Lurga National School Senior Room

Rang a 5 & 6

Welcome to our Rang a 5 agus a 6 classroom. There are 19 children in the classroom in total, ten in rang a 5 and 9 in rang a 6.
We love studying drama and music and we also really enjoy P.E. and Visual arts. We have represented our school in athletics, hurling, camogie, soccer and rugby so far this year and look forward to more blitzes and swimming gala in Ennis. We are making great progress on the tin whistle every day.
Teamwork and working together is very important in our room as you can see for all the collaborative learning we do.

Féach ar ár Leabhair

An seachtain seo, i gcomhair Seachtain na Gaeilge, scríobhamar leabhar beag. Tharraing muid na pictúirí freisin agus tá muid an-bródúil as ár iarracht.
Click isteach agus bain taithneamh as!

S.T.E.M.

STEM is the future. STEM is science, technology, engineering, and maths. These are all areas of learning that children need to be comfortable with to excel in the future. STEM makes creators, thinkers, problem solvers, doers, innovators, and inventors. Exposing kids to simple STEM ideas at an early age today sets a foundation for higher learning tomorrow.

We started our first STEM project this week which is to design and create a protective device for a sapling that will allow it to reach maturity. We first had to research the life cycle of a tree, focusing on the sapling stage and its vulnerabilities, then we had to plan and draw a diagram of a device. Next is the construction phase.

Literacy Power Hour

We started our literacy power hour last week, every Wednesday and Tuesday morning we are joined by rang a 2 and we are doing literacy stations. These stations cover creative writing, reading, comprehension strategies, spelling, grammar and oral language. The older children are enjoying being reading buddies to the younger children.

Inspiration Station

Novel Work

Stanley Yelnats is under a curse. A curse that began with his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather and has since followed generations of Yelnatses. Now Stanley has been unjustly sent to a boys’ detention centre, Camp Green Lake, where the boys build character by spending all day, every day digging holes exactly five feet wide and five feet deep. There is no lake at Camp Green Lake. But there are an awful lot of holes.
It doesn’t take long for Stanley to realise there’s more than character improvement going on at Camp Green Lake. The boys are digging holes because the warden is looking for something. But what could be buried under a dried-up lake?
This novel was a hit this year, we made dioramas of Camp Green Lake and finished off the novel, and World Book Week, by watching the film version.

Áitbheo

We were very lucky to be chosen to participate in the Áitbheo programme again this year. The Áitbheo programme aims to increase awareness and foster appreciation of the wealth of natural and cultural heritage in one’s place, with the school serving as a starting-point for investigating the local area. It offers a hands-on and fun learning experience, as well as encouraging independent research and debate, and developing key aspects of the literacy, numeracy, science, history and geography curricula. On completion, the students graduate as certified Young Place Heroes, with a bank of knowledge and enthusiasm that they will carry with them for years to come.

Bricí Spraoi

Bricí : The Imagination Playground is a breakthrough play space concept designed to encourage child-directed free play.
The premium quality big blue foam blocks of various shapes- squares, channel chutes, balls, connectors and more - enable children to have hours of fun.
We had them in our school for three days, we only wish we could have had them for longer. We built animals and houses, bridges and castles. We explored shape and space, making shapes of varying perimeters and area.

'A starry Night' by Vincent van Gogh

Vincent Van Gogh was an artist from the Netherlands. He was inspired to paint "The Starry Night" of the beautiful nighttime view in oil on canvas in 1889.
We took inspiration from this and created our own versions using our artistic licence using cotton buts to create the different brush strokes.

Christmas Craft Fair Art

We created some fabulous pieces of art for sale at the Christmas craft fair. We studies electrical circuits in Science and used this knowledge to create Christmas cards with light up LED lights.

Christmas visit to the Nursing Homes

This year we were invited to spread some Christmas joy in Ballinderreen and Kilcolgan nursing homes. We set off early in the morning, togged out in our Christmas jumpers with musical instruments in tow.
We really enjoyed our day out as we do every year. It is one of the most worthwhile days of the school calendar and thank you to both nursing homes for inviting us.

Short Story competition

In the weeks leading up to Christmas we started watching "The man who invented Christmas", which was about Charles Dickens and the process he went through while writing "A Christmas Carol". We talked about how he developed and used everyday experiences for characters and especially how he had written one of the most famous Christmas stories with its main characters being ghosts and a mean and cranky old man.
We decided to use this as inspiration for our own short stories and the results were amazing.
A special well done to Joseph Connolly who wrote one of the best stories I have ever read and won our in-house competition. I would invite anyone who gets a chance to read this short story and all the other wonderful Christmas stories with a difference.

In november we remember poetry

When a person you love passes away
Look to the night sky on a clear day
The star that to you appears to be bright
will be your loved one
Looking upon you during the night
The lights of Heaven is what shows through
As your loved one watches all that you do
When you feel lonely for the one that you love
Look to the Heavens in the night sky above.

This week we took inspiration from our music class, we looked at the song "When I Grow Up" from the musical Matilda which started us thinking of what we might like to do and how we would go about achieving our goals.

Maori Art

The koru (Māori word for "loop") is a spiral shape based on the unfurling silver fern frond of the ponga plant. Koru symbolizes new life, growth, strength and peace. It is an integral symbol in Māori art, carving and tattoos.
We used the koru to create our own pieces of art.

Guess who...

Dogs Trust

Emer and Coras Genius Hour Project was on Dogs Trust. This was close to the girls heart as they have a cat, Simba, who had been injured on the road, and after their last project on maimed animals and how they adapt they decided to look into organisations that look after animals. They contacted Dogs Trust and they agreed to come out to the school to talk to the children about how to care for dogs properly and to present Dogs Trust with the money they raised from organising a raffle at the showcase day. Well done girls!

Guide Dogs come to Lurga

Beibhinn's Genius Hour Project was on The Guide Dogs. She did a lot of research on how the dogs are trained and how much money and time it takes to train the dogs. She contacted them and asked would they do a school visit so she could present them with the money she raised from selling her own free range eggs and asked would they talk to the school. A great outcome from a great project.

Genius Hour

Showcase Day

Up for the Match

Leaving Party for rang a sé

We had the final farewell to our wonderful class of 2017. 5th class organised the party for 6th class from start to finish and what a great job they did. We had special guest appearances from past pupils and our former principal, music, dancing and a slideshow. Best of luck to Aran, Ava, Dara, Emma, Eric and Laura.

J.E.P....Top 5 in the coutry

After all the hard work Lurga N.S. was picked as one of the top five schools in the country for their product. The research and work they did on planning and producing the hats was second to none and as a result the organiser of the Junior Entrepreneurship Programme came to visit the school to talk to the children. He interviewed them and presented them with the flag.
The J.E.P. was such a worthwhile project, we enjoyed every minute of it.

Famine ships

We were learning about the famine in Ireland and as part of that the children had to research the famine ships which brought so many people to better lives all over the world.
The children then had to construct their own ships out of recycled material, which had to be able to float,at home.
The designs which came in were amazing!!!

Handy Hats.....the finished product

Dancing

We are taking advantage of the beautiful weather we have been having lately and dancing around in the sunshine every Tuesday morning. A great way to start the day!

A monster calls

This year we read 'A Monsters Calls' by Patrick Ness. It is fair to say that we literally could not put the book down once we started. We made these pictures based on the first few chapters that Ms. Conneely read to us during DEAR time.

Confirmation

Rang a 5 agus rang a 6 made their Confirmation this year on the 26th of April in St. Annes Church, Shanaglish. Congratulations to all the children involved.

Lent is the time to prepare for Easter

Junior Entrepreneurship Programme

This year we decided to challenge ourselves and take part in the JEP. We have learnt what an entrepreneur actually is and identified these people in our community. We talked about the skills and characteristics that entrepreneurs have in common and then identified their own strengths and skills. After this we broke up into groups and brainstormed ideas for our own business. We had to make a pitch for our own ideas in within each group and decide on the best one to present to the class.
Mr. Mattew Waters, a local entrepreneur, then came in to talk about how he set up his business and why, and also how to make it successful. He also agreed to become one of out 'Dragons' for our own version of 'Dragons Den'. Mr. Pat Nolan and Ms. Deirdre Conneely made up the rest of the panel of judges.
We presented our ideas and in the end 'Handy Hats' won the judges vote and. Mattew Waters generously offered to loan us the start up costs to get our business up and running.
Watch this space to find out where to get your 'Handy Hats'.

Business Visit from Mathew Waters

Showcase

Market Research

Making our Handy Hats

Day

Paper Maché

We were reading 'The Boss' which is about the adventures of Ernest Shackleton, who was a great Irish explorer, and so decided to make our own vehicles for exploration using paper maché. We decided to make a hot air balloon and weave the basket for it. UP up and away.... "Adventure is out there!" (Ellie, Up)

P.E. with Niamh and Kevin

We were very lucky this year to get some core fitness training in before hurling training started. Michael Cusack's GAA club sponsored this training for us which we are very grateful for. The children learnt the importance of a good warm up and cool down and also learnt about a different type of fitness. It was not based on any sport in particular but benefited all. Kevin then came to train us and as our pitch was out of order, due to the building, Beagh GAA kindly let us use their new, state of the art, facilities. The children benefited greatly from this and we are very thankful to both clubs for their support.

Spreading some Christmas Joy to the elderly in our community

Ghost Boy

We used a short movie as a stimulus for our lessons Halloween week. The film is called 'Ghost Boy' which is about a boy, called Alfie, having to move house with his mother and grandmother. His mother is VERY excited and happy about the move but Alfie is not quite as happy. His sees the house as a creepy place and each room reveals a scary secret, Ghost Boy being one of them.He runs away scared but eventually comes back and befriends Ghost Boy.
We stopped the film mid way and tried to predict what was in the box that Alfie was looking into. We made characters from Plasticine and also wrote a prequel for the story.
Have a look at the characters we created.

Tree Day 2016

We took the opportunity with the good weather to get out and sketch the beautiful trees in the grounds of the school.

Chain reaction - Science

We were studying reaction times and how this might help you win a race or competition with the Paralympics in mind. We recorded our own reaction times and then tested them to see would they improve with practice.

Roald Dahl Day

To celebrate Roald Dahls birthday this year we all brought in our favourite Roald Dahl book to share with the class.
Ms. Conneely read a chapter from the book 'The Twits' which described Mr. Twit and in particular, his beard. We then used any scrap material we could find to recreate our image of Mr. Twit.
Later that day we read the chapter about dream catching in 'The BFG' and created our own dream jars. We wrote down our own dreams on multi coloured pieces of paper and put them inside the decorated jars. They really brighten up the classroom, don't you agree?

Maths games

We are using cards, computers and boardgames to help us with our number facts this year. Every Tuesday and Thursday Mrs. Lundon Scanlon comes into our room and we get to do stations in groups.
Its a fun way to learn Maths and makes you wiser while having fun. We get a 30 minute burst at each station.
Everyone has different interests and learns in different ways and because of station teaching we get to use all different resources to help us.
We have found that it is helping us in other ways as well as maths, for example, typing skills and also teamwork and friendships.

Team building

This exercise shows how the students worked together and how important team work is. We had to build a tower of cups without touching the cups with our hands. We were given the tools of four strings, one rubber band and six cups. The classroom was divided into groups of four.
It took us a while but when we realised how we had to work together we finally figured out how to solve the problem.
It was a great exercise and we realised the importance of teamwork.

School Tour 2016

First stop
Croke Park

Second stop
Kilmainham Jail

Eco Beo Field trip

Learning in the best environment ......our outdoor garden....

As the final part of our Eco Beo course we were taken out to three sites in the Burren to put into practice all we had learnt through the course. First stop was Pol na Brón, then onto Carran church. We then had lunch in the NUIG centre in Carran before we went out onto the limestone pavement nearby where we measured the depth of grikes and found the evry rare flowers of the Burren.
Unfortunately it started to rain but this did not hamper our spirits, we went back to the centre and played games until it was time to leave. We had a great day!

Trip to Blake Manor nursing home

We travelled to Blake Manor Nursing Home on the 2nd June to perform the songs and tunes we have learnt since Christmas to celebrate our Irish culture. The children performed as a whole group and also performed duets, trios and solos. They played music, sang and danced for over an hour and were then treated to a picnic in the beautiful weather in the stunning grounds. We had a great day and can't wait to go back next year.

Proclamation day

Eco Beo Graduation

Shrove Tuesday
Pancake Tuesday

Christmas In The Senior Room

We took inspiration from the John Lewis Christmas Advertisement this year, "The man on the moon" and we thought about how we might reach out to the older generation who might be feeling lonely at Christmas time.
We decided to take a trip to a local nursing home and sing a few Christmas carols and play a few tunes for the residents and spread some Christmas cheer. As Buddy the Elf says "the best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear."
Each child also made a Christmas card for a resident and it truly was a memorable day for the children and residents alike.

This years performance of "Away with the manger" was a resounding success. The children worked tirelessly for the few weeks before and got the show together in record time after going to the nursing home and also the fair.
The entertained the audience with their professional performance and great punch lines!
They finished off the concert with a great rendition of "The twelve days and Christmas" and "We wish you a merry Christmas" with actions and all.
It was a great send off from school and start to the Christmas holidays.

Rang a Sé organised a great fundraiser this year in the form of a cake and crafts fair which took place on the 8th December. They advertised, made cakes and treats on the day and spent weeks making handmade cards and decorations. Everyone had a great day and were full of praise for the children.
We finished off the day by raffling off the prizes which the children collected, from bags of turf and timber to yankee candles.
Well done Rang a Sé, a great start to the Christmas season.

November - the month of the holy souls
Remember those we loved and lost

Angels on high

Congratulations Leah Keane!

Congratulations to Leah who, is in rang a ceathar and, placed third in her age group in the Gort credit union art competition. This years theme was "Happiness is" and I'm sure Leah would agree that this picture captures a very happy moment for her. Well done again Leah. We are very proud of you!

Eco Beo......her we go!

I would like to say a huge CONGRATULATIONS to all the children in the senior room who wrote outstanding essays a few weeks ago about the Burren landscape and why doing the Eco Beo course would be important to us. I am happy to say that we got confirmation this week that we were one of the schools to qualify for this great course which will commence on the 3rd December and will end with a graduation ceremony in March. We are all very excited and proud of the children for achieving this and look forward to learning about our amazing surroundings.

Group work is essential

Culture and heritage of the burren

Geology of the Burren

Flora and fauna

The History Of The Irish Flag

With this being such a significant year for the Republic of Ireland, rang a sé decided to take a closer look at the Irish flag and the meaning of it in one of their projects. We found out the meanings of each colour and where it came from.
We also found out that there are "rules" for handling a flag and also that this was not always the Irish flag. It only actually came into use sine the 1916 Rising.
Come in and read our projects to find out more.

Happy Halloween....

We were very busy in the senior room preparing for the Halloween party this year. Rang a sé organised the Halloween Party from start to finish with a bit of help from Claire and they did an absolutely fantastic job! Everyone enjoyed the day and we are very proud of them.
While rang a sé were out partying, rang a cúig and rang a ceathar were busy finishing their Halloween paintings based on the nightmare before Christmas, featuring Jack the pumpkin king. They also cleaned out pumpkins to be carved and raffle off at the end of the day. They were won by Jim Veale and Emer Gantley. Well done, hope ye enjoy them and have a spooky Halloween !!

Maths Trail

We decided to get up and out of the classroom and put our maths skills to the test since we have been enjoying such a lovely autumn this year. We set off after the break and decided to ask the middle room children if they would like to join us. Since we are the oldest in the school we thought it would be important to show our leadership skills and also to show them how to work as a team.

Paul O' Connell

You are ......

Our sketch work

We practised our sketching skills with pencil and then progressed on to charcoal. These are the results of our first attempt at drawing with charcoal this year. We then decided to paint them using acrylic paint to see the difference. Which do you prefer, charcoal or paint?

Brú na Boinne

Our first project work of the year was to find out about the three different tombs which make up the site at Brú na Boinne , Co. Meath.
Most of us had hear about the most famous tomb, New Grange, but very few had heard of Knowth and Dowth which are just as magnificent!
Come in and read about them any time as they are displayed in the school hall.

Rugby World Cup 2015

We have been following the events of the Rugby world cup closely from the very start and have enjoyed every match. The courage and commitment shown by the Irish team makes us proud to be Irish.
It was very sad to see Paul O' Connell finishing his international career with such an awful injury so we decided to write him a letter letting him know why he is such a good role model for any young person, whether they like sports or not. He is a great inspiration for us all.
We also learnt the words to Ireland's Call and Amhrán na bhFiann and also how to play it on the tin whistle.

Athletics

Congratulations to all the children who represented Lurga N.S. in Renmore this year. We are proud to say that we had a full team in every age group and a staggering 18 children were from the senior room. They were a credit to the school and their families. They all improved on previous records, and for those whose first year it was, they showed sheer determination and grit to finish out the races with their heads held high.
Congratulations to Dyaln, Dean, Alicia and Jamie who placed in the top 30 on the day and went on to represent Lurga N.S. the following week against the other half of the county. I am pleased to say again the Dean and Dylan went on further to represent us in the Connachts in Leitrim. They placed in the top 30 again. Well done boys!

Gaillimh Abú!!!

We started off this school year with some great excitement as the senior men and women had reached the All Ireland final along with the county minors.
We had a great time preparing for the matches and decorating the school. We made flags, banners and headbands for the whole school and have plenty of Galway songs learnt in English and Irish.
We then played our own mini All Ireland series splitting the children from 1st to 6th class into teams of 13. The teams were Galway, Cork, Tipperary and Kilkenny, as these were the teams in the finals. Cork ran out as over all winners, captained by Donnagh Keane and managed by Ms. Lundon Scanlon.

Our Sport's Day 2015

“On Wed June 10th we had our Lurga NS Sport’s Day 2015. All the teachers helped organise the events along with our special guest for the day JD and Susie. In the morning we were all split into six teams, with each team having 10 members with roughly 2 or 3 people from each class. In the morning the six teams were split into 3 groups. In the first group we played ‘Caterpillar Tag, ‘Pony Tag’, ‘Snatch the Bacon’ and ‘Stuck, Unstuck’. In the next group we played ‘Farm Animals’ and in our final group we played ‘Ship, Shore, Deck’ and ‘Crablinks’. After small break we were split into our individual teams and we moved from game to game. We took part in parachute games, construction games, circle games, penalty shootouts, castle games and an obstacle course. The parachute games were great fun. In one game we had to sit down, put our feet under the parachute and shake it. Whilst we were doing this there were two sharks under the parachute trying to pull people in under it, but there were lifeguards running around the outside trying to save people before they got pulled under entirely. After lunch we did loads of races including: sprints, spud and spoon, crab, wheelbarrow and relays. It was great fun and a really enjoyable day and I cannot wait until next year!” - Éanna

Lurga NS Senior School Tour 2015

On May 28th as part of our Lurga NS Senior School Tour 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th classes travelled to Hodson Bay on the River Shannon along with Mrs Lundon Scanlon, Mr Nolan and Ms McNamara. We spent the majority of our day kayaking, currach rowing, pier diving, pedal karting, dragon boating, learning some bush survival skills and splashing around in the Shannon. But surely the highlight of the day was playing on the waterpark at the geograpghical centre of Ireland. It was a brilliant tour and we all gave this year’s tour a huge thumbs up.

Irish Seed Savers Association

In April we had a visit from Áine Ní Fhlatharta from Irish Seed Savers Association. Áine spent a half day with us all in the Senior Room helping us to gain a greater understanding of biodiversity. Máire told us about the importance of helping to maintain a high level of biodiversity in and around our school grounds. After that we completed a flora and fauna survey of our school grounds finding out that we have numerous Blackthorn, Hawthorn, Ash and Elder trees surrounding our school grounds. We also did a bug hunt where we found all manner of creepy crawlies. We had a really brilliant time finding out about all the different plants and animals and how to recognise them.

Our Board Games

In March we created our own board games as part of our Maths work on chance, fractions and computation. We invited the middle room in to road test our games, it was great fun.

Camogie Success for Lurga

This year Lurga NS travelled with great hopes for reaching the Galway County Camogie Finals for the first time in our history. We were drawn in a group containing three strong teams hailing, from Moyglass NS, Tierneevin NS and Loch Cutra NS. We had a low start in our first match against Moyglass conceding a goal early on but we came back strongly to win out. We knew going into our second game that if we could win we would have a great chance of qualifying. Tierneevin were a very strong team but we battled really hard to run out winning by two goals. In our last match we played against our neighbouring school in Loch Cutra. This was our hardest game of the day and it was neck and neck all the way but we unfortunately lost out by one goal at the final whistle. Our disappointment from losing our last match was soon forgotten though as we received the wonderful news that we had won our group on a score difference of one point. We were all delighted but we now can start to look forward to a County Final later in the year.