Visual Arts: Henna

To celebrate the Islamic festival of Eid ul-Adha we learned about Henna today.  We made a stencil of one of our hands and designed it with a unique Henna design.

When the stencil was designed we cut it out.

Then we displayed them in the classroom for all to see.

Learn Together - Christianity Project

Our faith for the month of September was Christianity.  AR produced a wall display with an excellent overview of Christianity which you can read here:

Gaeilge -Mé Féin

Bhíomar ag staidéar an téama Mé Féin i rith mí Meán Fómhair. Is féidir linn comhrá a chur ar siúl eadrainn faoi rudaí atá ar siúl inár saolta.  Freisin, chaitheamar am ag foghlaim na baill choirp.  

Seo í an taispeántas atá ar an mballa Gaeilge anois!

Science: Global Warming & Climate Change

During the science lesson today we drew pictures to explain how global warming occurs.   Click on the image below to see more pictures:

Equality & Justice Award Ceremony

Conor Cusack visited our school today to receive our biennial Equality & Justice Award, following in the footsteps of Fachtna "Doc" Clandillon and Louise Bayliss.  Conor talked to us about mental health and bullying before being presented with a cheque for the National Suicide charity Console.

Visual Arts: Casting Our Hands using Modroc

Today's visual arts class was influenced by the work of the sculptor George Segal (1924 - 2000).  Segal used plaster bandages (modroc) to cast lifesize figures.  Here is an example of his work:

Using Segal's work as inspiration we made casts of our hands using modroc.

First we cut the modroc into small pieces.

We covered our hand in Vaseline to make it easier to remove the cast from our hand when it's dry.

We dipped the modroc into water and placed it on our hand.

Gradually, we built our cast, layer upon layer.

After 15 minutes the modroc was dry enough to remove.

Click on this image to see some of our work:

Our work is hanging up in our classroom now for all visitors to see.

History: Field Trip to St.Finian's Church & Cemetery

This afternoon we visited a local ruin.  It's called St.Finian's Church and Cemetery.  It is 1.5 km from our school and a lot of the children in our class live beside it.  However, not many children were aware of it's existence.

Here is some information from South Dublin County Council's Griffeen Valley Park booklet:

On the summit of one of the nearby hills overlooking Esker Lane and the  Griffeen Valley Park, just north of King John's Bridge, lie the ruins of the medieval parish church of Esker, probably dating from the 12th century. In earlier times, it stood in a commanding position overlooking the former village of Esker. In the early 1200s, King John gave the church to St. Patrick's Church in Dublin, and when St. Patrick's became a cathedral, the dean had a right to the church at Esker, which he dedicated to St. Finian. It is recorded that in 1830 there was a private school based beside the ruins of St. Finian's Church. It was run by a Mr. Sturgeon and provided a classical education for boys only. 

St. Finian's Church was a long plain rectangular building, built of roughly coursed masonry. During the sixteenth century it was extensively rebuilt and re-roofed in timber. In 1615 the church was recorded as being "in repair", but the chancel was in ruins. Later that century, the church was recorded to be in a ruinous state. Today, only the belfry end and some parts of the north and 

south walls remain. 

In the wall of the ruin there is reputed to be a cavity shaped like a chalice. There was a local tradition whereby people were cured of eye ailments by dipping their fingers in the water from the chalice and using it to wash their eyes. Another reputed cavity in a nearby stone is known as the 'Devil's Foot'. The story goes that anyone who puts his or her hand or foot in the cavity will be unable to remove it. 

Within the ruins of the church are several graves, some with headstones dating back to the early 1700s. Information is known about some of the people buried there such as Fr. James MacCarten, R.C. Lucan, who was murdered in Lucan. On the night of the 3rd of June 1807, Fr. MacCarten was returning home from Palmerstown when at the Hill of Lucan, today known as Chapel Hill, he was set upon by a gang of robbers who robbed and shot him dead unaware of the fact that he was a priest. A stone monument set in the wall outside St. Andrew's Church of Ireland School commemorates the event. 

We worked as historians while exploring the ruin, seeking information about the people buried here.

More photos from our field trip can be seen here.

Class Diary by LC

Tuesday 23rd September 2014

Today in school we done lots of cool things.

In drama we learned the rules of drama and how to respect the actors and the audince.  Next we done since we done since we used a metrial called modrock.  It was really cool it was hard and then you put it in water and it goes very stiky.  Then you put it around your hand and it dries in the shape of your hand.  Then we took it off and it was in the shape of your hand.  Then we done it with ballons so we could paint them.

In irish we don bingo it was really fun.  We also learned a new game were you count up to 75 and when you get to a multibal of five you say doo.

In school I enjoied doing every thing thats what we done today.

LC

Class Diary by HW

Maidin Mhaith Domhanda!!

Tá ranga i rang a sé agus ta ranga i do chonaí i Leamhcan. Tá anim scoil Gleann An Grifín ag folom le cheile .

Thosaigh ag lá ar matimatica agus béarla . Gan mhoill ina death sin .Thosaigh ranga an dithim Ag lón.Ar a haon deag a chlog rithfhoigh ranga sa chlós.

Gan mhoill ina diath sin thosaigh ranga ag léamh.  Ansin thosaigh ag ranga an gaoilge.  Ansin thosaigh an rang gníomhaíochtaí agus ag deireadh an lá chuaigh ranga isteach sa bhaile ar deich tar eis a dó.

Is breá liom an scoil!!!:]

HW

Music - Listening and Responding: Vivaldi vs Ed Sherran

We listened to 2 pieces of music today.  Without knowing who the composers are or the titles of the pieces of music we responded by drawing pictures/words on a page about both pieces of music.

Click on the image above to see more of our work.  The pieces of music were Vivaldi's Autumn from The Four Seasons suite of violin concertos and an instrumental version of Ed Sherran's song Autumn Leaves.  The common theme was autumn.  You can hear both pieces of music below.

Learn Together: Christianity - Tall Crosses

Today we discussed Christian symbols.  
We focussed on Tall Crosses and discussed the Tall Cross at Monasterboice:

We learned that sections on the cross depict scenes from the Bible.  We designed our own crosses to depict significant scenes from our lives.  Click this image to see some of our work:

More information on the Tall Cross at Monasterboice can be found here.

Hello World!!!

Hi,

We are 6th class students in a primary school in Lucan, Co.Dublin.  You will find information about the things we are learning about in class here.  You can contact us by email or on Twitter @rangdaithi

Bain taitneamh as!

Rang Daithí