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!

Autumn Nature Walk in Junior Infants

We went on an Autumn Nature Walk on Friday. We were looking for signs of autumn around the school grounds and we found loads! We saw leaves of all different colours (red, yellow, brown...), blackberries  (although some weren't ripe and were still red) and conkers that had fallen on the ground from a big horse chestnut tree. Some of the conkers were still in their prickly shells. We also walked through the fallen leaves on the ground and listened carefully to the crunchy sound they made when we stood on them.

 

 

 

 

 

Autumn in Junior Infants

In October we learnt all about Autumn.

We went on an Autumn scavenger hunt to see if we could find some signs of Autumn.

We saw conkers on the ground, helicopter seeds, acorns, leaves on the ground and we even saw a squirrel!

We collected signs of Autumn and put them on our Autumn table in our classroom.

We learnt Autumn songs like 'Falling Leaves' and read Autumn stories like 'Leafy the Leaf that wouldn't leave'.

We did lots of play activities based on Autumn. Have a look at our video to see what we did.



Ms Redmond's class went on an Autumn Hunt!

Junior Infants had a brilliant time on their Autumn Scavenger Hunt. They found sycamore seeds 'helicopters', conkers, all sorts of Autumn leaves; red, yellow, brown and orange and even the home of an animal we think.

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.