First Term in Second Class
It has been a busy first term settling in to our new school for 2nd Class. We have got used to our new surroundings, learned about our locality and taken a trip to the library for a cartoon workshop with the author Úna Woods. We’ve also been doing lots of report writing about different mammals and we’ve taken time to draw many of them too. Time was also spent investigating the many different things that make up soil along with looking at different samples of soils to spot the different layers. On a nature walk to the River Slang we stopped to enjoy the snow. We are looking forward to the Winter Holidays and we’re excited for 2023!
Tangrams to Celebrate Lunar New Year
A Tangram is an Ancient Chinese puzzle made up of specific shapes that when put together correctly can make a square. You can also use the shapes to make many different patterns such as animals or people. In Second Class we used them to solve some Tangram puzzles and then used our shapes to create some animals for a display. Lunar New Year falls this week and it is the most celebrated festival in the world. Each year celebrates a specific animal and this year’s animal is the Tiger.
Gong Hei Fat Choy! (Happy New Year)
Buildings in Second Class
We have looking at buildings in Second Class in recent weeks and in particular we’ve been looking at the plans for our new school building. Beforehand, we thought about what it might look like and what we would like it to have. Then we looked at the actual plans of the building focusing on the Elevation (Front View) and the Plan (Bird’s Eye View).
Everyone had a go at drawing their own plans of the actual building and finally we looked at an artist’s impression of the proposed buildings in 3D and our school looks great! It has got us really excited for our move there next year. Next week we are going to make some 3D models of our new school using recyclable materials.
Photos to follow….(technical error!)
Autumn Leaves – Second Class
Second Class have settled in to their new school year very comfortably. We have all got to know the new routines quickly and we have enjoyed getting down to work. Here is an example of some art work we completed using oil pastels. First we explored leaves, collected some and then discussed how they change during autumn when they are losing their chlorophyll. Then we chose autumn coloured pastels to create our own.
Poster Competition Winners!
During May, we celebrated Earth Day at school and we all learned about the beautiful planet that we call home. We ran a whole school poster competition with ‘Helping Our Planet’ as the theme for the competition. Here are some of the posters that won from the different classes. Congratulations to all who entered the competition, the walls of our school have been really brightened up and lots of helpful messages have been shared!
A term of growing
We’ve planted, germinated, watered and taken care of lots of growing things in Second Class this term. It’s been great to watch the seeds sprout and see how the different plants grow. We’ve grown lettuce, spring onion, spinach, carrots, broad beans, tomatoes, garlic and two different types of sunflowers. Everyone got to take home a plant this week to care for over the next few weeks or months. Nature has been a great focus over the past few months and complemented our studying of Earth and Biodiversity perfectly.
Second Class Trip to Airfield
Last week Aongus’ Second Class were lucky to get a free walking trip to Airfield. We walked up in the fresh air enjoying the sights of Dundrum village as we went. It was a 20 minute walk. We saw a lot of biodiversity including some very large trees in the gardens of the house and we think one of them is a Sequoia or Giant Redwood, they are from the largest family of trees in the world. We noticed that the gardeners had planted a lot of new and different vegetables in the garden. There were also a lot of broad beans similar to those we have planted at school and in our classroom, and we saw artichokes as well! We also looked at the walled garden and the beehives nearby. There was a lot of different insect life there as well as extra birds probably because of the many wild plants that have been let grow to encourage pollination, just like we are doing at school on our green area. After visiting the farm animals which included the Jersey Cows, we stopped by the playground and zipline. We’re very grateful to Fiona and the staff at Airfield for facilitating our free visit.
Food Chains in 2nd Class
This week the children learned a lot about the different parts of a food chain and why they are so important to all of us animals. They learned vocabulary such as Producer, Consumer, Predator, Herbivore, Carnivore and Omnivore. For their homework the children made a poster containing a food chain which they had researched. They really did brilliantly with this task. A few of the Food Chain posters are posted below.
Biodiversity in our Green Space – 2nd Class
In Second Class we have started learning about Biodiversity. We’ve been thinking about our ‘Beautiful Earth‘ and our ‘Colourful Earth‘. Today we tried to find as much diversity in our plant life as possible by focusing on different colours. We were very successful and put our colour samples together on a ‘Colourful Earth’ display card. Sinéad pointed out to us that we have a once rare flower growing in our small but diverse green space, the cowslip. We tried not to take too many samples so as to leave food for the insects and bees as well as leaving opportunities for the bees to collect pollen.
Diamond Sort – What’s a good friend?
Today in Aongus’ 2nd Class we came up with a list of nine characteristics or attributes a good friend might have. Then we tried to decide which of these would be most important in a good friend. We used a ‘Diamond Sorting’ technique which is an active learning method. The children decided which characteristics might go at the top of their diamond and why, and also decided what should go at the bottom and why. There was some good debate about what a word like ‘cool’ or ‘beautiful’ might mean to different people. The children first worked in pairs, then with their pod and then we sorted them out as a whole class. We realised that a good friend may not always be happy and that maybe you need to be a very good friend to them in that moment. Caring, Kind and Helpful were characteristics that were thought of as very important.
DSPCA Zoom Call
On the last day of September, 2nd Class had an interesting Zoom conversation with Margaret who works with the DSPCA shelter near the Dublin mountains. She told us lots about what the Dublin Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals does and the children were able to ask some of their own questions. We found out about the interesting and unusual animals they have given shelter to and also how they help animals that are in difficulty.
Nature Scavenger Hunt in 2nd Class
Second Class took a trip out to the park at the back of our school recently to identify some features of Autumn in our neighbourhood. The two trickiest things on the scavenger hunt were the Squirrel and some Fungi, but we got them! We also collected some twigs and leaves to create our hedgehog collages.
Working from Home in 4th!
Here is a sample of some impressive work being submitted online in 4th Class. The objective was to find an animal and investigate a unique feature or skill that it has.
There’s some very interesting reading here about different animals including Pandas, Puppies, the Lyrebird, Sea Otters, the Vampire Squid and the Mozambique Spitting Cobra!
Also in here is a snap of Orest’s reaction to the music piece Rhapsody in Blue as well as Rijin’s prize winning Art Competition bicycle! Some of the projects can be downloaded at the bottom.
We are all learning how to adapt to this new mode of learning and we will hopefully pick up some useful skills along the way! This week some children were practising their typing skills as well as learning how to use software such as Word and Powerpoint.
Duathlon Training
4th Class are well in to their duathlon training now and this week it was cycling proficiency and bike handling. The children were navigating obstacle courses and practising their cycling skills whilst cycling close to others. Gary from Triathlon Ireland is impressed with the children’s listening skills. We’d like to thanks the parents for their support in getting the bikes to school. It really makes a difference as the more bikes we have the more time each child gets to practise. Thanks also to those who shared their bikes!
Going Plastic Free @ The Good Neighbour
Recently some children from 4th Class took a trip to ‘The Good Neighbour’. It’s a shop down the road ner Dundrum Post Office that specialises in selling produce to customers who bring their own reusable containers. It was enlightening to realise how many products are available to purchase without the need for extra packaging. It does not mean that the produce costs more either, in fact it’s cheaper! Our purchases involved us estimating and using weighing scales as well as counting money. A big thank you to Jess from The Good Neighbour and we wish her all the best with her new buisiness. It’s a great way for us to help reduce our production of C02.
Department announcements relating to Coronavirus
It was announced today that all schools are to close today, Thursday 12th March at 6pm until 29th March. Children should be collected from school at the normal time today. More information will be sent to parents in the coming hours and days about our plans to support at-home learning. Please do not hesitate to contact Órla directly at principal@ballinteeretns.ie if you have any questions or concerns.
Please see below links to the most up-to-date information for schools:
Bake Sale 14th February
It is a miserable day outside but warm and delicious inside for our Student Council Bake Sale today! Parents are welcome to join us between 1 and 2pm in the school hall to buy all your treats for the midterm break.
Poetry for Climate Change
As a response to some lessons we’ve been having at school about Climate Change, Lola from 4th wrote an impressive poem. It describes the current situation and more importantly gives us some ideas of what we can do to make a positive change. We have debated Reducing, Reusing and Recycling as approaches to help change Global Warming and we have decided that……..”Reducing our desire to have more stuff than we need is a very good thing to do”!
Kindness Week 2020
Kindness Week is in full swing at school. The children have been sharing their experiences of practising acts of kindess daily. They’re also enjoying the opportunity to do some things they might not have been able to do if they had their regular homework. According to them they’ve been playing together more, spending more time with parents, playing with pets more, spending more time outside and practising their hobbies! During the day we have been looking at some inspiring videos, learning kindness skills, thinking about the impact of kind acts and discussing positive messages about kindness.
One statement from a student in 4th Class was that ‘Kindness is like a good disease’!
We have learned about the Science of Kindness http://tiny.cc/8n52iz and also how kindness is like a boomerang http://tiny.cc/tp52iz .
In response to the Kindness Boomerang idea, Lily and Sophie from 4th made their own Kindness Boomerang Video! http://tiny.cc/ballinteer
4th Class go to Airfield
An Spideog 
Lunch 
Milking Parlour 
Hen Talk 
Which came first… 
Brussels Sprouts 
Piglets
We went to Airfield on a self-guided walk and saw the Jersey cows producing milk. The milk came out of the cows udders. There are two ways of milking, by hand or by machine. Sophie and Seán
The fact that there were 24 hens in the small space amazed us and we thought it was cool that the colour of their ears is the same as the eggs that they lay. Liam and Orest
Near the walled gardens we saw a yew tree. Yew trees have poisonous leaves if eaten raw but can be made into medicine that treats cancer. Lily and Alex
We were able to see how the gardeners make rhubarb taste sweeter and grow longer. It is done by the Airfield farmers, it’s called Rhubarb Forcing. They put a special black cover over it. It works because the rhubarb grows towards the light at the top. Rían and Stefan
In Airfield, we also saw the huge Sequoia (Giant Redwood) tree. The tree was humongous, in fact it is the biggest tree in Airfield. It is the biggest species of tree in the world. Zach, Jacob, Finn and Jason
On the trip to Airfield we tasted fresh milk from the cows. It was delicious, creamy and had bits of fat in it. It had been pasteurised before we tasted it which means that it had been heated and cooled quickly to kill some of the bacteria. Conan and Mindaugas
The trip to Airfield included going on a silent nature walk. We walked over a wooden bridge going across a pond. We stopped in the middle of the bridge and closed our eyes to listen to nature’s sounds other than the traffic and noise in the distance. Divisha, Eva and Lola
We saw tropical plants under a piece of plastic which kept the heat in. There were different sized plants, some were cactii. Patrick and Shane
Some of the animals on our trip today were young. We saw piglets resting, calves playing and we also saw many fully grown animals such as goats, sheep, pigs, chickens and cows. We had lots of fun in Airfield. Freya and Rijin
There were some brussel sprouts growing. They grow on a tall green plant with a lettuce shaped top. On the stem of the plant, there were little green brussel sprouts. Lola, Eva, Divisha
Near the end of a lovely walk we got to play in a playground. We all went on the zipline. The animals and farms were beautiful and we all had a great time. Anna and Katie
Writers’ Corner
Look at this fantastic writing from one of our students in Ciara’s class. The next JK Rowling or Roald Dahl?
The Write-a-Book Project is coming soon. Why not spend some time over the break developing your story ideas?
Infant Disco
Not to be left out of Thursday night’s Winter Disco fun, our children from Junior and Senior Infants had their own disco on Friday, 20th December. DJ Rob (Katie and Georgia’s dad) got the party started and the children had a fantastic time breaking out their moves to celebrate the end of term!
Winter Solstice Celebration
Each of the children created a beautiful lantern to add to our light spiral in celebration of the Winter Solstice. The whole school gathered to walk the spiral, sing songs about winter and to learn about the upcoming solstice.
Thank you to Caroline, Elaine and all our parents and teachers who worked so hard to bring this celebration to life (and light!)
A trip to Facebook
Some of 4th Class visited the European Headquarters of Facebook a few weeks ago. This was organised by Susan, an aunt of Alex in 4th and Dougie in 5th. The journey to the city centre and swapping trams on the Luas was different than a regular school day! We walked across the Liffey noting historical sites and buildings and then we arrived at the headquarters which seemed like a very secure building, more like an airport! We saw what the inside of a technology company looks like for the employees and it seemed like the staff enjoy all of the perks that the job comes with. We also learned about the very high number of active users of Facebook there are in the world which is approximately 2.5 billion. That means that one third of the worlds population log on to Facebook most days. It led to interesting discussions!
UCD’s Science Outreach
Aongus’ 4th Class were lucky enough to visit the UCD Science Department last week as part of the college’s outreach programme. The children got a tour of the UCD campus getting to see in to lecture halls, tutorial rooms and the different types of laboratories there. After the tour the children took part in a lecture especially prepared for them about ‘The Eye’. We got to do different experiments where we were trying to find our blind spot and find out some quirky features of our eyes. Interestingly, the staff at the college use Zebra Fish to find out more about human eyes. Because of that the children experienced working with pipettes and petri dishes to move around the tiny Zebra Fish. They also got to see close-up images of tiny shrimp through a microscope. We would like to thank Alex’s mother Imelda for helping to organise this trip.
Science Week in 4th Class – Brickz4Kidz
During Science week and in the week after it, the children in 4th Class had lots of opportunities to learn through science and technology. One of those opportunities was when both classes took a trip to the Mill Theatre to take part in a Bricks4Kidz workshop during which all enjoyed making and adapting robots. Here are some photos from that trip.
Autumn Owls
Using multi-coloured Autumn leaves collected around the school and from home we each made an owl collage in 4th Class. First, we practised sketching owls with pencil and then we decided on a final outline. Afterwards, we used glue and leaves to fill in the owl shape. During the art activity we learned about photosynthesis, why leaves are green and why they lose their leaves at this time of year.
Germinating Acorns
During October, 4th Class went for a short nature walk around our school and collected some acorns. We tested the acorns in some water to see if they were healthy by doing a ‘Float Test’. We have now planted them and we hope to keep the conditions suitable for germination over the next few months. We might get to take home an oak seedling in 2020.
‘Everyone Counts’ – UCD – 4th Class
This morning we had our first visit from the ‘Everyone Counts’ team.
We had Sorcha, the programme co-coordinator from UCD, Sharon who is a designer from the National College of Art & Design and Aoife a Mathematician and Astrophysicist visit our classroom.
Today was mostly about introductions and the children filled in a questionnaire for the team. They also answered some maths problems. Next week, we will start investigating some other, more interesting maths problems. We are excited about the upcoming sessions over the coming months.
Violin in 4th Class
4th Class have begun their violin lessons with Elizabeth from Music Generation. They have been paying very close attention during the lessons so far and have been learning to play notes as well as how to handle the violins correctly.
Diwali
Today in 4th Class we had a very informative presentation from Swara about the Hindu and Indian festival of Diwali. Swara described the five days of celebration in great detail and she was a very confident speaker as she presented. The class then got to ask questions about the The Festival of Light and colour in a diva.
DNA Extraction in 4th Class
4th Class were very lucky this week when they each got to learn about and extract the DNA of a banana! 8 scientists from Cell Explorers, a UCD organised initiative, visited the classrooms and turned them into a Science Lab for the day. The children used pipettes, test tubes, ethanol and liquid detergent to extract the DNA using a very specific scientific method aided by the volunteers. A very enjoyable science session was had and a big thanks to Aoife who organised this visit!
Futsal Tournament
Today, some of the 4th Class students were lucky enough to take part in a Futsal tournament organised by the Football Association of Ireland. Our students were commended for their sporting behaviour on the field and and they definitely had a lot of fun! Thanks to our support teacher Nathalie and our volunteer Brian for helping making the day happen.
Yellow Day – The Longest Day!
An organisation called the Dublin Simon Community got in touch with 4th Class to ask if they would help fundraise for them on the summer solstice, the 21st of June. They help homeless people access services they need in Dublin, Kildare, Wicklow and Meath. They picked the 21st of June because it is the longest day of the year and a day that homeless people can find difficult.
Simon gave us some sunglasses to sell. It cost Simon €2 to make each pair so if we sold them for more than that, Simon would get that profit. We thought about it and decided together to sell them for €3.99 each. So the 4th Class students went to the different classes to market the glasses and explain when they would be sold. Maggie from 4th Class got the idea that on the summer solstice we could all wear yellow because of the glasses and the solstice. We sold the glasses in all of the different classrooms and on the 21st of June nearly the whole school wore yellow and the glasses. All in all it was a great and kind thing to do.
A group of parents who organised the religion classes in our school decided to donate €140 to our collection. We’d like to say a big thank you to them!
In total we raised €1210, so after the cost of making the sunglasses is taken out, Dublin Simon will have €730 to put to good use with homeless people.
Thanks to everyone who helped and supported us!
Mariam, Georgia and Aongus
Symmetrical Art
During 4th Class Math / Art they learned a little more about symmetry by doing symmetrical art. Aongus, their teacher took a photo of each student’s face and then they cut that photo in half. After that they stuck their faces on to coloured card and drew the other side. All in all, it was a very fun Maths lesson and they learned a lot about symmetry along the way.
Joseph and Julia
Library Trip to meet a Cartoonist – Aiden Courtney
We were all super excited to meet an amazing cartoonist at Dundrum library. He taught us how to draw amazing funny cartoons like dogs, unicorns, zombies and much more. We all really enjoyed our super fun visit, and loved all the funny pictures. Aiden Courtney was the name of the brilliant cartoonist, he makes comics with lots of other people aswell. He was very funny and we found him super interesting. We loved the amazing comic-book workshop and we hope to meet him again.
Aitana and Aimee
Lá Glas for Fourth Class
On Friday the 16th of March Ballinteer Educate Together school had a school Céilí Mór to celebrate Seachtain na Gaeilge and St. Patrick’s Day. The first acts from Fourth Class were three musicians, Carla who played the flute, Kian who played the Violin and Joseph who played the banjo. Then 4th Class sand two Irish songs called ‘Trasna na donnta’ and Óró mo bháidín. After that, 3rd and 4th danced the Siege of Ennis. Some girls from Laura’s class Second Class did some Irish Dancing which was very impressive!! After that, 3rd Class sang the cup song as Gaeilge! They had a great time watching all of the performances.
Ella and Carla
Engineers Week
During Engineer’s week, 4th Class had two outstanding engineers come to their class. Their names were Carl and Alan. Alan is a Civil Engineer and Carl is a Chemical Engineer. They told us what engineers do and that if we didn’t have engineers, we wouldn’t have all the high-tech things that we have today. Carl and Alan showed us very interesting videos about engineers and how they learn from their mistakes everyday. They brought over lollipop sticks and blu-tak for us to make small bridges that could hold a coca-cola bottle, it was so much fun. All and all 4th Class had an excellent time with the engineers.
Hailey and Maia
Irish Dancing
For 2 Wednesdays, 4th Class did Irish Dancing with their teachers Sarah and Aongus. The dances they did were “Shoe the Donkey” and “The Siege of Ennis”. Then 4th Class decided to do only “The Siege of Ennis” with 3rd Class and Junior Infants too. 1st Class and 2nd Class did “Shoe the Donkey. Second Class also did ‘The walls of Limerick’. There was one practise with 3rd before the show. Everybody did brilliantly!
Mark and Yunseo
The Sam Maguire Cup
Just before the Winter holidays our school got a surprise visit from two Dublin hurling team players who brought with them none other than the Sam Maguire cup! All of the classes sang a song such as Molly Malone, Everywhere we go and many more. The classes got to do a ‘Q and A’ with the hurling players. After that, they got to take pictures with the Sam Maguire cup. Overall it was a fun day for all to remember.
Franko
Making the world a better place!
During January and February, Fourth Class decided to spread the message about some things that need to change on Earth. With the help of an artist, Caroline Lynch, the class made some outstanding posters. The posters showed some world dilemmas such as plastic pollution, global warming and the use of palm oil, in colourful detail. By seeing these posters it should change others’ minds on what they use and do. By writing this blog post, it will spread more awareness on these problems. Fourth class worked hard to create these posters, and hope they will make their own changes to the world.
Alex and Kuba
Visit from a Biologist
This term some classes had a visit from Gordon Cooke (Hayden’s Dad). They learned that he is a lecturer and researcher at the IT in Tallaght in Biological Science. He talked to them about bacteria and told them what type is good and what type is bad. He also told them that medicine can be bad if you don’t use it responsibly. He also said that medicine can sometimes do the wrong job and kill bacteria that the body needs. Another thing he mentioned was how important it is to wash your hands or you could get sick. Overall it was a very good visit and he knew a lot of information.
Mariam and Erica
Student Council Elections
Our school has started a Student Council and we have elected two members to it. We did proportional representation (PR) voting, the type of voting used in Ireland. We had sixteen candidates, we are very proud of them and they are proud of themselves. Everyone had to make their own speech and read it out in front of the class. Even if we didn’t win, we still had great fun!
Mariam
ReelLIFE SCIENCE Videos
The whole class was recently working to make 9 different science videos. We were working in groups of 2 or 3. Each group made brilliant and interesting science videos to enter the competition organised by the National University of Ireland in Galway. The competition is called ReelLIFE SCIENCE. There were 1500 participants in the whole country and we all got certificates for entering. It was great fun, interesting and scientific. The videos can be viewed here.
Carla
GAA
Our class has had visits from Dónal of Ballinteer St. John’s Gaelic Football Club. Every Wednesday morning at 9am we would go outside to play gaelic. We did mini-matches and passing to improve our skills and to learn how to play the game. We also played some fun games like stuck in the mud, racing and grab a bib! We did it for six weeks and it was awesome! Our class would like to thank Dónal for giving us gaelic lessons.
Daniel and Paddy
The Local Gardaí Visit
On the 24th of October were all visited by Gardaí from Dundrum. Their names were Ivan and Linda. They taught us about Halloween safety. They showed some awesome gadgets. They also told us how important it is to stay away from fireworks. We also got to hold their handcuffs, they felt so cool.
They told us about the crimes they solved (they were awesome). They also showed us their badges. They had amazing uniforms and they told us about the numbers on their uniforms. They told us how they use their gadgets and that amazing stuff.
We saw their Garda car on the way out of school. We feel grateful for them coming over. We hope to see them again. We had a BLAST!
Visits From Local Politicians
On Monday the 8th and Friday the 13th of October, 4th Class were lucky enough to meet Catherine Martin TD and Senator Neale Richmond. Catherine and Neale talked about their jobs and the budget. Neale talked about being a Senator in the Senate and Catherine talked about being a TD in the Dáil. They also talked to us about how people get elected to the Government. We found out that Neale has been elected twice. All of 4th class were very happy after their visits.
Maggie (with editing from Kuba)
Rugby in Second Class
Second Class have been lucky to get rugby training from Avon and Kieran of Leinster Rugby this year. They have learned the basics of rugby by playing tag games and they’ve really enjoyed the different activities. Avon has told the children they are picking up the sport very quickly.
“The toughest and roughest game we’ve learned!” – Rhys
“They teach us how to play matches in rugby.”
“The coaches are nice.” – Maya
“It’s really fun! – Layla
