History of Ireland

We are learning about Irish history, starting at the earliest known settlements right up to modern times.
Scientists believe that Ireland was so densely wooded that the great elk became extinct because its antlers kept getting caught in tree branches.

Early settlers to Ireland arrived on northern shores, keeping close to both the coast and fresh water supplies. 

Mount Sandel near Coleraine, Co.Derry has been established as dateing from 7000 - 6500 B.C.

These were stone-age people, using edges and flint to cut and hunt. 

mountsandel

The Solar Eclipse 2015

Today, Friday March 20th there was a partial solar eclipse. A partial solar eclipse is where some, but not all of the sun is blocked out. It started at 8.25 a.m. and ended at 10.36 a.m. It reached its peak at 9.28 a.m, which means that that's the time when most of the sun is blocked out. It hurts your eyes to look at the eclipse, just as it does if you look at the sun so we made pinhole cameras to look at it. Sadly they didn't work as it was very cloudy today.

Eclipses only happen once or twice a year but they usually happen over remote islands or the ocean so only a very small amount of people see it. The last solar eclipse was in 1999 and it was a full one. The next partial eclipse will be in 2026 and the next full eclipse will be in 2090. There are really tall pine trees near the playground in our school and rooks are always flying around or making their nests. One of our observations was, that as it got darker, nearly all of the  rooks had stopped moving or gone to sleep as they thought it was nighttime.                                                                    
By Ellie and Callum

By Ellie & Callum

St. Patrick

Have a look at this website; it gives lots of information about St. Patrick, as well as life in Ireland around that time.
Beannachtaí na feile oraibh!

saintpatrick

An Post

We have been learning all about how the postal system works in Ireland. We found out about the work that goes on behind the scenes and during the night in order to deliver mail and parcels all around the country. Piotr brought in some Polish stamps for us to look at and contrast with our Irish ones.
The GPO and its importance in both communications and history was very interesting to read about.
learning-zone/primary/the-gpo-and-the-rising
This website had lots of interesting and fun facts!
anpost/schoolbag
Here's a link devoted to the hobby of stamp collecting, also called philately
AnPost/IrishStamps
stamp-collecting-for-kids
If you find any interesting stamps, bring them in for us all to have a look at!

St. Valentine's Day

We celebrated St. Valentine's day a while ago, learning about the origins of the day.
Valentine was a priest during the reign of emperor Caludius II, who forbade his soldiers to marry, claiming that single men made better soldiers. Valentine secretly married couples but was found out, imprisoned and sentenced to death. While in jail, he cured a girl from blindness. On the eve of his execution, he sent her a card and signed it, "from your Valentine"
There had already been a spring festival celebrating love in those days and St.Valentine's day was born!
There is an altar to St. Valentine in Dublin, with a casket containing his remains.
whitefriarstreetchurch
On a lighter note, we made beautiful crafty cards for our Valentines! Here's a peek at them!
(as well as the cowboy head and hat that Aimee drew on the playground!!)

Peace Proms!

At last! Here are some photos from our national stage debut! The RDS hosted the Peace Proms choir and cross-border orchestra, along with other performers.
It was a wonderful day out, the children had a great time both on and off stage. We stopped for dinner on the way home, and discovered we were sharing the dining room with a birthday party for an 82 year old man- so we sang for him!
He got an acapella version of Happy, as well as Happy Birthday! He was delighted!

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