Back to School with a Bang in Senior Infants!

January was an interesting month in Senior Infants because we learnt all about Egypt! We had lots of fun during Aistear time. We enjoyed playing in the Airport Role Play corner where we pretended to be going on our holidays to Egypt. We liked building pyramids out of Lego. We pretended to be archaeologists digging for buried treasure during sand play and we worked as a team to create cool mummies and sarcophaguses.

In English, we spent a lot of time on narrative writing as we entered the Write a Book Project. Our book was about a little boy and a little girl called John and Jojo. They went on a school tour to an Egyptian museum and managed to travel back in time to have a scary encounter with a mummy! It all turned out ok in the end though!

In Gaeilge, we learned many songs and phrases around the topics of Bia (food) and Éadaí (Clothes). We loved playing little language games using picture cards in pairs because we were able to talk to our friends using the simple phrases that we’d learnt. In Maths we revised pattern and data. We made lots of different patterns using shapes, camels, pegboards and unifi cubes. We did a survey of our class to investigate what everyone’s favourite toy was and then we recorded the data by making bar charts.

In S.E.S.E we learnt all about Egypt. We learned about Egypt’s landscape, rivers, mountains and cities. We learnt about Egyptian food and animals that you might find in Egypt such as camels, cheetahs, crocodiles, hyenas and cobras. Then we learnt about Egyptian pharaohs such as Tutankhamun and Cleopatra and about pyramids and mummies. We found it all very fascinating!

In Art, we wrote our names in Egyptian hieroglyphs and we made pharaoh pictures using our photographs. We also made Egyptian golden necklaces using dyed pasta! They all turned out really well!

In Music we’ve been learning lots of songs as we always start our day with a song. We particularly enjoyed learning the song ‘Over in the Meadow’ and we loved performing it for our Grandparents on Grandparent’s Day. In Drama, we read the story ‘The Girl with the Red Slippers’ which is an Egyptian version of Cinderella. We had great fun pretending to be ballerinas and acting out the different parts in the story. Finally, we have been doing dance in P.E with Catherine Casey and we learnt a dance from the Lion King. You can check it out on our twitter page – @MsOlsonsClass

Category: Senior Infants, Literacy, Numeracy, Gaeilge, Aistear, S.E.S.E, Art, Drama, Physical Education | Comments Off

January 23 2019

News from the Creative Media Team!

Hello Shankill, and once again, welcome back!

Today, we’ll be discussing recent happenings in St Anne’s! As we all know, there has been Christmas fever spreading faster than the plague, and there have been plays left, right and centre, and we’re getting the scoop on the some of them. Starting in Junior Infants, in Ms Woods’ amazing class. Their class performed “Our First Nativity”. I even had the pleasure of meeting the two stars of the show who played Mary and Joseph. They said they loved playing the parts, rather than being their usual selves, Emma and Matthew. They also loved the songs. They said Ms. Woods did a really good job, and they think she’s a really cool teacher.

Next I visited Ms McManus’ class where I met Clara and Charlotte. Their play was called “The Night Before Christmas”, which they said was hilarious. They loved all of it, and the best part was, some people got to wear their PJ’s. They said Ms. McManus was great. Well done 1^st Class.

Next and finally, I came to Ms. Hughes’ Senior Infants. Their play was called “Christmas Toy Story”, and I interviewed Morgan and Isabelle. They loved ‘The song with the guitars’! That narrows it down! They loved the toys, and saying lines, and they said it was fun.

They say Ms. Hughes is really nice and smart. That wraps us up for today folks. See you next time!

By Ava

Creative Media Team

Category: Media Team, Drama | Comments Off

January 23 2019

News from Ms. Rigby’s First Class!

It has been quite a while since our last blog post. We had a busy few weeks leading up to Christmas. We had an amazing performance at our Christmas play and everyone was so proud of us. We sang with beautiful singing voices and we said our lines using our stage voices.

We came back from Christmas with a fresh attitude to work. We have been focusing on the theme of toys and have even invented our own toy. We had to make sure our toys were unique enough for someone to want to buy one. We had some great ideas like an edible unicorn doll that grows back when you eat it! We will post some pictures of our work in our next blog post!

We’ve also been very lucky to start ball skill this term with Steve. We’ve had two weeks so far and we have really enjoyed it!

Category: First Class, Drama, Physical Education | Comments Off

January 20 2019

News from Ms. Woods’ Class!

We have had a very busy couple of months in Ms. Woods’ Junior Infant class. Our theme for November was food and we had a pizza parlour and an ice cream shop in our socio-dramatic area in the classroom. We designed our own restaurants with stickle bricks and created pizzas from play dough and paper.

We were all delighted to see the Sam Maguire cup when it was brought into the classroom by Steve our GAA coach. UP THE DUBS !!

All our hard work paid off when we were fantastic in our play ‘The First Nativity’. We made angels, Christmas trees, snow scenes, and Christmas wreaths. As usual, we had lots of fun while working hard at our maths. jolly phonics and writing.

Category: Junior Infants, Aistear, Art, Drama | Comments Off

January 20 2019

Time Well Spent in Mr. Dunne’s Third Class!

Mr. Dunne’s third class kicked off the New Year with a bang! We’ve been doing loads of really interesting things in class so far this year. Here’s a few examples!

We’ve been learning about time and how to tell the time. We decided to make our own clocks using paper plates and a lot of hard work! They work really well, and we’re finding them really helpful in class. Not to mention, we got to add our own designs to them to personalise them. You can tell we spent a lot of time on them… but, after all, hard work takes time!

We’ve also been learning about the food pyramid and the five food groups – carbohydrates, fruit and vegetables, dairy, protein and fats. We’ve been looking at what’s in our lunches and what we’re eating at home. We created menus that contained all of the five food groups! We also looked at the amount of sugar in different kinds of drinks. You can see in the picture below the amount of sugar in flavoured water, Sprite, a smoothie (although this is the good, natural kind of sugar!), a Monster energy drink and a bottle of Coke. We were all really surprised at some of them!!

That’s all for now, we’ll check back in again soon!

Category: Third Class, Maths, S.E.S.E | Comments Off

January 20 2019

News from Ms. Black’s Class!

We had a very busy, exciting month in December. We made lots of colourful Christmas decorations. We learned how busy the post office is at Christmas time and we designed our own Christmas cards. We worked hard at learning our lines, songs and dances for our Christmas play. We looked very cute in our costumes and enjoyed performing for our families and the school.

Back at school now, we have been busy learning about Antarctica. We made cute penguins and learned many interesting facts about emperor penguins. We heard about Tom Crean the heroic Irish Antarctic explorer and we designed our own boats. We were experimenting with lots of different item to see what floats and sinks. In reading we are practising tricky words and writing three letter words ourselves.

We have dance classes with Ms. Casey on Tuesdays and PE on Wednesdays. Next week we are looking at polar bears and other arctic animals.

Category: Junior Infants, Aistear, S.E.S.E, Art | Comments Off

January 14 2019

The Adventure of Bob and Bill!

One horrible rainy Thursday, Bob the goldfish and his human friend Bill sat playing their version of poker. They each threw in a flake of fish food and looked at their card. The pair couldn’t find cards small enough for Bob so they made their own. Bob had an amazing hand (or fin, as they call it in fish poker). He had four fish Queens.

When the time came and they had to throw down cards, Bob gave a shout of delight. (This fish can talk, you see). “You owe me a trip to mars, my friend, as Bill picked the laminated pieces of paper out of the fish bowl. “Oh man,” said Bill as he searched for his wallet. He opened it, and out blew a ball of dust. He threw it on the couch, beside where he was sitting. He shoved his hands down his pockets, and found an unused, unscratched, scratch card he sighed. “Look, Bob, I might be able to get you a… new tub of fish food if I get a few quid from this card. Sorry, I knew you wanted to go to the World Fish Association of Fish, or WFAOF.” Bob sighed, as Bill scratched away the card to reveal the numbers. He had six numbers. A €4, a €200 , a €150, a €2k, another €2k and a €2. He only needed one more €2k, but he had a stinking €2. “I’m sor-” Bill began, but Bob shouted, “Wait..” “The end of the €2 isn’t scratched away!” Bill excitedly grabbed a coin and scratched. It was a €2k! They screamed and shouted so much, that their old neighbour, Mrs. Nonsence came to give out, but when she found out why they were making noise she joined in.

The next day, Bill booked the flights, and on Saturday the man and his fish went to the rocket station that so happened to exist and only be alive a minute walk away. Bob was in his portable space bowl. Bill was in a space suit. After hours of going through tests and training, they were ready to fly! They got onto the plane and looked around. It was amazing! They readied themselves, and soon it was take off. “3.. 2.. 1.. BLAST OFF!” The rocket blasted away from the station. They sprung away from earth and soon they were in space. A few days later, they landed. The door opened. They stepped out of the rocket. Then, they looked around. There was a sign saying “Welcome to Saturn!” Bob turned in his bowl, giving Bill devil eyes. “Saturn, Bill. SATURN???!” Bill blushed. “Umm… Sorry, lets go back to the rocket.” They turned and the rocket was starting to blast away. They jumped inside, as it began to blast. Phew! They changed the destination on auto pilot to Mars, not Saturn because Bill had pressed Saturn. A few days later they arrived in time for the World Fish Association of Fish meeting. On the last night of the meetings, there was a raffle, and Bob won. They weren’t told what the prize was, just to get on the rocket and relax. They did so, and a few days later the rocket stopped. They got out of the plane, and found a sign saying “Congrats, you’ve won a holiday for 2 months to stay in … Saturn!”

By Ava

6^th Class

Ms. Aivalikli

Category: Sixth Class, Literacy | Comments Off

January 14 2019

Ms. Kelly’s Class Project!

This year in Ms Kelly’s class we have done a lot. We will be doing projects throughout the year. Our first project was on bridges. There were so many things we could do using bridges as a topic. We could make model of bridges, write about bridges or draw pictures of bridges. Most people decided to make a model of a bridge. However, some people chose to write about bridges too. We had about 20 days to get it done. Most people who made models used tall lollipop sticks. One bridge was made out of straws. Another person made a project out of clay. There was also a project made of wood and nails. In assembly, our class did a presentation on Bridges. Everybody had to read 1 fact about Bridges. Then, we sang the song ‘A Bridge over troubled water.’

Written by the Creative Media Team

Category: Fifth Class, Media Team, S.E.S.E, Music | Comments Off

January 14 2019

Science Week!

This year science week was the 11^th to the 18^th of November. Science week is when schools all over Ireland spend a little extra time on science. Some schools decide to carry out exciting experiments. Mr. Donnelly’s 4^th class made paper helicopters and oobleck. My favourite experiment was when we made oobleck. Oobleck is made out of cornflour and water. We put in red or green food colouring. We loved science week because science is such a fun subject. Science week makes learning more fun. It gives us a chance to become scientists for the week and develop new skills. We cannot wait for science week next year!

Written by the Creative Media Team

Category: Media Team, Science | Comments Off

January 14 2019

A Winter Wonderland in Senior Infants!

Happy New Year from all of us here in Ms. Olson’s Senior Infants. We can’t believe it is 2019 and we are into our fifth month of school! Time flies when you’re having fun!

In December we explored the theme of Christmas and Wintertime and we really enjoyed ourselves! In Aistear, we loved playing in the Post Office / Santa’s workshop. We had to write letters to Santa, post them in the post box and wait for the elves to design, make and wrap our presents before Santa delivered them to us! At another station we baked chocolate chip cookies for Santa (although we may or may not have eaten them ourselves hehe…)

In Literacy, we read the stories ‘Bear Snores On’ by Karma Wilson and ‘One Snowy Night’ by Nick Buttersworth. Both stories were set in wintertime and the main characters were animals. We also spent some time learning how to write letters. We even drafted our own letters to Santa Claus before copying out the finished piece on to a lovely Santa letter template. Our handwriting was so neat that Ms. Olson displayed them on our classroom wall! In Gaeilge, we learned lots of phrases and new vocabulary surrounding the theme of ‘An Nollaig’. We learnt the songs ‘Bualadh Bos’ and ‘Seo í an Leanbh Íosa’ which are versions of Jingle Bells and Away in a Manger. In Maths we learned about 3D shapes – cube, cuboid, sphere and cylinder. We liked going on shape walks, playing with our 3D Beebot shape mat and making 3D shapes out of marshmallows and cocktail sticks!

In S.E.S.E we learned about the different animals that hibernate and migrate in winter. We also sequenced the story of Christmas and we had great fun learning about materials – in groups we designed toys and we made them out of materials that we could find in the classroom. We then presented our toys to the rest of the class. We also made snow by adding water to polysodium acrylate (the stuff inside nappies!!) in Science!

We made some lovely things in Art last month! We made Christmas elves using our faces, winter penguins, Christmas tree decorations, stain glass nativity scenes and nice Christmas cards for our families. We were very lucky to be able to perform some songs at assembly in Decemeber. We sang an extended version of Jingle Bells and Santa Shark. All the other children loved our performance and even sang along! We also performed our Christmas play ‘What a Star!’ for the school and our parents. We did a fantastic job and Ms. Olson and our parents were so proud of us! We really are superstars in Senior Infants!

Thank you for taking the time to read our blog. We hope you liked it! Our next blog is sure to be an interesting read as we are currently learning about Egypt! Check it out next month – in the meantime keep track of what we are doing by following us on twitter – @MsOlsonsClass!

Category: Senior Infants, Literacy, Maths, Aistear, S.E.S.E, Art | Comments Off