Senior Infants 2019/2020
Structured Play for September
Our themes were 'home' and 'Autumn' and were carried through in our free play station of 'Home' and our fine motor station where the children developed their cutting and pasting skills cutting out pictures of houses and sticking them together. In playdough they were encouraged to create things they might eat at home! For Art we created lots of Autumn themed Art such as Autumn leaf rubbings and Autumn leaves falling from trees - for this we explored textures created by using cotton buds in paint.
Happy Halloween from Senior Infants!
December 2019
During December we've been busy with the theme of the Post Office especially the North Pole Post Office. We have written and posted our letters to Santa. Weighed and stamped parcels and filled out forms. In the playdough station we made Christmas decorations and other delights. In the small world area we helped Santa's elves clear a path through the snow (rice and cotton wool maze) with his snowploughs. We have also had a special addition to our classroom who we helped name - we all wrote our name choice on the whiteboard and in the morning our elf had chosen the name from our selection - Billy Beans the Elf! He enjoys keeping an eye on us all and getting up to some mischief too!
January 2020 - We have been busy!
Creative writing
Exploring Clay - We made pinch pots!
The Gruffalo
St. Brigid's Day
We explored St. Brigid's Day and the story of how she laid her cloak out on the ground so she could claim the land for her church from the king. Charlie's Mum made a St. Brigid's Cross for everyone! Thank You!!
Valentine's Day!
Science
We explored the topic of electricity in the home. We looked at how to be safe around electricity and then we went on to explore where electricity comes from with a focus on Renewable Energy. We talked about where our own bodies get energy from too! With the large windfarm in Belacorrick we took focus on Windpower and made our own little windfarm - also looking at videos on how wind energy is made.
Structured Play January and February - Construction
February 2020 - Spring is here!
Pancake Tuesday!
We had great fun discussing what ingredients go into making pancakes and how the batter changes with heat on the pan. We also hotly debated the best toppings! We sequenced the stages of pancake making in Maths and we even read a silly story about a runaway pancake for English. Best of all of course was the tasting!! Thank you to Caoimhe who helped by making some delicious pancakes to sample!
World Book Day - March 7th 2020
Engineer's Week 2020
In Senior Infants we engaged with lots of fun activities for Engineers week. We designed Lego vehicles that you could push and pull. We learned lots about renewable energies and concentrated our learning on Windfarms. We even made our own wind Turbine - finding out how it makes wind turn into electricty! We had fun with experiments too with slime making and creating exploding colours using vinegar, food colouring and bread soda.
Literacy Lift Off - For photos click on the Gallery Page of Website!
Suggested Daily Learning Activities during School Closure
Suggested in the file below are some daily activities and approximated times for these activities. It is in no way meant to cause stress to parents and it is merely a suggestion as to a structure that could be used on a daily basis with some activities and links that maybe useful. Other links and suggestions can be found under the 'Latest News' section of the website. Kind regards, Mrs. Flanagan.
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Further suggestions March 30th-April 3rd
To tie in with suggestions for continuing on with Jolly Phonics and looking at the jollylearning website as suggested in the above file there is a website that has some online phonics readers which might help practise their phonic and reading skills. It is an Australian website and can be found at www.speld-sa.org.au
Go to the 'Free Online Resources' area. Scroll to 'Reading and Writing with Phonics' and click on 'Speld SA Phonic books and worksheets' you will see a whole range of phonics books and worksheets that the children can practise. I would suggest starting at SET 4 as most children will know the previous sounds quite well and we are at the blending stage now which is what this is aimed at.
Therefore a scheldule could be:
Monday: A cat laps - read book and complete worksheets
Tuesday: An egg in a nest - read book and complete worksheets
Wednesday: When Santa's Sled hit a blimp - read and worksheets
Thursday: Jan sings a rap -read and worksheets
Friday: Abracadabra - read and worksheets
If you would like a break and just like someone to read a story to the kids in a fun way there are two really good website here www.storylineonline.net where there are some fabulous books read by famous actors. They are pitched at lots of different levels so you should find one suitable. Also if you don't think it is too advance David Walliams is doing a free reading session every morning at eleven on his website worldofdavidwalliams.com/elevenses
Easter Art - There are some nice baskets to be made and some colouring to do on www.twinkl.ie if you click on the Junior and Senior Infants link and type in 'Easter Art'.
www.growinlove.ie With Easter coming up it might be good to look at the meaning of the services and Easter. Grow in love have opened up their website to parents for free. Log in and find the Senior Infant book. Click on 'Holy week and Easter' and you will see three interactive lesson with printable colouring sheets and videos as well. Fantastic resource. The e-book is there along the side too in case you need it.
Science - feeling messy?! If you would like a cool Easter themed experiment you should try this one. Go to www.youtube.com and type in egg experiment for kids. The first experiment you called 'Bouncing Eggs' is easy to do at home and fun if you don't mind the mess a bit!
Science - feeling messy?! If you would like a cool Easter themed experiment you should try this one. Go to www.youtube.com and type in egg experiment for kids. The first experiment you called 'Bouncing Eggs' is easy to do at home and fun if you don't mind the mess a bit!
Non-Screen Time challenges
Here are some useful activities that are on the lines of STEM and don't involve screentime. The Lego Challenge was taken from Actibuild Lego Club Facebook page. The other ideas were taken from www.primaryplayground.net where you will find loads more and some really lovely Art ideas. They are also on Facebook and Instagram.Hope they are useful. I have put up just four of the challenges for this week Tuesday to Friday and will put up more after Easter or you can look online at that facebook page.
