Bobby the Pineapple created by Dr. Brook’s 4th Class.

This year, the two fourth classes went to the Aquatic Centre and the Sports Arena on the school tour.

The children spent the first half of the day exploring the water slides, lazy river and numerous pool facilities. After a short break they were split into two groups and taught by a professional Olympian how to carry out different moves and skills on a trampoline.

They then carried out different balancing and strength activites such as walking across narrow surfaces and hanging on to a high bar for an extended period of time.

The children also watched some of the junior Irish team train which was incredible and very inspiring.

Every child came home with good reports and exhausted from their busy day. It was a brilliant way to end a fantastic year.

Dr. Brook’s 4th Class have been studying the Romans and making lots of interesting models, including a working aquaduct!

Over the past two weeks, Ms Kiersey’s 4th class have been learning about Native Americans.

To help them get a better insight into the life of a Native American, they made their own Tipi (Also known as Teepee) using natural objects and some even used flowers and crushed plants to design the outside.

They discovered facts about Sitting Bull, the Powhatan tribe and the history of Dream catchers which they also made in Art.

The children have also begun to design their own totem poles.

Dr. Brook’s 4th class have been busy working with fabric and fibre and the results are beautiful!

On Friday 10 May, the 4th Classes of Dr. Brook and Ms. Kiersey ventured back in time with a trip to the National Museum of Ireland.  Journeying by Luas from Dundrum to Dawson Street, the children took a quick pit stop in the sunshine for a snack before walking across to the archaeological museum beside Leinster House.  Split into five groups and tasked with worksheets, the children made their way around the exhibits featuring ornaments, weaponry, implements and artefacts from the Viking, Celtic and Early Christian eras as well as the Bronze and Iron Ages.  The meeting point (and undoubted highlight) were the sacrificial bog bodies relating to sovereignty and kingship rituals during the latter age. The trip concluded with a stroll to St. Stephen’s Green, where the children ate their lunches amidst the local birds and a life-size hamburger!

Before the Easter break, 4th class went to Explorium to discover new things about science.  The children spent half the day testing out experiments and doing hands on activities where they looked at optical illusions, gravity, energy and forces, plus much more.

They then spent the other half of the day challenging themselves on the climbing walls.

All the children seemed to have a positive experience and thoroughly enjoyed getting involved in all aspects of the day.

In Dr Brook’s 4th Class the children have been very busy making papier mache pigs.  Aren’t they colourful!

Last week during the beautiful sunshine Ms. Kiersey’s 4th class brought their art less outside and studied the detail of a leaf.  They practised shading, perspective, lines and focused on detail.

Over the past few weeks Ms Kiersey’s 4th class have been learning about sound and how it is created by vibrations. To test this, each child was given the task of creating a guitar. This helped us to learn about the effect of the different size strings and hollows on the sound. We had a competition on the best sound and best appearance.

In Maths, we were learning about area and perimeter. The children used their knowledge and new skills to create a blue print of their dream houses.

In Geography, the children were put into small groups and asked to create a project based on a country of their choice. Each group created a poster with fun facts, photos, drawings and information on their country that they researched using ipads, books and computers. The children then presented their projects to their peers and carried out a short quiz to ensure they learned from one another.

Dr Brook’s 4th Class have been very busy over recent weeks learning to knit…..knitting all over the place, anywhere goes!!

We starting off by making fingerless gloves but now that we have mastered the basics we are knitting teddy bears.  Thanks so much to our wonderful parents and friends for all your help!

Knitting is fun….wish you were here!

Ms. Kiersey’s 4th Class have also been experimenting with clay in art to create “monster heads”.  They had to include a range of different clay skills during this activity.

Ms. Kiersey’s 4th Class have started working in pairs to create a project on a country of their choice.  Their task is to include drawings, information and fun facts about the country.  They will then present their finished poster to their peers and each group will learn from each other.  They are using the ipad, atlas and books to source their information.

On Tuesday 9th October, both 4th Classes were treated to the annual trip to St Nahi’s Church in Dundrum.  The classes each spent a couple of hours getting to know the history of the church and surrounding area thanks to a very animated and interesting presentation by Reverend Cathy.  The children were entralled as she regaled them with tales of the Dublin slums, diseases of the day, graverobbers and graveside shoot-outs.  They were also surprised by the fact that Taney School had once been located in the Church before moving to the cottages in the Parish Centre and elsewhere.  The children got to explore by virtue of a questionnaire and Reverend Nigel completed the tour with a walk-through of the cemetery, pointing out some of the more famous people buried in the grounds.

Adams Gift is a campaign run every October by Order of Malta Ireland to promote CPR awareness.  Adam was the 13 year old son of a member of the Order of Malta who died suddenly – his mum started the initiative in his memory.  Yesterday (also World Restart a Heart day) 4th class learned the importance of bystander CPR.  They learned to call an ambulance, get a defibrillator and give compressions (to the tune of Baby Shark 100-120 beats per minute!).  The message is if you find someone unresponsive and not breathing: call for help, ask someone to get an AED and give compressions – push hard and fast in the centre of the chest.  Any standard of CPR is better than no CPR.  Anyone can save a life!  All of the 4th Class pupils were presented with certificates for CPR awareness.

Fourth Class spin into summer!

It has been great fun to have parents and grandparents in helping with knitting.  We’re very grateful for their help!  Here’s a few photos of some of us.  Many thanks also to Dorthe Meulangratch, Olive Murray and Deirdre Culbert.

Fourth class have made some lovely cross stitch decorations for their Christmas tree!

Here’s some recent pictures of our brilliant Bronze Age creations!