Phonics Games

There are lots of fantastic websites on the internet with Phonics Games.  Here are a few of them to play at home:

Family Learning: A great selection of fun phonics games at different levels.

Starfall: A selection of phonics and early reading activities.

Super Simple Learning: Phonics games for kids.

PBS kids: The Quiet Machine (phonics games)

Junior Infants are learning to read and write

Junior Infants have been very busy over the past two months learning their first sounds and their first sight words.








So far we have learned these sounds:

We have done lots of activities to help us practice our sounds.

• We use our sound books to say our sounds
• We sing the Jolly Phonics songs.
• We have a special action for each sound.
• We practice building words using our sound cards.
• We play games with our sounds and look for pictures and words that start with our sounds.  We can make sets of pictures that start with the same sound.
• We look for our sounds all around the classroom.  In our books, in the library, on posters, on the whiteboard and when the teacher is writing.
• We practice writing our sounds using lots of different tools.  Here are some pictures of us making our sounds using toy cars.

We have also been learning some new sight words.  We practice our new words at home and in school every day so we know them really well.

• We have used our words to make sentences. Sometimes we stick pictures into our sentences to help us with the new words.
• We bring our word bags home every night and we play games with the words.  We practice reading the words and making sentences at home.
• In school we play word bag games with our friends and our teacher.
• We play games on the computer and practice making sentences with our new words.
• We look around the classroom for some of our new words.  We look on the posters, in our books and on the whiteboard.

Here are some of the activities we have done with our words this year:

Jolly Phonics

Practice Jolly Phonics at home with your child using these Jolly Songs and the actions that go with them.  Your child should be able to show you the actions for the sounds.  Keep checking your sound book for the sounds that have been learned in class and any new sounds that have been covered, and then sing the songs at home while you practice the songs.



If you are interested in learning more about using Jolly Phonics with your child, or purchasing extra materials for use at home, you can visit the Jolly Learning Website.

Also, it is a good idea to look through the Parent Teacher Guide to Jolly Phonics which you can download by clicking here:

We went on a Circle Hunt

We have been learning all about shapes in Junior Infants.  We have learned all about the circle, the square and our new shape is the triangle.
We gave each shape a special character.  We learned poems about the shape characters to help us to recognise the attributes of the different shapes, and to draw the shapes.

 

We drew circles, squares and triangles, coloured them in and cut them out.  We are getting better using our scissors.  We have used different tools to practice making shapes. We have used straws, pipe cleaners, lolly pop sticks and paper strips.We also use our big whiteboard to practice drawing shapes and we have been using playdoh to make shapes.

 

We made pictures using circles, squares and triangles.  We made shape monsters, shape men, spooky ghosts and witches using all our shapes. 

We also went out around the school on a circle hunt.  We were surprised at how many circles we found around the school.  There are circles everywhere.  Have a look around your house to see what shapes you can see.

Autumn in the Infant Classroom

Infants have been learning all about Autumn.

Autumn Weather
We have been watching the weather every day and we have recorded how the weather has changed on our class chart.  During September and October it has gotten colder and there are more cloudy days and less sunny days.

Autumn Trees
We have also gone out on nature walks around the school to look for signs of Autumn.  We have lots of trees in the school.  We saw that the leaves on the trees have been changing from green to brown, yellow, orange and red.  We collected some of these leaves for our class nature table.  We sorted these leaves into different colours.
We looked at three special trees.
We used clues to find out what trees we were looking at.  We looked at the leaves on the tree and the seeds from the tree.

• The sycamore tree with it's star shaped leaves and it's helicopter seeds.
• The horse chestnut tree with it's fingered leaves and the chestnut and conker seeds.
• The oak tree with it's pretty, frilly leaves and it's acorn seeds.
• We also found lots of blackberries growing in the hedges around the school.  These will be great for feeding the birds.

Everyone should go to visit their local park and look for signs of the trees changing in Autumn.  Particularly look for our three special trees.

Here are some pictures from our nature walk.

Learning About the Hedgehog

We have learned about the animals we see in Autumn, particularly the hedgehog. 

We learned that the hedgehog has brown spines on his back, a brown furry face and a brown furry tummy.
It likes to eat slugs, snails, worms, fruit and insects.

It lives in hedges and makes a nest in dry leaves and grass.

The hedgehog curls up in a spikey ball to protect itself when it is scared.  It is a good swimmer and a good climber.

We watched videos and looked at pictures to help us learn.

We made a big hedgehog using our handprints.

We used brown clay and cocktail sticks to make little hedgehogs and then we made our hedgehog a nest using brown and orange, autumn leaves.

Some Interesting Facts about Hedgehogs

Visit these websites to learn more about the hedgehog and to see lots of pictures and video clips.

• National Geographic Kids: Hedgehog Facts and Pictures
• Wildlife Garden Project: How to Help Hedgehogs in your Garden (video)
• Baby Hedgehogs Eating (Video)
• Irish Wildlife Matters: What to do if you find a hedgehog in distress.
• British Hedgehog Preservation Society
• Hedgehog curled up in a ball (Video)

The Do's and Don'ts of Hedgehogs

· Do leave areas of wilderness where hedgehogs can snuffle for insects.
· Do put out drinking water
· Do put out good quality dog or cat food (not fish based).
· Do install, in a nice, quiet area of the garden, a hedgehog house or a stack of logs
· Don’t put out any bread or milk for a hedgehog
· Don’t pick up uninjured or fit and healthy hedgehogs
· Don’t leave black sacks or rubbish lying around
· Don’t use chemicals or slug pellets – they can poison hedgehogs and other animals, if you must use them up them under a slate where animals can’t reach them easily.
· Don’t light bonfires without checking to see if a hedgehog’s home is underneath – also check for other wildlife who may have built their homes under unlit bonfires.
· Don’t fork over compost heaps in case a hedgehog or another animal has built their home there.
· Don’t use your strimmer under hedges and undergrowth without checking these areas first, hedgehogs and other animals may be resting there during the day.
· Do keep all nets above ground when not in use, keep fruit nets taut.
· Don’t leave drains or similar open holes uncovered. Make sure ponds have a way out for small animals, house brick steps or wire mesh can be used to give the animals a chance to get out if they fall in.
· Don’t spray hedgehogs with flea spray. It can be harmful to them.

A Cute Baby Hedgehog

This video links to You Tube.  Be careful not to let your child browse You Tube videos unsupervised at home.

Working Hard in September

There are lots of things we can do while we are learning to write.  We are working on our fine-motor skills, which means we are learning to use our fingers in different ways.

We use lots of different tools to do different things.  Here are some of the activities we are doing this week to prepare us for our writing later on.

 

It's a good idea for children to practice a range of activivities like this at home.  Particularly useful activities include:

• Cutting pictures from magazines
• Drawing and colouring pictures using a variety of tools (markers, crayons, pencils, chalk...etc)
• Painting using big and small brushes
• Playing with playdoh and mala.
• Make jigsaws of different sizes.
• Use kitchen tools to pick up small things, pour liquids, sort items by colour or size...etc.
• Put close pegs on to the washing line, around a box..etc.
• Fit paper clips onto pieces of paper.
 



 

Wow work with mala!!

We have been using our mala over the past few weeks to make different shapes and numbers. Sometimes the mala is very cold and hard to use, so we leave it on the windowsill, and the sunshine makes it soft. 

Today we were making the number 1 and we were making circles with our mala.

Two children did some wonderful work with their mala today.

Daniel made his numbers from 1 to 10 using his mala/





Ciara wrote her name using her mala.

Well done for the Wow Work!!!!

Our First Week in School

Junior Infants have been very busy during their first week in school. Have a look at some of our photos.

How to Post a Comment to the Blog

The class blog is an opportunity to share our school activities with the children’s families (in Ireland or around the world), and with other schools.  We hope you take the time to check in on the blogs during the year, and we encourage you to interact with the blog posts by leaving comments.

To help you learn how to leave comments, you can download this guide to use at home.

• Using the School Blog at Home

Welcome to Junior Infants

Ms McHale, Ms Stapleton and Ms McSweeney would like to welcome all the new girls and boys into Junior Infants this year.  This is a very exciting time for all the children and the parents and we hope that everyone has a great year.

We understand that sometimes people can be nervous, the new pupils and their parents, but before long everyone will be settled into their new routine, and all the children will have lots of new friends.

If there is anything you are concerned about during the year, or if you have any questions about how your child is progressing or the work being covered in class, we will be delighted to meet with you.  As the mornings are very busy times, it would be much appreciated if you could arrange these meetings in advance with us for collection time.

Again, we hope that everyone has a really wonderful year.

From,
Ms McHale (Rm 6), Ms Stapleton (Rm 5) and Ms McSweeney (Rm 3)

Helping your Young Child with Maths

Your child moving into Primary School can be a very daunting time for parents.  Often, we are asked how parents can help their children at home, particularly in the first few months, when they are not getting homework, and are not always great at describing the work that is taking place in school.

The following information sheet from the NCCA (National Council for Curriculum and Assessment) offers you some tips on how you can help to develop your childs early Maths skills by letting him or her take part in everyday activities, such as going to the shop, cooking or even setting the table.

Click on the link to open it or save it to your computer.

Helping your Young Child with Maths

Starting in "Big School" - Advice for Parents

“Big school” is a whole new world for the Junior Infant child. They are now in a bigger class- grouping with 20 children in the class. We are very lucky in that we take in three classes of 21/22 Infants. It gives the children a great start to school life.

It is important to spend a lot of time in September getting the children settled in and being happy coming into school. Developing good social skills is more important at this stage than academic learning. In the first week we concentrate on learning the names of the other children. Children learn to share, to be kind to others, to let everyone play in the game, to listen, to put up their hand, to take their turn. We don’t run, kick, bite, push, grab or swing on our chair. Sometimes these have to be said over and over again, but it is worth it as it makes for a happy school life for all.

Advice for Parents:

• On the first morning bring your child to the classroom, hang up their coat outside the room, meet the teacher and then get them sitting down as quickly as possible.
• Take a photo.  Bring a camera to photograph this important day.
• Don’t delay too long. Give your child a big hug and leave. If your child is crying, I can guarantee you that this stops very quickly. Children start playing with toys, talking to friends and life is great!
• Always be on time, both for morning play time and to collect your child after school.
• Give your child a healthy lunch.  Make sure they have enough, but not too much. Your child will have 2 short breaks - at 10.50 and at 12.15.  Always include a bottle of water.
• Label everything – books, copies, bag, lunch box, coat, hat, scarf, gloves, jumper – whatever your child brings to school.
• School Bag: Buy your child a good-sized school bag. It should carry an A4 sized pocket-folder. Children often have trouble fitting everything into their bag, so a big bag makes life easier for them.  Having shoulder strap is helpful, as they will be hanging their bags on the back of their chair.
• Getting dressed: Teach your child how to take off / put on their jumper and their coat. Teach them how to pull out a sleeve that is inside-out. Teach them how to fasten their coat. These are little things, but mean a lot when a child knows how to do them.
• Talking about school: Don’t ask your child “What did you do today?” They will answer “Nothing”. Ask them “Did you draw/say rhymes/ sing/ read a story?” This should get an answer.

Remember, if you have any questions, just ask the teacher.

Junior Infants Working Really Hard

The Junior Infants have been working really hard. They are real busy bees! Look at our pictures of the children hard at work.

Happy Halloween from Junior Infants

Happy Halloween from Junior Infants! The children had great fun dressing up. They made scary spiders and pumpkin masks and yummy chocolate apples. We had everything from witches to ninjas, superheroes to princesses. Can you recognise who everyone is?

Infant Art and Writing Displays

We have been very busy in Junior and Senior Infants this year. Here are some of our art displays from the year.