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.

February 2014

Aistear

During February we focused on our environment and how subjects in our classroom can be found all around us.

Science all around us

This was a very exciting Aistear module where the children learned about the following elements of science:

·         Magnets-the children had lots of fun seeing what materials are attracted to magnets and those that are not.

·         Electricity Circuit- the children saw how a circuit is built and they then built their own circuits.

·         Every Action has an Equal and opposite reaction : We made a volcano using Diet Coke and soft mints. It was brilliant fun!

·         Floating and Sinking: The children predicted and then experimented different materials and if they floated or sunk in the water.

·         Materials : The children looked at the materials in our classroom and all around us and how they are made and their functions.

Each of the children wore a white top to signify their transformation to scientists. The great thing was I heard lots of the children saying “ They want to be scientists when they grow up” !!

Music all around us

The children learned that music can come from the environment around us, from instruments or our bodies.

Home Corner : Each child recited twinkle little star and three blind mice on our classroom organ. The children were wonderful and  I see some natural pianists already!

Reading/Writing: The children learned about labeling instruments in an orchestra.

Small World: The children learned a song/musical notation and made instruments using playdough.

Art: The children made instruments using recycled materials. We even played the instruments to “ I am the music man”

Geography all around us

We welcomed Isabel’s Dad into our classroom to tell us all about the differences/similarities between Ireland and Canada. Afterwards the children made a lovely card to tell Isabel’s Dad about what we learned.

Home Corner : We conducted a geography audit of our school and acted out reading a map of Rathdrum.

Small World: The children constructed the main street of Rathdrum using small world materials.

Reading/Writing: The children drew wonderful maps of our classroom.

Art: The children made beautiful houses using felt and lollipop sticks.

History all around us

We were very lucky to welcome another visitor to our classroom. This time we welcomed Michael who is Mia and Sean’s Grandad. He is a member of the historical society in Rathdrum so he was able to tell us all about the history of Rathdrum. The children made a lovely card to say thank you to him for taking the time to come into our classroom and see us.

Home Corner : We conducted a history trail to see why monuments are important and why it is important to record dates. We then acted out the story of “Little Tiger’s Big Surprise”

Reading/Writing: We made a classroom timeline and wrote letters to ask questions what things were like long ago.

Small World: We thought about how things change and using the story of Sleeping Beauty we created the sequence of this story.

Art: We made beautiful cherry blossom family trees to record the change in our own families.

Firemen

We welcomed two firemen into our classroom who answered our questions and told us about always being very careful with fire.

Martial Arts

We concluded our 4 weeks martial arts class. It was a wonderful class and the children really enjoyed receiving their certificates at the end of the class. Thank you Mr. Paul Healy for the great classes.

Valentines Day

For Valentine’s Day we made our parents lovely valentines cards and a picture frame with a picture of everyone in our families.

Happy Valentine’s Day Everyone.

January 2014

Aistear

During Aistear, junior and senior infants have been learning all about weather. We have learned lots about all aspects of weather.

Week 1 – Weather and Seasons

We learned a lot this week about our weather and the expected weather in each of our seasons. But we also learned how unpredictable the Irish weather is!

Week 2 – Weather and Clothes

During learning about weather and suitable clothes we dressed up in the different types of clothes for different weathers and we dressed our teddies for different weathers. Following dressing up our teddies we had a brilliant teddy fashion show.

Week 3- Weather and Science

Weather and Science was a really exciting week, where the children dressed up in white coats as scientists and conducted lots of experiments to forecast the weather. We pretended our classroom was a weather laboratory and we made a tornado in a jar, made a rainbow using a glass of water, investigated how hot air needs more space, we used a rain gauge and an anemometer. It was a great week of fun and learning.

Week 4- Weather and Forecasting

This week we all turned into weather forecasters telling the weather on the news. First of all we went to the senior and middle rooms to survey them on what their favourite weather was – they all chose sunny weather! Then we learned about north, south, west and east and told everyone about the weather to expect.

Doodle for Google

We are so proud of Brooke, Luke, Aoife and Jessica who were chosen in the top 300 in Ireland for their doodles in the Doodle for Google competition. It is such an achievement to have 4 children in the top 300. Well done all of you.

Firemen

We were delighted to welcome the firemen to our classroom. The children had lots of questions and because we were talking about weather forecasting in Aistear we asked the firemen about the importance of knowing the weather for the firemen.

Reading

The junior infants have now started to read. They are all really enjoying starting to read and are very excited about being such big boys and girls.

December 2013

December

Aistear

During December, we were very busy with Aistear learning about everything relating to Christmas. During the first week, we learned about the nativity story which prepared us for our carol service.  Throughout the second week in December, we learned about writing Christmas cards and all the work that the post man does during Christmas. For our last week,  before our holidays we had great fun pretending we were in Santa’s workshop and the children designed, constructed and presented toys that they made for Santa’s workshop to the class. In addition, during this time the children made wonderful Christmas decorations to take home and decorate their houses for Christmas.

School Carol Service

The junior room was delighted to perform the nativity story as part of our school carol service. All the children were absolutely wonderful and I was very proud of every one of them. They all performed their roles wonderfully and sang their songs beautifully.

Ovoca Manor

The junior room were so delighted to follow the star to Ovoca Manor to see their performance of the nativity play. We had such a wonderful time seeing the nativity and Jacobs's Dad greeted us which was a great surprise ! We decorated some star cookies and then had the opportunity to play with playdough, dress up, complete two art projects, read books and play with lego. It was such a wonderful experience and we thank Mairead and everyone in Ovoca Manor for their hospitality when we were there.

Canon John and his Family

The junior room wish Canon John and his family and very happy retirement. We will miss him a lot but hopefully he will enjoy his time with his family and get some time to relax.

Christmas Party

The junior room had such a wonderful time at the Christmas party. Everyone was dancing and having a wonderful time. Santa’s grotto looked absolutely fabulous, thanks to Brooke’s parents and Santa was very generous and kind.

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The junior room wish everyone a very happy and peaceful new year and we look forward to lots of exciting fun in 2014.

Junior Room – November

Junior Room – November

Aistear

During November, we have been very busy with Aistear. This month, we were learning about different types of fantasy characters. We learned about cowboys, princesses & knights, dinosaurs and superheroes. We acted out stories, created our own superheroes, made wonderful pieces of art including masks, dinosaur puppets, used our imagination for small world creations and used our writing skills writing out dinosaur poems and sequencing stories. Everyone works so hard on their Aistear groups and it is a joy to see the children learning so much.

 

Write-a-Book Competition

The senior infants have entered the write a book competition. I am so proud of these wonderful books with the theme of Rainbows.  

Open Day

During November we had an open day where we welcomed new families into our junior room so the new children could see our classroom. It was a wonderful morning with lots of new families.

September / October 2013

September

Welcome back to our senior infant class and a big welcome to our twelve new junior infants.

During September, we settled into the school routine understanding where our playground is, where we hang our coats, where we sit and the importance of listening well in class.

October

October was a very busy month with lots of fun and learning.

Jolly Phonics

Junior Infants started learning all about their letters and sounds. They are all doing a fantastic job and they will be reading before we know it !

Aistear

We have started our aistear work again. Our themes in October were English all around us, colours all around us, Maths all around us and Autumn. It has been a great fun learning experience for everyone in our 4 stations of small world, home corner, reading/writing and art.

Maths Week

We had great fun during maths week. Our Aistear theme was also Maths all around us, so we were learning all about shapes, numbers, patterns and understanding that Maths is something we do every day. We all went on a maths trail outside where we saw numbers, shapes and patterns outside in our playground and garden.

Colours All Around Us

In our “colours all around us” week we learned about colours, rainbows and we even went on a colours trail to see how many colours there are outside.

English All Around Us

During English all around us, we had great fun acting out the story of “we are going on a bear hunt” and creating a map of the story.

Autumn

Our Autumn theme allowed us to collect lots items for our nature table. In small world we made a beautiful Autumn forest and in art we made Autumn trees.

Halloween

The children are very excited about Halloween and on our last day before the mid term we all dressed up and went on a parade in the car park. We had great fun making witches and black cats and watched a movie with popcorn before we went home.

Happy Halloween Everyone

Junior Room- June

Aistear

 Look at the little village we created in Art this month. We learned about Estate Agents and the work they do. We made “House for Sale” posters and we sold a lot of houses!!                                       

                                             

School Tour

The children were over the moon when I announced we would be visiting Sea Life in Bray on our school tour. It linked in really well with our Under the Sea topic from last month and the children were very eager to see the fish and other sea animals they learned about.

We went on our school tour on Tuesday the 18^th of June. We left the school around 9.30am and we went straight to the aquarium in Bray. We met our tour guide and she escorted us around the Aquarium and informed the children about the different sea animals. The children put her to the test as they had some very interesting questions for her!!!!

    

Once the tour was over we got back on the bus and we went to our next stop- Zoom in Charlesland!! The children thoroughly enjoyed the time they had at Zoom. We had some sweaty and tired heads returning onto the bus at 1.15pm!!

We returned to school at 1.50pm and each child received a certificate and a fancy pen from Sea Life as a token from their tour.

     

Teddy Bear Picnic

Monday- 24^th June the Middle and Senior Room went on their school tours. Since we had the school to ourselves we decided to have our lunch in style. Each child brought in their favourite teddy bear. We made some Rice Crispy buns in school and once they were cooled we headed off to our picnic spot. We had a great picnic and we even got to bring home an extra Rice Crispy bun!!

  

 

School Sports

Tuesday- 25^th June we had a School Sports Afternoon.  We were all really excited before the event. There were 4 teams for the day. Each child got the teams’ colour painted on their faces. The parents came to watch and they even got the chance to run in a race!! The races on the day were:

1. Egg and Spoon                                                                              2. Fast Walking

3. Hula Hoop                                                                                       4.Sidewards Skipping

5. Bean Bag

Then the children got an opportunity to participate in two fun team work games. This was a first and exciting experience for many of the children!! Have a look.

 

End of Year Service

Thursday- 27^th June the End of year service took place in St. Saviour’s Church at 6.30pm. Our room performed the song “Be Bold, Be strong” on the night.

Holidays

Friday- 28^th June we are getting our Summer Holidays!!!! I hope everyone has a fantastic break and see everyone again next year. Best of luck to the children as they move onto their next class.