'Hush' & 'White Noise'

Ms Smith's Primary class have been inspired by the current Winter Wonderland Weather Conditions to pen some poems, and here are two of them (photo above by Mr Jones). As this post goes up, the flakes are coming down thickly once again in the Dublin hills...

'Hush' by Penny Nash

Crunching footsteps in the snow,

Smash of the ice,

Caw of the crow

Frosty breath in the air,

Landing flakes

White everywhere

Warmth of the summer long gone,

Gusts of wind

Leaves in wrong

Silence

Whooshing

Crash

Halted

Twinkling light explodes.

'White Noise' by Gregory Munday

All you can hear is a quiet trickling sound,
falling down from the sky to the bare barren ground.

The snow falls down like a soft wet wave,
like water flowing down in a deep dark cave.

Most people would say that this white stuff is chaos,
But I think the snow is something to inspire us.

I like the snow because it’s fun to play in,
But also to forget the pains we are in.

The snow just shows us what a beautiful world we have,
And we should make the most of it before time comes to pass.

Travelling by Night

(This is the 500th post since this blog started in June 2006).

Ms Smith writes : During the winter timetable the last lesson of the day takes place in darkness. This is new to the Primaries, and it prompted them to write about their most memorable experiences of darkness. They wrote under the title 'Travelling by Night'. Here are three of their pieces:-

Rishi Manuel:-
Clambering up the metal stairs that glinted in the moonlit sky, we got into the colossal flying machine. It slipped off quietly into the dark night sky. As we flew I nodded to the minuscule white stars that shone brightly in the black sky. I glanced down below through the oval window. I gazed at the white horses’ heads; a message that indicated the arrival of yet another unknown land. I leaned back onto the comfy chair, listening to the soft hum of the engines, which soon called the darkness to take over me.

Mark Russell:-
I am in a car, in the middle of the night. The light is dim as if it’s twilight. I cannot see my legs or my arms. On my left, golden orange streams go by at intervals, on my right is the black silhouette of hedgerows against a silver, moonlit, night sky. In front, crimson lights up every part of my vision. At my back, a reassuring seat.

Roman Sharykin:-
The best place to watch shooting stars in Russia is a place not far from Moscow; on the roof of a cinema. My story starts when my friends and I were climbing up the metal stairs to this great place; the roof of the famous cinema. The long shadows of trees were falling below the great night sky. Although we knew we weren’t allowed to be up there, it was still one of the most important nights of the century for us.

We were pleased to be up there at last, waiting for the meteor shower to begin. It was time. It should have been happening. We turned our heads to the sky. No movement, no stars, no moon, just dark sky. We were waiting for one, two, three, four, five minutes. Nobody believed it would happen anymore. Some of my friends were ready to go home. But then something made the sky shine. We all put our heads up and saw how beautiful it was; lights and stars falling like shattered glass.

The Dreamwalker's Child

Chris Doherty from our Primary class writes : 'This year we read 14 books for Mrs Heffernan, and wrote book reports on them. One of the books I read was The Dreamwalker's Child by Steve Voake. I really enjoyed reading this book and here is a short report I wrote about it. I really enjoy reading books by this author and will continue to read them whenever they are released. I think other people would enjoy reading books by Steve Voake. He is a fantastic author.'

'Lifeboat'

Last week Mrs Heffernan and Mrs Sherwood took our Primary form, the youngest in the school, on an outing to see Lifeboat by Nicola McCartney at the Civic Theatre, Tallaght. FH writes : "This is a true story based on two survivors of a ship that was taking almost 100 evacuees from British cities during World War II to Canada from Liverpool docks. Unfortunately it was torpedoed by a U-Boat in the Atlantic and there were very few survivors."

Click here for reviews by three Primary pupils - Sam Harley, Kezia Wright and Cormac Ryan.

This was a Janus Theatre Company production, currently on a national tour. There is a podcast of a panel discussion on the 'Emergency' and Lifeboat on the Cork Opera House website.

More Primary work

Here are two more poems from our Primary form's work on animals - Timothy Hone's poem 'My Labrador', and Sam Harley's 'My Pet Dog'.

Primary work on animals

Our Primary form is the youngest in the school, and here is some of the work they have recently been doing with their English teacher, Mrs Frances Heffernan.

They have recently been discussing Roald Dahl's 'The Swan' from his book of short stories The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar. Kezia Wright and Sam Harley write about it here.

They have also been writing poems based on animals. Follow the links to Joshua Leahy's 'Fern' (about his dog), and Chris Doherty's 'Button' (about his cat), and finally Kezia Wright's 'Jemima', which starts :-

Out of the pen I come in the morn
And in again at dusk.

continued ...