Kilcullen 700 Celebrations
The children of Scoil Bhríde, from Junior Infants to 6th class have been very involved in the celebrations for Kilcullen 700 this year, managing to incorporate all of the subject areas into their celebrations. All of the children learned a great deal about the bridge in Kilcullen, which is 700 years old this year. They have learned about the important role a bridge plays in the development of a town, the difficulty faced by the builders of the bridge, changes to the bridge over the years and the history of Kilcullen itself.
The children from Ms Meaghar's and Ms McNairney's first classes designed wonderful plans of Kilcullen town, showing all of the important aspects of life in the town. Ms Walsh's first class produced beautiful projects on the flora and fauna of the valley.
Children from Ms English's 2nd class produced a wonderful picture of Kilcullen Bridge using plastic bottle tops, which also ties in with the Green Schools theme of litter and waste.
The 3rd class children did a variety of projects on Kilcullen's history and areas of interest in the town. Ms O'Brien's 4th class used clay to explore and create replicas of various important landmarks in Kilcullen. Mr Donovan's class constructed Dún Ailinne using ordnance survey maps to study the contour lines.
The 5th class children took part in bridge building workshops during Engineers Week and built a variety of bridges using recycled materials and K'Nex. Paraic Quirke, an Engineer from Murphy Surveys, visited Mr O'Raoghaill's class and explored the design features of Kilcullen Bridge and bridges in general. The children built and tested bridges using straws and learned a lot about bridge design. The 5th class children also performed a wonderful play, written by Maurice O'Mahony, which brought to life the historical happenings in and around Kilcullen.
Ms Hoctor's 5th class designed and built bridges using recycled materials and explored the various bridge types: cable stay, suspension, truss, arch, and beam bridges. Mr Elliffe's 5th class used recycled materials to reconstruct some of the famous bridges from around the world, including the Ponte Veccio and Tower Bridge.
The 6th classes researched the various logainmneacha (place names), townslands, parishes and physical features of Kildare. Some of the children also did project work on various other aspects of life in Kilcullen: Kilcullen GAA, An Tearmann, the Round Tower, the Battle of Kilcullen, the Eustace Family, and historical monuments in Kilcullen.
Children from throughout the school were also involved in a competition to design a new logo for the Kilcullen 700 celebrations.
Jan and Seán Berkenvelder researched their family's history in Kilcullen and produced a wonderful project, which incorporated various artefacts: the deeds of their property, old photographs, certificates and census records.
