Preparation for the Roboshow

We are getting ready for the Roboshow in St. Pats in Drumcondra on Tuesday 13th of May next. Here are some of the models we have made for our Airport theme. In this photo you can see the Airport we have built, some of the aeroplanes that are taxiing on the runway and our Control Tower. The top of the Tower rotates and lights up. We will be posting more about our models soon!!

We found this piece on the Digital Schools Website: www.digitalschools.ie. (We are the only Digital School in County Tipperary.)

10th Annual RoboShow
Come and meet Ireland’s future designers, engineers and programmers at the 10th Annual Empowering Minds RoboShow.
This event takes place on Tuesday 13th May 2008 in the main Auditorium in St Patrick’s College Drumcondra and is open to the public from 11 am to 1pm.
The RoboShow is the premier showcase for the Empowering Minds community and allows children (aged 7 – 13 years) and their teachers share the innovative projects they have been constructing over the course of the school year. The children engage in multi-disciplinary cross-curricular learning and make extensive use of a range of digital technologies to build these exciting and imaginative projects.
The project started in 1998 with 4 schools initially and has grown to include schools in Dublin, Kildare, Sligo, Laois, Tipperary, Louth, Kilkenny, Cork and Roscommon. It is anticipated that schools from other regions will soon become part of the ever expanding Empowering Minds community.

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In the Newspapers Today!

We have appeared in 3 newspapers, The Nationalist, The South Tipp Today and The Tipperary Star. We are in the newspaper for going to Shannon Airport and Foynes Air Museum.The article was written by Batman and B612. We were all very happy to be in the newspaper once again.

A trip to Reading by one of our students

Shane Long

At Christmas I got a Shane Long jersey that was signed and my Dad organised with Shane Long’s mother that we would go over and see Reading play and that we would see Shane afterwards. My Dad was friends with Shane Longs father. So on the 17th of March I went to Dublin airport to fly off to England to see Reading play Manchester City. My Dad and I met my cousins in the airport and before we left to get on the plane I met Packie Bonner, the former Irish goalkeeper. When we were flying over London my cousin ***** and I were looking out the window to try and see all the soccer stadiums and we saw Chelsea’s stadium “Stamford Bridge”.
The next morning ***** and I got all set up for the match and we couldn’t wait, we were really excited. We got on the bus to the Madjeski stadium and it was huge. First we went into the shop and I got the Reading goalkeeper jersey. After the shopping we went to the entrance to the pitch and met Shane Long’s Mam and she gave us the tickets. We got to our seats and started to watch the match. Shane was starting and came close a few times and then in the 63rd minute Doyle crossed the ball in and Shane kicked it straight passed the keeper. Every Reading fan in the stadium went cracked including ***** and I.
Shane was taken off before the end of the match and Kitson was brought on and after five minutes he dribbled past around three people and hit the back of the net, myself and my cousins must have brought the team good luck!! The game ended 2-0. After the match we met Graeme Murty (a player for Reading) and I got his autograph and after around half an hour Shane came out and we all gave him a standing ovation. We got his autograph. I got Shane to sign my Ireland jersey and the school jersey. Shane offered us a lift back with him to our hotel.
On our way to the car three girls asked him for his autograph and then his girlfriend asked us to come to the car, and we got into this little Audi sports car. When we were driving off the three girls were just staring in at us. Shane asked us a few things like where we were from and a few other things but almost all I could say was “yeah” I was so gob smacked to be in the same car as my favourite footballer.
There is no doubt that it was the best holiday ever.

By: Red Barron

Religion Exam 2008

Today we are being visited by Fr. Coffey for our Religion Exam. We will examined on our Alive O songs and prayers and we have worked very hard to learn them all!
We have a Religion copy that we use every week to record our progress.
We know all of our prayers in Irish. The Hail Mary is:

'Se do bheatha a Mhuire:
'Se do bheatha a Mhuire, Ata lan do grasta,
Ta an Tiarna leat.
Is beannaithe thu idir mhna, agus is beannaithe toradh do bhroinne, Iosa.
A Naomh Mhuire, a mhathair De, Gui orainn, na peacaigh.
Anois agus ar uair ar mbais.
Aimean.
By Batman

The Irish air corps

The royal corps had a much better warlike force then the representatives of number 2 squadron in their flimsy machines but they were still hammered by the Fokker scourge. So it was dcided the R.F.C should be expanded urgently to 106 service squadrons and 97 squadrons. This called fo lots of more training aerodromes both in Britain and Ireland. The man picked to chose the suitable areas was a Major Sholto Douglas. When he was taking off from a French aerodrome he crashed into a horse and was injured. After he recovered he flew over to Ireland and landed in the Phoenix park. At this time it was only a few months after th 1916 rising. Sholto picked the aerodromes to go in Collinstown,Balldonnel and Aldergrove and a few more in Fermoy and at the Curragh. The RNAS set up bases at Johnstown castle in Wexford and Malahide castle, North of Dulin from which airships patrolled the Irish sea. From 1917 the United States Navy air arm operated flying boats and kite balloons from stations at Wexford, Cork harbour,Bantry Bay and Lough Foyle manned a total of 3.000 personnel. It had been intended that the Americans would take over all the anti-submarine aerial operations off the Irish coast, but before they became fully operational the armstice had not been signed. O 1st of April 1918 the RFC and the RNAs amalgamated to become teh Rotyal Air Force

Scoil Mhuire come 2nd in County Environmental Award

Receiving our Certificate

Discover Primary Science log.

We have worked very hard on this science log.There are a lot of experiments in our project!(example)water pressure and evaporation.There is even experiments that you can do.We had to complete four steps and they are:Step 1=activities from the DPS activity support booklet.Step 2=visit a DPS Discover Centre or invite a science or engineering related speaker to your school.Step 3=Participate in a Science Event.Step 4=Extra Science Activities.

Step 1: Prescribed Activities:
3 Curriculum Activities:
1. Paper Helicopters
2. Rainbow Spinner
3. Make A Lighthouse

3 Other Activities:
1. String Telephone
2. Make a Lever (Wag the Dog)
3. Air Pressure


Step 2:
A. Visit a DPS Centre
Visit to Blackrock Observatory, Cork City: http://www.bco.ie
We visited Blackrock Observatory where we took part in an
Science based exploration of comets using ICT.
Cosmos at the Castle:
Blackrock Castle is a 16th century castle located about 2km from the heart of Cork city on the banks of the river Lee. The inspirational “Cosmos at the Castle” project sees the final redevelopment of the Castle as a centre for scientific research, outreach and communication. The project is a joint venture between Cork City Council, Cork Institute of Technology and a private benefactor. A unique feature of the facility is the manner in which children and adults are encouraged to interact with science.

We learned about comet structure and movement and observed the creation of a home-made comet using the following:
 2 cups of water
 2 cups of crushed dry ice
 2 spoonfuls of dirt
 A dash of ammonia
 A dash of organic material
 A dash of salt

Step 2:
B: Invite a Scientist/Engineer to the school:
We invited Vincent Vaughan to our school. Vincent is a local pilot. He flies aeroplanes in Kilkenny Airport and teaches people how to fly. He taught us about the science of flight: how does an aeroplane fly. It uses four forces: drag, thrust, lift and weight. We looked at a model aeroplane that he brought in to the school to see the different parts of the plane. You can see a video of his visit on www.kilvemnon.net/vincent_vaughan.html

Step 3:
Science Day to display Lego Mindstorms project:
1. Roboshow St. Patrick’s Drumcondra (Tuesday 13th of May 2008)
For the past few months the senior classes (3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th) have been working on a project with Lego Mindstorms. Kilvemnon N.S. is part of a SIP project {School Integration Project}
We travel to St. Pat’s Drumcondra on the 13th of May this year for the Roboshow. This is the National Day for Lego Mindstorms and schools who participate in this project from all over Ireland will be present.
These projects were set up in schools around the country to determine how best information and communications technology could be integrated into the school curriculum. The SIP project that Kilvemnon N.S. is involved in involved uses Lego materials and a computerized Lego brick to design, build and control robots.
It involves learning about gears, wheels how best to make the robots.
This year our project has been based on our Flight Project. Another DPS registered school that will take part are Scoil Naomh Fiachra, Clontubrid in Kilkenny.

Step 4:
 Subscribed to the www.science.ie monthly electronic science newsletter Since November 2004
 Other Activities not on list above
1. As we have been involved in DPS for the past four years we have included in our Science Log details of extra Science activities that were undertaken during the year. Some of these activities come from Eureka- a Science Supplement from CALMAST in association with The Irish Independent. Others are from class curriculum and teacher’s own.
2. We have also included at the back of our science log a copy of each issue of our monthly newsletter as written, edited and produced by our 5th and 6th class students. These show any other science activities that we have been involved in.
 Registered for the Green Schools Programme: This year we have achieved our first Green Flag. We will be awarded our Green Flag in Cork in May. Read more about the project on www.kilvemnon.net
 Set up a Science or school website: We have had a school website for the past eight years. (http://homepage.eircom.net~kilvemnon) Our school site for the past three years has been: www.kilvemnon.net and this year we started a blog: www.kilvemnon.blogspot.com
 We took part in the STEPS K’NEX Challenge. Our entry can be downloaded on www.kilvemnon.net
By Shorty

Green School Asessment

By Redser

Bernadette came today from the South Tipperary County Council to examine us to see if we are good enough to get the green flag. The green flag is given to schools that keep their schools clean and tidy and Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. We will know in 2 or 3 weeks time if we were successful. Bernadette asked us lots of questions about what we have done to earn the Green Flag. We explained that we set up a green schools committee which the whole school is a member of. We have a meeting every week and we see what we are doing and what we can do to make our school even greener. Every day after each school break one person from each senior class do a litter run. We do lots in the school. We recycle glass, cardboard, mobiles, ringos, cans and we bring clothes for orphanages in Africa. We also shred paper for the puppies in PAWS, which is an animal rescue centre near Mullinahone. We have a vegtable garden and we planted 750 daffodils this year. We have done a lot of hard work and think we deserve a green flag. The Green School Flag Award Ceremony will be held in Cork the end of May and we hope to be there!!

This is our Green School Code which was wrote by Batman:

I wish we were a Green School, with our flag flying so high.
It would be cool to see it touch the clear blue sky.
I hope that people do not litter,
'cause if they do, they are bitter.
Come on Kilvemnon, we all rule.
Go us, go school!!!

Charlie and the Glass Elevator by Roald Dahl

We read Charlie and the Glass Elevator in class. (3rd and 4th) These are some of the Character Profiles we have written.

By B612

Charlie
Charlie is a nice kind of person . He is not a very good dresser. He wears a top too small for him. His mother and father are poor but they might own the chocolate factory. He does what he is told and when things get out of hands he is calm and cool.

Grandma Georgina.
Grandma Georgina is very rude and has an answer for everything. She is also greedy. When she got tablets to make her younger she took too many and disappeared. But everybody still loves her and she is a great part of the book.

Vermicous Knids.
The Vermicous Knids are worm-like things that can squish their body into anything. They are show-offs. But they are really cool. I still dont like the Vermicous Knids!

Wonka-Vite.
Wonka-Vite is a tablet that makes you younger by twenty years. Grandma Georgina took too many and ended up in minus land and they had to give her vite-wonka to cure her.


President R Gilligrass.
Funny: he is funny because....
1 The way he calls Miss Tibbs Nanny.
2 His cats name is Tabbspuss.
3 The way he gets mad.
4 It was funny when he swallowed a fly.
5 The way hes inventive.

A wild imagination.
1 He makes inventions that are not needed.
2 He thinks that people are trying to steal his space hotel.
3 Because of the way he makes jokes.

French(francais).

Bonjour
Aujourd hui nous sommes mardi 29 avril.
We are doing French everyday. We really enjoy it.We learned about weather today because sixth class will be presenting the forecast in French on Thursday.We have learned the directions in French nord,sud,est and ouest.We have seen cities in France on the map like Paris, Toulouse,Lille,Avignon,Nice and Marseille.The Red Baron is going to Toulouse in the summer.(Le Baron Rouge va a Toulouse cet ete.)
Au revoir.

The Witches of Slievenamon.

Last Year we made a film called The Witches of Slievenamon. We got the idea from the story by Lady Jane Wilde who is the mother of Oscar Wilde. We changed the story, by all of us writing our own story on 'The Witches of Slievenamon'. After that we took pieces from different stories and put them all into one big story. We were writing the script for a play that we were doing and then decided to make it into a film. The film that we did is about a woman called Siobhan and her 3 children who were haunted by witches and a spirit from their well tells Siobhan what to do to get rid of those awful witches. It took us two days to film it. First we went to Croc an Óir to film everything that happened in the house. The night after we went to the Spout that is near Slievenamon in Ballydavid near Mullinahone, to film the spirit in the well and Siobhan talking to him. Our school is situated on the foot of Slievenamon, so thats why we picked this story because it would be easy to get to the places. Then after the Spout we went to Carraigmoclear hill to film the forest scences. It was about 10pm that we got home at. We had 2 cameras filming at 2 different angles and at the end of it all, the editors used an I Mac Laptop and I Movie to edit all the scences and get the best pieces and put them together. It took 3 weeks to edit the whole film and we added distortions and sound effects. We all had a great time filming. My favourite part was being at Carraigmoclear in the trees and having a great laugh.
By: Danan

Steering with rudders.
To steer a boat you turn a slat that is flat.The flat slat is called a rudder.It is under the water at the back of a boat.When you turn the rudder,water pushes hard on the side that faces forward.The water pushes the back of the boat to one side and points the front of the boat in the direction you want to go.

Airplane rudders.
Rudders steer airplanes through the air the same way they thay steer boats through water.When you turn the rudder on the tail of an airplane, the airplane turns.

STEERING WITH ROBOTS
You dont always have have to sit in a vehicle to steer it.A drone is an airplane thats steered through the air by radio signals from the ground.
Two television cameras in the drone send pictures to a pilot on the ground.The pilot wacthes the pictures on television sets and acts as if he were sitting in the airplane.He steers the drone with a tiny control stick on his chair.When he moves the stick,radio signals make a cortrol stick in the done move too.Moveing the stick on his chair the pilot on the grond can make the drone in the sky ,climb,dive or turn.

By Gaby

News2day came to our school

By Matilda

News2day came to our school on Monday 21st of April. They asked us lots of questions about our plane project and about the paper mache planes that we made. They inter viewed five people and they were *****,****,*****,****** and *****. **** talked about the blog that we have set-up on the internet. *** talked about the Wright Brothers and his granny. ****** also talked about the Wright Brothers and ***** talked about e-mailing people like John Thompson and Ian. They videoed us all playing the tin whistle and we did that twice.At the end we brought out our paper mache planes and we pretended to fly them and we had to do that a few times aswell. We had a lot of fun.

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Our trip to Shannon by Batman

On Tuesday we went to Shannon Airport hangar to see an Aer Lingus plane.It took us two hours to get there and it was worth it. The plane we saw was Aer Lingus' biggest plane.Our tour guide and engineer Dennis brought us into the plane and we all got to sit in first class seats and go into the cockpit. The seats had televisions in them and when we got out of the plane we asked Dennis questions and I asked him how heavy is the plane and just one engine and he said the plane is eighty tonnes empty and the engine is about five or six tonnes. The planes fuel is called kerosene and they would use about thirty tonnes of that doing a transatlantic flight. When we were leaving Shannon,Dennis gave us a box with magazines and headphones.
Then we spend another forty five minutes on the bus going to Foynes Museum of flying boats. Joan, our tourguide, showed us a video of old planes and there was a double decker plane called the Mayo Composite. We also got into a life size replica of the Yankee Clipper. Joan showed us two morse code readers and transmitter. Then we went to Cahir for something to eat before we came home.

Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines Podcast

Click on the title to listen our podcast recorded during a visit from Stephen Carroll from News2Day (RTE). The Kilvemnon musicians from first to sixth class are conducted by our talented principal, Mrs. Teckie Brett.


Today,News2Day came to our school. They came because our teacher Miss O'Connell won a competition for the best school in Europe. We came first. They came at eleven o' Clock. When they came we had to play two songs on our tin whistles. We played Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines and Aeroplanes. We played them twice. Then they asked us questions about our project. Two men came from News2Day. One was called Steven Carroll!! They were excited to see us. We were excited to see them. They stayed until two o' clock. Tomorrow we are going to Shannon airport. Lucky us!
By The Rose

5O Years of TransAtlantic Flight with Aer Lingus

1919
Alocock and Brown complete the first non-stop TransAtlantic flight from Newfoundland to Clifden,Co.Galway in 16 hours and 12 minutes.According to the New York Times,at times they even flew "upside down".

1927
Charles A Lindbergh,flying the spirit of St Louis ,becomes the first aviator to make a solo,non-stop TransAtlantic flight from Long Island to Paris.It took 33 hours and 30 minutes.

1929
Hundreds of TransAtlantic crossings with passengers are made by Zeppelins in the late `20s and early `30s.Graf Zeppelin even circumnavigators the earth

1936
Aer Lingus Teoranta is registered as an airline. Teoranta means "limited company" and Lingus is derived from the Irish "loingeas", meaning fleet.

1939
Pan American inaugurates the world's first transatlantic passenger services between New York and Marseilles, and New York and Southampton. Passengers pay $375 one way.

1945
The US Civil Aeronautics Board grants permission to American Export Airlines, Pan American and TWA to operate services across the North Atlantic. The agreement breaks Pan AM's monopoly and contributes to a boom in air travel in the post-war era.

1947
Transatlantic services are first mooted in Ireland, with Aerlinte Eireann formed as an associate company of Aer Lingus. Five new Lockheed L749 Constellations are ordered, before the service is scotched after a charge of Irish Government in 1948.

1950
The transatlantic route is the world's number one route in terms of traffic with SAS, KLM, Air France, SABENA and Swissair all carrying passengers across the ocean.

1958
Aerlinte Eireann is re-established and on 28th April the first service leaves Dublin and Shannon for New York.

1960
Aer Lingus enters the jet age with Boeing 720s covering the routes from Dublin and Shannon to New York and Boston. In 1964, the larger Boeing 707 follows.

1979
Pope John Paul II flies from Rome to Dublin and later from Shannon to Boston on an Aer Lingus plane that has been specially chartered for him.

1996
On October 2, the last Aer Lingus Boeing 747 flight takes place after 25 years of service. Over eight million people have travelled across the Atlantic in Aer Lingus "Jumbo Jets".

2008
With passenger numbers now exceeding nine million per annum. Aer Lingus transatlantic routes include Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New york, Orlando, San Francisco and Washington DC.

Visit to Shannon Airport and Foynes Museum

When we went to Shannon Airport.We met our tour guide Denis and made our way to the hangar.When we got inside we went up the steps and into the plane.We thought that we would only be allowed to look around the plane but we got to sit in the first class seats and watched some tv. A few people at a time were allowed to go into the cockpit and look around at all the buttons and controls.We each got to sit in the pilots seat.After that we got out of the plane and went to look at the engines.We saw all the parts and then we took photos and videos of it. We got back on the bus and went to Foynes Flying Boat Museum.There we saw a little film about Flying boats. We also saw what the pilots and air hostesses uniforms were like.We saw what communication systems were used back then.We then got to the flying boat itself.We got to see all the places where they used to sleep and eat and we got to see where the luggage was kept and where the cockpit is.We all got our photo taken sitting in the cockpit.We all had a great day.

Carrie's War

We have read a book in school called Carrie's War.
Carrie's war starts off when Carrie is all grown -up with her own children. Then she tells them about her life when she was young. She and her brother Nick lived in London. The World War 2 broke out. Nick and Carrie were evacuated to the country. They were in a village where people come and pick a child to take home. Miss Evans took Carrie and Nick. They called her Auntie Lou because her real name was Louisa. Her brother Mr. Evans was a mean and cruel-hearted man. He hated children and they hated him. Then Carrie met Albert Sandwich. He was 11yrs old and she was 10yrs old. She went to the house he was staying at. The owner was Mrs. Gotobed. But a woman named hepzibah looked after her and Albert.
One hot July morning, Mrs. Gotobed died. Hepzibah owned the house and let Carrie and Nick come over any time. But Mr. Evans hated Hepzibhah and he never brought them to play with Albert, so they always walked. They always had good fun with Albert.
The End.

By: The Rose

Migration

Swallow:
The swallow flies from Ireland to South Africa. It takes him 1.5 months to get there. His wingspan is 38cm. He is 17-20cm long.

Osprey:
The osprey flies from Ariemore, Scotland to Senegal, Africa. It takes him 20 days to get there. His wingspan is 150-170cm.

Arctic Tern:
The arctic tern flies from The Shetland Islands to Antartica. It takes him 2-3 months to get there. His wingspan is 70-80cm.

Monarch Butterfly:
The monarch butterfly flies from Maine, USA to Mexico. It takes him about 2 and half months to get there. His wingspan is 10cm.

Grey Whale:
The grey whale swims from Bering Sea to Baia, California. It takes him 3 months to get there.

All birds know where to go because they follow these - Magnetite, it is like a magnet in their heads, instinct.

By: Smiley

Piggley's Adventure

Click on the posts link in the right corner of the player. Link to 'Piggley's Adventure in Zagreb' to listen to our podcast.
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Piggley our little mascot went to Zagreb in Croatia with our teacher, Miss O'Connell, and had an amazing trip. He got up at 5:00 in the morning to get onto his first plane in Dublin. Piggley got special treatment on the plane for all his hard work he did on the computer. He got his own seat and extras to eat from the staff (but he also packed his own lunch)!!!
Our amazing little mascot also took some amazing photos. Miss O'Connell took one of Piggley working on the computer. The next morning Miss O'Connell took another plane straight to Zagreb. But before that she met 3 famous boxers called Eric Donovan, Darren O'Neill and Jimmy Halpin.
Once she got on the plane it went straight to Prague which is in the Czech Republic. On the first day she went into the hotel, Regent Splende, and unpacked and then went to the Croatian State Archives and went and set up a stand. Then she went back. On the second day she went and got things and put them up. Then after that Piggley went around sight-seeing. He saw a cathedral and a market.
Once he was done he went back and Piggley met the Saltash chicken, aka his girlfriend. Then Piggley heard the awards and he came.............1st !!! I think it was the best day of Piggley's life!!
Piggley also met Chris Rea who is a famous singer. When Piggley came home to Ireland, we had an amazing party. At first we got drinks either orange or 7up. Then Mrs. Brett came around with walkers crisps. Then Mrs. Brett came around with sweets and **** I got extra sweets. Then Ms. O'Connell tried to burst the champagne poppers but it wouldn't burst so we just ripped it open and threw the confetti out.

By: B612