March 2015 Junior Room Blog

Aistear

We have been very busy in Aistear learning all about Easter and the people who help us in our community. We also welcomed two very important guests into our room.

Garda Station

Small World: Created a Garda Station using small world materials

Home Corner: Acted out being in a Garda Station

Art: Constructed our own Garda Hats & Garda Cars

Reading/Writing : Wrote a poem about being a Garda

We were delighted to welcome Garda Niamh into our classroom where she told us all about being a Garda and allowed us to try on her uniform.

Firefighters

Small World: Created a Fire Station using small world materials

Home Corner: Acted out being in a Fire Station

Art: Constructed our own Fire Fighters & Fire Fighter Trucks

Reading/Writing : Wrote a poem about Five Little FireFighters and we drew 4 things that a Fire Fighter does to protect us

We were delighted to welcome Fire Fighter Vaughan from the Dublin Fire Brigade into our classroom where he told us all about being a Fire Fighter and appointed everyone as Fire Safety Officers in their own home.

Easter Story

Small World: Created the Easter Story using small world materials

Art: Constructed Easter Bunnies, Easter Bunny Bonnets, Easter Chicks, Easter Cards, Easter Eggs, Made yummy Chocolate Easter nests

Reading/Writing : Sequenced the Easter Story.

Optician

Small World: Created an Optician Surgery using small world materials

Home Corner: Acted out being in an Optician Surgery.

Art: Constructed our own pair of glasses and an Optician’s eye torch

Reading/Writing : Wrote the reading chart / Sequenced what happens when you go to an Optician’s surgery

St Patrick’s Day  & Seachtain na Gaeilge

The junior room were very busy around St Patrick’s Day. We learned all about St. Patrick and how he became our patron saint. We worked very hard to speak Gaeilge as much as possible around Seachtain na Gaeilge. We learned how to dance some irish dancing and we performed 3 songs “as Gaeilge” for the rest of the school.

Mother’s Day

The children made beautiful pictures for their Mums on Mother’s day and some lovely biscuits. We hope the hardworking Mums enjoyed their treats on Mother’s Day.

Community Games

Congratulations to William Mullally who came 3^rd in the Community Games Art Competition. It was a great achievement William.

February 2015

Aistear

During February our theme for Aistear was food.

Week 1

Theme: Garden Center / Our Spring Gardens

Small World: Create a garden center and a spring garden using small world materials

Home Corner: Act out the story of Jack and the Beanstalk

Reading/Writing: Plan and design your own garden

Art: Using potatoes to print a daffodil/ crepe paper to create a bluebell & snowdrop

Week 2

Theme: Spring and the Farm

Small World : Build a spring farm with spring animals & their young

Home Corner: Acting the story of farmer duck / working on the big book – inferring/summarising

Reading/Writing: Sequenced the story of Farmer Duck

Art: Constructed a split pin farm animal/ constructing the hen life cycle/ learning to draw a sheep/ cow

Week 4

Theme: The Fisherman

Home Corner : Acting out the story of the loaves and the fish. / Role playing being different types of fish and guessing which fish it is/Discussing the names of the seas/oceans around the world/learning how to draw a  fish/ role playing the life as a fisherman

Small World: Creating the sea and all the different types of fish that we can get from it / and the life of a fisherman  - tools that a fisherman uses

Art: Creating a montage of the loaves and the fish/ construct a fish in a bowl

Reading/Writing: Sequencing the story of the loaves and fish. Drawing & Labeling different types of fish.

Doodle for Google

We are very proud of Isabel Riedle and Lucy Mullally who have succeeded on being selected for the semi-final in the top 300 entrants at the junior & senior infant level. A huge congratulations

Bokwa

We have now finished our Bokwa class- we would like to say a big thank to you Lianne for a wonderful class – the children have loved the class.

January 2015

January 2015

Aistear

During January our theme for Aistear was food.

Week 1

Theme: Vegetable Garden

Small World: Built a vegetable garden using small world materials

Home Corner: Acted out the story of the enormous turnip

Reading/Writing: Sequenced the growing process of a carrot and a potato

Art: Using crepe paper – constructed our own vegetables for our class veg garden

Week 2

Theme: Farmer & Food

Small World : Built a dairy farm and a tillage farm using small world materials

Home Corner: Acted out the story of the little red hen

Reading/Writing: Sequenced the story of milk and bread

Art: Constructed masks and split pin characters of the story of the little red hen

Week 3

Theme: The Restaurant

Small World : Built a restaurant and kitchen using small world materials

Home Corner: Role play of a restaurant

Reading/Writing: Sequenced going to a restaurant / writing our own menus

Art: Baked scones, cookies and constructed a health plate of food

Week 4

Theme: The Supermarket

Small World : Built a supermarket and kitchen using small world materials

Home Corner: Role play of a supermarket

Reading/Writing: Wrote the poem pat a cake/ Wrote a shopping list

Art: Constructed a shopping basket, coin rubbings, pasta necklace

Doodle for Google

We had great fun making our doodle for googles where the theme was “my perfect day”- everyone did a great job.

Liam McCarthy Cup

We were delighted to welcome the Liam McCarthy Cup to our classroom. The children got to hold the cup (although it was very heavy!) and have their photograph taken with it.

Write a Book

The senior infants are busy writing their “write a books” to enter the competition in February. Our theme is “When I grow up…”

Bokwa

We started our bokwa movement class – everyone is  having great fun learning the formations of different letters.

GAA

The children have had great fun learning all about GAA football. A big thank you James for teaching us.

December 2014

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. 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 were delighted to perform our song “Born in a Stable” and dress up as 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.

Avondale Community College

The junior infants were delighted to go to the Avondale Community College to meet Santa, Santa’s elves and hear wonderful Christmas carols.

Avondale Forest Train

Everyone loved going to Avondale to visit Santa and go on the beautiful train.  We all loved the disco and lovely snacks afterwards!

Happy Christmas Everyone! 

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.

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. 

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.