Parental Involvement Programme- Maths Workshop

We had a fun Maths workshop in March. We showed the mammies and daddies how good we are at our counting and number games. Then we played a new game called 'Animal Hunt' with our parents. 

It was great fun to show off our number skills and play a game in our classroom with our parents. 

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.

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.

Maths in Junior Infants

Since starting school in September, Junior Infants have been working very hard in Maths!

We do lots of fun activities, sometimes we don't even know we're learning we're having so much fun!

In Maths this term we have been learning about:

-sorting

-matching

-shapes

-numbers 1,2, 3

-number rhymes

-patterns

That's a lot of work for our first few months in school!

To show our mums and dads, grannies, granddads and everyone else all our hard work we've made a video to show some of the activities we do during Maths every day.

Junior Infant Shape Hunt

Junior Infant Shape Hunt

To celebrate Maths Week Junior Infants have been doing lots of fun Maths activities.

Today Ms Murray's class went on a shape hunt around our school! We saw lots of circles, squares and rectangles but we only saw one triangle! What shapes can you see in our video?

 

 

Shapes, shapes everywhere!!

Ms Redmond's Junior infants went on a shape walk around the school grounds. We were trying to find 'Sammy Square' and 'Cindy Circle'. We couldn't even begin to count how many circles and squares we found, there were so many!! Can you spot the shapes in our photo's?

Ms McHale's Class went on a Circle Hunt

We have been learning all about the circle this month.  We have played circle games, done some circle art and crafts, and cut and coloured circles.  On a rainy day we decided we would check how much we learned so we went out on a walk around the school to try and find all the circles around the school.  We had to look every where.  Some were high up and some were low down, but we had our brain boxes turned on and we found loads.  Here are some of the circles we found.

Parents Helping in the Classroom

This has been a very busy year for parents, as we encourage our parents to be very involved in their children's school life.  Part of this is all the wonderful work they do at home during homework games and art activities.
Another important part of this is coming into the school to attend meetings, participate in school workshops and to help in the classroom.

Parent Workshops:
This year Junior Infants has held monthly workshops for parents on various parts of school life.  These workshops have included:

• An Introduction to Junior Infants
• Bedtime Reading with your Child
• Jolly Phonics
• Numeracy Games and Activities

The parents have been wonderful for attending and being active participants in these meetings.  Every meetings consists of a talk from the teacher, and demonstration by the pupils of what they have learned and then the parents play a game with their own child.

Parents Helping in the Classroom:
A number of Junior Infant parents have volounteered their time to help our with activies in the school and in the classroom.  There are parents helping with the Bedtime Reading Club on Tuesday mornings and the Savings Club on Friday Mornings.
We also have a number of parents helping in the classrooms during the Morning Maths Games and Art Activities.  These parents are being very generous with their time, and their help is an invaluable support to the class teacher.  More importantly, their children love to see Mummy coming in to help and to be a "teacher". 

Thank you so much to all our parent helpers.  We appreciate everything you do.

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.

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