Geography Project :)

My topic was Baking around the world. I wanted to see what baking used to be popular in different countries and what is popular today.

Number One:

For my first stop I went to Ireland. I knew that baking in Ireland was always simple things like bread, but today we are influenced by lots of other countries. In the early 19^th century, women would stay at home to mind their children while their husbands would go out to work for the day. They would also spend most of their day preparing a filling meal for their “hard working” husbands. They would usually bake bread to go along with the meal. This was their place in society. Women were second class citizens who weren’t good enough to work. Their “job” was to look after their children and cook for the family. Baking in Ireland today is still quite traditional but we are influenced a lot by countries like America. Americas modern and fashionable baking has been incorporated into our lives without us knowing.

Number Two:

For my second stop I went to America. I researched information about traditional and contemporary baking. Traditional American baking consists of bread just like Ireland and scones (which they call biscuits). Over 240,000 farms in America produce wheat. The US alone produces approximately 13% of the whole world’s wheat. Two thirds of the US’s wheat production comes from The Great Plains (from Texas to Montana).

In later years, American baking started to change. It was getting more contemporary. Apple pie and pumpkin pie became popular. Pumpkin pie originated when Mexican colonists cut the top off a pumpkin, took the seeds out and filled the inside with milk, spices and honey. They baked it hot ashes and ate it. This recipe spread around quickly. People experimented and soon became The Pumpkin Pie. Today, America is known for its great, stylish baking. They have influenced lots of different countries around the world. Some popular contemporary baking in America today would be Chocolate fudge cake, cookies, cupcakes and apple pie. Cheesecake is another popular American dessert. Not many people know that it actually originated in Greece.

Number Three:

For my third stop I went to Greece. When I was researching American baking I found out that Cheesecake is Greek. I wanted to find out more about where exactly it originated. I also wanted to see what kind of baking is popular in Greece today. People normally associate cheesecake with America but it started off in Greece. It was served to the athletes during the first ever Olympic games held in 776 BC.

Cheesecake is believed to have originated in ancient Greece. It is said to be served to the athletes during the first Olympic Games held in 776 BC. Cream cheese was invented in 1872 by two American dairymen. It was said that they were trying to recreate French cheese. Seeing as cream cheese had not been invented yet, people relied on cottage cheese to make the cake. Cheesecake was brought to America by immigrants. It was altered a lot when it got there. The first cheesecake with cream cheese came from a man called Arnold Rueben in New York City. Legend says that he was served a cheese pie by a friend. He fell in love with it straight away! From his friend’s recipe, he started to develop his own recipe and he eventually served it at his restaurant. The rest from here is history. Chefs altered different kinds of flavours into this recipe and it is now famous around the world.

Greek baking today includes things like cookies and baklava. Baklava is a pastry based dessert which is sweetened with honey and crushed nuts.

Number four:

For my fourth stop I went to Texas. As I said when researching American baking, Texas produces two thirds of the US’s wheat. They bake a lot of bread with this but most of it is imported to other countries.

Texan cuisine is a mixture between Texas and Mexico. It is called tex-mex! Chilli con carne would be a popular tex-mex dish. Other tex-mex dishes would be beef and chicken fajitas and chapulines which are roasted grasshoppers. Texan baking is just like American baking. A popular Texan dessert would be Sweet Potato Praline Pie. This is a mixture of mashes sweet potato, spices like nutmeg, vanilla extract, cream and nuts. All the ingredients are combined together and put into a pie dish. The mixture is cooked for ten minutes. It is usually served with ice-cream or whipped cream.

Number five:

For my last stop I went to Spain. Baking in Spain today is still very traditional. A popular traditional this to make is Spanish King’s Cake or “Roscón de Reyes”. It is only made around January 5^th.This is the when the three wise men bring children presents.
Spanish people eat lots of this pastry for breakfast the next morning. And the leftovers throughout the day. It is a spongy pastry with many different layers and a fluffy filling. The filling can either be whipped cream, meringue or crema (thick sugar-flour custard) Fruit is added which gives it a citrus flavor.
The cake originated in Spain because of the three wise men. However, other countries have taken the idea but have tied their own religions into it. There is a French King Cake. Tradition holds that the cake is “to draw the kings” to the Epiphany. A figure which can be anything from a car to a cartoon character is hidden in the cake. The person who finds the figure in their slice becomes king for the day in their homes.
Just like Ireland has a ring in our braic!

My Sister's Keeper :D

I chose to read My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult.

The main characters are Anna ,Kate ,Jesse ,Brian and Sara.

Kate has had Leukemia since she was really young. The only reason Anna was born was so she could donate bone marrow to Kate. Anna was getting sick of giving bone marrow and to add on top of it all ,Brian and Sara (her parents) want her to donate a kidney to Kate. Anna hires a lawyer to try get the right to her own body.

Brian is a fire-man and has been putting out a lot of fires in the same area. Jesse found out that he wasn't a donor match for Kate and got really upset. They later found out that it was him who had been starting the fires. It blocked out his pain of not being able to donate and make his sister better.

Anna agreed to donate her kidney in the end, but Kate talked her out of it because she was sick of surgery.She knew she would die without it but didn't care. She was the one who convinced Anna to get a lawyer.

Anna wins her trial and gets legal right to her own body. No body is angry with what she done and just get on with things.

Campbell (Anna's lawyer) was driving in a car with Anna in the passenger seat ,a truck hit them out of nowhere. Campbell made it out alive but Anna was left brain dead. Everybody was so upset ,especially Sara. She had been planning her other daughter's funeral and really wasn't expecting this.

In the hospital ,the doctors asked about organ donation. Campbell being Anna's lawyer tells them that she would have wanted to give the kidney to her sister.

Kate got the kidney and survives! ,she describes in the end that eight years after Anna's death. She is getting better because the kidney is working. Her Dad overcame being an alcoholic. Jesse is now a police man and Campbell got married :)

This book was really really good. It was really sad to see what the whole family went through while Kate was sick. This is my second time to read it and i will definitely read it again :)

TY night :(

TY is almost over and we are getting prepared for our TY night on the 30th May. I think we are learning a dance to do and maybe play some jembe. We learned the haka in rugby so maybe we'll do that too. Two girls have been assigned to a subject and they have to design the stand that will be shown on the night. The stands will have all the work we have done for the year and any competitions or awards we have won :)

Even though we don't want TY to end ,It will still be a great night!

"Easter Feaster"

Before our Christmas holidays ,Emnet held a French breakfast for our class. To pay them back we are going to have an "Easter Feaster" for them on Wednesday before we go to the ballet.

People are making cakes and bringing in sweets and drinks. We will just have a party before the easter holidays. We'll probably just listen to music ad have the craic ;)

Ballet Show :)

On Wednesday ,we are going to Hayley's ballet show. She doesn't know that we are going so we are going to surprise her on the day. We are using out TY funds to pay for the day which is good. I've heard she is really good at ballet so I'm excited to see the show. :)

New History Topic :)

Seeing as there wasn't enough information on Aphrodite ,I changed my topic. I am now doing it on The Great Famine in Ireland. We have to focus in on one main point so Ms McH said that I should focus on the people who left Ireland during the Famine. I am going to look at how they survived in different countries. How they coped with new food ,language and getting a job to earn money.

I already have two book sources to use so I don't have to rely on the internet. :)

Music night :)

On the 30th of March ,we had our annual music night in school. We do it every year to raise money for the music department. Girls sang ,danced and played instruments in the show. TY's had a part too. We sang "Mama Said" by Dionne Bromfield. We had dance moves aswell. We all had great fun on stage. :)

Retreat at Glendalough :)

Yesterday we went on out TY retreat to Glendalough in Co.Wicklow. It wasn't like our other retreats but it was really good :D We did a day in the life of Saint Kevin. We walked around and saw old churches and houses where he used to live. We saw a little hole in the wall where he used to sleep. We went to a lake which had healing water ,we had to cup some of the water in out hands and slowly let it drip from our hands. This was to get rid of anything bad we didn't want anymore.

We went for a silent walk which was really relaxing. Everyone was so tired on the way home but we really enjoyed our day :)

Geography -End of year project.

For our end of year project ,Mrs L told us to choose one thing that we like. We have to do research on the geography of whatever we have chosen.

"Everything has a geography"

I chose baking :) What we have to do is make a map on Google maps. We then have to pick 5 land marks to drop a pin on ,explaining something about baking from that country. All the country stops have to be connected with a marker so it takes you on a little trip.

We have to blog while we're doing the project. So we have

5 country stops

5 blog posts and..

5 weeks

Irish Oral :)

We are having Irish Orals at the moment with Emnet's Irish teacher. I was picked to go on the first day. It went alright because we knew what questions were coming up. For the LC we won't know what questions will be asked but it was good practice :D

Swim a Mile With a Smile :)

Next Friday we are off to "Swim a Mile With a Smile" :) A mile in the pool we are swimming in is 64 lengths. I have done it before so I'm going to try again this year. It should be fun doing it with school instead. We are getting our Easter Holidays the same day so we can all rest for two weeks :D

Jabba Jabba Jembe :)

A man called Dave from Jabba Jabba Jembe came to our school for a Percussion Workshop. He brought loads of Jembe drums and other African instruments. We learned the basic steps on the drums and how a Jembe is made. It is a cut out tree trunk ,with cow skin on top. The hair from the skin is shaved off and it is ready to be played. We are thinking about doing drumming for TY night. If we learn a simple song or something it will be good :D

SCI-FEST :)

Sci-fest is coming up soon. Me ,Karen and Jessica are entering the same project as The Young Scientist. Our project is called "Dirty Money". So far we have swabbed dirty money and watched the bacteria grow in agar petri dishes. We have sterilised dirty money in household things (bleach ,soap ,washing up liquid and dettol) and then swabbed it to see if any bacteria will grow in the agar dishes. Hopefully we'll have everything done on time :)

THE HAKA IN RUGBY :)

In rugby ,Ross taught us all The Haka. It was really fun to do ,I think we're going to learn it properly and perform it on TY night. :)

HISTORY PROJECT :)

We are doing a project in history at the moment. We can pick any topic we want and have to do a write up that is about 10 pages. I chose to do Aphrodite - The Goddess of Love and Beauty!

So far I have only done my research ,when I have all my notes I'll do my write up :)

Reading in English :)

Mrs B ,has asked us to read at laest one book from the LC course. She wants us to get used to reading novels before we go into fifth year. I am deciding whether to read My Sisters Keeper by Jodi Picoult or Circle of Friends by Maeve Binchy. :)

GEOGRAPHY MAPS ON GOOGLE :)

Mrs L set up a local map on google where all TY's could drop a pin on a country they have been to. The country we have to mark is the country we done our virtual trip on. I done my mine on China and Mongolia so I marked all the places that I visited. I think that is a really good idea because I can read about different places around the world. :)

Work Experience :)

For my second week of work experience ,I went to my primary school.

I got to see what senior infants was like all over again ,from the other side though!

I helped the class with art ,maths and english. I read them a story some days too.

I helped a new girl in sixth class with her english ,she hadnt been in Ireland for that long. We taught her how to tell the time and helped her understand things like nouns and verbs.

It was so much fun ,I am definitely considering teaching when im older :D

Oisínn McGann :D

Oisínn McGann (an irish author) came to talk to our class :) He is so funny ,he talked to us about using our imagination and creativity. He read us bits of some of his books and drew us a really good picture :) I am going to try read one of his novels soon x

GAA Museum :)

We took a history trip to the GAA museum in Croke Park. We left the school at twelve and got there at about one :) When we arrived we met our tour guide and watched a short movie on croke park and GAA. After the short movie we got a tour of the stadium ,before we went outside we saw the dressing room and the warm up room. This was very cool because I wouldnt choose to go on this trip in my own time. We went out to the edge of the pitch (its so much bigger than it looks on the telly :L ) We sat in the VIP area ,were the president sits actually ;) then we went up the very top seats. I almost cried if im honest! its very high :O
We went inside after and had something to eat and then went to look at all the original cups like The Sam Maguire. We then went up stairs to play some of the games :D
We got home just in time for the bell x

More spanish comida :D

Me and Jess made our second dish for our spanish project :) We were in the mood for something sweet so we made CHURROS.

Churros are just like doughnuts that are popular in Spain!

They were so quick to make ,all we did was melt butter and water in a pot ,added in flour and our dough was made. We shaped the dough and deep fried them in oil. When the oil was drained off we coated them in melted chocolate! They were DELICIOUS :D

Technology Clocks

We have been making clocks in Technology for the past few weeks. Everyone is almost finished now and adding their last little touches.
When we finish our clocks we can use the stika machine to put stickers on them. :)

Happy Saint Bridgets Day :)

Yesterday was Saint Bridgets Day :) ,we didnt have religion class so we made our crosses on Monday instead. We sang songs and had lots of fun :D

Home Ec

We have been given a project on INTERNATIONAL CUISINE. Me and Jess had to pick a country and from that country we have to cook two savoury dishes and one sweet :) We have to do a written project as well. This is under the headings of culture ,geography ,food (traditional and contemporary) and history! Jess and I chose SPAIN and we will cook

1) Pasta with Chorizo and home made tomato sauce.
2) Fiesta Chicken.
3) and Churros for our dessert.

Our Pasta with chorizo and tomato sauce turned out really well :D It was so simple to make ,we were finished in less than an hour. All we did was fry slices of chorizo with chopped onion ,garlic and peppers. We added seasoning and a tin of chopped tomatoes ,boiled our pasta and we were done :) I ate it all for lunch that day ,YUMMY

Drama workshop :)

Today we had a drama workshop. This was to help us with with movement on the stage. The adjudicator in the drama competition that we needed to move around more on stage.
Hopefully we will get through and use these tips to maybe help us win
LOL :D

Mini company :)

Our mini company is going really well ,we were in contact with the Irish Cancer Society and they gave us permission to sell pink bracelets and donate the profit to Action Breast Cancer. They sent us out pink ribbons to sell for them and some advertising things like baloons ,posters ,t-shirts and collection buckets :D
We started selling them yesterday and we sold about six or seven bracelets and a good few pink ribbons! Not many people knew we were selling and said that they would bring in their money soon to buy something. People who had spare change donated it ,every little does help :)

Mullingar

We went to Mullingar this week for our drama competition. We all were very nervous but excited at the same times. The other schools were from Donegal and Kilkenny ,they didnt arrive when we were on stage which was a good thing :)
The adjudicator was a really god actress who had been on the clinic before ,she gave us criticism in a good way that we didnt get offended
We are going to find out next week if any of us got through ,Hopefully at least one group gets in :D

Young Scientist

We went to the young scientist in the RDS ,only one group out of TY got through. Kate ,Aoife and Stephanie :)
We looked at some of the projects and ate a lot of food!
It was such a good day