Eco week

We had a great talk about birds during Eco week. We learned how to recognise garden birds and their birdsong and even went bird watching in the yard and locality!

Poetry competition

We have all written poems in 5th class, why not enter the Ballyroan poetry competition and be in with a chance to win a cash prize?!

Service of Light

🎵The boys in the choir have to attend the Service of Light this Thursday at 7.30pm. Please be at the church at 7.15pm.🎵

Long division

Here is a great link to a long division video which explains long division in a user friendly way which will suit parents and students alike! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdU_rf7eMTI

Remember, long division is just like short division except you write down the product under the dividend each time and subtract it to get a remainder. You then bring down the next number in the dividend and divide the divisor into it again.

For example, take the problem of 4173 divided by 13.
13 does not go into 4 so put a 0 on top of the 4 above the line. You would then group the 4 and the 1 together and divide 13 in.
Use estimation and rough work here if you need it.
You will find that the closest you can get to 41 is by multiplying 13 by 3 to get 39.
Put a 3 on top of the 1 (in the dividend 4173)
Put the product, 39 under the 41 and subtract. You will get a remainder of 2.
Now, bring the 7 in the 4173 down to the 2 to make 27 (use an arrow) You are now dividing 13 into 27.
Next, think how many times 13 will go into 27. You will find it goes twice.
Again, put the 2 above the 7 and subtract the product of 13 x 2 from 27 to give you 1.
Bring the last digit down to the 1 and make 13.
13 will go into 13 once so put a 1 above the dividend and subtract 13 from 13 to give you zero.
You have worked out that 13 goes into 4173 321 times.

You are trying to get zero so keep going until you do. If you get a remainder that is less than the divisor then that is your remainder.

Strike against climate change inaction

Along with many other children in Ireland, we decided to stage a protest on Friday against the lack of   proactive measures in Ireland  when it comes to fighting global warming. We read a great article about the fact that we only have ELEVEN more years until we can't reverse any of the damages done to our world. We also listened to Swedish schoolgirl Greta Thunberg's passionate plea for the politicians of our world to step up and do something about our suffering global home. She has been nominated for a Nobel peace prize and if she wins, will become he youngest recipient of the prize.

Look at some of the amazing posters we made!

Internet safety for parents

Hi all,
Zeeko Internet safety crowd will be giving the boys a talk about cyber safety on Wednesday 3rd April. They will be giving the parents a talk that evening at 7pm. Attendance is strongly recommended.

We are going to be published authors!

We have some exciting news! 5th class are going to be published authors!
In association with Emu Ink publishing, we are creating an anthology of poetry and stories and will be selling our books in the near future!

The boys had to come up with a charity that they would like to see benefit from the sale of our books. Many boys spoke passionately about causes they feel strongly about but Leon's speech about the Alzheimer's Association moved everyone and he won the class vote.

The books will be €15 each and we are hoping that you will support us as much as you can in buying our books (they will make GREAT Christmas presents and are the perfect coffee table book!!)

Watch this space!

An Post writing competition

For more information click onhttp://www.anpost.ie/NR/rdonlyres/835C0746-00C2-444A-959D-7000DD04ED75/0/2019Guideline_Special_V3.pdf

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Irish Times health supplement

As adults, we sometimes wonder what could stress children out but life can get a bit stressful when you're in 5th class and the following points in the Irish Times Health supplement (26th February) give parents some pointers if their children are feeling anxious or stressed about anything.

We also do weekly meditation and guided breathing in the hope that the boys will start to practice this style of de-stressing and relaxing on their own (I've had to wake boys up more than once!)

A great book and CD to buy is 'Sitting still like a Frog' if you are interested in doing it at home.

World Book Day

Happy World Book Day!! A great day of paired reading, dressing up, decorating our door and reading our novel! Keep reading!!

Pancake Wednesday

A little unorthodox but we had pancake Wednesday instead of Pancake Tuesday today simply due to the fact that Wednesday is our cooking day and it is when we have the equipment. Yummy toppings and serving ideas by our budding chefs  which made Ms.Fannin salivate and drool!!!

Engineers week

We were in for a special treat today when chartered engineer Eamonn McDonagh came into our fifth classes as part of the STEPS programme to give us a talk about what an engineer does, the different types of engineers and the areas of industry that an engineer would work in. He also brought in amazing tools or 'toys' as he called them which the boys had great fun with!! Thanks to Eamonn and Engineers Ireland for organising such a terrific event!

Cricket!

                                                   Playing cricket up on the Astro!

Famine drama

We are studying  the Great Famine in Ireland. We are learning about the awful, desperate conditions people lived in and the suffering they endured. In 'Under the Hawthorn Tree', Eily, Michael and Peggy O'Driscoll are being sent to the workhouse which they don't want to go into. We looked at a piece of art depicting a starving crowd at the workhouse gates and created our own freeze frames of what we think waiting outside the workhouse may have been like...

Bottle cap recycling

We are endeavouring to create a piece of recycling art out of bottle and carton caps, reducing the amount of single use plastic in the ocean (even by a little amount) and creating an educational message through art!

Please send in all used caps from milk, water bottles, cartons etc...

Thank you!

Maths - Fractions

Maths:  FRACTIONS (Chapter 9)

Dear Family,
In this chapter the class looked at a variety of fractions, ranging from halves to twelfths.  We also learned how to convert fractions into other forms and how to add, subtract and multiply fractions.  Here are some ways you can support you child and us at home:

• Use fractions and the language of fractions at home, e.g. when dividing up food (cutting up pizzas, a cake, a bar of chocolate), when baking (half a teaspoon, a quarter of a kilogram, half a dozen eggs).
• Look for fractions when out shopping (e.g. half-price).  Ask your child to calculate the current price or what it was before the reduction.
• Be careful about using fractional language accurately, e.g. there's no such thing as a big half or a small half!  To make fractions, we must be creating equal  parts.  Encourage your child to be accurate and to recognise that if something is divided into two/four/eight parts, etc. that are not equal, then they are not halves, quarters, eights, etc.
• If your child is having trouble converting fractions or adding, subtracting or multiplying fractions, encourage them to use concrete materials and/or draw pictorial representation, e.g. pie pieces or number lines.