visit from John Thompson

On Friday the 20th we got a visit from John Thompson.He sent us pictures of planes and thats how we got the idea of the paper mache planes.He is the Granddad of two puples in this school, ******* and *******.We sent him lots of questions and we got great answers back.He told us about the different planes.We took pictures of him with ******* and ********.We did presentations for him.We all did presentations we did about the Wright Brothers ,the Robo show,Papier Mache,KNex and the Lego Models.We showed him how a story board works.

Microsoft and Helicopter Visit School

Click on the Posts link on the bottom right corner of the Player. Click on Helicopter Visit to hear a podcast about the visit of the Garda Air Support Unit and Captain Phillip O' Brien who came to visit us from Baldonnell.


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Yesterday Microsoft came to our school. But first at 9:30 2 guards called Sergeant Paul Duggan and Sergeant Tom Mansfield arrived. They showed us videos and told us about the radar and the gadgets that are in the helicopter. We saw different videos from car chases and people running from the police at night. They told us about the Garda Air Force and we asked them lots of questions. Then they showed us pictures of helicopters and at about 10:30 we heard a helicopter. I was on the camera and I took the camera off the tripod and everyone lined up outside in the hall. Ms O' Connell told us to stay on the school side of the wire that a helicopter was going to land in the pitch. The helicopter circled the school a few times and then hovered over the pitch before landing It was very loud and the rotor blades made the place very windy. It was raining and they took a long time to turn off the helicopter. Then Captain Philip O' Brien the driver of the helicopter came out with Carmel and the dog trainer with his English Springer Spaniel Deas. Captain O' Brien introduced us to everyone and then we went down to the helicopter. We split into 2 groups. 1 group stayed at the helicopter and the other group went to look at Deas the dog. Then we went for lunch and after lunch Captain O' Brien gave a speech about the history of flight. He then had to leave because it was raining and with too much rain the helicopter could get grounded.It only took them 35 minutes to come here from Baldonnell. Before they left they brought Ms O' Connell on a spin in the helicopter and we got even closer to the helicopter and it was even more windier. We had to go back inside and wait until Ms O' Connell came back and we got Roses sweets from Mrs. Brett and when they we about to land we went out again. Then they left after that.

Then we did our presentation that we have been practising for ages. We went up when we had too and everyone talked about their pieces. Mary Healy {Captain Philip O' Brien's cousin} Siobhan Moore from Microsoft, Cathal O' Connell{NCTE}, Deirdre Butler from Tech Net and St. Patricks Drumcondra and Fr. Mcgrath was here when we were doing our speech. Captain O' Brien, Carmel, the dog trainer sand the dog Deas weren't there because they had left before it. Mary Healy also made chocolate chip muffins for us aswell. Thanks Mary!!

At the end of the day we played games and sixth class got footballs from Cathal because we won't be here next year and that was probably the last time we will see him. Microsoft's Siobhan Moore also gave us a goodie bag with pens, PC mouse mats, calculators, highlighter pens and mints. Today {Thursday 19 June} we will be looking at some of the footage that we took yesterday. We had a really good and exciting day yesterday.
By: Danan.

Yesterday on 18th of June it was the best day of the eight years I was in school so far .At the start of the day there were Guards in our classroom to congratulate us for our Microsoft award. They were called Sergeant Tom and Sergeant Paul. They weren’t normal guards, they were helicopter guards and they rescue people aswell as arrest people. G**** was terrified that he would be arrested. Garda Paul was showing us ideos of car chases, motorbike chases and much more. Some of the videos were very dangerous like a motorbike crash and a video of a fight. We could see a video from a helicopter looking at a man during the night and it was pitch black but with the thermal imaging you can see a black shape moving and it is the person on the run, you can see the black because of his body heat. After a while at 11 O’ clock Miss O’ Connell brought us outside for a surprise and a Garda helicopter landed in the football pitch, the wind from the rotor blades is unreal, it makes you take a few steps back. Captain Philip and Carmel who is the navigator showed us all the controls of the helicopter and then to our surprise a small dog called Deas that was a Springer Spaniel(a sniffer dog)came out of the helicopter and got a lot of attention from everyone, mostly the girls! Now it was breaktime and everyone went and got their lunch and went into the shed and were talking about the helicopter . After break we went into our classroom and Philip started talking to us about helicopters and flight. He showed us a powerpoint of pictures of planes and helicopters that look unusual. Philip, Carmel, Deas and the dog trainer were leaving, but first they took Miss O’ Connell up for a spin and we got to closer to the helicopter for take-off and the amount of grass that flew back into our faces was horrible but the wind was lovely. The helicopter flew for around five minutes and it came back down to ground. They took off for real then to go back to Baldonnel and we all waved them off.

It was now time for our own presentation. ***** introduced us and I was first and I talked about the Wright Brothers and showed my LEGO model to everyone. In the audience were Sergeant Paul Duggan and Tom Mansfield, Siobhan Moore from Microsoft, Cathal O’ Connell(NCTE) and Deirde Butler(Teach net St. Patricks Drumcondra), Father McGrath and Mary Healy. The teachers and the junior room were looking too. Siobhan Moore made a presentation to mark our achievement as the best school in Europe, she also gave every student pens, calculators, highlighters and mints. Garda Paul put the handcuffs on ***** and the bulletproof vest . Cathal gave everyone in sixth class a football because it was probably the last time he would ever see us. As I said before it was the best day ever.
By: The Red Baron.

THE SCHOOL TOUR

On Friday the 13th ,we went on our school tour to Roscrea.It took us an hour and a half to get there.We met our tour guides,Elaine and Mary.We started at the obstacle course. It was fun because we were split into teams. Then we had to get changed for the water slide. We had to climb up a ladder ,then when we would slide down we would land in a pool of water. We then had to go and do the twister and swimming.We then got split into teams for the treasure hunt and archery.We got our lunch and played a game of football.We said thanks for every thing and came home. It was a brilliant day!!
by Batman.

Green Flag Award Ceremony.

Mrs. Brett, Sarah, Ronaldo and Kitten went to Cork to get the Green Flag.
When we got there we had something to eat and drink. Then we went into
the award ceremony and Michael John O'Mahony started the ceremony and then
Michael John and Jim Wilson gave us the green flag. After the ceremony
we had lunch Chicken Curry and a chocolate cake. Then after a busy day we went home.

We worked really hard around the school to make it environmentally friendly and a nice place to be for everyone! Congrats to everyone!
The head of the GAA Nicky Brennan is coming to our school on Monday 23rd of June next to raise the Flag. We are also having our 6th class Graduation that evening at 7pm.

by Ronaldo

Visit from Microsoft Ireland

On Wednesday the academic program manager of Microsoft Ireland Dr. Kevin Marshall, will be coming to our school to give us our prize for the Microsoft Innovative teacher forum.Dr. Deirde Butler of St.Patricks College will be coming also. She set up the Empowering minds in Ireland,this is the group that co-ordinate the LEGO project in Ireland. We have invited our old friend Cathal of the NCTE to come down to celebrate our win.

Today a few of us, including me will be staying in school until six o' clock to prepare for the day. Nine hours is a long time to be in school but I'm sure it will be worth it. Everyone will be talking about something that happened in school this year. I will be talking about the research we have done on the Wright brothers and the model of the 1903 flyer that I made out of LEGO. You will hear all about Wednesday soon enough.
By:THE RED BARON

Perrine leaving

On Monday the 9th of June we were all very sad to see our French teacher leaving us. Perrine (our French teacher)taught us a lot of French over the year since October to June.She taught us songs and lots of new words. She also played lots of games with us and she taught us a game that she used to play when she was young.On her last day we made a presentation and we gave her a frame with a picture of the whole school in it. We all miss her and will miss doing French every day.

Filming the Little Prince

We have been working on our Film of the Little Prince over the past few days. Here are some of the photos taken by Ronaldo.

Click on the posts link on the bottom of the player and choose 'The Little Prince Podcast' to listen to how the film was created, in the words of 'The Little Prince'.


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DEVENEZ PRESENTATEUR METEO!!

DEVENEZ PRESENTATEUR METEO!!

Grille méthodologique:

* Les objectifs:

*Je présente la météo


La présentatrice météo est partie en vacances, elle vous demande de préparer le bulletin du jour à sa place.
Elle vous laisse un mot pour vous donner des conseils

Cher(e)s ami(e)s,

Je m’absente pour quelques jours et j’aimerais que vous me remplaciez aujourd’hui pour présenter la météo...
Je vous guiderai dans toutes les étapes...

Prêt(e)s? Alors suivez le guide...

Marche à suivre:

Etape 1: Que que fait un présentateur météo?

Regardez comment je travaille tous les jours...
Visualisez le bulletin météo et prenez des notes sur la pratique du presentateur météo.
(http://videos.tf1.fr/video/emissions/meteo20h/0,,3633453,00-meteo-heures-.html.)
Aidez-vous pour cela de la fiche “présentateur”

Etape 2: Orientez-vous

Afin de vous orientez et de connaître un peu plus la géographie de la France, je vous propose de visualiser la carte météorologique de France à cette adresse:

http://fr.weather.com/maps/activities/football/francetempmaxmin24h_large.html.

Vous pouvez maintenant repérer 5 des grandes villes de France sur la carte: Lille, Paris, Lyon, Marseille et Bordeaux.

La boussole est l’outil d’orientation que nous utilisons en météorolgie pour connaitre les points cardinaux.



*
N = (au) NORD
NE = (au) NORD-EST
E = (à l’) EST
SE = (au) SUD-EST
S= (au) SUD
SO = (au) SUD-OUEST
O = ( à l’) OUEST
NO = (au) NORD-OUEST

A l’aide de la boussole ci-dessus et de la légende, dites où se situent ces 5 villes en France.

EX: Strasbourg est au Nord-Est de la France....



Etape 3: Quel temps fait-il?

Maintenant que vous pouvez vous repérer sur la carte de France, découvrez le vocabulaire du temps.

Faites les exercices suivants
JMAtch (Temps, saisons)

Etape 4: Allons plus loin...

Bien. A ce stade vous êtes capables de présenter le temps, mais afin de préparer au mieux votre bulletin météo, je vous conseille d’étudier les définitions des mots suivants sur ce site.
(www.mandragore2.net/meteo/meteo.php)
En effet, le métier de présentatrice requiert un vocabulaire spécifique, celui de la météorologie.
Anticyclone, averse, air, brouillard, gelée, orage, perturbation, précipitations, températures, traine, vent

Testez vos connaissances maintenant:
Jquiz (le termes de la meteo)
JCloze



Tâche finale: Je fais la pluie et le beau temps.
(utilisation d’un rétroprojecteur)

Vous voici prêts à pésenter la météo.

Retournez voir la carte de France à cette adresse (http://fr.weather.com/maps/activities/football/francetempmaxmin24h_large.html)

et préparez pour votre classe le bulletin météo. Vous préparerez, à l’écrit tout d’abord vos prévisions (10 minutes), puis présenterez à l’ensemble de la classe.
N’oubliez pas l”éphéméride:
http://www.ephemeride.com/ephemeride/ephemeride/11/?seeday=1

Cette présentation nécessite que vous vous impliquiez physiquement : montrez les régions, (Nord-Est..), les villes...
Aidez-vous de la fiche météo.

Translating 'Le Petit Prince'

Today we are translating our 'Little Prince' Script into Irish. It is our plan to make the film in three languages, English, Irish and French. Perrine, our French teacher has translated the script into French but we are doing the Irish translation ourselves. You can see us working hard on our script in the photos.

First Holy Communion

Last Saturday we had First Holy Communion in our school. It was in Mullinahone church. The three girls in second class made it.They all looked very pretty in their dresses.Some of the other children in school came to the mass and sang lovely songs in the choir. It was a lovely day. Some of the girls went back to their houses to have a party with their family and friends. We would all like to say a big thank you to Mrs. Brett for all her hard work preparing the children for First Holy Communion.

By Gigi

Congrats to Shane McGrath

Congratulations to Tipperary hurler Shane McGrath who was named the Vodafone GAA All Stars Player of the Month for April.
Shane visited us in the school a couple of months ago with GPO Johhny Cummins. The photo above is of the Senior Room during a training session with Shane.
He was presented with his award at a reception in Dublin’s Westbury Hotel by GAA President Nickey Brennan.
Midfielder McGrath was instrumental in Tipp’s run to League glory and is seen as one of the most promising young players in the game. The Ballinahinch club man starred as Liam Sheedy’s men outscored Ger Loughnane’s Galway in a thrilling league final in Limerick in April.

Our Garden

Today we went out to the garden and planted some cabbage heads. We all worked together to plant them and to also water them. Mrs.Brett brought them in to day.
Mrs.Brett`s class and us shared the cabbage heads. The teacher took pictures of us digging holes to put them into. This is us!

Babe- Character from the Sheep Pig By Dick King Smith

We have read the novel The Sheep Pig by Dick King Smith in class. We read this book because when Ms. O' Connell went to Croatia for the Microsoft Innovative Forum she brought our school mascot Piggley with her. Piggley is a pig from the cartoon Jakers.
When he was in Croatia Piggley met the Saltash school mascot (a hen)! Saltash is a secondary school in England. They have a web cam set up and you can see the hens and pigs that they are rearing on their school farm.


We wrote Character Profiles about Babe today. This was written by B612:
Babe is a pig. He got separated from his mom at a young age. Babe's best friend is Fly. Babe wants to become a sheep pig but every body thinks he crazy. Babe's other friend is Mr Hogget. He also likes a sheep called Maa until she was killed by a dog. Babe still thinks he can be a sheep pig and still be nice to sheep.
I like Babe because he is a cool pig and because he believes in himself and doesn't let others down. I also like him because he doesn't give up.

Aeroplane Project

When an aeroplane climbs (gains altitude),it has a nose-up altitude.This means that the nose of the plane is higher than the tail.Picture an airplane just after take off, as it climbs into the sky. The attitude of the plane,weather nose-up or nose down is called pitch.Pitch is controlled by the elevator,which is a horizontal surface located at the tail of an airplane.Airplanes also use ailerons to help control direction.Ailrons are located on the rear edge of each wing and can move up and down.When the airplane turns,the left and right ailrons move in opposite directions.One moves up the other moves down.Ailrons cause an aircraft to tilt to the left or right you have no doubt experinced this if you have ever been a passenger on an airplane.This left/right tilting moting is called roll.How is an airplane steared? Cars are steared by simply pointing the front wheels in the direction you wish to turn.Boats have a rudder at their stern or backend which controls their direction of movement.Like boats,airplanes also have rudders. The rudder is located at the end of the aircraft.The rudder is vertical and has a side-to-side motion that "stears" the aircraft to the left or right.This left/right steering motion is referred to as you.

On the way back from the Roboshow

On our way back from the Roboshow we went to Mcdonalds in Carlow.We were hungry.It took a long time to get to Mcdonalds. When we got there we all finished our happy meals really fast.We got toys there too.The girls got a fairy cd rom and a little fairy toy. The boys got a dragon cd rom and dragon cards.
Then when we were driving through Callan we stopped at Callan park. We all went running in. We all climbed onto the roundabout. The boys pushed it and they jumped on. It went really fast.Half the boys fell off! Then we went on the tight rope. It was scary.We also went on the slide. It was really high.
Some of my friends went on the see-saw and the swings .
It was really good fun.
We had to be back in the schoolfor 6 o'clock so went back to the bus and drove back to school. We left our lego in and left it on the tables. We were proud of ourselves and all our hard work up at the Roboshow and we can't wait till next year!!

Roboshow 2008 St. Patrick's College, Drumcondra

On Tuesday the 13th of May I got up at 6:15am and ate my breakfast got dressed and packed my bag because kilvemnon school was going to the Roboshow. The Roboshow is where we show off our LEGO Models. Once we got there we set up our stand. After that we waited until all the other schools were there and with our groups we went and looked at other models. I was with Smiley, The Rose, Danan and Sparkey.We saw a town and robots and an Irish explorer and hydraulic lifts and lots of other models then after that we were on our stand talking about our plane project. It was fun telling other people about our models and then once we finished that we went and looked at other models again. Then we went with the other schools and got our award. Then we went and looked at others models. Once we left we had our lunch on the pitch and played soccer. It was great fun. Once I was on the at the stand I told them about the Control Tower and what it did like help the pilot land and clears them for landing. I told them how long it took to build the airport and lifts. I also told them what the lifts were for. I really enjoyed it.

By B612

The Airport

Name of model:
The airport
2 Timeframe of construction:
months

Team Involved:
B612 and The Rose

Contributors:
Shorty, Red Baron and Jimsey



Initial idea:
They were all building planes and we wanted to build something different so we asked could we build an airport.

Adaptations:
We changed the runway and move the shop because it would not sit. I want to move the toy shop because I don’t like were it is, it is too small.

Changes in the future:
We want to build a toy shop and move the control tower. I want to move the playground because I think that it is not right there.

Programming:
We did not programme yet. I want the control tower to spin and the light to flash. I learned a lot from all the other models that people have built. I really like the Wright Brothers plane that Red Baron built. I also like the plane Ranldo

and wolf built.

Red Baron:Wright brothers 1903 flyer

Name of model:
The Wright Brothers 1903 flyer

Timeframe of construction:
About 12 sessions of LEGO

Team involved:
Only meR

Contributors:
Batman, Jimsey and Past Pupil

Initial idea:
I got the idea of doing the Wright brothers flyer from doing research of the Wright brothers and I found it really interesting. We looked at videos of the plane in flight, it was animated though. I found it interesting learning about how they were bicycle engineers and that they used to make gliders before the engine powered plane. They became interested in flight when they were young. Their father who was a bishop brought them a type of thin that flew by an elastic band. You would twist the rotor blades on top and let go and the blades would spin around making the thing fly.

Adaptations:
I had to change a few things. I built the plane in a way but it didn’t exactly work so I tried something else and that didn’t work. One day I asked Past pupil if he could give me a hand so he helped me with I and we did a thing with gears to work the front part of the plane and sadly that did not work either but eventually we found the right idea and we used pulleys with the elastic bands and it worked so that was good. In the back of the plane it wasn’t hard at all and the first thing we did worked. After a few more LEGO sessions Miss O’Connell saw that the motor wasn’t in the right place and it looked wrong where it was, so I moved it.

Changes in the future:
I am not sure what changes I will have in the future and hopefully I won’t have to make any changes. I will be making the Wright brothers flyer out of lollipop sticks with Danny and a few other people so I am looking to that.

Programming:
The programming on my plane is not so complicated, the plane just goes 0.2 seconds one way and 0.2 seconds the other way and repeats a few more times. The programming on a model is when you can make the plane do what you want and it is controlled by the RCX which is connected to a motor by a wire and the motor spins. You use the computer to program the RCX. An RCX is a control unit that is specially designed for LEGO MINDSTORMS.

Batman: luggage carrier

Name of model:
Luggage Carrier
Time frame of construction:
Five-six weeks

Team involved:
Danan and I

Contributors:
Red Baron, Shorty and Ranaldo

Initial Idea:
At the start I was building a tractor until Ms. O’Connell told us we were doing a plane project, so I changed it to a luggage carrier. I learned about carriers and they transport luggage to the plane. For safety people must their names and addresses on them. I built one trailer on it and it runs by one motor.

Adaptations:
The adaptations will be to maybe add more to it. We are adding a touch sensor. This works by putting your model in front of a wall or book and when the model hits it the sensor tells the car to go back or forward. Sarah and I might add some lights to it as well.

Changes in the future:
Danan and I are thinking of adding a second trailer. I will put some coloured bricks in the second trailer to make it look like luggage. I was thinking of having a mini number plate on the front.

Programming:
Danan and I will make our carrier go forward for three seconds. Then use the touch sensor to make it go back for three seconds, and then it will stop and beep twice.

B612: Hydraulic lift

Name of my model:
Hydraulic lift.

Timeframe of construction:
2-3 months.

Team involved:
Matilda,Red Baron and I.

Contributors:
Smiley and The Rose.

Initial ideas:
Well at first we wanted something to lift the planes up. Then Miss O Connell showed us the Hydraulic lifts on the computer and we raised our hands and teacher gave us the job. We had to make it by following steps on the computer. I thought making it was brilliant but at the same time it was hard. I still enjoyed making it.

Adaptations:
Well at first it kept on breaking so we had to take it apart and we had to make everything stronger. It was really hard. We had to get extra LEGO pieces and then we had to stick them together with flat pieces. It was still fun.

Changes in the future:
I don’t think we will make any changes but we might have to make it even sturdier. It won’t be easy in the future or even now to try and make it sturdier. But all of us will try our best and will hopefully succeed.

Programming:
All we need to make it do is, go up and down.