Easter Newsletter
MERCY PRIMARY SCHOOL
EASTER NEWSLETTER 2016
Welcome to our Easter Newsletter. What a busy couple of months we have had!
The classes have been working very hard and lots of marvellous activities have taken place. Read of what each class has been up to.
Junior Infants have had a very busy term. They really enjoyed the gymnastics and dance lessons and became so brave climbing, jumping etc. They made lovely art for all the occasions that we celebrated – Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day , St. Patrick’s Day and Easter. We want to thank all the Mammies and Daddies who came in to play Maths games with us during our Ready Set Go Maths Week; we loved the games you taught us and we look forward to having you in class again. For World Book Day we visited Mrs. Murray’s class for a story, treat and book. Thank you Mrs. Murray and girls.
Senior Infants have had an action packed term. We looked forward to gymnastics and dance every week. We loved learning something new and enjoyed the challenge. We had great fun making a cloak for St. Brigid, painting our ceramic owls and making a flower garden for our Grandparents to show how much we love them. We also made cards for St. Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day. At the moment we are busy getting ready for our Seachtain na Gaeilge concert. We can’t wait to see our parents there. Is brea linn an Ghaeilge. We want to thank Mrs. Murray and the girls for inviting us to their Book party on World Book Day. Thank you for the buns and the books. We had great fun.
First Class had a very busy term. We particularly enjoyed our gymnastic and dance classes. We are currently learning all about the Easter Rising 1916. We completed beautiful artwork to celebrate St. Valentine’s day, Mother’s day and St. Patrick’s day. We had a great time at our book party to celebrate World Book Day. We are reading lots of wonderful books in 1st Class.
2nd Class have been working very hard this term. The girls are continuing to read ‘anything, anytime, anywhere’ as part of the library initiative. We will add up all the minutes we spent reading on March 11th when the challenge ends. The girls are enjoying speaking Irish in the classroom and on the yard and have won the much sought after ‘Gaeilgeoirí na Coicíse’ award. They took part in a Scríobh Leabhar Competition recently. In small groups they wrote and illustrated Irish books. The books were very well written and the girls enjoyed making them and reading them. Ms. de Chaumont and the class are very proud of their books. Well done to Alicia, Jasmine, Szanel, Margaret, Rachel and Shakira our award winners. In art the girls made lovely mosaics, they learned about weaving and symmetry and they made lovely pieces for Mother’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day. The girls enjoyed gymnastics and dance in PE. Congratulations to the girls in Second Class who received the Sacrament of Reconciliation recently. It was a lovely ceremony – the girls and their families should be very proud. This is just a quick glimpse into life in 2nd Class.
3rd Class have had a very busy, exciting term. Working hard on division and multiplication . We started division tables and did lots of work on halves and quarters and even eighths!
We created our own 3 part dance routine with dance coach, Kevin. Gymnastics provided great fun and new skills including vaulting over the box, the crab, handstands, walking on the high ladder etc. We learned about the 1916 rising in our lovely new history book “Remembering Ireland 1916”. We did a brilliant project and learned loads including new songs ‘as gaeilge’.
As part of the green schools Travel Challenge we walked to school every Tuesday for ten weeks. No Car Tuesday – everyone made a great effort. In January we learned about prehistoric instruments from Simon O’Dwyer who had many original instruments to show and tell us all about. The girls are continuing to read ‘anything, anytime, anywhere’as part of library initiative. We will add up all the minutes we spent reading when the challenge ends. We celebrated all the big occasions in art: we made a huge St. Brigid’s Cloak; Valentine’s cards, Mother’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day and Easter themed art. Gaeilgeoirí na Coicíse: we won this award for all the gaeilge we have been speaking in class and around the school.
4th Class are looking forward to performing our own version of Uptown Funk during Seachtain na Gaeilge. Our class made up some very cool moves. We also have a great dance and song ready to perform in Irish. Not to mention dancing our socks off with Kevin Murphy! He taught us an amazing meet and greet dance. We are enjoying learning the history of the 1916 Rising and the lives of the people at the time. We all want to go to Dublin now and visit the GPO, Liberty Hall and all the other places! During our trip to Birr Theatre for Engineers Week, Ava Lynskey demonstrated how to check for infra-red light! We learned how we can use super hero powers in our own lives. We love reading our novels with our teacher and Mrs. Fitzgerald. We are doing great work
March Madness in 5th Class.
From dancing with Kevin to reading our fabulous World Book Day books (thanks to Ms Murray) it is clear March Madness has taken over 5th class! We received exciting news that four girls will receive awards for participating in ‘Scríobh Leabhar’! Comhghairdeas cailíni. We celebrated International Women’s Day by learning about important women of the 1916 Rising. Elizabeth O’Farrell, Dr. Kathleen Lynn and Rosie Hackett! Ms. Maher has helped the girls to create art pieces inspired by Picasso, Haring and Warhol. We have also been working very hard on our play for Seachtain na Gaeilge “50 Shades of Green”. Painting sets, learning lines and working with props have been great fun and we cannot wait to perform for the parents and the school!
6th Class have been very busy for the past few weeks – Dance with Kevin Murphy – all thoroughly enjoying it. We will be showing off our dances to our parents on Thursday. We have also been busy with projects on famous Irish people. Bernard Dunne came to our school and signed the projects made by two girls from 6th class. Ms. Maher came into our class every Friday to do art with us. We did a lot of different types of art and looked at different artists.
4th 5th and 6th class got together to write a proclamation for our school. We hope it will stay in the school for a good few years! Our Confirmation is coming up in May and we are very excited. We are busy filling out our new religion books that we got especially for our Confirmation. We have been working hard to achieve all of the letters on our word commitment! Eventually we achieved it and our prize was PIZZA!!! We took a trip to the Theatre and learned a lot about engineering. We were joined by other schools. It was very interesting.
In Mrs Murray’s ASD Class, the girls have started joining their ”piers” in Junior Infants and 1st Class for Gymnastics and Dance, they thoroughly enjoy both. Weekly, we cook our own lunches, broadening our diet considerably. We are making great progress learning Numeracy and Literacy. We have been busy painting, cutting, sticking, printing and colouring. We also enjoy the occasional visit to the shops!
The Choir went to Kilkenny to the Peace Proms on Saturday 5th March. It was an amazing day. The girls really enjoyed the experience.
We are looking forward to performing all the Irish songs and tin whistle tunes we have learned for Seachtain na Gaeilge. The whole school will be participating in this event.
As you can see, everyone is very busy! Our camogie team have started skills training – huge thanks to Barry Kinsella, who has taken charge of the team, helped by Jeanette Fields and the teachers. Our Seachtain na Gaeilge concert and Flag Raising will be a very special event and all are welcome.
The choir went to the Kilkenny Peace Proms and it was a wonderful day out.
Congratulations to St. Brendan’s P.S. on their 1916 Concert – ‘Who We are – From Cave Men to 1916”. It was a huge success.
We finish for the Easter Holidays on Wednesday 16th March 12.20 p.m. and re-opens Monday 4th April. Have a happy and peaceful Easter.
