[Helen O Sullivan]

Hi

My name is Helen O Sullivan and I am a Senior Infant teacher .I love every minute of teaching the seniors >I love their curious minds and their total lack of filter !!!

My amazing space fact :Myself and the 1st  landing on the moon are the same age !!!!

[Helen O Sullivan]

Hi Niamh

Definitely think and agree with you about jobs at the start of the year. Bin monitors/light monitors /Recycling bins monitors has made a huge difference to our school.

If today’s children continue with this level of awareness well the the future is very bright indeed.

[Helen O Sullivan]

Sustainability in all areas is so important. It’s how we will gift our environment onto the next generation. Thankfully I can see it being practised in many ways in my local community and where I teach.

Locally we have a tidy towns group a fabulous and a nature group. We have a guy who gives lectures on the importance of bees and these are so informative when he is around locally. He goes into the local little primary school. By the time my children were in 6th class they had a wealth of knowledge about wildlife, conservation and sustainability Our little village always looks so beautiful. Teenagers and children are always involved in the summer works around the village.

Then where I teach we have the Green School Committee which are very successful in communicating the sustainability message throughout the school. The children on the committee are taken from every class from juniors to 6th class. With the help of the caretaker we have a beautiful sensory garden and vegetable garden.

Recycling is the biggest and most important aspect of the Green school work in the school. Regardless of the Green Schools theme recycling is always the number one interest in the school. Battery recycling is also a priority.

The future, going forward, is bright for the children in our school.

[Helen O Sullivan]

This is a great link to have ,

Thank you for this.

[Helen O Sullivan]

Hi

I very much agree that by using the fabulous video clips a conversation can be started re listing jobs associated with aquaculture.
Even in the very junior classes this would start something that could be built on later on in the more senior classes .

[Helen O Sullivan]

Lesson: The nutrition of mussels

The Arc lessons are fabulous. I particularly loved the Nutrition of Sea food. So much beautiful and very useful information here. So much that lends itself to cross curricular links starting with nutrition. I always alike the food we put in tur bodies to the type of fuel we put into our cars. Bad fuel and that car with splutter, stop and cause engine damage. This is the same as our bodies. Good information about food will help the body to keep going and use its energy in the correct way.

I would love to start with the information about the intertides and how mussels and oysters are found near the top as their hard shells can help them survive when they are out of water during low tides. I found this fascinating especially the fact that they can store seawater in their shells during this time. It would be so interesting for the children to explore this. It would really spark their interest to learn more about this.

Hopefully this would stem their interests (if you pardon the pun) in stem activities .This will lead on to exploration in Geography re locations on the coastlines/calculating high and low tides/effects of gulf stream winds etc.

The science factor of this can be explored through the effects of eating mussels and the body benefitting from this through healthy red blood cells and transport of oxygen through the body

The healthy benefits from eating salmon and omega 3 and vitamins will all tie in .

Hstory :Well the salmon of knowledge story is where it all begins !!

 

So much exploration can take place from this which should lead to exploration of stem in a very practical way.

Rather than STEM activities being an isolated entity I think when discussing the SSE process to include these activities through the subject being explored. This way STEM is seen as being interrelated throughout the primary school curriculum and the children will benefit more from this

 

[Helen O Sullivan]

It must have been really inteersting to have known about mussel farming growing up .

I knew nothing about aquaculture !!!

I didnt taste a mussle til I was well into my 20’s (many moons

ago !!!).

Its good that the younger generation are much more aware of this .

[Helen O Sullivan]

First of all, I really enjoyed this module. The content was so interesting, the video clips were informative and beautiful to watch.

I am all the better for doing it and learnt so much

Location

Aquaculture takes place mainly on the western seaboard, on the Atlantic coastline in bays and inlets as well as on the shoreline.

Like the fishing industry aquaculture supports local coastal communities directly and indirectly.

Muscle, oyster and salmon farming are the main sources of aquaculture in Ireland. This impacts very positively on the socio economic welfare of the coastal community. First and foremost, it provides yearlong employment which will provide regular income and thus encourage the area from dying out.

This is hugely important.

Also these areas will attract people with an interest in the Arts to settle here as it will greatly inspire artistic works in Music/Art and Drama

You now have a rich tapestry of people here providing employment and the Arts thus attracting tourists to the area

So from a socio-economic point of view it will help a community, which might otherwise die away, to thrive.

So directly through employment and indirectly through the Arts etc.  aquaculture helps the community to thrive

[Helen O Sullivan]

Hi Robert

For sure the cinememtic experience is spectatular and will for sure enthrall the children

It is indeed spectatular and speaks for itself !.

[Helen O Sullivan]

I am so delighted with myself for choosing this course. It is so interesting, beyond interesting even, that I am watching the video clips over and over again. I had no idea so much material was available online. I know the children will be enthralled by it all.

The children will benefit so much from the educational and nutritional benefit of the content. The historical aspect will interest them very much. Cross curricular links are so easy to match up such is the variety in the content. Most important I think will be the nutritional aspect. This will have the largest impact. For an island population we don’t teach enough about the benefits of fish.

The Arc is the tool which I want to use. I was total enthralled with this and without doubt the children will love it. The non-classroom aspect of the set up will immediately engage them. I have already signed up for it and so look forward to whenever we are lucky enough to get a visit.

The Taste the Atlantic model a Seafood Journey is a great way to introduce the joys of fish in a gradual way through salmon, mussels and oysters. I’m glad it has just focussed on these four fish types so that it won’t overwhelm the children …or myself!!!

The abalone is a new one for me. As well as the joys of fish they will also be able to trace the Wild Atlantic Way. Being able to emerge themselves in tracing the source of these fish will be so interesting.

I very much look forward to using the material and introducing this to the school next term.

[Helen O Sullivan]

Hi

There are some lovely ideas here. I look forward to reading about Mary Ward. I would certainly, by the reading, of this love to introduce her history into my class work .

[Helen O Sullivan]

·       Describe how you would involve your pupils in an art, music drama or creative writing project based around your local natural or scientific heritage

 

We are lucky to have a beautiful Grove and river right across from the school .It was originally the site of the first people :the Deise people: to come to the town now called Bru na Ndeise  or Bruff in Co Limerick .This grove has a rath called An Binn Liosin.This is a local natural beauty spot well loved by all .There were ring forts here . They were dwelling places and farmsteads which provided protection from predators for humans and farm animals.

There is so much scope here for the Arts to flourish.

First of all, we will have a great discussion about what we imagine the ring forts were like.

Then we compare what we imagined to pictures of ring forts.

We can discuss the wildlife, the flowers, the trees, the houses, their beds, the river the food the smells, the people, the clothes etc. etc.

Drama would be a natural starting point here. We could create a drama around the people living here /how they lived their daily lives/what did they eat /drink/wash /clean

How did they entertain themselves at night which will lead us on to music and dance

I have an infant class so with our instruments we can create the sounds of the forest and the river. Onto this we can create a dance around the camp fire.

We can introduce tension into the drama by creating a problem: a predator on the attack.

Lots of questioning about how we will defend ourselves/what will we use/who will defend/where will the children be?

Victory: After the people have won there will be a victory celebration with music /dance/food.

Creative writing with pictures and sentences should be a very interesting follow up

Art work will be very dramatic using all the strands;

Drawings of any scene

Paintings; Very vibrant colours will be used

Prints: of leaves and sticks we find in the grove

Construction: Research of fort houses and creating simple structures

Clay: representations of the houses

Fabric and fibre: Using wool strings create flowers and plants pictures

At the end of the week we will display our work/perform our Drama for the other infant class

 

 

 

[Helen O Sullivan]

Hi there

Having the Locke gate is fabulous.

I love  the way you clearly set out the ctiteria for bridge construction .

I will be taking that and using it .

• This reply was modified 1 year, 6 months ago by Helen O Sullivan.
• This reply was modified 1 year, 6 months ago by Helen O Sullivan.

[Helen O Sullivan]

·       Using the suspension bridge in Birr Castle Demesne or a bridge in your local area as inspiration, describe how you would plan a class or whole school challenge to design and make a bridge. How would you integrate mathematical thinking and incorporate the maths skills appropriate to your class level.

 

We have 2 bridges so close to our school. As they are a constant source of fascination for the children they are an ideal starting point!!!

We are well used to creating art and drama around the bridges so creating and investigating bridges is an ideal activity especially for my Infants!!

We will start with a story about going to the mart …but how will we get our animals over!

We can have fun with lots of oral language with the children contributing ideas. I’m sure they will say boats, walk them over etc. and we can discuss the obvious problems with these ideas.

We can move on to building a bridge!

We can use toy animals and discuss the type of bridge we need.

We can discuss wooden bridges and cement bridges act.

The children can draw their ideas.

We will then discuss how we can make our own bridge which must be strong enough to carry e toy animals over.

We can use playdough for modelling our ideas.

So much maths talk will go in the constructing of these bridges. How much will we need /how many pillars do we need. Around what length/height /width etc.

Estimation and guessing will play a big role here as will be applying and problem solving.

Reasoning and explaining will be how they formulate their plan

Implementing and carrying out their plan will be the final result,

 

They can then present their plan to the class.

I know already they will have so much fun!

[Helen O Sullivan]

I love the idea of registering with the All Ireland Pollinator plan .I will take your ideas about the lavender and herb plants when we get going !!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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