In October, we learned about Ancient China and visited the Chester Beatty Library to see their East Asian collection. We enjoyed our trip to the city centre and really enjoyed the trail we completed in the library. We had so much fun doing the trail, there was no time to take pictures! Our art this month was inspired by Chinese ink scrolls. To make them look more authentic, we cut doweling to hang them on.
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Many children in our class will go on to Coláiste Pobail Fóla, as will many of the children in Citywest and Saggart CNS, across the way. In October, 6th Class in CSCNS welcomed us to their PE hall for a cross-school table quiz! There were children from each school on every team. It gave us a chance to get to know some of the students that might be in some of our classes next year - and it was also just a bit of fun!
We hope to meet up with CSCNS again later in the year. We are learning about migration and migrants in Learn Together this month. Many migrant workers live in Qatar and are working on constructing stadia, accommodation, roads, etc. in preparation for the World Cup there, this December. In Drama, we have been considering other reasons why people migrate - to leave behind unsafe countries, to seek out better opportunities, etc. We considered what makes a country desirable to migrants, and in this activity, countries were trying to attract migrants to live there. We have started a unit of work based all around the upcoming soccer World Cup in Qatar. We are learning all about Qatar, as well as the work involved for a country in planning to host such an enormous tournament. We have been considering the amount of infrastructure that needs to be build in preparation for hosting the competition.
Recently, some of us tried to design a stadium that could be built in Ireland, to support us if we were to bid to host the World Cup in the future. We considered all of the support services and utilities that would have to exist on site too. On Monday, our class took a visit to Leinster House - the seat of Ireland's government. We had a tour of the building, including the lower house (the Dáil) and the upper house (the Seanad). Every part of the day was fun - the LUAS trip, the picnic in the IFSC and the opportunity to debate in the committee room inside Leinster House. We learned a lot about democracy, and specifically about democracy in Ireland. This month in Sixth Class History, we've been learning about Ancient Rome. We're working in groups on Google Classroom to research some of the main areas of interest in Roman culture. We've done some reading as well. And in art, we've been inspired by Roman pottery and sculpture. We worked hard to use good techniques with our clay, to give our finished pieces the best chance of staying in one piece! Did you know that the busts that have survived from the Roman Empire do not actually look as they did at the time? They would originally have been painted, but that detail has been lost to the sands of time!
If you were unable to attend the Parent Information Evening last week, you might like to check out the slides that I talked about. If you could add to our learning in relation to any of the topics mentioned on slides 6 and 7, please get in touch! Learn Together, our ethical education curriculum, is very clear on the importance of developing in our young people, the ability to critically evaluate ideas. Debate, apart from being an opportunity to practice our persuasive writing/speech, provides a wonderful opportunity for children to consider both sides of an argument. The mental gymnastics necessary to argue AGAINST something that they strongly believe, really allow the children to more fully engage in thinking about all aspects of something that they may not have fully considered before. Debate will be a big part of our life this year - we will aim to have one debate every week. As time progresses, we will develop our rhetorical skills and begin to include more concrete facts in our presentations. We will develop skills in chairing a debate and other leadership roles. But for now, we are focusing on the basics. Some of the children weren't excited about getting up to speak in front of the whole class. They've been really brave, and, I think, surprised themselves! And we've also worked on being a respectful, supportive audience, to give our speaking friends the best chance of success. Scroll down to see posts from the 2021/22 school year!
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