Congratulations to all of the children in Second class who received their First Holy Communion this weekend.

Cody, Stephen, Tom, James, Thomas, Aidan, Holly, Emma, Donagh, Orla, Holly and Harry had been preparing all year with their teacher Ms Ryan for the big day.

The hard work certainly paid off. Every child played their special parts wonderfully as they all spoke, sang and behaved wonderfully on the day.

The school choir under the direction of past pupil Rachel Breen were a lovely addition to the ceremony and the sun even played a part, shining for a few quick photos after mass.

Over the last few weeks Ms. Breen’s room were given the fantastic opportunity to use a 3D printer in their classroom.  As part of Mr. O’Reilly’s dissertation the children designed 3D models on the computers, which were then printed by a 3D printer kindly loaned to Mr. O’Reilly by the company Ultimaker.  The children designed 8 sets of projects, each linked to different aspects of the curriculum, and a final project completely of their choosing.  The children were given a unique opportunity to experience what was identified as a methodology to be employed by schools in the coming years in the Department of Education’s Digital Strategies 2015-2020.  3D printing has been described as the next Industrial Revolution by many commentators, and it is predicted that this technology will be used by most in the coming years.

Please enjoy the projects we made!

We started with an easy project, the children put their initials onto a shape of their choosing.  This project was linked with the S.P.H.E. Curriculum.

Next the children made new chess pieces.  The children designed the part on top, while we designed the base as a class.  The children made a Rocket Ship, an Aircraft Carrier, a Teddy Bear Ice-Cream and a Wizard.  This was linked to the History Curriculum.

Classification of Living Things is part of the Science Curriculum.  For this project, the children created and designed their own creatures.

The children designed a piece of food each, the catch was that it had to be healthy food!  This fitted into the Science and S.P.H.E. Curriculum.

After learning about the Native Indians in History the children the children made Totem Poles.  Each child designed their own Totems, which were then put on top of each other.

In groups the children designed body parts for a robot.  We designed the torso as a class!  This lesson fits into the construction strand of the Art Curriculum.

The children also created Maths Manipulatives.  Each group created their own prototype, most of which had a game aspect.

The final task was to make trophies for the various competitions that are regularly held in the school.  Unfortunately we had to return the printer just after designing these so we were unable to print them.  The image above shows them in the virtual environment that we used, Tinkercad.

 

Bright and early this morning every child in the school left their desks behind, got out in the fresh air and enjoyed 10 minutes of fun and games.

This was part of the Operation 10@10 with many schools nationwide getting up and getting active.

We played Simon Says, Follow the Leader and many other games. Everyone loved the break from the classroom (even Sir)

After our 10@10 Sir spoke about how important it is to get out and get active and we all decided that it’s far more fun to play outside with our friends than spend our time on our phones and computers

Watch some of the fun here

This year the 6th class in Mr. O’Carroll’s room went to the Primary Science Fair in Mary Immaculate College, Limerick City. Our project investigated how best to separate oil from water. We started by drawing designs and making prototypes. To make our prototypes we looked up nets of 3D shapes. We printed and laminated the nets and cut them out. We measured out water and oil and then put them into a fish tank that Ms. White supplied for us. Then we put our prototypes just beneath the oil. We were hoping to collect more oil than water. We did three tests, and we made improvements to our prototypes after each test.

We met at the school at half past 7 to get a bus into Limerick. We had to have everything setup in Mary Immaculate College by half 9. When we had setup people came to ask us questions about our project. We split into two groups, one group had to stay at the stall and answer people’s questions, while the other group went to the shows on in the college. We had a great time looking at other people’s projects, going to the shows that were on and talking to people about our project. The judge was nice and gave us a lot of good information. Our judge said that we designed great experiments and that the pupils were very enthusiastic and engaging. She was impressed by how we were concerned about caring for the environment. She also said that we showed the data very clearly, using pie charts, bar graphs and trend lines. We left Mary Immaculate at 3.00 and even got to stop in SuperMac’s on the way home! It was delicious!

We had a great day!

The boys working hard

The girls testing their prototype

Some of our original ideas

Our stall

Us with our stall

Our data

 This year we had great celebrations for Christmas! To kick things off all of the children from Junior and Senior Infants as well as 1st and 2nd class attended a Christmas Show in The Excel. 

 As usual, we had great fun doing our Secret Santa!

As the youngest child in the school Kacie was given the important job of putting the baby Jesus into the crib.

We also had a small Christmas Concert for the pupils in the Halla.

5th and 6th class did a lovely Nativity play, which told us the story the first of Christmas.  They also performed some beautiful Christmas poems.

3rd and 4th Class showed us what our toys may get up to when we go to sleep!  They also performed an entertaining version of “The 12 Days of Christmas.”

1st and 2nd class told us the story of the little drummer boy and the birth of Jesus.  They also sang some lovely Christmas songs for us!

The Junior and Senior Infants performed a wonderful Christmas Concert for us!

    

 

U-11 Boys County Football Final 2016

Match Report

On Friday last week, 11th November 2016, our u-11 team from Donaskeigh N.S played Ballinree N.S in the County Football Final in Littleton. We didn’t play our best in the first half as it took us a while to settle into the game. Worryingly, we found ourselves down by two points at half time after playing with the wind in the first half!

We came back strongly in the second half after some wise words from Mr. McCarthy! We scored some very important goals and points straight away. Thankfully, we went on to win the match comfortably.

After the match, we went to Butlers in Dundrum on the way home and were treated to some hot food and sweets! It was an unforgettable day for the players and school. Our u-11 panel was as follows: Sean Farrell, Philip O’Neill, Donnacha Cleary, Adam Daly, Joseph O’Dwyer, Sean Canon, Calum Ryan, Alex Ryan, and Michael Ryan.

U-11B Football Blitz 2016, in Dúrlas Óg

Match Report

We were so spoiled for choice with great footballers in Donaskeigh N.S that we could enter a second u-11 boys team into a blitz which was held in Dúrlas Óg GAA grounds. Our boys won their first two games which qualified them for the final, to be played on the same day against Templemore N.S. It turned out to be a great game between two very evenly matched teams. Michael Cannon, our goalkeeper, kept us in the game with some fine saves in the first half especially. We scored two goals in the second half to win by five points at the end. It was a great achievement for both u-11 boys’ teams to win their respective finals. Let’s hope these boys can bring more silverware to the school next year!

Our U-11B panel was as follows:

Michael Cannon, Evan Slattery, David Kingston, Sean Cleary, Cathal O’Mara, Eoin O’Brien, Thomas Crosse, James O’Dwyer

The entire U11 Boys Panel

U-13 Boys County Football Final 2016

Match Report

Our U-13 boys were defeated by Boher N.S by five points on a bitterly cold and wet day in Littleton on 08th November 2016. We were ahead at different stages of the match but, unfortunately, the wind was too strong for us to defend in the second half.

It was disappointing not to win the competition after overcoming such a hard battle against a very good Ayle N.S team in the semi-final replay.

Our U-13 panel was as follows:

Seamus McCormack, Niamh Hayes, Michael Gleeson, Diarmuid Kinane, Adam Daly, Joseph O’Dwyer, Sean Cannon, Philip O’Neill, Sean Kingston, Alex Ryan, Paddy Collins and Seán Farrell.

U-11 Girls County Football Final

Match Report

Our u-11 girls team played their final before our u-13 boys on the same pitch in Littleton. It was a miserable day for all involved as the weather conditions were atrocious. Unfortunately, we came up against a very strong and balanced team from Corville N.S.

However, our girls regrouped at half time and got some great scores in the second half when playing with a strong wind. It must be said that our girls did extremely well to get this far after overcoming very strong teams in a blitz held in Cashel the week previous.

Our u-11 panel was as follows:

Amy Kennedy, Saoirse O’Dwyer, Ellen Farrell, Grace Lynch, Millie Kelly, Sophie Farrell-Hanrahan, Ruby Kelly, Ava Lynch, and Holly O’Connor Lonergan.

U-13 Girls Football Blitz in Cashel

Match Report

Our u-13 girls competed in this year’s Roinn A championship, taking part in a blitz held at Leahy Park in Cashel. The standard was undoubtedly very high. Our girls fought for every ball and won three of their four group games.

We were very talented all over the field and showed great spirit but came up against a very strong team from Cashel GNS who won all of their matches comprehensively. They, notably, went on to win the County Final very comfortably the following week.

Our u-13 panel was as follows:

Megija Pleksa, Clara Greene, Kate Guilfoyle, Grace Lynch, Laura Roche, Caoimhe Breen, Niamh Hayes, Maria Sheenah O’Brien, Katelyn Sheridan, Millie Kelly

Congratulations to all the boys and girls for representing our school so admirably whilst showing great skill and commitment along the way.

On behalf of St. Brigid’s N.S, Donaskeigh, I would like to say a big thanks to our supporters at each match and to the parents for all of their continued help and support in the sporting activities of the school.

Le meas,

Pat O’Carroll

This week was National Science Week.

We got involved and conducted some experiments and investigations of our own.

We learned loads but we were having so much fun it hardly felt like work at all.

 

1st and 2nd Class designed and created their very own magnets. Then they searched the classroom for magnetic surfaces.

 

Ms Ryan explained all about friction and how different surfaces can affect speed. Here are her class putting different materials to the test. Ciara is recording and Holly is ensuring that every test is a fair test.

 

  

3rd and 4th class created helicopters. They found that some materials worked better than others when putting them together.

 

Here is Tara with one the the parachutes that Ms Breen’s class designed during the week. The class was given a basic design to work from but they soon came up with better models after they modified this design to improve their parachutes.

This fun experiment demonstrates the centre of gravity. Balancing the clowns on our fingers was tricky but everyone soon got the hang of it.

This investigation tested different materials for static. The whole class agreed that hair was the best surface for charging our balloons as it created enough static electricity to pick up most of the pieces of paper.

5th and 6th class experimented with different flavors and ingredients to create the perfect smoothies and milkshakes. They also learned how to make ice cream in a bag exploring the effect that salt can have on the freezing process.

Engineers have to work scientifically too and that is just what these kids are up to. The challenge was to discover what type of bridge would support the most weight.