I'm sure all parents have had the problem of asking their child what they are learning about in school, only to get a blank face back from their child, and a vague... 'I don't know...'!
This display just inside our classroom door is designed to help the children reflect on the topics and themes that we are focusing on in a given month, and to add those topics to the board as they arise.

Yesterday, our class had the opportunity to visit the Gurdwara. We were welcomed by Satwinder, who showed us the prayer room and langar, and told us all about the history of Sikhism and how Sikhs practise their faith today.
The Guru Granth Sahib is the Sikh sacred text. It is treated just as the actual gurus of the faith were treated - it even has a 'bed' that it retires to at night!
Satwinder read a chant from the Guru Grath Sahib for us and told us that it contains the answers to any prayer a Sikh person may have.
Sikhs feel that it is very important to be welcoming of visitors, and they always offer food and drink to visitors. In the langar, we were welcomed with a choice of food and drinks.
We all had a lovely time and were grateful to have an authentic experience in the Gurdwara.

The second experiment we did around the topic of magnetism was to try to make our own electromagnet. This involved using a battery and a length of wire to create an electrical current, and wrapping the wire around a nail to magnetise it.
We found it challenging, but all groups eventually managed to pick up varying amounts of paperclips with the magnets. We all observed the heat that was created by the electrical current, as we held the wires to the ends of the battery!

This month, when we were beginning our module on Ancient Greece, rather than doing our initial research online; as we had last month; we did it the old-fashioned way!
Our partnership with the Mobile Library service in South Dublin libraries is coming in very handy this year, as they are happy to provide boxes of books each month that are specifically tailored to the learning we have planned for that period! Between the books they provided and the ones provided for in our own classroom library, we had enough books about Ancient Greece that each child had their own reference book to consult. 

Now we're working on sculpting and painting our own Greek busts. Watch out for an update with our completed pieces!

This month, we have been learning about magnets. We have discussed magnetic fields and last week, we performed an experiment to try to see the magnetic field for ourselves. We sprinkled iron filings onto a page, that was laid over a magnet.
We had mixed results - the pictures below show some of the examples that displayed the magnetic field most clearly.

During September, we spent a lot of time talking about classifying animals, and understanding the categories that scientists typically separate animals into. 
Finally, we did some exploring of our own; studying a selection of creatures. The fish got the most attention, with some children really enjoying getting their hands in and exploring the gills, teeth, and innards! But the adventurous ants, with their attempts to escape their viewing box!, and the spider came a close second!
​Afterwards we noted our observations in our science notebooks.

One of our first acts as Fifth Classers was to help Aoife in the set-up of the ICT Suite. Aoife had just taken delivery of 30 brand new chromebooks, and we got to be the ones to unbox them and take them for a test drive!

We were delighted today, when Anita arrived at our classroom door with some helpers - delivering a whole new batch of books for our classroom library!

In history we have been learning about the Bronze Age. We learnt how they  smelted copper and tin and discovered a new stronger metal called bronze. We also learned that they made clay pots called Beakers. We made our own Beaker Pots with clay, we decorated them in a bronze age style, painted them and glossed them. Check out our pictures below.

We visited the Citywest Hotel last week. We spent time at the golf club practicing putting indoors and outdoors on the putting green. We also got the chance to  drive the golf ball through hoops. We learned about the golf course from Johnathan and we watched golfers play the 18th hole. After golf we visited one of the hotels restaurants where we enjoyed juice and a treat. It was a lovely afternoon. We really enjoyed our  visit and  we are invited back from more golf in June!

In science and geography we have been learning about bridges. We researched different types of bridges and looked at famous bridges from around the world. As part of our home learning we designed our own suspension bridges.
We then co-operated in groups to build bridges based on our designs. See pictures below of us working together and the finished products. We were are all very proud that every bridge we made was able to hold weight!

Co-operating together to build our bridges.