Winter Term 1 Newsletter

Salutations to all of our Parents, Guardians and members of the Esker School Community. 
We cannot believe that we have a full term under our belt already. The summer holidays are now just a memory and the academic year is in full swing. This term has been full of learning, playing, creating, electing, debating, experiencing languages and new sports, new friend making and performing
Here's a little flavour of what has been going on in Esker this term in the class:

Junior Infants Green

Junior Infants Green have had a fantastic Term 1 here in Esker ETNS. We have settled in nicely to school and have enjoyed making new friends. We have enjoyed exploring different themes through Aistear, such as the home, the supermarket, the construction site and Winter wonderland! We have been so lucky to take part in GAA this term with Shane from Westmanstown. We have been kicking, catching and throwing the footballs, while also playing different games. For ‘Mother Tongue Week’, we learned all about Spain. We decorated our classroom door and learned the song ‘La Vaca Lola!’. We really enjoyed trying lots of different food from different countries in the hall.  We are currently working on our song for the Winter showcase, we can’t wait to show you all! 

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Junior Infants Red

Junior Infants Red have had a brilliant first term here in Esker ETNS. Everyone has settled into school life beautifully, and it’s been lovely to see so many new friendships blossom. Our Aistear time has been packed with fun and creativity. This term, we explored a variety of themes, including the home, the supermarket, a construction site, and a festive Winter Wonderland. We were thrilled to take part in GAA sessions with Shane from Westmanstown. The children practised important skills like kicking, catching and throwing, and took part in lots of enjoyable games. As part of Mother Tongue Week, our class learned about Pakistan. At the moment, we’re rehearsing our song for the Winter Showcase — everyone is looking forward to performing it for you!

Senior Infants Green

Senior infants green have worked very hard this term. We have explored different themes through play such as “the farm” “the vet” and “dinosaurs”. We are currently learning about life in cold climates through our theme “polar explorers”. The children are enjoying learning about the different animals that live in the Arctic as well as the Antarctic.
For mother tongue week we learned all about “Japan” and also had a visit from one of our parents to chat to us about life in Romania. We enjoyed the cultural celebration day and watching all the great performances in the hall. We are busy rehearsing our song for the winter showcase. We are looking forward to performing for everyone!

Senior Infants Red

We have had a great first term! We have especially enjoyed learning about “the farm”, “the vet”, “dinosaurs” and “polar explorers” through play based learning. We focused on Romania for Mother Tongue week and loved having Romanian friends from older classes teach us some key words in Romanian and a Romanian Folk Tale. We’ve loved having parents in helping us with Maths week, teaching us about their home countries and teaching us about special occasions their families celebrate.
Our favourite day so far has been a day we did a winter walk. We looked for signs of winter, played in a playground and explored our locality.

1st Class Green

1st class green have been learning lots this term! In Autumn, we took a walk to Willsbrook Park to look at the changing environment. Another one of our favourite topics to explore was different types of homes and houses. We have been phonics detectives, looking out for our new spelling rules and spotting them all around us. 
Mother tongue week was very exciting for us and we learnt a lot about Germany and the German language. It was great that our parents got a chance to help us with our Activity stations that week!

1st Class Red

We have had a fantastic term in 1st Class Red. The following are some of our highlights. We visited Willsbrook Park with 1st Class Green to observe the changing autumn environment. During maths week, we were so delighted to invite parents into our classroom to join us for our maths stations. Recently, we have been linking up with 3rd class to do some paired reading in Irish. It has been really enjoyable working with the older children.
During Mother Tongue week, we learned all about France and learned some French words and phrases. Then we performed in the Learn Together Assembly, where we shared our learning about France and sang a very famous French song. We are currently preparing for our winter showcase, which we are very excited about! 

2nd Class Green

We have had a lovely term in 2nd Class Green! We got the chance to do lots of learning both inside and outside. We churned our own butter when learning about farms in the past, took part in some STEM challenges, had a visit from a midwife and a doctor to learn about those who help us, explored different cultures and tasty food during Mother Tongue Week and of course, had lots and lots of fun with our visitor teachers Nicole and Fiona. 
We also learned about nursing homes and older people in our communities. We thought it might be a good idea to spread some kindness and cheer this winter by posting letters and cards to them! This is a picture of us on our trip to the post box, making sure that our lovely cards arrive to the residents soon.

2nd Class Red

We have been very busy this term in 2nd Class Red! We started back in Autumn with nature walks and conker hunts, leaf rubbings and buddy walks with 4th class for friendship week. We learned all about animal habitats and performed a poem and song for our Learn Together assembly to celebrate World Habitat Day on 6th October. We learned about different jobs and had Alessia’s mum come in to visit to chat about her job as a midwife. In November we had Ellen and Sarah working with us too! Parents also came in to play games for Maths stations during Maths Week. Many parents also came to visit us during Mother Tongue week including Prince Leo’s mum, Arwa’s mum and Arham’s mum who came for special class visits to share stories and traditions from their countries. Our class was learning all about Ireland and Irish traditions, music, food and sport. We have had a fantastic term so far!

3rd Class Green

We have had a fabulous first term.  The class have bonded so nicely together to make our happy 3rd Class Green family. We are now part of the senior side of the school and we are delighted with ourselves! We designed and constructed a whole new play space for Lucan and sent these ideas to local representatives for inspiring future developments.  We explored the Dúchas schools archive and we played snap apple and bobbing for apples. We swam too in Clondalkin pool and we were practically like fish by the end of it. We are now following the fit 4 school programme in PE.  We had a great time being inspired by the artistic work of Janet Sobel and being free with our painting.  We’re great at project time.  We have completed a space project and our personal project too. For mother tongue week we were allocated to explore all about Poland so our door is fully decorated in the polish colours and we learned a Polish song too. We are looking forward to having another busy term 2! 

3rd Class Red

We have had a great term full of learning and fun! 
For science, we made butter from scratch and had it on some bairín breac, it was so easy to make and it was super tasty!
We had a history trip to a local ancient graveyard with all of 3rd and 4th class. We're so lucky to have so many historical sites near our school!

Blue Class

It has been a very busy and exciting term in Blue! The boys have settled back into their school routines and are enjoying being reunited with their friends.
This term, we have been exploring our local community by taking walks along different pathways and routes each day. We were also very lucky to visit a local coffee shop, where the boys had the opportunity to order their own food and pay, helping them build valuable life and social skills.
We even celebrated two birthdays this term — complete with a small party and, of course, some delicious cake!
As part of Mother Tongue Week, we learned all about Nigeria. The boys really enjoyed discovering new facts about another country and its unique culture. We also enjoyed tasting some delicious foods, prepared by some parents from different countries. 
We are looking forward to another busy term in Term 2! 🙂

4th Class Green

4th Class Green have had a fantastic start to the first term! We’ve really enjoyed dressing up for Halloween and getting active with our rugby lessons. We’ve also been learning to play the ukulele and carrying out exciting science experiments in class. 
During Maths Week, we took part in lots of fun maths activities, including maths trails with some of our parents and playing maths games outside. We had a great time learning about Ukraine and presenting projects during mother tongue week and getting a chance to tell our class all about the different languages we speak. We absolutely loved tasting all of the traditional food. 
Some of our class have joined the school choir and they are practicing every week for their performance in the Winter Showcase.
It’s been a busy and brilliant few weeks, and we’re all really looking forward to performing in the Winter Showcase!

4th Class Red

4th Class Red have had a busy and exciting first term. 
The children enthusiastically took part in lots of projects including presentations about the counties of Ireland, posters about the Mayan civilisation and even designed and built their own Norman castles. 
They also took part in rugby lessons, swimming lessons, and learned some great new skills in their ukulele classes. Earlier this term, they prepared and presented a Learn Together assembly on responsibility, showing real creativity and teamwork.
One of the highlights of the term was Mother Tongue Week. The class learned all about Italy, decorated their classroom door, created projects, and got the chance to explore the many different nationalities represented in our school. They especially enjoyed Sidra’s visit, where she shared stories about the culture of Pakistan. Another favourite moment was trying a wide range of cultural foods in the hall. The week finished with a special whole-school Learn Together assembly, which everyone really enjoyed.
 It’s been a full and fun term well done to everyone in 4th Class Red.

5th Class Green

 We have had such a busy term in 5th Green! 5th class have been very lucky this term to have taken part in so many sports initiatives. In September, many of the 5th class students played on the school GAA team. Both the 5th class boys and girls teams did incredibly well. We also took part in athletics training with Niamh as part of our PE lessons. The students learned so many new skills and improved their technique for sprinting, throwing and hurdling.
We have also been really enjoying learning Spanish with teacher Marie Terese. The students have been improving their Spanish each week and some of the students even took part in a Spanish drama in front of the whole school on culture day! The students did so well. They hope to learn more Spanish in 6th class!
5th class Green had an amazing week for culture week. We were treated to a lesson all about Pakistan by Hadia’s Dad, Atta. We also learned all about Sudan and got to see some amazing artefacts that Ahmed’s parents brought in to show us- Thank you Hind & Abubakr! Overall, we had an amazing week and I was so proud to see so many students from 5th class Green performing on culture day! We are currently busy preparing for our Winter Showcase and we can’t wait to invite everyone to see it. 

5th Class Red

5th Class Red has had a busy and exciting time, filled with learning, creativity and plenty of fun! One of the highlights was taking part in the Dream Space Ambassador Programme, where pupils explored STEM skills through engaging challenges and teamwork. We also carried out a range of hands-on science experiments, sparking curiosity and encouraging us to think like real scientists.

In history and literacy, we immersed ourselves in Irish myths and legends, researching famous tales and characters and presenting fantastic projects full of imagination and effort. Creativity was on full display throughout the classroom.

Of course, learning is always better with a few treats along the way, and our cosy hot chocolate moments were very much enjoyed by all!

A special mention must go to our brilliant performance on the theme of helpfulness, starring an unforgettable cast including Kevin the Carrot, Kevin McCallister, Santa and Rudolph. The performance was full of humour, confidence and a wonderful message about kindness and helping others.

Well done to all of 5th Class for their hard work, enthusiasm and positivity — you’ve made it a term to remember!

6th Class Green

Sixth Class are definitely making the most of their final year in Esker! 

Already in term 1 we have learned to play the ukulele with Karen, developed our athletics skills with Niamh, we are learning to speak Spanish with Maria Teresa and we are learning to cycle safely with Don.

We have visited the Round Tower in Clondalkin, the Royal Hospital in Kilmainham and Dublin Castle. 

We have presented projects on Irish presidents, invented unusual sports and have been engineers using Tinkercad. 

We learned about China for Mother Tongue week and had a wonderful talk from Sophie who showed us how to write in Chinese on silk paper. 

Somewhere within all that, we continued with English, Irish, Maths and much more! 

The year is zooming by and we are really excited to continue the fun in term 2! 

6th Class Red

It’s been a busy first term for sixth class red who are certainly making the most of their final year in Esker.

Term 1 brought ukulele with Karen, athletics skills with Niamh, Spanish speaking with Maria Teresa and cycling skills and safety with Don.

We have also been very lucky to have had numerous outings visiting museums and cultural landmarks throughout the city. First up was the Round Tower in Clondalkin followed by the Royal Hospital in Kilmainham and our last trip was to Dublin Castle. Not only are we getting a great opportunity to visit these wonderful historical places, we are taking the public bus and becoming more independent in time for secondary school next year!

We have done research on Irish presidents, watched the live inauguration of Catherine Connolly and then visited the very place where it all took place. It was a truly great experience for the children. 

We learned about Vietnam for Mother Tongue week and had two lovely days tasting lovely cuisines. First, we had a shared food market where students brought in different foods from their home countries as well a second day where we got treated by parents to more wonderful delicacies.

Along with all this, students have been doing work on maths, Irish, English, drama and science!

Let’s hope term 2 is just as busy!

Maths Week

We celebrated Maths Week in October! Parents were invited into the school to take part in a variety of activities including Maths Stations, maths trails and the annual Maths quiz for our 5th & 6th Classes. It was a wonderful week for all!

Mother Tongue Week & Cultural Day

In November we celebrated Mother Tongue week. We had lots of parents in, to read in their home languages and talk about their culture. The children thoroughly enjoyed it and it was so special having so many parents involved. We wrapped up the week with our wonderful Esker Cultural Day. There was an incredible variety of countries and cuisines represented and a beautiful way to celebrate the many cultures represented in our school! Thanks to all the parents involved!

Student Council Fundraiser- One Day Together

The Student Council raised €300 for Educate Together on Friday 24th October, as part of Educate Together’s annual fundraising day - One Day Together. We would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who donated, volunteered their time and made the day so special. We really appreciate your support! 

Learn Together Assemblies

Our weekly Learn Together Assemblies are a special time for us to gather as a school to talk about school life, celebrate achievements, perform dramas, poems and songs and to discuss our Value of the Month. The values we’ve focussed on so far this year are kindness, responsibility, respect and helpfulness. Our Educate Together ethos is reflected through our values and we try to focus on the importance of upholding these values in our day-to-day lives. You can watch our Learn Together Assembly performances on our school website under the ->Initiatives ->Learn Together Assemblies tab.

              Thank you for all your support this term! Wishing you all a restful and peaceful break!