Thursday 11 December 2014

November 2014

Aistear
The Junior and Senior Infants were very busy in November learning all about different types of Transport.

Trains
·         Home Corner : We created a train station in our classroom.
·         Small World : We constructed a train station using small world materials.
·         Art: We constructed trains using junk art.
·         Reading/Writing : We wrote poems about trains.

Airport
·         Home Corner : We created an airport with an aeroplane in home corner.
·         Small World : We constructed an airport using small world materials.
·         Art: We constructed lollipop stick aeroplanes and a pilot.
·         Reading/Writing : We sequenced the order of going to the airport and we made a passport.

Garage
·         Home Corner : We created a garage and busy mechanics in our classroom.
·         Small World : We constructed a busy garage with our small world materials.
·         Art: We constructed a car mobile of 4 different types of cars.                                                 Reading/Writing : We wrote poems about cars.


 Bus Driver
·         Home Corner : We created a bus route and a bus in our classroom.
·         Small World : We created a bus route using small world materials.
·         Art: We constructed a school bus and a double decker bus
·         Reading/Writing: We sequenced our stories about going on a bus journey.

In addition, David Binnions the school bus driver invited us with an opportunity to visit the school bus and ask David questions. – thank you David.



GAA
We have started GAA training with James on a Wednesday morning. All of the children absolutely love the training and James is a great coach with the children.

Sunday 2 November 2014

October 2014

Maths Week

From the 13th-20th October it was maths week. In the junior and senior room we enjoyed great maths activities, including being shape detectives, numbers maths trail, a classroom trail, maths stations, a maths hero each day, maths songs, problem of the day and much more !! The children had great fun and it was a great opportunity to have active maths classes every day.

Aistear
During October we learned about people who help us in our community. We learned about the people who help us in our school, library, park rangers and doctors/nurses.

School
Here we learned about all the people who help us in our school including teachers, caretaker, secretary, principal, cleaner and Rev Brian. Mrs Lawson came to talk to us about how to become a principal.
Library
We visited our local library in Rathdrum and asked the librarian questions about being a librarian.
            Park Rangers
We went outside and looked for the signs of Autumn and pretended to be park rangers in Glendalough.
Doctors
We learned about doctors and nurses and Sarah & Daniel’s Mum who is a nurse came and told us all about being a nurse in a busy hospital.











Friendship Buddies
We are delighted to have started a friendship buddies programme in the junior room. Every week the children are partnered with different friendship buddies. The children have been told that they can approach their buddy if they are feeling lonely on the playground and their buddy will play with them. If they are feeling sad, their buddy will go up to a teacher and tell them. The friendship buddies idea is to support children on the playground so they know they have a child they can go to, if they need someone.

Halloween
We had great fun learning lots of spooky Halloween songs, making bats & witches and Halloween cards. We acted out the story Room on a Broom and had fun bobbing for apples and making chocolate apples. On our last day before mid term we all dressed up for Halloween and loved walking in the school Halloween parade. 











Sunday 5 October 2014

September 2014

We are all delighted to be back at school and I am thrilled to welcome my new junior infant class. I can’t believe how tall and grown up my senior infants have become over the summer. It has been very busy over the past number of weeks as the junior infants have settled into school life. This week, the junior infants have started to learn their letters using the jolly phonics programme. In addition, this week we started our aistear programme where we started to learn about our school through role play in home corner, building the school using small world materials, sequencing a day in school in the reading/writing corner and creating a school logo & school banner in the art area. The children were delighted to be part of aistear again. The following are some photographs from our week discussing school in  aistear.






Sunday 1 June 2014

May 2014

Aistear
During May we had great fun visiting other countries through our Aistear and we started learning about life cycles.

The World Around Us
France
When we visited France the children learned about the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, the Louvre and we even learned a few words in French. We all learned the song Freres Jacques and in art we made the French Flag and Eiffel Tower.
Australia
From France we went on a long flight down under! In Australia we learned about the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the opera house, Ayres Rock, the animals in Australia and the Great Barrier Reef. In reading & writing we made a beautiful tourist book about Australia and in Art we painted beautiful Aboriginal dot paintings. The children brought in wonderful artefacts from Australia and everyone had a chance to play the didgeridoo!
America
Our last destination was to visit America. The children loved learning about Mount Rushmore, Barack Obama, the White house, Statue of Liberty, Empire State building, Yellowstone national park and the Grand Canyon. The senior infant children wrote fantastic acrostic poems which are proudly displayed in our classroom.

Life Cycles
Butterflies
The life cycle of the butterfly was great fun. In small world, each child made their own life cycle using small world materials and in art we made the most beautiful butterflies. In home corner we acted out the story of the crunching munching caterpillar and the life cycle of a butterfly. In reading & writing the children wrote the most fantastic sequenced stories of the crunching munching caterpillar.

Frogs
We finished in May with the life cycle of a frog. This proved a great topic as we have our own frog habitat in the school pond. We all saw lots of tadpoles and froglets in the pond which was fantastic. In art we made one large class life cycle of a frog and in home corner we acted out the story of the frog prince.
_______________________________________
Community Games
A huge well done to Aoife who represented the school in the next round of the community games art competition. You did a great job Aoife and we are very proud of you.
_______________________________________
School Tour

We are very excited to be going on our school tour on the 13th June to Imagonisity. We are counting the days and cannot wait !! 

Thursday 17 April 2014

March & April

Aistear
Sport
During our sport theme we discussed rugby, athletics, swimming & GAA. It was a great opportunity to learn about lots of different sports and the importance of sport in our lives.

1.  Rugby
In home corner the children pretended they were part of the Irish rugby team and we practised scoring a try, a scrum a line out and goal kicks! We also pretended we were television commentators and commentated as children scored a try. In small world the children created a pitch with players and all the elements required for a rugby game. During reading and writing the children created a sequenced story of their own rugby game and during these games the children created a game where Ireland beat the all blacks ! In art, the children created their own rugby jerseys using crepe paper. In addition the children learned about the hakka and learned how to sing “Ireland’s Call”.



2.  Athletics & Swimming
During home corner, the children learned about the Olympics and we pretended we were in the Olympics with a medal ceremony. All of the children loved learning about Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt. In addition, we pretended we were in a swimming pool perfecting different swimming strokes and in athletics we pretended we were in the Olympics running in the marathon, relay and sprints! In Art the children made Olympic medals and drew a running race. During small world the children worked really hard at making a swimming pool with diving boards and a lifeguard and an athletic track with high jump, long jump and hurdles. During reading & writing the children made posters about being safe in the water.


3.  GAA
The GAA aistear topic gave the children a great opportunity to find out the difference between GAA and other sports and all about our national sports. During home corner the children had a chance to play Gaelic football and hurling and learn about Cu Chulainn & Croke Park. In art the children constructed a Wicklow hurling player and during small world the children constructed a GAA pitch. In the reading & writing group the children made posters about “Give Respect. Get Respect”. In addition we were really lucky to welcome Sean Cooney to our room who is Joseph’s Dad. He told us all about hurling and the medals Joseph’s granddad won for his club and county. Thank you Sean for visiting our classroom. Jessica’s name was pulled from the hat and won a Wicklow county jersey.







World All Around Us
After sport we moved onto the topic of traveling around the world. Our first stop on our travels was the UK.

During home corner we role played being a tourist and working in a tourist office. We visited Buckingham palace, Westminster abbey, tower bridge and Big Ben. During reading /writing we wrote letters to the Queen asking her questions. In art, we made a palace guard and a crown jewels. In small world we constructed famous sights around London. In addition we welcomed Michelle Conroy, Chloe’s Mum who is from England to tell us all about England. Thank you Michelle for visiting our classroom.

For the rest of the this topic we will be learning about visiting Australia, France and America.

Seachtain na Gaeilge

During Seachtain na Gaeilge, the children worked really hard at “ag labhairt as Gaeilge”. We used our Gaeilge as much as possible during play time and when we were speaking to each other. In addition, we had a phrase each day that we tried to use at home and in school.

We were delighted to have a ceili in our classroom with the middle room. It was great fun – we all agreed that next we are off to River Dance.

In addition we had a seo faisin where each child pretended we were in a fashion show modelling clothes “as Gaeilge”.

Lots of the children took part in the St. Patrick's Day Parade. Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone.



Write a Book
We received the results from the write a book competition. Jessica won the first place. All the other children received special mention that their books were wonderful. Well done to everyone.

Gymnastics
For 4 weeks we loved going to the community hall on a bus to learn Gymnastics. The children learned how to jump correctly on the trampoline, how to balance on the beam and increase our arm strength on the bars. It was a wonderful opportunity to learn about gymnastics. A big thank you to Les and Becki for their help and support. 




Visitors
We have been really lucky to have lots of visitors to our classroom. We welcomed Sean Ryan’s granddad to speak to us all about history, Peter Riedle to speak to us about Canada, Jenni Miley to speak to us about Finland, Sean Cooney to speak to us about hurling and Michelle Conroy to speak to us about hurling. We love having visitors in our classroom and we thank them for taking time to come and talk to us.





Maths Stations
We had great fun breaking into our maths stations where we learned about weight, capacity and measures. During the weight group we made buns by measuring the weight required and we also weighed lots of items around the room and seeing what was heavier/lighter. During capacity we used lots of measuring items to determine which holds the most/least. During the measuring station the children used cubes and paper clips to measure items around the classroom.  We will continue with this during May.

We are on the move!
On our last day before the Easter holidays we had our last day in our classroom as after Easter we will have moved to Mrs Lawson’s room. It was a bit sad saying goodbye to our classroom but we look forward to being in Mrs Lawson’s room while the building work is going on.


Easter Egg Hunt

On the Friday of our Easter holidays the children took part in our class egg hunt. The children were brilliant hunters and found the eggs that the Easter bunny had hidden. Happy Easter to everyone and I hope you have a wonderful holiday.