Senior Infants & First Class Mid Term Update

It has been wonderful being back in school and seeing our friends every day! Our teacher, Mrs. Gleeson, is so proud of how well we have adjusted to the Covid-19 regulations. We have five different colour pods in our classroom. In Seniors we have the primary colours– red, blue and yellow. In First Class our colours are orange and green. On the first day we had our colour balloons floating above our tables to help us find our way!

                  We always remember to sanitise our hands when we enter and leave the classroom. We also sanitise before we eat. In class, we stay at our own pods and we can share with other children in our pod.We have special boxes of toys that we can use. When we are finished with them,they go into ‘quarantine’; then we can swap the boxes safely. We remember to put our books straight into the quarantine box when we bring them back to school.

               In SPHE we have been learning how to take turns, especially when we are talking in class. We try to look at the person that is speaking and we put up our hands when we want to say something. We have also been learning about healthy eating and the kinds of foods that we should eat lots of and the foods that we should keep as a treat. We can bring a treat in our lunch on Fridays, but we eat our healthy food first! We have been learning about how we grow and change. We hav eall grown up so much since we first started school.

               In Literacy we have made great progress with our reading. We concentrated on our Jolly Phonics sounds and actions; we like to sound our and blend the words we come across. Mrs. Gleeson gives stamps for great reading and writing – when we fill our stamp card, everyone gives a ‘bualadh bos’, our name gets written in the special pink circle and at the end of the day we get to pick a prize from the prize box!

In First Class, we are doing the PAT programme, which helps our reading and writing. We love using our free writing copies to create stories, jokes, poems and pictures.

In Maths we enjoy playing lots ofgames to warm up our brain – Buzz is our favourite! We like using our 5-frames and 10-frames to learn more about number. We spent time examining and investigating some 3-D shapes – cube, cuboid, sphere and cylinder. We discovered which ones could roll and which we could stack. We even use 2-D shapes when we go to PE lessons in the astro turf.

In First class, we are getting really good at our tables and knowing our mental maths facts by heart. We can add three numbers together and are learning different ways of subtraction. We also like talking out the maths problems and finding out how everyone did it!

In Gaeilge, we love our new Bua na Cainte programme. There are lots of interactive games and poems and songs.Is maith linn é! When an adult comes to the classroom we say ‘Fáilte romhat!’ We also love to play ‘Deir Ó Grádaigh’. Mrs. Gleeson doesn’t play ‘knock out’ every time because we are so good! Sometimes she calls out a child’s name and says ‘Tusa an múinteoir anois!’ and then that child gets to call out the instructions.

We have created lots of art since we have been back at school. We made emoji faces and a sleeping three toed sloth using a paper plate. We used rolled-up card and strips of paper to make an octopus. We learned to draw Hairy Mc Lairy, the dog in our story, and then we stuck pieces of wool on to the picture to create his long messy hair! We made lots of different Halloween art – a collaborative 3-D ghost, bats and a painting. We found out where socks go – there’s a secret tunnel at the back of the drier that leads to ‘Sock City’ – so we created our own sock puppet from all the lonely socks left behind! Everybody created their own character using foam for the tongue and different eyes. Some people made lots of eyes! We love being creative with plasticine too.

Stay Safe.

More News You Might Like