Junior School News February 2025
Celebrating the Chinese New Year
On Thursday, 30th January, we held a special assembly to celebrate the Chinese New Year. We had presentations from Preschool to J6 and also from some students from 2nd Year in the Senior School. We learned facts about the festival and saw traditional outfits and decorations. Well done to all of the girls who participated. We hope that you enjoyed your celebrations and thank you for sharing this event with us in the Junior School.
Celebrating the Lunar New Year
On Wednesday, 12th February, we marked the Lunar New Year at assembly. Eunsel (J3R), Yesol (KG Upr), Chloe (J5R) and Chloe (J3R) made an informative PowerPoint presentation which told us that over 2 billion people celebrate the Lunar New Year. They told us about the traditional hanbok clothes which are worn as well as the food and games at this special time of year. Thank you to all of the girls involved. We enjoyed learning about this event.
The Lunar New Year is celebrated all around Asia, not just in China, but that doesn't mean they celebrate it the same way! The Korean and Chinese Lunar New Years aren’t the same, but don’t worry, we’ll show you around.
This year is the year of the snake. There are twelve zodiac animals: the rat, the ox, the tiger, the rabbit, the dragon, the snake, the horse, the goat, the monkey, the rooster, the dog and the pig. Most of us in J3 were born in the year of the horse (2014), the goat (2015) or the monkey (2016).
The Korean Lunar New Year is about two weeks long, but the main event is on the first day of the lunar calendar, which was January 24th this year.
During the Lunar New Year, Koreans eat a soup called tteokkuk, which is a soup with rice cakes and dumplings in it. Tteokkuk’s significant meaning is becoming older and wiser.
Children also do sebae, which is a type of bow that is done to their elders. In return, they give their later generation money, wishing them to do well in everything they do.
Koreans also have their traditional games to play on Seollal, like ttakjichigi and yutnori. Ttakjichigi only needs four sheets of square paper. Two of the square pages are folded in a special way to make one square. The same is done with the second pair of square pages. You must then try and slap your pieces of paper, or ttakji, on your opponent’s ttakji on the ground. If you manage to flip over their ttakji, you win! Yutnori is a game that involves throwing four sticks and a game board to move the pieces on and to try and capture your opponent’s pieces by landing on them.
The Korean Lunar New Year is a special time of year for Koreans to meet and greet their family and friends.
Look to the Future Day - Celebrating One Hundred Days in School!
The 4th of February marked one hundred days since the start of the school year. The Student Council decided that they wanted to do something to mark the occasion. We decided on a Career Day where everyone has to look to the future and decide what they want to be when they are older. We were very impressed by the amazing costumes of so many different jobs from dolphin trainers to doctors and teachers. We also loved hearing lots of discussion about why different girls wanted to have these jobs in the future.
The Student Council led the assembly and discussed what they wanted to be when they were older and why. The J5 and J6 Student Council representatives Martha, Zoe, Annie and Emily also made a great surprise video where the teachers talked about what they wanted to be when they were ten years old. They did an amazing job and everyone really enjoyed it.
St Valentine's Day in PS Upper!
The girls in Preschool Upper had such fun making St. Valentine’s Day cards, ladybugs and love hearts. They also enjoyed colouring in St.Valentine’s Day pictures and had fun painting love hearts on red sheets of paper. They particularly enjoyed making a sensory plate love heart using gel, coloured beads and multicoloured shapes and they looked absolutely beautiful. They also celebrated Friendship Week making hearts with a special message to their friends which they were so proud of. They enjoyed listening to friendship story books and books celebrating St. Valentine's Day.
Ms Murphy and Ms Potts
J2W
February was a very busy month in J2W. We started off by celebrating one hundred days of being in school with a” Look to the Future Day”. We thought about what we wanted to be when we grow up. We discussed and wrote about it in class and then we all dressed up. There were so many different jobs from fashion designers to managers of shops and we all had a great day.
We also spent a lot of time discussing friendship to celebrate Friendship Week. We read “The Snail and the Whale” by Julia Donaldson and discussed how the snail and the whale were good friends to each other and how we could be good friends to each other in school. We then wrote about it in our copies. We also made friendship bracelets and each girl from the class got one. We had a lovely time celebrating Friendship Week and learning about how we can be good friends to everyone in the class.
J3W Assembly
J3W did a fantastic job of explaining what they believe friendship to be in assembly, as part of Friendship Week. Each group brainstormed friendship words that began with the letters F, R, I, E, N, D and S and then they came together to write a class acrostic poem. We rounded off the lesson by completing kindness cards, for people who have shown us friendship recently- an easy way to make someone smile and know that they are appreciated!
J4W
J4W has been doing lots of great, hands-on learning in the past few weeks. The girls had lots of fun exploring length and measurement out in the yard. As we are learning about the Ancient Egyptians, the girls used clay to make their very own sarcophagus. To celebrate St. Valentine's Day, we practised self-love and affirmations and created some affirmation crafts. The girls were so lucky to have Ms Higgins come into the classroom and discuss states of matter with them. The class learnt all about non-Newtonian fluids and made their very own oobleck! As spring is now with us, J4W will be looking at spring poetry in the next few weeks.
Ms Shaw
J5R February Update
J5R Class Assembly
On Friday 31st January, J5R held their second class assembly of the academic year. The theme of this assembly was the novel which the J5s have been recently studying, “The Little Bee Charmer of Henrietta Street” by author Sarah Webb. The class has thoroughly enjoyed the novel so far, and created posters of each of the bee quotes used to introduce each new chapter of the book. They also drew images inspired by the novel including the front and back cover, the poster of the circus included in the book, a map of Henrietta Street as well as a timeline of Henrietta Street around the time the story was set. Have a look at the girls’ fabulous drawings, designs and calligraphy. So much hard work and effort was put into making such brilliant posters. Well done on a terrific assembly, girls, you all presented so well.
J5 Career Day
To mark the 100th day of school this year, the Student Council hosted ‘Career Day’. All of the students were invited to dress up as the dream career they’d like to have when they are older. We had such an assortment of chosen professions in J5R. The most popular career choice was a CEO or a businesswoman. Check out some of the girls’ fantastic outfits!
J5R St. Valentine's Flowers
Take a look at J5R's incredible St. Valentine's Day flower bouquets. J5R used a mix of Ms Sheerin's sticky-notes and square shaped pieces of paper in different colours and sizes to create these wonderful bouquets. They used string and ribbon to tie the bouquets together along with a tag with a St. Valentine’s message for the recipient.
J5 Cinema Trip to Dundrum - Moana 2
At the end of last term, J5R and J5W took a trip to Movies @ Dundrum for a well-deserved cinema visit to see the Disney film ‘Moana 2’. The girls were so excited about their cinema trip and had such a brilliant day out!
J5W February Update
Rose Day Assembly
To celebrate St. Valentine's Day this year, the J5W class explored Rose Day and the various meanings of different coloured roses.
Saint Brigid's Day
To mark the start of spring, J5W used rushes to make Saint Brigid's Day crosses.
J6W Assembly
For the past few weeks, J6W has been learning all about Africa. We learned the countries, capitals and flags and we also started projects on African animals, such as aye-ayes, black mambas and okapis. We created an A3 poster of our animal and enjoyed telling the school about these creatures.
Music Assembly
At assembly on Thursday, 6th February, we enjoyed the performances of four piano players. Harriet J2 played "Sprightly", Lily J2 played "Get Up And Go Blues", Emma J3 played “Happy Birthday" and finally Sophia J4 played “Mountain Rill". Well done to everyone who played, we all really enjoyed it.
Speech and Drama/Public Speaking Exams
Two weeks ago, 177 students took their Speech and Drama / Public Speaking exams with The Leinster School of Speech and Drama. Ms. Coffey, our examiner, was so impressed with each and every student. All students received First Class Honours. A wonderful achievement! In addition to this, we are delighted to announce that 17 students from J5 and J6 were awarded medals for their exam, having receiving a grade of 95% or over. A fantastic achievement! The medals were presented to the students at assembly this week by their teachers Ms Quinn and Ms Crowley. Congratulations to you all!
Sports Report February 2025
J5 St. Valentine's Day Mini-Hockey Challenge
The J5 students may have spent their St. Valentine’s Day in their ‘pj’s’, but they were far from sleepy as they enthusiastically represented their teams for their mini-hockey skills blitz which we held in the Henrietta White Centre. We had dribbling, goal shooting, reverse-turning and passing through gates along with relay team dribbling and the pressurised timed ‘Keepy-uppies’ as each player worked hard for their teammates to secure points for their efforts.The Green team, ably captained by Jane got the highest score and won their heart! Non-bibs were second, followed by the pink and orange teams.
Annika won a special award for overall outstanding team spirit for her orange team. Well done to her and to all our St. Valentine’s Day teams. A special word of thanks to our super assistants Molly, the official starter and Ada on scorekeeping sheet duty, to Margaret on first aid duty and to our TY students Alejandra and Sohee who were on work experience with us this week. Well done to you all.
Grab-A-Tag
Our mini-tag rugby programme has started with the Leinster developmental coach Ariel giving our J5 and J6 students some tips on safe play and fun with great tag games and the objective of showing our girls the value of movement and the enjoyment of being active. Great fun was had by all of our girls.
J6 Sports Captains Welcome Headfort Junior School for Mini-Hockey Matches
On Wednesday, January 29th, we welcomed a visiting team from Headfort Junior School to play in a fun mini-hockey blitz with our J6 players.Thankfully the weather conditions were perfect for all players to enjoy skilful passing, dribbling, running off the ball into space and accurate goal scoring opportunities in fun games with our visiting teams. Our tournament was played in round-robin format, with 12 minute matches one way, beginning and ending on a central whistle and with bonus points available for each team once 2 goals had been scored. This proved a great incentive to enthusiastic goal seekers! Goal keepers were in top form also and we saw some very dramatic dive saves going on! In the end, the Alex Red team came in joint first place with the Alex Greens, with Headfort A’s narrowly claiming runners up spot as the Alex Yellows and Oranges finished third and fourth places respectively. Well played to all players!
We ‘introduced’ Charlotte, although injured at the moment and excused from games, into the exciting world of umpiring! This she did effortlessly showing a great knowledge of the rules, allowing play to flow in a safe manner and with outstanding and enthusiastic whistling skills too. Well done!
There was great skilful play on show by all players. Congratulations girls and thank you to our Sports Captains and to Tilly and Sofia who did a brilliant job being in charge of the ‘helper team’ all afternoon.
