Newsletter March 2014
Mercy Primary School Newsletter
March 2014
Welcome to the latest edition of the Mercy Primary School newsletter. We have had a very busy month, with lots of exciting and interesting activities.
On Wednesday 5th March, 5th and 6th classes visited the Cinemobile for Seachtain na Gaeilge. They saw some very good short Irish films and enjoyed them thoroughly.
What a day was had on Thursday 6th March – World Book Day! Most of the children and all the teachers dressed up as book characters. Have a look at the website – there are some brilliant pictures from the day. We had guest readers, buddy reading, novel-in-a-day and table quizzes. We had a fantastic day and everyone really enjoyed themselves. Thanks to Mrs Murray for organising the day and to everyone who took part and worked really hard to make it special.
On Friday 7th March, 4th class went to the library and took part in a World Book Day quiz.
Also on 7th March, 6th class had their entrance exam for St. Brendan’s Community School.
Our camogie team started their training in March and have already played a match. The girls are making a huge effort and are training hard. Thanks to Ms Larkin for training the team.
Bhí cheolchoirm againn an 12ú lá agus bhí sé ar fheabhas. Chan na chailíní amhráin as Gaeilge, dánta, damhsa agus craic! Chaith gach duine éadaí glas agus bhí lá álainn againn.
Chuaigh an cór go Féile an Aonaigh an 13ú lá. Ghlac siad páirt i Slua Amhránaíochta agus bhuaigh siad – comhgairdeas!
The choir went to Nenagh and took part in a singing competition for Seachtain na Gaeilge. They won! Well done to all.
Science for Fun started in 3rd class on Wednesday 19th. Thanks to the parents who have volunteered their time and to Mrs. Fitzgerald, HSCL for organising it.
We had a great day on Friday 21st – Colourful Sock Day! Friday 21st was World Down Syndrome Day and we all wore colourful socks to mark it. It was great fun and looked very well.
2nd class had a very important day on the 26th. They made their First Confession. They did very well – congratulations.
On Thursday 27th, Junior and Senior Infants invited their mammies to school and they made a beautiful flower arrangement with them for Mothers’ Day. It was a lovely morning and was enjoyed by all.
3rd to 6th classes went to Confession on Monday 31st.
Our choir are still working very hard and are very excited about their upcoming concert with Anima Chamber Choir. It will be a fantastic experience and will be a beautiful concert. Don’t forget tickets are on sale in the school and will also be available on the night. The Board of Management wishes to express sincere thanks to Ms. Treacy, Ms. Ryan and Mrs. Hanamy for their work with the school choir and the wonderful opportunities that are being given to the children.
The results of the Uniform Survey are as follows –
152 surveys were returned to the school.
88 voted to keep the uniform as it is – that is 58%.
56 voted for change – that is 37%
11 voted for no school uniform – that is 7%.
After discussion and reflection the Board of Management have decided that the majority have voted to keep the same uniform and therefore, no change will be made.
Our classes have been very busy, here is a flavour of what has been going on and what they have been learning:
Junior Infants: We really enjoyed Work Book Day. We all looked so pretty dressed up. We went to the Library on Friday 7th and listened to 2 great stories. We took part in School Ceolchoirm for Lá Gaeilge. We sang 3 songs and said 2 poems. We made lovely Shamrock Men for St. Patrick’s Day. We learned 2 dances in PE, Skip to My Lou and A Bird Flew into the Wood. To show how much we love our mammies we made lovely handprint cards, flower mobiles and flower arrangement.
Senior Infants: Had a special guest reader who read The Very Hungry Caterpillar for World Book Day. We made fantastic hats for St. Patrick’s Day and made wonderful flower arrangements with Mrs. Fitzgerald for Mother’s Day.
1st Class: Have had a fun-filled month. On Pancake Tuesday we watched Miss Cooney make pancakes and we wrote all about it. They were delicious! On World Book Day we dressed up as a book character and made fabulous ‘Cat in the Hat’ hats. On the 14th of March we celebrated Lá na Gaeilge. We made a great effort to speak Irish in the yard. We listened to traditional Irish music performed by Ms. Morrissey on the flute and Mrs. Kelly on the accordion. We sang Irish songs and recited Irish poems for the whole school. We even got to play our tin whistles in the Lá na Gaeilge concert. We planted sunflower seeds which are growing very tall and we painted giant sunflowers. We were inspired by the painting ‘The Sunflowers’ by Vincent Van Gogh. We also planted broad beans – (as good as Jack and the Beanstalk!!) Our Write-a-Book stories are just completed and are entered in a competition. We were all excited on Monday 31st as it was our first day swimming and everyone had great fun.
2nd Class: On World Book Day 2nd Class and their teacher came to school dressed as their favourite book character. Lá Gaeilge was an action-packed day for our class with concerts, céilis, a Seo Faisin and much more. Our class will continue to make an effort speaking Irish during the day and the ‘Gaeilgeoir is fearr’ will get to wear our lovely ‘’T-léine – Sin é!’
As part of the SESE Programme, we visited a local dentist. Dentist Catherine Barry told the children all about teeth and how best to look after them. She showed the class all the special tools she uses. All the girls got a chance to sit on the big chair! Everybody enjoyed the visit and they received stickers for being so good!
We received the sacrament of Reconciliation on March 26th.
Congratulations to Goda Butkeviciute who won a medal in the Community Games Art Competition.
We took part in the ‘Write-a-Book’ competition. Everyone made a great effort and wrote some lovely stories. Best of luck to all.
3rd Class: March saw the start of Science for Funin our classroom. During Seachtain na Gaeilge we put on our very own Seo Faisin. In art we made clay pots and painted them pretty colours to give on Mother’s Day. We also under the guidance of Mrs. Murray made a wonderful Van Gogh mural of Sunflowers displayed on the notice board outside our classroom.
4th Class: It has been a crazy busy month. We loved celebrating World Book Day and Lá Gaeilge. Everyone dressed up and had so much fun. We learned a dance to ‘Best Song Ever’ by One Direction. We are some movers! Miss Byrne and Miss Tierney were teaching us for a full week. We did some really interesting and fun stuff with them We are really enjoying the better weather that is creeping in. We hope to get out and about more now. Keep an eye out for us.
5th Class: Our Write-a-Book project has been a huge success. There are certainly famous authors in our school. We took part in the multi-coloured Macarena and wore multi coloured socks to raise awareness about all the fabulous people in our lives who have Down Syndrome. We have begun a fabulous 6 lesson artistic themed approach to studying ‘Our Town’. Keep an eye on the website for more details……
5th/6th Class: What a busy month March has been in 5th/6th. Mary Arrigan, Irish author, visited us and read an extract from her book ‘Milo and the Long Lost Warrior’. It was great. Pancake Tuesday followed and we were treated to some homemade pancakes – they were delicious! We all dressed up as characters from our favourite stories for World Book Day – this was a day full of activity from paired reading with the Infants to a class quiz. We celebrated Seachtain na nGaeilge by going to the Cinemobile having concert in the Hall and a ceilí in the yard. Finally we completed our ‘Write-a-Book’ entries – we eagerly await to hear the results!
6th Class: Our class visited the Cinemobile for Seachtain na Gaeilge. We read stories to Junior Infants and dressed up for World Book Day. We have just completed writing books for Laois Education Write a Book competition. In art we made chalk pastel pictures of a vase of daffodils and we have started making papier mache Easter Bonnets.