The Story of St. Brigid's Cloak

Tomorrow February 1st is the Feast of St. Brigid. It also marks the first day of spring.

St. Brigid went to the King of Leinster to ask for land to build a convent. She told the king that the place where she stood was the perfect place for a convent. It was beside a forest where they could collect firewood. There was also a lake nearby that would provide water and the land was fertile. The king laughed at her and refused to give her any land. Brigid prayed to God and asked him to soften the king’s heart. Then she smiled at the king and said “will you give me as much land as my cloak will cover?” The king thought that she was joking and because Brigid’s cloak was so small he knew that it would only cover a very small piece of land. The king agreed and Brigid spread her cloak on the ground. She asked her four friends to hold a corner of the cloak and walk in opposite directions. The four friends walked north, south, east and west. The cloak grew immediately and began to cover many acres of land. The king was astonished and he realized that she had been blessed by God. The king fell to the ground and knelt before Brigid and promised her and her friends money, food and supplies. Soon afterwards, the king became a Christian and also started to help the poor. Brigid’s miracle of the cloak was the first of many miracles that she worked for the people of Ireland.

The Story of St. Brigid's Cloak - February 1st

Tomorrow February 1st is the Feast of St. Brigid. It also marks the first day of spring.

St. Brigid went to the King of Leinster to ask for land to build a convent. She told the king that the place where she stood was the perfect place for a convent. It was beside a forest where they could collect firewood. There was also a lake nearby that would provide water and the land was fertile. The king laughed at her and refused to give her any land. Brigid prayed to God and asked him to soften the king’s heart. Then she smiled at the king and said “will you give me as much land as my cloak will cover?” The king thought that she was joking and because Brigid’s cloak was so small he knew that it would only cover a very small piece of land. The king agreed and Brigid spread her cloak on the ground. She asked her four friends to hold a corner of the cloak and walk in opposite directions. The four friends walked north, south, east and west. The cloak grew immediately and began to cover many acres of land. The king was astonished and he realized that she had been blessed by God. The king fell to the ground and knelt before Brigid and promised her and her friends money, food and supplies. Soon afterwards, the king became a Christian and also started to help the poor. Brigid’s miracle of the cloak was the first of many miracles that she worked for the people of Ireland.

What do you think of the story?

Please comment for bonus stars!

Poster Competition

Here is the winning poster from our class.

Using our projector and laptop

Here are some pupils from our class working on our whiteboard.

It really helps us to learn and we love getting a chance to use the wireless keyboard and mouse.

Last week we learned about 'A Trip Along the Coast' in Geography and we saw lots of pictures of coastlines along Donegal, Leitrim (as short as it is) and Sligo. We also are learning about schools long ago. Teacher got some pictures from the National Archives of classrooms long ago and put it up on the big screen as a slideshow. This week we might record our voices onto the slideshow and make our first photostory! Watch this space!

Flat Stanley visits all the way from California!

I got a very exciting mail in the post today all the way from Oakland, California. I have some relations in school over there and their teacher sent over a friend of theirs to visit our class in Sligo. His name is Flat Stanley and like his name he is... FLAT!

Perhaps while you are off you could be thinking of what we could write on the letter (see above) to send back to the class. Maybe we could take come pictures of him and send them too? You have a think about it and let me know on Monday about any of your ideas.

• For a link to Corpus Christi School Website in California click here.
• Just for fun: click onto 3rd Grade section to see what they are doing here.

Thumbs up from Carlow Principal!

Hey all,

I got some good news in an email today. It was from a principal in Carlow called Simon Lewis. He is very interested in computers and technology and his school and his websites and blogs have won lots of awards. I emailed him to ask him to put the name of our blog up on his blog called anseo.net. This will bring more people to see our blog to see our lovely work. He wrote in the email "love the site by the way". It is onwards and upwards from here! You can check out his school's website here.

New Projector and Speakers for 3rd Class!

Hello everyone,

I hope that you are all having a good weekend? I went into the school yesterday and had a walk around. When I went into the classroom I got a great surprise! Our projector has been installed with a remote control for a laptop and speakers. I just took these pictures with my phone so the quality of the photos are not very good but you get the idea. The classroom is a little dusty but I'm sure I will have lots of helpers to do a big clean up when the school is ready. Hopefully you will all get to see this for real in our classroom very soon.

Take care - Ms. Leydon

Flood Damage

It is bad news for Our Lady of Mercy Primary. Here are some of the pictures of our school that were in the paper. This happened when the pipes burst in the attic. It is a very difficult situation for Ms. Finan and all the teachers whose classrooms are damaged or even destroyed. School is now not going to open until next Thursday. This is for the safety of children and staff. If you would like to read more click here for the link to the story in the newspaper:

• The Sligo Champion
• The Irish Independent

Goldentime

If we work hard all week we get

GOLDENTIME

There are lots of ways that we can lose letters.

There are also lots of ways that we can earn letters back.

On Goldentime we play games by taking turns ad we get chat to each other.

The amount of Goldnetime that we get depends on how well behaved we are.

Hooray for Goldentime!

We sang for Santa.

Sligo Weekender and Sligo Supply Centre Competition

Finalists of Weekender Poster/Letter Writing Competition
Well done!

Wordle - you can try it out!

Some words about our school, sligo and what we do in 3rd class...

You can make these WORDLES here...

Culture Day

Sligeach Abu!

We had a cultural day where we wore our national (&county) colours!

School Closed

I have just gotten word that the pipes in the school have been damaged with the cold over the holidays. This has cause some damage to the school and as a result the school will stay closed until Monday next week, 18th January 2010.

I hope everyone will be good for those at home and remember there are lots of sites you can check out on the blog.

Take care and will see you next week,

Ms. Leydon

School Holidays Extended

As many of you have already heard the school holidays have been extended because of the bad weather. Remember to keep warm and be good for all at home. See you all next Thursday hopefully!

I also got word today that our class blog has been published on Scoilnet. This is really great news for us! Can you click onto our school from this link: http://www.scoilnet.ie/hp_schoolsthatblog.shtm

Hip hip hooray!

You can check out any other school blogs and get ideas for the new year when we get a new laptop and projector!

Kindest regards to you all,

Ms. Leydon

No school - Snow day!

Happy New Year to everyone! Just an announcement that school is closed Thursday and Friday this week (7th and 8th Jan.) The school will reopen next Monday the 11th January. Remember to take care on the ice over the next few days. Enjoy the extra holidays and looking forward to seeing you all next Monday.

It will be a great day to learn something new!!

P.S.: The first child to mention this post will get an extra 10 stars for their group!

Ms. Leydon