Contents:
- A note from Tim
- Classroom Updates
- Extra Curricular Activities
A note from Tim
Dear children, parents and guardians,
I am delighted to welcome the return of our school newsletter. It has been a busy and exciting term here in Tyrrelstown ETNS and it is fantastic to see and hear about all of the wonderful things taking place in our school. I would like to thank everyone who has contributed to this newsletter and who has contributed to making this term one of our best yet!
Wishing you all a safe and enjoyable summer ahead,
Tim
Classroom Updates
Mallorie’s Setanta Class
For the month of May, Mallorie’s Setanta Class has been learning about Safari Animals. They created an amazing display of safari animals that they made and even went to Dublin Zoo on their school tour to see some safari animals for themselves.
Sinéad’s Setanta Class
In Setanta we are learning about people who help us.
Teachers help us to read books. The SNAs look after us. The bus driver helps to bring us to school. The doctor makes me feel better if I am sick. Firefighters put water on the fire to stop it and keep us safe. I am happy that there are lots of people to help us.
April’s Junior Infants
This term we learned all about money. We practised buying things in our Aistear shop.
We watched caterpillars grow into butterflies for a few weeks and we released them beside flowers in the yard.
We learned all about how they transform into a butterfly from a caterpillar.
Báetán’s Junior Infants
In April, we learned all about the farm and all the plants and animals grown on the farm. We acted as farmers in the Aistear room, loading the tractor and trailer up with eggs and fruit and vegetables to bring to the market, looking after the animals and growing our crops.
In May, we visited a farm and got to see some baby animals. We knew the names of lots of these animals such as “lamb”, “piglet”, “calf” and “kid”.
Kim’s Junior Infants
We have enjoyed learning all about the farm recently in Aistear. We are really interested in learning about all the animals, their names and what they do on the farm. We also enjoyed learning all about the farmers’ work.
On our school tour we were so lucky to go to The Ark Puddenhill. We got to see lots of animals like cows, pigs, goats, sheep, rabbits and different types of birds. We learned their names and what their babies were called. We also got to feed some of the goats! We also enjoyed playing in the big outdoor playground, and the huge soft play area too! We had an amazing day!
Claire C’s Senior Infants
The children in Claire’s Senior Infant class had great fun planting sunflowers seeds. We wrote all about how to plant sunflower seeds and how to take care of our plants on a big sheet of paper. After that for Art, we used sellotape, bubble wrap, brown and yellow paint to make our sunflower pictures.
We are very excited to bring home our sunflower plants!
Elaine’s Senior Infants
In Senior Infants, we have been talking all about going on our school tour and we have read some funny books about school field trips! On our school tour, we had the chance to play outside, make mud cakes and plant some flowers. It is great for us to have messy play and not worry about keeping our clothes clean!
We know it’s important to clean our hands afterwards though, so we have been learning all about washing our hands properly with soap. We did a science experiment and used “glitter germs” to show how great soap is at cleaning our hands. At first the glitter germs were all over the water. When we added soap to the water, the glitter germs were washed away!
Gerry’s Senior Infants
Gerry’s class have had a brilliant term as they approach the end of Senior Infants. Check out this photograph of when they had the best day on their school tour at Mellowes Adventure Centre. The sun shone as they played games, planted seeds, jumped on bouncy castles and one of their favourite activities was just going on the double decker bus with their friends! 😀
Jodie’s 1st Class
In Jodie’s 1st class we’ve been learning about the artist Pablo Picasso. We had a lot of fun creating self-portraits in his style of painting, cubism.
In Science, we were learning about floating and sinking and we had a tough challenge. We had to make a shape out of playdough that would float on the water like a boat.
Naomi’s 1st Class
Naomi’s class have had a great time this summer term. We learnt all about different kinds of heroes, including Malala Yousafzai, Mary Robinson and David Attenborough for heroes week. We went on a fantastic trip to Fort Lucan where we especially enjoyed the go-carts and castles to climb.
In literacy, we learnt all about persuasive writing. We wrote a persuasive letter to Tim to ask him to have a Pyjama day and he let us! We have been learning to play the boomwhackers. They are a fun and easy instrument to learn to play together. Our favourite song to play is Dance Monkey. We’ve also been working on building our own mini cities out of cardboard. We have been working in groups and have made some amazing creative structures.
Ciara’s 2nd Class
In Ciara’s 2nd class we have been learning all about Australia. We are really enjoying learning about the different animals that are native to Australia. Our favourite animal so far is the koala. We have been comparing life in Ireland to life in Australia. We created our own Australian Aboriginal art designs using dots and we are very happy with how they turned out. For P.E, we have been doing cricket with Mitchell which we are really enjoying. We went on a nature walk with Niamh’s 6th class and we had great fun!
Dawn’s 2nd Class
We have been writing reports about Australia. Did you know that a baby koala is called a joey? When they are born they are about the size of a jellybean. In Maths we have been learning about money and what change you get when we buy different things in the shop.
Orla’s 2nd Class
Orla’s 2nd Class were learning about fables and discovering the moral in the story. Two fables we looked at were ‘Tiddalick the Frog’ and ‘The Boy who Cried Wolf’. We also began writing some of our own!
We were focusing on the importance of friendship and kindness in our class and so we learned the song ‘Lean on Me’.
Finally, we were lucky enough to go to the park with Shane’s 6th class and we had an amazing time!
Denis’ 3rd Class
I enjoyed the ukulele and my teacher is very nice. We also do a lot of Math. I have read many books in school. I also enjoyed the chromebooks.
I learned that you can grow crystals by putting hot water and adding salt again and again but when you put the salt you have to mix it so it dissolves but when it doesn’t dissolve leave it to set and you will get crystals. We have learned EM on the ukulele and we learned Hallelujah on the ukulele. We have also been learning about maps and we made our own signs!
Eoin O’s 3rd Class
We have enjoyed learning about how to write persuasive writing. My class and I wrote a letter to Michael D. Higgins about if he could ban homework, we have not sent it to him yet but we are going to. We also learnt about the 1950s. I enjoyed looking at pictures and telling the difference.
Let’s talk about Art: Vincent van Gogh is another interesting topic we learned each Friday. We had an Art lesson and some of Vincent van Gogh’s paintings are the Potato Eaters, Sunflowers, Starry Night and many more. That is probably the most interesting thing I have learnt this term.
Seán’s 3rd Class
Seán’s class have been making use of the good weather by going on a minibeast hunt around the school grounds. The class found and inspected lots of minibeasts such as spiders, crane flies, millipedes, caterpillars and beetles. The class then did a project on their favourite minibeast in their project workbook. Seán’s class also had a very enjoyable school tour to Jump Zone and Millenium Park.
Claire N’s 4th Class
This term was very fun! In Learn Together we were learning about Eid Al-Fitr and about different cultures. PE was a lot of fun: we did cricket every Wednesday with Coach Mitchell. We practised our throwing and dodging skills so we played in a dodgeball tournament. There was also Athletics for four kids in our class. We learnt lovely traditional Irish songs including Téir Abhaile Riú. For Art we did pointillism, Sun Safety posters and we also made Aztec sunstones which was really cool! Our class made travel brochures to convince someone to go visit different countries. On Chromebooks we used Blooket, Simpleshow and Kahoot. Blooket is an online game and whoever has the most points wins. Simpleshow is where you make video animations about the topic. For our school tour we went bog jumping in Causey Farm. It was really fun! We are now looking forward to the Summer Holidays! 🙂
Kathryn’s 4th Class
In Kathryn’s fourth class we have been learning about lots of new and interesting things. We looked at Van Gogh’s famous paintings of the ‘Sunflowers’ and we created our own using oil pastels. We also planted our own sunflower seeds and have been watering them every day and watching them grow. We have been doing cricket every Wednesday and it is so much fun. We played dodgeball and other fun games in PE to help us with our new skill of throwing. We are learning all about the Rainforest Ecosystem. We created some great slideshows and videos on the chromebooks and presented these to our class. We used clay to create our own Rainforest animals.
Mary’s 4th Class
In Maths this year we have learned long division and long multiplication. We also learned how to simplify fractions. In History, we have learned about the great Vikings, the superior Romans, ancient Egyptians and the Stone Age. During Sports, people in our class had a chance of going to Athletics and some got picked to represent the school. We also did cricket and more sports. At Art we learned how to do cubism and abstract art. Music was very fun in our class. We learned notes, like do re mi. We learned songs such as Big Yellow Taxi, Yellow Bird and Strangers. As a school, we learned Better When I’m Dancing. We give thanks to all the staff that helped us this year!
Francis’ 5th Class
Currently we are learning about the Amazon rainforest- mainly about the 4 layers: the forest floor, understorey, canopy and the Emergent layer. We are in groups making dioramas of the rainforest and learning about the different animals on each layer of the rainforest.
Recently we also looked at newspapers and their different features. We wrote headlines and even printed articles. We learned that headlines need to “Sell & Tell”. We’ve had fun working with a coach from Triathlon Ireland and have enjoyed two sessions so far; cycling and running!
John’s 5th Class
This year we learned about cursive writing. Cursive writing is good because it makes your handwriting better and easier to read. We practised our handwriting during Team Teaching. We learned about handball during P.E. For the past month we’ve practised our throwing. We learned to keep our eyes on the target and point our shoulders towards the target. We learned about shot put for a few weeks. You have to throw a 2kg ball. The person that throws it furthest wins.
We learned many things, specifically how to draw pie charts and bar charts. How to add and subtract fractions. How to do long division and long multiplication. We also learnt how to do cursive writing. Le gairid, i nGaeilge, d’fhoghlaimear an Aimsir Láithreach agus an Aimsir Fháistineach. (Recently, in Irish, we learnt the present and future tenses). In Assembly, we are learning a song called Better When I’m Dancing. In P.E. we are learning throwing skills. We also play games such as handball.
Paul’s 5th Class
This term in Paul’s class we have been very productive making all sorts of fun projects. We have been reading a thrilling novel called Kensuke’s Kingdom which led us to have class debates and learn about map making.
In Maths we have been learning about chance and probability and we put our knowledge to use by making and designing our own probability board games.
In addition to this we have done some cool clay and perspective art and started playing chess. We have been learning about the rules, ethics and respect that is involved in playing the game.
Eoin M’s 6th Class
This term Eoin’s class has been learning debating skills and playing ukulele. In Maths we have been practising new skills of percentages and length when booking a holiday, looking at discounts and the distance of journeys and flights. In English we have been writing and editing stories. We are using chromebooks to type and print our final drafts.
We have been learning about World War 2 and have used chalk stencilling to design artwork about the Blitz. We have been focusing on the skill of Throwing in P.E. and are applying this skill in the game of Dodgeball. We have also been learning about composting and its benefits for the environment. We have collected brown matter and other compostable materials for school composting. Finally, we have been composing new songs on the ukulele as well as rewriting new lyrics for classic songs like Never Going To Give You Up by Rick Astley.
Niamh’s 6th Class
I really enjoyed learning about the 1916 Easter Rising. As part of a project, we made the five main buildings – The GPO, Liberty Hall, Bolands Mill, The Four Courts andJacob’s Biscuit Factory. After we made them, we painted them.
My favourite part was doing the sixth class summer fair to raise money for our school tour. We sold a lot of things like balloon animals, jewellery, food and more! We’re looking forward to our school tour in Crystal Maze.
We have started playing different sports, like basketball and football. We do GAA every Tuesday which has been a lot of fun.
Shane’s 6th Class
This month, in History, we have been learning about The Renaissance which means ‘rebirth’. It was a period of time when a lot of new ideas came into the world, particularly in Italy. We learned about painting during the Renaissance, especially the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci. We also painted it, but with a little twist, we changed the face of the Mona Lisa with other people’s faces.
We are also preparing for graduation, learning new songs and rewriting them. Hopefully the graduation goes well.
Extra Curricular Activities
Green Schools Committee
This year the Green Schools committee has been very active. We are working on earning our biodiversity flag. We began by surveying the 6th class students about their knowledge of biodiversity. We made a list of the animals that we saw were living in the school grounds. We looked at how we could increase the number of habitats. We decided to run a competition to encourage children to make bird feeders to increase the number of birds. We had lots of fantastic entries! Seán, Elliott and Nadine were our winners. We wrote a letter to the Board of Management to provide funds for a new composter. We are aiming to increase how much we compost.
At the moment we are working on mapping out the plants and animals in our school yard. We already noticed that we have a huge range of different trees, flowers, vegetables and plants. This is all down to the hard work of the students and staff at the school. We would like to thank Meredith and Eoin for assisting us in learning about composting, thanks also to Séamus, Miriam, Lucia and Phyl for keeping the garden looking great and to Sinéad, Claire and Orla for running the Green Schools Committee.
Student Council
This term the 3rd and 4th class Student Council have been working hard on finding a way of replacing the basketball backboards. Throughout the year, we have researched the most suitable types of backboards and looked at different ways to raise the money to get them. We look forward to updating you all on our progress soon.
The 5th and 6th class Student Council went on a trip to Leinster House. It was very interesting and we learnt a lot about democracy and politics. Afterwards, we went to the National Museum of Archaeology. We saw lots of unique things such as viking boats, clothes, jackets, bones, human bodies and much more. Then we went to St Stephen’s Green to have lunch. We were lucky that the seagulls didn’t eat our food. We took a minibus all the way back. Everybody said it was “THE BEST SCHOOL TRIP EVER!”
Football (GAA)
Boys and girls from 4th, 5th and 6th class took part in the Annual Tyrrelstown GAA Tournament. They played games against St Luke’s, Powerstown ETNS and Gaelscoil an Chuilinn. The children all had great fun over the four days. The teachers are very proud of them! They tried their best and improved their GAA skills!
There will be a GAA Blitz for children in 3rd and 4th classes in the autumn, and the annual 5th and 6th class tournament will take place again next spring.
The trophies were named in memory of our former Games Promotion Officer, Larry McDermott. His family were invited to present the trophies.
Special word of thanks to our current Games Promotion Officer Mark Redican, Keith Lynch and all in Tyrrelstown GAA for their support, and to SuperValu for sponsoring treats for all the children.
Tyrrelstown GAA welcomes all new members. If your child would like to give it a try, please contact any of the teachers involved.
Football (Soccer)
The girls’ soccer team was made up of representatives from 5th and 6th class and displayed great determination and effort in their first season. We learnt how to defend and block goals. April was putting us in different positions to see our strongest positions. She also taught us how to pass properly.
In matches we arrived 30 minutes before the match to warm up and stretch. We have a very supportive team and everyone is kind to each other. When we lost we learnt to congratulate the other team. Overall, we had a really good term.
Our boy’s soccer season team recently completed their hugely successful soccer season. The lads lost just one game and won the rest. The campaign consisted of some comprehensive wins and fantastic goals and as result they finished top of the Dublin West league alongside Castleknock ET.
The boys put in so many impressive performances and were a credit to the school. They obtained many words of praise along the way from coaches from other schools and referee’s, not just for the performances but for their conduct off the pitch throughout too. Many of our 6th class pupils played a big part in our senior football team the last two years and we wish them every success in the future and look forward to continually hearing about their next football adventures. As for those still here, we are all excited at the prospects and the potential that our school soccer teams have going into 2023/24.
Tyrrelstown Abú!
