Cycle Safety
Our 6th class completed their cycle safety course this week – they were a credit to the school as they learned road safety and worked with the instructors.
It’s good timing too, as we’ve observed some children who don’t wear helmets when cycling or scooting to school. The traffic in town is so busy, and it would be great to see more children wearing helmets. We hope that grown-ups will ensure children they know the benefits of wearing one to keep themselves safe.
Halloween Costume Swap Shop
An extra day has been added to bring in unwanted costumes – if you find any at home over the weekend, you can drop them in on Monday morning & receive your tokens.
The Student Council Witches Catwalk
Our Student council really enjoy helping to arrange the Witches Catwalk to raise funds for our school; children will bring home their Witches Catwalk sponsorship cards this weekend – check out last year’s fun here: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DByGgeUt3OO/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
Halloween traditions in Ireland stem from an old Celtic Festival, known as Samhain. Samhain was celebrated at the end of October, marking the beginning of the darker half of the Celtic year. It was a time of endings and new beginnings. The Celts also believed this time when the living and the dead were at the closest – in preparation for the new life and growth coming in spring.
People celebrated Samhain by remembering their ancestors. They prepared feasts of food for all their family, even those who had died. They also tried to keep away evil spirits by wearing costumes and masks, celebrating together around bonfires.
In more recent times in Ireland, there were children’s games, and children went out “On the Púca”, dressing up and calling to neighbours houses, calling out “Penny for the Púca”. They had to sing a song or perform a poem to get receive gifts of nuts and fruits, or a few pennies. These days, like many old traditions the celebrations have become more modernised, and children go “Trick or Treating” instead, but some of us still remember the old ways!
The Newgrange website has more information: Samhain (Samain) – The Celtic roots of Halloween
Play therapy
Helena from Experiential Wellbeing is giving free talks on play therapy in our local libraries; you may be interested in booking a place for her talk in Kildare Town library here: Navigating Anxiety & Building Resilience | Kildare Library Service
Lotto
Congratulations to Joan Burke, winner of this week’s Lotto Spot Prize! Don’t miss out on the chance to win our jackpot, or enter our Halloween Giveaway, where you could win an extra prize of €2000: Kildare Town ETNS – Home – Our Fundraiser
Frása na Seachtaine / Phrase of the Week
Táimid ag tosú le Frása na Seachtaine anseo i Kildare Town Educate Together!
Gach seachtain, beidh muid ag foghlaim nath nua Gaeilge le chéile – frásaí simplí is féidir linn a úsáid gach lá sa scoil agus sa bhaile.
We’re excited to launch Phrase of the Week here at Kildare Town Educate Together!
Each week, we’ll be learning a new Irish phrase together – simple, fun expressions we can use in school and at home.
Bígí linn agus bain triail as!
Active Schools
Our Active School ‘Skip Around the World’ challenge runs Monday – Friday next week. Each class will skip for 10 minutes every day, a skip counts as one kilometre. We will track all the different places we get to skip to such as Niagara Falls, Mount Everest and the Great Barrier Reef!
Library Trip
Mia & CJ’s 3rd classes had a lovely time in Kildare town library yesterday, as they learned about how the library works, the services we can access, and set up their class library cards so they can borrow novels to read in school. Thank you to all the great team in our local library, we are very lucky to have them!