Jamie used Tagxedo to create a design on what Easter means to him.

Scratch Game on the Birds of KIlbarrack

How good are you at recognising the local birds? Test your knowlwedge by playing this game. There are three levels in the game


Level 1 Tests your knowledge of the most common birds.


Level 2 concentrates on larger birds. You will notice several of them walking around searching for food on the ground on your way to school

Level 3 concentrates on winter visitors to the area as well as some sea birds that come inland when there is very bad weather. this level also includes the waxwing.This exotic bird flew all the way from Siberia and unfortunatley was found dead in the grounds of Scoil Eoin

Birds of Kilbarrack

This term we have been studying the birds that are living in our community.All of these birds in our project have been seen within a 300 metre arc of our school. In our school grounds we have a wide variety of trees and a large grassy area which provided a habitat for many of these birds. Due to our close proximity to the sea shore we are also visited by wading birds such as the Curlew and Oystercatcher.

We are very fortunate in Kilbarrack that so many birds have managed to survive in this suburban environment.

Sparrows roosting at the Dart station

Starlings

Brent Geese

Irish Legends and Celtic Art

We used Photostory to tell two well known Irish legends







We drew our inspiration from examples of Celtic Art especially those used in The Book of Kells one of the world's greatest manuscripts. We marvelled at the degree of skill, patience and concentration that was required by the scribes to produce such magnificent work.

Celtic Homes

The Celts in Ireland settled down throughout the countryside. Forts were the most common type of homestead.

Hillforts

Strong kings lived in hillforts. They chose a site on the top of the hill which gave them a good view of the countryside round them. They dug a deep ditch around the hill and used the earth to form a bank on the inside of the ditch.
The most famous hill fort in Ireland is at TARA

Ringforts

The most usual type of forts were the ringforts. There are still remains of the ringforts in the Irish Countryside.They measure 12 to 65 meters in diameter.They were surrounded by a sitch abd ab earthen bank. They built a house inside the ringfort. They made a roof of thatch made from straw or rushes. A hole was left in the riif to allow the ssmoke to escape. The interior was one large room.The floor was covered with dry rushes.
some ringforts had underground passages called souterraines which were used for storage or as an escape route in times of danger. LInk to Ringfort In rural Ireland people were reluctant to go on to ringforts so that they wouldn't disturb the fairies. They feared that the fairies would bring misfortune to their lives. Today many ringforts have disappeared and the fairies were powerless to save them.

Crannóg

The word crannog comes from the Irish word for tree and uas usualy a partly man-made island. The island was constructedd using piles of stones, branches, logs and tree trunks They built a stockade round the edge. Inside huts were constructed. They used a wooden dug-out or a small skin-covered going to and from the mainland.

Link to a reconstructed crannóg

Stoneforts

In the west of Ireland in places where there was little soil stone forts were built. These are great circular walls of stone, sometimes up to 5 meters thick. There was just one narrow entrance to the fort. Inside, fitted into the walls they built steps for the warriors to keep guard or defend the fort when attacked.

Dún Aengus is a fine example of a stonefort

There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom

Bradley Chalkers

Bradley Chalkers is a lonely, strange, bold yet good character. Deep down Bradley is very loving and caring, but he’s too afraid to show it. Bradley is also smart. He is very tough at the start of the book. As the book goes deeper and deeper you realise that Bradley is a very mixed up character

Carla’s Diary

My First Day at Red Hill School
Dear Diary,

It’s me Carla and I’m the new counsellor in Red Hill School. I’m finding it hard to adjust. The other teacher looked at me in a strange way, I think it might be because they have other friends and don’t want to be friends with me. The first person that came to my office was a boy called Jeff Fishkin. Jeff seems like a sweet boy. Jeff is a good boy in a bad situation but deep down he is a very sweet boy. He is friends with a boy called Bradley, well I think that they are friends. Jeff is so kind and he is my first friend in the school. HOORAH.
Next Bradley came in. I felt confident. I was so happy to have a friend I forgot all the bad things that people had told me about him. Bradley came in looking at the floor. He started talking to me. We were talking for a little while; I started to realize that he was a dull boy. I let him draw a picture. Then he left. I think Bradley is quite strange.

Carla.

Bradley Chalkers used to be the meanest in his class but with some help from Carla his counsellor he is gradually becoming very nice. In the last Chapter Bradley and Jeff were going to Colleen’s birthday party. Bradley was going to Carla’s office on Saturday because she was leaving to be a kindergarten teacher in another school and he didn’t like it so he didn’t go. Later he changed his mind. He ran over to her desk and she wasn’t there and he found a letter that she had written to him and read it. He tried to write a letter back but he couldn’t.

Rebekah selected Carla as her favourite character.	Bradley is Vicky's favourite character

Jemelah and Áine made a Scratch game to test your knowledge of the novel

Letters to Bialystock

Today we finsihed our letters to our eTwinning pals in Bialystock in Poland. Alanna, Jemelah and Vicky scanned them in so that we could email them. We will be looking forward to reading their letters.