We had a well-deserved rest during our mid-term week off. We came back ready to learn.
Explanation Writing
This type of writing explains a process. Some of the things we have been writing about are how to make shadow puppets and the life cycle of a butterfly. We love when we are ready to use fancy paper to write our explanation in our best handwriting. We like to present our writing afterwards to our classmates.
Weather Forecasters!
We had the opportunity to become weather forecasters and meteorologists during our drama lesson. We told our classmates about our weather forecast in the north, south, east, and west. Luckily for us, sunshine is predicted in Wicklow!
Diwali
We learnt about Diwali, the festival of light which is celebrated in India and by Hindus’. They celebrate the triumph of light over darkness and good over evil. We listened to story of Rama and Sita, then each group put on a shadow puppet show. We learnt that an opaque object and sunlight or artificial light is needed to make a shadow. We were deLIGHTed!
Our beautiful light catchers brighten up our room.
Space
We were super enthusiastic about learning about space. First, we made a timeline of space events. Did you know that fruit flies were the first animals in space?
After that we learnt about the solar system and the order of the planets. My (Mercury) Very (Venus) Eager (Earth) Mother (Mars) Just (Jupiter) Served (Saturn) Us (Uranus) Nachos (Neptune) is an extremely helpful mnemonic to help us remember the order of the planets. We used chalk and black paper in our art lesson to make the solar system.
After that we learnt about the solar system and the order of the planets. My (Mercury) Very (Venus) Eager (Earth) Mother (Mars) Just (Jupiter) Served (Saturn) Us (Uranus) Nachos (Neptune) is an extremely helpful mnemonic to help us remember the order of the planets. We used chalk and black paper in our art lesson to make the solar system.
Ms Darcy loves adjectives (describing words), we learnt some new adjectives to describe the moon landing and wrote some sentences.
Ms Corcoran's Experiment
We were blown away by Ms Corcoran’s experiment. The experiment demonstrates that as the air rushes out of the balloon, it creates a forward motion called thrust. Thrust is a pushing force created by energy. She used a piece of string, a balloon, and a straw to do the experiment. She gave us a straw to take home so that we could try out the experiment.
Friday Quiz
Each Friday ‘the table of the week’ from the previous week host a quiz for their classmates on the content we have learnt. It is a great way to review our lessons and to work as a team.
Project Work
Here are some examples of the projects which 2nd class have been doing as homework.
Melting Clocks
Taking inspiration from Dali’s ‘Persistence of Time’ (Melting Clocks) we made our own clocks to take home and practise the time.
Gaeilge
We really enjoy using the Irish programme Bua na Cainte. The topics which we studied this term were Bia, An Geimhreadh and An Nollaig. We try our best to only speak as Gaeilge during our Irish lessons.
Electricity
We loved using balloons to demonstrate how static electricity works. We learnt that everything is made up of atoms. The balloon gets extra negative atoms when rubbed on our jumper or hair. The negative atoms are attracted to the positive atoms on the wall. It isn’t magic, it's science!
We asked older adults in our families about electricity in the past. Some of our classmates brought in artefacts which we used before electricity.
P.E
We continued to enjoy learning Gaelic football skills with Jackie. We also learnt about different types of dance movements in P.E. We had so much fun following the ‘Elves on the Run’ video.
Advent
We made a kindness advent calendar.
We also recited the poem ‘Prepare, prepare’ during each Religion lesson and to Ms Darcy’s delight we recited the poem on the last day of school before Christmas.
We went to the church to look at the crib. We then read the Christmas Story in the church and prayed the Hail Mary.
We went to the church to look at the crib. We then read the Christmas Story in the church and prayed the Hail Mary.
Letter Writing
We were so happy that we had the opportunity to write a letter to Ms Lennon’s grandmother Nancy who is 98 years old. We also drew pictures on the back of our letters for Nancy to enjoy.
Nollaig
We welcomed Nollaig to our class in December. Here are some of his adventures after he had quarantined for 14 days.
Santa's Visit
We were delighted when Santa came to visit our class.
Christmas Art
For the school’s Christmas art display, we designed Christmas jumpers. We were so proud to see our Christmas jumpers on the railings outside the church.
We also made reindeer decorations and followed a step by step video to help us draw reindeers.
Poetry
We enjoyed reading and talking about the poem ‘Santa got stuck in the chimney’. Ms Darcy’s favourite poem this term was ‘Cé hé mise?’, we loved doing the actions to this poem.
We had great fun coming up with Christmas words so that we could write our acrostic Christmas poems.
We had great fun coming up with Christmas words so that we could write our acrostic Christmas poems.
We also learnt about similes, we really are ‘as good as gold’ and when we are listening to our classmates talking we need to be ‘as quiet as a mouse’.
Christmas Performance
We were delighted to play 'jingle bells' on the bodhran and perform our play 'The Christmas Spiders' for our family. Ms Darcy is so proud of everyone! Well done! Nollaig Shona Daoibh!
Curriculum Update for November and December
Please find attached an overview of the work covered in our class in November and December.
curriculum_update_o.darcy_2nd_class_nov-dec_2020.pdf |