Fighting Words Workshop
On Monday morning Ms. Dunphy's fourth class had the opportunity to work with Pierina Campbell from fighting words. During this writing workshop, the children wrote a story that was based 100 years ago and dated back to 1922. The children in fourth class are big animal lovers so it was no surprise that one of the main characters was a bernese mountain dog named Oreo. The children worked through each step involved in the writing process and produced an amazing piece of writing. The story is currently being edited and an ebook will follow in the coming weeks so stay tuned!!
Alan Nolan, illustrator
Ms O'Brien's and Mr Gavin's classes had the opportunity on Tuesday morning to work with Bray based author and illustrator Alan Nolan. Alan has written and illustrated many books and comics for children and most recently illustrated a series of books for retired rugby player Gordan D'arcy. Alan spoke about the inspiration behind many of his books, his Grandmother, who used to sit for hours and tell funny stories. He walked the pupils through how to draw various cartoon characters, chickens and monsters. The pictures turned out amazing!!
Sheena Dempsey, illustrator
Fifth and sixth classes had a wonderful opportunity to meet Sheena Dempsey on Tuesday morning, a well-known and multi-award winning children's book illustrator. Sheena has illustrated books for the likes of Niall Breslin and Fearne Cotton in the UK, and a number of paperback series such as Mermaid School and Bad Panda. Sheena hosted a zoom workshop with all the children of fifth and sixth class collecting ideas from them. Together they created a hilarious story about a panda who worked for Domino's pizza with a serious pizza addiction and a panda who travelled via yacht to the Oscars.. The children learned about the process of story writing combined with illustration and got to meet Sheena's dog Jeremy too.
Paired Reading
The senior classes had the opportunity to partake in shared reading with the junior classes this week. The children both read stories to each other, chatting about the characters and the illustrations in the stories read. It was wonderful for the children to have the opportunity to partake in shared reading once again and judging from the smiles on everyone’s faces it’s definitely something to be repeated!
Benji Bennett
Last Thursday the children from junior infants to second class were very fortunate to be joined by award winning author Benji Bennett. Benji has published ten books to date and they are all written in honour of his late son Adam. Benji spent time talking about the ideas for his stories, how important it is to always go to bed each night with a smile on your face and read his latest book for us “Adam saves the seasons” This book sees Adam encouraging his friends to brave the elements and the seasons and conquer Mt.Everest in the process!! Benji finished the session with a song and spent time afterwards signing books for the children.
Puppet Show
We were delighted to welcome Moon and Sixpence back to our school. We had a wonderful time watching the puppet shows.
JI-2nd - The junior classes were treated to a performance of “Jacqueline and the beanstalk” a re-telling of the classic story that upends the gender stereotyping of traditional fairy tales. The show dealt with the issue of bullying, showing how it is possible to overcome bullying with the help of friends, and enabling bullies to realise that it is never too late to change their ways and make amends.
The senior classes were treated to a production of “Send in the clowns” It followed two clowns who attempted to stop a greedy developer from trying to close the circus. Despite the best intentions of the clowning duo, the developer’s plans are foiled only with the help of everyone in the circus. The show underlines the importance of teamwork and persistence which are some of the many traits we work to instil in all the children here in our school.
Book character dress up day
On Friday the children had the opportunity to dress up as characters from their favourite books and films. There were many children from Hogwarts flying around the school trying their best to cast spells on the teachers along with some royalty in the form of the Queen of hearts and princess Jasmine. All the children made such a big effort all the way up to sixth class and it was a very enjoyable day for all.
