By Children For Children SchoolSchool ShoutShout 1818

Editorial Staff: Pupils of Third, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Class

THE COUNTY FINAL On the 8th October 2017 the County Final took place. Our school was covered in red and white flags we used a lot of red paint! The final was between and for the second year in a row. Before the match started MJ had to present the match football to the referee. He took part in the parade. At half time we were up by three points. There was a mini blitz at half time that was 7-8 minutes long with children from under sixes, under eights and under twelves. Un- fortunately we lost by three points. Rian Brady got the Man of the Match on the Mullinalaghta team. Afterwards we went to the pub and the footballers went to get something to eat in the parish centre. A DJ came to play music in the village but it was disappointing for Abbeylara to lose second year in a row. Hopefully next year it will be Abbey’s turn. By Ciara THE SCHOOL GARDEN In our school garden we have three big vegetable boxes. We got them ready for planting in Spring. We planted oats, potatoes and pumpkins. The rhubarb grew from last year. The oats grew in May and June because it was very sunny. The pumpkins grew very big .When we came back to school in September one pumpkin was as big as a watermelon but it was still green. We had five pumpkins altogether. We brought them inside. We left the oats to dry and we made pictures with them. The potatoes were roosters. We cooked them and we had lots of lovely potato wedges. We had tomato sauce, mayonnaise and sweet chilli sauce with them. They were lovely! By Matthew and Aaron

CHRISTMAS PLAY On 19th December 2017 we had our Christmas Play in Abbeylara Church. It was called ‘The Magical Jigsaw’. Our Parents and Grandparents came to watch us. It began at 6pm but we had to be in the school hall for 5:30pm. Everyone came in their costumes and we were nervous. Some people in the play had to leave a second costume in the church because they had two parts in the play. There were Romans, Nazarenes, children, shepherds, Wise Men, angels and lots more. We sang lots of songs including the last song ‘Now our Story has been Told’. That was probably our favourite song. Everybody was brilliant! Our parents thought we were the best! We love doing plays. By Ciara and Mia INTERVIEW WITH MARK IN JUNIOR INFANTS We interviewed Mark in Junior Infants. Mark loves coming to school. He loves playing with the bouncy ball at break. His favourite subject is Irish. His favourite food is pasta and he likes apple juice. He also likes playing hide and seek. He likes homework and his teacher. He loves playing with the toy animals in school. When Mark grows up he wants to be a farmer. He has a cat called Molly and his favourite book is ‘The Lost Ball’. By Mel, Adam and Rimvydas INTERVIEW MISS DUFFY Miss Duffy is teaching in the Junior Room, while Mrs Guckian is on maternity with her new baby Laoise. Larah, myself, Skyler and Lauryn interviewed her. We asked her what inspired her to be a teacher, she said she always loved primary school and she wanted to make children like it as much as she did. Miss Duffy also told us that she’s worked in a lot of country schools, and she likes country schools. We asked her if teaching was her dream job. “Being a teacher was always my dream job. When I was in Junior In- fants my teacher asked us to draw a picture of our dream job, I drew a picture of my teacher in her out- fit”. She told us teaching Irish with the younger kids is her favourite subject but if she was teaching the older children History would be her favourite subject. Her least favourite subject to teach is music. Miss Duffy has worked in a lot of school but we are the smallest she has worked in. The biggest school she has worked in was with around 600 pupils. “Is it hard for you to get up in morning and is that the hardest part about being a teacher?” we asked. “I’m actually a morning person but the hardest part is doing all the paper work”, she replied. She finds it hard to swap between schools and to get to know all the children and staff. Miss Duffy is big into football and has helped out with our Girls’ team. Her favourite part of being a teacher is meeting all the different children. We had a lot of fun interviewing Miss Duffy and we’ll be sad to see her go! You will be missed greatly when you go, Miss Duffy! By Ella, Larah, Skyler and Lauryn

INDOOR HURLING 2018 One day in December a letter came to the school about Indoor hurling. Teacher asked us how many boys would like to take part. Then she asked how many girls would like to take part. Nine boys wanted to take part. Seven girls said that they would like to take part. We entered two teams in the competi- tion. We now have a Boys’ team and a Girls’ team. All the blitzes take place in . We practise at lunchtime and on Fridays in the schoolyard. We have a great yard that is very suitable for practising hurling with the rubber – boss hurleys. So far the Boys Team have played eight matches. We have won six matches and have lost two. The girls have also done very well. They have played four matches and they have won three of them. These are the boys who play indoor hurling : Philip, MJ, James, Paul, Mel, Adam, Rimvydas, Aaron and Matthew. These are the girls who are taking part in the Girls’ Competition : Ciara, Ella, Leah, Larah, Geraldine, Lauryn and Alison. Indoor Hurling is great fun. It is great exercise and it improves your skills and reflexes. We really hope we get into a Boys Final and a Girls Final this year. By Philip and MJ OUR SNOWMEN On a snowy day on Wednesday 17th January we made snowmen. When we arrived at school the ground was covered in a blanket of snow, the yard and the football pitch. We were divided into different groups from all the classes and we had to work together to make our own family of snowmen. At first it was hard as it was difficult to get the snow to stick together but we all worked as a team and we made a fine collection of snowmen and women. We used high vis jackets, carrots, stones, hats, cones and flowers to decorate them. Our teacher put pictures of them on our school website. We made fif- teen snow people altogether. One of them was taller than the teachers!!! By Geraldine and Padraig

Page 2 School Shout 18 SANTA’S VISIT One day before Christmas we got a big surprise. We could hear bells ringing outside as we were doing our work in the classroom. Santa went into the Junior room first. He asked the children if they had been good or bad this year. They all replied ‘Good’. They had to sing ‘Jingle Bells’. Then we went to the hall. It was beautifully decorated. We all sat down on a chair. Sandra called us over one by one. When we were finished talking to Santa, Sandra gave us a bag of sweets and a drink and we got to pick our own bun. We each got a lovely photo of us talking to Santa. Susan took photos and we got one each. We put the photos in our Religion copies. We all went down to the village to turn on the lights and visit the crib. We sang Jingle Bells. We did a countdown and the lights went on. Santa said we have no homework and we were delighted. Then Santa left and we all went back to school. We will always remember the day Santa came. By James, Lauryn and Aaron

WONDER This year teacher read a book called ‘WONDER’ by R.J. Palacio. It was a brilliant and amazing book about a boy with a deformed face. He has a hard life at school but his family help him a lot. We all did a book review on the book. Teacher put the reviews into a big book. We put an illustrated front cover and back cover on our book. We were very proud of our work. The book has just been released as a movie. Some of us went to see it in the cinema they said it was a good movie but they said the book was more detailed. By Mia A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A POSTMAN This is a copy of an interview written by Niamh Burke, a past pupil, in 2015 for an earlier edition of School Shout. Sean Mc Elvanney has just retired recently and we wish him well in his retirement. We interviewed our local postman Sean McElvanney. We asked him a series of questions based on his job as a postman. Sean starts work at 7:30am sorting the letters and parcels in . He sorts them into pigeon holes with all the townlands marked on each one. After that he starts to the deliver the post. His route is the Abbeylara, Granard and Road. There are 428 houses on his route. But he only would have deliveries to around 200 houses every day. If there’s nobody home and he needs to deliver a parcel he will leave a note on the door telling them he was there and they must collect it at the post of- fice. Sean has a transponder on his van so An Post knows where he is, when he stopped and where he was. Sean doesn’t own his van some post-people can if they want too. A post-person’s uniform is steel- toed boots, trousers a high-vis jacket, t-shirt and jumper. In Summer he gets a pair of shorts and he also has a woolly hat and peaky hat. Sean has to buy his own diesel or petrol for his van but it must be bought in Topaz because An Post has a contract that all fuel must be bought there. Sean’s longest lane that he has to go is Joe Brady’s lane, but they now have a postbox closer to Rincoola lane so it’s easier to get to. He said the busiest time of year is Christmas with presents and Christmas cards. The quietest time of year is summer. That’s his favourite time of year!! Being a post-person seems like a lot of work but Sean is a very good postman!

School Shout 18 Page 3 THE HALLOWEEN PARTY The Halloween Party took place on Halloween night in the school hall. The Parents’ Association organized it. We had a disco. After the disco some games were played. Our DJ was Dean O’ Shea. They had a sweet table. There were really big speakers just like a real disco. We had disco lights. There was also a pinata. All the parents had to dress up too. There was a fortune teller there too.. Our DJ was dressed up as a lep- rechaun. There was this game that four or five teams and one of the members on each team would have to be wrapped in toilet paper by their teammates (to be a mummy). We played apple dip, roll the pumpkin and duck, duck goose game. It started at 7.00pm and ended at 9.00pm. We loved the Halloween party. The Parents’ Association put a lot of work into preparing for it. Everybody loved dancing and listening to their favourite songs. At the end of the Halloween party they gave us a goody bag. By Larah and Shauna

MATHS WEEK We had Maths Week on the 15th of October 2017. We did Maths Olympics outside in our school yard. We also had maths trails and a maths quiz . We did target boards against other schools all around . We came seventh in the country!!! Everyone in the school took part in maths week. We learned lot of things about maths that we didn’t know before. Different schools around Ireland did different stuff for Maths Week. It was fun and we did lots of activities. The Senior Room and the Junior Room had great fun working together. The teachers were going around to different groups to see how much they learned about maths that we didn’t know before. Maths week helps chil- dren to learn about addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, money and measuring. Maths Week was fun, we are looking forward to next years maths week. By Eva and Mia

THE MS READATHON We took part in the MS Readathon which started on the 13th of October. Each child had to read as many books as they could to raise money. The money was sent to MS Ireland charity. Children all over Ireland took part and tried to read as many books as they could to help people with MS (Multiple Schlerosis) Mia and myself raised €160 between us. To raise money each child had a booklet where they wrote the name of the book that they had read and on the other side of the booklet we had to write down the name of their sponsor. The M.S Readathon ended on the 13th of November 2017. We love reading! By Ella and Mia

GRANDPARENTS DAY Grandparent’s Day take place last week. Matthew’s granny gave us sweets. We had a Prayer Service for the grandparents. Then we sang some songs and we said some poems. Some children in our class did a funny poem called Daddy fell into the Pond. It was funny because some us had to do funny actions. We sang When I’m Sixty Four and we also sang a song about . Mary, our secretary helped us. We had tea and biscuits at the end. We all like Grandparent’s Day. By Philip, Matthew, Paul and Adam

Reminder  Entries for our Wordsearches for the Junior Room and the Senior Room be returned to Ms Crean Lynch on or before Tuesday 13th February

Page 4 School Shout 18 CREDIT UNION QUIZ The Credit Union Quiz took place on the 26th of January 2018 at 8pm in Granard Community Centre. All team members were told to be in there at 7:45pm. The Junior team members were Mel, Mia, Paul and Cian. The Senior team members were Ciara,Leah,Larah and Ella. Gowna won the Junior quiz. The sen- ior quiz was won by Colmcille. The girls on the Senior team came fifth place. Some of the schools that were there was Colmcille, Killeen, Bunlahy, Killasonna, Granard, Aughnagarron, Gowna and lots more. There were seventy-two questions asked altogether for the Senior quiz and sixty asked for the Junior quiz. The questions were mixed, some were easy enough but there were a few tricky ones too. Afterwards we got a packet of crisps and a drink. We really enjoyed the quiz, we hope we will be in it again next year. By Ciara, Mel Aaron and Cian

MIXED FOOTBALL This year we took part in Mixed Football in Abbeylara NS. Our trainers were Jimmy Brady, Rosanne Galli- gan and Wesley Farrell. Ms Crean Lynch was there sometimes too. The goalkeeper was Cian. The defend- ers were Philip, James and Ciara. The midfielders were Mel and Ella. The forwards were Paul, MJ and Leah. Our subs were Matthew, Aaron, Adam, Mia, Lauryn and Geraldine. The first team we played was Killasonna, then Glen, Bunlahy, Killeen and Mullinalaghta. We came second in our group. We got into the semi-final against and it was a draw because the pitch was soaked. So we played them again and lost. We all enjoyed taking part in mixed football. We did training from 3 till 4 on a Tuesday. We all thought we did great this year.

By Paul and Cian

FIONA ST BRIGID’S CROSSES Fiona, our SNA is very, very nice, Fiona For Saint Brigid’s Day, we made some Saint Brigid’s Crosses. will help anybody. We all like Fiona., We Teacher put us in pairs to make them in class. We used all trust her. If you have been under a green rushes that grew around Abbeylara, we made some for rock for the past year you would know everyone in the school. Fiona will help you with anything, She is We made some for the sick and housebound as well. Fr. tall and has blonde hair, She has worked Campbell gives them out to some of the parishioners. in other schools, She is very good at mak- ing St Brigid’s crosses, She put all our We made them to protect us and to know that God is there. book reviews together and binded them Some people put them up high in their farm sheds to keep to make a big book. She helps us always. their animals safe. Thank you Fiona. The first Saint Brigid Cross was made by Saint Brigid. She made the cross to show a dying pagan chieftain that f she By Adam and Alyson made the cross Jesus was crucified on. A SNOW POEM We got Fr. Michael to bless the crosses and to bless us. We On the day that we made the snowmen had to varnish them and make chords so we had to compose a poem about our they could be hung up in homes snowmen. This is what Mia wrote SNOWMEN ARE FUN TO MAKE By Geraldine, Ella and Ciara

NINE OF THEM I SAW TODAY

OUT IN THE SNOWY GRASS,

WONDER HOW LONG THEY’RE GOING TO LAST?

School Shout 18 Page 5 ART IN OUR SCHOOL We love art in our school. We loved painting stones which teacher collected from the beach in Ennis- crone. We did fab oil pastel drawings of haunted houses at Halloween. Sometimes we get ideas from the internet. We copy paintings from famous artists. This Christmas we made lovely cribs. The Credit Union runs an art competition every year. Entries have to be in by the end of October. There’s a different theme every year. This year the theme was Set Your Imagination Free. If your poster comes first in the Granard region it goes through to . If you win in Athlone you entered in the national competition and you get to go to Dublin. Shauna came first in the under 11 category. We love entering art competitions. The ESB poster competition took place in September. You had to design a poster on different topics such as never climb trees near overhead wires, never fly a kite near overhead wires, never fish near overhead wires, stay away from places marked with a danger sign, never approach a fallen wire, tell an adult and never climb a pylon. If you win this competition you will get your poster on a calendar. We enjoyed taking part even though we had no winner in this competition. By Shauna, Eva and Sarah

THE GIRLS FOOTBALL FINAL We won our League football final on the 2nd of December 2017 in Slashers County Longford. Our captain was Leah Farrell and our vice captain was Larah Mulligan. Our coaches were Wesley Farrell , Miss Crean Lynch and Miss Duffy. We played 5 a-side. In goals was Larah, back was Ciara our two midfielders were Ella and Leah and our forward was Geraldine. Our subs were Skyler, Mia, Lauryn and Sophie. Everyone played great. Ella won player of the match. After we finished we all went to Girasole Pizzeria in . Then we all went beeping, we started at Granard Mart to Abbeylara to Ballywillan Train Station and back to Abbeylara. This is our second time to win our League for 5-a-side football since it started. We won a plaque for football. We played against Bunlahy, they all played brilliantly and they gave us up a great fight but sadly there always has to be a winner and a loser and luckily we got on the right side on the score board. By Leah and Skyler

DAMIEN SHERIDAN Damien Sheridan came and did football skills with us. He came from the 10th of October till the 24th of October. He split us into two teams and got us to play matches on the field. We did it in all kinds of weather, rain, hail or snow. He took us for 40 minutes every Tuesday morning. We all had to wear foot- ball gear and bring gumshields. He taught us different skills such as soloing, defending, taking our scores, blocking the ball and working as a team. Damien also runs the Cúl Camps. He put a captain to each team. Team One’s captain was Leah and Team Two’s captain was Ella. There were 12 players on one team and 11 on another. Damien was very strict about wearing gumshields. If you didn’t have a gumshield you were not allowed to take part or play the matches. He has worked in a lot of schools and has taught a lot of children how to play football. Thanks for coming Damien. By Ella and Ciara School Shout 18 Page 6