Day 4 of the Community Circus

The focus of today's Community Circus was balance. See how the class got on below!

Timez Attack

We used the laptops to play a game called Timez Attack today. This involved pupils guiding their computer character around different regions answering tables questions. This is a great help to both multiplication and division tables. It keeps track of the tables they have difficulty with and keeps presenting those until they get them right consistently.

Frenetic Fractions

We have started on fractions and had good fun playing games which involved identifying fractions and equivalent fractions. Unfortunately, we didn't have any real pizzas :(

Day 3 of the Community Circus

We have a very enjoyable day with the performers from the Community Circus. We practised a bit more juggling and you can really see progress.

Jigsaw Race

We have had good fun creating and using our jigsaw maps of Ireland. It has been a great activity to familiarise us with the location of all the counties in Ireland.

Beware of flying objects - jugglers at work!

5th class are thrilled to get the opportunity to train with the Galway Community Circus. Over a 10 week block (5 sessions this side of Christmas & 5 sessions after Christmas), performers from the circus will visit the school and teach our class how to perform various circus acts. Last week we drew up a Group Contract which is a set of rules for ourselves to ensure that we can work together safely and respectfully. We also played a few warm up games.

This week, we started juggling. We had a try at juggling balls, rings, bowling pins and scarves so there was a blur of colour flying through the sky in the school hall. Hard hats recommended for next week!

November Parent Teacher Meetings

Parent teacher meetings for our class will take place on Tue 20th, Wed 21st and Thur 22nd of November. Time slots will range between 2:30 and 5pm each day. There are also two time slots available on each of those mornings.  I am using an online form that allows you to choose a time slot convenient to you. Please find it at:

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090a4aaba92ba6ff2-mciarans2

Terrible Tangram Trouble

Tangrams are an old Chinese puzzle. They involve the use of variously sized 2d shapes (squares, triangles, parallelograms) to create other shapes and designs. In the pictures below, the children had to use all their pieces to make a square. There was much head scratching and pulling out of hair! It was hard to figure it out but great fun at the same time.

A rather spooky debate...

With the Presidential Election just one day away, we ran our own in-class debate today. The motion was "School uniforms are a good idea" which was a bit ironic as most of us were dressed up in our Halloween costumes! Proposing the motion were Natalia, Emmanuel, Merveille and Emma. Opposing the motion were Siobhan, Seán,, Eve and Albert.
Even with short preparation, each team did fantastically well to prepare, structure and rehearse their arguments. They made good use of debating language and addressed their audience superbly well with good eye contact and tone of voice.
Both teams had obviously researched their viewpoints well and created a strong case. Perhaps most importantly of all, each team gave opposition members the time and respect to make their points and then they listened acutely in order to create their own counter arguments to each point.
It was really encouraging to see each pupil being able to voice their opinions and the wider class played a great role in listening to all the arguments for and against and then voting on a winner. It was truly democracy in action. Well done all!

Halloween Disco

See all ours snaps from the Halloween Disco....