March 2016

March 2016

We had a very busy March in the infant room. Even though we were finishing on the 16^th March we packed in a lot of activity in that time !

Church Assembly

The junior and senior infants along with 1^st & 2^nd Classes hosted a church assembly. Our theme was Spring and it was full of happiness and the joy of Spring.  1^st Class read lovely prayers to remind us that God is all around us in Spring and 2^nd Class read the story of the Sower and the Seed. The infant classes said their poem – “We thank God for Spring” and our favourite hymn – “The birds up on the tree tops”. Both classes created art pieces for the church to represent our Spring theme. Mrs Lawson said the assembly uplifted her spirits and Rev Brian said he enjoyed it very much.

Arklow Music Festival

The infants took part in the Arklow Music Festival in the action poem category. The children performed the poem “Four Jolly Pirates”. The children worked so hard on their poem and on the day they were just simply fantastic – I couldn’t have been prouder. We received highly commended and we were delighted with ourselves. We will be back next year to compete again!

Proclamation Day

We have been learning all about the 1916 rising in our classroom. We all worked together to create our new modern day proclamation but really the items we included in our new proclamation echo the message of the proclamation in 1916. We were very excited to be part of the proclamation day on the 15^th March to sing our national anthem and oro se do bheatha bhaile.  Layla and Isabel represented our class to carry our flag to Mrs Lawson and help raise it with Rowan. It was a very emotional and proud day. We all made our own Irish flag in Aistear to bring home with us for St. Patrick’s Day.

St. Patrick’s Day and Easter

We have been learning all about St. Patrick and the Easter story in Aistear. We acted out the story of St. Patrick and in reading and writing we learned about what happened at Easter and wrote a lovely prayer about the message of Easter. We also made lots of pieces of art for St. Patrick and Easter – a St Patrick’s Day card, St Patrick’s Day rainbow with a pot of gold, Easter basket with eggs (weaved from wool) and Easter chick. On our last day before our holidays we visited the playground and had an egg hunt!

Aistear

Our theme during March was sport all around us. We learned all about rugby, soccer and athletics, swimming. The children learned the song “Ireland’s Call” and our national anthem. They also learned about the haka, line outs, scrums, a try and some of the famous rugby players. For soccer they learned about the Euro 2016 games and all the countries that will be traveling to them. For athletics and swimming they learned about the activities that can be competed in and the medal ceremony. We will be learning more about all sports when the Olympics is on.

We said goodbye to Eliane as she is going to France for the last term of school. We presented her with a photograph of our class so she doesn't forget us and an Easter egg. See you soon Eliane.

February 2016

The children have been very busy again in the junior room. The following are an overview of the activities during February.

Valentines Day

The children made beautiful cards and a heart wreath decoration for their parents. All children were very proud of their beautiful artwork.

Extra Curricular Activities

We concluded our dance classes with Zoe which the children loved. On February 26^th we commenced our 4 week basketball course with Rita. The children are having great fun learning all the basketball passes and moves.

Aistear

This month the children are learning all about different subjects that are all around us.

Music All Around Us – The children learned all about instruments in the orchestra and the families they belong to. They also learned how to play a tune on the piano.

Science All Around Us- The children role played as scientists learning about floating/sinking and materials all around us, They also conducted lots of experiments including making magnet controlled cars, making a lava lamp and constructing volcanoes.

Geography All Around Us- The children learned about the people in our community who help us and in art they constructed the main street of Rathdrum.

History All Around Us – We were delighted to receive historical artifacts from Greenane Maze to assist our children to work as historians. The children constructed family trees and learned about the 1916 anniversary this year.

Willow Weaving

The children loved being part of the willow weaving workshop. They were very proud to have contributed towards making such a lovely willow basket for our school.

Food Dudes

The children are loving being part of the Food Dude Programme. It is lovely to hear the children being so enthusiastic about eating fruit and vegetables.

Competitions

The senior infants took part in the INTO handwriting competition.

The junior & senior infants took part in the World Book Day Favourite Character Competition in conjunction with Bridge Street Book Shop in Wicklow.