Houses, homes and construction in 2nd Class

We have some fantastic parents in 2nd Class who have come in to share their skills and expertise with us as we continue to learn about the design and construction of buildings. Architect Emma has been coming in to explain what her job is about and to look at things like purpose, brief and planning. We went on to create drawings ourselves, following a range of instructions. Carpenter Alex came in to show us pictures of some of his work and he brought in lots of exciting tools too. Thank you very much!

Tales of bandits, landlords, heroism and justice with “Ballad of a Bandit” in Cabra Library

Today, 3rd Class had a wonderful day in Cabra Library. The event was called “Ballad of a Bandit” which is a story of a highway man, a Robin Hood-like character and master of disguise, named Captain McNamara. This was a one man theatre show with music, object animation, clown and expert storytelling. It was interactive and huge fun! As the class are learning about Narrative Writing (story writing) in English this month and next, this activity will no doubt be fantastic inspiration for their own creative writing.

Dutch Educators Visit St Gabriel’s NS

We were delighted to welcome the Dutch trainee teachers who visit St Gabriel’s NS from the Netherlands every year. They come here to learn about our school, the Irish education system, to observe classes and to give a series of lessons about the Netherlands to the children.

In 3rd Class, the children learned about Dutch customs and traditions around times such as Christmas, St Nicholas or “Sinterklaas” and Easter. The children really enjoyed the visit!

2nd Class explore TU Dublin Grangegorman buildings

2nd Class had a wonderful tour of some TU Dublin buildings on the Grangegorman campus. We were guided around the student services building, which was previously a hospital. We also got to visit another building from the 1800s which was once used as a jail! These have been fully renovated and we discussed the materials and processes used in this, as well as their current purposes.

We finished our tour with an informative talk on the physics of building and a practical activity where we used arches and a cornerstone to construct a wall in groups. A big thank you to Ian Roller who was our fabulous facilitator throughout!

String phones, Games in the past and Fun with balloons in 2nd Class

We had a busy week in 2nd Class last week.

In science, we were experimenting with balloons and straws and observing how sound waves vibrate and travel through different mediums. It was noisy, but fun!

We also designed, constructed, tested and decorated our own string phones. We even had a working landline between the two 2nd classes!

And we continued looking at Games in the Past in History, exploring some real-life games from the past.