Saint Brigid’s National School, is a primary school situated in the centre of Greystones, Co. Wicklow. Our mission is to provide the highest quality education for all our children in a happy, safe and stimulating Christian environment, focusing on their academic, social, personal, moral and spiritual development to help them be the best they can be.

Senior Webmix

The Senior Webmix is  suitable for 3rd class up approximately. This first one includes Touch Typing drills followed by typing games. These are colour coded orange. The blue squares are links to Thinking Games including coding.

Activities that help with comprehension and vocabulary development are colour coded purple. ‘Real life’ maths activities are coloured brown. The ‘Home Budgeting’ or Family Game is one of the activities on the Moneyville website. You will find it across the bridge on the island. More maths activities are colour coded aqua marine. Most of these are opportunities to practice number patterns and multiplication tables.

Click on the icon that looks like a black and white Rubik’s cube at the bottom of the page to open up the webmix and see it more clearly.

Please supervise your child online.

You might find the following have more substance and content. With  Khan Academy Maths you will need to register your child in order to log in. The received wisdom is that for Maths anyway, the American Grades are one level higher than your child’s class level. So for example a 6th class student would work on Grade 5. There is an initial test with Khan which should place your child on the correct level.

Read Theory for Comprehension

is a Literacy website you can sign up to. Reading is also a good way to spend this time.

Freerice

is great for vocabulary development.

and Learn Irish with Duolingo also has potential.

Oxford Owl has an free ebook library with over 250 books in it and offers free access to teachers and parents once you create an account, for children aged 3-11 years old.

Go Noodle is also free and provides movement breaks that the children benefit from and enjoy.

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Learning to type? Click on this LINK for a number of typing activities. The bottom two lines of the webmix are suitable for 3rd to 6th class approximately. Now it an ideal time for your child to learn to type.

For students in 3rd and 4th, just starting out the BBC Dance Mat typing course might be appealing. You will find on the bottom link of the webmix. Learning can be revised by using the Kidztype website, also on the webmix.

The more formal learning platforms like Typing.com or Typing Club may suit Senior Students better.

In additon there are a lot of typing games on the link. They can be used as a ‘reward,’ a follow up after typing practice. The better a child gets at typing, the easier these games become. Once a week perhaps your child could try Alpha Quick to see how learning to touch type correctly helps one to type faster.

10-15 minutes typing practice at least four times a week would be effective (with perhaps 5-10 minutes after the typing practice spent on a game). It’s a case of ‘a little and often’.

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Finally here is a webmix of activities to develop Fine Motor Skills and Typing. The links on the left are for Juniors. As you move to the right the activities get more challenging and so are suitable for older children. There are also typing activities from Juniors to older classes approximately at the bottom of the page. They are colour coded orange. The last two rows are for 3rd class to 6th approximately. Of all of them Typing.com comes highly recommended. Click on the icon that looks like a black and white Rubik’s cube at the bottom of the webmix to open it and see it more clearly.

Click on the following link to download a READING BINGO sheet from ‘Imagination Soup.’ You can change any suggestion that is unlikely or impractical.

OUT AND ABOUT

NEW: CHALK OBSTACLE COURSES were the surprise hit of SPORTS’ DAY. Here are some ideas from ‘The Inspired Treehouse’

Helpful hint: ‘It’s a good idea to squeeze in some ”break” activities such as make a wish, give high five to the sky, say your name, empty your pockets, etc. It makes the obstacle course more fun.’

Scroll down this link to get more ideas.

SCAVENGER HUNTS in Nature

Another big hit was scavenger hunts and being outside.

Here is a range from Coppell Nature Park

What you can find under a rock or a log

A hunt for living and non-living things

A spending time outside observation sheet
Just give your child a blank sheet of paper and see what they can observe and record.

And here is an information sheet about finding: Evidence of Animals

Combining a love of reading with a scavenger hunt, click on this link to download a Reading Scavenger Hunt from the Modern Parents Messy Kids blog. Again no need to print off, as you can read it on your phone.

We plan to scan and upload all the material we receive to our online digital archive HERE We will create a special collection that will remain as a digital ‘Time Capsule’ for future generations.

HISTORY

Click on THIS link to see a History of Greystones from the school’s History Blog: ‘The Grey Stones’. It is good to know the history of the place where you live. It gives one a ‘sense of place’.

When you have read the piece, see how many questions you can answer?

Over 50 more questions about the History of Greystones HERE

Click on the following link to see a number of History Trails from the local area put together by Greystones Tidy Towns, Greystones Archaeological & Historical Society, the La Touche Legacy Committee and Delgany Village website. We are so lucky to live in a place with such a rich history.

VIRTUAL SCHOOL TOUR

There is no need for a permission slip

and no end to the places a class can go on a virtual tour.

Here are three I thought were interesting:

Scroll down THIS link to see the Great Wall of China.

This one is Anne Frank’s House.

Click on a path for a walk in the forest

There are a LOT of other virtual tours HERE from Irish teacher, Ms. Forde’s Classroom Blog and HERE from Scottish teacher, Ms. Armstrong on Teachpal.

NEW for this week: A Virtual Tour of the National History Museum HERE on the Clíste website.

SEASIDE SCAVENGER HUNT
Seaside Scavenger Hunt
Written especially for Greystones South Beach

We will choose only the things that we can collect

and return safely and without damage. 

  1. A small black pebble
  2. A feather
  3. A pebble with a hole in it
  4. A mermaid’s purse

(dog fish egg case or whelk egg case)

  1. A limpet (or part of)
  2. A mussel (or part of)
  3. A whelk (or part of)
  4. Something beautiful
  5. Some sea lettuce
  6. A sea belt
  7. Some bladder wrack
  8. Something that makes a noise
  9. A small white pebble
  10. A pink flower
  11. Something soft
  12. A yellow flower
  13. Something important in nature

(Everything in nature is important!)

  1. A small grey pebble
  2. Any part of a crab
  3. Something that reminds you of yourself
  4. A white flower
  5. A sun trap (This is anything that captures the sun’s heat)
  6. More than 100 of something!
  7. Something that the sea has changed
  8. A creature’s home (make sure it is empty).
  9. Something round
  10. A big smile

At the end we will leave what we have found on the beach.

We will:

‘Leave only footprints.

Take only memories’.

Ms. Murray is working hard on a VIRTUAL SPORTS DAY for the 12th June. More details on the website closer to the time.

WATER SAFETY

Water Safety is an important part of the school’s curriculum for the Summer Term. The Irish Water Safety Association has been in touch with THIS resource which you might find of interest.