Spring fun in the School Garden

We did lots of work in our school garden in Spring. We had to tidy up our box and get it ready for planting! We pulled out the weeds and put in fresh soil. Then we planted our beans. We will have to check our plants to see how they are growing.

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.

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!

Junior Infants are Learning all about Chicks

The three junior infant classes are learning all about the farm and the animals that live on it.  This week we are looking at the chick.  We are learning to describe the chick, what it looks like and what it does.
Here is a video that teaches us about hens on the farm

Electric Ireland Visit Junior Infants

Junior Infants are having a very lucky year.  Electric Ireland has donated high-visibility jackets to the school and Junior Infants were the lucky recipients.  All the children were given a jacket that they can wear when they are walking to school or walking home.  Wearing their bright jackets will keep them safe on the dark winter evenings.  All the cars will be able to see them clearly.


Electric Ireland

Here is a video of our fun morning with Electric Ireland.  There was a photographer there to take our photos and we might even appear in the news paper.  It was a great morning and we wore our jackets all day.

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.

Frogs in Junior Infants

Junior Infants have been learning all about frogs. 

We have watched videos, learned new songs and played games all about the life cycle of the frog.

We wrote an excellent report about the frog.

We made little frogs out of clay to put in our spring time display outside our classroom.

Ms McHale brought in some frog spawn for us to observe for the next few weeks.  We are keeping the frogspawn safe in our classroom and we look forward to seeing it hatch into tadpoles in the next few weeks.





Please Note:

Blanket licence signed for frog spawn collection by teachers

It is illegal to disturb or collect frogspawn as frogs are a protected species in Ireland.  However, to facilitate nature studies in primary and secondary schools around the country, the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht has issued a blanket licence covering all teachers. The licence allows teachers to collect frog-spawn for use in the class-room. Frog spawn has traditionally been collected by Irish school teachers in spring and kept in glass tanks in class to allow students of all ages observe and learn about the development stages of the frog. Frog eggs, laid as spawn, gradually turn into tadpoles and they in turn go through metamorphosis - the process whereby aquatic tadpoles turn into juvenile frogs.
A copy of the licence can be downloaded here - Frog Licence - Department of Education 2013 [370kb]

Life Cycle of the Frog

Junior and Senior Infants are learning about the Life Cycle of the frog.  Here are some activities to practice this at home.

• Frog Life Cycle Game

Frog Life Cycle Colouring Pages

• Frog Life Cycle Colouring Page
• Frog Life Cycle Sequencing Cards
• My Itsy Bitsy Frog Book
• Frog Life Cycle: Cutting and Matching Activity
• Frog Life Cycle: Match the picture and information

We're learning all about the farm.

Junior Infants are learning all about life on the farm this month.  For the last two weeks we have been learning about all the animals that live on the farm.

We have made some farm animal crafts which we have displayed around our corridor and our classrooms.

We are learning to describe all the different farm animals, and their baby animals.

Why don't you talk to your child at home about life on the farm and the animals they will see there.  Maybe you could also bring your child to visit a real farm.  Glenroe Farm is just down the road.  You can visit their website here: http://www.glenroefarm.com/


Here are some videos you can watch at home:

• Farm Animal Sounds for Children
• Learn all about the Farm Animals (Turtle Diary)
• Fun Farm Animal Facts for Children
• A Visit to the Farm

Here are some Animal Songs to sing together:

• Old MacDonald had a Farm
• The Animal Sounds Song
• Mary had a Little Lamb

Have fun learning all about the farm!!

Spring Time Hunt

It's Spring Time again and Ms McHale's class went out to explore the school grounds and to hunt for signs of springtime appearing around the school.

The children were given partners and each pair had their own binoculars to help them to find things, and a clipboard with a special Spring time Checklist, so they could record everything they saw on their walk.


We had a great time looking for buds and leaves on the plants and trees.  Hunting for spring flowers like daffodils and crocuses.  And we were very quiet when we were listening to the birds singing their spring time songs. 

Here are some photos we took of our walk and some of the things we found on our walk.

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.