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!

We are loving our Irish lessons and our favourite song is 'Seasaigí Suas'. Ask us to sing it for you and you'll get the biggest smile! 😀

Junior Infant Newsletter 21st September 2015

Junior Infant Newsletter 21^st 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 24^th September Ms Stapleton’s Class and Friday 25^th 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

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 9^th September at 11am in the school hall

*       From Thursday 10^th 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