As a participating Creative School with our focus on “Music”,  Junior and Senior Infants went to the Linenhall Arts Centre in Castlebar today to see the musical show, Rockin’Rhymes. This performance is part of the RoolaBoola Festival and was presented by Branar Téatar do Pháistí. Original songs based on the well-loved nursery rhymes will be performed by a live 5-piece band, accompanied by animated illustrations by artist Maeve Clancy and directed by Marc Mac Lochlainn. The children really enjoyed this performance, joining in singing, clapping to the rhymes and wriggle dancing in their seats!

@BioDataCentre  @GreenSchoolsIre

Today we celebrate World Bee Day – 20th May 2019 

Did You Know?

• Irish Bumblebee populations are in decline.
• One third of our 99 bee species are threatened with extinction from Ireland. This is because we have drastically reduced the amount of food (flowers) and safe nesting sites in our landscapes.
• In response this decline and threat of extinction, the National Biodiversity Data Centre coordinated the implementation of the an All Ireland Pollinator Plan( 2015-2020) along with 68 other government and non-government organisations as partners to support the plan.

The All-Ireland Pollinator Plan is about all of us, from farmers to local authorities, to schools, gardeners and businesses, coming together to try to create an Ireland where pollinators can survive and thrive.  Here at Gortskehy, we are committed to playing our part and making our school bee-friendly.

The middle room studied the Junior Pollinator Plan with their teacher, Ms. Thomas. They learnt all about bees and their important role as pollinators.  They also learnt about the life cycle of the bumble bee & what we can do to help our bees survive and thrive.

  

Our school Pollinator & Green School Teams drew maps of the current school grounds.  This was done to identify areas where we can take action to help pollinators. Lots of good ideas that we hope to put into action were noted by our pupils on the walkabout:

• Plant bee-friendly plants in our garden beds.
• Leave narrow strips around our pitch for wildflowers
• Mow our lawn/pitch less frequently – to allow dandelions and clover to grow – food sources for our bees.
• Reduce pesticides – only use it for clearing slippery areas/paths.  Only weed by hand.
• Plant a herb bed – they are an excellent source of food for pollinators.

These maps will be updated to include all the pollinator areas we will develop around our school.  We will monitor and report on bee activity and update our plans annually.

Here are some photos of our pupils planting bee-friendly plants, flowers and herbs in our new Sensory & Biodiversity garden.

   

    

 

 

For more information on what you can do to help the bees – please visit http://pollinators.ie/

@creativeirl @artscouncil_ie  @mus_gen

We were delighted to welcome Zane Kazotniece-Joyce,  a tutor/facilitator working with Music Generation, to our school.  Zane provided a number of workshops on Recycled Music/Wild About Music to pupils in the Junior and Middle rooms.

Within these workshops, the pupils were actively involved in making musical instruments from recycled materials.  They explored sound and rhythms with different musical instruments and natural materials.

As you will see from the photos below, the pupils thoroughly enjoyed these workshops.  Thank you Zane!

As part of our @ActiveFlag initiative we have introduced playground leaders to our yard at break time.

Children from the senior room are taking turns and working as the leaders and play games with each of the younger classes. The leaders had a meeting and they came up with the games and rota.

The children are really enjoying playing yard games such as tag, chocolate chip cookie, stuck in the mud, relays etc. It gives each child an opportunity to get involved in a game and helps to keep break times active and fun!

Junior Infants (2018/19)