Ballet-The Nut Cracker!

This week,we had our Junk Couture fashion show and also 3 workshops and today to end the week,we went to a ballet in Dun Laoghaire!

Half of the ballet was A Christmas Carol and the other half was The Nutcracker.The music and the ballet itself that the dancers could do was amazing!

The ballerinas were all so good and it was my first time to go to a ballet like the one today.This one told a story through dancing with no verbal communication at all,it was new to me to see ballet being performed whilst telling a Christmas story!

It was a good show,and I enjoyed the day today!

Gaisce :)

Three weeks ago,I registered for 'Gaisce'.Gaisce is the president's award in Ireland for young people.

Gaisce is a challenge you set yourself where you do 13 weeks of community involvement,personal skill and physical recreation.At the end of the year when you have done all your activities,we go on a hike as part of the award and when it is completed you recieve a bronze medal if you have completed your challenges.
 
I am in the process of working on these activities and I hope to complete this by next may!I am looking forward to contuine working on my 3 challenges.

Workshops

Yesterday we had 3 development workshops on Self-Help Africa,Trocaire and Concern.
 
The first workshop,Self-Help Africa was about how we can help the third world countries.The man giving the talk told us about 'River Rock' and 'Coke bottles' and how they were made.He also showed us the way tea and kit-kats were made.

The second workshop,Trocaire was based mainly on the  Millenuim Development Goals.We did lots of group work on these goals and it was good as we knew alot already from Religion class.We did work such as seeing which goals were linked with others and looking at peoples situations from 3rd world countries.

Lastly,in the Concern workshop we learnt about what work he did and we also did debating on two topics,social networking and also how the recent budget affect Irish Aid.

I learnt alot from yesterday and my favourite workshop was the last workshop,Concern.

Fashion Show!

Today,we had our fashion show of our Junk Kouture dresses that we have been working on since September.Katie modelled the dress herself,Lisa and I made out of recycable drink materials.We used bottle caps,straws and can tops for our dress.All these materials were collected from local pubs,esates and parties.The song 'Raise your Glass' was played while Katie was walking down the catwalk.

 All the dresses were incredible,there were great ideas and the dresses were made out of all sorts of recycable materials incuding teabags,crisp packets and cd's.Everyone spent so long on their dresses and to see the finishing dress was great.

I really enjoyed the fashion show!

Another week in TY!

Junk Couture:This week on Monday and Tuesday,we finished off working on our shoes and by Tuesday they were complete!We also stuck the remainder of the bottle caps on our skirt.On Friday it was our last day of Junk Couture and we are now fully finished our dress made out of 'drink materials'.I enjoyed making this dress but at the same time I am happy its over but i am really lookinf forward to the fashion show on monday to see everyones finished dress!

Maths:In maths we finished working on Cyrptography and have now started revision for our maths christmas test.

Technology:We found out my group and I got through to the F1 schools compettion :D  we also worked on our clocks and are almost finsihed now!
 
Music:We are stil learning how to play piano and we also sang an Ed Sheeran melody!

Geography:We had a geography quiz on monday and on thrusday we started on the second part of our 'All Around The World Project',our powerpoint presentation!

English:We did revision on how to write a review and also started watching the film 'Enchanted' as it will help us with our fairytale assignments.

This week was once again another busy week in TY and I am really looking forward to next week as our Junk Couture fashion show is on monday,we have workshops on wednesday and on friday we are going to a ballet show 'The NutCracker' it is also getting closer to Christmas,i cannot wait!

Mini Company Workshop

Last friday,30th November,TY's went on our third Mini Company Workshop!For my mini company my group are doing a book of hair styles called 'Hair Couture'.Three girls in my group job was to do the hairstyles and we are putting a book together on 23 hairstyles we hope to have it printing on monday so we can be selling our book for the end of next week(fingers crossed)

When we went to NewBridge for the workshop,we heard lots of groups ideas and they are all really good!The lady from Kildare Enterprise Board who gave us this talk,spoke to us about marketing and for the ideas she heard she told groups how they could improve their product and how to improve their marketing plans and advertising!

We also watched 2 short movies on working as a team and the different characters in a team.

After the workshop,we went for lunch in the shopping centre.It was a good day!

Technology-F1 in schools compettion

This year in technology,we entered a compettion called F1 in schools.This is a compettion where you have to design a racing car and send off a powerpoint on a plan of the car,for example designs of the car,information on aerodynamics,etc,a timeline and advertising!There is 5 in my group and two weeks ago we sent off our plan.

To my suprise,yesterday in technology i heard my group had got through to the compettion!I was delighted to hear this news!We now have to design and test our car and do alot of work on it and then we go to the county final where we race our car.

I am so happy to have got through to the F1 compettion and hopefully,with hard work, we do well in it!
 

Another Week of TY over!

Last week was another busy week in ty of deadlines for projects and more projects being assigned!

Geography:Last Thrusday was the day our 'All Around The World Project' was due we were working on the project for two months and its now completed!Hannah and I went to:Australia,Fiji,Brunei,Liberia,Peru and Morocco.There was alot of work involved in the project but i enjoyed learning more about new countries!


English:In English last week,we were working on our essay due for next week and we were also working on our fairytale.We have to choose any fairytale and change the ending of it.Katie and I chose,'Snow White' and are still working on it,were nearly finished now.


Technology:Last week we worked on our clocks and are coming to an end of making them now!


Home ec/TY Design/Art: Last week we contuined working on our Junk Couture dress in these three subjects,we started making the shoes last week by sticking bits of straws onto them,our dress is coming along nicely and we are approaching the deadline quickly!


Music:Last week in music we heard two performances of girls in the class,and also contiuned learning how to play the piano.

As you can see it was once again a busy,enjoyable week last week!

Mo Thaithí Oibre

Roghnaíonn líon áirithe daltaí in Éirinn tabhairt faoin Idirbhliain.Creideann roinnt daltaí gur deis í an bhliain seo éalú ó chóras na scrúduithe agus úsáid a bhaint as tallainn atá acu a chuirtear faoi chois go minic toisc brú ó scrúduithe stáit.Toisc go mbíonn béim mhór ar thionscnaimh san idirbhlian forbraítear scileanna sóisialta agus idirphearsana agus is cinnte gur scileanna fíorthábhachtacha iad sin.

Bíonn deis ag daltaí freisin táithí oibre a dhéanamh agus is mór an buntáiste seo do chuid mhaith scoláirí.

Fuair mé mo thaithí oibre i Scoil Na Mainistreach i mbunscoil i gCill Droichid.Tosaíonn mé mo phost ar naoi a chlog agus críochann mé ar trí a chlog.

Cabhraíonn mé leis na daltaí ag déanamh ealáiné,obair scoile agus láscanna eile.Cabhraíonn mé na múinteoirí freisin.Mar shampla,nuair ata na daltaí ag déanamh ealaine,cuirim na dathanna ar an mbord,déan mé fótachoipeáil agus comhdú freisin.Bíonn mé ag dul o rang go rang agus cuireann mé na notaí ar an mbord.

Is breá liom mo thaithí oibre agus ag obair leis na daltái agus ba mhaith liom a bheith i mo mhúinteoir sa todhchaí.

Garda Work experience!

Two weeks ago,I took the week off school to do a week of work experience in a Guarda Station.As this placement do not do the one day a week work experience and I was really looking forward to doing one of my placements in a guarda station,luckily I could take the week off to do it as it was a once off opportunity.The week was jampacked with lots of fun activities,it was great!

On Monday 5th of November,I started off my week in work experience.Two other girls from Wolstans were also doing work experience in the guarda station and 15 other ty students from different schools in leixlip,maynooth,etc.We went to the guarda college in Templemore,Tipperary.When we arrived in the college after a two hour bus drive we had lunch in the canteen where guards traning in the college eat.We then has a tour of the college,where we saw a sample court room,gyms,a small guards museum and lots more!We were also told about guards traning eg.daily schedule,how many years of training guards have etc.

On Tuesday,we went into town to the Central Criminal Court.We saw many interesting court cases from robberys to murders.The case we mainly stayed in was a shooting case which I believe is still going on.It was a very interesting day to see the way courts were ran and what it is like in a case.This was my favourite part of the week!

Wednesday we spent the day in town again where we went to Phoenix Park near the President's house where we saw the mounted unit where they guards horses were.We then went to a unit in town where all the 999 phone calls are answered from.I also learnt that here all the CCTV cameras from different places in the city centre are shown and you can see cars around town and people walking!I defintley learnt something from there!

On Thrusday,we had a half day and stayed in the Garda Station where we were given a talk from a detective and also from a man from the armed unit where we showed us many weapons and also his car that was full of weapons from pepper spray to guns.
Friday we went to Naas to the HQ of the guarda station in a few places around Kildare where were given a talk about drugs,traffic,court and just of being a guard in general!

The week really changed by insight of the guarda job.It is such a great job,there is so much involved in becoming a guard and you do something different nearly every day and I am now considering it as a possible career in the future after the week!I thoroughly enjoyed this week,I loved it so much I wish i could do it all over again!I learnt alot about being a guard and also met some amazing people and friends,the other ty students from different schools nearby and also the guards!The guards were so nice and we had great fun with them but they also did their job as a guard making sure we were all at our best behaviour!

I am so grateful I had the opportunity of doing this week of work experience,thanks to all the guards who made the week great and also to Mr C and Ms L for letting me take part in this week!

The Simon Community.

Yesterday,Thrusday, ty's gathered in the library for a talk on homelessness and the Simon Community.Before the talk I was'nt sure what this talk would be about;what homlessness was?if we should donate money?After this talk,by question was answered!It was very interesting and was all about the Simon Community and about a side of homlessness i was'nt aware of before yesterday

 There are houses spread out in a number of counties in Ireland just for homeless people to go when they have nowhere to sleep for the night.But not only that,alot of activities take place in these houses.
   Ms O' S told us about when she worked during the summer in a house for homeless people and she did art with the people staying there.There were lots of pictures of paintings she showed us and they were amazing!The colours,designs everything was great about the art work!


  I learnt that there are so many volunteers who work with homeless people in the houses doing activities with them and lots more.Also,homelessness can be struck on anyone from jsut making a couple of mistakes and they may have had a great job before this.

It was a very interesting and thanks to Ms O' S for giving us the talk.
  

Term two!

Hi again,I havent blogged in a while and now its already the second term.Another week is almost over and once again it has been a busy week.

In Geography we are still working on our 'All Around The World' Project.Hannah and I are visting 6 countries,2 developing,2 developed and 2 under developed.We have started our scrapbook and it is coming along well :)

In Technology,we are doing a F1 school project where myself and 6 others have to make a design of a car and make a plan of it and if our plan is chosen a college make the car we have designed and it goes in for a compettion.

In Irish,we have finished our presentations on ourselves and are nearly half way through presenting them to the class.

Our Junk Couture project is also coming along well and we should be finished in the next 2 weeks!

Talk about Cycling :)

                             

Another week of TY has quickly flown by!This week was Maths week in school and as I mentioned in my last class about the Maths poster we completed it on Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and it is now sticking up on a wall around the school!

On Friday,we had a talk on cycling by a man from the Kildare County Council!He spoke to us about the advantages of cycling,why people don't cycle and lots more!He was encouraging us to cycle more.After the talk I felt I learnt alot more about cycling!The County Council are giving away 4 bike to 4 ty Students and are setting them the challenge of cycling around Celbridge!It sounds like a great challenge and thanks very much for the man who spoke to us about cycling and also for the County Council for giving four ty students the opportunity to win a bike!

It was intersting talk and my opnion on cycling has changed a little bit after it! :)

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Another week of TY over!



 
Another week of TY is over and it was a significant one as it was Mental Health Week.It was a great week full of working on proects and being assigned more projects!

To start off the week,it was buzztastic to hear us bees in Cinealtas had won the Fun Walk for TY this year,well done to the other classes too,they were great!

I have been working on my Irish,History,Mini Company and Geography projects this week and also Junk Couture.My group and I have been working this week once again on our dress for Junk Couture and I have to say it was is coming along nicely and it is great to see an imporvement and more of it done each week!I am really enjoying working on it :)

In Maths we have been assigned a project as it is Maths Week next week on a poster of mathematician or a topic in maths!Kate and I are doing our poster on a mathematician by the name of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz(funny name I know).He is a German mathematician who came up with improvemtesfor the calcultor after it was made!

In Religion we finished working on our Millenuim Development Goals project and each group ion my class presented their goal on powerpoint.My group and I did Goal 7:Ensure Environmental Sustainability and presented it on powerpoint also.I now know more on each goal and we have now moved on to learning about poverty!

In Spanish this week we finished watching the movie 'El Bola' which is a movie about child abuse but is also a movie about a great friendship between two teenage boys.Although this film was sad,I really enjoyed it!

This Wednesday was also my 3rd Wednesday of work experience in Scoil Na Mainisteach primary school and it is great so far,I am really enjoying it!I can't wait for next week.
As you can see this week in TY was a busy one like every week with work experience and working on more projects!I really am loving TY so far :) 

   

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This is an image from the Spanish film 'El Bola' ( The Pellet)

 

 

Busy Bees for the day...

As I wrote in my previous blog about the fun walk,the day came on Friday where it was the day for the walk.Luckily the weather was good and the walk went ahead.
My class Cinealtas and I all were dressed as bees for our dance as as I wrote before TY's colour was yellow!We were all dressed up with our yellow clothes and even some wings and a bee sting for the day!We did the songs 'Imma be' and 'Here comes the sun' for our dance and fourtunately it all went well.



After watching all the exciting dances from the different year groups I have to say they were all great and consisted of some brillant ideas!Some teachers took part in the dances too which made them even better!I forgot to mention on my last post there is a winner from each year for their dance so fingers crossed my class will maybe be considered!


Following all the dances the walk began where the school set off through a housing estate and back up to the school again!After the walk the school went back to the courtyard for a drink and some music and it was soon another Fun Walk finished until another year!
I have to say it was one of my favourtie fun walks and well done to all the classes,their dances were very good!I really enjoyed the day and am looking forward to next year already!

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Fun Walk!

As a big part of the school year every year we have an annual 'Fun Walk'.Each year this walk takes place at the end of Septemeber/start of October.It takes place on 'Friendship week' every year.
Each year group is assigned a different colour every year and TY's are yellow this year.Every year dresses up in their colour and performs a song and dance that ties in with their colour and friendship.The school then go on a walk all dressed in different colours.

After the walk,the school go back to the Courtyard for some fun!We have our dance and song all planned out and it is taking place tomorrow!I am looking forward to the Fun Walk!

Projects,Projects and MORE projects!

Projects are a big part of TY and as I have written in my blogs before we have been assigned lots of projects already!We are working on many projects at thhe moment such as Junk Couture where we are making a dress out of recycable materials,Scifest in science where we are carrying out an experiement and also powerpoints in English and Irish!

Recently we have been assigned a history project where we have to write an essay and do a powerpoint/poster in groups of threes on a history topic of our choice!
Mini Company is also going well and my group and I have our idea and are going to start working on it asap!

As you can see we have been assigned lots of projects and have started working on many of them!There all going great so far and I can't wait to see what they are like at the end!:)

On the road to being Entrepreneurs!

After a fun filled week of TY jampacked with activities such as Carlingford and our Social Development Day,on Friday we headed to Naas for a Mini Company Workshop.

Orla who is part of the Kildare Enterprise Board gave St.Wolstans aswell as 3 other schools from Kildare a teriffic talk on Mini Company and what its all about and how to start off our project.

After Orla's workshop I was very excited to start our Mini Company and my group and I have an idea to start working on so already we are on the road to becoming Entrepreneurs ;) (lets hope we do well with our idea to win the brillant prize)I am looking forward to begin working on our Mini Company project now!

After leaving Naas Cinema we headed back on to the bus and took a trip to Lidl where 82 TY's bombarded into Lidl to buy food!(im sure the workers in the shop got a shock)
When we arrived back to school we had lunch and then Junk Couture which is going very well and ended the day nicely!

The Mini Company trip really ended a fantastic week nicely!

 

Junk Kouture :)

As one of our TY projects we have been assigned a project called 'Junk Couture' which we are working at in Home ec,Art and TY Design.

The aim of this project is to make a dress out of recycable materials.Each group has picked a theme and they make a dress out of the materials associated with the theme.
The theme my group is working on is Drink and I am really enjoying working on the project.We have collected lots of recycable materials that are linked with Drink and are half way through making the dress.

After each group has made their dress we have a fashion show in the school and then each dress is entered into a compettion.The person who wins the best dress in Ireland wins alot of money so we are working very hard to try and win this prize ;)
I am enjoying making this dress so far and cannot wait to see what it looks like when its finished!

The TY adventure contiunes..

Now that were on our 4th week of TY and have got our JC results and got to know our new classes, I have well settled in and am loving the expereince already.The trip to Carlingford was brillant and for sure one to remember!

Today,Wednesday after Carlingford we contuined on our social develpoment workshops.Firstly we had Life without Limits again and we learned more about each of our personalitys,played games and learned how to be positive!

In Positivie Parties,we danced,learned how to use good body language and we learned to always be positive and confident :) We learned even more about the other girls in our class with these two work shops :)

Lastly we had a workshop on work experience and were told what way to act towards our employers in our workplace,why we do work experience,to be respectful with the clothes we wear and they way we act and lots more about work experience as we begin our first placement next Wednesday.I can't wait for it it should be a great experience!
Thanks very much to Austin,Denise and Ms H. for these workshops.
We are still working on projects such as Junk Couture and projects in Irish,English and other subjects and they are all going well!Im having great fun in TY!

Carlingford-A trip of a lifetime...

Bright and early on Monday morning,all TY's were up and ready to go on their bonding trip to Carlingford Adventure Centre.Sleepy faces arrived at the esso garage in to get the bus to Carlingford where we were all packed and set to go on our adventure to Carlingford for the night.I was so excited and couldnt wait for the trip ahead.

We all arrived in Carlingford,met the kind,enthuasitic leaders,were assigned rooms and then our activities began.

My groups first activity was Kayaking!I really enjoyed kawaking but I won't be a proffesional kayaker in the future to say the least!When we reached the tunnel in the sea we all saw through a tunnel and up to a waterfall where we put our head under the waterfall for 10 seconds!It is believed that we will live a day longer after doing this!Next to warm our freezing bodies up we played some games and then pier jumped which was for sure one of my favourtie parts of Carlingford!
After pier jumping we headed back to the centre where we had lunch and then set off to do zorbing and high ropes!

We firstly did high ropes where you climbed up a ladder and pole and then to a pizza box sized square where four girls had to fit onto!I made my way up no bother and suddenly froze half way up the air where i realized i had to fit onto this pizza box!Thanks to Abbie's bravery and help as she was already standing on the box she encouraged me and I got up there!2 other girls followed and we all had to stand on one corner of the square and make a starfish shape.After a while we built up the courage to part from our hug and make the shape, it was the funniest looking starfish shape ive ever seen!I was so glad I did the high ropes it sure was scary up there in the air but was worth it!
After the high ropes we went zorbing which was also great fun!

That evening after the fun-filled activities we had our dinner and then we set off walking up a hill to the forest where we had the 'night line' this was when we were all blindfolded and had to walk through a forest holding on to each others shoulders walking in a line where we overcame obstacles such as trees and insturctors pouring water down our backs and frightening us!It was hilarious and great fun!

We had free time where we went to the local village and got a take away,went back to the centre and were lying in our beds for half 11!

The next day we woke up bright and early,packed had breakfast and had the team challenges and laser where we had to walk up that hill one more time to the forest!Laserwas great fun being dressed up in army suits and shooting our oppositions!We then went back to the centre one last time and it was time to go home :( Sad faces went onto the bus where we made our way back to Esso garage!

All the activites built up team building and trust as we had to rely on each other!It also was a great way of getting to know people better!:)The leaders were amazing,they were all lovely and enthuastic and thank you to them for helping us in the great activities!
I really enjoyed all of the activites throughout the 2 days,they were all brillant :) Even though the weather was against us at times,the trip was still fantastic and I can honestly say they were two of the best days of my life with all the TY's in Carlingford.
It was such great fun to be with all the year group doing such fun activities.Memories of Carlingford will stay with me forever :)
Thanks so much to Ms. L for organising the trip and for Mr. K,Ms. B and Ms. L for accompanying us on the trip. :)

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=RiSQ_fpbsTc - our song in Carlingford ;)

Fantastic first week in TY!

Hey everyone,and welcome to my TY blog :) This is my first week of TY and its going great so far,im loving it :) On the first day I was so excited to start TY  and so glad I had the opportunity to do TY,as I had heard so many great things about it and couldnt wait for the year ahead!I was also a bit nervous and many questions were running through my head including,who would be in my class?what teachers i would have? and what the first week of TY would be like!

 To start off our TY year,yesterday we had a social development day and it was great fun :D The day started off with Austins 'Life Without Limits'. This was 2 hours of learning about ourselves and others in our class.We also did lots of group work to build our team skills.I really enjoyed that group :)
 Secondly we had a group with Denise called 'Positive Parties' this was such fun from dancing to the cha cha slide to learning how to be postive and playing a game with underwear!(dont worry they were new underwear!)Positive parties was my favourite of the day :)

 For the last session of the day we had 2 women teaching us all about how to act like ladies and personal hygiene.We had to participate in group work and also walk with a book on our heads!Thanks very much to Ms L and the school for organising the Social Development Day :)

As you can see it was a day filled with lots of fun things to do,we had lots of group work and i already feel my teamwork skills are improving!I had a great time and cant wait to try them again in 2 weeks!
We also have been assigned lots of projects to do including BT Young Scientist and Junk Couture which is great so far and I cant wait to continue working on them!We are also starting to learn guitar in music which I am very excited about! 

As you can see I have had a great first week of TY and cannot wait for all the great experiences that lie ahead for the year!Thanks for reading my first blog and I will write again soon :)