We were delighted to welcome the Lord Mayor Councillor Kieran McCarthy to the school today. The whole school welcomed him with the infant classes waving their flags, while the children sang a beautiful rendition of Ireland's call. The Lord Mayor spoke to us about how he developed a love for the history of Cork City and how he was always trying to find out more information.
Junior Infants up to 2nd class were lucky this week to have a visit from trainers Ian and Cian. The trainers put the children through their paces with some warm ups before testing their fitness with games and relays. All the children really enjoyed it.
We held our Intercultural Day in the school yard today. It was a fantastic day where all the children dressed up in their traditional clothes. The projects that the children completed over the last few weeks were on display in the yard. There was also displays of tradition clothes. The parents and the children brought in tables of food from all the different cultures and nationalities. In the yard there was performances from some of the classes before all the parents and adults joined in for some zumba dancing. Ending the day was a céilí which everyone loved. Thank you to the teachers and all the parents who helped organising the day.
1st class were very lucky today when a parent came in to show them how to wear a sari. The children loved seeing how it was put on and then the class tried putting it on one another. They were very good at it.
As intercultural week is starting some of the teacher and students have made some amazing displays throughout the school.
Congratulations to the winners of the Spring Clean Art Competition held recently in the school. The winners were selected by artist Fiona Desmond.
There is some spectacular art work hanging around the school recently. 2nd classes have been learning about art from different cultures and countries. They looked at the art work in the Book of Kells before colouring their own Celtic Knots. As they were learning and researching about America, they came across a video showing them how to draw birds based on the way Native Americans drew. The results are amazing. Just before the Easter break they designed their own Pysanky Eggs, drawing the designs and symbols in crayons before painting over them. In the Ukraine eggs are designed with different symbols before Easter using wax. 3rd class have been learning about the artist Henri Matisse. Mr. Donovan's class created their own art based on Matisse's piece "Icarus". While Mr. O Conor's class based their art on the "cut-out" technique that Matisse used. Both classes have some talented artists among them. 1st class were learning about Australia and some created some paintings based on Aboriginal art. They were also reading the novel "Fantastic Mr. Fox" by Roald Dahl and did some wonderful pencil drawings based on their favourite parts of the book. Senior Infants paintings of spring flowers have definitely brightened up the hallways. While the girls from 5th class did some spectacular art with leaves.
The children in 1st classes and Senior infants are enjoying CAPER (Children and Parents enjoy reading) in the classes once a week again. Thank you to all the parents, grandparents and relatives for coming in to the classes.
The children enjoyed dressing up for World Book Day last week. 1st class and 6th class walked down to Waterstones to use their World Book Day vouchers to get new books.
The school was very busy in the run up to the Christmas Holidays. Early Start parents came into their class for Cuddle and Read. Every child in the class went home with a new book for Christmas which they could enjoy with their parents. Ms. Murray and Ms. Coleman held the In it to Win it raffle where a raffle was done in each class and pupils won prizes. The more often they were in school the more raffle tickets they had. Ms. Coleman organised a flower arranging class for the parents to make their Christmas wreaths. She also organised a raffle for the children and families that brought back in their Christmas wishes stars. The two 2nd classes went baking rice crispy cakes with their teachers and Ms. Rooney. They tasted delicious afterwards. The whole school took part in a Christmas Concert in the cathedral which told the Christmas Story.
