Over the last few months the middle room have learned all about the season of spring. The kids are aware that this is a season of new life each year. New grass, new flowers and trees coming alive with the leaves turning green once again. We have gained lots of information on the life cycle of the frog and butterfly, creating some beautiful art to accompany this.

Some very exciting news is that we have adopted some caterpillars. We will look after these very well until they become beautiful butterflies. When they are strong enough they will head off to enjoy all that spring and summer have to offer. We’ll keep you all posted, but for now here is a little snippet of some of our spring art and our new caterpillars.

“A friend is one of the nicest things you can have, and one of the best things you can be.” – Douglas Pagels

Over the last few weeks the middle room have learned a lot about the importance of friendship. For friendship week we had our secret friend project, where each child picked a name of another child in our class from the hat. Over that week they were to be extra kind to this person without them realising. At the end of the week each child shared some lovely facts they may have already known or even learned about their secret friend that week. This week we have concentrated a little more on the importance of friendship. The class were divided into groups to create a poem based on our topic. I think the results are fantastic and I’m sure you will all agree.

Following all our hard work we went outside to enjoy some of the lovely sunshine today.

The middle room went on their school tour today. We went to the Museum of Country Life in Turlough. The children were split into two groups and took part in two activities. First we got a tour of the Museum, learning all about life in the past. We saw lots of old objects and tools from life in rural Ireland years ago. We even got to try on some clothes from the past which was great fun!

We enjoyed lunch in Brambles Café.

After lunch, we had a ceramic painting workshop. We learned that cups and plates are made from clay, dried in a kiln, decorated with special paint and then glazed in order to make them shiny. We designed and decorated our very own ceramic plate with special ink. We really enjoyed this workshop!

We had a great day!

On the first of February we made St. Brigid’s crosses. They were made with rushes. Every class got a turn making them.

Saint Brigid was named after a goddess. She was born in Dundalk. She died in Kildare. Her feast day is on the first of February. Her name in Irish is Naomh Bríd. Her saint names are St. Brigid of Ireland or St. Brigid of Kildare. She is one of Ireland’s patron saints along with St. Patrick and St. Columba. She helped a lot of people and animals. She was very kind and loving. There are many stories of St. Brigid. Here is one of them.

One day while Brigid was cooking steak for dinner a hungry dog came by and smelled the food. He went to where Brigid was cooking. She gave him a steak even though she knew her father would be mad at her. The dog left and Brigid prayed that her father wouldn’t be angry. She looked in the pot and a new steak had appeared. God was helping her because she helped the dog.

The middle room got into the Christmas spirit last week and we were very creative! We enjoyed making our elves and writing about them. It was great fun! Santa has lots of Elves this year! Happy Christmas from the middle room!