Irish Trip :)

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On Friday all Transition year students went on an Irish trip to Rathfarnam to see Padraig Pearce's school/museum. When we arrived we had a snack and then set off for the tour around the museum. Our teacher also gave us a worksheet in Irish to fill in as we went around to the different areas of the museum. I got most of the answers so hopefully that will be ok! We then got to watch a video on the history of Padraig's life. We finished our trip off with a nature walk. We got to go around the gardens of the school and the tour guide told us about all the different tree's and what each of them were. Unfortunately it was raining and it was very cold. We then had our lunch outside and made our way home. I really enjoyed the day and I found it very interesting.

  

My IT End Of Year Project :)

This is my Transition Year End of Year Video. I did mine on music in Ireland on three different instruments. I hope you all enjoy watching it as I did making it :)

Gaisce :)

On Friday the 26th of April , most transition year students set off on their Gaisce adventure journey. We left our school just after three and we set off on our hike nearer to five. We went to the Kippure mountains in County Wicklow. Everyone thought they had a lot of energy until we came to that first hill. It was quite steep and there was a lot of horses in that field also. After hours of walking we finally made it to the top. It was a great feeling to get there as we were all so tired. There was 15 of us staying in one house. We had a great night and had lots of sweets! :) 
 We woke up bright and early the next morning just after eight o'clock. We got ready, made our breakfast and cleaned the house up. We got a bus to a certain point and then we had to set off on another adventure in the mountains. This time it wasn't just one mountain but four! They were all very steep, some worse than others! The ground was soo uneven , mucky and wet. I had water swimming around in my shoes! it was such a horrible feeling. We got to have a rest at each mountain peek and had our lunch on the last one. We made our way down after hours of walking and then had to get changed and ready for home in about 10 minutes or so! Overall it was a great experience and a great accomplishment even though I was in pain and wrecked after it! :)

Top Of The Mountain :D

Bank of Ireland :)

 This week Bank of Ireland from our local town came to the school. They gave us a board game all about budgeting!! They showed us how to play it and you have to fill in a income and expenditure budget as you go along. I found it enjoyable as they made it more fun by turning it into a board game. They will be doing it with us for the next six weeks so hopefully it will be good! :)

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Geography Project :)

This week we have been doing our geography projects. I am in a group with Kate and Elizabeth. We were given the disease of Typhoid. I have learnt a lot of new facts about this disease and I am finding it very interesting. We have to make a brochure about this disease and present it to the class. We have most of it done, we just need to make it look well by putting images onto it. Hopefully we will have it finished this week and then present it to our class :) 

Projects! :)

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This week is our first week back in school since the Easter break and we have got a lot of new projects to do for the end of the year. We have to make and design a new cereal in Mini Company, make a Board game in Irish, a project on a famous person in French, a project on a Typhoid Disease in Geography, a Mood Board of yourself for English, A movie video of Ty in IT, make a puppet in Art and we have to form a band as part of Music!!!! :) I am really looking forward to doing these projects as they all seem really interesting and fun to do!! :)

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Music Night :)

 On Thursday the 21st March 2013, there was an annual Music Night held in Our school. All transition years took part in this and all music classes from 1st to 6th years. I haven't done music since 1st year so it was only my 2nd time performing in this event. Our class sang a medley of three songs by Ed Sheeran which were: Lego House, Small Bumb and Give me Love. It took us ages to get it together but on the night I thought it sounded great ::) I really enjoyed the night and would love to do it again :)

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SciFest :)

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On Friday the 22nd March., six scifest groups from Transition Year got to go to D.I.T in Kevin Street. Aoibhinn and I were won of these and we were delighted. We did our project on 'The Growth Of Grass In Different Soil Samples'. We just arrived and put the poster up and then I accidentally knocked over one of the soil samples. Thank God it was the worst one. As I was cleaning it off the ground a judge came over and started talking to Aoibhinn, and I didn't realize for a moment as I was still picking the soil off the ground. I got it all up anyways, he asked us about the project and a few questions. We were happy the way it went, and we got our second judge not too long afterwards and she seemed more interested in it as in our results Donegal had the most growth of grass and she lives near there so she was delighted with that. We didn't have anymore judges after that so it was a long hour and a half! We got a little bag with a drink, some fruit a packet of crisps and a bar from D.I.T. We got three talks from lecturers in the Collage. One was about Robots, another on Chemistry and one on computer games. They were interesting but very long. After they were over, it was the results. Unfortunately Aoibhinn and I didn't win anything but another group from our school did. Corrie,Lauren and Aisling won a runner up prize in our category. There was 74 projects and only 1 got through to the next round which was a boy from Skerries who did it on coastal erosion of his town. It was a good day out and I enjoyed it :)

Trip to Kildare :)

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On Wednesday the 20th March all Transition Years went on a trip to Kildare. It started off by going to Kildare village where we went into a heritage center and watched a video on the impact St.Bridget had on our County. Our Chaplin then brought us to the Cathedral and we learnt what was the difference between a protestant and a catholic church. He then brought us around the back of it where there was a monument where St.Bridget lit a fire and also a round tower. We were told that if you walked around the round tower seven times backwards that you'll have a dream of the man you are going to marry that night. At lot of girls took part but we rushed them as we were all starving and wanted to go and get some food. We then drove to the Japanese Gardens and National stud, where we visited two wells. The first well was a bit far and we were so hungry that we ran to it. Their was also five stones in this area, so we prayed at each of them and at the last stone there was a tree, where you could hang an item that meant something to you so people could pray for the person you were representing with the item. We then walked back and visited the other well. There was a stepping stone across the well so we walked along it, bent down and blessed ourselves with the holy water from the well. 
We then got to go to White Water Shopping Centre in Newbridge so we all ran to get our lunch in the food court as we were all so hungry. At 1:15 we then went onto Naas for Bowling in KBowl. I was on a team with Aoibhinn, Elizabeth, Kate,Sarah, Eve , Shauna and Katie. Unfortunately I didn't win but I did come 3rd :) I really enjoyed the day and would really love to do it again :)

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Lá Glas :)

On Friday, it was lá glas in our school. This is a day when we dress up in green to celebrate St. Patrick's Day :) . Each year were given a theme as follows:
1st Years were Army soldiers
2nd Years were Farmers
3rd Year were Irish Sports people
Ty's were Leprechauns and Fairies
5th Years were green characters and
6th Years were everything Irish :)
Everybody made a great effort and it looked really good. We had to pick one representative from our class to represent us in a parade in our school at lunchtime and we picked Abbie as she was dressed the best as a Leprechaun :) Unfortunately she didn't win but she got an Easter egg for doing it :)

Irish Play :)

In Irish we have been doing a play called Deirdre agus Naoise since Christmas. On Friday, we performed our play to fifth years, Ty's and second years. It went really well. I was the prompter and I didn't really have to help anyone with their lines. It was good considering we have only been practising a couple of weeks, and it was in time for Seachtaine na Gaeilge :)



              

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Pope :)

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 Yesterday, shortly after 6 o'clock we found out that the new pope had been elected. He is from Argentina and is 76 years of age. As part of our religion class our teacher has been teaching us about how the pope is elected with all the cardinals and that they have to have a 2/3 majority vote. She decided to let us guess what day the pope will be elected and the prize was an Easter egg. Unfortunately I had guessed that he would be elected on Thursday so I wasn't put into the draw for the prize. 

Retreat :)

Yesterday all Transition Years went to Tallaght for our retreat at the Dominican Retreat Centre. We got into groups of 13 and everyone went into different rooms.  We spoke about our feelings of our Ty and what its like to be a 16 year old in Ireland. We then got a sheet with some questions on it about ourselves and she then asked us some of our answers. I really enjoyed listening to the girls in my group and it was a great way to get to know some of them better. 
After lunch we did an activity where we said something nice about everyone in the group. I enjoyed this as I got to hear what people thought about me. It was one of the better retreats we have been on and I hope to do it again next year as I really enjoyed it :)

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Trinity :)

On Thursday all Ty's went to Trinity Collage to have a talk on Science Technology. When we arrived we got into groups of four where we sat down at a table with a woman that was experienced in this department. I was with Katie, Jenny and Emma. They called the exercise 'Speed Dating' as we only had four minutes to listen to the woman about what she does and any questions we had she answered them. It was very interesting to hear what she does, but I couldn't see myself working in a lab. We then got a free bag with sandwiches, popcorn and a apple inside. You could also take water, orange juice, tea or coffee. We then went into a room where two women that were graduates in science technology gave a talk on their experiences in this area. It was very interesting but I don't see myself doing it, but it was great learning about it :)

County Finals :)

 On Monday, Hair Couture and Williams Words travelled to the Killashee House Hotel in Naas, Co.Kildare , where we took part in the County finals of the student enterprise awards. The hotel was huge and very posh. We arrived into the room and we set up our stall. We had two big posters professionally printed and a back drop with smaller pictures on it. We had our books displayed on the table along with book stands and a video demonstration of doing hairstyles. We also had two pink balloons with our company name on it.
We all dressed in black with t shirts that I got printed which had our name on the front and 'Hair Couture' written on the back in light pink to match out book. We looked very well as we were dressed the same. That morning Sarah one of the members of the group did my hair, she did a bow braid. It looked really nice and everyone thought it looked brilliant. When we had finished setting up we went around the different stalls to see what everybody else's Mini Company was about, and then went outside to practise our presentation.   Each group had to get up on the stage and present a PowerPoint presentation on their Company Idea, we were sixth to present and it went very well. Most of the day consisted of listening to the other presentations. We also got lunch which was really nice which kept us full and happy for the day :) Our parents the arrived at about 4:30 for the award ceremony. 
Unfortunately we didn't get anything for our Idea but Williams Words (another Mini Company from our school) got an award for their display. The idea that won was called 'Click and Switch' which was some kind of pole that sticks to your car when you brake down so it holds your flash light for you. They are now gone through to the National Finals.
 It was a great experience being there, even though we didn't win anything, it was great to get that far :)

Sci-Fest :)

 Last Friday, we had our sci-fest competition. It was held in our school hall where each group set up their stall with the project they have been doing since September. I was with Aoibhinn and we did 'The growth of grass in different soil samples'. We were happy the way it turned out and our teachers thought it was very interesting and well presented. We set up our stall and the judges then arrived. It was nerve wracking while waiting for the judge to get to you but then another judge arrived and came straight over to us, which we were not expecting. He asked us about our project and we explained it to him and showed him the different grass samples we grew. He tricked us out on a question or two but overall it was grand. 
  Two of the judges were unable to attend so two of our male science teachers stepped in. One of our teachers judged it also. He seemed to be interested in it and we knew the answers to the questions he asked, so it went very well for us. 2nd and 3rd years came down to view the projects we had done. Not many students came over to us as they didn't seem interested.
 At the end of the day the results was announced by one of our teachers. She said that ten groups got through out of the thirty three projects. Unfortunately we didn't get through. It was disappointing as we put alot of work into it. Our teachers were surprised that we didn't get through. Overall it was a good day and we all got a free wristband, a fuzzy friend and a pen from Scifest :)

Lollipop Day :)

On Friday all Ty's went into Town for Lollipop Day in aid of the Osophageal Cancer fund. Everybody was in groups of four. I was with Aoibhinn, Shauna and  Katie from my class. We all got a t-shirt and hat in school before we went. When we arrived we were dropped off on the Queys and we walked up to the Powerscourt. We met the organisation and we were given two buckets of money filled with lollipops, badges, stickers and information cards! :) The four of us were based on Westmoreland Street. 

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  It was absolutely freezing out, we were walking up and down the street trying to keep warm! We spent our day asking people to 'Please Support Lollipop Day In Aid of the Osophageal Cancer Fund'. We found singing 'Lollipop Lollipop' really helped as people were drawn over and then donated. We sold a good bit. Most people just donated, not wanting any item for it. 
   I really enjoyed selling lollipops, as it is for a good cause and I hope that we raised enough money to make a difference to people suffering from this disease. The day would've been better if it wasn't as cold. We were numb from the cold but overall it was a great day  :)

Drumming :)

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This week all TY's took part in the drumming workshop. My class did it on Tuesday morning for three hours. We went to the music room and and met Dave who worked for Jabba Jabba Jembe percussion.

 We all got a drum each and there was also other percussion instruments.  He taught us different songs on the drums. We practiced different words to an African song and some girls recorded us singing and playing the drums. It was a really good experience and I really enjoyed it. It was a great to learn about the African culture and we got to learn what songs the africans play on different occasions.

Hair Couture :)

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This Week our Mini Company group, Hair Couture found out that we made it into the next stage of the competition , which is the County Final :) There is 10 of us in the group : Aoibhinn, Ciara, Kelsey, Orla, Kate, Elizabeth, Shauna, Sarah Eve and myself. We were all delighted we got through and we are all very excited about the Final.

Sci Fest :)

 This week Aoibhinn and I completed our sci fest project. We did our project on 'The growth of grass in different soil samples'. We got samples of soils from six different counties: Cavan, Cork, Donegal, Mayo, Tipperary and Wicklow. We planted thirty grass seeds into each of the soils and watered them every second day. We had to do a report booklet including everything we did, results, conclusions etc. We also have to do a display board with our information on our project so the judges can look at it when they come to judge our projects. They will decide on who gets through to the next stage of the competition. I really enjoyed doing this project with Aoibhinn as we both have a great interest in Biology and Agriculture.

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Art :)

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  This week I started my portrait of my celebrity in Art :) I am doing Zayn from the band One Direction. I haven't done art before so I am not the best drawer so this is a challenge for me. I only have the outline drawn at the moment which I got help with as my first attempt wasn't successful. I have started to draw the eye now , which isn't to great either :) Hopefully It will turn out alright. For the shaded bits we are using casette tapes which we have to cut up and layer it onto the paper so hopefully it'll look better then :)

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