In First Class we have been very busy learning how to play chess! The boys are now familiar with all the pieces, how they move, how to set up a chess board and how to play the game itself! Every time we take out our sets, the boys are working on their social skills as well as mathematical skills such as problem solving, creative and strategic thinking! We might tell the other boys about it later this week at assembly! You can get more information about playing chess online at www.movesforlife.ie

We had Catherine from the Road Safety Authority visit us last week to remind the boys of the importance of Road Safety! We talked about crossing the road, bicycle safety, high visibility jackets, walking between cars and I think it’s safe to say, the boys left Catherine speechless with their knowledge of Road Safety! However, one thing we didn’t know was that we will continue to need our booster seats when traveling in cars until we are 1 and a half meters tall!

We are just getting out breathe back after an action packed Science Week here in Scoil Iósaif Naofa! Some of the activities we undertook included a visit from Gary from Galway Atlantiquarium where we learned about the importance of disposing of our waste sensibly and the effect rubbish is having on our sea life. We started by reusing some old paper to explore origami and create some very life like bookmarks too! We also conducted experiments aplenty which ranged from making raisins dance, exploring chemical reactions to creating tornados in a bottle and constructing rockets! We really enjoyed working scientifcally by questioning, observing, predicting, investigating and experimenting, analyzing, recording and communicating their experiments and their results! We look forward to making our next discoveries!

The boys had a really enjoyable Maths Week. It started of with a fantastic Money Sense workshop facilitated by our friends at Ulster Bank where the boys identified the importance of knowing the difference between needs and wants when deciding what to spend our money on! Ms. Cormican kindly arranged for some really interesting Maths station activities which the boys really appreciated! We loved the daily maths challenge too! Finally, to integrate our weekly theme fully we also did some shape art and created Symmetrical Jack o’ Lantern Halloween decorations!

Welcome to our new school website and Mr. Mullin's First Class' blog page. So much has happened already this year that we've a lot to catch up on. We have been to the woods, learnt about Money with Ciara and Clodagh from Ulster Bank, started Gaelic Football with 'Coach' Johnny and Hurling with 'Coach' Jerry, had a very successful Maths Week, celebrated Halloween etc. We could go on. Check into our blog from time to time and see what we get up to next.

Last week the boys all got different experiments to take home and investigate at home. This week the boys will bring in their experiments and teach their fellow classmates all about their experiments and recreate them in the class for everyone to learn from. They will become the teacher! Photos and video to follow...