Skerries Educate Together

22 February 2012 ~ Comments Off

One Book! One Community!

by David Almond

On Wednesday, 22^nd February, 5^th Class embarked on a reading project in conjunction with other local schools – Bracken Educate Together NS, Balbriggan Educate Together NS, St. Teresa’s NS, and Balbriggan Community College.

5th class in each primary school and a group of 1^st Year students from Balbriggan Community College will be reading a book called Skellig by David Almond over a period of 5 weeks and sharing their experiences and opinions of the book. They will also be doing some literacy and art projects based on the book such as debates, role play and creation of character profiles to mention but a few. Students from all the schools will come together to work on small joint projects. The art projects will be on display in Balbriggan Library over the Spring holidays. The children will be expected to read some of the book each day either in class or at home.

A major aspect of this project will be the use of a ‘One Book’ blog, where the children will have the opportunity to come together online to individually share their own ideas about the book. We encourage all the children to leave a comment….and parents too if you start to read the book! This blog will be mediated by one teacher from the participating schools and all posts will be approved by them before being posted to ensure the safety of the children.

The children will be attending a screening of Skellig, the film, in Balbriggan Library during the last week before the Spring holidays. This will give them a chance to see the film adaptation of the book and it will be a great way to finish off the project.

As part of this project we would like to invite parents to share in this reading experience. Parents can help their children read the book. This will give parents and children an opportunity to discuss the book and share opinions. Parents can add comments to the online blog and they will be invited to come together with the children at the end of the project to watch the film adaptation of the book. We are encouraging all parents to show an interest in their children’s reading at home and to ask them questions about the book. If any parents would like a copy for themselves please let us know.

This is an exciting venture for all schools involved and we hope it helps garner a sense of community and friendship amongst the schools whilst, most importantly, encouraging children to engage with books and the joy of reading and to share that experience with their parents.

We hope everyone enjoys reading this book - children, parents and teachers! It promises to be a great few weeks….so what are you waiting for….get reading!!!

14 February 2012 ~ Comments Off

David’s Class Show and Tell!

Senior and First Class

David’s Senior Infants and First Class have been practicing doing Oral Reports. An Oral Report is when we give our audience important information. We need to remember to speak slowly and clearly. We also need to make sure that we make Eye Contact with the listener. Today, we brought in some of our favourite things to use for Oral Reporting!

23 November 2011 ~ Comments Off

Visit to the National Concert Hall

Classes First Class

Sylvia’s first class and Joanne’s second class visited the NCH for the ‘Music in the Classroom’ concert. We had a fabulous time.

First class wrote a report on their trip. Here are some of the things that they wrote.

Maia wrote ‘It was fun and they played Raiders of the lost ark and the double bass was huge and there was a story about Tuby the Tuba and the conductor was very nice and I liked the whole concert.’

Kate wrote ‘We sang Toy Story songs. It was just so so so fun.’

Sam wrote ‘The Timpani went Boom! Boom! and after the Timpani the Double bass played and it went dun dun and the conductor made the instruments play Raiders of the lost ark and it went bum buntdentden the do theundudbumpdumpa!’

Eoin wrote ‘My favourite was Indiana Jones and the treasure chest. I like the Irish songs. We went through a tunnel. It was great.’

Daniel wrote ‘ My favourite thing was when the violin was played and the double bass got played aswell and I liked when we were in the bus and it was funny when a woman said toys can come to life.’

Emily wrote ‘First class went to see’ music in the classroom’ in the National Concert Hall. My favourite was the tuba. It was long but it was funny anyway.’

Leila wrote ‘The dancers were my favourite thing.’

Lara wrote ‘I liked the umberella bit. It was good. I really liked all of the time we were there. I loved it. It was the best. I wish I could go again.’

As you can see we all had a wonderful time!

28 October 2011 ~ Comments Off