoil Eoin entry You have the opportunity to visit our page vote for our entry and comment on our map.

Map My School

Map My School is a competition organised by Ordnance Survey Ireland  with the objective  of getting primary school classes to get practical hands-on experience of map making and in the process enhance their map reading skills. This project provided many opporunities for the students to get practical mathematical experiences and in the process enhance their understanding of mathematical concepts such as length,width, area, perimeter and scale.

Read Joyce's account of her experience working on the project.

Our class is participating in a project called Map My School. First we had to measured many different parts of the school. We had to get the length and width of many different parts of the school building. Next we had to measured the perimeter of the grounds.This was really difficult as our school has many curves on the perimeter had to use some bamboo canes to keep track of our measurements. We were lucky because Mr. McGuire gave us a measuring tape that was 50 meters long.

As we measured the school we wrote down the amount of meters that we measured in a special notebook.Next we had to change these measurements to a scale of 1cm: 200cm so that we could fit our map on the paper. It was a difficult job to do but we still got it finished. We also coloured the map to brighting it up. Many other schools are also doing it too. It is a competition all over Ireland. Good luck to all the other schools participating.
Click here to vote for our entry

Examining Daffodils

Fair Daffodils we weep to see You haste away so soon

Robert Herrick (1591-1674)

The daffodil is an attractive trumpet shaped flower that blooms in spring. They have six petals around a trumpet. In the middle of a daffodil there is a trumpet that can be yellow or orange in colour.Inside the trumpet there are six stamen and on the top of the stamen is the pollen.The wind blows the pollen on to the stigma which is very sticky.

by Joyce

The Pollination of the Daffodil

If you open up the trumpet you can see ths six stamen and in the middle you can see a long spike called the stigma.The top of the stigma is sticky. To start the pollination of a daffodil you need a flower. The pollen is on the stamen of the daffodil. When the wind starts to blow the pollen on the stamen blows onto the stigma. The stamen of the daffodil is the female and the stigma on the daffodil is the male. the pollen in any flower is always yellow. Once the pollen has landed on the stigma it travels to the carpel and that is where the seeds begin to grow.

You can grow daffodils from this seed but it would take you several years.

Here are two activities that will help you learn more about the parts of a flower.

If you would like to take a flower apart and put the pieces into the correct box.  Click here and then click on the word label to label all the parts of a flower.








Diagram by Sophie

Art work by
Warren, Seán, Joyce, Sophie,Jonathan, Killian, Jamie and Ryan.

Reading Snapshot

In our class we're trying to develop a culture of reading.The students are encouraged to read for pleasure and to develop the habit of independent reading.

We made a video to share with others the books that we're reading at the moment and the most popular books in our class today.

Thick as Thieves

by Killian
 Thick as Thieves is the name of our eTwinning project in which we collaborate online with students from four other countries in the EU.Greece, France, Spain and Finland. We posted a class photo on the site and sent then descriptions about ourselves. They had to match our pictures to the information. It was difficult for them as we are the only school wearing a uniform. This short movie has images of the day we Skyped one of the participant classes in Limnos Island, Greece.



This is a Scratch quiz that we made for our eTwinning partners. Can you complete the quiz in less than sixty seconds? It is important to spell the capitals correctly although you will not be penalised if you forget to start you answers without a capital letter. If you get the quiz finished in less than one minute why not send us a comment on how long it took you to finish.

Mystery Skype

One of the most exciting activities that we participated in this term has been Mystery Skype. Using it we have travelled virtually to Maine USA, Moscow and Stockholm without leaving our classroom and all thanks to Skype.

It is a engaging way to bring geography to life and teach map skills. 

It provides many opportunities for  some incidental learning as students  use clues, to search maps, atlases and online in an effort to find the location of the other school.

It provides a wonderful opportunity to integrate technology into a geography lesson

It also provides an opportunity for the students to practice   their listening and speaking skills as they must communicate effectively for the activity to proceed.

In the process the students become aware of different time zones.

Get an opportunity to practice problem solving.

Prior to the session the students have to brainstorm in an effort to provide logical questions to ask. Students need to practice asking with yes and no questions.
 They also need to become familiar with the location of countries and how they relate to each other.Everyone is assigned a role although in the excitement of the process some students can be easily distracted and not complete their task.

It provides an opportunity for the students to improve their Internet search skills.
In order that the session is successful it is important that the students remain fairly quiet and sometimes it can be difficult to hear the other participants.
Student mus also be willing to take their inddividual task seriously as each student's role is important to the chances of solving the mystery location.

Skype provides the opportunity for students to make global connections and to actually converse with students who actually live in another part of the world.

One problem with Skype is that when the call starts the name and location of the caller is displayed. It is important to be aware of this otherwise alert  students will have solved the location before you start.

Making Crystals

Crystals are all around you.You eat crystals, drink crystals, wash our clothes with crystals and play with them. Most ot the crystals that are around you are so small that you never even notice them.

Growing salt crystals  

by Ryan Lynch
We have been trying to make salt crystals this week.
First we heated up water and we let it cool down for a few minutes. Next we put  100 ml of the warm water into a jar with four level teaspoons of salt. After that we got a pencil with a string dangling into the salt water.
Every day we got a new jar and made a new solution. We moved our string and pencil to the new jar. A few days later we noticed that the water soaked into the string and the salt crystals formed at the top of the pencil.

 


















Sea salt comes from the sea and it is a tiny bit healthier than ordinary salt. Some  salt comes from a salt mine. Sea salt can make metal rusty so if you lived by the sea your gate would be all rusty. Salt can be bad for your heart if you have to much of it. I don't have sea salt but my nanny does.

Our Sugar Crystals

by Joyce Awo
In our class we were growing sugar crystals. First we got a cups to use to measure the sugar, we got sugar, we used boiling water, a saucepan, a graduated cylinder and jar where we would put our saturated solution in.Next we put in two cups of sugar into the saucepan and we heated it up. Then we boiled some water and measured it to 100ml and then we poured it in slowly and stirred it to it had dissolved. We had to add in one and a half more cups of sugar in to the saucepan and keep stirring it. After that we kept on stirring it on the cooker but we could not leave it on the cooker too long because we would end up with burnt toffee. Next after that we put in a drop of blue food dye and stirred it in.

Finally we poured it into the jar and we got a thin bamboo and we got a clothes peg. We clip the clothes peg onto the top of the bamboo stick and we left it dangling in the jar. We put some hot water into the saucepan and put the jar in it so that the crystals would form slowly and so that we could have a better chance of growing it this time.

The next day when we went to see what had happen it was just like a big lollypop made out of sugar and water. We are hoping to have a better chance for the next day that we make another sugar crystal.

This green crystal was our best example

We had to make sugar crystals several times before we managed to get a saturated solution.

Making Epsom Salt Crystals

by Craig O'Brien
1.First we got a half cup of piping hot water and put it into a pot.
2.Next we added a half cup of Epsom salt.
3.After that we stirred it to help it dissolve and we did it.
4.Later our teacher put blue dye into the pot. It is meant to be very light blue.
5.Then we poured the water into egg shells so they can grow in them.
6.Next we put egg shells into a refrigerator and waited for a while.
7. After one day we could see tiny prism like crystals forming in the bottom of the shells.
8. We hope that they will be bigger tomorrow.
WARNING DO NOT EAT THE EPSOM SALT

Can you see the tiny prism shaped crystals that were left when all the liquid had evaporated?

Can you see the tiny prism shaped crystals?

Crystals made from Copper Sulphate

These beautiful blue crystals were made from copper sulphate by Joyce's sister

Making Epsom Salt Crystals

by Joyce Awo
Today we made Epsom salt crystals. First we got a saucepan, a measuring cup and some empty egg shells. Next we boiled the water that we were using in the experiment. After that we poured half a cup of Epsom salts into the saucepan. We mixed it till it had all dissolved and until we couldn't see any more Epsom salt. After that we put in a drop of the blue food dye and then we stirred them all in. Finally we poured the saturated solution into the egg shells. Our teacher put it into the fridge so that it could cool down quickly and so we could see what happen to it. We are hoping to get what we want to happen to it and what had happen.

Making Crystals from Bicarbonate of Soda

by Jonathan Hayes

Some stalactites are forming on the black woolen string.

Sodium bicarbonate is Bread soda. We boiled water and put it in a jug and straight away it burst into bubbles lettingout the Co2. We did the same thing in another jar and got the same result. We got some black wool because it will absorb the mixture.We attached paper clips to both ends of the wool to weigh them down in the jars.We are hoping that the mixture will drip down and make a stalagmite. I am hoping that it will form a  weird shape and leave it in our class.

The Effect of an Acid on an Egg

Posted by Joyce and Jonathan

 Today we started our experiment. First we got an egg and vinegar. We used  Litmus paper to test the vinegar and it turned red to show the vinegar was an acid.

The Litmus paper turned red.

Next we poured some vinegar into a jar and then we gently dropped in an egg. The egg went bouncing up and down and then it began to float.We noticed some little bubbles forming around the shell.

Tiny bubbles of Co2 are forming on the shell of the egg.

Day 2 Today we checked our experiment. I saw that there were now many bubbles around the egg. These bubbles are caused by a chemical reaction between the vinegar and the calcium carbonate in the shell. Vinegar is an acetic acid and it is changing the egg shell into Co2. The carbon dioxide is escaping in the bubbles.

On Day 2 Hundreds of bubbles indicate that the chemical reaction is taking place.

Day 3

The egg is all soft and the bubbles are still surrounding it. It is horrible. There is a scum floating on the water as well as the egg. It smells very bad.

Day 4

The egg is still floating in the jar and it looks like that it increased in size. My teacher touched the egg with her finger and managed to rub away some brown. We took out the egg while we changed the vinegar and it looked much larger. If you felt the egg it felt squishy. If you pressed it hard you might burst it. We put some vinegar in another jar and very gently placed the egg in the jar.

The egg on the left still has some residue of the shell. You can see the membrane of the egg on the right.

Day 5 Today we went back to see the egg. It didn’t look any different to yesterday when we changed the vinegar. The shell has disintegrated and you could see the white membrane underneath. We could see that the egg was now almost as wide as the jar. We will need to change the jar or it will get stuck. We could still see a few bubbles 

We wanted to test the strength of the membrane so we dropped the egg 30 centimeters.

Lab report day 6

This is the last day of our experiment. The egg was spongy so we decided to see what would happen if we dropped it. The egg looked milky white because its shell had gone and much of the vinegar had evaporated. We took it our and cleaned it. We got a metre ruler and put it standing on its end. We lifted the egg 30cm from the table and then dropped it. It burst and the yolk was on the table and the membrane looked like a popped balloon.

The yolk is still intact and the membrane looks like a popped balloon.