The children from 5th and 6th Class are very lucky this term as Ms. Delaney has been running a Mural Painting Club after school! The planning and prepping for painting was a great collaborative effort with lots of ideas and creativity flowing. As you can see they are really brightening up our courtyard with their beautiful painting.
Mr Whyte’s class have been learning a lot this month in Aistear about The Post Office and the people who deliver our letters and parcels. Senior Infants have been busy writing letters, addressing envelopes, playing games where they are a postal worker and making stamps to pop on their letters before they put them in the post box. On Friday the whole class went to the local Post Office to post some letters to their families. We hope they were delivered quickly!
This year in St. Gabriel’s NS we chose the day before St. Patrick’s Day to hold our Lá Glás (Green Day). In the morning we certainly got a lot of exercise when we had our Céilí Mór outside in the playground. Some amazing dance moves were on display, especially from Second Class! Everyone has been making an extra special effort to speak cúpla focail as Gaeilge (a few words in Irish) for Seachtain na Gaeilge and each class enjoyed an Irish movie and popcorn to wind down after the all the excitement.
Today the children from First Class took part in a virtual art workshop – a unique experience for everyone! The title of the workshop was Winter Tales and Animal Shadows and we were lucky to be working with artist Lucy Hill and Clara from The Ark.
To begin, the children looked at some beautiful animal paintings that are part of the online Winter Light exhibition (you can have a look at the exhibition here https://ark.ie/projects/details/online-gallery-winter-light). Each child gave their ideas about what they could see in the paintings and they discussed the shapes and colours with Lucy.
Then it was time for Ms. Fitzpatrick’s class to make their own animal shadow puppets! Using colour to create the movement and shapes of their own animal, next they cut out the outline of their puppet. Even as the children were cutting, they were changing their designs and adjusting to what they thought would look best. Lucy also showed us how to make a shadow box to perform a puppet show at home!
First Class really enjoyed their workshop and are all looking forward to creating more art and stories from the pieces that they created.
Usually at this time of year we would be preparing to welcome all our Parents and Guardians into the school for our annual Parent Teacher Meetings. These meetings are always a positive way to involve everyone in the learning of the children of St. Gabriel’s NS.
Unfortunately this year we will have to postpone these meetings to a later date in the school year due to the Covid-19 crisis. Until then – as always – teachers will contact parents if there is anything of an urgent matter that needs to be discussed about your child’s needs. Class teachers can also be contacted by email if you have any queries about your child’s learning.
Thank you again for your continuing co-operation during these unusual times.
Wishing all the pupils and families of St. Gabriel’s NS a Happy Hallowe’en and a relaxing and safe mid-term break.
Today there were lots of spooky goings-on all around the school with witches, werewolves, dinosaurs(!) and skeletons spotted everywhere and even a gruesome magic show thrown in for good measure! Happy Hallowe’en!
Maths Week this year was as busy and fun as ever with lots of activities happening all around the school. Junior and Senior Infants headed to the Phoenix Park for an adventure and got to do some Maths Trails too (photos to follow), while the other classes were busy carrying out their own trails around the school. There was a lot of estimating, measuring, deciphering and counting going on everywhere.
In the Senior classes, the children took part in nail-bitingly tense Tables Championship finals, where the poor teachers had to keep going until they were down to 1st, 2nd and 3rd place. Well done to all the children who took part.
