National Museum, National Art Gallery and National Library trip

On Thursday we went into town to visit the National Museum, the National library and the National Art Gallery. The trip was part of our English class because there was an exhibition about WB Yeats in the National Library. We got the bus to Kildare street and first went to the National Museum. In the museum we looked at artefact's from the Stone Age the Iron age and the Bronze age. We also got to see bodies of people that were found in the bogs. These people are over three thousand years old but they were almost perfectly preserved by the bog. It was really interesting but kinda creepy! You could see the fingers of one man perfectly! It is believed that these people were put into the bog as a sacrifice to the gods. After the museum we went to the National Library to see the WB Yeats exhibition. A guide showed us around for a little while and then we could walk around ourselves. It was really cool, there was interactive screens to read his diaries and poems and lots of information about his life. After the Library we were free to have lunch in town and we went to McDonald's! After lunch we went to the National Art gallery to see paintings by Irish Artists. Some of the painting were really good. There was a exhibition of paintings by Jack Yeats, WB Yeats's brother, so this also tied in with English. It was a really fun day and everyone enjoyed it! :)

Percussion Workshop

Last Tuesday we had a Percusion workshop in the music room. Dave was teaching the workshop and he brought loads of djembe drums and other percusion intruments with him. We learned about where the djembe drums come from and how they are made and also how to play different beats on them. For the first while we just played with the drums and experiemented with different beats but after break he picked people to play the bass drums and we put the bass drums together with the djembe drums to make a song. It sounded really good! After lunch we watched a documentary about the djembe drums and other intruments for West Africa. It was really interesting! Then we played with some of the other percusion instruments and we played a samba song. It was really good and we learned alot about the djembe drums. We learned that they come from countries in West Africa like Ghana and Guinea. They are made of wood and goat skin is streched over the top of it. Sometimes cow skin is used but this is thicker and doesn't make the same sound. Cow skin is used to make the bass drums. One of the percussion instruments that we used is called the Asalato. These are two wooden balls on the end of a string. The balls are filled with seeds or small pebbles. It was a really great day and i would definatly recommend it for next year! :D

Margaret Aylward Drama

Last Tuesday we all went to Glasnevin to preform our plays for the Bi-Centenary of Margaret Aylward. Margaret Aylward set up the sisters of the Holy Faith which set up our school. We had four plays in the show and all of them were based on people that Margaret Aylward would have helped when she was alive. We arrived in Glasnevin at midday and we got to practise on the stage for a little while before we had lunch. After lunch we had a dress rehearsal and then we all got pizza for dinner! We were all nervously excited as it got closer to eight o'clock, and we all had to wait in a corridor behind the stage. The teachers had a hard time keeping us quiet! The play went really well and lots of the nuns there told us that they thought we were really good! Everyone had a really good day and really enjoyed it :)

Mini Company

Last Monday we went to the County final of our Mini Company competition in the Osprey hotel in Naas. Four of the nine mini company groups from our school got through; Knot a Problem, Spoover, The Just Desserts and Baby Cakes. The rest of the groups went to a competition in the Red Cow. We left the school at half ten and arrived at the Osprey with plenty of time to set up our stand. Rosette dressed up as a baby for the day to promote our group and she looked really cute! When we had everything set up we had a chance to look at the other mini companies that were there from other schools. The judging started after lunch and lasted for two hours. Three judges went around to every group and asked us questions about our mini company. They asked us what we learned, about any problems we encountered, where we got our idea and how we raised money. I was really nervous before the judging but everything went really well and the judges were really nice. The awards ceremony took place after every group had been judged. Our group didn't win any prizes but both Knot a Problem and The Just Desserts got a prize. The winning company was set up by a girl on her own and it was stickers for the sole of your high heels to make them look like designer shoes. I was a little disappointed that our group didn't win anything but I had a really good time at the competition anyway :)

Work Experience

For my second week of work experience i went to The Purple Penguin Creche and Montassori in Oldtown Mill. I really enjoyed the week and didn't want to leave when it was over! The Creche is divided into different rooms and the children are put into each room depending on their age. There are two baby rooms for babies under two, the wobbler room is for chldren between two and three, the toddler room is for three year olds and the Montassori is for children aged four and up. There is also an after school room to look after children up to ten years old. Both of the baby rooms have sleeping rooms next door where the babies sleep during the day, and there is also a kitchen where the cook Peggy cooks meals for the children. At the back of the Creche there is a huge playground. The creche is really well organised and the parents of the children are given sheets at the end of everyday describing what the child ate, how long he slept for, when their nappy was changed and and other things that happened during the day.

Each day I was in a different room, on Monday i was in the baby room and the wobbler room, on Tuesday I spent the day with the toddlers, on Wednesday I went back to the wobbler room, on Thursday I was with the babies again and on Friday I was with the wobblers and the toddlers. I didn't get a chance to go to the Montassori because there was three girls on college work experience up there. I learned a lot while on work experience, like that working with so many young children is really really hard and how to properly look after children. I really really enjoyed this week but I don't think that I would like to work in a creche as big as the Purple Penguin. Its extremely stressfull with all the little kids!