Happy Friday the 13th. It’s been a busy week but a great one. In line with our new admission policy we have been contacting the newest additions to the RMDS family about places for September 2021 and if that wasn’t enough to keep us busy we have had our first half of the Parent Teacher meetings. This is always an important time of year and I am very grateful that the technology didn’t let us down and they have gone relatively smoothly. In one case a parent who had forgotten their meeting time enquired by email to realise that it was in four minutes and was still able to attend. That was a positive aspect to Zoom meetings. I have chatted to a few parents to get their feedback but if you do have any comments I’d love to hear them. I’m also very grateful to hear all the positive feedback about the newsletter and how it is allowing you all a greater insight into what is happening in the classrooms. We’d love to show you all around the actual classrooms, we miss seeing you being shown all the different things that the children are proud of. In the meantime we will continue to use the newsletter to give you a taste of what is happening, it is extra work but we think you’re worth it. Myself and the PA are working on another way of letting you see the work in the classroom which could be amazing. For now I’ll say nothing - watch this space…
Rang 2 and Rang 5 have their meetings next Tuesday and Wednesday
Senior Infants and Rang 4 have their meetings next Thursday and Friday
You should already have received an email about your meeting. If you haven’t please open the ‘Aladdin Connect’ app and select a time to suit you. If you are having any issues please contact the teacher directly and they can assign you a time manually. You will receive login details for your meeting the day before your meeting if not before.
Last week I mentioned how blown away we were with your generosity in fundraising for the Halloween raffle, raising almost €2000 and I am trying to write something similar without repeating myself. The Readathon has so far raised almost €3500! Well done everyone. Some forms are continuing to trickle in this week so I don’t have a final figure. If you still have a form please send it in or you can also donate the amount raised online on the very successful www.rmdsevents.com website.
Huge congratulations to the PA for organising it, to you the parents for supporting it and to the children, who will be the ultimate beneficiaries for all of your reading. Thank you.
Thank you also to the Student Council, their drive to make yard better for everyone has been very successful. All the classes are really appreciating the extra play equipment at yard time. The teachers are very happy too. Although one absence mid week in conjunction with the extra workload of the parent teacher meetings highlighted to me once again just how far we have stretched our teachers. That they do it all while smiling is a testament to their character. Thank you, to you the parents for acknowledging this in the meetings so far.
It was science week this week in school and there has been a lot of work going on in all the classrooms. While they weren’t made this week I have really enjoyed watching the production of the explanation videos from Rang a Sé.
How to make a magnet How a volcano works How speakers work
How conductors and insulators work How magnets work
How a 3D printer works How a record player works
The finished products are great. I think I know where to look for help in putting any future videos together. Enjoy.
A misplaced email meant that I overlooked our green news last week. Thanks to those of you who noticed and reminded me. If it happens again it won’t be my fault. ;-)
Don’t forget to get all the way to the bottom for the Lost Property section.
Have a lovely weekend,
Paul
The green school committee are working on several different initiatives and thanks to Anne McCullagh and Therese Curran for steering it. They have been very focused on recycling the past few weeks and it is making a big difference to the lack of contaminants in our green bins. While the children are very involved in all our green initiatives in the classroom we are looking into ways of getting the children involved at the committee stage.
Roland Ramsden and Andrea Scot are our parent representatives and as well as working with the in school committee they are also working on the e-news section of the newsletter which follows:
Saving Water-Part 2
Approximately 1% of domestic metered customers use 25% of metered water consumption. This is due to some households having leaks but excessive use also plays a role.
By conserving water at home we save twice. Firstly by reducing the amount of water that has to be collected, treated and pumped to your home. And secondly by reducing the amount of wastewater that has to be treated.
Dual-Flush Toilets are specifically designed to save water and are now commonplace. However, the mechanism has a tendency to not seal correctly, creating a small but constant flow.
Research is showing that approximately 5% of Dual-Flush Toilets are leaking up to 400 litres a day. So please routinely check for this and/or get your plumber to check.
Showers are preferable to baths in relation to conserving water. But a rain-head shower coupled with a pump can use nearly as much. Putting up a wall clock in your bathroom in sight of the shower can help reduce shower times. You can even get special waterproof shower clocks/timers for in the shower itself. The added benefit is that it reduces queues for the bathroom!
Try to make sure the dishwasher is full before using. Use your Eco setting. The spray arms should move freely and not have anything stuck in the nozzles. Make sure your filters are clean and that the salt levels are adequate.
Again, use the Eco setting and try to make sure that the machine is full. In fact, loading only a few items means that they won't wash properly. Clothes are cleaned by rubbing off each other. But don’t overfill, you should be able to get a hand-width (8cm or 3 inches) between the top of the pile of clothes and the top of the drum.
For further information, Irish Water has produced a documentary: 'The Story of Water' https://www.water.ie/storyofwater/
RMDS Childcare
Places Now Available
Enquire by email
childcare@rmds.ie
This week was very eventful in R6.
We started the week off by finding out the greatly exciting news that we are getting our BUDDIES!!! As part of our homework we were instructed to make a video for our buddies explaining who we are and how excited we are to meet them. In a few weeks we will be receiving videos back from them.
Also, due to the parent teacher meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday we had different teachers. On Tuesday we had Ms Brennan and on Wednesday we had our greatly missed Ms Ryan.
For our P.E. this week we had rugby. Although Ken, our instructor, was unable to come, we had Ms Grennan and Ms Brennan to take his place.
Also we were working on a new topic in maths, number theory. Which includes, prime and composite numbers, the square root and factors. In English we started a project on the Maya.
We had a great week and are looking forward to our break at the weekend.
By Susannah and Hazel
In this thrilling week we had so much fun in Rang a Cúig! Last Friday we made foxes and other animals out of leaves with paper, scissors, glue and our imaginations!
We started this week by doing fractions in Maths. We learned about Diwali and Holi stories in Core Curriculum; these are festivals in the Hindu religion. We traced our hands onto paper and did masterful henna designs. The Art was extremely enjoyable for the entire class and helped us to learn.
On Tuesday we practiced our Diwali drama and it was so much fun! The next day we performed our short dramas for the whole class and Ms Brennan.
We learned about procedural writing and practiced by writing recipes which we all made up, like Chubby Chilli, Super Hero Sandwich and Crazy Cakes.
We were so happy that we got equipment to play with during the big break now. Break is more fun than ever now as we have tennis balls,a rugby ball, a football, skipping ropes and hoops.
For many of us the week just flew by!
By Limor and Rowan
We got our hands dirty making clay pottery in art class. Some people did coil pots, others added interesting textures. They are inspired by Ancient Greek pots. We learned about magnetism in science class. We found out that some magnets are stronger than others and natural magnets are called lodestones.
We did a lesson on tag rugby in PE, we especially liked the "Bull Dog" game.
We wrote stories in English class, focusing on narrative structure.
We worked on our growth mindsets and did lessons on Éadaí as Gaeilge - Cén éadaí atá ort? We started multiplication this week in maths. We got equipment, such as balls and hoops, to use during yard time.
by Cleo and Katherine
This week we learned about the Mayan people. We learned that they wore masks to celebrations and they also put masks on their sacrifices and people who died.
While learning about this we decided to make our own masks.
In forest school we made nature art we made things like necklaces, bug hotels and much more. The Wednesday group put up the tarp due to rain and lucky us because Caroline
made the hot chocolate with milk instead of water.
We had our parent teacher meetings. So on Thursday Ms Dillon taught us and on Friday Ms Ryan taught us.
It is science week.and on News 2 day they asked us if you were able to invent anything, what it would be and why. Some of us drew our inventions and some of us talked about them to our partners. We have lots of science experiments planned for next week so it will be Science Week in 3rd class next week!
We integrated a lot of scientific activities into our work this week as it was science week.
We planted bluebell bulbs over in Linear Park.
We built castles using recycled items . They are truly awesome!
We took soil samples in linear park and conducted an experiment to see the different layers of soil.
In Gaeilge we are still learning about Bia and we learned a song called Mac Uí Gugaí.
For homework we integrated procedural writing and science by writing a family recipe and making the cake itself, which involved lots of measuring and mixing.
It was also a lovely week of celebration for the festival of Diwali. We made the most beautiful display of Rangoli patterns.
This week we have been very busy in R1 learning lots of new things for Science Week. The children investigated how different slopes affect the speed of a toy car and all about how friction impacted the speed too. We looked at lots of different materials to see which ones had the highest and lowest levels of friction and tested them on our very own ramp.
Fay was this week's classroom correspondent. This week we did skipping for P.E. because Simon from Ranelagh Gaels, was sick. We learned about different types of houses and we were learning about the artist Henry Matisse.
We had lots of fun in Senior Infants this week. We finally got to plant our Bluebells in Linear park and it was very exciting. We also got to play altogether in the park and we really enjoyed it. We are still really enjoying Aistear and playing in the Doctor's surgery, even if there have been a few cases of Coronavirus diagnosed!
We have also been learning about space this week and the moon landing, one group even made a straw space suit during Aistear! :)
We have displayed our owl baby pictures on the window. We hope you like them. We learnt about the festival of Diwali this week and drew pictures from the story. We are starting homework next and we are very excited. Ms Ryan and Ms Curran taught us this week because Ms Farley was on a secret mission! No not really she was telling our parents how much we are learning and how hard we are working in Junior Infants. Our song this week was the Hokey Cokey. It was great fun. In Gaeilge we have been learning all about Bia (food) and talking about our lunches.
