Sports Day and Rugby

For sports day this year we had a treasure hunt. We had to find clues around the yard that eventually led us to our prizes hidden in the fire truck! It was lots of fun and we played with our prizes afterwards. 
Some players from Connaught Rugby also visited and we had a great time doing tag rugby with them. 

Celebrating Pride in St. Joseph's

Junior Cycle Awards

Congratulations Senior 5 pupils on receiving your Junior Certificates! We are so proud of all the hard work you have put in over the years. Well done on this amazing achievement!

Making Scones

P.E. 

Butterfly release

Trip to McGaghs

Ready to take home our flower boxes

A trip to the beach. 

May Birthdays

Making Pizza

Learning about money

We set up a shop and worked on checking prices and purchasing items. 

Visiting the cygnats in the Claddagh and collecting dtones for our sensory garden.

Festival in a van

Student of the week-week ending 14th of May

Tennis

Practicing for Sports Day.

Sponsored Walk

Cookery - making toasted sandwiches

Our School Tour!

We had our school tour after the midterm. We were so lucky that the weather was lovely and sunny. We went to Renvile Park in Oranmore for a breakfast BBQ. We had a lovely walk though the woods overlooking the harboru. 
Next stop was the lake in Loughrea. We enjoyed pizza from Georgi's family restaurant Margarita's Pizza. I was very windy! 
On the way back to school we stopped at the river by the Cathedral to look at a swans nest.

Woodwork- We are making window boxes

Working hard in April

Cookery- Smoothie making

We made smoothies today. First we took turns identifying each fruit and labelling them. Then in turn we chose what fruit we wanted to include in our smoothie and blended them. They were delicious.

Maths games

April Birthdays!

We had two birthdays this month. We celebrated with a party, cake and dancing. It was lots of fun. 

Our Family Tree!

As part of our Junior cycle Senior 5 are working on our family tree. It is so lovely to put faces to names and learn about each others families. 

Bus outing

We took a spin out to Salthill and got ice-cream, We walked along by the famine memorial, it was a beautiful day. Ahmed was the photographer for the trip

Gardening

Preparing the soil. We started by removing the stones and breaking up the soil.

We removed last years unused crops.

Pat covered the soil in a layer of seaweed to make it more fertile.

We sowed cabbage

We made holes for our carrot and lettuce seedlings.

We placed the seedlings in the holes and packed the soil around the roots.

We watered the plants and will do this every dry day.

Cookery-Making potato wedges

Notice on the right the seed potatoes are covered in soil that has to be washed off

cook at 180 degrees for 30minutes until golden brown

Rinsing off excess starch

beautiful golden colour

Peel the potatoes

Chop the potatoes into wedges

add a teaspoon of olive oil

Serve and enjoy!

season with salt, pepper and mixed herbs

A busy Spring

Happy Easter!

Decorating our Easter tree, making cards, doing our egg hunt and meeting the Easter Bunny!

Mini Enterprise

We finished off our masks are sent off our final orders. This involved lots of ironing, tidying threads, writing envelopes and delivering orders. 

Cookery-Shopping & Chicken Curry

St. Patrick's Day Celebrations

Mini Enterprise

​​In mid November we began discussions on what we would do for our mini-enterprise.  We decided to make face-masks since they were currently in demand.  This was a great idea and the orders were flying in.  We were sold out in no time and have a list of orders for January to fill.  Unfortunately due to covid restrictions we did not open straight after Christmas. Since opening we continue the enterprise and are on the brink of closing all orders. The funds raised will go towards the school go fund me account for the playground.
Skills developed were designing a poster, research on mask pattern, sourcing sewing machines.  We set up a factory floor where we had sewing machines, areas for all the stages of the process of mask making.
We followed a pattern, pinned the pattern to material,  drew a line around the pattern, cut around the marked line, ironed the material, sewed the mask.  We encountered some difficulties along the way but quickly got them sorted by  getting some sewing machine experts on board.  This was a wonderful opportunity for learning functional life skills.  We had a cash box for the money, order forms, and Stocktaking forms.  All masks and cash  were accounted for by our financial controller lead by Frances assisted by Ahmed, Georgie and Marc.  The stock,  order forms and finished masks were carefully managed by Kayleigh assisted by Daniela, Patrick, Jack and Jimi.  Wonderful experiences were created for all the students.  See photographs of skills developed.

Good Morning 
Week beginning February 15th 2021

Hope you all had a lovely Valentine's Day.
Last week some students will have been welcomed back to school and this week other students will get back.  We enjoyed a lovely Zoom on Friday last with the students in the classroom and the students who were working at home remotely.  It was lovely for all the students to see each other and to comprehend how this 50% at school works. 
This week we do hope you enjoy the classroom and we will link in again to see you who are at school and those students who are working from home.
Looking forward to seeing you all and working with you.

Pauline and the Senior 5 Team.






 

Good Morning Parents and Students,

February 8th 2021

Another week beginning, you all are doing so well on Zoom and doing work remotely.  Congratulations on achieving a poster from Epic Online Books for  collectively having read over 25 books.  Keep up the good work and continue reading to reach the next amazing poster.

School will open on Thursday next February 11th - not all pupils can attend at one time.  This is so we all can stay safe and keep the COVID out of our school. The time table will be going out today so you all will know what days students will attend.  Some pupils will be home so remote teaching will continue.
Looking forward to a great week.

Pauline & The Team.

Keeping Active During Lockdown 

MONDAY  FEBRUARY 1st 2021

Good Morning to all the Students and Parents.
February is here which brings brighter days, longer days and growth everywhere all around us.  We look forward to watching the daffodils and snowdrops growing.in the parks, woodlands and our back gardens.  
We will continue to reach out to all the students in various ways through Zoom and helping out where is needed.  Please let us know which you do through emails if you have any ideas or ways we can support.  
The class Team are looking forward to working with you all again this week.  
We have a class Birthday this week............Happy Birthday Daniela for the 3rd of February.  

Happy St Brigid's Day

​Healthy food v Unhealthy food. 

Today we were learning about healthy and unhealthy food. We learned that fruits and vegetables are healthy and that food high in sugar, saturated fat and salt are unhealthy. Dairy foods like milk and cheese are good for us as they have lots of the mineral calcium which is good for our bones. Fruits and vegetables have lots of water, vitamins and minerals and meat has protein which is important for building muscles. 

Woking at Home. 

Our pupils are working hard at home, keeping up their physio and taking walks to keep fit and active. Here one of our pupils points out the difference between deciduous trees and evergreen tress. 

Lost and Found

This week we are reading the book Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers. Everyone should have the worksheets at home now so have some fun colouring in the characters and identifying the parts of the penguins.

Baking Brownies with Tracy

Circle Time Videos

Winter

Winter is coming to an end, but,  before we say goodbye for another year read all about it here. Download the file and have a go at writing out these birds names.

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  ZOOM TIMES - 10:30am  School Assembly
                                11:30am Senior 5 Class   9:30am - individual and small group Zoom  - students will be notified.                    
Monday January 25th 2021        

Good Morning to all the Students and Parents of Senior 5 class.
Thank you all firstly for working so well last week completing your worksheets, involved in story, acttivities, P.E. and games.  Most of you enjoyed the outdoors and had great fun and chats.  
Look at all the evidence of the wonderful work completed by you and a big thanks to the assistance of parents and siblings.
Continue to send in the photographs...............we love to put them on the webpage.  You can check out each other on the webpage Senior 5.

We will continue working remotely - The Class Staff are here to help and are just a ZOOM,
W. App call away.  
You are such a fantastic class, we the S5 team are so lucky to be working
​with you all.  
Hopefully we will be back in the classroom soon again.

Pauline & The Senior 5 team.

Working hard at home

Georgi's Maths

​Communication Friendly Environments We are here to help you adapt your environment to ensure it is communication friendly. There are lots of ways to do this. We will focus mainly on the use of visuals.

Winter Poems

While We Can't Hug

Today we read the story While We Can't Hug. Take a look at the activity sheets, click on the links below each picture to download and complete at home. We will talk about each sheet in our class zoom at 11.15 tomorrow (Tuesday). 

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Good Morning All,


Monday 18th January another week begins.  We currently do not know what is happening on Thursday next.  We should know more tomorrow after the powers that be meet up and let us all know.

The plan is per last week the students will be assisted by the team and can be contacted daily.  If a student would like more help please let us know.
Also packs and worksheets have been distributed together with work emailed out.
Again please do not hesitate to let me know if you would like more work.

Zoom at 11am whole class.   Also don't forget the assembly zoom at 10;30.
Tomorrow will be hosted by Kayleigh Smith who works in our Class Team- So watch out for Tuesday Guys.

Kind Regards

Pauline Dolly & Team

Happy New Year to all the students and parents of Senior 5. 
Term 2 begins differently from what all of us thought, however we must continue with our plans and educational goals for this term despite working remotely. 

I emailed all parents on Friday last to outline some of our plans for the coming week.  We will use this time to the maximum benefit for all students.  
First create a space for the student to work which will be their designated work station.  
I will email work that can be printed out and completed by the students,  where possible we the senior five staff team of myself, Kayleigh and Frances will video call or Zoom students to assist.  
1.  Morning
2.  Mid-Day
3.  Afternoon
Students could start with a jigsaw, colouring or writing followed by oral discussion on the day, date, month and weather.
One piece of academic work in each section of the day 1,2, and 3.  This could be counting concrete items, bricks lego etc.
Write or trace over numbers 1 - 10 or beyond depending on pupils ability.  Math addition - All pupils have numeracy booklets which went home at Christmas.  Writing a piece of news.  Write about a picture taken when out for a walk. Discuss the picture.

I will email all Parents on Monday Morning.  I will email all parents worksheets on Sunday evening.
Thank you all once again for your continued support during this difficult time.  Please contact me if you have any questions or suggestions in relation to how we the Senior 5 Staff Team can be of the Best Possible Assistance to you.

Kind Regards, 

Pauline Dolly & the Senior 5 Team.

Games to play at home

Examples of Bird feeders you can make at home!

January can be a very cold month and many birds struggle to find food.  The ground can be frozen hard.  Making a bird feeder and hanging it out on a tree is a great way to help our feathered friends.
A Simple way to make a feeder is rub peanut butter on a lollypop stick and tie a piece of string to one side.  Then roll the lollypop stick in a mixture of seeds breadcrumbs and crushed nuts.  Then hang it out on a tree for the birds to feast on.  
​Zoom on Thursday morning we will discuss making bird feeders.
The birds will repay you with their beautiful songs.

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Happy Christmas

Santa Clause came to all the students in Senior 5 Class on the 16th of December he said hello and waved.  He was very good to keep the 2m distance and high five by touching elbows.  
He left the gifts outside and we had to run around and search for our name on the parcels.  We were all very happy

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Mini Enterprise 
Junior Cycle
Preparing for Work

In mid November we began discussions on what we would do for our mini-enterprise.  We decided to make face-masks since they were currently in demand.  It was discussed that we would make masks using Christmas Materials.  This was a great idea and the orders were flying in.  We were sold out in no time and have a list of orders for January to fill.  We continue the enterprise after Christmas into January and term 2.  The funds raised will go towards the school go fund me account. 
Skills developed were designing a poster, research on mask pattern, sourcing sewing machines.  We set up a factory floor where we had sewing machines, areas for all the stages of the process of mask making.
We followed a pattern, pinned the pattern to material,  drew a line around the pattern, cut around the marked line, ironed the material, sewed the mask.  We encountered some difficulties along the way but quickly got them sorted by  getting some sewing machine experts on board.  This was a wonderful opportunity for learning functional life skills.  We had a cash box for the money, order forms, and Stocktaking forms.  All masks and cash  were accounted for by our financial controller lead by Frances assisted by Ahmed, Georgie and Marc.  The stock,  order forms and finished masks were carefully managed by Kayleigh assisted by Daniela, Patrick, Jack and Jimi.  Wonderful experiences were created for all the students.  See photographs of skills developed.

BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS

We had a party in school to celebrate a special birthday today. We had lots of treats and some delicious cheesecake. 

Art-Winter Beach Scene

On our bus outing this week we went to Silverstrand to get inspired for this weeks art class. It was wet and windy, we took pictures and used these to do our own abstract winter beach scenes.

Music

We've been having lots of fun learning songs with the guitar this week. Shotgun by George Ezra is still a firm favourite! 

Cookery- Omelettes 

We made omelettes in cookery this week. We learned techniques like chopping, slicing, beating and sautéing. We put onion and peppers in our omelettes, they were delicious.

We made a Volcano!

Role Play - Restaurateur

This week we were learning about different jobs in our community. one of the Jobs we identified was a restaurateur. One of our pupils took on the role of pizza restaurant owner. The others took it in turn to go to the restaurant to order a pizza. It was great fun!  

We had so much fun celebrating Halloween in Senior 5. There were lots of scary costumes and we listened to spooky music. 

Halloween P.E. Knock down the pumpkin!

Halloween Art

Lámh

Baboró

Baboró put on an amazing show for us this week. We went fishing, lit a campfire and cooked the fish. Afterwards we danced around the campfire to some beautiful live music. Inside the tent we experienced a starry night sky and the rising of the sun.  We listened to the birds and tried to catch them, it was magical. Thanks so much to Phileda and her team for a truly amazing time.

Making vegetable soup

This week in cookery class we made yummy soup to warm us on these chilly autumn days. We used carrots, potatoes, onions, ginger, gluten free stock and parsley to make our soup. It was delicious and a big hit in our class. 

Birthday Celebrations

We celebrated a birthday this week. We had lots of fun making a card and having a party. After the party we watched the birthday boys favourite movie, Minions!

Star Student!

Well done to our student who worked hard all week. 

P.E.-Balancing and throwing

Cookery-Cookies

Cookery- Eve's Pudding

Autumn Fruit Artwork

This week we have been working on some autumn art. We made apples by spinning wool around cut outs  and we printed using leaves and real blackberries. 

Student of the week!

Well done to our student of the week Georgi! He worked hard all week and has been a great friend helping everyone settle into the class. Keep up the hard work Georgi!

Bus Trip to Mr. Price

This week we went out on a bus outing to do some shopping. We went to Mr. Price to pick up some things for the classroom; copies, scrapbooks and activity books. After the shop we took a lovely walk in the nice weather. It was great to be out and about with out class again!

Cookery

We made fruit cocktail and apple tarts in class this week.
For the fruit salad we chopped apples, pears, grapefruit, banana and oranges. It was delicious


. 

Keeping active

At times like this it is especially important to keep fit and active. This helps our mental health and boosts our immune system.  Since returning to school we have been spending lots of time outside; walking, stretching and using our new yard equipment. Indoors we have been doing relaxation and stretching in mornings. P.E. class has been super fun. We played basketball, used the parachute and played duck, duck, goose this week. Duck, Duck, Goose is great for getting the adrenaline pumping and the heart rate racing!