Ghouls in School - The Scary side of class Síocháin ;)

Halloween Dress Up :)

Scary Zoobies

Today was the annual Halloween dress up in the school. Everyone brought in a €2 donation which goes to a chosen charity.  Each year was given a particular theme that they had to dress up as.

• 1st Year were Scary Witches 
• 2nd years were Crazy Pirates 
• 3rd years were Villains and Super Heroes 
• TY. Spooky Zombies
• 5th year's were Scary Clowns 
• 6th Years Harry Potter characters.

This year I dressed up as a Zombie Mechanic. I must say a great effort was made by all, however only 2 people from every class was chosen to represent their class in the fashion show in the hall at lunch. Lucky Shannon and Zoe did class Síocháin proud by winning both prizes in TY, so well done girls! ;) There was a fantastic atmosphere throughout the school I would like to say thanks to all of the Prefects who organised the dress up day! It was a truly unforgettable day. 

Work Experience video - Week 4

The Big Bad World

Well, we have been on our work experience every Wednesday for 5 weeks now and I am really enjoying my placement at St. James' research lab in the Institute of Molecular medicine. So far I have learnt how to extract and also genotype DNA. I have also worked in the Bio informatics section. You can read all about what I do from week to week on my work experience blog. 

Here is the link to  my work experience blog: 
http://katiesworkexperience.blogspot.ie/

This week we interviewed each other on our work experience take a look above!

Up and coming fashion designers!

It's now six weeks into our Junk Kouture project and we are making great progress. Our theme is Powerful Greek Goddesses and the Goddess we choose is Medusa. We plan to make a large snake covered in CD's that will be raped around the modal; we also plan to make great headpiece out of tapes from old videos to give the outfit that mysteries look. So far we have completed the paper mache for the bodes and have stuck on the center of the CD's onto the bottom of the bodes. I collected over a 100 CD's from my friends and family and then cut them all up into smaller pieces. At present we are drilling the holes in the CD's so that we are able to sow them onto the material which will be wrapped around the dress. We are also dismantling old electrical equipment; we will use some of the electrical components and wires to add some detail to the dress. Hopefully after the midterm we will start to make significant progress and everything will start to come together. 

You can look at what all of the other TY Junk Kouture groups are up to by clicking on the link bellow to the  TY art blog. 

TY Junk Kouture Blog 

Here are just some pictures of what some of the winning costumes looked like from last year ( We have a lot to live up to) :

Dress made out of Orange peelings

Lady Data

Here's a link to the Junk Kouture offical website if you want to take a look:

http://www.junkkouture.com/

Get on your bike!

Today a man from Kildare County Council came to talk to us about cycling. In his presentation he showed us the importance of cycling and how it can also improve the environment. He also showed us some stats of the number of people that cycle in Ireland by comparison to the number of people who cycle in Sweden. Lets just say there is a huge difference in the numbers! He then went on to talk about the advantages of cycling to school. Throughout his presentation he showed us a number of videos to do with cycling. This video was one of my favorite's, it was made by Mercedes-Benz. It proves that cycling can sometimes be faster than using a car however, it also shows us the advantages and disadvantages of using a car or bike.

The future scientists!

Young Scientist 

At the beginning of October we all sent in our young scientist proposals for judging. I am doing my project with Ruth, our project is to carry out research on the shelf life of milk. We plan to investigate how long it takes milk to “go off” when it is exposed to different temperature and storage conditions. We will then compare our findings to the shelf life that is determined by the milk producers. We chose to investigate milk as it is a common beverage that is used in nearly every household. Everyone has  had  an experience of milk turning sour, often before the best before date. We want to find out what is the best way to avoid this happening. The tests that we intend to carry out are :

1. To investigate whether plastic, cardboard or glass has an effect on the shelf life of the milk, i.e. the containers. 
2. To find out how long it takes for milk to turn acidic, i.e. produce a lactic acid when stored at different temperatures.

We will soon be finding out whether we got through to the BT science exhibition in January. Hopefully we got in, fingers-crossed! :)  However, we will be entering Sci-fest also later on in the year.

If anyone is considering entering for next year here's the link to the website:

http://www.btyoungscientist.ie/

Here is a link to the sci-fest website:

http://www.scifest.ie/

Minor Hockey Match

Today I went with the schools  minor hockey team to St. Raphaela in Sandymount! When we arrived it looked as though their entire year came out to support them! But of coarse the Wolstan's girls went out fighting getting a goal within the first 15 minutes. From then on it only got better, with St. Wolstan's receiving another 2 goals in the second half! 

It was a great game but a lot of the time I was organizing the subs going on and off which is actually a little more difficult than you may think! But luckily I got everyone on and everyone got a chance to dig in! :) 

Afterwards the coach Vinny agreed to bring us to Mac Donald's to celebrate our 3 - 0 victory! I have to say it was well deserved girls  so WELL DONE! :D 

What we've been up to in Choir and Orchestra

Choir 

At the moment there are no up coming school masses which means that we can focus most of our time on the piece we are entering into the Wesley choir competition. The song we are learning is called "Caresse sur l'ocean." It is a bit difficult to learn as it is in French but we are eventually getting our heads around it and putting in the extra practice when we can after school! To date we have learned as far as the end of the first section. :) Here's just a little clip of what it should sound like in the end.

Orchestra

We have just begun learning our new piece which is called "Toy Symphony".  I  am playing the piano part. I believe that the piece will sound pretty impressive once it is finished as there are a lot of people on percussion which add and enhance the sound of the orchestra.  Here's what it should sound like once we are finished (we are only playing the second and final movement) :

TY is no Doss Year ;)

Irish

We have just finished giving our individual presentations on our life, our school and the sports we are interested in through Irish. We are now working on debates as Gaeilge! I won't lie it is a bit of a challenge but of coarse we TY's are up for it! 

Spanish

For the past month we have been studying different movies in Spanish. WE all picked our favorite film and wrote a summary of it in Spanish! If you want to have a look at them they are all hanging up beautifully at the back of Ms. M Spanish room ;) We also just finished the movie we have been watching since the beginning of the year - El Bola. Here's a link to the plot summary.

http://www.fandango.com/elbola_v226992/plotsummary

History

Over the coarse of the last few weeks we have been looking at the different forms of governments in other countries at different periods in history. although it may seem a little boring it actually is really interesting. Some of the forms of governments in the past were absolutely outrageous and no citizens had a say in how their country was governed! We should be doing a write up soon ;) 

Science

Since September we have been studying chemistry in science. we have been up to all sorts of weird and wacky science experiments including turning a copper coin gold ;) We made a volcano out of bread soda and vinegar. We also did a titration experiment! We are now currently working on a poster about the periodic table.

Religion

We have just finished presenting our power point presentations on the millennium development goals in class. My group had goal four on child mortality. I found the project really interesting and I was also surprised at how much they have achieved so far. We are now look up dramas that we could act out in class! this should be really fun :)

Music

We are still learning how to play the guitar at the moment! So far we have 5 chords under our belts! We are also doing a lot of singing in class and finding out which rage suits our voice best. We have just finished learning "Say a little prayer for you" by Aretha Franklin.

 

Maths 

We have been working on algebra mostly for this month. We recently did a project on a famous mathematician. I did mine on Leonardo da Vinci! When I was researching him I found him particularly interesting as he linked maths into art by using perspective. Before I was unaware of the link between the two!

English 

At present we are preparing our debates for Monday! I have never taken part in a debate so it is a new experience for me. 

Tech

My fish key ring

Over the last two months we have completed a lot of practical work. So far I have made a keyring in the shape of a fish and a clock in the shape of a star! This year Mr. W aloud me to come up with some of my own designs as I did tech for my Junior Cert. I also get to help out with other girls in the class who have never done tech before! Tech is by far my favorite subject and we always have a good chat with Mr. W. 

TY so far through pictures

Sweets at Carlingford

Fun Walk

Positive parties

Lazer at carlingford

Zorbing at carlingford

Positive parties

Night Walk at carlingford

Give me some sugar.. I am your neighbour! ;)

Now just imagine the Ty's dressed in big yellow boxes doing this dance! ;) Funny stuff right ;)

Fun walk/ Friendship Week

Fun Walk

Yesterday St. Wolstan's had their annual fun walk! This event is one of the major events that take place in Wolstan's during the year. As per usual each year was given a colour, then each base class had to think of a theme, song, and dance to do with friendship. 

Our lovely lego costumes! 

1st years - Pink,     

2nd years- Purple     

3rd years - Green  

TY's - Yellow

5th years - Blue

6th years - Black and White

My class, Síocháin, dress up as Yellow Lego because Lego always sticks together just like friends! ;) The song that we danced to was Hey Ya, not a song really to do with friendship ;)  However it was very upbeat and lively and everyone had a good laugh which was the main thing! I really enjoyed watch the other classes in the school some classes came up with very innovative ideas! 

This year my class had  to stay at different crossing points along the walk to help people cross the road, you know just in case no-one got knocked down or anything ;) Chanice, Orla, Alanna and I had a great system going with Ms. W, while of corse singing the safe cross code.

Friendship Week 

Educating Essex

Religion

Over the past few Religion classes we have been learning about bullying and how important it is to treat everyone equally. We're watching the channel 4 show Educating Essex. It's about a school, in Essex, that deals with all kinds of problems. We watched the bullying episode. The show focuses on two very different students. Gabby who is the head girl  and Sam who doesn't take school to seriously. Both are victims of bullying in different ways. I thought that the program showed people that anyone can be a bully and anyone can be the victim of the bullying. I really enjoyed watching Educating Essex, I think it is a great show and surprisingly did educate us. 

English

In English we look at some friendship quotes we even made up our own in groups. This is our wonderful quote:

"Friendship is a must,

A mutual bond built on trust,

When with friends you feel like royalty, 

Being accompanied by their loyalty."

These are some of favorite friendship quotes; 

TY 2012/2013 go Kayaking at Carlingford

Business Workshop

On Friday we attended the first of three workshops organized by our Mini Company Teachers at Odeon Cinema in Naas. We attended the workshop with 3 other schools from Kildare. The workshop was presented by a lady called Orla who gave us ways of coming up with ideas for our Mini companies. She showed us some of the winning companies from past years which was very interesting to see the ideas they came up with. She also taught us about working in a team and the roles that must be undertaken. After our teachers kindly brought us to Lidl in Clane! ;) We couldn't stop laughing as the 80 of us walked through the door. Using loose change from the bottom of our bags, we bought the cheapest sweets we could find! :) lol 

When we got home we were just in time for Junk Kouture in Home Ec. Our outfits are really beginning to take shape! I can't wait to see everyone's finished product! 

Today we all finalist our ideas for the Young Scientist with our Science teachers. We will be working hard over the next week in order to finish our proposals which are due next week!

This week is also our first week of work experience hopefully all goes well for everyone.

Workshop Wednesday Week 2

Today we had our second Wednesday of organized activities. Once again we had three workshops.The first was with our Guidance Concealer Ms. H. She made sure that everyone was completely organized with their work experience. She also gave us some advice on what we should do in certain situations if they are to arise. After the workshop I felt more confident about going on work experience as I kind of knew what to expect.

Our second workshop was with Austin.  Everyone had to pick up 8 different coloured flash cards. On each card there was a sentence to summarize the type of person you are, e.g. "Is always thinking of others". Therefore, you choose 8 cards that suit your personality the best. We then were divided into four groups depending on the colour of the cards that we choose. Each colour represented a type of personality. Then Austin talked about what each person with that type of personality is best at. He discussed with us how different people can mask there true personality also. Overall the workshop was absolutely excellent. I definitely learned a lot about the different types of people/personalities in the world.

Our third and final workshop was a Positive Party! We not only had a great time messing around with each other in the masks that Denise brought for us, we also learned about how to interact with people in the work place. She spoke to us about building re-pore with our employers, she also spoke to us about how we should great our employers and our co-workers.

Class Síocháin

Class Cairdeas

Class Cinealtas

The Song of Carlingford

The TY's Sang this night and day all through Carlingford!

I Follow Rivers - Lykke Li

The Amazing Carlingford! (day one)

Who knew that only two days in an adventure center in Carlingford would give you so much!? We learned loads about ourselves and about each other as we worked in different teams for 5 activities.

There was an early start for all TY's as we had to be down at the Esso station for 7 o'clock. There was also a last minute scrabble to Spar for some extra goodies for the trip ;) When we arrived we met with our instructors and we were divided in half for the first days activities. After we choose our rooms, our instructors Chris and Andy brought us out to a shed to put on our army gear for Laser tag! It was so funny putting on the overalls and camouflage hats! Then, we were each given a Laser gun! The one piece of advice Andy gave us was not to point the guns in through the windows of shops as it looked like the army was in town! :L However a group of 40 giddy TY's weren't going to listen to that! ;)

After a tiring trek up a hill (well it was more like a slope, however it felt must steeper as we are just quite unfit really) we sat in the "dead zone" as the instructors told us some of the basic rules! we then commenced our major soot out! At first my team was brilliant at killing everyone on the red team! (Go Blues!) But eventually the Reds got the hang of it and began to beat us! :(

Later on we got changed into our swimming togs and walked down to the pier for our second activity. We each got into our wetsuits and got ready to get in our boats. Some people got the hang of it straight away, while others fell overboard a few times. ;) We stopped after a few minutes and went into a cave with a waterfall. Apparently if you put your head under the waterfall for 10 seconds you will live an extra day! :) While we waited for some of other people to finish going in we played in the sea and acted like seals in our life vests while it pored out of the heavens! lol We also sang a good bit ;) High School Musical all the way ;)

Check out http://www.stwolstansty.blogspot.ie/ on the home page to see us in action on the water! :)

And the results are in ....

The main highlight of this week was getting our Junior Cert results. There were a few nerves going around for the first half of this week, however we were given a lovely lie in on Wednesday morning before we came in to receive our results. At 12:30 on Wednesday afternoon we all lined up in our old third year base classes for the very last time! You could feel the tension in the air as we watched the brown envelopes come through the hall door in the hands of Ms. S. Once the envelopes were distributed there was an out burst of screams and shouts of joy! I was extremely happy with what I got! Overall everyone received fantastic results, so well done girls! :) After this most of us went to Time in Naas for a well deserved night out.  The following day the As, Bs, Cs, and Ds were nearly all forgotten about! :)

Now we all can't wait to go to Carlingford on Monday! We should all have great fun participating in the wired and wonderful activities they have planned for us!

Workshop Wednesday Week 1

On Wednesdays TY's have no scheduled classes, so instead we had three different workshops organized by Ms. L. The first workshop was with two lady's who spoke to us about manners and etiquette which will be very important once we begin our work experience in a few weeks. The second workshop was called "Life Without Limits". Here we got to know our new classes mates a little better by telling everyone our most embarrassing moment in life. You have to say some girls stories were quite funny but we all ended up laughing at ourselves after a while! :)  To finish off the exciting day we had a positive party! :D To be honest, I didn't really know what to expect and I was kind of worried when the instructor emptied a bag of over sized nickers into the middle of the floor :O She then split us up into groups of three and we had to put the pants on the way you would not wear a normal pair of pants! :D Everyone was in sticks laughing! :) I can't wait for our next positive party! Here's the link to positive parties : http://positiveparties.com/

Thanks to Ms. L for organizing the workshops for us they really did provide us with a day of fun! K - :)

My first week of fun

This is actually really exciting, I've never blogged before so it's really different and fun. I also can't believe that a whole week has past in TY. You get up to so much in just one week. In TY the year is mixed into three new classes. They're called Cinealtas, Cairdeas and Síocháin. It was a bit weird at the beginning of the week not being with certain people from our old base classes but already class Síocháin (woah!) are having a great laugh together. Ms.H told us that we were the loudest class she teaches! :) Opps! 

This year we get the opportunity to try all of the subjects, even those that we hadn't done for the Junior Cert. In technology we're making a keyring while in music we're learning how to play the guitar! :) I know two chords so far! Major achievement! We've started loads of different projects including Junk Kouture in Home Economics and Art. We have also started Young Scientist in Science. At first it's difficult to come up with an idea but after a few brainstorming sessions the project begins to come to life and is really fun! The aim of Junk Kouture is to design and make a dress or outfit completely made out of recyclable materials! For my project we're making a Medusa themed dress. So far we've just started the paper maché.

Also in Geography we have to plan an around the world trip to 2 first, second and third world countries. Very exciting! However I just ended up spending  the geography class finding out whether Dubai was a country or city on the internet! It was quite funny really! :)

K- :)