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.

January 2016

The infant room has been very busy during January.

Jolly Phonics
The junior infant children are nearly finished learning their letters for the jolly phonics programme and are ready to start reading. The children are very excited and can't wait to start reading.

Write-a-Book Competition
The senior infant children are busy writing their write a books. The topic is our favourite season and each child is writing their own book. We will be submitting them to the Blackrock Education Centre on February 12th.

Green Schools Poster Competition
Each classroom are creating posters to highlight our green schools message. Our key message is using bins and removing rubbish in our schools.

Aistear
The theme for January is weather and seasons. We were discussing weather, seasons and clothes. The children designed clothes for different weathers for their teddies and had a teddy bear fashion show. In addition the children learned all about being weather scientists and how to forecast the weather. The children conducted lots of weather experiments and how the water cycle works.

December 2015

Christmas Carol Service

The junior and senior infants  were delighted to be part of the school’s Christmas Carol Service. We performed Leanbh Beag Iosa with 1^st & 2^nd Class and a Gift to you on our own. It was a beautiful carol service and the Hosanna Rock was fabulous. The icing on the cake was performing our service in our wonderful new sports hall. What a great evening!

Ovoca Manor

The junior, senior infants & 1^st class children were thrilled to be invited to Ovoca Manor to see the Follow the Star. The children really enjoyed the performance and activities.

Avondale Community College

The junior infants were invited to a special Christmas party in Avondale Community College. We sang Christmas carols and met Santa. It was a lovely morning of Christmas spirit.

Christmas Disco

The children had a wonderful time at the Christmas Disco and of course visiting Santa. All the children in the infant room were told by Santa that they were on the good list!

Aistear

In December the infants learned about the nativity story, Santa’s Workshop and the Christmas Post Office.  We also made lots of Christmas arts and crafts.

November 2015

Aistear

This month our theme was Fantasy where we talked about Cowboys, Princesses, Knights, Dinosaurs and Superheroes.

The children had great fun acting out stories on the themes, creating designs in the small world theme and constructing art pieces.

Religion and Aistear

The children used the Aistear programme to learn about some of the stories in our religion book. We acted out the stories of Zacchaeus, Jesus calming the storm and the Good Samaritan. It was a really wonderful way to integrate our religion programme with the Aistear structure.

Arklow Colouring Competition

Congratulations to Layla and Molly on being selected to go forward to the final in the Arklow Colouring Competition.

Science Week

The children had great fun partaking in the Science Week. The children learned lots about famous scientists and visited the 3^rd-6^th classes Science Exhibition.

1^st Class

We said good bye to our 1^st class children. While we are very sad to say goodbye to them but it is a really great new path for our school.