Guinea Pig visitor

Danny's pet guinea pig spent a day with us recently.He was very well behaved!

Visit from a fireman

Fire fighter Mark paid a visit to our classroom today to tell us some of the things about his job. He showed us his helmet which is bright yellow for visibility and has 2 visers for facial protection.

 Sometimes firemen have to break windows to get into houses or buildings where there is fire. In these cases axes are used.

 Halogen axes are bigger , stronger axes which are used where the doors are particularly heavy.

 It took three of us to hold the halogen axe as it was so heavy!

 We tried on the protective fire helmet for size....just a little too big for our small heads!

 Braces are used to stop the trousers from falling as they are quite heavy.

 High visibility stripes make the fireman easy to see when it is dark and smoky.

 When the firemen are called out to road accidents they wear these bright jackets so car drivers spot them easily.

 The BA (breathing apparatus) helps the fireman to breathe easily when there is alot of smoke. They carry the big tanks on their backs.

 The fireman is all kitted out in his fire fighting clothes and ready to go to a fire. It took Mark approximately one minute to put all the gear on.We even timed him.

 We tried on the gloves for size!

 We had a go trying to lift the BA to see how heavy it was.

Old and new: Junior infants

We learned about old and new houses.  The differences between houses long ago and the houses we live in today.  We discussed this picture. We listed the differences we could see. We looked alot of old pictures and talked about what we noticed in them. Working as a historian is great fun.

Some time ago we looked at many things found in houses before we had electricity.
In this picture you can see the kettle hanging over the fire.  Looks like the people liked tea back then. 

This is a house found in the oldest part of Galway, Claddagh.  This was one of the last cottages
to be left in Claddagh.  At the back of the picture you can see the houses that are present in this area today.  We talked about the size of the house, the colour, the thickness of the walls, looked at the roof and also talked about the lady standing in front of the house.

Next week are going to be examing lots of old pictures of this area and Galway City.  We will  work like historians telling stories from the pictures we study.

This is what people used before hot water bottles.

 This is a carpet beater.  This is what people used to use to get the dust off their rugs before vacume cleaners.

This is a pot you would have found hanging over the fire place before people had cookers.  We think that mammy's and daddy's would have fit lots of potatoes in that pot.

 This is how people used to wash their clothes before washing machines.  This is a washboard and basin.  People used to have to work very hard to scrub their clothes clean on the washboard.

   This is an iron people used to use before they had electricity.  It looks very heavy to us.  This iron would be placed directly over heat, perhaps the fire and then used to get the wrinkles out of clothes.

Teacher appreciation week worldwide

Teacher sends a HUGE thank you to a very thoughtful boy.  This morning Sultan informed teacher that it is Teacher appreciation week worldwide and brought a gift for teacher's very sweet tooth.  

Junior Infants prefab 4 would like to say a thank you to all of the hard working teachers in our school.

Ms Conneely would like to say thank you to all the teachers she had during her time in Scoil Chaitríona, some of whom are still here.

Vikings

We collected stones on the beach recently and painted runes on them.We were learning about the Vikings and how they were excellent farmers and tradespeople and craftspeople as well as kidnappers and raiders!