SESE - 1st & 2nd Classes 2018/2019

May 15th 2019
Fun with magnets. We loved driving our magnetic cars through obstacle courses.

April 12th 2019
Say hello to our latest pupil who arrived overnight - just in time for Easter. Any suggestions for a name?

Thanks to Éabha's dad for the loan of the incubator and eggs.

​April 2019 - Australia 
We have been studying all about Australia in SESE for the last week. Thanks to everyone who brought in the wonderful Australian items for our discovery table.

We also tried our hand at some Aboriginal Art which you can look at here.

March 2019 - Frogspawn 
We were able to get a sample of some frogpawn thanks to one of our pupil''s dad and grandad - thank you. 
We have been learning about the lifecycle of the frog so we were able to witness this amazing story happening right in front of our eyes in our own classroom.

You can follow our frogs life story here.

Wednesday March 20th
The birds outside our window are getting busy this Spring. We saw a greenfinch and a great tit at our bird-feeder.

The magpie seems to be starting to build a nest but the crows are interested in it also.

March 15th - St Patrick Word Web

Thursday February 7th 
Geoff Hunt of The Heritage Council visited the school today. Geoff took 1st to 3rd Classes on a field trip where we identified the various trees in the school environment and took samples of buds, twigs and leaves from them. Later we created our own posters using the samples we collected earlier. It was a fascinating project and we are looking forward to Geoff's next visit to the school.

See here for photos from the day.

February 6th 2019
We were studying fruit seeds today and cut up various fruit to investigate the seeds and count how many seeds they had. It got a bit messy but was good fun.

​January 2019
We're in the depths of winter and have been learning about the changes that occur during this season. One problem that drivers encounter during winter is ice on roads. County councils grit the roads but why does this work?

The grit is actually a type of salt called rock salt. The salt reduce the freezing point of water so that it freezes at much less than the normal 0 degrees.

We took some blocks of ice and sprinkled salt on top. Very quickly we could see the ice starting to melt and little rivulets of water appeared. We poured drops of food colouring on the melted ice to highlight the rivulets and tunnels in the ice block.

8th December 2019
We made our own village after studying different types of houses in geography.

November 14th 2018
​It is science week and we carried out some fun experiments.

Can you really stick a pin in a balloon without bursting it?

How do you make an egg float on water?

October 2018
​Thanks to Áine Ní Fhlartha from The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEIA) who visited our school today. Áine gave a workshop for 1st/2nd and 5th/6th Classes. During these workshops we learnt about sources of energy and the importance of conserving energy in our school and homes and helping protect our environment in the process. ​

See here for further information of the activities and some photographs.

Wednesday October 22nd - The Senses
We've been learning about our senses this week. We carried out experiments to check them out.

• Sight: Touching the ends of two pencils together using one eye or two eyes. We found that two eyes are better.
• Hearing: We shut our eyes and Mr Musgrave made various noises and we had to guess what they were. We did really well and this shows that our sens of hearing is very acute.
• Touch: We worked in pairs and one of us closed our eyes. The other partner placed something in our hands and we had to guess what it was.

​October 2018
Leaf and fruit scavenger hunt.

October 2018
We have been studying The Weather in SESE this week. We made our own thermometer.

​The first photo shows the thermometer when the room is cold and the second shows the thermometer when the room is warm.

Wednesday 19th of September - Dancing Raisins
We have been investigating different forces in science this week. 

We put raisins into a glass of 7-Up and into a glass of tap-water. The raisins in the 7-Up began to bob up and down from the bottom of the glass to the top and then down again. The raisins in the water just sank to the bottom and stayed there.

The 7-Up contains carbon dioxide which causes the fizziness. The raisin surface is rough and little bubbles of carbon dioxide cling to it. The force of all the little bubbles lift the raisin to the surface (like the balloons lift the house in the film Up). When the raisin reaches the surface the bubbles burst and the raisin sinks back down again.

After a while the dancing raisins became less active as the carbon dioxide leaves the 7-Up (this is what happens when soft drinks go flat).

We loved our Dancing Raisins.