Cé a bhfuair an fáinne?!

One of the best celebrations I look forward to every year is Onam. Onam is a festival of my home town in India.It is in memory of a king who ruled. We believe he comes once every year to see his people. The night before the celebration, some people go to the hall we are using and set it up. They move benches for people to sit on, get a banner for the stage, get tables ready and they blow up loads of balloons for decoration. The prettiest part  is they draw a circle (not too big) and draw patterns with chalk. The circle is filled with colourful flower petals. On the day we all wear traditional clothes.The girls wear sarees, churidars, long dresses or skirt and blouse and the boys wear shirts and mundu or pants. Everyone heads to the hall . After everyone is settled, we wait for dancing. A few weeks before Onam, the people who who want to dance gather at someone's house a learn a routine to Indian music. There's around four age categories: the small kids around 4-6, a bit older 7-12,  there's teens and if the older teens want they can join an adult group. After singing and dancing, we have food. We have vegetarian food. Not everything has to have vegetables but nothing can have meat. Close to the end we play  some games like musical chairs, egg and spoon race, bite the biscuit, tug a war and a balloon game where we tie a string to our ankle with a balloon at the other end and we have to pop other people's balloons by stepping on the balloon without popping our own or stepping outside the circle! I was the champion last time. It is great fun. Tug of war is also lots of fun but the boys have an advantage because they wear proper shoes with grips and have loads of leg room while the girls wear flats and long dresses. Still it is great fun. Finally, everyone gets their belongings and the people who organised it say an ending speech. Everyone helps clean up and we go home feeling very happy.
                                                                                            Anjali, Rang 6

My aunt got married in the December holidays in the year 2018 and my whole family and I attended the function. I was dressed in a long, red dress which was embroidered in beautiful beads. The wedding was held in a gigantic hall near her hometown. The tables were laid and decorated with a vase of roses. In a part of Pakistani tradition for weddings, the fiance has to travel to the bride which meant we had to wait a while for him to arrive. After about half an hour of waiting, he finally arrived with family and friends. The fiance and the bride sat down on a beautiful stage adorned with flowers of all colours such as pink, red, orange and yellow and so the festivities began. My dad was the first one to dance and then everyone else joined in. The music was booming and people were giving money to the dances they enjoyed. Luckily for me I got the most! After an hour of dancing, the food was ready. There were kebabs, rice, bread, chicken, fish, ice-cream and more. The room was full of the delicious smell of food. When all the food was finished, everything became more peaceful and it was time for guests to take pictures with the couple and feed them a traditional sweet called 'Ludo'. By the time everyone was finished feeding the couple and taking pictures, we were all tired. Finally came the emotional part of the wedding, when the bride says goodbye to her family. Everyone started crying their eyes out, especially my family because this was the last wedding we would be attending. My aunt got into her husband's car and left. We just stood there, watching and crying. After that, we headed home. I enjoyed the wedding very much and it is a memory I will always treasure.
                                                                                     Eshaal, Rang 6

 ​       A special event I went to was my Nanny's 70th birthday. I was 10 years old. I bought a beautiful black dress with colourful flowers on it. I also got lovely black velvet shoes with a small heel that had a shiny strip of metal across the back. As for my hair, it was in a side French plait.
    The celebration was taking place in The Pembroke Hotel in Kilkenny. We arrived at the hotel and checked in. Then we went to our room to unpack and get ready. After a few hours, we went to the room where the party was. We were the first ones there. The room was HUGE!! There were a lot of big, round tables with white tablecloths and balloons in the centre. To one side of the eating area, there was a dance floor with a DJ and colourful lights. On the opposite side of the room there was a very long drinks bar and big comfortable seats.
     Once everyone had arrived, we sat down to eat. I ordered penne pasta and a glass of Coca Cola. For dessert I had a selection of ice cream. It was DELICIOUS!! After the food we got up to dance. But my cousins and I got bored, so we decided to look around. Then we realized that Harry was missing! It turned out that he got locked in the bathroom. My uncle had to get him out. After that we had to stay in the main room. My Nanny brought a piñata so we had fun with that. Then it was time for the cake; it was a two-tiered cake, the bottom tier had a silhouette of the iconic picture of The Beatles walking across a zebra crossing. The top tier had had the number 70 with photos of the members faces. Around the bottom of the cake, there were fondant piano keys and the words 'Happy Birthday Rose!' written in icing.
     When we had finished eating the cake, we went to dance again. I think I got a little bit too overexcited because I fell backwards and landed on my hip. It was so painful! I couldn't even walk, I thought I might have broken it. I stayed sitting for a while. My cousin Lucy stayed with me. We just chatted from then on, until my hip felt better. Then we played until we had to go to bed.
     Well that's the story of what happened on my Nanny's 70th birthday. I hope you enjoyed hearing about it!
​                                                                             By Mia, Rang 6

      On Friday 8th November we were learning about trees. Ms. Wymbs told us to get in pairs. At the beginning of the lesson Ms. Wymbs showed us the leaves of all the native Irish trees so we were able to identify the trees quite easily. We all got a piece of paper with questions on it. We went looking for trees. We saw rowan, horse chestnut, birch and oak trees.
      We all saw honey mushrooms. They were pink and peach. One of our questions asked us what does the seed look like? The majority of us could not find the seeds. Two girls, Kate and Victoria found an acorn from an oak tree. Most of the class found conkers from a horse chestnut tree. 
      At the end of the lesson we had a look at different types of trees that surround us. I learned new things about trees.
                                                                                                    by Fatima, Rang 4

On Thursday 10th October, 6th class planted trees on the Suir Blueway . We first  learned about how trees are important for the earth and how they benefit humans and animals. After this lesson 6th class walked to the Blueway to plant the trees . There we were given instructions and put into groups. Pupils dug the earth for a perfect hole, picked up litter and even met new friends,the worms !!! In the end 6th class planted fouer trees and had lots of fun.
                 by Eshaal

     Active School Flag
Throughout the past two years the Active School Committee has been working on getting our Active School Flag. To do so we scored penalties on teachers and we had an Active School Week. Throughout the week we did Active Lines where two people go up in front of the classes and do exercises e.g. star jumps, squats, jumps, squat jumps etc.
The Active School Committee encourages people to do active homework and lots more.
Last Christmas the Active School Committee did the 12 days of Fitness. Last year’s Rang 6 took part in a cycling safety course on Thursdays. 2nd class to 6th went swimming for eight weeks and so much more.
The Active Schools Committee and Ms. Skeehan had a meeting with the Active Schools 
Inspector and told her about all the hard work the school did throughout the school year. A few weeks later the school got the Active School Flag in the post!
After a long summer break, when the school was all settled back, we decided to raise the flags. The whole school gathered together in front of the school at the poles.
At first Miss O’ Dwyer spoke about Green Schools because we put that flag up first. For the Active Flag the committee posed for some pictures and we sang our Active Schools rap while raising our flag. Miss O’ Dwyer helped raise it. The whole school worked really well on our fitness challenges and The Active Schools Committee want to say thank you for all your participation.   
     By Natasha O’Neill O’Connell and Emily Stokes

​On 8th May my nine friends and I went to Kilkenny for Challenge to Change. It was a really enjoyable day. We learned so many new things about our environment and about our world. People really enjoyed learning about the weird shaped carrots and about the board games. We got drinks when we arrived there. We sat at a table and we talked. After that we displayed our project and told people what we learned and the actions we took. Some of the girls went drumming and they performed on the stage. A different group took part in a workshop about saving resources. After, everyone ate lunch. It was very delicious! We said goodbye to everyone and we went back on the bus. It was such an amazing day! We were so lucky to be there.  By Iustina Rang 6

Rang 6 made board games as part of their 'Challenge to Change' project. The theme of the games is protecting our environment. The girls played the games with girls in Rang 2. It was a happy experience for all. Here is some feedback from two girls in Rang 2.

I loved the board games because they were exiting. I think my favorite board game was the one where we needed to make the right desision and the wrong decision. I really liked all the games. By Julia R   Rang 2
 
I loved the board games because they were very exiting and very very fun! I think my favorite board game was.....snake and ladders. It made me want our school day to never end! By Ailish Rang 2