Houses and Homes in Junior Infants

It has been another busy month in Junior Infants!

We were delighted to come back to school after the Christmas holidays and we got straight back to work!

In January we have been learning all about houses and homes.

We read stories like 'A Squash and a Squeeze' and 'The Three Little Pigs'.

 

We are getting very good at sequencing, and we were able to sequence the story of 'The Three Little Pigs'.

 

 

In Art we painted beautiful pictures of our houses and we decorated the houses of the three pigs. In Music we learned new songs like 'Gotta Build a House'.

 

Our play time was all about houses and homes too! In Ms Murray's class our role play area was transformed from the jungle  in to an Estate Agent's office. Teacher went to a real estate agent's office in Bray and got lots of magazines and pictures of houses for us. We took turns pretending to be the customer looking to buy a house, and being the estate agent helping the customers.

 

We did a lot of construction play this month. We had a sand box that we pretended was a construction site with tools and trucks. We had to wear hard hats! We used Lego, Stikle Brick, blocks and Mobilo to plan and build our houses.

 

A big thank you to everyone for a FANTASTIC 'Art at Home Project' this month! The theme was 'Box Town' and look at the amazing houses and buildings that the children made at home. Well done everyone!

 

Thank you also to the parents for attending our Parent Workshops this month, which were based on 'Play'. We wanted to show the parents all the work we do in Junior Infants, even if the children think they've just been 'playing all day'!

 

  Have a look at our video to see what we have been up to this month!

 

Jungle Animals in Junior Infants

This month Junior Infants are learning all about animals.  For the next two weeks we will be looking at jungle animals and animals that live in other hot places.

Talk to you child at home about animals from hot countries.  Maybe you could even visit the zoo this month to look at some of the animals.   There are lots of links to videos and activities here which you can use to help you learn all about these animals at home.

• Sheppard Software - Preschool Animal Activities
• Elephant Documentary for Kids
• Sounds of the Jungle Animal
• Jungle Safari Video
• Tropic Story - Play with and learn about jungle animals
• Y8 - Play free jungle themed games
• CBeebies - Jungle Jingle (learning animal sounds)
• CBeebies - Monkey Nut Crackers (help the monkeys crack the nuts.)
• Learning Games for Kids - Match the Jungle Animals
• Africa Games - Jungle Games
• Science Kids - Fun Jungle Facts for kids
• Number Zoo - learn to count zoo animals (You Tube)
• DLTK Crafts for Kids - Jungle Crafts

Have great fun at home learning all about Jungle and other animals. 

Keeping our School Clean and Tidy

Junior Infants have been learning all about how important it is to keep the environment clean and tidy. 
We know that we should put rubbish in the bin and not throw litter on the ground.
We know that we should recycle paper in the recycling bin.
We know that we can help to keep our area tidy by picking up litter when we see it.


We went with 6th class on a litter clean up walk around the school.  We wore our safety jackets and we were on the lookout for litter.  The 6th class girls had gloves on to keep their hands clean and safe, and we carried the litter bags to collect any litter we found.

It was a great walk, and we were delighted that we could not find too much litter as our school is kept very clean by our caretaker James.

Going on a Bear Hunt

Ms McHale's class learned all about Journeys in March. 

We had a post office in our class room and we went on lots of journeys around the school to deliver all out mail.  When we came back we drew maps to show the journey we took when delivering our mail.

We also read books about journeys.  Our favourite book was "We're Going on a Bear Hunt".  We acted out the story and did lots of art work for our bear hunt display.  We also drew our own bear hunt maps to show how well we remembered the book.

When we were finished the story we went on our own Bear Hunt in the school garden.  Ms McHale hid lots of coloured bears around the garden.  Each team had a map with pictures of objects in the garden on it.  We had to find the object in the garden and then colour in the bears on our map.  It was a great day.

Under the Sea

In Junior Infants we are learning all about the sea and life under the sea.  Here are some of the videos and resources we will be using this month.

• Short cartoon of a submarine going under the sea
• Underwater dream - Sound Effects
• Sounds of the Sea
• Paper Plate Crafts
• Under the Sea Crafts

The Postman Visits Ms Collins

Ms Gifford came to teach us all about America

Ms Gifford is visiting our school for three months from America.  She is working with Ms Dillon, but last week she came to visit us in Ms McHale's class to tell us all about where she is from.

She showed us a slideshow with pictures of lots of famous things in America like the Statue of Liberty and Disney.


We knew lots of things about America and some of us have family who live there.

We also learned a new American song called Yankee Doodle.  Here are the words to the song:
Yankee Doodle went to town; A-riding on a pony
Stuck a feather in his cap; And called it macaroni.
Yankee Doodle, keep it up; Yankee Doodle dandy
Mind the music and the step; And with the girls be handy.

The Post Office - Ms McHale's Class

Ms McHale's class are learning all about writing and sending letters and the post office. 

We wrote a letter to 1st class.  We had to put the letter into an envelope and then we wrote the name and address on the envelope.  We also needed to put a stamp on the letter or the post man would not deliver it.
When the envelope was ready, we posted our letter in the post box in our class post office.  One of the children was the class post man. He wore his post man hat and a bright coat and he had a post mans bag.  He had to take the letter out of the post box and put it in his post man's bag.  Then we were ready to go.

We all went off to find the classroom.  It was a long way.   We had to go around corners and up the stairs, but we found it.  When we arrived we knocked on the door and we delivered our letter to Ms Barry's class.

When we came back to the class we drew a map showing how we got up to Ms Barry's class to deliver our letter.

The next day was very exciting.  Ms Barry's class sent a letter back to us. They had put their letter in an envelope and they wrote our class address on the envelope.

We look forward to sending more letters and parcels around the school this month.
This is the song we are learning all about addresses:


Here are some videos about the post office:

• Off to the Post Office - The Delivery Office
• Off to the Post Office - The Deliveries
• Post Man Pat in a Muddle

Windows on the World: A visit from the Kenyan Ambassador

We had a big day in the school on Thursday.  Over the past few weeks, 4th, 5th and 6th class have been working on their Windows of the World project in preparation for St Patrick's Day. This year our school has been given Kenya as our country. 4th, 5th and 6th class have been learning all about the country, the culture, the people, the geography, the animals and the art work.

To help us celebrate Kenyan culture the Kenyan Ambassador to Ireland, Catherine Muigai Mwangi, came to visit our school. We worked really hard to decorate our school in preparation of the visit. We had balloons, bunting, ribbons and flags in the Kenyan colours - red, black and green. All our pupils lined up at the front of the school and they waved their Kenyan flags to welcome the Ambassador.


The Ambassador planted a tree outside the school to commemorate her visit. She then went to visit 4th, 5th and 6th class to talk to them about life in Kenya. The girls had lots of questions for the Ambassador, and the Ambassador brought some gifts from Kenya for the girls. It was an excellent visit.

Over the next few weeks the girls will continue to learn about Kenya and they will prepare their display for their Windows on the World shop front. We can't wait to see it.

Parents are Working Hard at Home

The parents in Junior Infants have been working very hard this year.

Homework Games
They have been playing lots of homework games with their children.  We have been playing number games, sound games and word bingo.  Because of all their hard work, lots of children are moving up to their second and third word lists. 

Art at Home Projects:
Every month the children are given an art project to take home.  Parents and other family memers are encouraged to take part in the project and to help out the child as much as he or she needs.  Previous projects included

• My Family Tree
• My Time Line - I am growing up.
• Paper Roll Jungle Animals

In January we were learning about homes.  Every child was asked to make a box house using old boxes and art materials.  Some really wonderful houses were brought into school.  Lots of different shapes, sizes and colours and using lots of different materials.  A special thanks to the parents and families for helping with this project and making our Box Town look so wonderful.