Boys and girls – you were all BRILLIANT yesterday. Well done to your Mammys and Daddys for downloading your work and well done to all of you for giving it a go! Your teachers were so THRILLED to hear from you. They shared some of your super work with me too!!!!

Well done to Ms. Hearne and 6th class and Miss Farrell and 5th class who will go down in the annals of Piercestown N.S. as the first class to be on ‘Zoom’!! We thought ‘zoom’ was a phrase just describing the boys and girls racing up and down the pitches in their Rackard league match!!

Today as we officially begin our ‘distant/cyber’ learning journey, I wonder would you all like to complete the following activity. It is a page taken from a booklet called ‘The Great Isolation’ – this has lots of nice activities that will form work on our blogs over the next few weeks also.

Activity page from -‘The Great Isolation’ – One for Everyone!

This page looks at the facts of who we are, and where we are now, and gets a snap shot of us in this time. You could do it on a page or in a copy.

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The boxes to fill in are :

This is what I look like – draw a picture here/ stick a photo. Next, these are my isolation buddies – who is in your house? This is my favourite colour – colour in. This is what my house looks like – draw a picture. This is my age- write your age. These are my friends- write their names/draw a picture. These are a few of my favourite things- draw some items/ write a list. And finally, this is my teacher – again write teacher’s name or if you are feeling arty draw a pic!

Don’t forget we would love to share some of your work on our website – send us a photo of it to principal@piercestownns.com

For those of you looking for EVEN MORE work…..

Our Junior activity and link is all about Spiders!!!!!! Ahhhhhhhhh

Junior link  – watch this video

https://watchandlearn.scholastic.com/videos/animals-and-plants/all-kinds-of-animals/tricky-spiders.html

Junior activity – Invent a Spider

Some spiders are named for how they look—like the wolf spider or the pumpkin spider.

• Pretend you discovered a new kind of spider.
• Draw it. (Be sure to give it eight legs, a head, and a body.)
• Describe it in words.
• Name it!

Don’t forget to send us some photos! I promise I will manage to look (yikes!)

Our Senior activity and link also follows an SESE (Geography theme)

Senior link

https://storyworksjr.scholastic.com/issues/2016-17/090116/Hottest-Coldest-Places.html#On%20Level – Read the article. Tell a parent which place would you prefer and why?

Senior activity

Draw your own map! In a notebook or on a piece of paper, draw a map of a place that is special to you. It could be your hometown, a map of your  school, your favourite park, or where your family goes during school hols. It may be somewhere really special to you that unfortunately you can’t visit at the moment due to the COVID 19 restrictions.

 Try to include as many details as you can!

Keep up the great work boys and girls! Chat soon, Kind regards, Ms. Walsh

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Senior Activity

Book versus Movie Activity

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So hopefully, we got to chill out over the Easter hols and watch a movie or two. Had you read the book?

Have a go at comparing and contrasting the movie and the book?

What was the same?

What was different? Which did you prefer and why?

Finally, for our links today – we are going with ‘Mental Maths Monday’ with a fun element!

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Junior infants and Senior infants Maths

Let’s get counting ‘under the sea’

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/learning-to-count/underwater-counting

1^st – 3^rd class

Let’s get practising those tables

Play ‘Hit the Button’ can you beat your parents or brothers and sisters https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button

4^th-6^th class

Let’s get practising those tables

Play ‘Hit the Button’ can you beat your parents or brothers and sisters https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button

Amidst the doom and gloom, there has been one bit of good news announced by our Government.

Thankfully, our Taoiseach, has granted a special eggs-emption for this weekend for the Easter Bunny to travel.

As long as the Easter Bunny follows Simon Harris advice of washing his paws regularly, he is allowed to break the 2km distance restrictions and go about his very important business.

Happy Easter everyone! Enjoy some much deserved chocolate and treats and enjoy the sunshine!

We miss you all. Have an eggstra-special weekend.

Kind regards,

Ms. Walsh and all the staff

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Fr. O’Reilly extends a warm invitation to our 2nd class tomorrow night (Thursday 9th April) to join in their ‘Do this in Memory’ mass that is scheduled to take place on Holy Thursday at 7pm.

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While in accordance with restrictions, the children and their families cannot be there in person, we ask all families and our 2nd class children to join us online for this special celebration. Fr. O’Reilly is looking forward to greeting the children remotely as they continue on their preparation towards their special day.

We thank Fr. O’Reilly for his proactive approach that allows us to continue our spiritual journey in unprecedented times.

So to join us, just click on the link https://www.ipcamlive.com/piercestownchurch

In less than an hour, we are asked to open our doors and salute our super heroes by applauding them at 3pm for their bravery during this time.

Please share the word with those in the community who may not be online or on social media. “Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much!”- Helen Keller

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A webcam has been installed into the Church in Piercestown. This will facilitate those members of our community who wish to attend mass from the safety of their homes. We thank Fr. O’ Reilly for his proactive approach and are happy to share this on behalf of the community and those who may wish to avail.

Please find below the link.

The Link to our Web Cam in Piercestown Church is https://www.ipcamlive.com/piercestownchurch

Services for Holy Week

• Palm Sunday;  Mass and Blessing of Palms 10 a.m.
• Tuesday and Wednesday Mass 9.30 a.m.
• Holy Thursday;  Mass of Last Supper 7p.m.
• ( Parents of First Communion Children please tune in )
• Good Friday;  Stations 12 midday  The Passion of the Lord 3 p.m.
• Easter Sunday;  Mass 10 a.m.

( Thanks to our schools and St. Martin’s for publicising our Link and we would ask our young people to help the elderly to link in)

Easter holidays have finally arrived, in the strangest way any of us have ever experienced. We feel that since we closed our doors on March 12th, so much has happened. This will be the same for everyone, but everyone’s experience will be very different. While a lot of people will be looking forward to the well-needed break from ‘home-schooling’, some people might like a few activites to keep them busy over the holidays.

We have compiled just a short list of links and a selection of activities should you need them.

This website is also excellent in terms of reminding your children what ‘superheroes’ they are at this time.

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We, at Piercestown N.S. are SO PROUD of you all staying at home and keeping everyone safe! We know, this is not easy to do, and often we are missing our friends and extended family. So your children might enjoy this short video clip, to remind them how SUPER they are.

https://tinyhealth.info/super-stayhome-girl/

Here are some ideas to keep people busy if they need it:

Why not try out the 14 day drawing challenge!?

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Why not gather some ideas (over 100 to be precise) to do while playing indoors!

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If your child is feeling sad, worried, confused – why not try some of the following:

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Don’t forget many of the celebrities are still doing their bit to help us all during this crisis:

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And the RTE school hub will still be on, even during holidays, Mon – Fri at 11am with it being recorded on the RTE player also if you miss it.

Here is another selection of activity ideas:

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Finally, if after ALL of those activities you are still looking for seomthing here are a few links to keep you going:

Here are some free online reading resources:

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If you feel like going into outer space, this fantastic website is worth a look:

https://www.nasa.gov/kidsclub/index.html

For those of you with a passion for the arts. This website is tied in with the Primary School  Art Curriculum also

http://www.iamanartist.ie/paint-and-colour/

For those of you who LOVE experiements why not find some new ideas here:

http://www.lovemyscience.com/index.html

Finally, if you love numbers and you don’t want your tables to go rusty- see if you can beat your own record here

https://www.transum.org/Software/Tablesmaster/

But most importantly, be safe and be kind and take a break.

This too shall pass!

We miss you all very much and hope to see you all soon.

Happy Easter,

Ms. Walsh and ALL the staff 🙂

Oh how we miss you all today, 😦 on a day where lots of Easter fun would be had.

So, to get you in the mood for the official Easter holidays from school, our theme today is that of Easter!

So today, roll up your sleeves, dust off your rolling pins and don those aprons! This activity is for ANY age group.

Junior and Senior Baking Activity

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https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/easter-brownie-bites

Ingredients:

• 175g butter, chopped
• 150g dark chocolate
• 250g light brown soft sugar
• 85g self-raising flour
• 50g cocoa powder
• 3 large eggs, beaten
• 100g milk chocolate chips
• 24 mini chocolate eggs, plus extra to decorate

Method: (The fun part)

1. Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Line 24 holes of a mini muffin tray with paper cases. Put the butter, dark chocolate and sugar in a pan and heat it very gently, stirring all the time until the butter and chocolate have melted. Remove from the heat and leave to cool for a few mins.
2. Meanwhile, sift the flour, cocoa and a good pinch of salt into a large bowl. Stir in the warm, melted chocolate mixture and the beaten eggs, then add half the chocolate chips and mix until just combined. 
3. Divide the mixture between the cases and place a mini egg into the middle of each muffin, pushing down gently. Bake for 12-15 mins until cooked but still gooey in the centre – they will continue cooking a little as they cool down. Leave to cool for 10 mins in the tin before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
4. Melt the rest of the chocolate chips in short bursts in the microwave, or in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water, stirring frequently. Leave to cool until it is quite thick, then dot a small amount on each cake and stick on some more mini eggs.
5. The BEST part – eat, eat, eat! Enjoy!!!!!!

With just 15 minutes preparation time and 15 minutes baking time, these will be WELL worth the effort. Why not get your parents to take some photos of your ‘getting your bake on’ and email them into principal@piercestownns.com so we can share them with your friends!

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Sticking with the theme of Easter, our links direct us to some Easter art and all you need is a pencil and paper:

How to draw an Easter bunny folding surprise

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMa5gsmZwHs&t=240s

Or

How to draw an Easter Bunny portrait:

https://youtu.be/5QQJ6mMWoFY

And if you still have LOTS of energy after drawing and baking why not get the juniors to join in the Cosmic Yoga Bunny Dance on this link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gV85rd3yTc

Happy Easter everyone – we wish you all a fabulous Easter break! Dont forget to get outside in your garden for an Easter egg hunt!

We hope to see you all soon,

Best wishes, Ms Walsh and ALL the staff at Piercestown N.S.

p.s. One final blog will go up by the end of today with a selection of activites and links if anyone needs ideas over the holidays! But remember, you have ALL (parents especially!) been working extremely hard in these unprecedented times, so take a good break, it will be back to the daily routine of ‘school work’ before we know it!

Well done to Emily and Chloe on their wonderful illustration of the lifecycle of a butterfly! (Many of us look forward to the end of our ‘cocooning phase’ too in the future)

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Congratulations to Seán who is still dedicated to the 30 day lego challenge! Many of us would also book tickets on his lego spaceship if we could right now! What a super creation!

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Don’t forget, if you want to showcase some of your work email it in to principal@piercestownns.com

It is lovely to come together by sharing our work!

As today is ‘World Autism Day’ and April is ‘Autism Awareness’ month, our activities and links today tie in with this topic. We, at Piercestown N.S. are particularly proud of all of our school community this year, since we opened our newest class in September 2019. Our children have worked hard to promote and create the most wonderful inclusive environment, which is learning that goes far beyond the cover of any text book. So for today:

Junior Activity

Practice some lámh at home with your family. Say hello, show them home, say thank you.

Check out the following link https://www.lamh.org/

• Go on a blue scavenger hunt
• Make some blue arts and crafts

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• Wear something blue and upload a photo to the website for our video!

Senior Activity

Can you remember you lámh song – ‘Count on me’ by Bruno Mars  or ‘You’ve got a Friend in Me’ by Woody from Toy Story. Teach someone in your family some of the signage!

Junior Link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKCdV20zLMs

Have you ever heard of autism

Watch the junior link above. Talk to your family about what you understand autsim to mean.

Senior Link

Watch this video clip about Nick – talk to your family afterwards about what your understand about people with autism https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtRYKjucDHk

Check out this year’s video created by us at Piercestown N.S.

Write down how you would design a video to mark Blue (Autism Awareness Day )

Get your mam and dad to take a video of your plan at home. You could be the next Steven Spielberg!

Get your parents to email them to principal@piercestownns.com if you wish to share

Happy Creating!