Well done to all the children of Bekan N.S. who raised over €300 for Vincent de Paul on our Christmas jumper day.

For Maths week we created a Maths trail for 2nd Class. We loved thinking of  questions to ask them. We then paired up with 1st and 2nd Class and completed it. We had great fun helping 1st and 2nd with their Maths. It really helped our Maths also as we had to try to explain different things to them. 

Mammal Talk
A woman called Carole came in on the 27th of November to talk to the class about Irish mammals. She brought a stuffed mink, an otter, a fox, a squirrel, a badger, a hare and a stoat. She explained that these mammals were not harmed, they were road kill. They were then brought to a taxidermist.
She told us about their homes and what they ate. She told us lots of interesting facts. She told us that badgers don’t actually attack humans and that when minks go into the hen pens the hens start fluttering around and the mink kills them all. They don’t even eat them, they just kill for sport. They leave the hens dead on the ground.
A hare doesn’t live in a borrow. It lives in a form which is a hole in the side of a hill. A squirrel lives in a hole in a tree and they feed on acorns. They don’t actually hibernate because they wake up during the winter to eat. When an otter swims air bubbles form on top of the skin so the otter doesn’t get wet. A holt is in the bank of a river. A fox lives in a den which is a series of tunnels in the ground. A stoat home is called a den and can be created in a number of different locations.
There is only one Mammal that can fly and it is the bat. A bat can eat over three thousand insects in one night. A pygmy shrew is the smallest mammal in Ireland. It weighs about 4.1g and it feeds on insects and will be found in gardens. An adult sizes is about 5.7 cm long and it will only live for 24 days.
 
By Michael M. and Michael D. 13/12/19

We then completed PowerPoint Presentations on the various mammals.

On the 12th of December the Junior and Senior cycle did a Christmas concert. Junior Infants, Senior Infants, 1st and 2nd class performed their play first. The name of their play was ‘Angel Express.’ It was about the lead up to the birth of baby Jesus. The angels prepared a lovely song for baby Jesus and at the end of the play they sang Jingle Bells beautifully.
After their play 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th class performed ‘Lights Camel Action.’ It was Strictly Come Dancing but as a nativity. Each of the characters returned to Bethlehem to recall their roles to the three hosts of ‘Bethlehem Broadcasting Company.’ There were four dances on the night. Line dancing, Ballet dancing, Disco dancing and tango dancing.
Then as a surprise at the end 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th  played the South Wind which went down well with the crowd! Everyone enjoyed the evening.

Khan Academy
We did khan academy stations for Maths groups in November. We did it every second day for two weeks. Khan academy is an app on your laptop that you do maths on and you get different questions that suit your standard. The Maths included division, multiplication, addition and subtraction. At the very end when you are finished all the quizzes and levels you get to do a unit test to get max points and get masters on every level. The teacher can recommend levels for you. You can level up when you get a certain amount of points by doing levels and getting all the questions right. You can pick characters and can evolve them by getting points. If you have an account on Khan Academy you can log on to it at home as well to gain the points. 
​By Michael M and Michael D

Coding 
Amy C.
​Over the last few weeks we have been doing coding with a type of ball called “Sphero Mini.” Everyday we were split into pairs and were given challenges. Our first challenge was basic but hard the first time we attempted it. We started on one piece of blue card and had to make a code for it roll to the other piece of card. We changed the degrees to 0 degrees, speed to 90 and the time to 2s. Then we had to set the orientation which is very important or the whole code could go wrong. It took a few goes but eventually we got it.
Another task we had was to score a goal but the challenge wasn’t just that. We had to make it go through obstacles. We made it roll 0 degrees and then measure the angle for it to go through the next goal. After that goal we had to score a goal in the main goal. We set the orientation where we thought was perfect and it was. We got it threw everything and scored.
We did a lot of fun activities over the weeks and we all loved it. 

At school we were given the task of creating a tall tower that would hold a hardboiled egg. The 2 tallest and most stable towers will get to represent our school in a Science competition .We got 10 sheets of paper and 1m of masking tape . We got into groups of 4 and started to construct the tower.
It was an extremely difficult task. Some strategies failed others were successful. We thought it would be easy with 1m of tape but it was very hard- yet some groups made brilliant towers.The 2 best teams are going to a science fair in the McWilliam on Wednesday 13th to create their towers all over again and compete against other schools to win .

By Sara and Dara

We learned all about chemical reactions in Science in September. We completed an experiment on 'Making Plastic' and then we performed another chemical reaction 'Making Hot Chocolate!'

We had great fun during Maths week. We tried coding with pen and paper for the first time ever. We are really looking forward to coding Sphero in our coding classes in November. We also had a Maths quiz. We worked in teams to try to solve some challenging Maths problems.  We can't wait to organise a Maths fun day for 1st and 2nd Class in November!