DNA and Chromosomes

 We learned all about chromosomes!
Then we made pairs of chromosomes and followed the instructions to give our Baby Sponge Monsters their individual traits.

We have pairs of DNA chromosomes -one from your mother and one from your father!
 Humans have  46 chromosomes (23 pairs)
 Sponge Monster chromosomes Sponge Monster 10 (5 pairs)

 DNA instructions to the cell are called genes •
The four base pairs: ATCG
 • Some sequences of these base pairs in the DNA make sentences the cell can read
 • These sentences are called genes
 • Sets of genes on the chromosomes you get from your mother or father determine how you look!

 Inheritable traits  are controlled by genes on the chromosomes.
 Inheritable traits in sponge monsters.  Traits that are passed from the sponge monster parents to the baby sponge monster because of the genes in their chromosomes. e.g. spot colour, tail pompoms, number of eyes.

1) Separate the green and white chromosomes (father and mother).

2) Sort them by length with the letters faced down Swap one green and one white chromosome with your partner – you should have 10 chromosomes each.

3) Turn over your chromosomes to reveal the letters – the sets of genes!

4) Now follow the code to build your baby Sponge Monster! 

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News Items

It was Europe day a few days ago so children were talking to the Junior Minister about events in Europe.

A new history room was opened in a very old secondary school in Limerick.

 Manchester united are nearly sure that they will be playing in the Champions League next season. Liverpool drew to Chelsea in Stamford bridge the score was one all and now Liverpool cannot play in the Champions League.

By: Sam O'Neill

Europe!

Europe

Over the last few weeks we have been doing lots of things to do with Europe. The biggest thing we have done so far are our European country projects. There were a variety of projects done over the week like Germany, Macedonia, Luxembourg, Greece, France and The Netherlands. We had to include loads of things like culture, geography and much, much more.

We also made European Monuments which we made over the course of a few weeks with cardboard. It was very fun and challenging to keep the cardboard together and stop it from falling over. We made the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Eiffel Tower, the Colosseum and Big Ben.

 It was Europe day over the weekend and many people all over Europe were celebrating everything our wonderful continent has to offer. On Europe day we also celebrate  greetings in Europe. If you noticed this is also on the News item done by Sam O'Neill today. Overall the last few weeks have been a joy to experience and so much fun and hard work. I hope you enjoyed this report thank you for reading.

By:Peter Murphy

Air balloons

In art last week we used oil pastels to design our own  air balloons and we stuck a picture of our faces on our pictures. They are very colourful and look amazing!

By: Peter Monaghan

Maths 3-D Shapes

News Item

International:

There was Earthquake in Nepal (India)  and they are searching for survivors. Thousands of people have died in it.

By:  Peter Monaghan

An Seachtain

An seachtain seo d'imiríomar  cluiche iomainaíocht ar an Mháirt. Bhi sé go deas. Bhi sé easca an sliotar a bhuail. Bhí  an-craic agus spórt againn.  Bhí an aimsir go hálainn chomh maith.

Peter Murphy agus Adam Fitzgerald.

News item

National

Mark Nash has been found guilty of the murders of 60 year old Sylvia Shields and 61 year old Mary Callanan in March 1997.

Sport

PSG faced Barcelona in the second leg of the champions quater final and Barcelona won 5-1 on aggergate.

By: Luke Martyn and Sam Mc.Ilrath

Fantastic DNA

DNA is needed for cells to live, to perform their specific tasks or to multiply.

DNA is found in the nucleus of our cells.  It is a double helix, which looks like a spiral staircase.

The total length of DNA from all the cells in your body equals 6,000 times the distance between the earth and the moon!

Each human cell has chromosomes, that are made from DNA.

Banana cells have 22 chromosomes. We used the step-by-step instructions from the Cell Explorers at NUIG to extract the DNA from a banana.

 Here are our materials.

 First we had to mash the banana and add a solution of saltwater and liquid soap. The salt clumps the DNA strands together so they can be observed. The soap breaks down the fats in the cell membranes so that the DNA is released.

 Next we filtered the mixture to remove the biggest debris and keep a clear cell suspension.

Then we added Methylated spirits to the filtrate. Because DNA is insoluble in alcohol the DNA floats to the top, separating it from the cell suspension.

Look at the DNA we extracted!!

Mini Sevens and Choir

The boys from Killeeneen N.S, 5th and 6th class, went to Loughgeorge  for the Mini Sevens competition. They were up against  Barnadearg and Annaghdown in their group. They defeated their opponents to go to the semi finals against Carnmore but lost and Carnmore went on to win it.


On Wednesday 6th class made their confirmation and 5th class and a few 6th class children sang in the choir for the ceremony. The choir has received very high praise for their work and many people have commented on how brilliant we were!

By: Luke Martyn

National News

A 30 year old Dublin man has been sentenced to 12 years in prison with the final two suspended for the manslaughter  of another man in Co. Cavan almost two years ago. Kevin Moran with an address at Lodgeview, Cootehill Co.  Cavan but originally from Shankill in Dublin has denied murdering 32 year old Emmet Connolly on 29th of September 2013.

By: Caoimhe Kennedy

Mother's Day

For Mother's Day we made fingerprint pendants using polymer clay that we dried in the oven.

Science - Light Spectrum

Today we used prisms to  see the colours of the light spectrum.

Visible light waves are the only electromagnetic waves we can see. We see these waves as the colors of the rainbow. Each color has a different wavelength. Red has the longest wavelength and violet has the shortest wavelength. When all the waves are seen together, they make white light.

When white light shines through a prism, the white light is broken apart into the colors of the visible light spectrum. Water vapor in the atmosphere can also break apart wavelengths creating a rainbow.

Each color in a rainbow corresponds to a different wavelength of electromagnetic spectrum.

Baking Soda & Vinegar Volcano

Materials:

Baking Soda

Vinegar

A container to hold everything and avoid a big mess!

Paper towels or a cloth

Procedure:

Place some of the baking soda into your container.

Pour in some of the vinegar

Watch as the reaction takes place!

Result:

The baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) is a base while the vinegar (acetic acid) is an acid. When they react together they form carbonic acid which is very unstable, it instantly breaks apart into water and carbon dioxide, which creates all the fizzing as it escapes the solution.

Dragon Eyes

                                                                                                                                                                     For this week's art lesson we drew dragon eyes using a pencil and charcoal. First we drew a box with a circle inside. Then we drew a diamond shape in the circle as the eye. After that we were given a piece of charcoal to lightly go over our work then we smuged it for design. We had to erase a circle then some of the bottom so we could draw the veins of the eyes. For the last part we did scale designs on the outside.

By; Luke Forde

Dawn Orbiting Ceres 

Tomorrow, Friday 6th of March, a spacecraft called Dawn will enter orbit around a dwarf planet called Ceres. Ceres was discovered by a man called Guiseppe Piazzi on the 1st of January 1801. It takes seven years to go to Ceres. The diameter of Ceres is 950 km. Its surface temperature is -105 degrees celcius. Its Orbit period is 4.6 years. There are mysterious white patches on Ceres. They are believed to be patches of ice, meaning there may be life on this Dwarf planet.

By: Fiona Galeas

Olympic Handball

On the 10^th of February 2015 the 5^th class students of Killeeneen N.S. went to Mervue Hall to compete in a handball tournament. There were two teams from Killeeneen (maroon and white). The maroon team lost their three matches but they still played extremely well. The white team won their three matches and were through to the semi-final. Unfortunately, in the semi-final, the white team conceded three goals resulting in a 3/2 loss. Denise and Ms. Cooney agreed that the students played and behaved brilliantly. 

Art - Creation of Adam

 We drew form observation then mixed our colours before taping our paper to the underside of the desks in order to recreate the cramped and difficult circumstances that Michelangelo had to deal with when he was paining the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

Science - Acids and Bases

 We used litmus paper to indicate whether substances were acids or bases.
The pH scale is used to identify how strong acids and bases are.
We found out that Acids are below 7 on the pH scale, that Bases are above 7 on the pH scale
Acids are a  class of compounds whose water solutions taste sour, turn blue litmus to red, and react with bases to form salts.
Bases are a  class of compounds that taste bitter, feel slippery in water solution, turn red litmus to blue, and react with acids to form salts.

We found that cola, vinegar, lemon juice and orange juice were acids and they turned our blue litmus paper red.
We found that washing soda, baking soda and  washing up liquid were bases and turned our red litmus paper blue.

History - Native Americans

In January we learned a great deal about the Native Americans.
We made our own totem poles using drawings of different animals that represent different characteristics. We also made dreamcatchers by weaving wool and decorating with feathers and beads.

The Ojibwe people have an ancient legend about the origin of the dreamcatcher. Storytellers speak of the Spider Woman, known as Asibikaashi; she took care of the children and the people on the land. Eventually, the Ojibwe Nation spread to the corners of North America and it became difficult for Asibikaashi to reach all the children. So the mothers and grandmothers would weave magical webs for the children, using willow hoops and sinew, or cordage made from plants. The dreamcatchers would filter out all bad dreams and only allow good thoughts to enter our mind. Once the sun rises, all bad dreams just disappear.
 American ethnographer Frances Densmore writes in her book Chippewa Customs (1929, republished 1979, pg. 113)

Science - How Water travels through plants

In Science this week we investigated how water travels through plants.
We learned that water travels from the roots to the leaves through vessels called Xylem vessels.

First we added some food colouring to the water and left the celery in the water for a few hours. We could see where the water traveled up through the plant because of the red colour.

Next we split the stem of a white flower in half and left one side in clear water and the other side in coloured water. We observed that the red coloured water traveled up only one side of the stem and coloured only one half of the flower. This tells us that the vessels that carry the water through the plant are in a straight line.

 Finally we covered different sides of the leaves of a plant with vaseline and then sealed a plastic bag around them. This was  to investigate whether the stomata (which are tiny holes that allow water to leave the plant) are on the top or the underside of the leaves. We found that the  leaves where the underside were covered in vaseline did not produce any condensation on the plastic bag because the stomata were blocked. So we discovered that the stomata are on the underside of the leaves. The process by which water leaves the plant through the stomata is called transpiration.

International News

A snow blizzard swept across Massachusetts and Connecticut in northeastern America. It caused schools to close and cancelled thousands of flights, some from Dublin and Shannon airport. It hit places that left the residents digging up as much as 60 cm of snow.

By Adam Fitzgerald

Sport News

Luis Figo has entered the race for becoming Fifa president.
Determined to turn the organisation around he describes it as, currently having too many scandals.

BY ERIN DOLAN

Making Parachutes

On Tuesday 13th of January we designed and constructed parachutes using a variety of materials, including, cloth, paper and plastic and using magnets as weights. We tested parachutes of different sizes and found that the larger the parachute the more effective it was. The best materials in order were, paper, plastic, cloth.

Local and Sport news

                                                                    LOCAL NEWS                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 On the eight of January a family who shall remain unnamed got locked out of their car after the mum had left her keys inside her car with a hyper dog. The daughter was feeling panicked but the mum remained calm. After a period of around 20 - 40 min. the family managed to get the dog to step on the keys again, therefore unlocking the car.

SPORT

Shagari is on loan to Inter Milan.

By Jacqueline Bonner

(INTERNATIONAL) Four cartoon makers have been killed, because of an offensive way they portrayed Mohammad, the Muslim prophet.

(NATIONAL) A memorial service was held, for the four girls who hit a van in Kildare two nights ago.Their funerals will take place on the 9th of January 2015                                

                                                                         
By: John Birkett