6th class have been busier than ever since returning to school in March. We have settled right back into our learning and have happily said goodbye to Google Classroom for now! It has been absolutely wonderful being back together again and we are more than ready to make the most of our last term in primary school!
English
Writing
In March, when 6th class returned to school, we launched into learning all about procedural writing. We really enjoyed using interesting adverbs and time connectives in our writing and wrote a very topical procedure on ‘How to wash our hands’. We also wrote the procedure for how to make rice krispie buns and our teachers were so impressed with these that we put our procedures to the test in real life and made our very own rice krispie buns!
In April, we moved onto report writing and have really enjoyed listening to oral reports on countries and animals online. Sir David Attenborough has become a firm favourite among 6th class students. In our pods, we are working on our own oral reports based on various different animals. We are working really hard to gather lots of information about our animals before we begin to present.
Reading
In our reading lessons, we are working on determining importance and picking out the key pieces of information from a text. We have been practising using highlighters to mark the really important sentences and key words. This is also a great study skill we can use later in secondary school. Our guided reading lessons are still going strong with Ms. Lane’s and Ms. Synnott’s class reading non-fiction texts including magazine and newspapers articles which are proving to be very interesting. Meanwhile, Ms. Fleming’s and Mr. Ó’ Luasaigh’s 6th classes are working through their novels which they will be finished shortly!
Oral language
We are working on our communication and presentation skills in our oral language lessons, focusing on the use of formal vs. informal language over the past few weeks. We have discussed the importance of knowing our audience and choosing appropriate language to suit the conversation/discussion we are having.
Gaeilge
Ba é ‘Ag siopadóireacht an téama a bhí againn i rith mí an Mhárta agus Aibreáin. Scríobhamar scéalta faoi ‘Lá siopadóireacht’ agus rinneamar drámaíocht bunaithe ar ‘Míshásamh sa siopa’. Bhíomar ag cleachtadh na huimreacha agus an réamhfhocal ‘ó’ freisin.
Anois, táimid in ann na ceisteanna seo a fhreagairt:
- An maith leat ag siopdaóireacht?
- Cén siopa is fearr leat?
- Cén sórt siopaí nach maith leat?
- Cathain a théann tú ag siopadóireacht?
- Cén praghas atá air?
Maths
Since returning to school, 6th class have dusted off the rulers, metre sticks, measuring tapes and trundle wheels in their study of length, area and perimeter. We enjoyed looking at the concept of scales and designing our own house plans to a scale of our choice – we would need a good lotto win to put these plans into real life! We used measuring tapes and metre sticks to measure our own heights, the height of our desks and the length of our classroom. We were especially amused to realise that some 6th class students were taller than our teachers!
Other subjects
The countdown to secondary school is really on and we have absolutely loved having Ms. Kelly and Ms. Creedon in our classrooms with us each week, helping us to prepare for this transition. So far, we have discussed our expectations and worries about moving onto secondary school, we have studied timetables and discussed the importance of a good sleep routine. We are feeling more and more prepared for secondary school as the weeks go on.
To say 6th class students have developed green fingers over the last few weeks would be an understatement. After learning about what a plant needs to grow, the life cycle of a plant and how a plant reproduces (seed dispersal), we were ready to do some planting! Every child in 6th class has planted their own sunflower and are carefully monitoring their growth each week in our sunflower diaries. Some 6th classes didn’t stop there and decided to grow some vegetables too. We have planted everything from peas and spinach to radishes and beetroot! Checking the progress of our vegetables and sunflowers has become a really exciting part of our daily routines.
As you can see from the pictures below, our art has been greatly influenced by our science lessons. We thoroughly enjoyed painting some sunflowers and creating art based on our friend, the honeybee. We read the story ‘Flight of the Honeybee’ as inspiration for our art lessons and were surprised to learn just how important bees are in our ecosystem.
Take a look at the pictures below to see a sample of all of the fantastic work 6th class have completed over the last few weeks.
Well done 6th class, keep up the hard work!
Ms. Synnott, Ms. Fleming, Mr. Ó’ Luasaigh, Ms. Lane :)