To Listen to Mr. Vance’s bedtime story click on the image below. I hope you enjoy. Please write a comment by clicking the “replies” button below and leave a comment. What was your favourite part of the story and why? If people are watching this and leaving comments Mr. Vance will continue to read a new book each night. We miss you all!
If it took took two girls two days to dig a hole. How long would it take one girl to dig half a hole?
Good luck!! Make sure to write your answer by clicking on the “replies” button below this post.
Hi everyone from St. Peter’s Primary School. We hope everyone is healthy and well. While we are away from school we will be using the school blog to try and keep you entertained. We will have a “Riddle of the day” each day and other links to fun activities and websites that you could visit while you are away from school. Mr. Vance will also be reading a bedtime story each night. Don’t forget to write a comment (by clicking on the reply button below this post) as we will be giving random prizes throughout our time off to children who post comments.
Engineers Week 2020
This year for Engineering week, 4th Class took a trip to Bray Library to meet with a local Bray Engineer to learn about the important role of being an engineer. We learned that in order for structures to be built, many engineers are needed. These include – civil, electrical, energy, mechanical, plumbing, structural and technological engineers.
We focused on structural engineering and had the opportunity to take part in a fun STEM engineering activity: ‘The Marshmallow Challenge’.
The objective of ‘The Marshmallow Challenge’:
Instructions:
The task was challenging but 4th class were extremely creative engineers and the results were very impressive.
Conclusion:
After the task was complete we talked about the following:
All the groups worked really hard and designed amazing towers in all different ways. The groups all agreed that teamwork was very important for this task. Well done 4th Class!
Each year St Peters has a proud tradition in exploring all the rudiments of the wonderful world of STEM/Science and of entering the ESB Science Blast. This year was no different.
As an innovative 6th class we have a great interest in sports and fitness and so chose to look at how we could improve our general health .
Researching under the science stand of Living Things, this idea then evolved and became more specific as we looked into which type of training improves our 10 metre sprint times the most.
We began the hard work in October and worked diligently over 16 training sessions to our final sprint race.
We had some challenges to overcome due to the weather, injury, and issues with the batteries for the rechargeable sprint gates and timer.
We became aware of and learnt from mistakes like not crossing the beam and not pushing off the wall.
But overall, as we are sure you will enjoy reading below, we are all the luckier for taking part in the ESB Science Blast. We thoroughly enjoyed conducting and participating in our experiment and look forward wholeheartedly to continuing this yearly tradition.
Our minds are more curious, hearts so full and our brains are even more inspired.
Here is our entry, we hope you enjoy it and would be delighted to receive any feedback you can provide to further our future endeavours in the world of Science and STEM.
Warm regards,
6th Class, St Peters PS, Bray.
Question?
Which type of training improves our ten metre sprinting time the most?
Hypothesis
We predict that all groups will improve their time and the plyometric group shall improve the most.
Resources : Timing gates, Hand held digital recording device, Mat, Measuring tape, 10m flat surface, Parachutes, Hurdles
Designing our fair test :
We started by revising what we already know about our bodies and the importance of healthy eating and exercise.
We identified some ways that all of us exercise in school, at home and in our communities eg. Walking, soccer, PE, Fit Fridays, Cross Country, Rugby, Boxing, Athletics
We noted each others experience of training, the different ways you can train and all the sports we’re involved in as a group.
As part of our research, we invited the U23 Munster 100 metre sprint champion Amy Cronin to come and speak with us.
Next we split into 5 groups; Walking, Repeat Sprinting, Plyometrics, Parachutes and Stretching.
We decided that our walking group would be our control group. The walking group would walk at a normal pace around the school yard.
The repeat sprinting group would sprint 10metres x 4 with 1 minute break between each run.
The plyometrics group would have 2 tasks to do; hop over a hurdle on each leg x 4 and a standing jump x 4.
The parachute group would complete : 4 x 20m runs with a parachute, 20 seconds break in between and 2 x 20m runs without a parachute
The stretching group would stretch their calves, quads and hamstrings.
To make sure that this test was fair we made sure that we always wore runners, that we always timed our runs on a flat 10m surface and that we always ate the same food on the day of our run.
Procedure
Next, in October we timed ourselves using timing gates placed 10m apart and recorded our runs on a digital handheld device. These times were very important as they gave us exact information about the times each group was achieving.
From October to February we trained in our groups weekly, fitting in 18 sessions. We always trained together as a whole class. Each group had a leader who directed us through our exercises.
Finally in February, we held our last training session and our last timed run came. We carefully measured 10metres. We carefully placed our timing gates 10m apart. We set up our recording devices. We put our heart into running our level best. We recorded each score on an excel document.
Afterwards we presented our data in a pie chart.
Conclusion
The stretching group improved by 6%, plyometrics by 5%, walking by 4% and the parachute and sprinting group improved by 3% each.
We learnt a lot about the importance of exercise in our everyday lives. Coaches are always trying to research new ways to get fit, we want to do training sessions that are both fun and health promoting. We discovered that the science of fitness is all about F.I.T.T. – Frequency, Intensity, Type and Time.
We are now committed to getting F.I.T.T. and always do our best to move to improve.
With thanks,
6th Class
St Peters PS, Bray
Recently, we were very excited to receive a visit from Sophie from Microsoft Ireland. Sophie taught us all about the importance of coding in today’s world. We really enjoy learning with technology in St Peter’s and we love to try out new tools and ways of learning.
We really enjoyed our visit from Sophie – her Minecraft workshop was fascinating and made us think about it in a whole new light!
Since Sophie’s visit, we’ve been working really hard to develop our skills. We’ve really been enjoying our work on Hour of Code – you can join in here. Thank you to Sophie and to Microsoft for such an inspiring visit!
In first class, we became engineers, we made our very own catapults! Here’s how we did it:
Firstly, we had to investigate how catapults worked. We watched different videos which showed us loads of different catapults, how they were made and how they worked!
Each group then decided which catapult they wanted to make.
Each group then decided on the materials they wanted to use. They could choose from straws, lollipop sticks, bottle caps, plastic spoons, pipe cleaners, elastic bands, sellotape and plastic. For their design, they needed to choose the materials that would keep their catapult strong and easy to fire!
Then, first class set off on their task, trying different methods to make the catapults! Once one group mastered the task they set off to offer advice to other groups!
Finally, it was test time! We fired snowballs from our catapults to see who could get the longest distance, we discussed why this catapult worked so well and it turned out that it had the tightest elastic bands on it!
We spoke about being engineers, designing our catapults using various materials and demonstrated how our catapults worked at the school assembly.
Our school garden is a project we undertook as part of our Discover Primary Science and Maths project, and our sustainability project a number of years ago that has continued to be popular with pupils and classes.
Our landscaping skills have been put to to the test in planning and maintaining the garden and have even had parents in to help with plants and ideas.
Being adjacent to our infants yard, both junior and senior infants are constantly on patrol for guests who have escaped from our bug motel, ensuring they are returned to their rooms uninhibited. It is often with delight children will carry worms and critters to teachers during break time to ask if they can be returned to the garden!
We cant wait for the next few months to see all the wonderful foliage that springs up in our garden.
To celebrate the 100th day of school this week we:
Two of our new teachers even dressed up as Grannies to show what 100 days of school does to a young teacher!!
If you’d like to read about the work by this year’s Junior Infants, click here.
If you’d like to read about the work by this year’s Senior Infants, click here.
If you’d like to read about the work by this year’s 1st class, click here.
If you’d like to read about the work by this year’s 2nd class, click here.
If you’d like to read about the work by this year’s 3rd class, click here.
If you’d like to read about the work by this year’s 4th class, click here.
If you’d like to read about the work by this year’s 5th class, click here.
If you’d like to read about the work by this year’s 6th class, click here.
If you’d like to read about the work by Ms Kane’s class, click here.
We’d love to hear from you – please leave a comment on our posts!
We were the Scoilnet Star Site for December 2013!
