Lots and Lots of Great News this week...

Here's this week's news. Hope I'm not missing too much!

Firstly, thanks to those parents who've been able to come in this week to discuss their child's English and Maths results. You're making a hugely positive influence on your child's learning. As you all know, YOU are the most important teachers in your children's lives, and I know that this class is blessed with such supportive, caring, and encouraging parents.

Secondly, we were all delighted to hear that a school in Tallaght picked two of our class's

English and Maths Results

In a couple of weeks I'll be sending out the end-of-year reports to you. But I can tell you now if you want how your child did in detail in Maths and in English (Vocabulary and Reading Comprehension).

It's best if I discuss your child's results with

News for Parents, Links for Kids

I promised the class today to post these two links for them to use.

1. First, www.kinderart.com/textiles/fingerknitting.shtml is the video we watched again and again to learn how to finger-knit. It's a lot of fun. And it gives you a real sense of achievement. A lot of the class brought home some wool to use. Go for it!
2. www.mathletics.ie/ is the amazing maths site, where you can get loads of points and can compete against kids all round the world LIVE! In just two days our class got up to 6th place in the whole of Ireland!! Well done, everyone! (And a special well done to Lee, Jordan, Abbie L, and Megan, who this morning were 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th in the top students in all of Ireland!!)

What else? Well, in English today we compared two great songs, Danny Boy and Johnny Cash's I Hung My Head and the kids really were brilliant in picturing what was going on in both songs. They realised both were about death and about life after death. They loved both and sang both really well.

THE PLAY... We're getting better and better with our rehearsals for the play. I hope you're going to be able to come. We're singing and dancing to two songs--Disney's I Wanna Be Like You and Glee's 'Don't Stop Believing'. And the acting is more realistic every time we do it.

NEWS FLASH ABOUT THE PLAY... I've just heard from the head organiser Ms Wynn that our class is scheduled to go on stage on the THURSDAY night, 23rd June (subject to official confirmation). Letters will go out on Monday.

TALBOT'S TOP TYPER COMPETITION... I hope to find time to have a competition between the classes. The top two from each class will go up against each other. I believe our class will do great... they have been brilliant at improving their ten-finger typing at www.typingweb.com If they want to win, that's a good site to go practice--it's a skill that will help them all their lives.

BASKETBALL BLITZ on Wednesday. Sr Catherine is asking us all to collect what we can for the children she knows living in a really, really poor area of South Africa. It's most important to give from the heart--that's real giving and helps make us better people. It's a good opportunity for the class to not just think of others, but put their Christian belief into action. €2 per sponsor. The money will go to things like getting water, windows, and toilets into the school there. I've just googled and found http://www.salesiansisters.net/ss/index.cfm/latest-news/the-city-of-hope-luskak-zambia/ where you can read about the humbling experience of one Irish volunteer, Michelle Brennan, in 2009.

Enjoy the weekend!

June is Just a Bit Mad!

Time is running out. Soon the kids will be out and about enjoying their summer holidays.

Before that, here's a summary of what we hope to get done in the few days left to us...

All the Kids Have Strengths... These Ones Have Terrific Athletic Strength

In the Sports Day yesterday every kid was amazing. And well done to all the amazing parents and families who came and supported too; wasn't it a fun, relaxed day.

A special well done to the kids who raced so well that they won medals. They had to battle against all the kids in all the third classes. Here's the list of our class medal winners...

What A Sports Day!

Wow! Congratulations to everyone in the class... what a class... I've never known any class to be so together in cheering each other on. When the boys were running the girls were cheering ALL the boys, and when the girls were running the boys were cheering ALL the girls. Great class spirit.

Of course, there were winners, but in this there really were no losers. Because of the class spirit it was like that the kids who did win were winning for everyone.

I'll post the list of those who did get medals, hopefully in the next few days.

I'll also post a schedule for the month of June... it's busy! There's so much great stuff going to be going on that I hope we'll have time for some teaching and learning :)

Take part and pray in Catholic Schools Week, day by day

Remember, this week coming is Catholic Schools Week. Every year we celebrate the great Don John Bosco, the patron saint of the Salesians, on the 31st of January. Sr Catherine has great songs we'll be singing, and we'll be learning how he gave his life to help poor young boys and girls.

His great advice to young people was simple: "Pray when it's time to pray. Study when it's time to study. Play when it's time to play. Show kindness to everyone you meet. But do it all for the love of Jesus."

Here's the schedule for the week:

How to easily and quickly help your child type better

I'm amazed how proud the kids are at their '10-finger' typing. They've already got quite good at the basics, which we practise each week. To help them get better, here's the best website I've found: typingweb.com It has a brilliant 'Beginners Course.' We've just begun using it in the computer room and the kids love it. They get instant feedback on how good they are (accuracy and speed).

Now, it would be GREAT if they