By Karen Butler I am delighted to be asked to write up a report on a new project that Mr Ryan has brought into our school. Last week I walked into assembly and I saw Mr Ryan and Mrs Slattery with big smiles on their faces. As I approached, Mr Ryan beckoned me over and asked me if I would like to take on the roll of “The Fish Minder”, I suppose you could call it. I was delighted to. Mr Ryan had got a lovely fish tank from a friend of his in the business so all we had to do was set it up and get some fishy to live in it! I needed some boys to help me look after our new friends so I wrote up a letter and gave each teacher one asking them to pick a boy from their class that they thought would enjoy taking care of the fish. I also asked each child to try and come up with a name that we could call our group and I opened this up as a competition. So after some long thinking each teacher gave me a name of a boy in their class. These are our members: Junior Infant Member is Ryan Hart Senior Infant Member is Conor O Reilly 1st Class Member is Vincent Coleman Ryan 2nd Class Member is Sylwester Trofimczyk, 3rd Class Member is Craig Doyle Carroll 4th Class Member is Kuba Koncewicz 5th class Member is Mark Keane 6th Class Member is Adam Browne Corbett. After going through a lot of names that were thought up by the boys in the school, our name for the group was also picked - The School of Fish. This was a group effort from Senior Infants. Well done boys. So with my helpers and the name of the new club chosen it was time to go and buy our new fish. Two boys came with myself and Mr Hally to Maxi Zoo in Clonmel. Those boys were Adam Browne Corbett from 6th class and Vincent Coleman Ryan from 1st class. Both were very excited. When we were into the pet shop the boys thought that we should maybe bring a rabbit back to the school with us but then decided against it! After studying the various types of fish the boys settled on the Goldfish breed and picked 3 different types and we bought 2 of each type. The boys watched carefully as the man caught the fish and placed the into the bag. When all the fish we wanted were collected, the man told the boys that the fish growth usually depends on how well they are kept and on how big the tank is. He also gave the boys some advice on how to care for them, such as feeding them only every second day as we all learned that a goldfish stomach is only as big as its eye, and that if they are over feed they will float up to the top of the tank and will find it very hard to swim back down as their stomachs’ will be full of air! So now that we had the fish, it was time to go back to school and put our new pets into their new home. We placed the bags that they came in into the water in the tank. Tthis allowed the fish to get used to the water without giving them too much of a shock. We all gathered together after lunch break to open the bag and set the fish free into the tank. All the boys were very happy and admired the beautiful fish swimming around. Note from Mr Ryan: I'm delighted to report that the fish survived their first night in the tank! Well done "School of Fish"!
