We are so proud to announce our participation in this year's MS Readathon! Not only will we be raising money for an important cause like Multiple Sclerosis but we will also be working on our reading; such a great combination! We had a big countdown this morning to kick off our Readathon and, as you can see from the pictures below, there wasn't a minute wasted! 

Watch this space to keep an eye on our progress over the next few weeks. 

Today we gathered our data from our shape hunt and recorded it on bar-charts using beautiful colours. 

 Junior & Senior Infants were learning all about 2-D shapes in Maths and went on a Shape Hunt in the school to find circles, squares, triangles and rectangles. 

For the last few weeks we've been learning all about the Titanic. We began by reading our class novel: Titanic - A Voyage from Drumshee and the children all agreed it was a really exciting but sad story. 

We researched different topics, e.g. food and clothes aboard and we even found the original menu from the ship! 

We finished off the week with some floating and sinking experiments and finally we made our own Titanic replicas out of clay and painted them. Below are some pictures of these activities! 

A special thank you to Eric who very kindly put together a Lego Titanic and brought it in for us to see! 

Well done to everyone for all their hard work. 😊

Today we competed in the West Mayo Cross Country Championships and had a fantastic day. The children represented their school so well and did us all proud! The sun was shining in Ballyvary and all in all it was a great day out. Well done to everyone that competed and to our subs! We're already looking forward to next year! 😊😊

We were absolutely thrilled to get two special visitors to Derrywash yesterday. Benny and Marion Martin were the principal and teacher in Derrywash until 1991 and dedicated so many years to our school. Many of our parents, past pupils and even a few teachers (!) will have fond memories of their time in Derrywash. Many thanks to them for popping in for a visit and bringing us for an unexpected trip down memory lane! 

Well done to all the boys and girls that dressed up and made such an effort for our Green & Red Day in school. We had a great day working on a very special project. We're not quite ready to tell you all about it just yet but all will be revealed early next week! 

Wishing everyone a safe and successful weekend! Up Mayo!!! 

 Everyone here in the Junior & Senior Infant room are wishing all the best to the Mayo men and ladies lining out for their county this weekend and next weekend, Maigheo Abú!

Welcome back everyone! 

One of our first activities this year is to learn a poem to help us remember the counties in each province. 

Here it is so you can practice at home! 

-Mrs Fitzgerald :) 

 Junior & Senior Infants are showing their support for the men's and ladies Mayo teams by making Mayo Pop Art. UP MAYO!

Thank you so much to the RINKA instructors that came to visit us today. They did a little workshop with us to develop our fitness in a creative and fun way. As the day was so nice we did the workshop outside and had a great time. 

 Click here to have a look at some of the fun things we got to do on our first ever school tour! We had so much fun and can't wait to go on another tour! We thought that Ms Bourke would sneak a little puppy home with us but our plan didn't work.....this time!

Here are a few photos of a really wonderful day. Everyone was so excited when the double decker bus arrived to bring to us to the Pet Farm. Thank you to everyone for making it a fun day! 

Dear Parents, Friends and Visitors, 

We have been so busy in 2nd and 3rd class over the last few weeks and have completely forgotten to update our blog!  We think it's definitely time to let you know what we have been up to!

First of all we have been REALLY enjoying the beautiful weather and have been using this opportunity to play some rounders on our pitch, practice our Mindfulness techniques in the playground and even reading in the sunshine. It was lovely to relax in the sun while still enjoying our class novels. 

 We had a special visitor, Seán, from Castlebar Fire Station. He talked to us all about the importance of Fire Safety and he introduced us to his friends! We got a special Fire Safety Pack to bring home and tell our families about. We even got to try on the helmets. They were really heavy! We asked Seán lots of excellent questions and we want to thank Seán for answering all these questions and for taking the time to visit us. Take a peek at our pictures from the visit!

Finally we have been studied the Sixties and had been looking at pictures of record players from that era. We did a quick survey and most of the boys and girls had never seen one so Ms. Fitzgerald brought in her one from home to show the children how it worked! Aside from a little authentic dust (!), it is working perfectly! We liked the special crackly sound it made when it played. Everyone got a chance to come up and watch how the needle sat on the vinyl and made the music play. It was fascinating! 

Finally, we are really loving our Woodland Walkway and have been popping down for walks when we get the opportunity. We all agreed that Fergal has done wonderful work on it! It is so peaceful and a lovely break from the busy classroom work! How lucky we are to have such a facility right beside our school. Look at these happy faces!!

That is all our news from the last few weeks. We would also love to congratulate the 2nd class children who made their First Holy Communion. Thank you to the parents, teachers, family and children that attended on the day and took part so enthusiastically. 

Our school musical is fast approaching and we can't wait to perform in the Linenhall for the first time!

We hope you enjoyed our Class Update and we will definitely have a couple more before the year is out. 

Enjoy the last few weeks! 

Ms. Fitzgerald, 2nd and 3rd class. 

 Last week we had a picnic outside in the lovely sunshine. 

 We are getting so good at spelling in Junior Infants! Here is a little sneak peek into some work that we love doing. 

4th 5th & 6th Class took to the kitchen recently to prepare a healthy and tasty lunch for themselves! We prepared the food ourselves; we boiled the eggs, grated the carrots and cheese, washed and sliced the peppers, tomatoes etc. Not only was our lunch healthy and delicious but it was also very cost effective. We calculated that each lunch cost us less than €1, proving that healthy eating is not only good for our bodies but it's good also good for our pockets!

Have a look at what we got up to in the kitchen!

We have had loads of fun the past few weeks with this lovely weather! Here's hoping it continues!

2nd & 3rd class decided to make the most of the beautiful weather by having reading time outside today! Good for the bodies AND minds! 😊

On Tuesday we spent the day in Knock Shrine to prepare for our First Holy Communion. We played games, talked about Jesus in our lives and we heard all about the story of Knock. We had a tour of the museum and watched a short DVD of the story of the apparitions. 

We were lucky enough to visit the Carmelite sisters who make the bread. They even let us cut our own! We will use this bread on our big day. 

Here are a few pictures of our visit to Knock! 

We were thrilled to hear that one of our classmates won a prize in the Barna Waste Easter Colouring Competition! She won a yummy Easter Egg-lucky girl! Well done, Keila. :) 

 It was all about the chocolate today in Derrywash NS, and the Junior Infants went out in search of chocolate eggs that the Easter Bunny may have dropped along his way. If anyone needs help finding chocolate treasure this group are pretty good at sniffing it out! Happy Easter everyone.

 The excitement was magical in Junior Infants this morning when they saw that their Easter Baskets were full of chocolate surprises from the Easter Bunny. 

Today we visited the Linenhall Arts Centre to see the exhibition, 'As Above, So Below'. We looked at the paintings, talked about them and then took a part in an art workshop where we got to paint our own abstract art. We really enjoyed the experience and everyone created something special. 

Thank you to the Linenhall for having us! 

 We made some beautiful Easter Baskets today and left them on our Easter Table. Hopefully the Easter Bunny will drop into Junior Infants some day and see all the work we have done!

 We had a wonderful few weeks with Ann and Derval doing lovely mindful activities. We are going to introduce mindfulness into our daily routine so we can improve our concentration and to help us relax. 

As our workshops draw to a close, we want to thank Ann and Dervil for opening our minds to Mindfulness! Taking time to breathe and being mindful a few times a week not only helps us to relax but also to concentrate better. 

We are going to continue to use these new techniques in class and in the yard. The children might even share them with everyone at home too! 

 Junior Infants are perfecting their yoga stretches every week, and their balance is getting better every time. We are having so much fun learning yoga and it is so good for developing our stamina, strength and flexibility. 

We are very lucky to have Connacht Rugby coach Simon O'Malley coaching us the skills of rugby for 6 weeks. Simon is confident from what he has seen that he will unearth the next Johnny Sexton or Niamh Briggs in Derrywash N.S!

We've spent the last week celebrating Seachtain na Gaeilge and what a week it has been! Bhí na páistí ag caint as Gaeilge sa seomra ranga agus sa chlós! 

We did some St. Patrick's Day themed art lessons and performed in the Taispeántas today. Bhí gach duine ag obair go dian agus bhain siad taitneamh as! 

A special mention to the boys and girls who won the Gaeilgeoir an Lae certificates for speaking Irish in the classroom and around the school! 

Comhghairdeas leis na páistí agus lá fhéile Pádraig! 

 A lucky finish to Seachtain na Gaeilge with our happy leprechauns. Lets hope that they bring a pot of gold to every house in Derrywash. Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

All decked out for St. Patrick's Day!

 We recently painted some beautiful Spring tulips using forks and paint!! It was so much fun, but it was kind of hard remembering not to put the fork in our mouths!!!

On Wednesday we took part in the Connacht Table Tennis tournament in Breaffy. Table tennis has really taken off in Derrywash N.S. in the last number of years. This year both our boys and girls teams finished 3rd in a very competitive tournament. Well done to everyone involved!

The senior room took to the kitchen on Pancake Tuesday armed with frying pans, spatulas and any amount of pancake batter. The pupils from 4th, 5th & 6th worked hard to feed over 100 hungry children (and teachers!) Here are some pictures from a very enjoyable day! 

 On World Book Day we decided to take to the kitchen and test out our cooking skills. We made some really tasty pizzas that went down a big treat! 

This week we've been learning all about buildings and paying close attention to our own school building. We analysed some pictures of the school over the last 50 years and noticed lots of changes. We even spotted a few familiar faces! 

One of our second class boys was so inspired by the topic that he decided to recreate our lovely school using lego! He even added a digger to show how much construction has taken place here in the last twenty years. I think you'll all agree it's a fantastic replica. Well done, Luke! 

A big thank you to 4th, 5th & 6th for making our tasty pancakes today. We all really enjoyed them and especially liked experimenting with different toppings! 

 4th, 5th & 6th Class made us some very tasty pancakes today. It was such a nice treat after all our hard work writing this morning. Thank you, they were yummy!! 

We love to dig!

With the help of our new laptops we are learning lots of new skills in 2nd and 3rd class. 

At the minute we are learning how to copy and paste pictures and we are getting really good at it! 

We used these new skills to complete projects on exotic birds. 

Take a look at some of our wonderful work so far! 

Today we showed off all the hard work that has been going into our drumming workshops with Anthony. We used drums as well as a variety of instruments. The show went really well and we even got our Moms and Dads involved in the music! Here are a few pictures and a video of the showcase. 

Thank you to those that came to the show and also to Anthony for all of his hard work.