Teachers' Resources

Things To do
1.    Go on a building ramble. Ask the children to look at the different types of houses that are in their neighbourhood. Do a mini survey of where they live and what kind of house/ apartment they live in.
2.    Download the Front Doors worksheet below and draw a picture of four different doors they see on their way to school.
3.    Tell the three Little Pigs Story and get the children to draw the three different types of houses.

Once the cross is woven, it is blessed with holy water by a priest. It is then hung on the front doors of homes and left in place all year, to be burned and replaced with a newly-woven cross on the next St Brigid’s Day.

How to make a St. Brigid’s Cross
You will need:

• bowl
• 28 long reads or straws (if not available why not try pipe cleaners).

Instructions:

• Position two straws to make a plus sign, putting the horizontal straw on the top. Fold the upper section of the vertical straw on top of its other half. Rotate the weave counter-clockwise 90 degrees. Repeat to fold the now-vertical straw.
• Rotate 90 degrees counter-clockwise. Add another straw by placing it to the right of the folded vertical straw and beneath the folded horizontal straw. Fold it and rotate it again.
• Keep repeating the process without letting the straws bunch up on top of each other. Rest the straws side by side.
• Tie each arm 4 inches from the centre of the St. Brigid’s cross after all the straws have been added. Trim the ends of the straw.

Today, the Castle's past can be visited while enjoying adjacent Loughnaneane Park and Playground, a 14 acre recreational area.  The natural features of the park include a turlough and a wildlife conservation area which is a habitat of unique flora and fauna.

Image by Mike Searle and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

There were three churches which belonged to religious orders: The Black Abbey was part of the Dominican Priory. Besides the church which you can see today, there were lots of other buildings where the priests and lay brothers lived and worked. It also owned some land and had a mill on the river Bregagh. It lay outside the walls of Kilkenny, but was connected to the rest of Kilkenny by a gate. St. Francis Abbey was a Franciscan Friary. Part of its church can be seen from the main gate of Smithwick’s Brewery. This is only part of the original church and there were other buildings, now gone.

Franciscans and Dominicans were known as Mendicant Orders. A mendicant is someone who begs. The mendicant orders were founded to preach the gospel and to serve the poor. Instead of living off the produce of land which they owned, the Mendicant Orders got much of their income from the ordinary people. St. John’s Priory was an Augustinian priory. It was also the Parish Church of St. John’s Parish on the east bank of the River Nore.

Download the information sheets below to find out more about Kilkenny’s Medieval churches.

Things To do
1.    Download the High Cross worksheet below and ask the children to design their own high cross, maybe using symbols that are in use today.

Things To do
1.    Download the Famous Buildings worksheet below and ask the children to name the buildings in the pictures.
2.    If possible, take pictures of local landmarks and do a mini 'show-and-tell' about the buildings.
3.    Ask the children to draw a picture of a local landmark and do a mini 'show-and-tell'.

This website documents a project in which six County Sligo schools explored and documented the heritage sites of the county. It has lots of resources that can be used by other schools in Sligo.

This project was developed in partnership with the Kilkenny County Childcare Committee, Kilkenny Education Centre, Dig-it-Kids, and with co-funding from the Heritage Council.

Skills and concepts development:
Children should be able to:

1. Time and Chronology:

• Describe events as before/after/, later/earlier
• Use a simple timeline
• Use dates such as 1681

2. Change and continuity:

• Recognise how the castle has changed at different periods
• Identify features that have remained the same

3. Cause and effect:

• Recognise the link between the site of the castle and the need for the lord and soldiers to defend themselves in the early centuries of the castle.
• The importance of displaying a coat of arms for a family.
• Recognising how people’s needs change and the impact that has on a building, for example the moat being filled in and the change in the design of the windows.

4. Using evidence:

• Visiting and examining the building

5. Empathy:

• Imagine and discuss the feelings of the servants working in the castle.

Methodologies:
Among the methods which may be used are:

• Story lesson about the Butler family
• Comparing a modern photo of the entrance to Kilkenny Castle with an 18th century
• painting
• Exploring the environment, using the trail
• Integration with other subjects: geography (limestone), art (designing coats of arms), maths (shape)

Sources Used:

• John Bradley, Kilkenny, historic town atlas no. 10 (Dublin, 2000)
• John Bradley, Discover Kilkenny (Dublin, 2000)
• Katherine Lanigan and Gerald Taylor (eds) Kilkenny, its architecture and history (Kilkenny, 1977)
• William Neely, Kilkenny, an urban history, 1391-1843 (Belfast, 1989)
• William Carrigan The History and antiquities of the diocese of Ossory (Dublin, 1905)
• David Edwards, The Ormond lordship in County Kilkenny 1515-1642 (Dublin, 2003)
• Oral testimony of Castle Park constable, Liam Burke (3/08/2007)

Things to do
1.    Create a mini-dig 1 - Find the treasure!
2.    Find a big box and fill it with loose soil or sand and place loose coins and artefacts (brooches, pins, and arrow heads) for the children to dig or find in the box. Discuss where and where the items came from.
3.    Create a mini-dig 2 - What’s the person’s job?
4.    Fill a big box with loose soil or sand and place articles that relate to a person's job in it for the children to find.