Classrooms around the world
Lots to talk about here. Quality education is a Global Goal.
Click on THIS link to see a slideshow of Schools around the world by LuciaAbalos
featuring classrooms all over the world.
1. Afghanistan
2. Kenya
3. Vietnam
4. Colombia
5. Tunisia
6. Pakistan
7. Morocco
8. South Africa
9. Uruguay
10. U.S.A.
11. U.K.
12. Russia
13. Ivory Coast
14. Brazil
15. Pakistan
Take a look at the photos. Do you think these students are all receiving quality education?
You might like to take a look at children from all over the world on their first day of school HERE
A Seasonal Reminder!
Laudato ‘Si : Playing Our Part
Meadow Saffron
Pope Francis has written a letter addressed to every person on the planet,
asking us all to look after Planet Earth. It is called Laudato ‘SI.
We can all play our part.
If you click on THIS link from cafod.uk.org you can see
an animation of what Pope Francis has to say.
There are more resources HERE
And the letter itself is on THIS link.
Wicklow County Council lead the way
Our school is in Greystones.
Greystones is in Wicklow.
Wicklow is the first county in Ireland to declare a climate and biodiversity emergency.
You can read more about this HERE
We are PROUD of Wicklow County Council
and as you can see from our Green School Blog, we would like to play our part.
Wildflower Bingo from ‘Biodiversity in Schools’
tdlucas5000 via Compfight
If you click on THIS link from Biodiversity in Schools,
you can download a game of Wildflower Bingo.
St Brigid’s Junior Tidy Towns Beach Clean April 2019
Hi all,
Many thanks again for facilitating the Junior Tidy Towns St Brigid’s Beach Clean. We had a super turn out but due to very cold winds and all kids running enthusiastically on to the beach we didn’t manage to get a photo all together to show it!
The parents and kids picked up a great amount of general rubbish, plastic, cigarette butts, and parents even picked up a lot of broken glass and metal. Huge thanks to everyone who turned up to help on what ended up being quite a cold day.
Many thanks all!
Two Feathered Visitors
Hi there,
Many thanks to all the teachers and pupils for letting chickens, Cagney and Henrietta, visit today. All the boys and girls were so good. And huge thanks to Benjamin’s mum, Sharon Strong and Transition Year student Joe for helping bring the chickens around and showing the kids all the different types of eggs and answering lots of questions.
Kind regards, Rebecca.
Click HERE to see a slideshow of our visitors.
Thank you to Rebecca, Cal and Elliot’s Mum for bringing in the chickens for the Junior classes to see. We learned about Rhode Island Reds and how to tell if a hen will lay a brown egg, or a white one. It was a real education for us all.
The Pollinator Garden – April, 2019 – A message from the Gardening Committee
Many thanks to the school and the PA for supporting us in creating the Pollinator Garden. Fingers crossed all plants settle and grow well. The final couple of shrubs will go in after Easter and Fiona’s Science Club will carry out more planting and create bug houses to add to it as there term returns.
Many thanks to Marie McCooey from Greystones Tidy Towns for assisting us in sourcing and choosing the plants and Louise for helping us connect. Thanks also to Arboretum Garden Centre in Kilquade who supplied the upcycled paving slabs free of charge.
Gardening duties carried out by parents Rebecca, Aoife, Fiona, Latifa, Bronwen, Jon and Steph. Plant donations from Clare, Louise, Amanda, Phil and there are more parents still offering cuttings and plants to keep the garden in bloom.
Details and resources on the National Pollinator Plan can be found here, http://pollinators.ie/resources/ The full plant list is as follows;
Pollinator Garden Plant List
Pulmonaria, Boys & Girls
Bergenia ‘Pink Dragonfly’
Erysimum ‘Bowles Mauve’, wallflower
Ajuga reptans ‘Cocolat chip’
Tellima grandiflora
Anemone ‘Pure White’
Tellima grandiflora ‘Rubera’
Pulmonaria ‘Majeste’
Pulmonaria ‘Diana Clare’
Verbena bonariensis
Rosemary
Prostrate rosemary
English lavender
French lavender
Heather
Copper fennel
Lamium
Crocosmia montbretia
Geranium ‘Rozanne’
Hydrangea Annabelle
Dicentra Spectabilis bleeding heart
Sorbus, Rowan mountain ash
To be added…
Mahonia
Many thanks to all helpers and supporters, looking forward to seeing the students and the Science Club exploring it soon.
Many thanks,
Rebecca and the Parents’ Association’s Gardening Committee.
National Tree Week: Planting trees to combat climate change – March 31st to 7th April, 2019
Tree Week, organised by the Tree Council of Ireland since 1985 is a week long programme of events to celebrate trees and this year the theme is planting for the planet to combat climate change. Rebecca and Aoife, from the Parents’ Association Gardening Committee helped member of the Student Council to plant trees provided by Wicklow County Council.
Forests help reduce climate change effects by reducing the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is the main greenhouse gas responsible for climate change and emissions of it from man-made sources have been increasing year on year since the 1950s.
Trees absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere for growth, convert it to sugars and wood and release pure oxygen back to the atmosphere.
Wicklow County Council has provided us with five Native irish trees, the bud identifier pic above will help you identify which is which. You will have to click on the photo to enlarge it.
Click on THIS link to see the work that was done.
The ‘Sow and Grow’ Initiative
Many thanks to the Parents’ Association’s Gardening Committee who bring such fun and excitement to the school with all their creative ideas. This week they are doing a ‘Sow and Grow’. Below is an Animoto slideshow of the boys and girls sowing and growing. Many thanks to Sharon, Susan, Thea and Emer who worked so hard to make sure everyone had a great time, and were ‘hands on’ and involved.
Click on THIS link to see the slideshow.
A Spring ‘Makeover’ for the School Grounds
The school grounds received a colourful Spring ‘makeover’ on Friday 25th January, 2019. Pots and window boxes have been replanted. Many thanks to Eimear, grandmother of pupils Ruadhán, Ailbhe and Caoileann, for her generous donation towards these new plants. See the photos below. Thanks too, to parents Rebecca and Aoife who did the planting. The larger pots now hold with evergreen trees should hopefully last a long time. The seasonal bedding plants below the trees add some colour and a taste of Spring. Well done to the ever faithful Parents’ Association Gardening Committee who give so generously of their time, to make the school grounds look so colourful and so welcoming all year round.
#GreenSchools at Christmas
Many thanks to PA's Gardening Committee & @msgill for little climate-friendly mini Christmas trees: in pots, decorated with cranberries, dried clementines with a cone for the topper. They will be replanted after the festive season to continue growing. #GreenSchools pic.twitter.com/k733LVr0tj
— Merry's Class (@Merry_s_Class) December 3, 2018
Appreciation of Trees – Art
RS2Photography via Compfight
If you click on THIS link
you will see a slideshow of art: trees that we drew.
We love Art
and we love Nature.
We love to see trees: their leaves, their branches, their bark.
We love their different shapes and colours.
We invite you to take a look at our work.
The Radish Harvest
The Parents’ Association’s Gardening Committee brought Senior Infants on a gardening adventure. Earlier this year they planted radish seeds. Today they harvesting radishes. The boys and girls were fascinated when they found the round, red radishes in the soil. They enjoyed tasting what they had grown. They had a sense of pride in what they had achieved. Thank you to the Gardening Committee.
Green Schools – Window Boxes in our School
WildaboutGardens.org – another interesting website
Take a look at this website.
It is about wildlife in the garden
‘I found a baby bird what should I do?’ from SpringAlive.net
Learning About Pollinators on pollinators.ie
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Pollinator_Render_250118_H264 from Wicklow County Council on Vimeo.
Click on THIS link to go to pollinators.ie
A Super Website – If It Were My Home – Global Citizenship
On this website you can compare your home country to other countries in terms of size, the economy, health, environment, and quality of life.
Click HERE to start comparing.
Growing and Sowing with the Parents’ Association.
Today the Gardening Committee from the Parents’ Association worked
with Junior Infants on the ‘Grow It Yourself Sow & Grow’ scheme.
The children planted aubergines, radishes, courgettes,
squash and carrots.
The extra cups that were used
are ‘used cups’ from the Happy Pear
getting a second life as plant pots
and are fully compostable once they are done.
Milk cartons were upcycled as watering cans too.
Many thanks Rebecca, Aoife, Melissa, Sharon and Bronwen
from the Parents’ Association
who organised this interesting and exciting activity
for the three Junior Infant classes.
The Biodiversity in Schools website
This website was recommended to us:
We like all the ideas for projects on it.
You can find them HERE
For example: Build a Bird Feeder,
Carry out a Bird Survey
Build a Bug House
Create A Wildflower Patch.
There are lots of great ideas there.
Wicklow County Council’s Competition – Christmas Decorations from Recycled Materials 2017
For as long as we can remember, every year at this time,
students make Christmas decorations
for the Wicklow County Council competition.
It is an annual event, that is much anticipated and greatly enjoyed.
The decorations are made from recycled materials.
All entries are on displayed in the hall.
Two entries go on to the Wicklow County Council competition.
These Christmas decorations made from recycled materials
are all so different and show great creativity and ingenuity.
The children had great fun making them.
Well done to all involved and many thanks to Ms.McNally
who co-ordinated the competition.
Wicklow County Council organizes
this annual Christmas Decorations Competition,
challenging the children to make Christmas Tree Decorations
out of recycled materials such as paper, cardboard, newspapers,
plastic & glass bottles, tin cans, milk and juice cartons, etc.
A Short Film about Sharks
Click on THIS link to see a short video
‘Finconceivable’ by talented film maker Lily Williams.
This video is about what would happen if sharks became extinct.
quirkyjazz via Compfight
Climate Change – The Clues we see in the Environment.
Click HERE to read about the clues in our environment that there is Climate Change
on the NASA .gov website.
Steve Baker via Compfight
What Trees can tell us about Climate Change
Resources for Climate Action Week
The website Teach Climate Change. org has lots of interesting articles for teaching students about Climate Change. Recent posts include ‘How is the Weather being affected by Climate Change?’ ‘How are the Oceans being affected by Climate Change?’ ‘Plant Extinction due to Climate Change’ and ‘What is Acid Rain?
The Pip Project
3rd Class Room 14 are doing a ‘Pip Project’.
The children are really enthusiastic and it has really taken off.
First the children were invited to plant any pips from the fruit they had for their lunches.
Saorla found some mystery seeds in the yard and we have planted them.
Perhaps we will end up with a bean stalk 😉
Sam brought in an avocado seed. They need to be suspended in water.
Sam also brought in chive seeds.
We are also growing peas.
Teacher brought in nasturtium seeds. They are growing well.
We are interested to see how they follow the sun
and lean towards the light.
Teacher brought in chestnuts.
We discovered in order for chestnuts to germinate
they need to be kept in soil, in a bag in the fridge.
We have had some successes.
The apple seedlings are growing well.
However in the pot were the mandarin seeds were planted,
grass grew. We are a bit mystified by this.
