The Queen Elizabeth 2 arrives in town

The inspiration for our story came from a very excited boy named Cian. Cian arrived at

school one Tuesday morning with his sister Leah and his mammy. Cian was ever so excited

and could not wait any longer to tell Gail (room leader) and his friends about his big news.

He could not wait to tell Gail and his friends that his very own tug boat named SMS Cian

(Sinbad Marine Services) turned the Queen Elizabeth cruise ship around and helped her to

dock at our local pier in Killybegs.

Cian and Leah’s grandad owns Sinbad Marine Services; therefore, this is how Cian and Leah

have tug boats named after them.

That morning Cian and his friend Lewis played in the ball pool as if they were on the cruise

ship trying to spot some fish in the water. “Look, look it’s a crab” says Lewis “Lots of crabs”

says Cian.

Cian and Lewis on the cruise ship looking for fish

As Cian’s friends arrived at school, they were all talking about the massive boat they had

seen on their way to school. Cian proudly told each of them about the big job his tug boat

had carried out that morning “And my mammy is going on the big cruise ship today”.

As we had moved into our classroom for the day, the children were all very interested in the

cruise ship asking many questions in relation to the ship “Who is on the ship?” “Why did it

come here” “What do they do on the boat”. All the children then began role playing that

they were on a cruise ship.

Ellie “What do the people do on the boat?”

Leah “My mum told me there is loads of different things on it”

Gail “Like what Leah?”

Leah “There is a kid’s club, swimming pool, disco room, around 20 floors, lots of restaurants,

lots of shops, doctors”

Gail “Wow that is a lot of different things”

Leah “My mum even said they sleep on the boat like at a hotel”

“Let’s all go on the cruise ship” says Ellie as she began lining all the chairs out in rows. “Who

is going to be the driver”? Asks Harrison. Cian replies “It is a captain that drives the cruise

ship”. “I want to be the captain” says Ellie “This can be my steering wheel” as she holds up a

sand sieve. Evan B. “Everyone hop on board the cruise ship, we are going” everyone

excitedly sat on a chair and pretended to fasten their seat belts as Oisín turns around and

shouts “Put on your seatbelts”

Ellie “Let’s all go to bed now” Ellie, Carla, Oisin, Lewis, Conor and Harrison go to the soft

corner which was their bedroom on the cruise ship.

Time for bed everyone, “night night”

Shannon, Farrah and shortly followed by Conor went to the home corner to play restaurants on the

boat.

Shannon asked Farrah for chicken nuggets and chips, Conor says “Me too and can I have

pink sauce, I love pink sauce.”

Shannon and Conor enjoying their chicken nuggets chips and most importantly “pink sauce”

Later that day as some of the children left for home Leah asked, “Can we do some art and

make a massive cruise ship, I could draw the boat and the rest of the boys and girls could

help me decorate it”, “That is a great idea Leah” says Gail. Everyone jumped up and down

excitedly as Leah drew the boat, Leah copied a picture of the Queen Elizabeth boat that she

had previously drawn which Evan B. held for her, so she could see. All the children helped

Leah add some windows to the boat which they had cut out. Leah and Cian then added

some fish, Farrah added her house, Evan drew his family watching the boat coming in to the

pier and Shannon added some balloons to let go into the sky when the boat arrived.

Leah drawing the Queen Elizbeth wither friends

helping, following her direction

Adding the finishing touches. The finished cruise Ship.

That evening when Leah and Cian were collected, Julie (their mum) showed the children

some photos of the inside and outside of the boat. Again, they were so excited and full of

questions in relation to the boat. Julie showed pictures of the cruise ship and explained it

was the biggest boat to ever dock at Killybegs pier, she then went on to say there was

around 3000 passengers on the cruise and it came all the way from Iceland to Killybegs. The

children were amazed by this and couldn’t believe the size of the boat.

Julie asked the children “What do you think might be on a cruise ship?” some of the

responses she received was: Donncha “Beds and TV and the boat even lights up at night”,

Evan B. “Bunk beds”, Cian “They have lots of ice-cream” Julie “Yes, there is all of them

things” She then proceeded to talk about all different zones of the cruise shop, these

included restaurants, shops, a swimming pool, an entertainment room, a theatre, a kids

club, mini golf and even a cinema, the children sat in amazement as Julie spoke and showed

them all the different pictures of the different areas within the boat.

Julie explaining all about the boat docking.

Cian holding a picture of SMS Cian pushing in the cruise.

Showing pictures of the swimming pool, bedrooms, kids club, mini gold and theatre.

Some very important questions that Julie was presented with were:

Cian “Do they have red sauce on the boat” Julie “They do Indeed”.

Donncha “Could I bring my tablet” Julie “Of course you could”. Donncha “I would bring my

tablet and lie on that big bed with it”.

Evan S “Do they have sausages and pasta in the restaurants?” Julie “They do Evan”

Donncha “How many money do you need to go on it” Leah “Lots of money” Julie “Yes you

would need about 2000euro, so you would have to do lots and lots of jobs for your Mammy

or Daddy to get that much pocket money”, Evan B. “You got to go to the bank”.

Julie finished up her talk by explaining to everyone that “A cruise ship is like a big hotel that

goes around the world to see different places”.

In conjunction with Aistear’s themes, aims and learning goals are evident throughout this

story as the children develop a growing understanding of people in their community under

exploring and thinking, as well as making connections and associations between new

learning and what they already know.

In terms of well-being, the children are expressing themselves creatively as well as

expressing themselves through a variety of types of play including role play. The children are

showing communication skills through interacting with other children and adults by

listening, discussing and turn taking in conversations as well as using their language through

role play to imagine and recreate roles and experiences, as well as telling stories to express

their thoughts and ideas.

As a whole, this learning experience of the arrival of the Queen Elizabeth cruise ship brought

huge excitement not only to Cian and Leah, but our class as a whole. It was a great learning

experience for the children as they had little to no knowledge about cruise ships prior to

this. Evan S. was also quoted saying “One day I want to go on a cruise ship”, “Me too”

responds some of his friends.