Ms. Mullane's 4th - St Patricks BNS

If you do not have  books in your possession, don't worry you can follow this programme very easily. It will just take 2-3 minutes to find the books online. Ask someone at home to help you if you think this bit is tricky.
CjFallon has some great resources so feel free to explore all of them and pick topics that may interest your own learning.
Follow this link to bring you to the ‘CJFallon’ resources:
https://my.cjfallon.ie/dashboard/student-resources/?levels=0&classes=0&subjects=0&serieses=0&booktitles=0&types%5B0%5D=Book+Sample
Also https://www.folensonline.ie/registration/
(Note: parents will need to enter their name and email address)

Parents/Guardians:

We know that keeping your children busy at home during the COVID-19 school closure may be testing. It is important to ensure that your home is as stress free as possible. Picking a suitable time each day, maybe the morning, for him to partake in learning tasks is a good idea. This can become a good habit during this closure. Your son's class /SEN teacher has prepared learning tasks specific to his class which you will find in the webpage below under the teacher's name. These will help to support his learning at this time. We encourage our pupils to engage in these learning tasks and activities at a suitable time during the day at home over the course of the closure. As parents, you will know the length of time which is suitable for your son to spend on learning activities during the day. Remember Stress-free is important ! And so is learning!

Any pupil who uses the Toe by Toe book Phonics program is encouraged to practise with an adult daily if possible.

It is also very important to have fun and exciting activities to keep those young minds busy and sharp. Boardgames, reading, painting, tidying, helping out with house chores etc.

Here are some websites with digital learning games and activities recommended by our Home School Community Links Teacher Ronan Lettis. (if your son as access to the internet.)

To get a good child friendly family workout at home, join:
https://app.gonoodle.com/login
For literacy and numeracy games:
https://play.prodigygame.com/
https://www.arcademics.com/games
https://ie.ixl.com/
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/

For Comic Artist Will Sliney's daily art challenge: https://twitter.com/WillSliney/status/1238200152915132418

For general learning websites:
https://www.scoilnet.ie/
http://www.helpmykidlearn.ie/
www.mykidstime.com

Free Month access to:
Dear parent,
Also, twinkl are offering parents one-month free membership on their website. Go to www.twinkl.ie/offer and use the password IRLTWINKLHELPS.

Parents here are some learning activities to support your son's education at home: Ms. Mullane's 4th Class

English
Read Tom Crean novel (roughly 2 chapters per day)
Write a summary after every 2 chapters

Free writing - 15 - 20 mins per day

English pack: 1-2 sheets to be complete per day

Spellings: Continue as normal
2 sentences per night on new spellings

Maths
One Maths Challenge test a day

Maths pack: to be completed at your child's own pace

Practice all times tables
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/

Explore maths language at home. E.g time, measuring, baking,

Project work:
Complete a project on a country of your choice (Can be done as poster, booklet or powerpoint - option is yours)
Possibly look at: Culture, physical features, places of interest, history, famous people, map, flag, include pictures, fact file, etc.

Play board games, card games

‘Go noodle’ website for movement activities


What you need:
Novel: Tom Crean
English copy
Free writing copy
English and maths pack
Spellings and tables book

Maths Challenge book
Maths copy

Project sheet

Ms. Mullane's class
Ms.Mullane's class are a fantastic bunch of boys. They are doing some very nice activities like  going on maths trails, playing in school football matches , going to the Parents' Group book sale. A lady came in and talked to them about birds and how to protect nests and habitats. They enjoy going up to the library, they love their new yard, leaf tracing for Art, lunch time games, and new equipment that they use to have fun at playtime.

Habitat Study

Our class did a habitat study of various locations on our school grounds. We discovered that there are many different habitats such as under logs, trees, hedgerows, under leaves, school garden area, woods area, cracks in concrete etc. Our class created a ‘Conservation Code’ which we used to make sure that we wouldn’t damage any creatures or their habitats. We worked in teams and explored living, non-living and once living items within our group quadrant (we used a hula hoop!). We found minibeasts such as beetles, woodlice, spiders, worms, slugs etc. We used a pooter to carefully pick up the fast legged creatures! Afterwards we returned to the classroom and studied the creatures. We selected one creature and examined it by using a magnifying jar. Next we used a ’Minibeast Key’ sheet to identify the creatures we had found.  Following that, we drew diagrams and labelled them.  Once we were finished we returned the minibeasts safely back to their habitats (home). We thought this science activity was fun, we enjoyed it and we can’t wait for more activities like this.

By: Jamie Hogan and Tommy Walsh.

Crawford Art Gallery
On the 13th of February our class excitedly walked to the Crawford Art Gallery in the city centre. We’d never been there before so we were curious to see what would be inside.
We firstly entered a large room where there were many large and impressive marble statues. Our friendly guide then brought us to an exhibition area which had many different types of paintings and pictures by many fantastic artists. This artwork was based around the topic of ‘Heroes and Villains’. There was a cool photograph of Cork’s Roy Keane holding the claw of a raven up by his eye. It was interesting to discuss why some see Roy as a hero but others view him as a villain. There was another of Satan falling from the sky with angels flying in the background. There was even a painting of Hitler’s wife. We amazingly saw a print called ‘Le Vieux Roi’ (The Old King) by the famous artist Pablo Picasso. We saw one painting based around Hell! Many of the pieces were very colourful and we had to use our imaginations to work out what was happening in some of them.

We then moved onto an exhibition dedicated to the artistic and archaeological work of George Victor Du Noyer. We saw many of his drawings and sketches based around Irish nature and landscape, especially The Giants Causeway, which he loved.
Finally, at the end of our visit, we got to sit down and draw some of our own pictures which was great fun. We all really enjoyed our trip to the art gallery and we would definitely like to visit it again someday.
By: Raphael Brosnan, Raymond Mooney and Luke Wolfe

4 th Class to UCC
On the 19 th of October both fourth classes went on a trip to UCC for a tour of the campus.
Once we arrived we excitedly greeted our lovely, German guide, Nadine.
Firstly, Nadine took us through an artistic archway to see the college crest which was divided into three sections. We discovered that it was bad luck to step on the crest as you’d fail your exams.
Next we went to the fascinating Crawford Observatory which has three huge telescopes and a domed roof that opens.
Then we went to the Honan Chapel which has thousands of mini mosaic floor tiles. These created 33 fish, each representing a year of Jesus’ life. We also noticed beautiful stained glass windows.
Following that Nadine showed us unusual standing stones with ogham writing inscribed on them.
Finally we were presented with mini gowns which made us feel like mini Harry Potters! Nadine then officially presented us with UCC certificates.
It was a great outing and we hope to study there when we’re older.

By: Rory Ryan, Ryan McClue and Jack Hourigan

4th Class Interviews

We interviewed a fourth class boy. Here are his thoughts.
What is your name? Darragh Malony
What are your favourite hobbies outside of school?
Skateboarding, soccer and G.A.A.
Why do you like about your hobbies?
They keep me fit.
What’s the biggest change from last year to this year?
The subjects.
My favourite subject is English.
My favourite game in Lunchtime Pals is one touch.

By Ben Heffernan

A Trip to the Lifetime Lab

On Tuesday the fifth of April my class, Ms. Mullane, Ms. Lohan and I went to the Lifetime Lab to learn about science. At ten, we departed school and travelled to the lab by bus. Upon arrival, we were given a warm welcome by our instructor, Úna.
Once we entered the classroom, Úna told us the area of science we were going to be investigating. We were going to be exploring electrical energy. I was in a group with Ben Connolly and Farhan Fahim.
After that, Úna set us our first assignment which was to light a lightbulb. Úna gave us a bag of materials which included a battery, battery holder, lightbulb, lightbulb holder and two clip wires.
First, we inserted the lightbulb and the battery into their separate holders, then clipped the wires onto the holders little bolts, and the bulb lit up! We had created a circuit!
Soon after, Úna set us a tougher challenge where we had to still get the bulb to light up, but without the battery holder! My team and I had a solution though. We clipped a wire onto the positive side of the battery, but it wasn’t so easy on the negative side, where there was no bolt to clip onto. So we had to touch the clip to the battery for it to work.
Our next task was to work a motor, and attach a plastic shamrock, just for looks. We had to connect the clips onto the little bolts on the bottom of the motor and then it spun!
Next we had to work a buzzer, which made an annoying sound. My team managed to work the buzzer AND the motor together at the same time! (This involved a bit of work!)
After that, Úna taught us about conductors and insulators. A conductor is an object that allows energy and heat to pass through and an insulator is the opposite.
Soon after, we had lunch and then went up to the playground for a run around.
When we came back in, Úna set us the task of going around the lab looking for conductors and insulators. The bulb would light up if it was a conductor and if it didn’t it was an insulator. Some examples of conductors are tin foil, nails, an empty can and a spoon as they all contain metals. Some examples of insulators were wood, duct tape and a blackboard.
Afterwards we did something which was great fun! Úna gave us a sort of house made from a cardboard box which we had to stick the bulb into and flick a switch so that the bulb would turn on or off. Our challenge was to keep all the wires of our circuit hidden outside the box and to get the switch to work.
Finally we did one last experiment. We had to make a ‘Scoobie’. We had to connect a motor and a battery to a brush and watch it move across the floor!
We had a brilliant, enjoyable and interesting day. I hope I get the opportunity to go again!

By: Shane Ryan, Ms. Mullane’s Fourth class

Fourth Class Hurling Blitz

Hello, my name is Shane Ryan from Ms. Mullane’s fourth class, and today I’m going to write about the fourth class hurling blitz.

On the ninth of February, 10 boys from each fourth class were picked to go to Whitechurch Community Hall for a fourth class hurling blitz. The boys from our school partaking were Kane O’ Brien, Michael Quill, Alex Quinlan, Scott Lawler, Kian Nelligan, Evan Lane, Conor O’ Callaghan, Oran Ross , Connor McDonagh and myself.

There were also six schools partaking including Mitchelstown N.S., Scoil Oilibhéir, Scoil Iosagáin, Cloghroe N.S., Charleville B.N.S. and us, St. Patrick's B.N.S.
There were two groups, each with three teams. In our group, there was us, Charleville and Cloghroe and in the other group were Scoil Oilibhéir, Scoil Iosagáin and Mitchelstown.

The first game was Cloghroe vs. Charleville, which Cloghroe won. The second game was Scoil Oilibhéir vs. Mitchelstown, which Mitchelstown won, and then the third game was us, up against Cloghroe where we narrowly lost.  Cloghroe were through.

After our loss, Mitchelstown played Scoil Iosagáin which Mitchelstown won. That meant two teams had booked themselves a spot in the semi- final. The next game was a decider to see who would go through in our group; we were playing Charleville. We took an early lead, but Charleville came back to win by a goal, which meant that unfortunately, we were out of the competition.  
For the decider in the other group, Scoil Iosagáin beat Scoil Oilibhéir. Two out, three to go!
So, to kick off the semi finals, favourites Mitchelstown were knocked out by Charleville. In the other semi- final, Scoil Iosagáin beat Cloghroe. The final was going to be Scoil Iosagáin versus Charleville.
Charleville were the underdogs to us, but amazingly, Charleville won the final!
We were unhappy that we could not win, but we were glad that we got to take part in the tournament and we would love to do it again!

                           By Shane Ryan, Fourth Class.

Fourth Class Animal Reports
Hello, my name is Shane Ryan, from Ms. Mullane’s fourth class.  I’m a new member of The Reporters Group and I’m going to tell you some things we’re doing in class. Today I’m telling you about our class doing Animal Reports.
First we had to think of an animal. For lots of people, that was very hard, seeing as straight away most of the animal ideas people wanted to do were taken to write about.
Then, we had to write it out. So first we had to have a classification, to describe what it is. Secondly, a description to say what it looks like and what it has. After that, we had to say where it is located. Finally we had to describe its dynamics, which means what it can do.
After that, we had to get our teacher to correct it, and then we took it to the computer room to type it up. We also got to change our font and choose a border and a picture.
My animal was a Mountain Gorilla. I quite enjoyed researching and typing it. I really liked Kevin Lins’ report on the panda. If you would like to see the rest of our reports, in the next couple of days they will hopefully be hanging up outside our classroom.
This is my first report and I hoped you enjoyed it.
   By: Shane Ryan (fourth class)