Category Archives: First Class

Summer Term

First Class have been very busy in our last term. In April, we took part in the Discover Primary Science Showcase. All of the parents were invited to watch us showcasing our experiments. We demonstrated experiments on gravity and slopes, making lava lamps, magnets, transparent and opaque and friction. We had a great day and even taught our parents some interesting facts!

We had great fun using Skype in First Class this term. Both Ms Fallon and Ms Kilmartin’s classes set up Skype accounts. We presented our projects to the class using the interactive whiteboard. We could even ask our friend’s in the next room questions! We also had great fun presenting our Show and Tell using the class microphone.

First Class have been very busy with SESE this term. In science, we learned all about the life cycle of the sunflower. We learned about the things plants need to grow, and even planted our own sunflowers. We let them grow in school for two weeks before taking them home to plant them.

For our history lesson, we were very lucky to have Mrs. O’Rourke come to visit our classroom. We interviewed her about Cloonakilla in the past. She brought along an old school roll book, and we found both of our teacher’s names from years ago!

We also visited Derryglad Folk Museum as part of our local history study. We met Charlie who showed us lots of artefacts from the past.

In PE, we were covering the orienteering strand. Our teachers made maps of the school for us to follow. We then had to use the maps to find different letters around the school to spell a word. It was a great team effort, and great fun!

Active Schools Week took place in May. Ms. Fallon’s class were visited by a Zumba dance teacher, while Ms Kilmartin’s class completed a very active lesson with Brian from Hodson Bay. We were worn out but really enjoyed the day!

Spring Term

St. Patrick’s Day Art.

For our Discover Primary Science, we have been investigating slopes. We made slopes using cardboard and investigated how far a toy car would travel, depending on the height of the slope. We found out that the higher the slope is, the further it will travel. We loved making different height slopes and doing the experiment with our friends.

In English, we have been working hard on our writing genres. This term we were learning about Procedural writing which tells us how to do something. We wrote about ‘How to make Jam Sandwiches’ and ‘How to make Rice Crispie Buns’. It was lots of fun making both of those with our friends in our classroom.

In art, we learned about the artist Vincent Van Gogh. We then painted one of his most famous paintings ‘Sunflowers’

Gaeilge

In SESE we have been learning about two different countries; South Africa and India. We created a display full of interesting facts and pictures about South Africa in our classroom. We also painted a beautiful African sunset scene with a picture of a Mammy and baby elephant in the background. We loved blending the red, orange and yellow paints together!

This month we have been working very hard to create projects about India. Everybody had different pieces of information and pictures on our projects. Each of us presented our project to our class and invited our friends to ask us questions about our work.

First Class- Christmas

In First Class, our Christmas concert was called ‘Christmas Around the World’. We learned all about Christmas in other countries like Brazil, China, Australia, Spain and Italy. In Australia, they have a barbecue on the beach on Christmas Day!

In art, we made beautiful Christmas stockings and baubles to decorate our Christmas trees. We also made some winter snowmen. We wish all our families a Happy Christmas!

Farm Safety Talk

First Class were learning all about the Farmer in Geography. We focussed on Farm Safety in particular.

John Hanley and Maura Canning from the Irish Famers Association visited our classes last Friday to give us a talk about the importance of farm safety.

We watched some videos and completed activities with Maura. We learned never to go near farm animals or machinery without adult supervision. We saw the dangers of electric fences, slurry tanks and PTO shafts.

Afterwards they gave us Farm Safety pens and wrist bands. Thank you to Maura and John for visiting Cloonakilla National School.

First Class: Sept & Oct 2017

First Class

We have been having lots of fun in First Class.

In English Ms. Fallon and Ms. Kilmartin’s class are taking part in Literacy Lift Off. Each day we get a new book to read and do some reading and writing activities. It is lots of fun working with Mrs. McCullagh, Mrs. McCabe, Mrs. Cronnolly and Mrs. Kennelly.

In History we have been learning about toys in the past. Our class have made a museum of toys that our parents played with when they were children. We have also been making our own class timeline. We sequenced events in our lives from when we were babies to today.

In Geography we have been learning about the Solar System. We have been finding out some interesting facts about the sun and the moon.

Did you know footprints and tyre tracks left behind by astronauts on the moon will stay there forever as there is no wind to blow them away.

During Science week Ms. Hayes came into our classroom to do some science experiments with us.

We made Lava lamps using vegetable oil, food colouring, glitter, alka seltzer and water. Oil and water do not mix. Oil is lighter than water so it sits on top of the water when it is added. When you drop the Alka- Seltzer into the liquid it makes a gas and bubbles are created.

In Art we have had lots of fun creating an etching from outer space, completing our self- portraits, creating 2-D shape pictures and deigning a pattern on our hot air balloons.

When it was Maths week Ms. Cuniffe hosted our class to Maths games in her classroom. The students in 5^th class made different Maths games for us to play. We even won some prizes!

Literacy Lift Off

October 2017

The pupils in Ms Fallon’s First class are enjoying lots of reading this term as they are taking part in the Literacy Lift Off programme for 6 weeks. For an hour every morning they have five teachers in their room working on different aspects of literacy. Every day they read a familiar book and a new book. They do word work with magnetic letters and they work on their phonics. They also make up and write a sentence about the stories they have read.

First Class Archive

Term 2

First Class have been very busy in January and February.

In P.E, we have been practising our dancing skills! Recently we learned the steps to lots of folk dances including Cuckoo dance, Come to Me, An Damhsa Mór and La Vinca. Have a look at some of our moves!

In Geography, we learned all about South Africa. We wrote all about the climate, the culture, the Zulu tribe and some of the beautiful animals that live there. We also made our own South African flags! In art, we made our own African Zebras using crepe paper, wool, chalk and moss.

We also learned all about Ireland and its landscape. We learned the names of the provinces and some of the counties, and had great fun trying to find them on the map! We designed our own Celtic letters using our names.

In History, we were learning all about Nelson Mandela. We learned that he was famous for bringing equal rights to everyone who lived in South Africa. We wrote all about his life, and how he spent 27 years in prison!

In Science, we used magnets to test if items were magnetic. We even tested our magnets through materials like plastic and wood!

Our writing genre for January and February was ‘Procedural Writing’. We learned all about writing instructions. We made yummy jam sandwiches and tasty rice crispie buns with our teacher!

Literacy Lift Off

Ms. Kilmartin’s First class has been very busy for the last six weeks completing the Literacy Lift Off program. We had great fun!

New Book

We got a new book every day during Literacy Lift Off. We first read our book with Mrs. McCabe, before reading it at home. We practised our prediction skills, as well as figuring out lots of new words!

Familiar Reading

At the familiar reading station we read our books from the night before, with Ms. Kilmartin. We practised becoming quick readers and talking about the story, as well as learning lots about punctuation, grammar and spellings.

Writing

At the writing station, Mrs. McCullagh helped us to write a sentence based on our familiar book. We got lots of practise with letter formation and spelling tricky words!

Phonics

Our phonics station was very busy! We practised our spelling and dictation on our whiteboards, and learned lots of grammar too. Mrs. Cronnolly also helped us with our spelling tests every Friday.

Word Work

At the word work station, we used magnet boards and letters to practise our word building strategies with Mr. Kilbride.

IPads

We got to use the ipads every morning to practise our spelling and grammar on the Spelling Bee app!

Children in First Class took part in the Operation Transformation “10 @ 10” campaign. They engaged in running and jumping activities as well as a fun dance class! It was a great way to start the day. All of the children had great fun as you can see in the pictures below!

10@10

10@10

10@10

10@10

10@10

November & December 2016

In History we have been learning about toys in the past. We interviewed our parents and grandparents to see what games and toys they played when they were the same age as us! A lot of the mammies and grannies played with dolls and teddies while the daddies and grandads played with tin cars and toy soldiers. Some of us even brought in our parents and grandparents special toys. We had great fun looking at the different items.

For the month of November we have been learning all about Space! We can tell you lots about the Sun, Moon, Solar System and constellations. For Science Week we experimented with different mixtures and made 3D moons with shaving foam and glue. It was a little bit messy but we had great fun! Ms Kennelly came in to teach us a fun lesson for Science Week. We were given dirty water and had to try to clean it. It was great fun.

This month we have been very busy!!! We have been writing fun Christmas fairy-tale stories. We made beautiful Christmas decorations using lollipop sticks which are hanging proudly on our Christmas trees. We talked about advertising at Christmas and we created our own advertisements of our favourite toys.

September & October

First Class has been very busy since coming back to school after the summer holidays.

Our writing genre for September and October was “Report Writing”. We went on a nature trail with Ms Shine to look for the signs of Autumn. When we came back from our trail we wrote about it. In poetry, we decided to write an acrostic poem using our own names – this was great fun!

In SESE we have been learning about people at work in our locality and mapping important buildings in Bealnamulla and Monksland.

We recently took part in Maths Week where we enjoyed lots of fun activities which included a Maths Trail, bingo, board games, maths art and we even made numbers with our bodies!

Have a look at the pictures below to see what else we have been up to!