The brief, as put to the class:
A good musical instrument is one on which you could play the tune of Three Blind Mice and which is strong/durable, nicely decorated and loud enough to be heard from a distance.
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The instruments were nothing short of fantastic! The girls were tasked with playing their tune, solo or as part of a band and were marked on their performance and on the instrument itself. Thanks to everyone for the huge effort! Special mention to those at home, who helped out in so many ways.

​See our photos below.

​SOUND
 We have been looking at sound this week. We have learned that sound is a form of energy and have investigated how sound waves travel. We have listened to and identified a variety of sounds in the environment.
See our Picasso- inspired collage work below. In 1912, Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) made a guitar. Cobbled together from cardboard, paper, string and wire, materials that he cut, folded, threaded, and glued, Picasso's silent instrument resembled no sculpture ever before seen. 
We are going to design and make our own musical instruments next week. Keep an ear out!

We've been busy in 2nd Class finding out about the parts of a tree. We have also been learning about where native Irish trees came from. We took to the outdoors to work as scientists, observing the detail of trees and recording the information. We also talked about trees providing habitat for all sorts of insects, birds and animals. We looked at trees providing wood for building and pulp for making paper. We remembered how trees help to keep our air clean. We learned that there are two main types of tree: deciduous and evergreen. Did you know that a healthy evergreen is never completely without its leaves? And that deciduous trees lose all their leaves for part of the year? Finally, we learned that leaves contain a substance called chlorophyll, which gives them their green colour.

Our 2nd Classes couldn't believe their luck this Science Week, with a visit from MSD Swords on Wednesday. Our two scientists couldn't have been nicer and we were all eyes and ears as they told us a little about the company itself and then went on to do some fun experiments. And we mean fun! To begin with, we heard how vaccines are made sterile, how tablets are measured and how medicines are checked to see if they are working properly. They are kept busy in Swords!
​We looked at good hand washing and, yuk, not-so-good hand washing. Did you know 1 in 4 people do not even wash their hands after visiting the bathroom? Gross! We made a lava lamp using oil, water, food colouring and Alka Seltzers. ​We looked at acids and bases and used boiled-off red cabbage water as a litmus test. We tested lemon juice, baking soda, 7Up and vinegar. Finally, we made our very own balloon-inflating device. We produced CO2 to inflate the balloon by adding baking powder to vinegar. Birthday parties, here we come! We would like to thank our friendly scientists for their visit. They left us with some parting gifts and an experiment to try out using Coca Cola and a chicken bone. We can't wait and we'll certainly keep you posted on it! Check out our photos below...

We had a lot of success exploring the school grounds today! We worked as scientists, even before we made a break for the outdoors. As a class, we predicted what we might find living in the local habitat. We then went on to use our senses of listening, seeing, touching and smelling to observe and identify a variety of living things. Armed with paper, pencils and a camera, we recorded our findings. Some of the minibeasts were a little camera-shy but we managed to snap quite a few. Take a look...

​We kicked off Science Week with a magic trick. The secret lay inside, of all things, a Pampers nappy! We made raisins dance up and down in a mix of bicarbonate of soda and white vinegar. We looked at what happens to a cut apple, with and without lemon juice squeezed over it. We explored how a smell fills a room and realised why natural gas has a chemical added to it to make it smell. Finally, we had our blast off moment using only a Vitamin C tablet, its container and some water.

The girls in 5th class were delighted to attend a presentation by Italian astronaut, Paolo Nespoli, in DCU as part of Science Week 2015. He was very informative, and we learned a lot about the life of an astronaut and the tough training involved in becoming one. Nespoli was part of the 2007 Space Shuttle Discovery mission, as well as being part of the International Space Station programme in 2010. He is currently training to revisit the ISS in 2017.