6th Classes had a successful visit to the Mansion house on Wednesday. During the visit, the children learned about the History of the Mansion House and its role as the residence of Dublin’s Lord Mayors. The visit finished with a tour of the house and they learned about the historic meeting of Ireland’s first parliament in the Round Room in 1919.
The children in Ms. Elmes’ class have been learning about The Great Famine this month, the causes of the Famine, during the famine and after the famine. They read a lot about it and wrote poems about it in pairs.
We have been so busy since the last time you heard from us! Last week, we went to the National Heritage Centre in County Wexford. Down there we got a really interesting tour through different settlements throughout Irish history, including Viking settlements which we have been learning about. We got to see how these people used to live, and even how they used to cook! We got to eat meat cooked from a fulacht fiadh – and see how the meat was cooked also. The fulacht fiadh works by placing roasting hot rocks into a bath of water built into the ground. It was a great trip enjoyed by all!
Another busy month in 6th class – we can’t actually believe how quickly time is flying by.
The highlight of the last few weeks has to have been watching the girl’s team battle courageously and determinedly in Croke Park and our school tour to Henrietta Street and The Hugh Lane gallery.
We are so proud of the girl’s team and we really respect them for getting out there, staying active, giving their all and representing us and St.Anne’s in such a positive way. Team sports are such a brilliant way of staying fit and healthy but also, committing to a team teaches us to work together, respect and support each other and handle life’s ups and downs and highs and lows in a way that we can’t be simply told about or taught in a classroom. It is invaluable experience that teaches us resilience and important life lessons.
Our tour to Henrietta Street was another day of learning and fun. We arrived at the building in the heart of Dublin city and immediately upon entering, were transported to another time and place. We had really interesting guides who explained to us the history of the building and gave us a good understanding of the lives of the families who lived and sometimes sadly died there. We learned about the different stages in it’s history, which reflected the history of Dublin through the years. It’s journey from a prosperous and flambouyant townhouse during the Georgian Era in Dublin to the slums and tenaments of Dublin’s darkest days, to an example of a family’s home during the 1930s until its last occupants left in the late 1970s. It was a facinating and nostalgic tour that opened our eyes to life in our city in the past. We would highly recommend it to everyone – young and old.
We had a fantastic last day before mid-term with dress up and cake eating fun and we are looking forward to the run in to christmas now 🙂
We have gone Harry Potter mad in Ms. Kett’s 6th class and we’re currently starting the 2nd book in the series. Although some of us have read them before, lots of us haven’t and we’re all thoroughly enjoying reading and disecting them. We are using the novel to inspire our art, teach us about story and character development and of course how to improve our own writing by using rich and descriptive language and a variety of adjectives and adverbs, a speciality of J.K. Rowlings.
As 6th class is our last year in primary school we began the year by writing a letter to our teacher with some requests and hopes for the year ahead. We are very excited about confirmation preparation and of course getting ready for the big move to secondary school. With this in mind we’ve been having lots of conversations around SPHE topics such as – friendships, looking after ourselves and making good choices. We’ve also been discussing healthy eating and good habits and began our studies of the human body by looking at the heart and lungs. The brain is next – we can’t wait. In history we are currently learning all about the Georgian Era and looking at architectural evidence round our great city. We are drawing and constructing Georgian building and doors and are becoming increasingly impressed by the magnificient buildings from the past. We are going on our first tour next week to Henrietta Street museum and the Hugh Lane Gallery. We are excited and looking forward to many more educational (and fun) tours throughout the year.
This month we also produced a ‘Passion Project’. We researched and prepared these at home and presented them to the class on completion. The variety and standard of the projects was excellent and it was facinating to learn about each others passions in such detail. We learned a lot from each other; some baked brownies and cookies (very popular indeed) and explained the process, others chose football as their passion (surprise, surprise), other projects included the World of Disney, Harry Potter, Horses, Hockey, Parties and even The Immune System, to name but a few. They were all fantastic and very informative. We are looking forward to doing many more projects throughout the year ahead.
We’ve also been keeping our eyes peeled for signs of Autumn and in particular the amazing changing colours in our environment. We’ve learned about photosynthesis and the Season s at a global level. The wonderful autumnal colours have inspired more art.
Overall we’ve had a great start to the year and are looking forward to Halloween and the mid-term break now but also learning much more as the year unfolds. Slán.