This term, the pupils in Mr. Shevlin’s class will be helping us with our léitheoireacht Gaeilge. We are buddying up to practice our reading and to learn from the older children. It’s a really nice way to use the Gaeilge we have been learning. 
Fifth Class
Yesterday was our annual beach clean up day so all the children from 2nd-6th class headed off to Salterstown beach. We were well equipped with litter pickers, gloves, bibs and rubbish bags, all given to us by An Taisce. It was a gorgeous sunny day and we really enjoyed the beautiful surroundings. It is great to see the children taking such good care of our environment.
5th and 6th class groups were busy experimenting last week to find mini-beasts. All 4 groups had to make and set 2 “pitfall” traps outside in the school yard. In each pitfall was a piece of fruit and in the other was a piece of meat. The aim was to find out which pitfall attracted more creatures, herbivores and carnivores.
We left the pitfalls for two 2 days and returned to find the results. We learned that the pitfalls containing the meat attracted a lot more mini-beasts than the ones containing fruit. Therefore, our conclusion was that the majority of the mini-beasts in the school yard were “carnivores!”
We had lots of fun this week for Seachtain na Gaeilge. 5th and 6th class learned “The Siege of Ennis”. We practiced for 2 weeks. We had a big céilí in the school hall on Thursday and all the classes showed off their dances. Well done to all the irish dancers who put on a fantastic performance also.
Well done to the boys and girls who played an instrument in the orchestra performance for Seachtain na Gaeilge on Tuesday. It was super to hear everyone playing Irish music together.
The pupils in 5th and 6th class were busy carrying out experiments today. We were testing foods for starch. We used a diluted iodine solution to test various foods and materials. foods turned blue/black when starch was present and , there was no change in colour when starch was absent.
On Monday the 6th of March, 3 teams represented St. Finian’s at the FAI soccer tournament in Oriel Park, Dundalk. The boys’ teams played out on the main pitch of the League of Ireland champions. One of our boys teams were agonisingly close to qualifying for the finals on Wednesday. The girls’ team performed magnificently in their competition, winning their 1st game, drawing the 2nd game and losing their 3rd game. All the boys and girls really enjoyed the day out. There were some fantastic performances on all of the teams and there were some excellent goals scored. We cannot wait for next year!
