What a week! We finished our Marine exploration today with videos on octopuses, a rather sad video on face masks in the ocean made by a secondary school pupil and a final video on plastics in the ocean, which is more uplifting! Thanks to all for their efforts – some of which you can see below! We are all looking forward to brighter sunny days when we can visit some of the beautiful beaches around Ireland. Enjoy our sea shanty!
As part of Marine week, we are celebrating ‘Happy Earth Day’ – we have to celebrate the small things in life. Today we celebrate through Art – we have a 5 minute draw along tutorial to complete, and through Science while we research all types of fish and below our infant boys are completing a litter marine colouring sheet just as we post this! The boys also went under the tree in our front garden to check its girth and they gave it a big hug for Earth Day!
We are celebrating Marine Week from April 19-23. We are going to cover everything to do with the sea! Now that we can travel outside our 5 km limit, our boys can’t wait to visit the beaches and waterways around Dublin in the next few weeks. Our Green School team will guide the classes as they learn about types of Jellyfish and other sea life in Ireland. We will also be looking at solutions to microplastics pollution and at what we can do to be better global citizens.
Our active school team will lead our classes in taking part in the Aquatics strand of the PE Curriculum. We can’t get back to school swimming lessons yet but we can learn about Water Safety. We have started the PAWS programme on water safety in all our classes.
As part of our application for the next green flag, Mr. Brennan’s 6th and Ms. Molloy’s 5th classes made some magnificent posters on the topic of keeping our seas and beaches pollution & litter-free. Here is a sample of their fabulous artwork. Well done lads!
We have been very busy in the school garden. We prepared the inner bed for winter growth. We planted purple garlic and elephant garlic. We hope to have a crop in late spring. We also have Amaryllis bulbs starting to grow in our window sills. Some have produced their dramatic flowers already. They were kindly donated by Mark Caslin. Thanks so much, we love them.
Bn Uí Loingsigh also helped the boys plant ‘Spring surprises’ around the church bell, We wonder what will pop up come February/March.
Our sensory garden has treated us to the calming smells of lavender, and a wide range of tastes including sage, mint, thyme and rocket. Winter plans include new raised beds and upgrading of the pathways around our sensory garden. If anybody has access to spare flagstones or gravel we would love to hear from you! (Room 14, Rang 3)
Our Green school team had its first socially distant outside meeting today with Ms Ryan and Mr O’Doherty. The Marine Environment is the next flag we would like to get. Today we discussed marine environments and what we can do to protect them. The committee will work with the teachers and classes to reduce plastic usage in lunches. We will encourage discussion on marine environments and their preservation. We will also let our classes know about a poster competition called ‘Clean Marine’.
Boys in 4th and 5th have been busy gardening. With good growing conditions all summer (warm but not too dry) a bumper crop of potatoes, corn, pickles, lettuce and rhubarb has been harvested from the school garden. Cabbage and kale has now been planted. They should survive any cold weather and grow slowly through the winter.
We are delighted after receiving our latest Green Flag for Biodiversity. Congratulations to all the boys and teachers for their work and support. The flag was presented in The Helix on May 22th and it was a privilege to be there with 70 other successful schools. John C. and Tom C. (4th class) and Jack B. (6th class) received the flag on behalf of St. Joseph’s. Well done to all involved and keep up the Green effort during the summer holidays!!
I look for forest and see only a few trees,
I barely see an animal. Oh tell me please!
Where is the beauty, where did it go?
I asked many but no one seems to know !
———
Yet, I know that we are to blame,
We have brought mankind to terrible shame.
We killed living things for our own gain,
We took away their homes and caused them great pain.
—–
It is time for redemption, to set things right,
Enough for ourselves, for them we must fight.
Protect their kind, they help us to live,
We have taken enough, not it is time to give
In Green News our Biodiversity theme continues through the winter. Our Green Flag application must be submitted by March 21st, 2014. Recently boys from several classes completed our autumn biodiversity audit. They acted as nature detectives for a day and even though our garden is close to a busy, polluted road many different species of bugs, plants, flowers and trees were on view. Some boys used magnifying glasses and were lucky enough to find ants and even a centipede.
In January we will do a similar winter audit followed by a spring audit in February – March. It’s important that the boys keep up this detective work during the Christmas holidays. So boys … get out to your gardens and parks (regardless of weather conditions) and write down the names of all birds and trees you notice as well as any unusual visitors. Don’t forget to reuse/recycle your Christmas waste and remember to put out some food for birds in your garden. Like us, they also need a Christmas feast!!!
Wishing you all a Happy & a Green Christmas from Joey’s Green Team