Teddy Bears in the making......

At the moment in Home Ec, we have started making teddies. We were given the list of materials before Christmas so that we would have everything that we needed when we came back after the Christmas holidays! The material that I chose is denim! We also had to get brown embroidery thread and eyes!
Since we do cookery in our Tuesday double class, Ms M told us that we would be sewing in our Friday double class! So far i have drawn our teddy bear patterns, pinned them to our fabric, cut the pieces out and started my teddy's arms, legs and ears. For the arms,legs and ears, you have to tack two pieces together before using the sewing machine! This is what I did in class today! I had finished the tacking in the class last Friday so Ms M brought some sewing machines into the kitchen so that myself and other people who were finished could sew the limbs together properly! I then removed the tacking from the pieces, except for one arm which chose not to cooperate and had to be
ripped back and started again! After all of the tacking was removed I started tacking the ears onto the back of the head! I will post pictures next week!
Eilise :Dxx

Movie time!:)

Since finishing our dramas for the briary gap competition, we have started watching The pursuit of happiness, as it links in with the topic of poverty.The movie, starring Will Smith and Jaden Smith, tells the story about a man named Christopher Gardner. Chris has invested in a device known as a "Bone Density scanner".  However, they do not sell as they are marginally better than the current technology at a much higher price. As Chris tries to figure out how to sell them, his wife leaves him, he loses his house, his bank account, and credit cards. Forced to live out in the streets with his son, Chris is now desperate to find a steady job; he takes on a job as a stockbroker, but before he can receive pay, he needs to go through 6 months of training.
I am really enjoying watching the movie, and I think that it conveys a very good message of how homelessness and poverty can affect anybody!
Eilíse :D

Formula One!

Since finding out that team Rápido y Furioso had gotten through to the regional finals of the F1 in schools competition, We have all been working really hard on our design for our cars, and also trying to promote our team and gain support. The team consists of myself, Katie H, Orlaith K, Ciara K and Ciara Molloy.
This week has been especially difficult as the design for the car has to be finished and sent to our make centre by this Friday!! We have been using any time possible to go to the tech room and finish our design on the solid works and we are almost finished. We have changed our minds a lot but I think that we finally know what we want the car to look like.

• This is the first design that we did on the solid works, however we changed our minds about how we wanted it to look so we made a second design!

Design #1 on solid works!

• This is a slide show showing our second design!

                               Design #2 on solid works

Briary Gap Drama competition!

As I have said in previous blog posts, we have been working on Dramas in religion. There are two groups, one doing their play on homelessness and then my group are doing our play on the effects of war. our play consisted of two different settings. One was in a doctors office, where people who had been affected by war were talking about their experiences to the doctor, and then the other was a flashback of what each person remembered.

The day had finally come to perform the dramas in the competition. On Tuesday the 29th of January class síocháin set off to the arts centre in mullingar to perform what we had worked very hard on. The bus journey took about an hour. When we arrived a group of guys who were also performing offered to take our props backstage and we were shown to our dressing room, which was right beside the stage. The dramas were not starting until half eleven and we were not on until one so this gave us a chance to check out the stage. It wasn't too big but it was different to where we were used to practising. We all got changed into our costumes but we had some time to kill so we decided to go to McDonald's  as we were all very hungry. When we came back we went into the audience seats to watch the other schools perform their dramas, however we realised that our drama was being moved forward a half an hour so we rushed off for one last practise before waiting nervously to be called. When this did happen, we all walked anxiously down to the side of stage and got our props organised. When the curtain opened it was very hard to see the audience, which in my opinion made it easier because you couldn't see people watching. Apart from the length of time it took us to change the props between each scene,Overall the play went quite well. the judge came on stage after we finished and gave us praise and also constructive criticism so that we could improve.There were many sighs of relief as we walked off the stage and we could finally relax.

Both plays were finished up and we were dressed at about half one. the bus wasn't coming until half two so this meant that we had time to kill. Myself and six other girls decided to go for a walk to the park across the road from the arts centre. Just our luck, on the walk back the heavens opened and we got soaked through. 

Overall it was an amazing experience and now we just have to wait for the results to come to see if either team got through to the finals in cork!

Mullingar Arts Centre

Eilísexx:D

Kenya Presentation

Since the start of the year we have all been working on a Trip around the world project. We finished the project in October. Afterwards we were paired up with someone who picked one of the same countries as you and were asked to do a presentation on it. Myself and Ciara chose Kenya. Here is our presentation, xxxx

Kenya presentation from Eilise123

Oh the stress of TY....

Don't believe anyone if they tell you that TY is a doss year. Its not. There is so much going on all the time and there are so many things to get done. One piece of advice..... do not leave eveything until the last minute!
The Mini-company schools competition is taking place next monday. Mini-company has been so stressful. Our company is called SnapShot  Frames. We use old birthday cards to decorated frames. For the competition we have to have a business report and a display done for monday. The business report is finished but the display still has to be sorted out, which is worrying.
In technology, all of the TYs entered the f1 in schools competition, where in teams of five or six you must design a formula one car. Only two teams from the school got through to the competition, and luckily I was on one of those two teams. For the competition, each team has to complete a portfolio containing research on aerodynamics and designs of the car and also advertising and fundraising. this all has to be done so that our designs can be sent off so that the car can be made.
Eilíse :D

Back to school!!:)

So its our second week back and to be honest, I was really looking forward to coming back. Since last week, we have been getting exam results and projects from before Christmas back. We are also being given new projects to start.
In geography, we have started studying medical geography. This is basically learning about disease and where and how they occur in the world. We were given the task of finding the top ten diseases, both in developed and developing countries. I found it really interesting to compare the diseases. Along with that we have all been given different diseases, and we have to make a leaflet displaying what the disease is, symptoms, vaccinations, causes and treatment. the disease that I was given is malaria. Even though we have only started the topic, i know that I am going to enjoy it.
In Home ec., we have started to collect materials for making Teddy bears. We have also starting baking. Yesterday we made apple crumble. In art, we have started portraits of celebrities using old cassette tapes. In science we are working on our project for sci fest, which is due for the start of February. We are doing our project on factors that influence dreams.
Eilíse:Dxx