Newtownmountkennedy Primary SchoolJunior School : 01 2819142Senior School: 01 2810048

Goodbye 6th class

3/7/2021

6th class pupils graduated this week from Newtownmountkennedy Primary School. They celebrated in style by linking with their parents through zoom for a Graduation Awards Ceremony. Children enjoyed looking back on photos, watching video messages of good wishes, remembering Barra, saying thanks and honouring their time over the past 8years. They each received a Graduation medal for all the amazing effort and work they have put into school life, a graduation book and a class photo, The after party was in class where they dined on a treat pack from the school, sweets from Mrs Dempsey and an order from Eugene's shop, kindly funded by the Parents Association. They had fun in a photo booth created by a group of the girls and spent the afternoon hanging out with their friends and signing t-shirts. A great day was had!

Awards went to:
Students of the Year: Emma Surmova & Adam Eager
Principals Award: Katie McCormick & Nathan McMahon
Sports Award: Kacey Kelly
Arts Award: Katelyn Anderson
Gaeilge Award: Aaron Garrett
Sunshine Award ( in memory of Barra) Lily Murphy
Classmate of the Year: Emma Murray
Special Award to our tech team: Kacey, Yosr & Lauren
Medals were awarded to children who followed the class code of behaviour which the children designed themselves and agreed on.

It brought us to the end of an interesting year, and one that won't easily be forgotten. Some of the highlights of the year were:

linking with the nursing home Sam's Granny lives in.
Zoom meeting with Simon Harris
Cyber Safety Talk
Window Painting @ Christmas
Pods working together to put on great Christmas Plays
2 months of online learning
GAA with Jackie
Music Generation with Joan
Passion Projects : in-class & online presentations
Transition sessions with Lauren & Linda
School Event Days and Committees: Orienteering/Waterfight/Pizza Day/ Sports Day/Forest Day/Game Show Day
Forest Activities
Graduation Day

I would like to thank 6th class. I think you have worked really hard this year and and you will enjoy the opportunities and experiences that secondary school will bring.
I look forward to hearing about all your achievements and successes that await you. You will all do great. Don't forget to come back and visit!

So long 6th class of 2021...

BIODIVERSITY Week

19/5/2021

Biodiversity relates to the variety of living things on our planet. There has been a huge loss of biodiversity with reports of the extinction of many species. The interaction between all living things is essential for all we need: clean air, water, agriculture, food etc. This week we are emphasising the importance of connecting with and protecting our natural world. The children were asked to find their favourite nature spot and describe why it is important to nature and why it is important to them: Here are some examples:

Aaron made a lovely video of our local woods here in Newtownmountkennedy after a huge thunderstorm. Look how lush the trees look after that heavy rain!

There are lots of species of wild flower, plants and bushes and trees around our school grounds. Here are some that can be identified at this time of the year, especially along our hedgerows. The hedgerow provides a safe place for birds to build their nests and small animals to build their homes. It is habitat to a variety of wild flowers and bushes. The hawthorn is abundant in it and its thorny branches provides great protection. The hedgerow is also a great food source fort butterflies and their larvae, and of course bees will find a great supply of nectar and pollen as well as a place to nest. It is important for us to protect to prevent loss of biodiversity.

May 07th, 2021

7/5/2021

Finally we have returned to the classroom, and what a great adaptable bunch our 6th class pupils are. We are so delighted to have you all back in school again and you have adjusted so well to in-class learning. We have been doing lots of varied work. Here is a very small sample of what the 6th class children have been exploring:

For marine week, we looked at sea creatures and found out about some interesting species. We then explored perspective lines and how our brain processes images in our visual cortex. We drew aquariums and folded some origami sea creatures.

We welcomed Spring by observing the emerging new life springing up around us and painted some beautiful Cherry Blossom trees.

HOw The children were delighted to have their 'Fridays in the Forest' slot back and we loved playing 'Salmon, Mosquito, Bear' and 'Eagle Eye'. Children worked in groups to make dens and came up with all sorts of great creations! Some, inspired the work of Andy Goldsworthy who we studied earlier on in the year. How lucky are we to have a great forest so close to our school!

As part of the 'One Book, One Community' initiative, we explored the amazing story of William Kamkwamba, an African teenager who taught himself English in order to study when his parents could not afford to send him to school. He saved his village from the devastating effects of famine and drought by building a windmill out of materials he found in a scrap yard. He continues his studies in engineering in the hope of reaching many more remote villages in Malawi.
The children created comic strips of the main events of his story, wrote newspaper reports recounting his amazing feat and penned and illustrated beautiful poems which express the hardship he witnessed growing up.

Our artist of the month of April was Helen Steele, an Irish designer whose keen eye and talent for colour has her produces amazing fabrics and homeware. We explored ways of printing and using simple prints to design items of clothing and homeware.

Our countryside lit up this month with the Gorse bush in full bloom. We learned about the important role Gorse played in the lives of our ancestors and in Celtic mythology, how it was used to light the Bealtine Fires, and how it continues to be a major player in the protection of habitats, and as a nectar supply for the bees. With such abundance in our reach, we picked some flowers and made Gorse Cordial. So nice to be out on a sunny day with the scent of coconut and vanilla in the air!

6th class took part in the National Spring Clean by doing a litter pick around the school grounds, the village pathways and into the forest. Lovely to play a part in keeping our environment litter free as much as we can!

Such a great return to school after a long period of at home learning. Only a few weeks left for this group, with lots of learning and fun activities planned for the last term. Well done 6th class, you are doing great! Keep supporting each other and putting in your best effort in all that you do. Do yourselves proud and make your final few weeks in Newtownmountkennedy Primary memorable and enjoyable!

Projects Round 2

10/3/2021

In the first term, all the children did a project on a topic. We had 'genius hour' every Friday where children could work on their projects and otherwise they worked on them at home They posed a question that would drive their project and then had 3 criteria to meet:
1. To RESEARCH the topic using a variety of sources,
2. To CREATE something linked to their findings
, 3. To SHARE their learning in some way with their classmates.

We heard many wonderful projects which were shared in class. The children gave feedback to each other about the things that went well and also where improvements could be made. I thought each of you were very kind, balanced, supportive and encouraging in the words you shared with each other. Great learning happened!

During school closure the children started another project. This time with no teacher help and all on their own with what was available to them. Children, you did amazingly well. I have been so impressed with how the standard of projects have improved, the new skills that have been learned , especially when it comes to presenting, the increased confidence, the range of topics, the amount of learning done and to be shared. It has been a real pleasure to listen to your work over zoom and I look forward to hearing the remaining ones when we return to school. I too have learned lots and I thank you for that!

Below are just a small sample of some of the AMAZING projects that were worked on during this school closure!

March 05th, 2021

5/3/2021

Well Spring is well and truly in the air! The daffodils, primroses and crocuses are in abundance, while the cherry blossom is beginning to burst open its beautiful delicate blooms. We have had sightings of frogspawn, and reports of lambs being born and foals being born, not forgetting the beautiful murmuration of starlings we saw in Meath this week. Some of our classes are back in school, and we have a date to return ourselves, so great hope ahead and plenty of new life and new beginnings in the natural world.
6th class, you have continued to work really well from home. You consistently turn up on zoom each day and are returning great samples of work. Not long until we get back in our classroom so let's give it our all for the last week ahead!

Here is some of what you have been up to the past few weeks:

Beautiful creativity to be seen in Yosr's artwork above and Lauren's photography (below)

We learned about the very famous illustrator Quentin Blake, and tried out some of his drawing techniques as well as learning about his biography. Many thanks to Ms. Greene for her lesson and to Joan for her video tutorials on this one! 6th class did lovely work here! Who knows, we could have future illustrators among us!

We finished our class novel 'Holes' by Louis Sachar. Some of you did lovely end of novel activities which show a great understanding of a great story.

We celebrated World Book Day by sharing stories on zoom, doing scavenger hunts , and most importantly taking the time to get lost in a book that day. Below Aneta tells us about one of her favourite books, and some others made origami page holders/bookmarks!

Mrs Gillick shared one of her favourite stories by Dr. Seuss which encourages us all of the hope of great things determined by the choices we make. We may have many obstacles to overcome but when we believe in ourselves and face up to our fears and problems, we can achieve great things! A great message in these times! On we must go through this pandemic!

We explored some advertising strategies and food packaging and how these can impact the choices we make.

As part of engineering we explored bridges and tried building a structure that could hold a weight.....Some great ideas came about!

Learning decimals and fractions is not easy but my goodness 6th class , you have put great effort into this work on your own!

6th class have done a huge amount of work on World War 2. Here is some insight from Aneta and Yosr

6th class , this is a lovely sample of some of the great learning that is going on at kitchen tables, in bedrooms, and in any quiet spaces in your homes. Many of you also finished up your projects and have put together impressive presentations which I will post up in a separate blog update. I have learned a lot from them as will anyone else who views them....a great way to share learning. Thank you all!

February 10th, 2021

10/2/2021

6th class, you are all doing fabulous. You are almost at the end of 5 weeks learning from home and you are doing some wonderful work. Remember at the beginning of this term, we spoke about how we can see opportunity in times of adversity? Well we have seen you all embrace this great opportunity to upskill in the digital world; skills that you will use in your future no matter what path you take. We have seen you organise and plan your days , to manage your workload, plan when assignments need to be done or submitted, self motivate and self monitor your work; all these skills will be so important as you head into secondary school next year. We have seen you commit to the daily mile, get creative in writing, poetry and art, as well as diving into projects ;all of this helping to maintain good mental health and physical health as well as staying on top of your academic work. Well done 6th class: you should be very proud of yourselves....I certainly am!
Here is some of the fabulous work you got up to these last 2 weeks!

Katelyn got creative with acrylic paints with this beautiful painting, while Emma Murray created a chocolate masterpiece! Yum!

Beautiful Spring themed drawings to be added to our whole school project 'Saint Brigid's Cloak' which will be displayed on the school windows soon!

On left and middle, Emma Surmova exploring pourable acrylic paint and right Aneta painting a peaceful landscape. Great ways to be creative!

One great way to show love as we approach Valentines day, is to express our gratitude and appreciation of others in our life. We have been so so lucky to be supported in our remote learning by Joan Dempsey, of Music Generation who has been sending weekly lessons to continue at home, and also our very own talented Joan Flynn on the school staff who has been sharing video art lessons which we have enjoyed. Above are some letters of thanks that the children wrote for them this week.
WE THANK YOU BOTH SO MUCH!

We looked at the work of Romero Britto, a brazilian neo-pop artist. Above are fabulous creations by Aneta and Finn, Adam, and Yosr inspired by his work. The Gillick boys also tried out some portraits.....Mrs Gillick never looked so glamorous!!

Above: Chruth Emma agus Lauren Biachlár as Gaeilge....b'fhéidir in am do Lá Fhéile Valintín!
Below: Lilian is getting ready for the snow with here homemade sled design plan!
Lauren tuned into Simon Hethington's art class and made these lovely crafts.

BELOW: Sophie wrote this beautiful love story inspired by this delightful short film 'The Lantern'

The children did some work on Narrative Writing. Click on the file links below to read some of their stories: Well Done LAUREN, QUILLAN, AARON & ANETA.

story__rebecca_jones_by_aneta.docx
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the_fall.docx
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time_traveller_tragedy_by_lauren_coffey.docx
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narrative_writing_by_aaron.docx
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When learning about St Brigid, we also looked at other inspirational strong successful Irish women. Have a look at Adam's slideshow below of the former President Mary Robinson who continues to do amazing work on Climate Change today.

The children did some lessons on Cyber Safety and ;learning about what we can trust when using websites online. Well done to Adam and Finn for their work below.

Emma Murray got seriously creative with some tin can rings which could have ended up in landfill....how cool is this!

Look at this amazingly intricate detailed masterpiece that Mai-ly created using tiny diamond pieces. Look at the close up to see the real detail.. I can't imagine how many hours this took. What a soothing, mindful activity to do .....so creative and great for wellbeing. Well done
Mai-ly....shows great perserverence!

6th class , you have done some really wonderful work these past 2 weeks. Thank you all for showing up on our zoom call every day. Its always great to see you and lovely to feel our class is still very much alive and kicking with great engagement in your tasks. Shut down those chrome books now for the midterm, enjoy some screen free time and a well deserved break from school at home. Now just enjoy home as home. I look forward to seeing you all again when we come back refreshed and ready to continue on our learning journey!

Lá Fheile Bhríde -Feabhra 1

1/2/2021

Today we celebrated the feast of St. Brigid by listening to and reading stories, singing her song, making crosses and getting outside to observe signs of Spring emerging. Here is some of the work from 6th class:

Thuas: Scéal, déanta le Lauren

January 31st, 2021

31/1/2021

Another week down......Well done 6th class you are really settling into learning from home and I am delighted to see some of you being really productive with your time, exploring lots of ways to learn, and finding opportunities in being away from school. It is a wonderful time to learn new skills, to explore new hobbies, to read lots of books, to find ways to get on with siblings, to be creative, to invent new games, to help out at home, to do lots of acts of kindness, and many more wonderful things.

I am really delighted to see so many of you logging on at 10 each morning. It is a lovely start to my day to see you all ready to go, to meet each other in our virtual classroom, to share how you are getting on, to support each other with positive encouraging feedback on projects, and to play a few games. You are all showing so much commitment to your schoolwork by showing up each day. Those of you engaging in assignments and posting them back are showing great independence and diligence, and this will stand to you as you get ready for secondary school next term. All these digital learning skills will be of great help to you as well as managing your time, organising tasks, and motivating yourself to get things done on time. Remember the first post in January.....'out of adversity, comes great opportunity!', so well done on taking the opportunity to continue learning in your own space.

Here's what you got up to his week....

We saw the return of the daily mile.....I really miss this from our time in school. The daily mile is great for our heart and bone health, our fitness, as well as enhancing our mood, easing stress, general wellbeing and connecting with nature and our community. This week 6th class upped their game, aiming to jog for 15minutes each day. It's a great way to start your day! Well done to Emma S, Katie, Katelyn, Lily, Sophie and Adam for logging their miles! And a HUGE achievement for Kacey this week who ran her longest distance ever....8miles!....That's AMAZING!
EDITED: IN fact KACEY set a goal in early JANUARY and has achieved that goal of running 56 miles in one month! That is more than 2 marathons! That's just fabulous KACEY!

We looked at wildlife in Co. Wicklow through the amazing resource launched by the libraries and drew some of the birds we learned about.. https://nature.librariesireland.ie/

A Kingfisher, by Quillan

A Greenfinch done digitally by Katie

A Robin, by Sophie

On the right, Emma used acrylic paint on canvas to paint a beach scene at night...beautiful!
Below, Adam dreams of being on faraway beaches!

A Curlew, by Katelyn

Above: Adam's lovely drawing of The Golden Eagle.
Aaron's lovely drawing on the left and LEGO creation below.

RIGHT: KATIE made toffee with buttons while doing science with ice! Yum! Adam experimented with shapes and letters.The Gillick boys also made toffee lollies on ice but they were not much of a success! Katie and Adam did a great job with theirs!

We celebrated Lego day this week. We learned about the history and origins of LEGO.

Lauren designed a skycraper digitally and also a KAHOOT quiz that can be done on the link below. Try it out!
t ps://create.kahoot.it/share/the-lego-story-quiz/0e3b442d-68e7-4673-a5d0-444200df8f03https://create.kahoot.it/share/t

https://kahoot.it/challenge/b3af507c-843e-47aa-a361-58560b5a69b6_1611916533378

Quiz on the left by Séan, and above, by Aaron

Lots of great work done this week on fractions: simplifying, adding, subtracting & multiplying....not easy to learn from your bedroom! Work below by Adam, Leon, Destiny & Sophie!

Lots of you tinkering away on your Passion Projects this week. We got to see Aaron making a computer game, Alex exploring stop motion, and many more of you have submitted some really exciting proposals....I'm VERY excited to see what amazing creations and research you get up to!

Remember it's not too late to log your proposal or get started on a project...it can be on anything as long as you research, create and share! Please get in touch if you need any help whatsoever!

Time frames are flexible. We are heading into week 4 and will start presenting for whoever is ready after that. Take the time you need.

Yosr has been exploring the world of computer programming as well as her school assignments and is doing some really interesting work in coding.....who knows where this might lead her!

Other work this week included studying The 2nd World War, reflecting on the poem The Sea, by James Reeves, learning new phrases and reading about Turas go dtí an Méan scoil. Well done Lily, Adam, Quillan and Sophie.

Hard to believe that the above work is just samples of what you all have been up to this week. Impossible to share all the wonderful work, but watch this space again next week. Who knows what wonderful things are ahead of us in Week 4. Saint Brigid will be celebrated , along with the arrival of Spring. The daffodils are peaking beginning to pop their beautiful yellow leaves , there is more light in our days and there is hope in the air. Let's get stuck into another week! Well done 6th class, Keep up the amazing work!

January 22nd, 2021

22/1/2021

Another week down. I am so delighted with the children in 6th class. Learning from home is not easy; getting up, motivating yourself to do school work and learning new concepts from your bedroom is a big ask when you also have the option of staying in bed, playing computer games or watching telly. But every morning at 10 a.m., I see the bright and cheery faces of most of our 6th class on our zoom call, each of you getting up as you would on a regular school day, checking in with your class, helping each other sort out various technical issues, supporting one another and tackling your work assignments with diligence and care. The past 2 weeks you have shown great patience, persistence, commitment and understanding. I am very proud of you all.

Here's a few pictures of what you got up to this week:

Art work inspired by the work of Wolf Kahn
Huge thanks to Joan Flynn, one of our many talented SNA's in school for her instructional and inspirational video she made for the children of our school.

Aaron got his apron on to explore culinary skills this week. He made soup, bread, salad and flatbreads. What a feast! Looks delicious!

We watched the video on the right and learned about a circular economy versus a linear economy. Lauren digitally created a message (left) to promote the move to more sustainable living.

Above: Planning a day in the life of An American President

Sebastian's daily reflections

Above: Lauren ag foghlaim An AImsir Fháistineach

Below: Finn inspired by the artist Wolf Kahn

Emma's got the hang of adding fractions!

$Picture$

Nathan keeping the mathematical brain ticking over.

KEEP UP ALL THE BRILLIANT LEARNING RANG A SÉ!

YE ARE DOING AMAZING!

Above: Adam researching planet Mercury

Below: A day in the life of the American President

Some of our online learning

12/1/2021

Delighted to see 6th class students getting stuck into their remote learning and producing some lovely work

Top Left: A Mandala from natural materials , by Finn

Right: A Mandala from household items by Lauren.

Bottom Left: How did Adam have any roses still leftover after Christmas, to make this lovely mandala?!

Lauren made her own robot. How cool is this! Super engineering and circuiting skills!

Adam Eager doing some cool drawings as he studies the class novel 'HOLES', by Louis Sachar

Above:Lily ag obair ar an Aimsir Fháistineach Above: Yosr working on fractions.

Above: An Dán, 'An Gaoth'. Pictiúr ó Yosr Above:Sebastien being mindful in his day.

An amazing feat of commitment, determination, patience and persistence by Emma Surmova to complete this 1000 piece puzzle....well, 999 pieces actually.....can you spot one missing piece, you guess who may be responsible.....???? See a certain innocent looking so and so below!!!

We listened to Mo Ghile Mear and Yosr can play it on the tinwhistle. Ar fheabhas!

<<Previous

Welcome to 6th Class

Goodbye 6th class

BIODIVERSITY Week

May 07th, 2021

Projects Round 2

March 05th, 2021

February 10th, 2021

Lá Fheile Bhríde -Feabhra 1

January 31st, 2021

January 22nd, 2021

Some of our online learning

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​Welcome to 6th Class

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Welcome to 6th Class