Science Projects

Volcano in Senior infants

2012-02-15T06:31:00.001-08:00

We had great fun making a volcano erupt! We added some bread soda to some vinegar and hey presto an eruption!!

String Telephone

2012-02-15T06:30:00.001-08:00

We used paper cups and string to make telephones. We found out that sound travels along the string. Our voices travelled much better when the string was pulled tight.

Balloon rockets in Senior infants

2012-02-15T06:29:00.000-08:00

We found out how to make our balloon rocket travel in a straight line by attaching it to a straw, which was connected to a long piece of string.We had great fun watching how far it would travel!

Rocket launch: Senior infants

2012-02-14T09:41:00.001-08:00

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 .....BLAST OFF!!

All about magnets: Senior infants

2012-02-14T08:48:00.001-08:00

Making a life jacket in Junior infants

2012-02-09T11:33:00.001-08:00

Gardening in Spring: Senior infants

2012-02-02T11:29:00.001-08:00

Exploring floating and sinking: Junior infants

2012-02-02T11:24:00.001-08:00

February Nature Walk: Senior infants

2012-02-02T11:20:00.001-08:00

We went on a nature walk yesterday to mark the 1st of February.We saw buds on the trees and we saw daffodils that are just about to pop out! Lots of birds were chirping so it felt very Spring -like.

The fox: Junior infants

2012-01-31T11:00:00.000-08:00

We learned all about the fox.

Some facts we can tell you;

Male fox - dog fox

Femal fox - vixen

Baby - cubs.

The foxes home is called a den.

The fox eats rabbits, frogs, chickens, mice. We think the gingerbread man had a close escape from the fox!!!

Day and Night in Junior infants

2012-01-30T06:48:00.002-08:00

We discussed the difference between day and night. We talked about why we only do certain things during the and the reasons we dont do alot of things after dark.

We learned the world spins on it axis and turns once to make day time and night time. We had a sun the earth and a moon. When the part of the earth was looking at the sun, and the sun's light was shining on the earth it is day time and the part of the world the sun can not see is in darkness, it is night time. Some of the earth has day time and some of the earth has night time. We learned when it is day time in Ireland, it is night time the other side of the world in Australia.

Our senses: Listening

2012-01-30T06:48:00.000-08:00

We've been learning about our senses and we know that some people in the world can not hear or see. Using blind fold we examined how we use each sense. We took turns with a partner, one was the leader and the other the listener. The partner carefully guided their friend our obstacle course using their listening skills.

Making jelly in Junior infants

2012-01-26T04:04:00.001-08:00

Last few weeks we have been talking about materials. Today we were talkin about jelly-different flavours, what we eat it with, when we eat it, where we can get jelly. Then teacher showed us the jelly. It was in shapes of cubes. Ms.Crotty asked us if we knew how to make jelly- and we told her how. Teacher boiled the kettle and we talked about how dangerous boiling water is and how only adults should touch a kettle and boiling water. We heard the kettle boil and watched the steam. We placed the jelly in the bowl and added the water to it. We watched the jelly dissolve and we stirred it and the water turned red and all the jelly melted / dissolved. We placed in the fridge and we hope tomorrow that we will have wibbly wobbly jelly.

JELLY IS SET

Today we went to the fridge and we discovered our jelly had set. It was not watery anymore. Instead it was wobbly and jiggly. The bowl felt very cold as well. The cold fridge helped the jelly to set. Yummy, yummy strawberry jelly.

Sense of Touch in Junior Infants

2012-01-23T11:16:00.001-08:00

Design a bridge in Junior Infants

2012-01-11T09:51:00.003-08:00

Today we looked at different kinds of bridges, some have wires, some have arches and some have towers. We tried to make a bridge using a sheet of paper between towers of blocks. We discovered that the bridge was too weak with just paper so somebody decided that we needed to use something stronger as the road over the bridge. Here are the things we tried and the results we got:

The lid of the block container............................ very strong

Paper by itself....................................................very weak

Paper with the sides turned up........................... very strong

Paper with an arch under it.................................very strong

Card .................................................................weak

Move the tower blocks a little closer and use the card................................strong

Have a look at the photos to see our results

Engineering with LEGO in Senior infants

2012-01-10T11:18:00.001-08:00

Our newest cocoon

2011-12-29T03:36:00.001-08:00

Confused about the difference between moths and butterflies? cocoons, chrysalis and pupa?

Try out this site http://www.bugs.org/bugquiz/answers/butterfly_moth.shtml

Hope this helps.

Watering the daffodils in Junior infants

2011-12-22T04:04:00.001-08:00

We know that all plants and flowers and bulbs need water to grow. Yesterday we gave our flowers a huge drink of water because we won't be in school to feed them for a long time.Teacher will pop in next week to give them more water ....

Spring bulbs in senior infants

2011-12-22T00:26:00.000-08:00

We planted tulips and daffodils yesterday .We ll know when spring comes because up they ll pop!

Fingerprints and measuring in Senior infants

2011-12-20T06:50:00.001-08:00

Forces: Pop Top and Make a Spray

2011-12-19T06:55:00.001-08:00

New caterpillar in Senior infants

2011-12-19T06:54:00.001-08:00

Monday, December 19th, 2011

Teacher found a very green caterpillar outside on the frosty step. She has rescued it, and we will look after it in school and give it nice leaves to eat and water to drink. Hopefully it will turn into a healthy moth (or butterfly).

Forces with a hair dryer

2011-12-16T12:19:00.001-08:00

Forces Experiments

Gravity and Air

Teacher had a hair dryer and some balls of different weights and sizes.

After chatting about what the balls were made of, and what the balls are filled with, we put the balls in order, starting with the heaviest and finishing with the lightest.

The bouncy rubber ball was heaviest, the ping pong ball was next and the polystyrene ball was the lightest.

Next, we watched what happens when we let go of a ball:- each one falls to the ground because gravity is acting on it.

We took out the hairdryer, and guessed first what would happen if we put each ball into the slipstream and let the force (air) act on it.

We got so good at this that we could even manage to balance two balls in the slipstream.

A rubber bouncy ball does not float at all!

A little polystyrene ball will float up in the air stream, but is not heavy enough, or have a strong enough gravitational force to stay in the slipstream. It just bounces away, every time.

So, what happens if we use a cardboard cylinder (a toilet roll or a kitchen roll) to make sure all the air travels upwards and not to the side.

The ping pong ball is pushed up much higher.

Sense of smell in Junior infants

2011-12-08T06:46:00.001-08:00

Experimenting with sound

2011-12-08T06:33:00.001-08:00

Different notes according to the size of the elastic band!

Playing our straw whistles.

Look what happens when a sound vibrates. It makes the air around it vibrate. Then when these vibrations hit the ear, our brains turn the vibrations into noise, and that is what we hear.
In space, where there is no air, it is very quiet. That is because there is no air to vibrare near the sound, and so the vibrations don't reach the astronauts' ears, so no sound is heard.

Learning about skeletons in Senior infants

2011-12-06T14:38:00.001-08:00

Testing for acids in Senior infants

2011-12-06T14:33:00.001-08:00

WE TESTED DIFFERENT LIQUIDS AND BREAD SODA TO SEE IF THEY WERE ACIDIC OR NOT.
WE BOILED RED CABBAGE AND ADDED A SMALL AMOUNT OF ORANGE JUICE, APPLE JUICE, MILK, VINEGAR, BREAD SODA AND WATER TO THE CABBAGE JUICE.

WE FOUND OUT THAT APPLE JUICE, ORANGE JUICE AND VINEGAR TURNED THE PURPLE CABBAGE JUICE PINK.

WE FOUND OUT THAT BREAD SODA AND MILK TURNED THE CABBAGE JUICE BLUE OR A CLOUDY COLOUR.
WE KNOW WE MUST BRUSH OUR TEETH IF WE DRINK ACIDIC DRINK LIKE ORANGE JUICE AND APPLE JUICE!

Visit from Guzzler

2011-12-06T11:21:00.001-08:00

Learning about our senses in Junior Infants

2011-12-06T11:20:00.001-08:00

Today we learned all about the sense of hearing.

Everyone in our classes can use their ears to hear but we know that every one in the world does not have the sense of hearing.

We talked about all the ways we use our hearing; learning to talk, learnig in school, talking with friends and family, crossing the road, listening to music and the television.

We tried using just the sense of hearing today. This is what we heard when we concentrated hard on listening;

Footsteps

A car

A truck

Wind

The teacher in the classroom next to us talking

The whiteboard.

The we played a game using just our heaing to identify different actions.

Here are the ones we identified;

A tamberine

Shaking water in a bottle

A book being closed with a bang

Teacher typing on the keys of the laptop

Sharpening a pencil ( this was the hardest of all because we had to listen very carefully)

Making Butter in senior infants

2011-12-06T11:10:00.003-08:00

We made butter!We put cream in a flask and shook the flask.We shook and shook and shook.....and shook(for ten minutes!).... and finally the cream turned into yummy butter!!

It was worth all the hard work when we tasted it!

Planting cress seeds in Senior infants

2011-12-06T11:10:00.001-08:00

Prisms in Senior infants

2011-12-06T11:06:00.001-08:00

We looked at prisms on a sunny day.The light was split into all the colours of the rainbow!

Saving Energy

2011-12-05T06:48:00.000-08:00

Junior engineers in Senior Infants

2011-12-05T06:47:00.001-08:00

Monday, 5th December 2011.

We have been trying to make a big domino run in the classroom. It is great fun. We are particularly enjoying designing it so the run is quite long. Watch out for a great video on this when we make a really great one.

Growing bulbs in Senior infants

2011-12-04T13:09:00.001-08:00

We sowed some Hyacinth bulbs in our classroom. We sowed some of the bulbs in a pot of clay. We put one bulb in a glass of water. We sowed two more bulbs outside in our outdoor garden.

We will watch and see which bulbs grow the fastest and we will find out the reason why.

Our sense of sight: Junior infants

2011-12-01T13:04:00.001-08:00

Taste test in Junior infants

2011-12-01T12:58:00.000-08:00

We tasted sweeet, salty and sour foods. Teacher bought us salted popcorn, sour lemons and our favourite thing.... jellies. Look our faces and guess by our faces what food we are eating....

Rain, rain go away: Junior Infants

2011-11-30T08:54:00.001-08:00

We learned that some materials are very good at keeping out the rain. Umbrellas are a great way to keep the rain out.

Clap, clap your hands

very loud,

Stamp, stamp your feet

on the ground.

Hum high, hum low

Next a great big blow!

Listen, listen
To the rain.

Softly, softly

Down it came.

Absorption in Junior infants

2011-11-30T08:52:00.001-08:00

We learned about things made of wood and metal. We also looked at materials that soaked up water. We did an experiment to find objects that soaked up water.

We made these fantastic patterns using food dye and tissue paper. We folded the tissue into triangles and dipped the very tip of the tissue in the dye and watch how the tissue paper quickly soaked up the liquid.

Science week with Ms. Conneely's Junior infants

2011-11-30T08:48:00.001-08:00

We were learning all about magnets last week.

We were talking about the materials that are used to make the things we use every day; chairs, tables, lunch boxes, toys... We discovered lots of different materials; wood, plastic and metal. It was very easy to find the metal things because it is hard, cold, shiny, strong and our magnets would stick to it.

We also discovered that magnets are fussy things. They will not stick to just anything. In a magnet north repels north, south repels south, but north and south attract each other. In our experiment that meant that the two blue sides would not stick together no matter how hard we tried and the two red sides would not stick together but the blue and the red attracted each other and stuck together very quickly. In discovering this we learned that we could push and pull things using magnets or even make our magnets spin around in circles.

We tested lots of different things to see if they were magnetic. We recorded the things that were on our worksheet.

We placed the magnets in such a way that they repel each other and in so doing appear to be floating. We thought this was like MAGIC!!

Bird Watching in 2nd Class

2011-11-30T08:40:00.000-08:00

On Monday, Tom the birdwatcher came to our class. He did lots of activities with us. We made origami birds, drew birds and learnt about birds from around the world and in Ireland. We had a very enjoyable afternoon and hope that when the weather gets better, Tom will be able to bring us out bird watching.

Dancing sultanas in Junior Infants

2011-11-27T13:34:00.001-08:00

Our sense of taste in Junior infants

2011-11-27T13:32:00.001-08:00

Science week with Bubble Magic

2011-11-24T14:52:00.001-08:00

Last week was science week and we have been doing lots of science investigations and experiments. On Monday a man came to our school to teach us all about bubbles. He showed us some really cool things and we really enjoyed watching and learning from him.

He began by blowing small bubbles and then he made larger ones. He told us that in order to make a larger bubble you just need a bigger opening on your bubble wand. First he used what looked like a horn to blow big bubbles and then he used a really big round wand to make huge bubbles. This wand was so big that he couldn't blow it, instead he waved it through the air and the air in the room created the bubble for him!

He also showed us some really cool tricks like bouncing a bubble on bubble liquid, filling a bubble with smoke and even putting his hand inside a bubble without bursting it!!!

We learned that we can keep a bubble in the air by gently waving our hands underneath it to push the air up and we can see the seven colours of the rainbow on a bubble but that these colours change to a golden glow just before the bubble pops. We really enjoyed learning all about bubbles!

Fizzy rockets in Senior Infants

2011-11-23T10:20:00.000-08:00

We did a rocket experiment with Vitamin c tablets recently.We added water to full tablets,half tablets,and sometimes two or three tablets ,put the lid on and then counted down to blast off! It was exciting.Sometimes it took ten seconds.Sometimes it only took two.

Is it waterproof? Junior Infants: Room 1

2011-11-22T13:18:00.001-08:00

a glove
tissue paper

a chopping board
a raincoat

a sock
a plastic bag

a wellington boot

Today we talked about objects that are waterproof and need to be waterproof.....like coats, wellies, tents, umbrella's, our skin. We tested objects to investigate which were waterproof and which were not. Objects like plastic bags, plastic gloves, an umbrella, boots, and a raincoat were all waterproof and did not let the water through. Objects like tissue paper, newspaper and socks were not waterproof.

Magnets in Junior infants Room 1

2011-11-20T12:42:00.001-08:00

Today we talked about magnets. Magnets come in all shapes and sizes. We investigated with magnets in the classroom. We discovered they were attracted to metal objects and that they did not stick to materials made of wool, plastic, glass, wood or card. It was great fun trying to discover what the magnets would stick to.

Sense of taste in Junior infants

2011-11-20T12:33:00.001-08:00

This week we were talking about taste. We all sat opposite a partner and stuck out our tongue (which we were allowed to do on this occasion) to show them our taste buds. We all have taste buds that send a message to our brain and tell our brain what the food tastes like. So we tasted lots of food like chocolate, salt and vinegar crisps, lemon and natural yogurt, to test our taste buds and we got lots of different results.

Discovering magnets in Junior infants

2011-11-20T11:45:00.001-08:00

Making slime in Junior Infants

2011-11-20T11:44:00.001-08:00

Designing bridges: First class, Room 15

2011-11-20T11:31:00.000-08:00

Making paper helicopters in First class

2011-11-20T11:26:00.000-08:00

Making healthy fruit salad in Room 15

2011-11-20T11:20:00.000-08:00

Rocket morning

2011-11-15T11:46:00.001-08:00

Try our video maker at Animoto.

Rocket launch morning

2011-11-15T11:01:00.001-08:00

Rocket display morning

2011-11-14T07:01:00.001-08:00

Myspace Countdown Clock

Ready for our display day tomorrow

2011-11-14T07:00:00.001-08:00

Today we had the opportunity to launch another kind of air rocket. It is a Top Gear rocket.

It came from the home of one of the boys in our class.

This rocket was amazing. It flew so far straight up into the air. It took over 10 seconds to land back on the ground. It was amazing! Thank you so much for lending us your rocket for the morning. We had lots of fun with it.

Volcanoes on Venus

2011-11-11T14:12:00.001-08:00

We know that there are a lot of volcanoes on Venus. We know that there are some volcanoes on the Earth too. We know that they smell foul, that they can give off poisonous gasses and that they spit out very hot, red lava.

Today we made our own volcano in class.

Here are the things you need to make a volcano. You should get a tray to sit the volcano on, a small bottle and some vinegar and bread soda. If you would like the deluxe model, you also need some red food colouring to make the lava look red, and some wash-up liquid to make bubbles.

It was very exciting watching our volcano erupting.

There seemed to be a lot of gas made in this volcano. Was it enough to blow up a balloon? Take a look at this video to find out:

Now that we had a balloon filled with carbon dioxide gas, we wondered whether this gas was lighter or heavier than air. The people who thought it would be lighter than air, thought that the balloon would float when she let go (so they stood up), but those that thought it would be heavier than air and that it would just sink, they sat down on the ground. Look at the result! Who was right?

Next teacher blew up another balloon. We know that we breathe in Oxygen and breathe out Carbon Dioxide gas. That means that the balloon teacher inflated was now filled with Carbon Dioxide. We decided to drop both at the same time and see did they react in the same way? Some of us thought that maybe one would float and one would sink. To keep the test fair, both balloons had to be released at the same time. Look at what happened:

Craters on the moon

2011-11-11T14:11:00.001-08:00

Balloon rockets and fizzy rockets

2011-11-09T11:04:00.001-08:00

We wanted to launch a balloon rocket. First of all we tried to get our balloon to fly straight to teacher.
This was impossible, though we tried our best.

Some of us thought of other good ideas: putting a straw inside the balloon, tying the balloon to string, and tying string around the balloon.

These were good ideas, but they didn't help us fly the balloon in a straight line. Finally, with teacher's help, we taped the balloon to a straw with thread going through it. This worked really well. We had to figure out in which direction the balloon would fly, and whether we could get the balloon to fly uphill.

We did it!!! Another rocket success story!!

Helicopters and a dragster

2011-11-09T11:03:00.001-08:00

We have some helicopter blades. By attaching a balloon we can get our helicopter to fly. This took a little practice though. We even tried holding the helicopter upside down. Ms. Lally was our champion helicopter launcher!

We all took turns at powering a helicopter that got its energy from our hands rubbing together. Some of the class were very good at this!

We have a car that is powered by balloons. We had to figure out which way to point the balloon so that the car would move forward. We guessed correctly. This is what happens when the balloon faces one way, then the other!

Our favourite planets in Senior infants

2011-11-08T13:43:00.001-08:00

Launching water rockets: Ms. McLoughlin and Ms. Lally's classes

2011-11-07T10:02:00.001-08:00

Dancing raisins in Junior infants

2011-10-29T14:35:00.001-07:00

Today we carried out a Science experiment with raisins. We placed some raisins into water and the rasisins did not float and sunk to the bottom of the plastic glass. Then we placed aome raisins into fizzy 7up. The raisins bopped up and down like they were doing a dance. Ms.Crotty explained that the 7up was full of fizz, or little bubbles of carbon dioxide that caused the raisins to float to the top. We played some music so our rasisins could dance.

Planting bulbs in Junior infants

2011-10-29T14:34:00.000-07:00

Today we learned all about flowers and what they need to grow. They need sunshine, water or rain, soil or compost, and a flower pot. We each got a daffodil bulb and we whispered to our bulb....wishing it to grow. We then out some soil into a pot, placed the bulb into the pot and then placed some more soil over the bulb. We then watered them. We will keep them in our classroom and observe them every week. In the Springtime we should have some yellow daffodils.

Junior infant Autumn nature walk

2011-10-29T14:33:00.001-07:00

Today was a beautiful Autumn day and we went for a little nature walk. We observed lots of things. We saw the leaves and their different colours. Some of the leaves were on the ground, some were on the branches and some were even falling off the trees as were looking at them. We saw two nests, a spiders web and a holly bush with red berries. Autumn is a lovely season with lots of colours.

Launching air rockets: Ms. McLoughlin and Ms. Lally's classes

2011-10-28T15:51:00.001-07:00

We didn't quite get it right the first time, but every time after that the rockets flew like real rockets. They nearly made it to the moon!!!

I wonder will any of us become an astronaut when we are bigger and fly to the moon in a real rocket?
We certainly hope we will!

Straw rockets with Ms. Lally and Ms. McLoughlin's classes

2011-10-25T13:45:00.001-07:00

Pass the parcel: Examining materials, Senior infants

2011-10-17T12:38:00.001-07:00

Flying helicopters

2011-10-14T06:13:00.001-07:00

Friday, October 14th, 2011

We have been talking about helicopter seeds, and how they fly in the wind.

Today we made our own helicopters and we flew them in the class.

We tried changing direction of the helicopter spins (we did this by reversing the direction of the blades).
We raced the helicopters, some with paper clips and some without to see which would spin more and which would land first, and we raced big and small helicopters. We also looked at the shapes in the helicopters - we found and counted the rectangles in the helicopters. We really enjoyed this flying lesson!

Visit to St. Brigit's garden: Senior and Junior infants

2011-10-13T12:58:00.001-07:00

Looking at Autumn leaves in Senior infants

2011-10-11T09:28:00.001-07:00

Finding acids with red cabbage in Senior infants

2011-10-07T11:48:00.001-07:00

More egg work in Senior infants

2011-10-07T11:47:00.001-07:00

EGGsperiments with eggs: Ms. McLoughlin's senior infants

2011-10-04T11:07:00.001-07:00

Caterpillars in cocoons: Ms. McLoughlin's Senior infants

2011-10-04T11:05:00.001-07:00

Monday, 3rd October 2011

Over the weekend most of our caterpillars died (teacher can't figure out why).

The remaining 3 caterpillars spun cocoons and will wait for the warmer weather before they emerge as beautiful White Cabbage butterflies.

The green cocoons are White Cabbage butterfly cocoons, but the two brown cocoons are much smaller. Teacher found them under a wall at her home. We wonder what type of butterflies will emerge from these cocoons. Sleep tight butterflies, we'll see you in the Spring!!

September weather: Data chart, Ms. McLoughlin's senior infants

2011-09-30T06:17:00.000-07:00

Friday, 30th September, 2011

We have been keeping an eye on the weather. Every day we put out our weather stick, with a thermometer, rain gauge and flower kite. Before home time we check the temperature, amount of rain that fell during the school day and how windy it is. We record these on our daily weather chart.

Today we took all this information and made a data chart. We talked about the type of weather most and least common this September, the amount of days with each weather type, and how many more or less days of one kind than of another. Here are our results:

We will make great weathermen and women when we are older!

Lions in cages: Ms. McLoughlin's senior infants

2011-09-29T06:38:00.003-07:00

Nature Walk: Ms. Flaherty's senior infants

2011-09-27T14:37:00.000-07:00

We went on a nature walk on last Friday. We saw a horse chestnut tree and collected conkers. Some of the conkers were still inside their cases. We also collected berries, blackberries, sycamore and oak leaves. We made leaf rubbings also.

Trip to the beach: Senior infants

2011-09-27T06:25:00.001-07:00

Today we visited Ballyloughane Beach with Dr. Noirin Burke from the aquarium.We went exploring in rock pools with nets - we found crabs,mussels,shrimps,periwinkles and cockles.Noirin told us about the islands we could see - Mutton Island with the lighthouse,Hare Island and Rabbit Island.We learned that the black sand underneath the surface is not dirty - it is black because it doesn't get much oxygen.

It was a great day!

More beach pictures: senior infants

2011-09-27T06:24:00.001-07:00

Recycling and litter grabbers: Ms. Tierney's class

2011-09-26T10:36:00.001-07:00

The children did excellent recycling work recently.We visited the Bottle Bank and put green,clear and brown bottles into the right containers.Today,we got litter grabbers and plastic gloves and cleaned up around the prefabs.We filled a bag with rubbish!

Autumn nature walk: Ms. Tierney's class

2011-09-26T10:35:00.001-07:00

We went for a walk to see the Autumn leaves.We saw sycamore,oak and ash leaves and found helicopters under the sycamore tree.The autumn colours were beautiful.We saw a golden spider on one tree!

Mrs. Treacy's class garden

2011-09-25T13:31:00.000-07:00

We are settled back into school with our teacher Mrs Treacy. We are in Senior Infants now and we are kind to the new Junior Infants in the yard.

Kay came to visit us last week. She talked to us about our garden and how to take care of it. She helped us plant lettuce, cabbage and garlic. We will take care of them now. We will water them when they need water and watch them grow.

Our caterpillars have shed their skins: Senior infants

2011-09-22T07:14:00.000-07:00

Monday, September 19th, 2011

Growing so much, even over the weekend. We can't believe how much they eat now.

Thursday, 22nd September

Our caterpillars have grown too big for their skins, which they shed last night.

Here is a photo of the caterpillar skins, stuck to the side of the container.

Our bigger caterpillars look really healthy and happy.

Under the microscope: Senior infants

2011-09-22T06:56:00.003-07:00

Happy Hedgehog

2011-09-20T11:22:00.001-07:00

As Ms. McLoughlin cycled home after school she saw a little hedgehog just outside her garden. He looked very happy. He was sniffing in the leaves, maybe gathering his food before he hibernates for the winter, before his long long winter sleep. When hedgehogs are frightened they curl up into a ball, so that all the soft parts of their bodies are protected by their spines. This hedgehog wasn't frightened so he didn't need to curl up at all.

Making rainbows and shadows: Ms. McLoughlin & Ms. Lally

2011-09-20T06:55:00.001-07:00

When we pushed 6 triangular prisms together we got a lovely hexagonal prism. (A hexagon has 6 sides)

Today we used triangles, triangular prisms, a hexagon and a hexagonal prism.

Spinning Rainbow Colours: Ms. Lally & Ms. McLoughlin

2011-09-19T06:45:00.000-07:00

We learned a poem about colours (in Irish), a song about rainbow colours (in English) and a song from the whiteboard (in English) about mixing colours.

At the end of our very enjoyable session about colours Ms. Lally and her class taught us a great song and dance called "We Will Rock You". We need to practise this a bit more.

Gardening and Planting Strawberries: Senior infants

2011-09-15T15:16:00.001-07:00

We each took our strawberry plant home today. We know that each plant needs water, sunshine or light, a bigger pot if we can, and lots of love to grow. We can look after our plants well.

We hope to see flowers and strawberries in June, and we can't wait to try some delicious strawberries and cream!

Harvesting in the garden: Senior infants

2011-09-14T14:33:00.001-07:00

Teacher washed and cut the carrots and apples and we all tasted some of both.

Delicious!!

Conkers and Blackberries: Senior infants

2011-09-13T09:50:00.001-07:00

We are starting to see the first signs of Autumn. With the strong winds yesterday, lots of leaves and apples are falling off the trees. Teacher went for a walk yesterday and picked some blackberries, and chestnuts with conkers inside for us to see.

Did you know that chestnuts fall from the Horse Chestnut tree? These chestnuts can be smooth or spiky, and inside them are conkers, sometimes one or sometimes two or three. Teacher told us about a conker game she played when she was a little girl. We might try planting a conker and see can we grow our own Horse Chestnut tree.

Did you know that blackberries start off as white or pink flowers which turn into green berries.

These berries turn red and then black. They are delicious when they are black and juicy. We talked too about how blackberry seeds are spread (watch out for bird poo...at this time of the year it is purple instead of its usual white colour....and we know why!!!)

Our new microscope: Senior infants

2011-09-12T07:08:00.001-07:00

Our Weather Watchers: Senior Infants

2011-09-06T13:18:00.001-07:00

Tuesday, September 6th, 2011

We have a weather stick in our class. It has a thermometer on it to tell how hot or cold the day is, we have a wind kite to tell whether the wind is blowing or not, and roughly how fast it is blowing, and we have a rain gauge to tell how much rain falls during school hours. Each day the class leader (ceannaire) puts out the weather stick, reads it at home time, and fills the weather calendar in the classroom. It is a busy job!

Butterfly eggs: Senior Infants

2011-09-05T11:05:00.001-07:00

Teacher saw a Cabbage White butterfly laying eggs on a cabbage leaf in her garden.

The eggs were orange and they were tiny. There were about 60 of them altogether. She brought the leaf with the eggs to school with her, and we all had a look at them.

When we came to school today we noticed that the eggs had changed. Now they are the smallest caterpillars we have ever seen, little transparent squiggles with a black head on each one. There is a tiny hole in the cabbage leaf where the tiny caterpillars have eaten it. We hope these caterpillars will grow and change into beautiful Cabbage White butterflies like their mother!

Tuesday, September 6th, 2011

Our caterpillars are growing so fast, every day!

Friday, September 9th, 2011

Look at how much they have grown, and how few of them there are now!

Friday, September 16th, 2011

We don't need a magnifying glass to see our caterpillars now. They are growing fast, and they are eating lots.

Monday, September 19th, 2011

Growing so much, even over the weekend. We can't believe how much they eat now.

Monday, 26th September

Teacher was watching the caterpillars eating the leaves. They eat such a lot each day.

A little snail joined the caterpillars on the cabbage leaves today.

Ms. Flaherty's butterflies

2011-06-23T12:26:00.001-07:00

We released three of our butterflies (Bingo, Buttercups and Jumping Bean) from our butterfly garden last week as they had hatched successfully out of the original five.

How the peas have grown

2011-06-23T12:25:00.001-07:00

We planted our peas on the 27th May. See how they have grown in less than a month. We also noticed that they grow towards the light. We know that this is called phototropism.