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....

Getting busy with LEGO WeDo 2.0

We had a very enjoyable time familiarising ourselves with LEGO robotics. Since it was the first time using it for many, we got a quick tutorial and then started building. First we built a basic propeller and then moved on to a simple car. After that, several groups started to make their own designs. We learned a lot such as:
 - Using tablets/laptops to connect to the LEGO hubs (via bluetooth)
 - Following the instructional steps to create our LEGO toys
 - Identifying and categorising LEGO parts
 - New vocabulary (ie naming parts) e.g. 2x4 bricks, triangular bricks, gears, axles, beams, hubs, sensors, pulleys, motors etc
 - Using the programming software to sequence the order of operations
 - How to problem solve when something didn't work (an important life skill!)