Welcome from the 4th Class

Three Season Visits to Brigit’s Garden

4th class visited Brigit’s Garden this week, the first of their 3 seasons visits. We were very lucky that the rain stayed away (especially considering most of Galway was flooded!), the sun shone for us all day, the woodlands was not swamped, and we had a fantastic time learning about nature and having loads of fun! .

The idea behind the 3-season visits is to follow the seasonal changes that occur in nature, with the woodland being one of the best areas to see those changes.

What we covered on our 1st Visit: Autumn/winter – November
-Samhain traditions, celtic festivals, leaf mask making and masked musical parade featuring the Púca!
- Trees in autumn/winter, fruits and seeds, scavenger hunt,
- Woodland birds and animals preparing for winter, making mouse houses, survival game
The finale of our visit was a colourful parade through the Bealtaine garden with percussion and drums

The programmes at Brigits Garden are activity-based using interactive and observational games, sensory awareness, music and drama, arts and crafts. The activities compliment the science and geography curriculum - they are designed to develop investigative and observational skills while building confidence and encouraging team-work. Each group completes four activities in one day.
1.
Themes that will be covered for each of the three visits:

2nd Visit: Spring - March
- Art activities and parachute games based on St Brigit traditions
- Looking for signs of life/first signs of spring in the gardens, sowing seeds, making Brigit's crosses or woollen Gods eyes
- Woodland signs of spring, identify trees by their buds, bird/animal life in the woodland in spring

3rd Visit: Summer - May
- Pond-dipping and pond habitat in summer, catching and identifying pond minibeasts, introduce the life-cycle of pond creatures e.g. dragonflies
- Summer meadow and herb garden, summer flowers - art based on collecting flower petals, summer smells - making smelly potions
- Woodland in summer, identify trees by leaf shape, measuring trees to calculate age, Ogham alphabet and native trees

Photo's from Brigit's Garden visit November 2009...

\\\ ///
( @ @ )
....o00o.(_).o00o....

Enjoy your stay, the children work hard so have a good look around...