Alex Artisans Market Day

http://alexartisans2012.wordpress.com/

On May 19th the Alex Artisans Market Day (#alexartisans) in Alexandra College, Dublin, will showcase the results of six months hard work by 100 Transition Year Students at the College, who responded to a challenge from Domini and Peaches Kemp at The Restaurant at Brown Thomas to create an enterprise based on fresh food and innovative recipes, with an aim to create their very own Farmers Market. Brown Thomas has sponsored an overall prize fund of €2,000 which will be awarded to students in various categories from Best Product to Best Overall Outstanding Contribution.

Click here for more information | Click here for the AlexArtisans website

Alex Artisans on RTE

Alex Artisans on RTE

Junior School News, May 18th, 2012

At Monday’s assembly all the J2 communicants were congratulated and Ms. Abrahamse thanked the choir, Ms. Fitzgerald and Mr. Murray for participating in the service.  We thought about the importance of ‘Families’  at home, in our school and how they care and support us throughout  our lives.

Many congrats were extended to the prize winners of the A.I.J.S. ‘Short Story Writing Competition’.  In category A (1st +2nd class) Rachel Reid was awarded first prize with her story ‘Stranded on an Island’; in category B (3rd +4th Class) Maddy Baxter received second prize  for her story ‘A Brave Deed’ and Maria Blake achieved third prize for her story  ‘A Journey I Will Never Forget’; and lastly in category C (5th +6th class) Lauren Ashmore was highly commended for her story ‘The Butterfly Shadow’. The judges commented on the high standard of creative writing, their enjoyment in reading the stories and the recommendation to keep on writing!

All girls are delighted with the outdoor equipment so generously donated by J.A.C.A. The girls got a chance to use the equipment on Monday when it arrived in the school. Many thanks to J.A.C.A.

The Kg. Lr girls delighted their parents and grandparents with their lovely ballet, singing and poetry on Tuesday morning. The girls performed like angels and knew all their words!  Congratulations and well done, girls!  Many thanks to Ms. Lyons, Mrs. Hadden and M. Fitzgerald.  After their performance the Kg.Lr girls used the new gardening tools donated by J.A.C.A. in their garden bed. The girls used the compost made from their leftover banana skins. They worked it through the soil discovering the many worms that had created the compost originally.

At Thursday’s assembly Ms. Abrahamse told one of Aesop’s fables ‘The crow and the pitcher’. The story tells us that a very thirsty crow could not reach the water in a pitcher, but by throwing stones into the pitcher it was able to drink and quell its thirst. We learned that by taking little steps and with patience we can achieve our goals in the end.

We congratulated Lauren Ashmore and Helena o’Neill (J6) with their joint 1st place in the Irish Dancing Festival 2012. The girls were awarded the O’Neill Irish Dancing Trophy at assembly by Ms. Abrahamse. Well done girls,keep on dancing!  Congrats also went to Leah Temple Lang (J5) who got commended in the Feis Matthiu competition.

All girls and staff are thrilled to see that the trellis of the outdoor resource has been installed and that the 3rd phase has been completed. The result is fantastic and we are very grateful to all parents who helped to achieve this goal. THANK YOU!

The new prefects of the Senior School came to the Junior School and explained their new role at Friday’s assembly.

The birthday girls this week were : Caroline Bainton (J2), Maya Peter s(J4) Aisling Whelan (J5), Lily Nadir (J2) and Penny Reynolds (J1).Many happy returns of your special day!

Junior School Blogs, May 18th, 2012

J1
We had a very busy week. The first thing we did on Monday was going to the Zoo. On the way to the learning and discovery centre we saw a peacock and a parrot called Billy. We saw apes walking on a tightrope. We saw gorillas. One gorilla was fat and one gorilla banged on the glass.It was very funny. There were teenagers and they were scared and screamed!

Our guide Jim told us interesting things about the rainforest and the elephants. Some of us were amazed because we saw a stuffed bat and an elephant skeleton. We saw chameleons and turtles, tortoises and crocodiles in the reptile house.

We learned about the fruit bat and the sloth. After our picnic we went to look at the giraffes. Then it was time to go home. Written by the girls in J1.

We also did some more gardening. The radishes are doing well and the sunflowers are looking good. The strawberries  are growing stronger every day. We also had our Irish dancing festival. We were dancing jigs and reels.  Thank you Ms Keane for teaching us to dance so well.

J2

On Sunday 12 of the girls in J2 made their First Communion. We all had a great day and enjoyed the party in school and all the special lunches and parties we had that afternoon. On Monday we came back to school tired, but still very excited!

Wednesday was our Irish Dancing Festival and we danced lots of different types of jigs and reels. We were absolutely super and we got a certificate at the end to congratulate us on our wonderful dancing.

This week we also put together our very first good book – maths. It was nice to see all the work we had done this year and we are very proud of our books!

 

J3

We enjoyed planting in the J3 flower bed this week and have been watching out for green shoots! We look forward to seeing the sunflowers, ‘Lollypop’ flowers and herb plants appearing (and to planting more)! All the recent rain is helping!]

We have been working hard in ORFF for the summer concert next Thursday at 7.30pm in the Senior school concourse and look forward to our performances.

In Maths we have been concentrating on learning 3D Shapes and their nets! We had to think what 2D shapes are needed to make a 3D shape!

Playground equipment: On Monday we were delighted with the new playground equipment. There were balls, bats, hoola-hoops, goals for football, skipping ropes all to play with.  Thank you very much to JACA!

J3 are really enjoying our last term’s class novel, ‘Kaspar, Prince of Cats’ by Michael Morpurgo.  We are just about to read how The Titanic comes into the story and this will bring us into our final project on the incredible Titanic!

The Irish Dancing Festival was great fun to be apart of on Wednesday.  Everyone enjoyed each performance and we thanked Miss Keane for all her hard work too!

We were really pleased to welcome Francesca Smurfit who visited us in J3 today. We look forward to getting to know you Francesca and to having you with us in J4

Happy weekend everyone!

 

J5 - Swan Family Group

rugbyThis week we worked on our Olympic Projects and finishing off any work we needed to complete for our good books.

Monday: This morning we started designing our book covers. Each book will cover a different subject

and we have illustrated our covers with aspects of the many themes we learned about this year.

As it is coming close to the end of the year, and next week we be the last Help money collection

we began researching charities. There are many worthy causes but later in the week we will

select one.

Tuesday: As part of PE we began playing Tag Rugby. We started off getting used to the tags and then the

ball, by passing to each other in a line. We had a music lesson with Miss. Fitzgerald, we played

the Orff instruments. In our French lesson with Miss. Lyons we played French bingo and the

Number game. In the Number game each person says a number in French and then the person

who is standing beside you says the next. If you get it wrong you have to sit down!

Wednesday: Some of the J5s took part in an Irish dancing festival, in which they preformed a reel and a

jig routine.

Thursday: In assembly Lauren Ashmore and Helena O’Neill were awarded the Irish Dancing award. Later

that day we took part in our interclass swimming gala. It was great fun and Team one were

declared the winners. We then put the finishing touches to our model Olympic Villages.

Friday: In assembly we celebrated Aisling’s Birthday. Also some of next year’s senior school prefects

attended, and told us about the important role they play in school. It was very interesting! Later we

filmed our Irish drama “An Clár”. We also finished our Olympic project presentations which we will

present to our classmates on Monday.

By Lucy and Rebecca

 

J6 – Oak and Bluebell Family Groups

dancingThis week J6 have presented their Show and Tell projects to the rest of the class. Some of the topics covered were animals, history, treasured belongings, technology and interesting hobbies. The projects used Keynote, posters, books and models. We enjoyed researching and presenting our choice of projects.

Lauren Ashmore and Sarah Malone participated in the AIJS short story competition. Lauren Ashmore was highly commended for her story “The Butterfly Shadow”. Well done to both girls! The Irish Dancing Festival took place on Wednesday afternoon. Eight girls from J6 competed in the festival. There was a joint first place this year because the adjudicators couldn’t decide between two girls. The winners were Lauren Ashmore and Helena O’Neill. Congratulations to everyone who participated.

Today, Thursday 17th, we have a swimming gala amongst our class and we are looking forward to it.

Sports Day & Fun Day

TY Masterchef competition

On Wednesday, May 16th the finalists in the TY Masterchef competition treated us to the delights of their culinary skills. These students had cooked their way through the quarter and semi finals of the competition, which had taken place during the TY Culinary Arts module.

The judging panel of staff and TY semi finalists sampled delicious main courses of Chicken with Chorizo & Artichokes, Chicken Fajitas and Chicken Bang Bang, followed by mouth-watering desserts, which included Eton Mess, Toffee Apple Tart and Mango & Passion Fruit Roulade.

Much discussion (and tasting!) occurred and a winner of the first TY Masterchef finally emerged. This award will be announced at the TY graduation ceremony on Wednesday, May 23rd.  Congratulations to the TY students who amazed us all with their cooking and presentation skills – Rachel Swanick, Saheedat Oyefeso, Erin Dougan, Niamh Asher and Shannon Power.

Guild AGM & Past Pupils Lunch

Dining Room Menu, Week of May 21st, 2012

Dining Room Menu, Week of May 21st, 2012

food

Race Night


Scratch Finals 2012

The best of luck to 2nd year students Kate Campbell and Eleana Skelly who will be taking part in the the finals of this year’s National Scratch Competition with their Spanish Quiz.  The finals will take place in IT Tallaght on May 19th.

Scratch Project

Alex Masterchef Finals

The three teams taking part in the final of TY Masterchef on Wednesday, May 16th are:

  • Rachel Swanick and Saheedat Oyefeso
  • Niamh Asher and Shannon Power
  • Cara Duggan

chef