June 2016

June 2016
June has been a very busy month with lots of exciting things happening in the infant room. We went on our school tour, visited the playground, continued with our Aistear and performed our favourite hymn "the birds up on the treetops" at our end of year service. I can't believe the time has come to say goodbye to my senior infants as they move onto 1st class. I know they will be wonderful as they move onto their next adventure and hope they come back to visit us in the infant room from time to time! We look forward to welcoming the new infants in September.
Have a wonderful Summer. Xx

School Tour
We had a fantastic day for our school tour down in Wexford.
First we visited a lego workshop where we had an opportunity to make lots of different creations with lego. Then we went to the beautiful Curracloe Beach where we enjoyed an ice-cream, had a beach scavenger hunt and built sandcastles. It was a really magical day and we were so lucky with the weather.

Playground
We visited our local playground and had a lovely picnic in the sunshine,

Aistear
We learned all about animals and we had an exciting visitor from a Vet.

In addition we learned about the animals you would see in the jungle, we went on a minibeast hunt and we built our own vet surgeries in small world.

May 2016

Aistear

In May we were very busy learning about life cycles of lots of different things.

First of all we learned about the human life cycle and how we change from when we were babies all throughout our lives. On our second week we learned about the life cycle of a butterfly and the fancy word metamorphosis! After that we learned about the life cycle of a frog and the cycle from the tadpole to the frog. And lastly we learned all about minibeasts and their importance to our ecosystem.

Asthma Friendly School

We were delighted to hear that our school was the first school in Ireland to receive the Gold Asthma Friendly School Award.

Stay Safe Programme

We have been busy learning all about the stay safe programme and how to react in certain situations. The most important thing we learned is if someone is doing something we don’t like we “Say No, Move Away and Tell”

Anti-Bullying Week

During Anti-Bullying Week every day we had an activity to discuss what bullying is and what to do if we think we are being bullied, or someone else is or if we are doing the bullying. It was a very informative week where we made a friendship proclamation for our classroom, acted out certain situations and made lovely posters about Anti-Bullying.

April 2016

Aistear

We have been very busy visiting lots of different countries:

England – We constructed crowns and royal guards in art. In reading and writing we wrote a letter to the queen. In small world we constructed lots of sights around England and in home corner we pretended to visit the sights and learn more about them.

France- Then we headed off to France and in art we constructed an Eiffel Tower, a French Flag and a French man. In reading and writing we made & wrote postcards from our visit to France. In small world we constructed lots of bakeries, the Eiffel Tower and Euro Disney and in home corner we pretended to visit the sights and learn more about them.

Australia/New Zealand- In art the children tried to replicate the dot paintings that the Aboriginal people created. In reading/writing the children drew sights/animals you would see in Australia/New Zealand. In small world the children constructed fantastic versions of Ayres Rock, the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the great Barrier Reef. In addition we were very excited to welcome Emma's Mum who is from Australia to tell us all about life in Australia.

Due to the official opening ceremony we didn’t get to start the America theme, but we will be going to America in May.

Also when we came back from Easter we had two days before our new theme kicked in for Aistear so we learned about Spring through Aistear.  We painted beautiful Spring Flowers, created Spring farms on small world, wrote a Spring poem on reading and writing and acted out the story of Come On Daisy on home corner.

 

 

Write a Book.

The senior infants entered the write a book competition and wrote beautiful books about the seasons. The person who corrected our books said the standard was very high. William, Emma & Ellen all received highly commended and Layla won the merit award. Well done to everyone.

Opening Ceremony

It was amazing to be part of such a wonderful official opening ceremony. The infants performed “This little light of mine” beautifully and some infant children had a chance to be part of the ceremony. We were all very proud to be students of St. Saviour’s NS.

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.