St. Finian's NS, Dillonstown.

Mr Mc Eneany teaches Fifth and Sixth Classes. There are eighteen pupils in his class.

As part of our fund raising day for the Japanese people who were affected by the terrible Tsunami we dressed in Komonos and cooked some Japanese dishes. For art we did some origami. We also examined how to write Haikus and we wrote some Haikus of our own. We hope that you enjoy them.

The oceans my home,
Fish is what fills my stomach,
I am trained for tricks.
By:Aideen, Sixth class.



Always obeying,
Still never running astray
To play is okay

By: Jack
Class :5th class.

A scaly body,
Slithering on the ground,
Venom filled forked tongue.
Niamh, 12 6th class J




What am I?
Different colours,
Chasing after cats is fun,
Play with my owner.
Katie 6th class.

What am l?
Very tall and fast,
Trots along the beach with pride,
Jumping I can do.

Ciarán
6th class
Big teeth in my mouth,
Everything is my dinner,
In the sea I live!
By Kian 6th class!


Cute and friendly pet,
They say I'm a man's, best friend,
Run and play all day.

By: Kara
Class: 5th Class.



The jungle is home ,
Sleep most of day eat all night,
Clinging on to trees

By: Sarah
Class: 5th class J



Likes bamboo for food
Black with white middle
Chubby and giant
Leah 5th class


White with lots of fur,
Coming close to extinction,
Seals for my breakfast.
By Kevin age12

A big bill I have,
Australia I live in now,
I live in the stream.
By Ben age 12


Sea is where I live
Hole on top of me to breath
I am black and white
By Melissa Age 12

Hello. We are here to tell you about our school grounds and how we recycle our rubbish. We reuse plastic bottles to protect the bark of the trees from hares and rabbits. We also reuse our books, we have a book scheme where we reuse the same books every year until they need to be updated. Our Parents' Association spend many hours during the summer holidays putting protective covers on our books so that they will last much longer.

LITTER CONTROL

Our Vice Principal's [Mrs. Quinn] class has a litter patrol every Tuesday and Friday. Every year 5th and 6th classes have a spring clean, along the road, from the church and back to the school. Third and Fourth classes also have an annual spring clean of the school grounds. Our school policy is that we don't take any food in a wrapper outside. We are only allowed to bring fruit outside and when we are finished, we have to put the leftovers in the composter. On Fridays, we are allowed one small treat and we must bring home the wrappers.

WASTE MANAGEMENT

Each classroom has three bins, a non-recyclable bin and a paper and cardboard bin and a plastics bin. When the bins are full, the two bin men, Kian and Ben, empty them, Laurence and Adam are apprentice bin men and will take over next year when Kian and Ban leave. Aaron, from 4th class, empties the plastic's bins from our classrooms when they are full. We put our drinks bottles and cartons in the bins and Aaron empties the bins into the recycling station in our outdoor classroom. We also have a container to put our fruit peelings and pencil parings in. These are then brought to our composter every afternoon. Each year, there is a person from each classroom picked to empty the composter box from each classroom once a day. We have also got a wormery and some of our food waste is put in the wormery to make new compost and liquid fertilser. When we are using paper or photocopying, we always use both sides of the paper as not to waste any paper. We also make notebooks for the teachers and the office out of used photocopying paper. When we do art on Friday's, we keep spare paper and scraps. In the school, we have many posters on the walls. We have lots of anti-litter posters and recycling posters. In our toilets we have a toilet paper dispenser. When you go to pull some of toilet paper out, only one sheet comes out at a time. It's very useful so that we don't waste the paper.
When we wash our hands we only use one paper towel to dry them with.

There are bicycle racks in the school and now up to ten children ride their bikes to school every day. This cuts down on the amount of fuel used by our parents in their cars.

APPEARENCE OF SCHOOL GROUNDS

In our outdoor classroom we have a recycling station, a bird feeding station and a garden shed. Adam and some helpers water the plants every second day. During the summer Aideen and Adam will water all the plants and vegetables. We have a mini forest out the back of the school, Drumcar's gardening club helped a lot and we are glad to have them so close to our school. We have planted about thirty trees around the back of the school with the help of the gardening club. Some of the parents of the children in the school have volunteered to come to the school, take out their class and show them how to plant fruit and vegetables. Each class has a planting box at the front of the school and 4th, 5th and 6th painted them with blue, green, yellow and red paint. We have lots of vegetables in the planting boxes. In our planting boxes, we look every morning to see if there are weeds. If there are any weeds, then we pick them out and, if there are any little insects eating at the plants, then we notify our teacher. The caretaker Thomas sprays the weeds. We also use eggshells as a deterrent for slugs. If you put old eggshells in the oven to dry out, and then put them around plants, then it works brilliantly. When we entered the Incredible Edibles Challenge, we planted potatoes, carrots, lettuce, spinach and strawberries. Every child in the school has planted their own sunflower. In our planting boxes, Junior Infants planted herbs, Senior Infants planted curly kale, First Class planted onions and leeks, Second Class planted potatoes, Third Class planted strawberries, Fourth Class planted cabbages, Fifth Class planted brussel sprouts and Sixth Class planted salad crop, beetroot, lettuce and chives. One day 4th, 5th and 6th class went to the Garden Centre in St. Mary's, Drumcar and with the help of Seamus and Gabrielle, we planted lots of colourful flowers in our ten window boxes and our two hanging baskets. We have been working on the semi-circular bed at the front of the school. We are working with our friends from Drumcar to transform this area with box hedge and flowerbeds. We also had a competition to design a scarecrow using recycled materials. Our scarecrows are standing on guard at our planting boxes.

We have a nesting box with a camera in it so we can see the little chicks hatching out. Unfortunately no birds have used it yet. The camera is connected to the television and video recorder in Mrs Quinn's classroom. We also have a butterfly box and we are hoping that some butterflies will use it to spend the winter in. They will then help us to pollinate our plants and flowers. We have a bee habitat for solitary bees which are non-aggressive and so safe around children. They are also great pollinators. There is a nature lodge for ladybirds and lacewings which should help us control black and green flies in our garden.

Thomas is the school caretaker and he does lots of jobs which have a big impact on the school. He cuts the grass regularly and puts the grass cuttings in the corner at the back of the school.

ENERGY MANAGEMENT

We also have small posters all around the school on the walls. The posters tell us to turn off the lights, close the doors, turn off the taps and to recycle. Each classroom turns off their computers each day at the end of school. In the 5th and 6th classroom, Aideen turns on the interactive whiteboard each morning and Kevin turns off the interactive whiteboard each evening. We also check that all equipment is turned off before we leave in the evening.