October 5 2018

There’s a Starman waiting in the sky – 5th Class in September

 

Mrs Lennon’s fifth class have had a busy September.
We are delighted to be together in a new class with many new friends.
In Gaeilge we have been practicing our Mé Féin comhrás and we enjoy chatting about ourselves ‘as Gaeilge’.
We have also learned to draw ourselves, and were quite surprised to discover the true proportions of our faces!
In science we did a fun experiment called ‘Hanger Clanger’ where we learned about how sound travels.

Hanger Clanger
We have been rehearsing for our National Children’s Choir Concert which will take place in the National Basketball Arena in March. Our favourite song so far is Starman by David Bowie.
We have learned about the Beaufort Wind Scale and were able to calculate wind speeds during Storm Ali.
In History we learned about the Aztecs and we designed holiday brochures for Irish Counties in Geography.
Our County Tourist Information Brochures

 

We enjoy our gymnastics with Jay every Tuesday and have also been learning how to play cricket with Diarmuid from Cricket Ireland. Ms Basquille has been coaching us in running techniques on Fridays.
Check back next month for some more fifth class news!
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October 3 2018

September News from Ms. Olson’s Class!

What a start to a fantastic new year in Senior Infants! Our monthly theme for September was ‘All About Me’ and we thoroughly enjoyed learning about families, our bodies, our school and of course recognising how special and unique we all are!

During Aistear time, we had great fun playing in the Doctor’s Surgery role play corner. We had to sign patients in at reception and instruct them to wait in our waiting room, before being seen by the doctor in the treatment room. We were also very excited to play ‘Teach your Monster to Read’ on the class computers and we’re definitely getting the hang of using the mouse and the keyboard now.

  

In English, we have been working really hard to learn all our Jolly Phonics and to develop our blending skills. We read ‘Owl Babies’ by Martin Waddell and ‘The Smartest Giant in Town’ by Julia Donaldson and learnt how to predict, question, summarise and make connections! In Maths, we have been super busy sorting collections of objects into sets, making patterns and partitioning for three, four and five. We also carried out some data investigations and recorded them both on paper and using our interactive board. In Gaeilge, we learnt many phrases in relation to ‘Mé Féin’ and ‘Lá Bréithe’ and sang some new songs and rhymes.

  

In S.E.S.E, we made family trees, identified the names of our body parts and went on a tour of our school before creating a big map on the classroom floor of our journey. In Drama, we played some fun games and read ‘Elmer’ by David McKee. Poor Elmer was sad that he was different from all the other elephants but we helped him to feel better by finding a solution to his problem! We like to start our day with a song, so we have been singing some lovely songs in Music. We are currently learning a song in preparation for Halloween – it is called ‘There was an old witch..’ And last but not least, we have made some beautiful artwork in Senior Infants. We drew and painted our self portraits and made some lovely Wassily Kandinsky inspired autumn trees!

  

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October 3 2018

Junior Infants and Ms Walsh Getting Creative for Autumn

We have all settled in really well to life in Junior Infants.  We have had a lot of fun learning each other’s names, making new friends and learning all about each other.

In maths we have been sorting sets, making patterns, learning all about 2d and 3D shapes and playing some fun maths games like “sweetie jar”.
We are enjoying learning our jolly phonics sounds every day.  Our Aistear theme for September was homes and houses.  We explored this theme through junk art, role play, construction, sequencing and through márla.
We have also been learning so much about Autumn.  We liked making these clay hedgehogs and Autumn
trees.
            Making Autumn Trees                               Happy Hedgehogs
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May 9 2018

April was an Eggciting Month in Senior Infants!

What a busy month we’ve had in Senior Infants! Our monthly theme was ‘The Sea’ and we had great fun exploring this topic.

In English we read the stories, ‘The Snail and the Whale’ and ‘Sharing a Shell’ by Julia Donaldson and discovered that Julia is a big fan of rhyming words just like we are! We love ‘Rhyme Time’ in our class each morning! We found some very interesting words for our word wall and we liked writing our own adventures for the Snail and the Whale. We also wrote about a time when we went to the seaside (real or imaginary!).

In Maths we had great fun learning about capacity. We sorted different sized containers and estimated and measured how much water, sand and different materials could fit into them. We also decided which containers would be best for holding different materials. Ms. Olson played a trick on us in our last capacity lesson – she poured water from a small container into a larger container and asked us if the containers had the same amount of water in them or whether they were different! Ms. Olson managed to trick quite a few of us (hehe!).

We had great fun in S.E.S.E this month. We learned about ‘The Titanic’ and constructed our own Titanic models in Art. We investigated different materials from the seaside including sand, pebbles, stones, sea glass, driftwood and even seaweed. We were able to touch the materials and feel the difference that water had on them. For example, when the seaweed was dry it felt quite crunchy and hard and when wet it was slimey and slippery! We also did a floating and sinking experiment and made predictions about which objects would float and which would sink. We learned about some interesting sea animals too. Did you know that an octopus has blue blood? We were very lucky to receive a Big Grow package from our friends at Innocent. We grew some lovely cress, spinach and peas and made sure to water them everyday.

In Music, we learned the song Apusski Dusky and performed it for the Junior School at assembly. We also listened and resonded to songs from The Little Mermaid – ‘Under the Sea’ and ‘Part of Your World’. In Art, as well as our Titanics, we made jellyfish mobiles and newpaper sharks and in Drama, we helped ‘The Rainbow Fish’ decide what to do with his shimmering scales.

                                  

We had great fun in our Aistear stations this month, in particular, we really enjoyed our time in ‘The Pirate Ship’. We also loved our time at the water and sand play station. We love getting messy!

However, perhaps the biggest news we have from Senior Infants this month is: We welcomed four beautiful ducklings into the world! We incubated the eggs for 28 days and on the 25th and 26th April 2018 we welcomed James Pond, Smash, Sir Quacks-a-lot and DJ Tiny into Senior Infants. At two weeks old, they are now too big to come to school anymore and they are off to a lovely new farm home in Enniskerry to be with some other ducks. We’ll miss their little chirps in the classroom!

That’s all from us here in Senior Infants, we hope you’ve enjoyed reading our blog post!

 

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December 22 2017

Wrapping Up for Christmas in Senior Infants!

Well what a busy month it has been in Senior Infants! From nativity plays to Aistear, Wildlife Warrior Workshops to Christmas sing-a-longs, December has been a cracker of a month!!

For much of November, Senior Infants had been practising for their production of ‘What a Star!’ and boy did they shine! On the 7th December 2017 all the Mums and Dads, Grannys and Grandads, brothers and sisters came to see our star-filled nativity show and everyone was very impressed. The children put on a fantastic performance!

In between practising for our play we made sun catcher nativity scenes, Christmas elves, Christmas tree decorations, penguin pictures and Christmas cards.

 

We had so much fun during Aistear this month, as our theme was Christmas all our stations were linked. We were busy elves in Santa’s Workshop designing, making and wrapping toys whilst the postmen and women delivered children’s letters to Santa; we baked chocolate chip cookies for Santa Claus and we made lovely Christmas cards.

     

We’ve had some special visitors in Senior Infants this month, Jingles – our Elf on the shelf (who we managed to catch on camera!! The footage can be seen on our Twitter page @MsOlsonsClass) and two lovely hedgehogs from Hedgehog Rescue Dublin. We learned a lot about hedgehogs and hibernation during our Wildlife Warrior Workshop. It was lots of fun!

To send us on our merry way, we finished off the term with a lovely sing-a-long, singing carols such as Jingle Bells, Away in a Manger, Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer and Santa Claus is Coming to Town! That’s it from Senior Infants, Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

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November 14 2017

News from Ms. D’Arcy and Ms. Ní Mhurchú’s Class

This class have been very busy since the start of the year. They have been completing lots of art projects and self-portraits for their class door. They have been learning about Greek Mythology, Comic Strips and Constructing a Norman Castle.

They have designed Dia De los Muentos masks for Halloween. They have been doing creative writing stories and poems for Autumn. Their geography knowledge increased this year as they have been learning all the counties, lakes and rivers in Ireland.

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November 14 2017

Art, Swimming and School Tours in Ms. Kelly’s Class

Ms Kelly’s class have been busy making skulls and fireworks but don’t worry they are not real, they are made from crep paper. The class have been very busy writing stories, doing equations, spellings and singing.

All the fourth classes are still doing swimming on a Thursday which includes two more weeks after the midterm. The classes also went to see High School Musical in Cluny.

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November 13 2017

Interviews in Mr. Donnelly’s Class

This is what Mr Donnelly’s 1st Class have been doing for the past few weeks. They have been making chests with foam paint and they also drew their own haunted houses. We also asked two students what their favourite subject was and they said it was Art and Maths. Mr Donnelly’s favourite subject is science.

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November 13 2017

Art in Ms. Rigby’s Class

Ms Rigby’s 1st class have been doing a lot of art. For Halloween they made silhouettes. They are now planning their Winter Art. We asked two children what their favourite subjects were and they said Irish and Maths. Ms Rigby’s favourite subject is Maths.

 

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November 13 2017

Interviews in Senior Infants

Senior Infants were excited to answer my six questions. These were their answers:

I asked Ben and Olivia in Ms Hegarty’s class what their favourite subject is and they said phonics and science. They made scary skeletons. They have been learning about spiders and have had a wonderful year so far. They sung their poem about bony skeletons. They are rehearsing songs for their Christmas play. Ms Hegarty thinks her class is fabulous.

In Ms Olson’s class, I asked two children what their favourite subject was. They answered Religion and Art. In Art they made aliens and painted planets with puffy paint. Last month they learned about Space and this month they are learning about Emergency Services. They are learning songs from Bua na Cainte. The teacher and the class are enjoying their year so far!

Ms. Olson’s Puffy Paint Planets

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