Working with clay.

We shaped the clay to look like the Newgrange entrance stone.We decorated it with coils and  pellets. We made spirals and some of us made double spirals. We learned that there are triple spirals on the Newgrange stone. We added  pellets after the coils. We etched designs and patterns onto the clay with knitting needles.  We fixed everything in place with a special glue made of clay and water. It was messy but great fun to use. We put a special effect on the pellets with the knitting needle. We saw the woolly, hairy fibers in the clay. They help make the clay strong.  Now our slabs are drying and we will paint them when they are fully dry.  Here is a video we made in class of us at work. ENJOY !

In Science we had fun making sounds and sound waves. We checked out the push force of sound waves by trying to make a candle flame flicker. First we used a tin lid and hit it with a ruler. This worked really well and the flame jumped and almost flattened. We noticed that when we moved away from the candle it took a few seconds for the sound waves to reach the flame. We decided to test the sound wave effect of shouting, clapping and finger clicking.  The clapping and shouting had a disappointing result even though we made lots of loud noise. The finger clicking worked best. Here are some photos……

Thursday 23rd April was our Action Day for our  3rd Green Flag and our Active Schools Flag.  Second to sixth  class took part in a beach clean up at Salterstown  Beach. We set off kitted out with gloves, bibs and litter bags. First we did a litter blitz of the road to both sides of the pier. We got some exercise and enjoyed the fresh air and the sunshine. We stopped to watch the sea birds swimming and diving and counted 11 fishing boats out on the sea. By the time we got back to the pier for lunch we had filled almost all the bags  and enjoyed a nice walk.  We enjoyed a picnic lunch and a long break before we began the beach clean up. We explored the rock pools and did some rock climbing. The beach clean up  was interesting work – the amount of litter and rubbish on the beach was astonishing. We found old boots, shoes, rugs, tyres and an old mattress. We worked slowly and carefully and we filled all our bags and some others that we found along the beach too.We found St. Colmans Well and did a special job of cleaning around it because visitors often come there.  We were very pleased with our work and the beach did look a lot cleaner after we were finished. We had another break at the pier before the buses came for us. We enjoyed a great action day outdoors caring for our local environment.  Enjoy our video.