These were just some of the questions facing our two brave quiz teams in the Credit Union Chapter quiz in Athboy on Saturday. The audience listened intently, as genial quizmaster, Tommy Weir, fired out the questions to the top teams in Meath's primary schools. The quiz would decide which teams from the Junior and Senior squads would qualify for the Leinster Quiz final. Our school were unique in having two teams to represent us. Seán, Lauchie, Daithi and Daniel represented us in the Junior section and Joe, Cormac, Jack and Conor were on our Senior team. They battled manfully through ten rounds of questions, with an extra two rounds for the senior team. And, at the end of the evening, the Junior team came out with a very respectable fourth position, while the Senior team along with St Patrick's Primary School, Slane got through to the All-Ireland Final! April 8th is the date, the RDS is the venue and our Seniors are on their way. Meanwhile, the Junior team have two more years of quiz fun and competitions lying ahead of them. And the answers to the above questions are:
 All roads lead to Athboy tomorrow, for the next round of the Credit Union Quiz! Our two teams beat all the schools in our local area to claim first place in both the senior and junior sections of Round One!
They`ve been chewing up the quiz books for the past few weeks, and bracing themselves for what is sure to be a hotly contested event in the next round. The very best of luck boys! See you tomorrow in Athboy Community School for a 2pm start! While we all battled with the snow and ice last week, Ms Smith's First Class were navigating ice-bergs and Arctic waters as they re-created the doomed passenger liner Titanic and her final moments at sea.
The whole class are passionate Titanic buffs. They've done their research and know that the Titanic set sail in 1912 with just over passengers aboard. The storm of last week has given them some idea of what the cold waters of the Arctic were like for the cruise ship as it sailed at speed towards America. The boys know that the owner of the ship was keen to impress on the world just how fast the enormous passenger ship could travel across the Atlantic. He urged the captain to pick up speed. That decision alone, as the boys in First Class realise, was a foolish one. An iceberg was spotted from the ship's crow's nest, directly on the ship's course. But it was too late. There are wonderful reconstructions of the Titanic outside the classroom door. Some show the ship in all her glory. Others show it slipping into the Arctic depths, surrounded by drowning passengers and its inadequate supply of lifeboats. Some have written about the bravery of Captain Smith. Others about the greed of the ship's owner. Each of them have their own angle on the story. The ship never made it to America of course. But the tragedy of the Titanic has made its way into every boy's heart in Ms Smith's Class. The boys in Ms Smyth's and Ms Campbell's Senior Infants had a very special visitor to help them celebrate the Chinese New Year. Mrs Zhao-Dunne is a parent of one of the boys in Ms. Smyth's and she had come to tell the boys all about the traditions around the great Chinese celebrations.
The boys were clearly enthralled. They had already explored the topic of China through their Aistear sessions. Mrs Zhao-Dunne explained how the phases of the moon determined the start of the Chinese New Year. She told them the traditional tale of the mythological creature Nian and explained that each Chinese New Year was dedicated to a different animal, with 2018 being the Year of the Dog. The boys especially loved the Chinese New Year tradition of giving children red envelopes containing money, perhaps a custom they might like to adopt here! And they delighted too in Mrs Zhao-Dunne's parting gift to them all-their names, written in Chinese characters. Thank you for such an entertaining afternoon, Mrs. Zhao-Dunne! 谢谢 |
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