Another very busy week here in St. Attracta’s. We had Junior Entrepreneur ,Spikeball, completion of our swimming term, training for our Mini 7 County Semi Final, music in our classrooms all running alongside our preparation for our First Confession/First Holy Communion. This of course is not forgetting the important business of teaching and learning in each classroom!

Ms.Delaney, when announcing her students of the week spoke of her delight at the many random acts of kindness in the Infant Classroom throughout the week, with all of her students working very hard together. Mrs Reilly also spoke of Second Class understanding the importance of thinking of others and she really noticed a huge improvement this week which is great considering how close they are to their First Confession!

This week, a common theme of our Students of the Week selection was students who had of late made great improvements and others who this week showed great maturity and determination. Other students work continuously very well ensuring they will be ready for their  new class next September. Well done to all who were rewarded this week, it was lovely to hear such positive comments about each of you today.

Finally on this special weekend for all our ‘Mums’, we hope you all have a really lovely and enjoyable Mothers Day! Bainigí taitneamh as!

Upcoming Dates for your Diary.

Monday: Parents Association meeting at 8 p.m. in school.

Tuesday: Preparation Meeting for First Communion Parents in the Pastoral Centre at 7:30 p.m.

Wednesday: Mini 7’s County Semi Final at 11 a.m. in Bekan

Thursday: Music with Ms Fiona Doherty in all classes from 1st to 6th.

Wednesday April 9th First Confession at 7.30 p.m. in St. James’ Church.

First and Second Class have worked really hard of late on their Italian and Australian projects. They learned so much about their chosen countries.

Many of the children are very much looking forward to visiting these beautiful countries in the future!

Please read on and look at some of the interesting facts that the students researched.

First up is First Class and some wonderful points about a country that’s shaped like a boots !

Did you know?

1. Italy is shaped like a high heeled boot.
2. The Leaning Tower of Pisa leans slightly more every year.
3. In Venice, people travel in gondolas on the canals.
4. Pompeii was a town destroyed by a volcano.
5. Italians like to eat pizza, gelato (ice cream) and pasta. We like those foods too.
6. Their flag is green, white and red.
7. Rome was founded by two brothers Romulus and Remus.
8. Italians play soccer. The Italian team won the FIFA World Cup in 2006.
9. The Colessuem is a big building. Gladiators used to fight there.
10.  The Trevi Fountain is a beautiful fountain in Rome.If you throw a coin into the fountain, you hope to return to Rome some day.

Second Class also learned so much about Australia. Here are some very interesting facts the students found out with their projects.

Australia

Did you know?

1. Canberra is the capital of Australia.
2. Native Australians are called Aborigines.
3. The didgeridoo is a musical instrument. We had a didgeridoo in class during the project.It was great fun.
4. Children in the outback listen to their school lessons on the radio and online.
5. Kangaroos,Koalas and Dingo’s live in Australia.
6. Melbourne,Perth,Sydney are cities in Australia.
7. Most people in Australia live around the coast.
8. Doctors travel by plane in the outback to their patients.
9. Some of our students have relations in Australia.
10. In some areas of Australia, dense rain forest can be found.

Well done to all the students, this is super work!

We are thrilled that both the boys and girls teams have made it through to the National Finals tomorrow in Limerick. They have prepared very well and are very much looking forward to our trip.

We have a busy schedule as you can see from the fixtures below!

For those travelling please find the location of Mary Immaculate College of Education where the games will be held.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=mary+i+college+limerick+ireland&aq=&sll=38.233899,-85.73709&sspn=0.007837,0.019205&ie=UTF8&hq=mary+i+college&hnear=Limerick,+County+Limerick,+Ireland&ll=52.65465,-8.637228&spn=0.011455,0.038409&z=15.

We will update the teams progress throughout the day on our twitter feed so please keep a look out for any exciting developments!

We would like to wish both teams well and hope they really enjoy their day out.We’re as always so proud of their achievements!

It was great to get back to business in our classrooms this week after having had a very busy few weeks with extra curricular activities in the lead up to St.Patrick’s Day.

All the teachers mentioned how pleased they were with the efforts of their students throughout the past week with Ms. Sloyan, in particular, being delighted with how well First Class worked . Ms Reilly also spoke about how well Second Class are preparing for the First Confession on April 9th.

Our students of the week this week were chosen for a variety of reasons , from dealing with an accident very bravely and working so hard on their return to another student making huge progress across the subject areas in recent weeks .Other students are very consistent continuously putting themselves forward through their hard work, attention  to detail and concern for others and this week it was lovely to see a selection of these students rewarded.

Well done to each and everyone of this weeks ‘Students of the Week’! As always very much deserved!

Finally another busy week lies ahead of us, here’s a taste of the some very exciting events that will take place next week!

Monday:5th/6th Class teams present their excellent Junior Entrepreneur Proposals to the Dragons on Monday afternoon in school. One project from four will be chosen to represent our school. You will hear lots more about it in the coming week!

Wednesday:The Spikeball National Finals take place in the University of Limerick. Our Boys and Girls teams have qualified from the Mayo and Connaught Final Stages. We wish both teams well.

Wednesday Swimming: Our final day of  swimming for all students from 1st -6th. We hope all our students really enjoyed the past number of weeks.We certainly have enjoyed taking our students to Claremorris. We really appreciate the efforts our parents/guardians have made ensuring we arrived on time and got the most out of our lessons!

Friday: Our Girls Football team will play in the Cumann na mBunscol Mini 7’s Semi Final in the Connaught Centre of Excellence in Bekan. Again we’re delighted with the girls progress and wish them the very best of luck!

On Sunday last in McHale Park at half time during the Mayo v Cork National League game our Senior Boys launched the Allianz Cumann na mBunscol’s Give Respect Get Respect campaign.

This marked the beginning of the Spring /Summer activities. It was a wonderful opportunity for our boys to play in McHale Park and in front of a very large crowd!

We were joined on the afternoon by St. Colman’s Derrinabroc, Scoil Raifteirí Castlebar and Crimlin School Castlebar. All our boys were thrilled with the experience. In particular getting so close to their heroes as the teams came onto to the field . Here, all the students involved provided a guard of honour to welcome the players.

It was a fantastic experience for all involved. We would like to thank Cumann na mBunscol Maigh Éo and all our Parents / Guardians for supporting us as always. A great Mayo performance followed which made all our afternoon’s even better!

Third and Fourth Class today travelled to Gartan Outdoor Education Centre Letterkenny Co. Donegal. Here they had their second meeting with their partner school in the Dissolving Boundaries programme St. Brigid’s Ballymoney.

The two schools have been working on an online project throughout this school year. A key component of this project is to consolidate and sustain the relationships initiated online through a face to face meeting hence today’s trip.

The children engaged in a variety of co-operative games and team building activities having great fun! New friendships were formed , with great comparisons drawn between life in St. Attracta’s and St. Brigids and indeed Charlestown and Ballymoney.

This trip was funded entirely by the Dissolving Boundaries Programme.The children had a fantastic day , learning many new and important skills. A special word of thanks to Mr.Rushe and Ms.Connaghan for their continued interest and support of this fantastic project.