Junior School News January 2025
Preschool Lower
As the New Year begins, the Preschool Lowers have been discussing things they would like to get better at this year. The girls shared their ideas from drawing and counting to running and swimming. They illustrated their ideas inside stars which are on display in our classroom.
KG Lower Assembly
On Friday 10th January 2025, KG Lower presented their first ever whole class assembly in front of the school. We learned all about the New Year and making New Year’s resolutions. A New Year's resolution is a goal or thing you want to practise over the year. Some of our goals included learning to cycle without stabilisers, helping with dishes at home and practising gymnastics. We made beautiful posters to display our gorgeous artwork and our excellent handwriting. These will be on display on our window to show everyone how fabulous we are. We all are so excited to work on our goals this year. Happy New Year from KG Lower!
Weather Girls in KG Lower
This month, we have been learning all the vocabulary associated with the theme of the weather. We spoke about the types of weather we can have like stormy weather, rainy weather and sunny weather. We talked about how we had frost on the ground a few weeks ago and how we also had fog making it hard to see outside. The girls then all took turns telling the class their favourite type of weather and they created absolute masterpieces of work. These are displayed on the wall for the whole school to see our beautiful writing. In Irish, we have also been talking about An Aimsir so the girls are practising describing the weather in Irish. They are getting so much more confident with their Irish. Whichever girl is our leader of the day also has the special job of being our weather girl. They look out of our new funky window glasses and tell us what they see. We are working on our sentence structures so each day the weather girl says our "weather sentence of the day". We love learning about the weather!
KG Upper Science Experiments
KG Upper carried out an experiment to find out what materials are waterproof and not waterproof. We had a lot of fun testing out lots of different things including plastic bags, rubber gloves, paper and tin foil. The children predicted the results, recorded and discussed their findings. We really enjoyed being scientists!
J2R Student-Led Assembly
On Tuesday, 21st January, some of the J2R girls performed a student-led assembly on animals from around the world. Each girl in the class had researched an animal of their choice and created a poster to show their information and drawing. Half of the class were involved in this assembly as the other girls in the class had led assembly on a previous occasion. The animals featured were: cat, horse, capybara, penguin, koala, panda, owl, alpaca and bear. All of the posters are on display outside the J2R classroom. Well done J2R!
J2W Chinese New Year Project and Assembly
J2W have started the New Year with a bang. We have been very busy doing lots of interesting projects and activities. This month we have been learning all about China.
We started off learning facts about the country China and making projects all about it. We also completed art inspired by Chinese vases and cherry blossom trees. You can find our artwork displayed on our corridor outside the classroom. We then learned about Chinese New Year. This year it is being celebrated on the 29th of January. It was very interesting and we learned a lot about their traditions and compared them to our own New Year’s traditions. We got to use our imaginations and write diary entries from the perspective of someone celebrating Chinese New Year. We also decided to make our own Chinese New Year lanterns and hang them up in our classroom.
We have included some pictures of our amazing projects and artwork. We cannot wait to share all we have learned about China in our student-led assembly!
J3 Visit to the National Gallery of Ireland
In January, as part of Art Appreciation Month in the Junior School, the J3 students visited the National Gallery of Ireland. They explored the AIB Young Portrait Prize exhibition showcasing contemporary portraits by artists aged 18 and under. The girls compared these modern portraits with artworks dating back to the 16th century. They also had the exclusive opportunity to view the Turner exhibition of watercolours, which is only on display during the month of January. In the gallery's creative space, the girls created their own artwork. Despite the chilly weather, it was a lovely way to commence the term with art and to celebrate Art Appreciation Month.
J3W Maths Work
Over the last few weeks, J3W enjoyed a playful approach to their maths work as they discovered the concepts of area and perimeter through hands-on explorations. Students returned to the maps they had created for their “Design a Zoo” project and used a mixture of LEGO elements and cubes to support their maths investigations. They used LEGO elements to mark out the perimeter before using the cubes to help them establish the surface areas of their animal enclosures. The girls in J3W then used mini whiteboards, working in pairs to establish different strategies for calculating the area.
J4W
J4W had a productive January! When it comes to maths, we have finished tackling long multiplication and we are now onto shapes. We are currently learning about the properties of 2D shapes, engaging in hands-on learning and meaningful discussions.
We learnt all about light during our science lessons. Following on from our lesson about shadows, we created this shadow artwork.
We are currently researching Ancient Egypt and are particularly interested in the gruesome process of mummification! We are nearly finished reading our novel ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’ and have thoroughly enjoyed the characters and themes throughout the story.
J5W January Update
Spring Painting
We are ready to welcome spring into our classroom with our new spring art. We used a mixture of blue and green acrylic to create our natural landscapes. We added a pop of colour to create some spring flowers such as bluebells, primroses, daffodils and crocuses.
Fractions
J5W have been tackling a lot of fractions in our maths lessons this month, with the help of Ms Hemingway. We used pizza fractions, jenga blocks and fraction wheels to explore more equivalent fractions and percentages, as well as improper, mixed and adding fractions.
Spanish Food Tasting
This month in Spanish classes, the J4, J5 and J6s took part in a food tasting class. They tried a variety of Spanish cuisine from Queso Manchego to Tortilla de Patatas!
Leinster Minor Schools Swimming Gala
Sophie and Llanka swam for Alex on Sunday, 19th January in the Leinster Minor Schools Swimming Gala in the National Aquatic Centre (NAC). They both did really well. Sophie qualifies for the Irish National Schools Gala in the 50m free and 100 Individual Medley (IM). Congratulations to both girls and we wish them continued success in their forthcoming events!
Music Assembly
On Thursday, January 9th, we had our first music assembly of 2025. Ellie played Hunting Song on the piano followed by Lola playing Hot Cross Buns on the tin whistle. Next, we had Ruby on the saxophone. She played Amazing Grace. Cara then played Allegro Assai on piano and lastly we had Llanka playing Chanson Triste on the violin. We enjoyed listening to everyone perform and thank you to all the teachers who helped prepare the students.
Hit-the-wall-football with J5
On a freezing Friday afternoon in January, our J5s warmed to the challenge of playing a fun indoor football game called ‘hit-the-wall-football’ in the HWC. Teams were chosen at random, bibs were donned, hockey sticks were returned to their bags and soccer skills took the place of our usual hockey skills. Games were timed and in the event of a draw, the first team player to kick the ball against the target wall were deemed the winners! A fun afternoon was had by all and our score official, Molly, did an excellent job monitoring the goals scored and goals missed! Well done to everyone involved.
Reaction Running with J6
This month our theme in P.E. has the abbreviation ‘BRAVE’. It represents the following areas of being physically fit for all the actions in a busy lifestyle such as balance, reaction time, agility and ability, velocity (speed of the task or movement involved in the particular challenge) and endurance (having the stamina to complete the chosen task).
All our classes have embraced the topic with great interest. We are delving into the exciting aspects of being physically fit and we are learning how each element adds to the jigsaw of our daily activity. A little note of thanks to 1st Year students Ava, Audrina and Mia who ably assisted in the making of the circuit. Well done to you all.