Senior Infants & 1st Class Christmas update

What a term we have had in Seniors and 1st Class!

Senior Infants have been learning lots of new sight words and ‘tricky words’. These are fundamental to becoming better readers and we love practising our reading together. Our writing has also improved so much. We like to have a sharp pencil, a good pencil grip and a steady posture to make sure our writing is as nice as it can be!

In first class we are becoming so fluent at our reading our teacher says it is a pleasure to listen to us!! We also take great pride in having lovely writing.

We have enjoyed the build up to Christmas, learning songs and decorating our classroom. We threaded baubles at the ‘early finishers table’, which was great fine motor work. Threading and tying knots is tricky work!

In SESE, we learned about toys from the past. We all enjoyed watching ‘The Late Late Toy Show’ at home, but in school we watched a clip of an old ‘Late Late’ with Gay Byrne. We loved comparing the toys and the clothes on both shows. We also sorted toys into ‘old and modern’ using things like electricity/motors and materials from which they were made to help us identify whether we would buy them now or they would have been from our grandparents’ time.

We have loved learning about Emperor Penguins and even made our own 3D model of a penguin from a cylinder. We watched videos of the mom and dad penguins minding and feeding the chick. Hearing their calls and imitating them was fun! We also learned that penguins only live in the southern hemisphere of the world. We realised that this means that penguins and polar bears don’t live in the same place in the wild, so would never meet. This inspired some story writing about penguins going on adventures and meeting polar bears!

We had a wonderful story time with Roisín Meaney on zoom. She told us two stories – The Donkey and The Cross Snowman – we loved drawing our own pictures to illustrate the stories and help us retell them. Our teacher took pictures of our stories and sent them to Limerick Library to share with Roisín.

Since we couldn’t attend the Limetree theatre in person, they very kindly streamed a puppet show called ‘How to Catch a Star’. We loved the show! It was captivating following the story and all the obstacles that the character faced.

In Grow in Love, we have learned about Jesus being born in the stable in Bethlehem and the visitors that came to see him. We put our own crib in our scared space in the classroom.

We have learned lots of songs sa Gaeilge – Bualadh Bos is é an cheann is fearr linn – Tá Daidí na Nollag ag teacht anocht anuas an similéir brings raucous applause!

We have learned lots about 2D and 3D shapes. We used the shapes to create pictures and constructions. We sorted and classified shapes and followed patterns. We also identified real-life objects at home and in school. When we draw we often start with familiar shapes.

Sparkles and Jingles the Elves came to stay with us for a couple of weeks! They were well behaved while we were in school, but once we were gone they played with our toys, wrote on the white board and even sprayed snow on the windows!

We are so excited for Christmas and spending time at home with our families! Nollag Shona daoibh go léir!