Music and the Arts

February art – love is in the air!

January Art – a riot of colour in gloomy winter!

CHRISTMAS ARTWORK ON OUR CORRIDORS

Ceol Castletown visits Middletown Nursing Home!

Well done to our school band and 5th/6th class choir who performed for the residents of Middletown Nursing Home today , including Fr. McCarney and Mr. Breen and Ms. D’Arcy’s granny who very very proud to see all.
I am so proud of the children who not only performed beautifully but treated the residents with respect and dignity and brought a lot of joy today. Click the link for a snippet of their lovely playing

Music Generation – sneak peak!

Diarmuid is busy prepping the pupils for Christmas performances. Here they are playing Feliz Navidad – enjoy! Click the link below to view

November art loading….

World War 2 silhouettes based on photography by Herbert Mason by 3rd/4th class – they are really eye catching!




Seasonal art – Arctic Foxes from Rang 1

Barn Owls project by Rang 1 – we love the variety of colours!

We love these 2-d shape figures from junior infants – such colour and great linkage with Maths!

Santa Dash sponsorship cards – wonderful designs from rang 5 & 6!

We just love this Three Little Pigs display from Ms. Lyng’s class!

After the corridors were filled with Hallowe’en themed art for October, we are now seeing some lovely new artwork!

Mr. Breen’s class is keeping an eye on us…..

SING OUT LOUD – WE LOVE IT!!

Excitement is building already and the repertoire can be heard around school as these super singers prepare for their big night!! @SingOutLoudWex

September artwork

Our corridors are awash with vibrant colour and individual art pieces. It is a pleasure to walk from room to room. We hope you enjoy seeing them too.

Marine Week April 24th-28th 2023

We enjoyed integration of subjects and our corridors are full of marine related artwork! Enjoy!

Fantasy Pets and The Pet Shop – Junior Infants!

A riot of colour and media in junior infants! We love it!

SPEECH AND DRAMA GRADING

Before we sign off for the weekend we say a big well done to Ms. D’Arcy’s pupils who all scored over 90 and with first class honours in their Speech and Drama exams! Well done to all the pupils and of course to Ms. D’Arcy!

RAINY DAY JAMMIN’!

All the instruments and all the fun, jammin’ with Diarmuid!
Click on the link to view . 3rd/4th class continue the theme with April Showers Art!

Seachtain na Gaeilge

Click on the link to view Ceol Castletown performing for the school assembly! It is wonderful to see so many instruments being played so beautifully!

March – Arklow Music Festival!

We had a fantastic week at Arklow Music Festival with every class entering a competition. We came away with a third place, a 2nd place and 4 first place trophies!! More than this was the feeling of jobs well done, rehearsals that were enjoyed, collaboration with friends, face paint and costumes that added to the fun and the real life embodiment of the drama and arts curriculum.
I would like to thank the teachers for their direction and enthusiasm. I would like to thank all staff for their ideas and help with costumes, facepaint and all the other ways they helped.
I would like to congratulate each and every little actor who so bravely stood up to perform today and on Monday – it’s not an easy thing to do! You were all just amazing and we are so proud of you!
Performing at Arklow Music Festival is a memory I treasure from childhood and I hope it will be the same for all our pupils!

February artwork!

Look at the riot of colour in the artwork from Ms. Lyng’s room!

New instruments and Music Generation!

We incorporated new instruments into our ukulele class – check out our video! Thank you Diarmuid and Ms. ní Shúilleabháin!

Music Generation in Ms. Lyng’s class!

Diarmuid and the boys enjuoying percussion and rhythm – click the link for video!

CEOL CASTLETOWN DEBUT!

We were thrilled to launch Ceol Castletown, the school orchestra, at our Christmas concert. The families in the audience just loved it!! Well done to our wonderful players and huge thanks to Ms. Ní Shúilleabháin and team for all the hard work that went in to preparing this!! We only wish the website would allow us to post more than this snippet! Click the link below and enjoy!

NEW INSTRUMENTS!

Huge thanks to our PA who have sponsored a huge haul of new instruments for use in both our classrooms and by our school band. We are so grateful and look forward to using them!

JANUARY ART – Brightening up a dreary month!

Our art gallery is replenished with some lovely artwork. What a lovely greeting to meet you when you arrive at our school!

Christmas art around the school

Our corridors in November…

Hallowe’en fun!

Click the link above to view our ghoulish infants being very dramatic!!

How adorable – Five Batty Bats as performed by senior infants! Click the link above to view

October 2022

Recycled materials decoration competition winners! Poor Siobhán had a tough job as the standard was so high! Luckily we had a treat for all entrants!

TIM BURTON INSPIRED SELFIES

We just love these eerie portraits! Well done to Mr. Breen’s 5th and 6th class!

Ukelele – week 2 and we are already composing!

Click on the link to view 3rd/4th class composition entitled ‘I got the Tuesday Blues!’

EXHIBITION – A WAY HOME October 2022

Collection of award winning illustrators -exhibition of ‘ A Way Home’ folklore story in pictures

Discover the magic of Halloween at Siamsa Tíre’s Samhain exhibition  ‘A Way Home – An Slí Abhaile’. Combining imaginative illustrations and ancient folklore with a modern-day fairy tale, this is an experience that will delight children, families and those of us who are still children at heart.

‘It’s the darkest time of the year and yet you folk cling to your tiny light. But it also means the lost souls can be seen. Well… some of you can see them,’ the Púca said.

Two siblings get lost in the woods.  There they meet a mysterious traveller and embark on an adventure that sees them encountering a cheeky púca, some lost souls, and a choir of banshees…

We were lucky enough to be invited to view this stunning, eclectic exhibition of art work to accompany the folklore tale, ‘A Way Home’.Our pupils responded to the work of the artists before sketching the story themselves. It was a thoroughly interesting day!

UKULELE IS BACK – BIGGER THAN EVER!!

Today Diarmuid began teaching ukulele to 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th class. This is a fantastic opportunity for our students to embed instrument playing for a few years in primary school. This is made possible by a donation from our board of management, Parents’ Association and this year Niamh and Cyril Byrne of Ruby Rouge have sponsored an extra class meaning that more children can avail of this fantastic initiative. Thank you so much Niamh and Cyril !! We love this photo of Niamh with Tabitha, Phoebe and Oscar – lots of music in this house! Music Generation is the body that make this possible and we are very grateful.

DABBLEDOO – Music in the classroom

This year, we are using Dabbledoo to support the teaching of music in the various strands such as literacy and composing. As part of our licence, parents are given access to the programme to view what is being delivered. Here is the link if you would like to explore with your child at home. There are activities to enjoy at home https://dabbledoo.com/p/parents?utm_medium=email&_hsmi=226152409&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9KGhceMaL72Qam0LS2lOQBYtFi8ezcazw9j90pduWaRNfwTubudxoiw2v_Sf2T4RXMpqPigEiOO_NBYpGiK6D7PMeyIA&utm_content=226152409&utm_source=hs_email.

Integration with Literacy

1st class read the story of The Children of Lir. They created a mixed blue background and placed their swans on them. Wonderful ! Beautiful cutting too!

Looking at and responding to the work of our artists

When you arrive at our school, you will be greeted by our specially curated art gallery featuring work from across the school. We value the process as well as the product and love the variety of outcomes. Stay tuned for updates over the year when we will include print, fabric and fibre. Thanks to Sharon for sourcing the spotlights – how professional!

Self Portraits – Rang a dó

Féach ar na páistí! Nach bhfuil siad go hálainn? An bhfuil fhios agat cé hiad?

Inspired by Maud Lewis – Nova Scotia

We are stunned by the beauty and individualism of these paintings by 3rd/4th class. They were inspired by the artist Maud Lewis – Nova Scotia. Looking and responding at its finest. Well done Ms. Ní Shúilleabháin and class!

End of year ukulele concert!

WOW! What a treat we had today! Ms. Ní Shúilleabháin’s 3rd and 4th class performed a medley of their ukulele songs learned over the year with Diarmuid Comerford of Music Generation. We had violins, electric bass, percussion (from Diarmuid’s brother Michael) and guitar also! We had strumming, plucking, singing and percussion from the class. I am so proud of how well the Music Generation programme is embedding in our school and look forward to promoting ith further in the future. We definitely have musicians in our community. Each child looked so happy while playing – this makes it all worthwhile! Click the links below to view!

Huge thanks to Ms. Ní Shúilleabháin for her encouragement, enthusiasm and passion for music and to Fiona for supporting all the children along the way

May Art 2022

There’s nothing crabby about these happy junior infants – we love your art! Well done!

CIAN PLAYS THE UILEANN PIPES!

Thank you to Cian who treated us to an uilleann pipe recital today, we really enjoyed it! Click on the link to view

Cick the link to hear our sweet choir practicing for Confirmation. They are in fine voice and ejoying our outdoor classroom!

Love is in the air with love bugs and love birds from Ms. Morris’ and Ms. Walker’s class! ♥️♥️🌹🌹

Sustainable Christmas Decoration Competition!

Each year we challenge our pupils to design a Christmas decoration from recycled materials. We are a no-glitter school so you won’t see that in our decorations. Each year I am amazed by the standard of creativity! I will post pictures over the next week – enjoy!

December Artwork

Here are some photos to show you the festivities and art in school this month.
We have snow globes and Christmas trees from Ms. McDevitt/ Ms. D’Arcy’s class and winter silhouettes from Ms. Ní Shúilleabháin’s and Mr. Breen’s classes

November Artwork

Some stunning modern art representations from 1st,2nd, 3rd and 4th classes!

Mr. Byrne helped the children to recreate The Scream by Edvard Munch – fantastic!

Some beautiful artwork by Ms. Walker’s class including a seas scene, plátaí bia and blow painting!

We love this haunting artwork by 1st/2nd class! Such beautiful tones and blending of colour!

MUSIC GENERATION IS BACK!!

We are beyond thrilled to welcome Diarmuid Comerford back to teach ukulele to 3rd/4th class! It is wonderful to hear music being made once again!

It is our hope that instrumentation will embed in 3rd/4th class so that all children will have learned how to play at least one instrument before they leave primary school.

October Art – autumnal and Hallowe’en creativity

September Art – welcome back!