Our fourth, fifth and sixth classes had their Sports Day today. The boys enjoyed activities like unihoc, basketball, relay racing, puc fada, cic fada, penalty shootout and volleyball to name but a few! The glorious weather added to everyone's enjoyment of the day. A big thank you to Mr. Rock for organising everything again for one of the highlights of the school calendar. Our first, second and third classes look forward to their Sports Day on Wednesday.

This week we conducted two experiments with  cress seeds and broad bean seeds. The first experiment was testing the direction of growth with cress seeds and the second experiment  we were looking at the germination of a broad bean seed. 
In the first experiment we put damp cotton wool in a seed tray and sprinkled cress seeds on it. We water it every day and watch what direction it will grow.
For the second experiment we put broad bean seeds in a jar. We began by putting two in every jar. We pressed the seeds against the side of the jar and put wet cotton wool in so the seeds stay in place. We put one upside down to see which direction it would grow and the other the right way round. We are doing this to get a closer view of germination.
This experiment is educational and it is a very fun experiment and we are all enjoying it!
Keep watching here to see our results day after day. 

By Daniel Lenehan and Daniel Fallon.

On Tuesday 11th of March 2014 the fourth classes went to the school hall to listen to a presentation about the Irish Defence Forces. 

Mr. Mc Kevitt showed us a powerpoint about the Irish Defence Forces. He showed us lots of pictures about the different sections of the Irish Defence Forces. He talked about the naval service, army, overseas service, air corps, artillery and the Curragh. We learned that on May 16th 1922 the British army handed over the Curragh military base to the Irish army. If you are in the army you have to know how to do 5 things, swim, fight, serve over- seas, drive and do ceremonial work. We learned that the Irish Defence Forces travel to places that need help. We learned that they try and make peace in different countries that are at war.

 We also learned that the army practise with live ammunition. They are allowed to fire one heat seeking missile a year, two if they get permission. Did you know it cost 20,000 euro per missile? We learned that the Irish army isn’t all about guns and war. It is mainly about keeping peace around the world and keeping Ireland safe. Our favourite part was when we saw a fake picture of a sheep in the Curragh dressed as a soldier.

We found the talk about the Irish Defence Forces very interesting.

Written by Mr. Trench's class.

Alan Nolan is a comics writer, graphic designer, artist and co-creator of the horror series Sancho. He is the creator of The Big Break Detectives Casebook, a graphic novel for younger readers, and the 'Murder Can Be Fatal' mysteries. Ms. Dunne's 3rd class and Ms. McCarville's 4th class went to Barker and Jones as part of World Book Day celebrations for a workshop with Alan. All the boys received a bookmark, postcard and their own mini comicbook which was started by Alan and could be finished at home. He showed how to draw characters and signed some copies of his books for the class.

We have carried out our second and third experiment for Science Week. The first one is called 'Lava Lamp'. All you need  is 1/4 water, 3/4 cooking oil, food colouring and Alka Seltzer. We had so much fun today with it and even took it a step further by adding more Alka Seltzer.
Our second experiment is with an egg and cling film. We had a bit of fun with this as we struggled to break the egg at first. The aim is to squeeze an egg as hard as you can in your fist and break it. However, we struggled with this until Darren came to the rescue and showed us how it was done. :) 
Then get another egg and wrap it in cling film. We couldn't break the egg in cling film with our fist. In fact, we had to stand on it for it to break. Give it a go and see for yourself but it does get messy. Enjoy!
Ms. Butler, 4th Class.

Ms Butler's 4th class have been conducting different fun experiments for Science Week. The first one we carried out is called Rainbow Milk. All you need to do this at home is food colouring (different colours), full fat milk, a bowl and washing up liquid. Watch our video on how we got on and give it a try!

Two members from An Garda Síochána visited the four fourth classes to talk about their role in the community and the job they do. We have been learning about our community in Geography and we learned a lot about the role they play.