We love reading!

We love reading in room 9 and one of our favorite websites is https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/ It is a wonderful website that's free for anyone to join and gives you access to hundreds of books that you can read on your computer or tablet. There are also games and activities based on each story so it is a fantastic resource for reading and learning at home.

Silver medals

In Room 9 we work hard every day to earn three stamps in our stamp book. Most of the class has filled their silver stamp book and last week we got our silver medals.

We are all working hard to fill our gold stamp book. If we get them filled not only do we get a gold medal we also get to go on the super swim!!!

Hatching chicks

In April the three senior infant classes got a very special delivery; chicken eggs that were ready to hatch in an incubator. The incubator is a special heated box that helped to keep the eggs warm so they can hatch. The Mammy hen usually does this job when she sits on her eggs. The first chick hatched within a day and two more chicks followed in the next couple of days. The chicks had a special house to live in  once they had hatched. Room 9 were very lucky and we got to visit the chicks twice. When we first visited them their feathers were wet and smooth. When we came back four days later their feathers were fluffed out and they had grown much bigger.

 Unfortunately, the chicks could only stay in Scoil Mhuire for a week. They are back on the farm now enjoying the sun.

Energy savers

At the start of May a man from Sustainable Energy Ireland came into our class to tell us about saving energy.
We discussed all the different places energy comes from and put on a short play about a farmer growing corn.

He introduced us to his puppet friend who was an energy waster. He always left the water running when he brushed his teeth, he never turned the lights or television off when he left the room and he drove to school even though he only lived 10 minutes way. We had to tell the puppet different ways to save energy.

 We are already excellent energy savers in room 9. Every week a different helper is appointed Energy Saver and it is their job to remind Ms O'Hara to turn off the lights and the interactive whiteboard. So we were able to tell the puppet to turn off the lights and television, to make sure not to leave the water running and to walk or cycle to school.
Finally, we learned that sometimes when you are cold it is easier and better for the environment if you put on extra clothes instead of turning the heating up. We had a lot of fun having a dressing up race.

Planting

In April we went out to the school garden to do some planting. John suggested that we plant red onions as it is the right time of year to plant them. He had cleared a patch in the garden just for us and helped us with the planting. It was a lovely day so we also went for a walk in the convent garden to look at the spring flowers and look at the leaves which were beginning to grow on the trees.

Bean plants

In March we decided to do an experiment which involved planting broad bean seeds. We know that plants need water, light and soil to live and we wanted to see how important each of these things was for the plant's growth.


Our first seed was planted in sand instead of soil. It was given water and light.

The next seed was planted in soil and given plenty of light but we did not water this seed.

We planted another seed in soil. This time we watered it but we put it in a box so that it would not get any light.

Finally we planted a seed in soil and decided to give this seed water and light. Most people predicted that this seed would grow best.

We have been checking on our plants every morning since and these are the results of our experiment:

 The seed planted in sand has not grown. This is because seeds need nutrients from soil to grow.

The seed which was not watered did not grow. Seeds need the right amount of water to grow.

The seed which did not get any light grew for a few days but soon the shoot turned white and died.This is because plants need light to make food. When light from the sun helps plants to make their own food it is called photosynthesis.

The seed which was given soil, light and water has been growing and growing everyday. We are taking very good care of it and hopefully we will have some beans soon,