Baking Bread
Junior Infants were busy in October. We read the story 'The Little Red Hen'. We decided to bake bread. Unlike the characters in the story we helped our friends and all enjoyed making and eating the bread together.
Monday, 9 November 2015
A special visitor in Junior Infants...
We had a very special visitor in Junior Infants today! His name was Jim and he works in Dublin Zoo! He told us lots of interesting things about the animals that live in Dublin Zoo. He showed us some pictures of the animals, we saw elephants playing in the water, monkeys up the trees and meerkats sunbathing!
He also brought some things for us to touch and feel, like an ostrich egg, some animal skins and an elephant foot!
We had a lot of fun touching the different things and learning all about animals.
He also brought some things for us to touch and feel, like an ostrich egg, some animal skins and an elephant foot!
We had a lot of fun touching the different things and learning all about animals.
Friday, 6 November 2015
Autumn in Junior Infants
In October we were learning all about Autumn. We learnt about animals we might see in Autumn, activities we might do in Autumn and the different signs of Autumn. We went on an Autumn Walk around our school to look for these signs of Autumn. We saw lots of different coloured leaves, berries growing on bushes, conkers and sycamore seeds on the ground and even some acorns!
Junior Infant Newsletter 3rd November 2015
Welcome back to everyone after midterm break. We’re
delighted to see the children back with happy faces and ready for lots of work!
We have a busy term ahead!
For the next fortnight we will be covering lots of new
things such as learning:
* New
sounds: ‘c’, ‘e’, ‘h’, and ‘r’.
* New
sight words: Look, at, the, my, look, I, am, like
* How to
write the letter ‘a’
* Number
2
We are starting to learn all about animals.
For the next fortnight we will be learning about animals that hibernate and
pets we can have.
Useful Vocabulary
Winter
Autumn hibernation hedgehog
squirrel nuts gathering food squirrel nest or ‘drey’ hedgehog
nest
Cat kitten dog
puppy rabbit hamster
guinea pig
bird goldfish snake turtle tank
aquarium cage hutch
bed bowl lead
collar
|
Some rhymes to
practice at home:
|
|
Mary had a little
lamb
|
Little Bo Peep
|
Hickety Pickety
|
I have a pet (Super
simple songs available on youtube)
|
How you can support
your child’s learning:
Literacy:
* Find
things around the house/ in books that start with our ‘s’,’a’, ‘t’, ‘i’, ‘p’
and ‘n’ sounds as well as our new
sounds ‘c’ ‘e’ ‘h’
and ‘r’.
* Cut
out pictures from magazines/ brochures/ leaflet with this sound
* Look
for this sound in the environment (on signs, in books)
* Encourage
your child to practice writing their name and the letter ‘c’ at home
Numeracy:
* Practice
counting to 5
* Find
things that are pink and orange
* Find
2D shapes in the environment: circles, squares, triangles, rectangles
* Encourage
your child to do sorting and matching activities at home: using pasta, toy
cars, toy blocks, or socks!
S.E.S.E.
* Talk
to your child about winter and
hibernation: what is hibernation? What animals hibernate? Why do animals
hibernate? Look for signs of hibernation (squirrels collecting nuts)
* Maybe
you could help hibernating animals at home: visit http://www.dspca.ie/ to find out how you can help hedgehogs at
home
* Talk
to your child about animals we keep as pets. Talk about the different ways we
have to care for our pets (food, bed, play time, walks, bringing to the vet).
* If
you have a pet bring in a photo to show the class!
|
Reminders:
Ø Please return homework folders and nursery rhyme kits each
day.
Ø If your child is absent please ring the office so we can
record any explanations.
Ø Encourage your child to put on and take off their coat
independently- this is an important skill to be learnt as the weather begins to
get colder!
Monday, 12 October 2015
Colours in Junior Infants
We have been learning all about our colours in Junior Infants. So far we have learnt about red, blue and yellow. Next we will be learning all about green. We do lots of activities when we are learning about colours: we make a colour table, we read a book about the colour, we learn a rhyme about the colour and we sort things by colours!
Here are some pictures of us hard at work sorting materials by colour.
Here are some pictures of us hard at work sorting materials by colour.
PE in Junior Infants
Thursday, 8 October 2015
Attendance Certificates
Look at all of the children in Ms Stapleton's class who had full attendance for September.
Well done!
Shapes
Junior Infants have been very busy learning about shapes in maths. We are learning about the circle and the square. We made shapes using our playdoh.
Wednesday, 30 September 2015
September in Senior Infants
We've had lots of fun this month in school. Here are a couple of the things we've done:
We've been learning about autumn and went on a walk to see what signs of autumn we could find. We saw conkers and lots of coloured leaves that had fallen. We know that in autumn the weather starts to get colder but the weather was lovely when we went out on our walk!
We have really been enjoying our GAA lessons too. We're getting really good at throwing balls to one another and this week we even played a game! We had to throw the ball to each other and score goals. We were so hot by the end!
Monday, 28 September 2015
Junior Infant Newsletter 21st September 2015
Junior Infant Newsletter 21st September 2015
Hello again from Junior Infants.
We have had a busy fortnight in Junior Infants.
We have started staying in for the full day until 1.40pm. We
are a bit tired but we are getting lots more work done!
This is what we have been doing for the past two weeks in
school:
- * Maths: We have been learning about the colour blue, matching, sorting and number rhymes
- * English: We have started Jolly Phonics and have been learning about the sounds ‘s’ and ‘a’. We are also writing our names, tracing, colouring, and learning new rhymes
- * Oral Language: We have started our Oral Language Chatty Groups. We are in special small groups working with teachers in stations. This fortnight we were talking about ourselves, our families and school.
- * Fine Motor Skills: Every morning we do our fine motor activities to help us when we start to write. We are also doing lots of tracing and cutting.
- * S.E.S.E. (History, Geography, Science): We have been talking growing and changing, our bodies, and things we can do now that we’re big.
Nursery
rhymes to practise at home:
Where is Thumbkin?
|
Jack and Jill
|
Miss Polly
|
Little Miss Muffet
|
Hickory Dickory Dock
|
Rólaí Pólaí
|
For the next two weeks in school we will be learning about
our families and school.
Vocabulary:
Mum
(mother/ mammy) Dad (father/
daddy) brother sister
uncle aunt grandparents grandmother (granny, nanny, nan,
gran) grandfather (grandad,
grandpa) cousin
older younger family
|
How you can support
your child’s learning:
Literacy:
* Find
things around the house/ in books that start with our ‘s’ or ‘a’ sound.
* Look
for this sound in the environment
Numeracy:
* Can
your child count to five? Practice this at home (e.g. chanting, clapping,
stamping)
* Find
things that are blue and yellow
S.E.S.E.
* Talk
to your child (using photos if necessary) about the people in their family. We
have been talking to the children about how all families are different so make
sure they can name the people in their family (e.g. brothers and sisters)
* Bring
in a photo of your family for use in class
* Get
started on your Art at Home Family Tree project. Talk to your child about how
people are related
* Go
to the library and read books about families(e.g. the Large family books)
S.P.H.E. (Social, Personal, Health Education)
*
Talk to your child about the importance
of washing their hands properly and practise this at home.
|
Reminders:
- * Don’t forget your yellow History Timelines
- * P.E. is on Mondays and Wednesdays. Please wear school tracksuit and runners.
- * Parental Involvement Programme Workshops start this week: Thursday 24th September Ms Stapleton’s Class and Friday 25th September Ms Murray’s class
- * The Carambola Lunch Programme has started- if you have signed up for this your child will receive their lunch in school every day. They do not need anything extra.
- * Please bring in a photo of your family for use in class. This photo will be stuck in their ‘Family’ booklet
We
look forward to seeing everyone at the workshops this week.
Fiona
Murray and Sarah Stapleton
Friday, 11 September 2015
Junior Infant Newsletter 7th September 2015
A big welcome to all of the new
Junior Infants boys and girls (and their parents!).
The children are settling in
well to school and it is great to see lots of lovely smiley faces coming in to
school every morning.
We have been very busy in
school already:
- * In Maths we have been learning about the colour red and how to sort materials by colour. We are also learning number rhymes ‘5 Little Monkeys’ and ‘One Little Finger’. We are also beginning to count up to 5.
- * We have been doing lots of fine motor activities to get us ready for writing.
- * In English We are learning lots of nursery rhymes like ‘Incy Wincy Spider’, ‘Baa Baa Black Sheep’, and ‘Humpty Dumpty’. We are also learning how to write our names.
- * We are doing lots of colouring and trying our best to stay inside the lines and use lots of different colours
For the next week we will be
learning all about our bodies and how we grow and change.
Vocabulary:
The body:
arm hand head
eyes ears nose
mouth chin hair
neck cheeks shoulders
knees elbows toes
feet legs back stomach
Growing:
Baby toddler child
teenager adult elderly growing big
small
|
How you can support
your child’s learning:
* Talk
to your child about things they can do now that they could not do when they
were a baby ( riding a bike, writing their name, feeding themselves, dressing
themselves)
* Encourage
your child to be more independent by getting them to do things for themselves
(putting on and taking off their coat, dressing themselves, opening and
closing their lunchbox, tidying up their toys, feeding themselves)
* Show
them pictures of them as a baby and
discuss all the changes that have happened
* Go
to the library and find books about the body and growing up.
|
Nursery rhymes to practise at home:
Incy Wincy Spider
|
Humpty Dumpty
|
Baa Baa Black Sheep
|
Head, Shoulders,
Knees and Toes
|
If you’re happy and
you know it
|
2 Little Dicky Birds
|
5 Little monkeys
|
1,2,3,4,5 Once I caught
a fish alive
|
One Little Finger
|
Hokey Pokey
|
These rhymes can all be found on Youtube or on our class
blog on the right hand side.
Notices:
*
Junior Infant Parent
Introduction Meeting is on Wednesday 9th September at 11am in
the school hall
*
From Thursday 10th
September Junior Infants will finish at 1.40pm every day. Please ensure you are
there on time/ someone is therein your place to collect your child as they can
become upset if they don’t see someone
We
look forward to working with you all this year. Please don’t hesitate to come
to us if you have any concerns.
Many
thanks,
Fiona
Murray and Sarah Stapleton
Wednesday, 20 May 2015
Caterpillar Update in Junior Infants
Junior Infants have been very busy learning all about minibeasts.
We had a very special delivery from the postman. It was a brown box that said 'Urgent: Open Immediately!'. In the box we found.... caterpillars!
The caterpillars were very small when we first got them. They had to eat the special food in their jar. They ate lots of food every day until they were big and fat!
Every morning we would look at our caterpillars and see how big they were growing. We wrote sentences about our observations in our writing copy.
We noticed that the caterpillars were crawling to the top of the jar. They were hanging down. One morning we came in to our classroom and saw that one had made a cocoon!
Over the next few days all of the five caterpillars made cocoons. They are now hiding in their cocoons until they are ready to change into beautiful butterflies!
Tuesday, 19 May 2015
Infants Fun Club
Infants Fun Club has started back again for the third term. We have a big group this term and will be keeping them very busy. We will be making the most of the summer with lots of outdoor activities every week.
We have two groups, the Ladybirds and the Butterflies. Each group will have a chance to play parachute games, go Bug Hunting, play a variety of fun running games, and work on mini-beast activity stations. We hope it will be a great term for all of the children taking part.
Here are some of the photos from our clubs.
We have two groups, the Ladybirds and the Butterflies. Each group will have a chance to play parachute games, go Bug Hunting, play a variety of fun running games, and work on mini-beast activity stations. We hope it will be a great term for all of the children taking part.
Here are some of the photos from our clubs.
Tuesday, 28 April 2015
Yellow Flag Developments!
The Yellow Flag Committee are organising an Intercultural
Week after the June bank holiday. Each class will have to do projects on two
countries. There will be different activities on during Intercultural Week.
Each day every class will take part in something. We are looking for parents or
relatives to help out during this week. If anyone is interested please contact
the school; help is very much appreciated. The next step for the
Yellow Flag is for the classes to think of a slogan or rap to represent
the diversity in our school.
The Farm
Junior Infants have been busy learning all about the farm.
We learnt about the different animals that live on a farm and made fabric and fibre animal crafts for display.
We worked in our groups to make animal reports about some farm animals and then tell the class what we had learnt.
We wrote about the different animals in our special farm writing books.
We read some stories about the farm, like Farmer Duck and The Pig in the Pond.
We also learnt some songs like 'Old MacDonald Had a Farm'.
Junior Infants know lots about the farm now!
Friday, 13 March 2015
Maths in Junior Infants - Term 2
We have been learning loads of new Maths this year. In Junior Infants we try to keep our Maths as fun as active as possible. We are counting all the time, and we count everything. We sing loads of number rhymes and songs to help us learn our numbers.
We are always learning new maths games and have lots of interesting and colourful equipment to help us learn new things.
Here we are doing a shape experiment. We wanted to learn which 3-D objects will roll and with will not roll down the hill. We found out that the shapes with the curved sides will roll down the hill, but the shapes with the flat sides will not. We also know that toys with wheels will roll down the hill, because the wheels have curved sides.
JI Maths, rolling |
We also invited the parents in to a Presentation about how maths and number are taught in Junior Infants, and how they can help their children to learn at home. A copy of the presentation can be downloaded by clicking on the picture.
Chinese New Year
In Ravenswell we are working towards our Yellow Diversity Flag, and as part of this, we are celebrating the wide variety of cultures in our school and our local community.
In February we all celebrated Chinese New Year. It was a very exciting two weeks around the school. All our pupils learned lots of information about the country of China, the Chinese people and the Chinese culture. In particular, we learned about the history and the traditions surrounding the Chinese New Year festival.
Our school was filled with displays of Chinese arts and crafts and our writing about China. We were delighted with how it turned out. Every class contributed some of their art work to make a wonderful Chinese New Year display in the reception area. We hope you have enjoyed looking at our work. Here are some pictures of the displays that were up around the school.
Chinese New Year 2015 |
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