Greetings to Ms. King's Fourth Grade, at Head O'Meadow School, Newtown Ct. USA from the Fifth & Sixth class pupils of Effin N.S. We thank you for your Friendship Banner. Click here to visit our photo gallery of the recent visit of Ms. King to our school.

Below are some essays entitled "An American Visitor comes to our school" by some of our pupils!
Kevin Shanahan
Mary Browne
Enda Kelly
Orla Carroll

When I heard that Ms. King was coming to our school I was really excited. When she came into the room, Mary Browne made a welcoming speech.
After a while she bent down to her bag and took many items out. She gave us some books, showed us a video of her own class and school and presented us with a Friendship Banner made by her class.
She videoed our school. We sang and played the recorder for her. Then we went back to our class the watch the video from Head O'Meadow School.
We were delighted to see our pen pals on the video. While the video was on she gave us sweets. We chatted to her, and asked questions too.
We gave her a hand-written project about famine in Ireland. We gave her "Under the Hawthorn Tree", a novel based on the famine Our teacher gave Ms. King a box of sweet. Everyone in the class gave her presents for their pen pals presents.
She gave us a beautiful banner. The two schools (Effin N.S. and Head O' Meadow) wrote letters and put them in a time capsule. Head O'Meadow's letters are buried in Ireland and ours are buried in America. Nobody can dig them up until ten years have passed. The date set for this is 20/02/2002
Ms King and a photographer from the "Vale Star" took many photographs on the day.
We also made a video for our pen pals. There were many mistakes but it came out okay. We were really nervous, so we practised a lot beforehand. I hope all the Head O'Meadow Fourth Grade class liked it.
She had many things to bring back to America. All the other classes gave her presents too. I hope the pen pals enjoyed the presents and the video.
She is the most joyful and enthusiastic person I have ever met. I would love her to come every day, but she has to go home sometime!
When she was leaving we all shock her hand and thanked her. I made a speech to thank her and to say goodbye. And we presented her with a broach.

It was Tuesday morning ,only a few hours before Ms. King arrived. We were very excited and nervous. After all the preparation she was finally here.
She had arrived with some friends. We asked her many questions. We each got an individual picture taken with her. She gave us a book called "MY NEW YORK". She also gave us a beautiful Banner, which her class made. Then I made a speech and welcomed her to our school. We also watched a lovely video. The time flew and before we knew it, it was time to go home. I was very sad to see her go.
The next day we arrived at school. I was a bit down because Ms. King was gone. But then the phone rang. It was Ms. King with great news, she was coming again to our school. This time she wanted us to bring in something that means a lot to us.
When she arrived she started tap our Irish lesson for her class. Kevin and I gave her a tour around the school. Our class sang and played the recorder. Then t was time for us to tell a bit about the token we brought in. I brought in a musical ornament. We all said our piece. Then it was time for Ms.King to leave. We will always remember her visit. We were all sad to see her go.

We were very excited to hear that our Pen Pal's teacher was coming to our school. Her name is Ms. Karen King. We had waited for this day for a long time and we had prepared for a long time.
At about half eleven that day she arrived at our school. Everybody greeted her. She was very nice. She brought lots of presents with her including a banner that her class had made. It shows that they have a lot of talent. She also told us a lot about our Pen Pals and herself.
First of all we all got a picture indivuadlly with her. Then we watched the class video taped by Ms.King. In the video was her class. They were playing the recorders and they gave us a tour of their school. It was fantastic.
After that, William Casey came from the local newspaper. And he and a few other people took a picture of us all with the banner that they gave to us. At the end of the day we all said goodbye. We were very sad to see her leave. The day had gone so quickly as well.
But, on Wednesday we were in shock, when our teacher gave us great news. He told us that Ms. King was coming back the following day. We could not believe it.
When she came back on Thursday she had a video camera with her. She taped us doing our Irish. She taped us doing our singing and playing our recorders. She was making a video out of it.
But the real terrifying thing was when we were on video talking about ourselves. We had to bring in something we really liked. We were on one by one in front of the camera! I was very nervous.
At the end of the day, we said goodbye. This time for good. They were two great days.

An American visitor came to our school. Her name was Ms. King. We were all very excited. There was great enthusiasm for her coming. She came at 11-30 am. When she arrived at we were delighted. We welcomed her. We chatted for a while and asked her questions.
She brought us a video of our pen-pals. We watched that for about an hour. It was very good. We gave her presents for our pen-pals. We also gave her a project on the Famine. We took photographs as well. She was very friendly. She gave us Banner that her class made for us. She came on Thursday as well.
We sang and played the recorders. She seemed to like this very much. We made a video of ourselves for her and her students. Everybody was very nervous about that. We wrote letters to ourselves, and her students to wrote letters to themselves. Both of them were put in capsules. She buried them in America and in ten years we will go and dig them up.
Her stay was very enjoyable. We are very thankful to her. We were all sad when she was leaving.

effinns@iol.ie