Name Change - Please Adjust your computer screens!

 

We have changed our class blog to http://msgilmartinsclassblog.blogspot.com/. This blog will remain at this address but will no longer be updated.

RTÉ news2day

We have got some very exciting news... RTÉ news2day are coming to our school on Thursday next to film the great work in ICT and e-learning going on in our school!

The film crew are coming because our class blog won "Best Blog 2010" in the Eircom Junior Spiders in December 2010. They will be in our school from 11am - 12 noon on Thursday April 14th 2011. What a great lead up to the Easter holidays!

Click here to go to the news2day website.

Find out how to make a TV report here.

To watch some old episodes of news2day click here.

Census 2011 - Make your Mark!

Here is a picture of the journey of a census form. Everybody must be included on the census form by law. The forms are to be filled out tonight. It is very important the people put the correct information on their form to help our government plan for the future.

Tomorrow a census enumerator is coming to our class to talk about the census.

Click here to visit the Census 2011 website.

There are some brilliant resources for primary school, to view them click here.

Chocolate Biscuit Cake

Chocolate Biscuit Cake from Joanne Gilmartin on Vimeo.

Chocolate Biscuit Cake Recipe

We made chocolate biscuit cake in school on Friday. It was great fun and tasted great for students and teachers alike!

Mercy Sisters Tribute Movie

Tribute to the Sisters of Mercy, Sligo from Joanne Gilmartin on Vimeo.

This video was made in June 2010 to mark the occasion of the Mercy Sisters Handing over patronage to the Board of Management. For more information please read the blog post from last June.

Belated St. Patrick's Day Wishes

Here's a slideshow of photos of the art we completed for St. Patrick's Day!

St. Patrick's Day Movie from Joanne Gilmartin on Vimeo.

Junior Spiders Badge

We have just received our Badge for Best Blog 2010 from the Eircom Junior Spiders. Here's what the judges had to say

Excellent use of embedded content. Great to see lots of multimedia used. Inclusion of widgets adds greatly to the site\'s interactivity. Good use of categories and tags. Great to see all the students involved.

Excellent example of an Up-to-date and active class blog.

Tsunami Alert

The biggest earthquake to hit Japan since records began almost 150 years ago smashed into the country's northeast coast today, triggering a 32-foottsunami that washed away everything in its path. The earthquake measures 8.9 magnitude.

Tsunami Alert for New Zealand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Hawaii, and others. Waves expected over the next few hours, caused by 8.9 earthquake in Japan.

Here is a video from National Geographic about tsunamis.

Written by John, Rang a Sé.

Our Pancake Cooking Movie

Pancake Recipe for Pancake Tuesday from Joanne Gilmartin on Vimeo.

We made pancakes in school, we hope you like our instruction video on how to make pancakes from scratch!

Happy Pancake Tuesday!

Pancake Recipe

The Magic School Bus Digital Storybook

Untitled from Joanne Gilmartin on Vimeo.

We hope that you like our story!

Ash Wednesday

We are celebrating Ash Wednesday in our School by getting the ashes of last years palms on our foreheads. This happens 46 days before Easter Sunday. We get the ashes as a sign of repentance or to say we are sorry.

We were talking about what the priest or teacher says when they put the ashes on the forehead,

Remember, O man, that you are dust, and unto dust you shall return.

or

Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel.

These are phrases from the Bible and remind us that we are sorry.

Pancake Tuesday

Pancake Tuesday is also called Pancake day or Shrove Tuesday. Shrove Tuesday is the last day before the period which Christians call Lent. This day is one of the moveable feasts in the church calendar and is directly related to the date on which Easter falls.

When is Shrove Tuesday (Pancake Day)?
Shrove Tuesday always falls 47 days before to Easter Sunday, so the date varies from year to year and falls between February 3 and March 9.

Why do we call the day Shrove Tuesday?
The name Shrove comes from the old word "shrive" which means to confess. On Shrove Tuesday, in the Middle Ages, people used to confess their sins so that they were forgiven before the season of Lent began.

What is Shrove Tuesday?
Shrove Tuesday is a day of celebration as well as penitence, because it's the last day before Lent. Lent is a time of abstinence, of giving things up. So Shrove Tuesday is the last chance to indulge yourself, and to use up the foods that aren't allowed in Lent. Pancakes are eaten on this day because they contain fat, butter and eggs which were forbidden during Lent.

What is an Irish pancake?
A pancake is a thin, flat cake, made of batter and fried in a pan. The photograph shows a pancake being cooked in a frying pan. Caster sugar (superfine sugar) is sprinkled over the top and a dash of fresh lemon juice added. The pancake is then rolled. Some people add maple syrup, golden syrup or jam

Other names for Shrove Tuesday
- Ireland, UK and Australia - Shrove Tuesday, Pancake Day or Pancake Tuesday
- Sweden - Fettisdagen (Fat Tuesday).
- In Catholic and French-speaking parts of the United States this day is called Mardi Gras.
- Poland - Paczki Day.
- Germany - Fasnacht Day (also spelled Fausnacht Day and Fauschnaut Day).
- France - Mardi Gras, which means Grease or Fat Tuesday.
- Iceland - "Sprengidagur" (Bursting day).

We made pancakes in school, they were very nice! We will post up the pictures soon!

Here are some pancake day activities.

New Zealand Earthquake

Above: An arial view of Christchurch Cathedral's Damage after the earthquake.

Above: A Toyota Yaris caught in a sinkhole following the earthquake in Canterbury Region, NZ.

On February 22nd 2011 an earthquake struck New Zealand's South Island measuring a magnitude of 6.3 on the Richter Scale. This happened in the Canterbury Region near Christchurch.

So far 148 people have been confirmed dead but there are over 200 people reported missing. We are thinking of all those who have been effected by this Natural Disaster. by Jack (Rang VI)

A chip off the old block!

Chocolate Cookies Recipe
We made very tasty cookies. We hope you like our video made on Picasa. It was easy to make and then we put it on vimeo for the world to see... and yes they were even tastier than they look... believe it or not!

Here is a poem about an adventure to explore the cookie jar!

The Cookie Jar Adventure

Wakey-wakey from our beds,

thoughts of cookies in our heads.

Mom's and Daddy's eyes are closed.

(They are sleeping. They won't know).

Hurry-hurry, on the double!

If they wake, we'll be in trouble!

Blankies, pillows, on the floor.

Squeaky-squeaky goes the door.

Shhh, shhh, tippy-toe.

To the kitchen we will go.

Sneaky-sneaky down the hall,

bare feet creeping 'long the wall.

C'mon, Sissy, it's not far,

there it is, the cookie jar!

I can't reach it, I'm too small.

Let's get a chair to make us tall.

Shuffle-shuffle, scooty chair,

pushy-pushy, almost there.

Clinky-clinky goes the top,

hold it tight, or it will drop!

Giggle, giggle, tee-hee-hee,

two for YOU, and two for ME.

Uh oh, Sissy, turn around ...

Mom and Daddy. We've been found.

Peeky-peeky, Mom and Dad,

are you angry? Are you mad?

Whisper-whisper, over there ...

they want to know if we will share!

Chocolate Chip Cookies - Yummy! from Joanne Gilmartin on Vimeo.

Happy Valentine's Day

Today we made Danish Woven Heart Baskets to celebrate Valentine's Day. They were great fun to make and every basket used different mixtures of colours! Well done to all, they were pretty tricky!

If you would like to learn how to make these baskets please click the link here to find further instructions!

We hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day!

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

When love was in the air over the last few days we looked at some traditional and some less traditional poetry around love for Valentine's Day. We found some really great ones and would like to share them with other children!
Valentine's Poetry

Chocolate Muffins

Chocolate Muffins Dylan

We made very tasty muffins in school today, here is our recipe!

Happy St. Brigid's Day

Spring has finally come and we have been very busy making our Funky St Brigid's Crosses.

We discovered that there are in fact three different ways to make these crosses... one way was enough for us!

We hope that you like our pictures!

Greater than and Less than - Greedy Crocodile!

27 is less than 31

We are doing greater than and less than. For this we are thinking of the Greedy Crocodile. The crocodile will always eat the bigger number. There are other activities here.

Sligo Weekender Article 18th January 2011

Click on the picture to read the article in this week's Sligo Weekender!

Dragon Smoke - Huff! Puff!

Dragon Smoke

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Well done Michael on your podcast. It is so cold in the mornings that we can all blow Dragon Smoke!!

Chinese New Year, Year of the Rabbit 2011

Chinese New Year

Chinese new year will begin on 3rd of February 2011 which marks the start of the Year of the Rabbit. This year will be 4709 on the Chinese Calendar. Chinese New Year is also known as the Spring Festival.

Chinese New Year is the main festival of the Year and is not a religious event. The Chinese calendar is based on the lunar year, so the date of Chinese New Year changes every year. The Chinese calendar follows a 12-year pattern with each year named after an animal. There are various stories which explain this. The simplest is that Buddha (or the Jade Emperor) invited all of the animals to join him for a New Year celebration, but only 12 animals turned up. To reward the animals that did come, Buddha named a year after each of them in the order that they arrived, starting with the Rat, followed by the Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat (or Sheep), Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig.

Depending on the year you are born, you are believed to have the various character traits of that year's animal.

We will be doing an activity to mark 2011 the year of the rat from Activity Village.

Snowball Poem

Snowball Poem, with sound effects from sounddogs.com.

We used Audacity to put the two recording together onto one track.

More winter poems to come!

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Junior Spiders, Helix, DCU

On Friday December 18th 2010 our principal Ms. Marguerite Stenson travelled to the Helix at DCU in Dublin to the Eircom Junior Spiders.

It was a great honour for the school to win the Best Blog in the Mega Spiders Category!

Happy New Year + Celebrations!

Happy New Year to all!

Just before the holidays our blog got a great boost when we won "Best Blog" in the Junior Spiders in the Helix in DCU, Dublin.

Everyone is absolutely thrilled with such a fantastic award and of course a great way to begin the Christmas Holidays.

Well done to all the other winners, the standard was really high in all categories this year.