Convent Primary School, Mallow
Christmas Newsletter
December 2013
Principals Message
Dear Parents/Guardians
What a privilege it has been to be able to watch your children in their various performances and
events in the recent past! Fifth class had a wonderful recital in Bridhaven while Sixth class gave
an excellent performance in the Day Care Centre. Girls from 4th to 6th class took part in the annual
Carol Concert in St. Mary’s Church and sang in the Parish Nativity Play. It was lovely to see children in their
individual classes singing and acting in their various events. None of these performances would have
happened without the care and attention of our very dedicated teachers and support staff and I wish to thank
them sincerely for all their efforts. I would also like to thank our very committed Parents Association for their
time and for the huge support they give us. Finally, I would like to wish all our children and their families a
very joyful and peaceful Christmas and I look forward to an exciting 2014 working with you all once more!
Nollag shona agus athbhliain faoi mhaise daoibh go léir!
Maureen Walsh, Principal
Fifth Class News
This year Mr. Ruane’s 5th Class are
doing a Bio Diversity project. Our
class are doing a Bird Sanctuary.
Every day three girls go outside
with our teacher’s camera and take
pictures of any bird we see. We
have water and peanuts out there
for the birds and if they are empty
we fill them up. So far we have got
a few pictures.
Sarah O’Mahony
This year in 5th Class we have been
doing drama. On Mondays we all
go to the hall and our teacher, Mr.
Ruane, tells us about the drama.
Then we pick our groups and try to
work out what we’re doing. Then
for the rest of the week we practice
outside. On the following Monday
we perform our dramas in front of
our class. Everybody loves it!
Fay Kelly
My Christmas Poem
Lights are shining everywhere,
Children getting ready everywhere
Santa Claus will soon be here,
Sound of singing in the air.
Reindeer bells are drawing near,
We’ll soon be full of Christmas Cheer.
By Ciara Twomey
Orienteering
In 5th Class we go Orienteering
which is really fun. Its like a
treasure hunt because you have a
map and you have to follow the
map around the course and you put
the SI card in the control boxes.
We’ve been to loads of places
while Orienteering like Doneraile
Park and Farren Wood. If it’s far
away like Farren Wood we go out
for the day. We went to Shandon
and got to ring the bells!
There is a competition at the end of
January and the top competitors
will make the team and compete in
the All Ireland competition.
Lauren Healy O’Callaghan
Third Class - Ms K. Murphy
We are Poets!
As part of our preparation for
Christmas, we read and wrote
poems about Christmas spirit. We
wanted to write about the true
meaning of Christmas. Here is an
example of a poem from our class
for you to enjoy:
Christmas Spirit
Christmas isn’t all about me, me, me,
And it’s not about putting up the
Christmas tree.
I think Christmas is about having fun
And celebrating the birth of Jesus with
everyone.
It’s not about getting presents nor
getting them for others,
It’s about spending time with your
Mum, Dad, sisters and brothers.
It’s not about Ipods and MP3 players
Because some people can’t afford them
and that’s not really fair.
Hosanna Rock!
At the moment, our class is busy
preparing for our Christmas play.
It is called ‘Hosanna Rock’. It is
the nativity story told through
songs. We are having great fun!
We made our costumes and we
learned 12 songs for our musical.
We also made props for the stage
and we are putting lots of work
into our performance.
We will perform the play twice in
the school hall, once for the other
pupils in our school and once for
our parents. We are very excited
and we hope everybody enjoys our
play as much as we do!
Our Green Schools Project
Our school is working towards
getting another ‘Green Schools’
flag at the moment. The theme is
‘biodiversity’. Our class created
log piles in the school garden as
part
of
our
project. We aim
to discover what
animals, insects
and plants are
attracted to dead
wood. We also
want to discover if there is a
difference between the animals and
plants that live in dead wood in a
dry area and dead wood in a shady,
damp area. We also made posters
to advertise our project in the
corridor. Look at them below!
We also made a bird feeder to
donate to Mr. Ruane’s bird
sanctuary. We used an empty
plastic bottle, a pencil, a thumb
tack and some string to make the
feeder. We added some bird seeds
to the feeder and we are curious to
discover what birds will visit us.
__________________________
Ms Dowling's
Rang a haon
We are very busy at
school this term. We
have been learning about how
important Advent is, because it
means we are waiting for the birth
of the baby Jesus. Our school play
this term is called "Its a Baby." It
tells the story of how the baby
Jesus was born in a stable in
Bethlehem. We learned lots of nice
songs about the "Three Wise
Men", the "Innkeepers" and "Mary
and Joseph". We really enjoyed
performing our play for our moms
and dads on Friday 13th Dec.
We
also
learned
about
"Tutankhamun" this term. We
learned that he was a very young
pharaoh in ancient Egypt and
Howard Carter discovered his
tomb in "The Valley of the Kings".
In Ancient Egypt the people at the
time believed in another life after
death, because of this the pharaoh
was buried with lots of jewels and
riches. When his tomb was
discovered, Howard Carter sent all
of the furniture, jewels, gold and
silver to a museum in Cairo.
We have been very busy making
Christmas Tree baubles for the
school tree made out of recycled
materials to support the "Green
School project". We hope to get
our 6th flag after Christmas.
Our Christmas Poem
"I'm a little reindeer"
I'm a little reindeer, ready to fly,
I'll pull Santa's sleigh up to the sky,
Christmas is here, we can't be late,
All the children just cannot wait.
Finally we wish to say "Happy
Christmas" to everyone from rang
a haon.
______________________
Senior Class – Ms Larkin
On
Friday December
13th,
Learning Resource 1 and Senior
ASD Class were taken on a trip to
Little Rascals by the LCA students
and teachers from St. Mary’s
Secondary School. Santa Claus
made a special appearance and
gave everybody a lovely present. It
was a brilliant day.
from the Senior Class
First Class News (Ms Lawlee)
We are now nearly finished our 1st
term in 1st Class. It has been a very
busy but enjoyable time. At the
start of 1st Class, we went for
swimming lessons in Mallow
Swimming Pool. We all really
enjoyed the lessons and even got to
jump into the deep end! Our days
in 1st Class are very busy! On
Wednesdays, we have Athletics
with Elaine. We play running
games and use lots of equipment
like cones, hula hoops and bean
bags. On Thursdays, Mr. Morrison
comes to teach us the tin whistle.
We know all the notes now and our
favourite tune is “My heart will go
on” from the Titanic film. We also
have Art lessons on Thursdays. We
have made wonderful Titanic
pictures and 2-D shape pictures.
We have learnt a lot in 1st Class so
far-we have learnt all our addition
and doubles tables, about tens and
units, new Gaeilge poems and
songs, nature facts and read all of
our reader-“Here comes Buster”.
We do station teaching three times
a week. Mrs Cronin comes in to
help us. We learn new sounds and
words and Ms. Lawlee gives us a
new library book every day. Nearly
all of the books are really
incredible! We are very lucky as
we get to read both factual and
fictional books. We have made lots
and lots of new friends since
September and are delighted to be
in the Convent Primary School. We
are very healthy in this school and
always eat lots of fruit and
vegetables at lunch-times. We
performed
a
very
exciting
Christmas play called “Whoops a
Daisy Angel”. We all had a part
and had to learn our lines and sing
ten songs! We worked really hard
to organise it. Our Mams and
Dads thought we were wonderful!
Here is our favourite Gaeilge song....
I máinséar sa stábla, bhí Íosa, Mac Dé,
Bhí Muire is Iosaf agus aingil sa spéir.
Bhí aoirí agus uain ann, asal óg agus
bó.
Tháinig ríthe le beart ann,
Mar bhí breithlá Mhic Dé.
2nd Class - Ms O'Callaghan
My name is Kathleen Stokes.
There are twenty four children in
my class. My teacher is Ms
O'Callaghan and she is a nice
teacher. We do Tin Whistle with
Mr. Morrison. We are getting our
First Penance and Holy
Communion this year. We read the
bible every day and it is nice to
hear the stories. We are learning to
sew.
My name is Carel Gbadjavi. We
are all friends in Second Class and
we never leave anyone out. We are
doing a Christmas Play called ‘The
Wriggly Nativity.’ We keep
hens for our Green School Project.
We have a new friend called Ava
Mae. She is new to the school. We
do lots of work. Second Class is
fun.
**************************
2nd Class Mrs. O’Farrell
Christmas Poem
Christmas is my favourite day,
Christmas is the best day,
At Christmas it is going to be
snowing,
Christmas is the best day,
Santa is going to come,
Christmas is Jesus’ birthday,
Christmas is a good day,
Can I share I hug with you?
Fifi Agunloyle 2nd Class
This Year So Far
I love this school, it is great fun. We
have athletics every Wednesday. We
also do maths, English, art, Irish
and lots more. We are going
swimming in May. I am excited
about making my First Holy
Communion. We are doing a
Christmas concert this year with Ms
Hartnett’s class. We are very good at
singing songs. Our mums and dads
are coming to watch our show. It is
good fun in this school!!
Robyn Hughes 2nd Class
Christmas Day
Christmas Day, laugh and play,
As the snow grows high in the sky,
We see snow up high in trees.
We love the snow as we laugh & play,
We make snowmen and snow angels
every night,
Some flying snowballs give us a huge
fright.
We all love Christmas Day, as we
laugh & play.
We love to play in snow all year round.
Alisha Wasim 2nd Class
____________________________
3rd Class – Ms Hartnett
colour! Last week we made
Christmas decorations using clay.
Lorraine
showed
us
great
experiments during Science week.
We
started
learning
our
multiplication tables.
Did you know we are al authors in
third class? We all wrote stories
called ‘Winter’. We are working
very hard in school and have
learned many new poems and
songs. Our favourite song is
‘Ireland’s Call’.
We have been practicing very hard
for our Christmas performance. We
are all looking forward to our
Christmas holidays!
Happy Christmas to everyone from
Rang 3!
Here is one of our favourite poems
that we have learned –
I Taught My Cat to Clean My Room
I taught my cat to clean my room,
To use a bucket, brush and broom,
To dust my books and picture frames
And pick up all my toys and games.
He puts my pants and shirts away
And makes my bed, and I should say
It seems to me it’s only fair
He puts away my underwear.
In fact, I think he’s got it made.
I’m not too happy with our trade.
He may pick up my shoes and socks,
But I clean out his litter box!
****************************
We have been very busy since we
started back to school. We
welcomed Aniela to our class and
we made her feel very welcome.
We had athletics with Elaine for 6
weeks, it was great fun and now
we are enjoy swimming. Aisling
and Isy were picked to represent
our class on the Green Schools
Committee. Ten of us were chosen
to go to Carrigoon recently to take
part in a Multi Cultural Sports Day.
We had great fun playing camogie,
unihoc, team games, tag rugby,
football and soccer. Mr. Morrison
has been teaching us tin whistle
every Thursday. We have learned
lots of new tunes. We took part in
the Credit Union Art competition
and we definitely created lots of
Fourth Class News
– Mrs. Murphy
Our Bird Project
In
class we have three bird
feeders. We are keeping a survey
of the birds who have come. We
have had house sparrows, blue tits,
chaffinchs, crows and we were
very excited yesterday because we
had green finches. The birds don’t
seem to like our nigir seeds but we
are hoping when the weather gets
colder the birds will not be so
fussy!
4th
Breaking News! It’s just in! we have
had our first Coal tit! And we just
got a new visitor – it was a thrush!
Orlaith Finn
My Limerick
While Shepherds watched the sheep
They heard a sound like a beep.
They ran to the stable
To see a cradle
And there was Jesus asleep.
Mackenzie Holmes
My Christmas Limerick
For Christmas, it’s Barbies and Kens
And bicycles, gameboys, light pens.
But Dad wrote a letter –
Told Santa he’d better
Bring him a Mercedes Benz!
Aoife Moore
There was once an elf so cool
Who could not go to school
His mother was mad
She felt so sad
She threw her child in the pool!
Chloe Ryan
There was once a turkey named Berrie
He ate and drank to be merry.
He met a farmer one day
And got taken away.
He’s now being served with cranberry!
Holly Steedman
Stable Manners
We are doing a play called ‘Stable
Manners’. We are trying our best
to get it all ready! We have very
little time in the gym so it is very
hard t get it organized. But we
know we will make it!
Weronika Zaton
****************************
Fifth Class – Mrs. Lucey
Jokes
What do you call Santa on the
beach?
Sandyclaus!
What kind of car does Santa
drive?
A Toyota!
What do the elves learn?
The elveabet!
What do you get if you put
together a snowman and a
vampire? Frostbite!
Divine Maxwell
Santa Claus is getting ready,
Mrs. Claus ready steady.
Elves are making lots of toys,
Ready to deliver to girls and boys.
Leave out milk and cookies,
Because Santa doesn’t stop at bookies!
Emma Muldoon-Ryan
Santa’s coming
All Away from the North Pole
If you were Naughty
He knows everyThing that you do!
So no being nAughty!
Come and join the fun
Later it will all be worth it
All the time that
yoU have spent
Soon it will all be over.
Esse Agoba
Orienteering
th
In 5
class we all started
orienteering. First we went training
around the school grounds. A couple
of weeks later we went training
again behind the Youth centre. It
was really fun.
Our next trip was to Farran Wood.
Before we went to Farren we had a
tour around Shandon Bells. It was a
very interesting trip. After Shandon
we went orienteering. We all did
really well at this event.
The next event was at Doneraile
Park. Overall the school did very
well in both events so far. Everyone
is looking forward to the next trip.
CPM have won the CSOA 2013
Primary League!
Emma Murphy, Sarah Leneghan,
Ella McSweeney
Recipe for a Merry Christmas
Ingredients:
One full wheel barrow of decorations
5 Tablespoons of Christmas Pudding
9 ounces of caroling at people’s doors
7 grams of Christmas lights for
charity,
And finally,
A whole lot of presents and fun.
Method:
Mix the decorations and lights
together, after 10 minutes of mixing
add in the carols and pudding,
making sure that you don’t over-mix
– or the carolists will get annoying!
Next add in the fun and presents,
don’t add in the fun at once or you’ll
hear a lot of laughing and will
overflow!
Cook in the oven at about 200 for 45
minutes and leave it to cool for 5
minutes and then it’s ready to eat!
Enjoy a Merry, merry Christmas!!
Amy Lynch
Fun in School
Sixth Class News – Ms. Ahern
We learn a lot each day in class;
from Maths to Irish or singing in
Mass.
Mrs. Lucey helps us to do our best
even if it means no talking or rest!
Orienteering is lots of fun
I try my best to be fast when I run.
At Christmas we make decorations
for the tree.
Everyone’s bauble is as pretty as
can be!
School is fun to learn and play
but so is opening presents on
Christmas day!!
Grainne Myers
***************************
Early Intervention News
– Mrs. Ann Cronin
We have been very
busy in the Early
Intervention class.
We have done some
lovely Art which is on display in our
corridor. We made decorations for our
beautiful Christmas tree which is
also on display outside our
classroom door.
We performed our Christmas songs
for our families on 3rd December.
Everybody was very proud of us!
Happy Christmas to you all from the
Early Intervention class.
****************************
Junior Class News – Mrs. Mgt. Lucey
We had a very busy first term in our
class. We go to athletics every week and
we love cooking on Fridays. We made
Christmas biscuits and chocolate
reindeer. Some of us won prizes in the
Credit Union Art Competition. We love
Art. We did lots of Christmas art. We
made a lovely Santy! We have a musical
crib that lights up and we enjoy singing
our Christmas songs.
Wishing you a Happy and Holy
Christmas from everyone in the Junior
class.
Since we started school, on that
sunny September day, sixth class
has been a blast! We went to the
lifetime lab on the 4th of October.
We did some fun experiments such
as making levers and pulleys. Later
that month, we went to our first
orienteering event of the year. We
won the event bringing home first,
second and third place from
Farran Wood! After mid-term, we
had Miss Sweeney who was a
student teacher. We did fun
projects about Mallow Train
Station, the Great Famine and the
crisis in Somalia. We also made a
product up each and advertised
them. For art we made our own
dioramas. (scenes in a shoebox)
Having trained for many
weeks on a Thursday, our football
team were ready to take part in a
ladies football blitz which was held
in Carrigoon. We defeated
Glantane and Newtownshandrum
which meant we were through to
the semi-final versus An Gaelscoil.
It was an epic, action-packed
match and we were winning by a
point with one minute to go.
Unfortunately the Gaelscoil got a
late goal which cost us the win. We
were disappointed but we still
really enjoyed the day!
A few days later, we went
orienteering for the second time.
The event took place in Doneraile
Park which we were used to. We
didn’t win but we claimed many of
the places in the top ten. Shortly
afterwards, we found out about the
overall orienteering league results.
The winner was Emma Nodwell
with Ciara Fitzpatrick taking
second place.
Last Sunday, our school
choir took part in the annual
Christmas Carol Concert in St.
Mary’s Church. Meg Nyhan from
our class played guitar and many
other girls participated also.
As you can see, we have a
great time here in sixth class!
Here’s to the next six months!!