Ms. Gilligan's class

Learning about air experiment2!!!

2009-02-13T02:33:00.000-08:00

We are learning about how hot air rises.

We looked at how a hot air balloon rises up and down.

We used spiral snakes to look at the hot air rising in our own classroom.

We hung some snakes over the radiator. We hung the other snakes over the round table.

We saw that the snakes over the radiator danced when the hot air from the radiator rose up.

Our snakes look lovely and colourful hanging in our classroom now.

Learning about air!!!

2009-02-13T02:20:00.000-08:00

We are learning about air. We looked at balloons. When we let air out of a balloon it moved across the room. The air coming out the bottom of the balloon pushed the balloon around all over the place.

Next we made balloon rockets. We were able to control the balloon and get it to travel in a straight line by using string and a straw.

We had balloon rocket races in our classroom. It was so much fun. The rockets moved really fast!

Finger prints!

2009-02-13T02:11:00.000-08:00

In science we looked at our fingerprints and handprints. We used bright paint to make our hand prints. It was messy and we had lots of fun! We used ink to look at our finger prints!

Did you know that everybody has a different finger print! Even identical twins have different finger prints!!

Our spring scene!!

2008-03-04T03:42:00.000-08:00

As winter is over, we changed our winter scene to show the changes spring brings!!!!

You can see the snow is gone.

The grass and flowers are starting to grow!!

We made lovely 3-D daffodils!!!!

We used a toilet roll snd crepe paper!!

2008-03-03T02:21:00.001-08:00

2008-03-03T02:21:00.000-08:00

Spring time!!!

2008-03-03T02:13:00.000-08:00

We made some beautiful spring landscapes.

We used coloured chalk and with our fingers we were able to blend the colours we needed. We used different shades of green and blue to make it look realistic.

Look at the waves in the river!!

Our landscapes almost look like photographs!!!!!

More rockets!!!!

2008-02-05T07:02:00.000-08:00

In art we made rockets!!!! They look very realistic!!They even have fire shooting out of the bottom of them!!!

Rockets!!!

2008-02-05T06:50:00.000-08:00

We are learning lots about space in our class. We wanted to find out how a space rocket moves so we made our own!!!!

All you need is ballons, sellotape,straws and string.

The force of the air shooting out of the end of the balloon pushed our rockets forward and along the string. It is like the way that the force of the fire coming out of the end of a real rocket pushes it up through the sky.

you can see how the balloon is pushed across the string>>>>>>>>

We had rocket races to see who had the fastest rocket. It was lots of fun.

Rainbow fish

2008-01-30T01:39:00.000-08:00

Our class read the story of the rainbow fish. This is a lovely story about a beautiful fish in the ocean who learns to share and make friends. We all can see how important it is to share and have friends at school.

For art we designed our own rainbow fish and made beautiful scales of all colours to decorate them.

Marbling!!

2008-01-28T01:58:00.000-08:00

We made beautiful designs using marbling this week. First we got a basin of water and then we added a few drops of marbling ink to the water. The ink is lighter than water so it floats on top of it. We swirled the inks around to make a lovely pattern and then dipped in an A4 page to capture the colour. We have some lovely pictures!!!

Our fish pond!!

2008-01-25T07:18:00.000-08:00

We made a maths game for our classroom using magnets!!first we coloured and cut out some fish for our pond, then we wrote a maths sum on the back of each fish

e.g. 20 - 3 = ? Can you work it out???

We stuck a paperclip on our fish. Then we made a rod using a magnet, some string and a stick.

Our game is called "Go fish!" if you catch a fish with a rod and answer the sum correctly you keep it. The child with the most fish at the end wins!!!We had lots of fun playing!!!!

fun with magnets!

2008-01-25T07:10:00.000-08:00

We had more fun with magnets this week!!each group was given a box of items such as scissors, paperclips, wool, thumbtacks, counters and pencils.

Each group had to predict whether each item would be attracted to the magnet or not.

When we finished our predictions we used a magnet to test each item.

We guessed correct for alot of them!!!

Magnets!!!!

2008-01-23T04:01:00.000-08:00

Last week we did alot of work with magnets. We explored the classroom to find different things that were attracted to magnets. We know that metal is attracted to magnets and sticks to them. We found lots of things that are made of metal. Here are some of the things we tested.

Can you guess which have metal and which do not????

Wintertime

2007-12-20T04:21:00.000-08:00

We created a lovely winter scene in our classroom.

We made robin redbreasts to sit in the tree.

We made snowflakes to fall from the sky because we know that it gets much colder in winter and sometimes it snows.........brrrrrrrr

Our snowflakes are all unique with different patterns and designs.

You will never see two snowflakes the same as they are all different and special

Christmas snowmen!!!!!!!!!!

2007-12-19T06:08:00.000-08:00

We made lovely christmas snowmen!!!

If you would like to make them at home, heres how we created them!!!!

First we got a sock. We put in a handful of sand at the bottom to balance our snowmen. Then we filled them with cotton wool.

Then tied two knots to make his head body and hat.

Next we tied on the snowmans scarf and folded his hat.

Then we decorated him with glitter glue to make his buttons, eyes nose and smile!!!

They look really well now that they are finished. We are dying to take them home, they make a perfect christmas decoration!!

Our christmas bells!!

2007-12-19T05:02:00.000-08:00

We made sparkly christmas bells. First we collected yoghurt pots. Then we sanded them with sandpaper so the glitter would stick. We put on PVA glue. Then we coated them with glitter. We added a lovely christmas ribbon to the top so they can hang on our christmas tree. They will shine and twinkle in the fairy lights!!!

Electricity!!!!

2007-12-19T04:46:00.000-08:00

We did experiments using electricity. We learned that batteries store electricity. We lit up a light bulb using only one wire and a battery!!we were all amazed!!

Then in our groups we explored how to make a simple circuit using two wires, a bulb, a battery,, a batttery holder and a bulb holder. We saw that if you broke the circuit the bulb would not light up!! Next we made a switch, out of a paperclip,so we could turn our bulbs on and off. When the switch is on we have a full circuit so the bulb lights. When the switch is off the circuit is broken and the bulb will not light!!

We had lot of fun with electricity!!it was very interesting!!!

The bookfair.

2007-12-12T05:58:00.000-08:00

The bookfair came to our school on the 4th- 8th of December. We saw lots of lovely books. We love to read in our class.

As part of the book fair, we had a visit from the storyteller. She told us some wonderful stories about giants, and jungles and wonderful places. We heard some ancient Irish stories as well. We even got to make the sound effects for one of the stories!!

We had a great time!!!

The pet farm

2007-12-07T04:18:00.000-08:00

The pet farm came to our school on the 9th of November. We saw lots of different animals. We mat Jasmine the duck, Chloe the goose, Babe the pig, Dolly the sheep, Rosie the donkey and Rodger the rabbit. We got to pet some of the animals. We saw Rosie's smile. We hope our teeth never look like that!!!!!!!

Our bridges

2007-12-06T02:40:00.000-08:00

We looked at different types of bridges like arched bridges and suspension bridges. We saw what supported them.

Then we designed our own bridges. We experimented with different designs to see which was strongest. We used counters, paper, blocks and crayons to design the bridge that could hold the most weight.We discovered that the arched bridge held the most counters.

Our homes from aroud the world!!

2007-11-21T06:54:00.000-08:00

This week we looked at different homes around the world!It was very exciting!

We made unusual homes like teepees, igloos and mud huts!!

Different homes in our community

2007-10-22T08:04:00.001-07:00

About to set off on our walk!!!!

Our class went on a nature walk to look at the different types of homes in our community. We saw many different types of houses: detached, semi-detached, bungalows, apartments and even a tatched cottage. We had lots of fun. We were lucky to meet some builders who were building new houses in Renmore. They told us they were building two new semi-detached houses. We saw the foundation of the houses and the start of the walls. It was very exciting. We really enjoyed house hunting and discovered semi-detached houses are the most common homes in the area we visited.

<<<< Our class beside a semi-detached house in our neighbourhood.

Semi- detached is when two houses are joined together.

Our class beside a mobile home. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>

A mobile home can be moved to different areas because it is a home on wheels.

<<<<<<<<>

Some of our class had never seen a tached roof before so this was their favourite house.

This is the building site we visited.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Here we saw the foundations of a house.

We also saw the beginning of the walls of another home.

<<<<>
It stands alone and is not attached to any other house.

There are many different types of homes. This is a lovely website for you to learn more about different types of homes
http://www.askaboutireland.ie/show_narrative_page.do?page_id=4237

Autumn Scarecrows

2007-10-22T07:49:00.000-07:00

Farmers use scarecrows to frighten crows away from their corn in autumn time.
Crows are fooled into thinking they are people and stay away from the farmers corn.
We made scarecrows to put in our autumn display in our classroom.

If you would like to make your own, here is how we did it:

<<< First we coloured our scarecrows.

Next we cut out our scarecrow's body, arms and legs. >>>>>>

<< We used split pins to put our scarecrows together.

Split pins let us move the scarecrows arms and legs so he can scare off the crows!!

When our scarecrow was attached together we used PVA glue to attach some bright felt patches to his dungerees. >>>>>>

<<<

patchy dungarees!!!

We were all really happy with our finished scarecrows.

We think any farmer would be lucky to have them in his corn field!!!

2007-10-03T07:58:00.000-07:00

Welcome everybody to Ms.Gilligan's first class!!!

This year our first class is made up of 11 boys and 11 girls. We have all enjoyed getting to know all our new friends in our class!!
Here you can look at some of the interesting, exciting and fun activities we will be doing through out the year!!