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We are having lots of fun with our latest theme. 'The Construction Site'. In the construction area we are using the polydrons which helped us make some towers, bridges and houses! Here we are working as builders, architects, site managers and clients in the role play area! We read 'The Three Little Pigs' Storybook and so we made our own houses using bricks, sticks and straw. We also made our own little pigs. We had a junk art station for art. We made some cool inventions like houses, bridges and robots! Our little trips to the Fairy Garden are always full of fun, excitement and laughter! Chocolate covered apples, spider webs, pumpkin art, school parades, a dress up day, baking Halloween cupcakes... it's all fun and games in Junior Infants Red! What a fun day we had on Friday! We learned all about the festival of Halloween which is celebrated in Ireland and around the world on October 31st. We discussed the traditions of trick or treating, games like 'Bob the Apple' and also the many different costumes and clothes that people wear for Halloween. Check out some of our incredible spooky costumes! We also had great fun making some delicious chocolate covered apples! Junior Infants walked with Senior Infants, First and Second classes all around the school building for our Halloween parade to celebrate the last day before midterm break. We brought musical instruments with us to celebrate in our Halloween costumes! There was even a big dinosaur ringing a bell who was leading us in the parade! Due to Covid 19, we are currently using a staggered arrival in the mornings. Each morning from 9:10 - 9:30 the children have fine motor skills activities and free play. The children have a different activity each morning while we wait for all the children to arrive (E.g. Jigsaws, Lego, Play dough, Pencil grip activities -such as tracing our names/ cutting/ colouring, water play, threading with laces and beads etc.). These activities help with handwriting skills, fine motor development and hand-eye coordination. Formal lessons begin at 9:30 when the school day officially starts. At 9:30 we take the rolla to see who is in school that day. After we have a chat together as part of our circle time. We tell and listen to stories, jokes and news from one another. We sing songs and nursery rhymes together, practice mindfulness (eg. breathing exercises or meditation) and take part in a movement break (eg. Yoga, dancing, stretching or exercising). Next, we'll look at the visual timetable to see what is next on the schedule for the rest of the day. Each morning we have literacy stations at our tables. Each group work together at a literacy based activity (2 teacher led and 3 independent). These activities change each day and are very interactive! Next is the best part of the day.... Time for Aistear! This is where our themed learning takes place through games, play based activities and child led fun. The children learn about Science, History, Geography, Art, Drama, STEM, Maths and Languages during this time. Our themes change each month and include the home, the supermarket, the construction site and more. The play activities rotate every 2 days so that each child completes all activities within a fortnight. This is a time when important life skills including problem solving, communication, imagination, planning, reflection, critical thinking, sharing and turn taking are happening in the classroom. The children love this time of the day and so do the teachers! After Aistear, the children work together to tidy up the classroom and discuss what they did during the play time. This is when ideas are shared and the children really learn from one another! Ansin, tá sé am-Gaeilge! Oibrimid le chéile chun foghlam faoi téamaí difriúila gach coicis. Tá na ranganna Gaeilge á múineadh trí amhráin, dánnta, cluichí, cómhrá, aithris agus athrá i Naíonáin Bheaga. Tá Gaeilge neamhfhoirmiúl úsáidte againn i rith an lae chun frásaí agus grammadach úsáideach a cleachtadh chomh maith. Is aoibhinn linn an Ghaeilge sa rang seo! Then, it's time for Irish! We work together to learn about different topics each fortnight. Irish lessons are taught through songs, poems, games, discussions, repetition and revision in Junior Infants. Informal Irish is practiced throughout the day to familiarise the children with useful phrases and grammar. We love Irish in this class! After all that learning it's time for big break! The children play outside in their yard area and on days when it is too wet, they take part in indoor exercise breaks. The hot lunches from Carambola arrive at 12:30 and children eat together in class while chatting or listening to a story, nursery rhymes or music. Everyone helps to clean up by scraping their hot food into the correct bins afterwards (red for compostable items, green for the tinfoil trays). In the afternoon the children complete numeracy and Maths activities at their tables. Once Maths stations are finished, t's time to tidy up, relax and get ready for the weekly story. Reading is so important for children and we read the same story for 1 week to develop a love of reading in the classroom. The children love to recognise patterns, make predictions and notice new information or pictures each day. This is a time to calm down, relax and enjoy a book together. After the story the children line up and get ready to go home for the day. Although the day is short, we manage to squeeze in lots of learning and fun during the day!  Hi Everyone! Welcome to Junior Infants Red! :) In September we were so excited to meet all of the fantastic children starting in Esker for the first time! The children lined up with their families and loved ones at the path footprints for the first time and were warmly welcomed into the building with a round of applause and a team of smiling faces! They very bravely walked in with their schoolbags and entered their new school for the first time. They settled in quickly as they met their new teachers and classmates. We sang songs, played games, practised nursery rhymes and learned lots about one another! It was lots of fun!! Check out our First day of School Pictures in the video below!  During the January and February lockdown the boys and girls were working so hard at home. It was amazing to see the creativity and the interesting ways we could learn at home. In particular we loved Susan's Outdoor challenge which was a great way to learn about the world around us! We did scavenger hunts, made bird feeders and used our imagination We also had an OWL Outstanding Weekly Learner! Each week it was so difficult to choose the winners, this was someone who was trying their best with learning online. We worked on our High Frequency words and continued with our phonics. We did number hunts, reading words and learning our Gaeilge vocabulary. In December, our Aistear theme was Winter Wonderland. We had our very own igloo, we went fishing in the lake and cooked some food on the campfire! We even went exploring looking for some Arctic animals! In the small world we had snowball fights and made snowmen. We talked about what clothes might be important to wear in the Winter and dressing for the cold weather!! We created Winter Wonderland pictures by designing houses and painting snow on the houses! We are so proud of our work!
In December we had a 'Silly Hat Day' as a fundraiser for the PTA. It was a lot of fun! Check out some of our amazing hats!! What a fun day we had on Friday! Check out some of our costumes!  We had a popcorn and movie party on Friday to mark all the hard work we have done over the last nine weeks! Milena very kindly showed us how to make some Halloween treats! Lucky us!!
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AuthorHi my name is Grainne and welcome to the Senior Infant Red blog. See what we get up to in our first year of school. Archives
December 2021
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