Scoil Chrónáin

St Cronan's Senior National School, Swords

Today we had our school tour! We were extremely excited coming to school this morning as we have been counting down the days to our day out. We went to Awesome Walls, climbing centre in Finglas firstly. It was scary getting up to the top of those walls!! We all wore harnesses and some of us even learned how to tie the ropes on the harnesses ourselves!! Even Mr Hanley and Ms Quinn joined in!! We then went to explore the Botanic Gardens and ate our lunch outside. We ended our tour in Glasnevin Cemetry, which is the largest graveyard in Dublin. We saw the burial tomb of Daniel O'Connell, some of us even touched his coffin as it's supposed to be good luck!!! We had a great school tour! 

Today we had a special visitor in class from Dog's Trust. We learned about how we should adopt a dog, rather than shopping for one. We also discussed the importance of choosing the right dog for the right home. The Dog's Trust motto is "A dog is for life, not just for Christmas". 

Today we were lucky to visit one of our local secondary schools, St. Finian's, along with the other fifth classes. We were able to experience what life is like for a secondary school student. We attended some classes with the secondary school teachers Science, Home Economics, Technology, Woodwork and Art!! It was really exciting to see what subjects we would like to do in first year. We had our lunch in the school canteen and got to meet the vice principal. We are all very excited to go to secondary school next year!! 

Today we had our school ceili for Seachtain na Gaeilge and to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. Each class had to dress up for the day. We decided to dress in our pyjamas for the day. It was very comfortable in school in our pjs!! We had great fun dancing all of the dances which we had been practicing in class. 

We have been learning all about the ancient Mexican tribe, the Aztecs. We completed a fantastic Aztecs project and made colourful Aztec shields in art using various patterns and images from the Aztec time. We also added colourful feathers. Learn all about the Aztecs by clicking on the link below.

We are learning all about the hundred year anniversary of the 1916 Rising. We read about the Proclamation declaring Ireland's independence and the seven signatories who were executed in the Rising;

​Padraig MacPiarais 
(10 November 1879 - 3 May 1916)
Thomas J. Clarke
(11 March 1857 - 3 May 1916)
Thomas MacDonagh
(1 February 1878 - 3 May 1916)
Joseph Mary Plunkett
(21 November 1887 - 4 May 1916) 
Eamonn Ceannt 
(21 September 1881 - 8 May 1916)
James Connolly
(5 June 1868 - 12 May 1916)
Sean Mac Diarmada 
(28 February 1883 - 12 May 1916)
You can learn more about the seven signatories by clicking on the link below;
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We learned about Dublin during the rising and listened to a virtual tour in computer class. You can find out more by clicking on the link below;

We did a lot of work on the Rising and learned a lot about the proclamation. We made a great display in school and also drew tonal images of the seven signatories and wrote profiles on them. Learn all about the Rising and read the words of the original Proclamation by clicking on the links below. Look at the images below showing some the work we did on the Rising.

We learned all about the famous artist Pablo Picasso and how he was one of the co-founders of the Cubism art movement. Learn all about his life and look at his some of his famous artwork by clicking on the link below. Have a look at our colourful Picasso Head's based on Pablo's colourful portraits. 

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We read William's Wordsworth's famous poem called "Daffodils". We watched a reading of the poem on youtube and discussed the imagery in the poem. We then drew our own daffodils based on the imagery from the poem. They look beautiful hanging in our classroom, in preparation for Daffodil Day!! 

We completed a project on Great Britain. We found out a lot of interesting facts, like the fact that the United Kingdom is made of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, whereas Great Britain also includes the British Isles. 
We even added some of the British currency to our project, the sterling. We also learned a lot about the Royal Family. Click on the following link to research lots of facts about Great Britain. 

2016 is the Chinese New Year of the dragon. We learned all about the customs and traditions associated with the celebrations of Chinese New Year. We decided to make colourful Chinese Dragon scrolls to decorate our hallways for the celebration!