Farewell to Autumn

As autumn ends and we get ready for a new season, we reflect on our learning in the last term. The children of Cregmore National school engaged in an array of stimulating activities focused on the theme of Autumn. Nature walks allowed the children to  examine and identify the range of leaves in their magnificent Autumnal colours. Art was another opportunity to explore the rich and vibrant colours of autumn where children created autumn tree's, autumn prints and the colours of autumn. English lessons focused on the language of autumn and many children composed delightful poems using an array of interesting verbs and adjectives to describe this enchanting season. In addition to this, many classes learned to recite autumn poems which captured the beauty we see everywhere as the tree's prepare to shed their leaves for Autumn.  The following pictures capture some of the creative and enjoyable lessons the children engaged in during Autumn!

Halloween Activities

Cregmore National School was a hive of activity leading up to Halloween with classes engaging in a variety of activities based around the theme of Halloween. Spooky Halloween experiments were conducted, terrifying Halloween poems, stories and spells were composed, creepy songs were sung in both English and as Gaeilge and the school was filled with an array of haunting artwork. In addition to this, drama activities focused on bringing all sorts of horrible creatures to life and the history of Halloween was explored. On the final day before the holidays, terrifying and terrible creatures were seen everywhere as all the pupils dressed up as Halloween characters! We hope everyone had a happy and a safe Halloween!

Baboró Third Class Visit

Baboró International festival for Children took place this year from the 17th to the 23rd of October and offered a variety of wonderful events in theatre, dance, music, puppetry, film, animation, exhibitions and talks. There was also many educational and entertaining workshops available for children, parents and educators. Third Class were luckily offered the opportunity to attend the festival for a splendid day of theatre, film,puppetry, music, animation and education on the 19th of October.

The first activity involved going to see the  beautifully presented play 'Voyage' which was an adaption of the well known and loved story 'Gulliver's Travel' by Johnathon Swift. It told the tale of a little boy who sets off on a dangerous and brave adventure to rescue his father who has been kidnapped by a Giant. On his journey, he stumbles upon an island of little people who call themselves 'Lilliputians' and view humans as giants. The story was a feast for his eyes and every child and indeed teacher was taken into the wonderful imaginative world of the arts. 

 It was a superb show with magnificent special effects to create the effects of the sea, puppets to give the contrast between the little characters 'the lilliputitians' and the giants as well as the the use of traditional instruments for atmospheric music,

Following the show, we were free to have our lunch in an area of the Town Hall Theatre. We found the volunteers with Baboró to be extremely friendly, helpful and wonderful with the children. Once we had our lunch, we had a little time to spare so we went on a short nature walk which took us to the playground. We had a lovely time playing in the playground!

After the playground, our bus collected us to bring us to our next venue- Galway Arts Centre! There we got to view a short film about a mermaid, examine an art exhibition and watch another longer film about growing up. The theme of the workshop focused on how we changed and grow as we grow older. The facilitator of the workshop engaged in much talk and discussion with the children about the the theme and how it related to the films and art. The children had another enjoyable and educational experience here.

We have Baboró to thank for providing us with such an enriching, meaningful day of creative arts. They are clearly commited to their mission and vision statement which can be found on their website at http://www.baboro.ie/about/mission-vision and is printed below:

1. To recognise children and young people as individuals in their own right and to encourage their access to, and participation in, the creative arts.
2. To be an advocate for children and young people’s right to participate in cultural and creative activities and to celebrate and articulate the  power of the creative arts.
3. To promote the study, appreciation and understanding of all forms of the creative arts throughout Ireland and to provide guidance and expertise to educators, enabling them to develop frameworks for engaging with the creative arts.
4. To organise, control and manage an arts festival for children, young people and families, to be held annually in Galway and to do all works which are incidental to organising and managing that arts festival.

The day out was  such a great success and really illustrated the power and beauty of the arts in children's lives. Our wonderful experience highlighted the  role the arts play in children's daily lives and the powerful effect it has on their overall development.  We plan to  complete some of Baboró's follow up drama activities during drama class and eagerly await a return to the festival next year. In the meantime, we will continue to keep the spirit of Baboró alive in our classrooms through of use of drama, music, art and film across all subjects!

Book Week 2016

We enjoyed a wonderful morning in Ballybane Library, as part of Book Week 2016. Samir, a sketch artist, showed us the various tools and techniques used when sketching. We then all sketched an image of an eye, applying the techniques of blending and smudging which Samir had shown us.

We then read and borrowed books from the library. Many thanks to all who made our trip so enjoyable!

Autumn Athletics Update

Athletics in Cregmore National School has got off to a  very productive and successful start this year with the Galway AA1 Cross Country Championships taking place on the 20th of September! The children were divided into teams of six in the categories of Junior and Senior for girls and boys. All teams performed very well and really enjoyed the day. Emma Flaherty won a bronze medal in the Junior Girls category while Maeve McGarry was a successful bronze medal winner in the Senior Girls Category! Tadhg Joyce also won a bronze medal for the Senior Boys. The winners went on to compete in the AA1 Cross Country Finals and although we had obtained no medals on that day, the children performed exceptionally well and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. All 24 participants made a fantastic effort overall and well done to them!

5th and 6th Class Celebrate Maths Week!

5th class and 6th class collaborated to engage in a 'Maths for Fun' session in the School Hall to mark Maths Week in our school. There were many stations set up which developed the childrens' mathematical problem solving skills, such as utilising calculators, ICT integration, 3D shape construction, traditional games involving maths, tangram & tessellation exploration and many more! See pictures of our event below...