First  & Second Class Blog

We are learning about Australia in geography. We completed a koala report and painted the koalas which are displayed in the school hallway. Koalas are marsupials and are native to Australia.

Our spring bulbs are beginning to bloom. We also spotted a bird’s nest in a tree in the school yard. Our St. Brigid’s crosses made from lollipop sticks are displayed in our classroom.

Last month we worked on procedural writing -how to build a snowman. We had fun drawing snowmen and hot chocolate in our art class .

We had fun investigating ramps and slopes in class. In groups, we made ramps using a kitchen roll tube and propped it up with our school books. We then timed how long it took for a toy car to roll to the bottom. We loved experimenting and finding out what worked best!

Our annual Christmas performance takes place next week. Hope to see you all there.

1st - 4th classes had a wonderful trip on Tuesday to see ‘Glitchmas’ in the Hawkswell Theatre in Sligo. Thank you to Niamh McGrath and Orla McSharry who generously made time to take a photo with us after the performance. Thank you also to the entire cast and crew for a wonderful show.

We are having great fun being engineers with our new resources during activity time. We are also using the tablets this month to work on our maths skills

We had a busy week investigating light and static electricity. We used a torch to investigate whether items were transparent or opaque and recorded our results. We learned how static electricity can be caused by things rubbing together. We rubbed a balloon on a woolly jumper and touched items such as paper, tissue paper, card and our hair! Finally, we are investigating the importance of washing our hands correctly. We are using bread to demonstrate this. We are continuing

We planted hyacinth and tulip bulbs last week. We look forward to watching these grow over the coming months. We are observing a hyacinth bulb growing in a jar and are surprised at how quickly roots have appeared. Nature is amazing.

Wishing all our school community a happy, safe mid term break. Happy Halloween.

We have had lots of fun drawing skulls, mummies and spiders.

Materials and Change You will need: vinegar, I tablespoon bread soda, funnel, white balloon, bottle and black marker. What to do: pour the vinegar into the bottle. Put the bread soda into the ballon using the funnel. Attach the balloon to the bottle and hold the balloon up and let the bread soda fall in to the vinegar. Results: The balloon inflates. Then the bread soda and vinegar mixed we get a fizzy reaction Carbon dioxide is produced.

1st and 2nd class had lots of fun for Maths week. We completed a maths trail around the school and played dice games in maths class.

Now that we’re back at school, let’s keep reminding each other how important handwashing is for staying healthy.

1st and 2nd class have been busy settling back into the school routine. We completed self portraits in art class and displayed them in the hall.

We hope everyone is having a great summer. We will be delighted to welcome back all our pupils next week. We especially look forward to welcoming our junior infant children who will be starting their first day in school!

We had a lovely time exploring the sea shore today. We discovered lots of little crustaceans and various types of seaweed. We also covered a little local history on the way there!

We are thrilled to announce that our school has been awarded its 10th Green Flag, this time for Global Citizenship – Food and Biodiversity! This prestigious achievement reflects the hard work and dedication of our entire school community in promoting environmental awareness, sustainable food choices, and the protection of biodiversity. Through a variety of projects, from planting crops to exploring food miles our students have shown incredible commitment to making a positive

1st - 4th classes had a super, fun filled day at the Let’s Go multi activity camp at Sligo ATU today.

The weather didn't get in the way as we had a thoroughly enjoyable Sports Day with lots of fun team games and activities. We are very lucky to have our yard, pitch and soft play area for these days.

Busy Bees! We had a great day with Peter Neary where we learned all about our native bees and the wonders of how honey is produced. It was fascinating.

Our school currently has an art piece on loan from the Glucksman Exhibition. We are delighted to be involved with this creative initiative which is supported by the Arts Council. It has been a great stimulus and inspiration for the childrens' artistic activities.

All roads lead to Rathlee on Friday June 13th for our annual 5k fundraiser for our school. It is always a fun evening and is a great way for everyone in our school community to get together. See you all there!

Congratulations to 2nd class who received the sacrament of First Holy Communion today with Fr. Joseph. Thank you to the Parents Association who organised a wonderful celebration with refreshments and cake in the school afterwards for the pupils and their families.

1st and 2nd had fun making these chicks using card, wool and googly eyes. We also made paper bouquets this month also.

What you need :Daffodil, jar, water, blue food colouring What you do: Fill a jar with water and add a little blue food colouring. Place the daffodil in the jar and leave for a few hours. Observe the flower over the next couple of days.

Healthy eating is very important in Rathlee NS and we are really enjoying participating in this year's Food Dudes Programme which encourages us to eat more fruit and vegetables at home and in school. Well done everyone!

We all love reading in Rathlee NS and this year's Book Fair has been a tremendous success. Thanks to everyone in our school community for your support.

We were delighted to participate in the Easkey St. Patrick's Day Parade. The children dressed up in environmental themed costumes and played their tin-whistles. Thank you to all who took part and all the staff in our school who helped on the day.

We planted our potatoes, strawberries, carrots and lettuce seeds. We look forward to watching these grow over the next couple of months.

Lá Fhéile Pádraig sona daoibh!

Congratulations to second class who celebrated the sacrament of Reconciliation in Rathlee church on the 11th March 2025.

At break we took some photos. We were very excited to spot a small nest in a tree in the front yard. We painted some lovely spring flowers in our art class.

1st and 2nd class made St.Brigid’s crosses from coloured card. Thank you to Michelle for demonstrating how to make a cross from rushes for us. 1

We are really excited to be hosting our annual Enrolment Evening on Tuesday January 28th. We are really looking forward to meeting the children and parents in our community as they take the first step in their primary school education.

Wishing you a happy, peaceful Christmas from the staff and pupils of Rathlee National School

We explored data this week using smartie sweets. We sorted all the smarties into coloured sets and then counted each of the sets. We coloured block graphs to display the contents of our smartie box. We had great fun and enjoyed having them as a treat after the maths activity.

1st and 2nd class had great fun experimenting with a variety of magnets. First we predicted which items magnets would attract and which items would not.   We sorted these into 2 groups will attract and will not attract.  We also learned new vocabulary associated with magnets such as attract, repel, pole.

We are had lots of fun creating wonderful pictures in our art class

Junior to 2nd class had a wonderful trip to the Hawkswell Theatre to see “The Snowman”. Thank you to all involved in the show. We thoroughly enjoyed it.

We have been covering pattern in maths. We decided to integrate this science experiment with the topic. You will need Skittles White plate Warm water Instructions Place the skittles around the edge of the plate. Carefully pour warm water over the top. Watch as the colours spread through the water! The Skittles are coated in food colouring and sugar. When you pour water over the skittles the coloured coating dissolves and diffuses through the water. Colourful patterns can be

We planted daffodil bulbs in pots before the Midterm break. We have a hyacinth bulb on display in our classroom and look forward to watching the roots grow over the coming months.

We had great fun making shapes with mini marshmallows, cocktail sticks and spaghetti.

We had a very exciting day on Friday. The children wore their Halloween costumes to school and also brought their pumpkin creations in for our annual competition. There was fantastic creativity. Well done to the prize-winners in each classroom. Thank you to our hard working Parents Association on organising this fun activity. Later in the day, we went to Kilglass for the Scary Wood Walk which was very spooky!