Junior Infants
We have three Junior Infant Classes
Ms. Champkin Ms. Coughlan Mrs O’Brien
April 2019 Update
This month we are learning all about Animals- farm animals and wild animals! We are setting up a zoo in our classroom for during Aistear role play time. There are zoo keepers, customers and lots of animals to care for & see too! We are learning the letters v, w, x and z. In Maths we are working on adding 2 sets together, using our numicon to explore partitioning the numbers 3, 4 and 5 and making graphs of our favourite animals. As the weather has been getting warmer, we have been doing some of our PE outdoors. This has been such great fun and we have been practising our running, skipping, throwing and catching skills as well as playing with frisbees, scoopers, footballs and tennis rackets. We were lucky to have a special Music class in the hall too where we played lots of different instruments and we have been learning about rhythm and beat.
This month we are learning all about Transport, The Post Office and The Farm. We have set up a post office as our role play area for Aistear. We have been busy delivering letters, sorting and wrapping packages, designing stamps and writing postcards. With our lego and construction toys we have been making the different types of transport the postman and postwoman travel on to deliver our post- bikes and post vans!
Our main theme for the month of February was ‘The Restaurant’. Look at our restaurant and coffee shop photos below! We pretended to be the waiter/waitress, chef and customers! For our small world area we had a restaurant with tables, chairs, food and small world people ready to eat and chat.
We made our favourite foods with playdoh, designed and wrote a menu and wrote about our favourite foods.
We have now started our new theme, which is “The Post Office”.
In Maths we are learning all about the number 5 and how to partition the number.
We are practising our handwriting every day- we are learning to write the letters s, e, l and t . Our handwriting is really improving, we love to write!
We have completed a lot of work based on “Biodiversity” as we are working for our next “Green Schools Flag”
Our theme for this month is ‘School’. During Aistear we have been pretending to be the teacher, principal, caretaker, secretary and of course the pupils too! We have been doing lots of winter themed art. In Maths we have been learning about 2D shapes and the numbers 4 and 5. Have a look at our photos below of what we’ve been doing this month!
This month has been a busy one so far in Junior Infants. We have been preparing for our Christmas Show which we had today in the hall for all our families and friends. We sang beautifully and really enjoyed learning all the songs together.
We are now starting to use our jollyphonics sounds knowledge to sound out and blend short words like at, mat, cat and sat.We are starting to spell these words too and are listening out for initial sounds in words.
We have been learning how to write the letters c, o, a, d, g and q. Writing is fun. Practice makes perfect- keep on writing every day!
There are elves visiting us from the North Pole and we have set up Santa’s Grotto areas this month for our Aistear area. Have a look at the photos below to see more of what we have been doing this month:
We have been learning all about some very important people who help us- the doctor, nurse, optician and dentist. We explored each of the themes during Aistear this month with a role play area, small world, messy play, art and writing stations.
We really loved pretending to be the doctor, nurse, optician, dentist, receptionist and patients. We learned how to take and read an x-ray, how to use a stethoscope and how to write a prescription.
During messy play we created our own plaster cast mix and we made arm and leg casts for the baby dolls who had broken bones. It wasn’t long until they were all better again!
In Maths we have been learning about the numbers 2 and 3. We have been doing lots of hands on group tasks writing the numbers, making the numbers using playdoh, making sets of 1-5, exploring dice number patterns, finding different ways to show 2 and 3 on our peg boards and connecting links to make different lengths from 1-10 links.
We have also been exploring capacity while using our sand trays and water play areas. We have been filling small and large containers using sand and/or water- filling them up to the top, emptying them, exploring how many scoops of sand/water it takes to fill the container, finding out which container holds the most and which one holds the least.
During Gaeilge we have been learning about ‘an aimsir’ agus ‘éadaÃ’ – is aoibhinn linn Gaeilge! D’fhoghlaim muid conas dul siar a dhéanamh faoi na héadaà atá á chaitheamh againn agus d’fhoghlaim muid faoin aimsir chomh maith. Rinneamar go leor cluichà freisin- cluiche kim, cad atá sa mhála, cad a thóg mé, éist agus tarraing, cluichà ar an gclár bán idirgnÃomhach agus fÃor nó bréagach!
This month our teachers also met with our parents for the annual Parent Teacher meetings and it was Book Week too. We had a special book week assembly which was fantastic. Check out our photos below to see more from November in Junior Infants.
We have had a very busy and fun month in school during October- we started ‘Aistear’ time, had our ‘Green School Action Day’ and not forgetting our Pumpkin Patch and Halloween Disco!
- We explored the theme of ‘Homes’ through play and hands on activities during ‘Aistear’ time- we really enjoyed creating a ‘home corner’ role play area in our classrooms and we pretended to be the Mums, Dads, brothers, sisters, Grannies and Grandads.
- For small world play we built the 3 little pigs houses and we acted out the story with small puppets. We had a lot of fun pretending to be the wolf as he blew down the first 2 pigs’ houses! We also acted out the story of Goldilocks and the 3 bears.
- In our construction area we built our own homes using blocks, lego and large plastic clicks. We also built other types of homes such as tall apartments, bungalows, caravans, semi detached houses and detached ones too.
- During messy play we used our large sand tray to find Autumn themed items, we created sand hedgehogs, found hidden worms/spiders/eyes/letters and a witch’s potion too.
- During Junk Art we created our own lollipop houses, made witches potions and spiky hedgehogs getting ready to hibernate.
- We had our Halloween Disco this month too- look at our amazing outfits in the photos below and take a look at all the other work we have been up to this month.
September 2018
Junior Infants have completed their first month in school. They have settled well at this stage.
- For oral language / SESE, we talked about our families and our friends. We also discussed our five senses – taste, touch, sight, hearing and smell.
- In Jolly Phonics we learned the songs for the letters – s,a,t,i,p,n,k/c and e.
- To prepare us for writing we have been completing lots of writing patterns.
- We have started to write our names.
- We have been singing a lot of nursery rhymes – Humpty Dumpty, Hey Diddle Diddle, Incy Wincey Spider, Hickory Dickory Dock and Twinkle Twinkle.
- In maths, we have completed a lot of sorting and matching exercises.
- In P.E. we have been playing with beanbags.
How you can help at home:
- Revise your child’s letter names and letter sounds at home every afternoon. To help you could sing the Jolly Phonics songs with him/her. These are all on youtube and on the Jolly Phonics website. Google “Jolly Phonics p” for the letter p.
- Help your child to write his / her name. Write in lowercase letters. Please do not write the name in all capital letters. Watch that your child is forming each letter correctly, always starting at the top. Also watch that your child uses a “froggy legs” grip when holding the crayon / pencil.
- Encourage your child to colour and to cut using a scissors. This helps to improve their fine motor control.
- Sing plenty of nursery rhymes at home.
- Talk to your child about the theme of the month. The theme for October is – The Home / The House.
- Read plenty of storybooks to your child.
Some of our fantastic art work:
