Christmas is Over

Yes Christmas is  over and I hope Saint Nicholas/Santa Claus was good to everyone. It did not snow in Donegal but it did pretty much everything else...gales, hailstones,rain and just a little bit of sun and blue sky. Everyone is getting ready for the New Year!
There was a fun day today in Loch an Iúir- locals braved the wind and the rain and took part in a fun run/walk. Then it was back to the pub for some soup and sandwiches. A great day was had by all. Well done to all those who wrapped up warm and walked or ran!!
Hopefully I will get a few pictures soon.

Our Christmas Message to you all.

The Christmas Play.

The whole school took part in our Christmas plays and they were enjoyed by all. The Infant Class were dressed up as elves and looked cute  indeed. The middle classes told the Christmas Story and Rang 5/6 put on their version of the old panto The Three Bears- Goldie Boyle and the 3 Bears!! Goldie certainly got the laughs!!!

The Shepherds

The Angels

Mary And Joseph

Goldie Boyle!! Galanta/Beautiful



The Christmas Elves



Christmas Events in School

We have been very busy in school this last week. We were getting ready for our Car Boot Sale . There were a lot of people there on the day and we raised a lot of money.

Young Business People



Beautiful Hand Sewen Table Settings.



Cheol chóir na scoile/The infants sang hymns.

LOGO Competition- Loch an Iúir Winners

We have the winners from our school competition. Well done to Bernadette(11yrs) in Rang 5 and Shane(10yrs)  and also in Rang 5. A special to Ciara(9yrs)  in 3rd Class who made the top six.
All the children in the school had a vote. Good luck to all the logos all over Europe

Logo Bernadette Nic Suibhne Rang 5

Logo Shane Ó Baoill Rang 5

It's Getting Nearer!!

There is great excitement in Loch an Iúir as the big day gets ever closer. There are signs of Christmas all around the school and every class is busy decorating the school.

We made Christmas Logs

Waiting for Dadaí na Nollag

A Christmas Poem

'Jesus was born in Bethlehem

Around the Countries

Poland

Vintage Polish Postcard St Nicholas Center Collection

St. Nicholas by A. Wojtczak St Nicholas Center Collection

St. Nicholas, called Sw. Mikolaj, is a saintly, dignified figure in Poland; he comes as a bishop, carrying a crozier. Descending from Heaven with an angel helper, he travels on foot or in a sleigh pulled by a white horse as he visits homes in the countryside. When he appears, the eager children cry, "He has come! He has come!" St. Nicholas' presence fills the room with his smile, the twinkle in his eye, and his welcoming, booming voice. Children recite their catechism and prayers.
St. Nicholas rebukes or praises, as appropriate, before distributing holy pictures, red apples or oranges, and pierniki (saint cookies made with honey and spices). If he doesn't come in person, treats are put under sleeping children's pillows or left in freshly cleaned and polished shoes left out for the saint. St. Nicholas acts in his traditional religious role as a protector and patron saint while encouraging Polish children to be well-behaved, as there are switches for naughty children.

Icon by M.Hniedziewicz

On Christmas children eagerly await the end of Wigilia (Christmas) dinner, for then they will unwrap their presents and discover if they have received what they requested in letters to St. Nicholas.  Sometimes the good saint appears again, asking questions to determine how the children have behaved.  Then he distributes the gifts and quietly disappears to visit other excited children.
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St Nicholas coming down from Heaven ~ Czech Postcard St Nicholas Center Collection

Czech Republic
The most popular of the Advent holidays was—and still is—St. Nicholas Day. It is the only one of the old Czech Advent holidays still celebrated today. It is a special time when children receive sweets and small gifts. They used to be apples, nuts and sweets, while now they are chocolate, toy cars and other small presents. St. Nicholas Day also reminids people that Baby Jesus will soon be here.
Angels lower St. Nicholas, or Svaty Mikuláš,, with a basket of apples, nuts, and candies, down from heaven on a heavy golden cord. On December 5th, the eve of St. Nicholas Day, three figures—kindly St. Nicholas who gives gifts to children, a Devil who comes to take bad children away, and an Angel who pleads on their behalf—form a procession marking the beginning of the Christmas season. The streets are filled with devils rattling chains, St. Nicholases with white cotton beards, long robes and bishops' staffs, and angels with paper wings on their way to visit small children in their homes.
Traditionally, St. Nicholas quizzed children on the prayer-book and the Bible. Today, however, the questions are mostly about the previous year's behavior. The angel writes a record for each child in a large book and the children sing or say a poem to the saint. The devil rattles his chains, threatening to carry bad children off, but the angel, with a gold star on her forehead and dressed in a white gown, protects the children.

St Nicholas with Angel and Devil 1937 Czech Postcard

ST NICHOLAS DAY

A happy St.Nicholas Day to all our European friends.
Enjoy the treats and sweets!!

Logo Competition

The children in Loch an Iúir have been very busy designing their logos  for the project. There are some great ideas so far. Dont forget all the logos must be in by this Friday. We will display them on the notice board and then we will pick the best 2 . They will be put onto the general blog and we can all vote.
Best of luck to all the children from all the schools in the project.

    'MAY THE BEST LOGO WIN'

Sneachta-Snow?

Will it snow this year before Christmas? It is getting wet and windy here in Donegal and it is definately colder.
This time last year we were off school because it was freezing. Many people made new friends like the one below. Last year the snowmen stayed for almost a month before they melted away!!!

Fear Sneachta-A snowman from last year!

Loch an Iúir- A little bit about our local area.

The Island of the Yew Tree

Loch an Iúir is a beautiful village in North West Donegal.Loch an Iúir got its name from the Yew tree on the Island in the middle of the lake.There are beautiful sights to be seen in Loch an Iúir.

Down by the Boat Club, on the Lake

There are about 500 people living in the area.
Our local shop is called Moores Gala and sells most things you need everyday. It also has a small cafe.
There is a lovely traditional pub called 'Casadh an tSúgáin' and they hold all sorts of events there.

Casadh an tSúgáin Pub

Every summer 100's of young students come to Loch an Iúir to learn Irish. They stay for 3 weeks in local houses.
Every Christmas the Cross on the edge of the village is lit up to welcome home all the people who are returning for Christmas. When they see the cross lit up, they know they are home and that Christmas is near.

The Cross outside the Village.

(Written by Bernadette/Ciaran,5th class and Amy 6th class.)

Christmas Cards

All the children in Loch an Iúir school have been busy designing their own Christmas Cards. The children were asked to draw an image of Christmas and these images were used to make their own personalized cards. We are now going to sell the cards and raise money for the school.
Here are some of the pictures. Nollaig Shona means Happy Christmas in the Irish Language.

Ireland win Poll!!

Hopefully the prediction will come true...according to our latest poll Ireland are to win the European Championship!! Thanks for voting. Keep an eye out for our next poll.

Getting Ready for Christmas

Next week will be the start of December an in Loch an Iúir we are getting ready for Christmas. All the classes are busy doing something in preparation for a Christmas concert which will be good. The children in Rang 5/6, 5th and 6th class are rehearsing for Goldie agus na 3 Béar. This is our version of the traditional story of Goldilocks and the 3 Bears...the pupils helped to write the script and put in their own slant of the story...watch this space in the future for photo's etc.
So how do our partner schools in Europe prepare for Christmas?
We would be interested to find out. Why not post something to let us know?
We look forward to seeing your stories.
Also look out for some of our Christmas Cards...to be posted soon.

Poll Winner

Congratulations to Athletico Bilbao, the winners of our first poll.
Thank you for voting and please vote in our next poll, which again is football  related.
Well done to all our partner countries for qualifying for the European Finals.
 There will be some fun next month when we see the group draw.
Who will be in Ireland's group??!!

Halloween in Loch an Iúir

We enjoy Halloween in our school. Like everyone else we dress up and go around 'trick or treating'
This year it was a bit different.
We went' Mumming' In Ireland Mummers dressed up in  fancy dress, wore masks and went from house to house singing and dancing, telling stories or maybe acting out a short play.
This year we had a visit from The Armagh Rhymers and we took part in a workshop. After that we had a parade through Loch An Iúir and visited some peoples houses...we certainly stopped the traffic that day. Everyone had great fun.
Before Halloween, we had groups of children taking part in Mumming-far better crack than just going trick or treating!!

 We had great fun dressing up!

Our School

Scoil Eoin Pól, Loch an Iúir

Our school is situated in North West |Donegal, the most northernly county in Ireland. We have just over 50 pupils and 3 class teachers. We also have a Resource Teacher who is shared with another school on Aranmore Island, so he has to get a boat to school some days.How many teachers can say they take a boat to school!?
Our school is a Gaeltacht School which means we learn through the medium of Irish.
We hope that over the life of our project that you will learn some words in Irish. After Christmas you will see our Powerpoint Presentation of words in Irish. We are also looking forward to learning a few words in our other schools' languages-Basque, Polish and Czech.
Our school was renamed a few years ago after Pope John Paul. The origional school on the site had been built in 1929 and was reopened in 2006. We thought it would be appropriate to name it after him.

Blbao Meeting

A total of 9 visiting teachers made the journey to Bilbao for the first meeting of the Comenius group. We were joined by Roel Rohner from Dalton International who gave us a valuable insight into the concept of a Dalton School. We also had training in Blog Building. It was a very busy schedule but we survived, just!
Teachers from our partner school Begonazpi Ikastola, joined us in the training and it was good to get to know all our partners for the project.

We are all home!

It is good to hear that all the teachers are home after their stay in Bilbao. Everyone had a good time in that beautiful city...now to start the work. Hope everyone is beginning their Logo...let's see just how creative the children can be!!...probably more creative than us

Ag cur tús le Bloggail sa Scoil-Comenius

As part of our Comenius project I am in Bilbao,in the Basque Country along with our fellow partners in the project. There are 4 countries involved in the project, Ireland, Spain, Poland and The Czech Republic. Over the next 2 years we will be blogging regularly keeping you updated on the progress of the project. At the minute we are learning from our partners in Bilbao, how to build a blog. I am sure that in the future the blogs will be more interesting! But as we say in Irish, Tús maith leath na hoibre (a good start is half the battle).