Spring is in the Air

We have been learning about spring these past two weeks. We sing Rise and Shine, See, See, See and Garden in Spring every morning. Listen to us singing Rise and Shine! Press the play button.

We painted spring pictures using cotton buds. One group painted daffodils, another group painted spring trees, the next group painted chicks in a nest, another group painted tulips and the last group painted chicks in an egg.

Here they are on display outside our classroom. Don't they look terrific? See how we used our paintings from last week to back our spring paintings.

One day we investigated buds on branches. The leaves grow from the buds on the trees.

We also had a good look at a bird's nest. Ms Kelly found one in her garden long after the bird family had left. We would never touch a nest when a family is living there!

We can say a rhyme about a nest.

I have made a pretty nest

Look inside, look inside

Hungry birdies with their beaks,

Open wide, open wide

See the little birdies grow

Day by day, day by day

Until they spread their little wings

And then they fly away.

The nest was made of twigs, grass, moss and even feathers to keep the nest cosy for the baby birds. Baby birds are called chicks. We sequenced the baby birds hatching from their eggs and waiting for food.

Dominoes

We learned to play a new game called dominoes. The dominoes had spring pictures such as a lamb, a chick, a duckling, frogspawn, tadpoles, daffodils and tree blossom. Have a look at us playing. We were very good at waiting for our turn.

Writing

We learned to write the letter k this week.

You start at the top and go straight down, down, down to the line, you go back up to the middle, give him a belly, give him a leg and give him a kick.

Number 3

We learned the song Three Blind Mice.

We are learning to write the number three. We say this rhyme.

Number 3 go right around

What will it be?

Go round again to make a 3.

Click on the picture to listen to the Story of 3.

Maths Games

We are getting so good at our maths games.

Mosaic Pegs

Links

Hexisnaps

Phonics

We know a lot of letters and sounds now. We played Phonic Fighter this week. We have to click the picture that starts with the sound of the letter shown on the spaceship. Click on the picture to play the game.

Bear Hugs

We played two games this week. On Thursday we played Musical Chairs. In this game there is one winner and lots of boys and girls are put out of the game. Everytime someone was put out of the game teacher laughed and said "Ha, ha!" It wasn't very nice. We didn't feel good about it. Afterwards teacher told us that some games make people feel left out. It made us think about games we play in the yard. We don't want anyone to feel left out.

Here are the boys and girls that were out. They aren't very happy because they can't play.

On Friday we played Bear Hugs. In this game everyone works together and no-one is ever put out of the game. Teacher called a number and we had to try make groups of that number. Look at us playing!

We liked Bear Hugs better because everyone got to play all the time. No-one was left out. It is a happy game!

Happy Mother's Day Mammies Everywhere!

Mother's Day is Sunday the 30th of March. We thought we should do something nice for our lovely mammies. On Friday we walked to Newlands Garden Centre.

In the garden centre we made up little pots of flowers for our mammies.

We wrote our name on little cards to put into the pot.

We carried them back to the school. Our mammies are going to be so happy when they see their presents!

We want to thank our mammies for being so kind to us and for loving us all the time!

Fun with Phonics 4

We have learned four more letters and letter-sounds. Have a look below.

s

s says |s| as in sun.

e

e says |e| as in egg.

v

v says |v| as in van.

w

w says |w| as in wind.

Singing Our Hearts Out!

We had a lovely St. Patrick's weekend. It was great having Monday off but we were glad to get back to school on Tuesday.

Ceolchoirm

We sang in the school ceolchoirm (concert) on Thursday. All the Junior Infant classes sang together. We had to sing songs as gaeilge. We sang Mise an Traein, Tá mé i mo shuí ar mo chathaoir and Lámha Suas, an Feidir Leat? We were first up. We did a great job and got a big bualadh bos from the crowd. 

We listened to the other classes singing their songs as gaeilge. They were all fantastic. Well done to all the boys and girls in Scoil Mhuire!

Painting

We mixed colours when painting this week. The first painting group had red and white paint. We started with a lot of white in the palate. We added a little bit of red to the white. This made a very light red. We can also say a very pale red. We painted a stripe across the top of the page. We then added more red paint to the mixture and painted a stripe underneath our first stripe. It made a lovely effect on the page. We kept adding more red paint to the mixture and painting more stripes.

The other groups did the same with their colours: blue, green, purple and yellow. Look at the results. See how the paint goes from light to dark.

We are going to use these next week for a display. They are going to look fantastic. Wait and see!

Writing

We learned to write the letter h this week.

You start at the top and go straight down, down, down to the line, you go back up, halfway and bend it over and straight down with a kick.

Numbers 1 and 2

We are getting so good at writing number 2.

We can find sets of 1 and 2. We can make sets of 1 and 2.

Here is some work we did in our maths book this week.

Teacher thinks we did a great job drawing trees in the gardens.

We played a dice game on Thursday using a numbered dice where we had to throw the dice and try land it on the number two. Saul and Liam landed the dice on the number 2. Well done boys!

On Friday we used a spotted dice and tried to land it on the side with two dots. This time only James did it. Well done James!

Dice can be great fun to use for number recognition and counting.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We will celebrate St. Patrick's Day on Monday. This week we learned the story of St. Patrick. Here is Patrick on the mountain minding the pigs and sheep when he was a slave in Ireland.

On Friday we wore green and danced in the Céile! We had been practising our dance for weeks. We were super!

We also watched the other classes and the teachers dance. Everyone was fantastic.

We made St. Patrick's Day headbands during the week. We also coloured a picture of St. Patrick.

The King with Donkey's Ears

We read an Irish legend during the week for Seachtain na Gaeilge. The story is called The King With Donkey's Ears. We took part in an art competition during the week. We had to draw a picture showing part of the story. Here are some of the entries.

And here is the winner!

Thank you Ms. Kelly and Ms. Gavin for judging. It was a tough job!

Math Stations

We have added a new activity to our math stations. We are building objects using snap-cubes. We are learning about spatial awareness, 3D objects and the basics of area.

We are still working hard in the other stations: mosaic pegs, number jigsaws and patterns.

Writing

We learned to write the letter m this week.

You start at the top and go straight down to the line, you go back up, near the top and bend it over and straight down, back up, near the top and bend it over and straight down with a kick.

Painting

This week we painted some vehicles. Have a look at some of the vehicles we painted.

Car

Boat

Hot Air Balloons

Aeroplane

Motorbikes and bicycles