Author Archives: Ciara O' Brien

We enjoyed a wonderful picnic accompanied by our favourite teddy bears. After eating we played with our teddies. We sang along to the Teddy Bear’s Picnic song afterwards in class. We had so much fun!

We had a fantastic day at Glenroe Farm. Take a look at the photos to see what we got up to!

Junior Infants had a great time on their trip to Glenroe farm. It was our first time going on a bus together and we were so excited. When we got the farm, we left our bags in a big barn and went to play in a HUGE playground.

We had so much fun on the swings and the slides and we really worked up an appetite, so we headed back to the barn for our lunch.

After lunch, we were brought on a tour around the farm to see all the animals. We saw cows, goats, ducks, geese, chickens, lambs, turkeys, deer, donkeys and horses. We even got to hold a baby chick, called Nugget, and a baby rabbit, called Candyfloss. We listened so nicely to the farmer, we stayed close to our teachers and parent helpers and we had a super day!

Junior Infants have been learning all about Italy this May. We made passports and took an imaginary trip to lots of different places in Italy. We went on a Gondola in Venice, took photographs of the leaning tower of Pisa, visited the Colosseum in Rome, threw a coin in the Trevi fountain and even walked around the old buildings in Pompeii. We couldn’t leave Italy without tasting all the yummy pasta, pizza and gelato! Look at the postcards we made to our families.

For art, we made delicious pizzas with all our favourite toppings. We also learned about Michelangelo and the Sistine Chapel. We wanted to know what it was like to paint something on a roof, so we stuck some paper under our tables and tried to draw some pictures. It was very hard!

 We were very lucky to have special visits from Giovanni’s mum, Milena, and Matteo’s mum, Stella, both of whom are from Italy. They told us about the places they are from and taught us some Italian. Milena taught us about the Monk Seal and the Alpine Ibex and Stella told us the story of Romulus and Remus and also a story about two monsters! The children absolutely loved these visits. We even got to taste some Italian bread sticks. YUMMY!

Ciao for now!

Ciara’s Junior Infants have just started a new 3 week block of Aistear and our new theme is ‘Plants’. We have a ‘Flower Shop’ role play area, a creative station, a sensory gardening station, a construction station, a writing station and a playdough station. The children are loving this theme so far and are really using all the ‘plant’ related language we have been learning the past few weeks. Have a look at us in action.

Ciara’s Junior Infants and Aongus’ Second Class have become super friends since starting Reading Buddies last month, so we decided to go on a ‘Spring Walk’ together. We paired up with our buddies and walked around to Balally Park, keeping a close eye out for any signs of Spring. We noticed the cherry blossoms and daffodils in bloom, the birds singing loudly whilst busy making their nests and the smell of fresh cut grass, not to mention the lovely warm weather. Our buddies made a huge effort to get to know each other better on the walk to the park and they had great fun playing together in the playground. We hope to do lots more fun activities together in the future.

Junior Infants were very lucky to have a visit from Eliza’s dad, Justin. Justin is an engineer who loves making rockets. He showed us some of the rockets that he and Eliza made. We brought them outside and watched them blast into the sky. It was so much fun!

Ciara’s Junior Infants have just started a new Aistear.  Our theme for this Aistear is ‘Animals’ and the children are really enjoying it so far. In junk art, the children have really been using their imaginations and creating x-ray machines, medicine and other inventions that could be used to help animals. They have been having great fun in ‘The Veterinary Surgery’ role-play area taking on roles like animal owners, receptionists and vets. They really enjoy looking after the sick animals. In small world we have been using Lego and small toy animals to create zoos and animal hospitals. The children have also enjoyed making farms using play dough and waffle blocks. Thank you to everyone who sent in resources for this Aistear. Look at how much fun we are having!

Junior Infants have been doing lots of fun activities this month. We have added a new station in Aistear where we test different materials to see which one makes the best ramp for our little cars.

In Maths, we have been playing a fun game called ‘The Sweety Jar Game’. Children roll the dice and place the correct number of counters into the sweety jars. Each day, the children have a different ‘goal number’ with which to fill the sweety jars.

We have also paired up with Aongus’ class for some buddy reading. The children loved making new friends with the 2nd class and we are looking forward to more weeks of reading with our new buddies.

We love any opportunity to read in Junior Infants. We read at our tables and in our new reading corner too.

Aistear is the curriculum framework for children from birth to six years in Ireland which involves learning about a particular theme through play, discovery and discussion. Ciara’s Junior Infants have just started Aistear and we love it! Our themed for January is ‘Toys’. The children have been busy making different toys using junk art and playdough. The ‘Toyshop’ role play area has been a great hit and the children are really using their imaginations to come up with different situations for the Teddy Bears picnic.

We take part in fun games and activities when exploring number.

We are very good at designing and building lots of different creations in Junior Infants. Please take a look! 

Last week in PE, we took part in some team building activities which also tested and developed our co-ordination and motor skills. Take a look to see how well we worked together as a team. 

We are learning all about new and old toys for the month of January. We learned lots from each other’s show and tell presentations. Kitty brought in her mum’s old toy doll which was made entirely from soft material. Sofia’s modern doll on the other hand was made out of plastic. We learned that old toys did not need batteries. The owner had to improvise. We have been exploring toys in Aistear, learned songs about toys and even designed our own toy inventions in art.

We are very good at counting, ordering and writing our numerals in Junior Infants. Take a look at us playing our maths games and taking part in our maths learning stations.                          

This week, we were revising the number 2 and we had great fun making ‘patterns of two’ using lots of different resources. We used beads, bears of different sizes, tangrams, peg boards and unifix cubes. Check out our work!

Last year, the current second classes planted lots of yummy vegetables in the school vegetable patch. The brussels Sprouts and leeks were finally ready to be harvested so Junior Infants did the job. Anna’s mum Laragh helped us to dig up the vegetables and the children helped to pick all the brussels sprouts off the stalks. It was very mucky and very fun! The children all got to bring home some brussels sprouts to have for dinner.

Our theme for Aistear in Junior Infants this month is “The Home.” We’ve learned that there’s all different sorts of families and houses but the common thing between each is love. We have had lots of fun playing home with the doll houses and role play area. We made lots of things you would find at home using our playdough. During art, we made lovely wallpaper and curtain patterns.

For Science Week 2016 Junior Infants examined four different types of materials to see which would make the strongest house for the three little pigs to live in. It linked in perfectly with our Aistear theme for this month ” The Home.” We had lots of fun exploring, building, discussing and predicting. The four materials we tested out were paper towels, tin foil, card and building blocks. We tested out the strength of our houses using Neola’s hairdryer (The Big Bad Wolf!) In the end we concluded that the building blocks were the best material to use as the hairdryer didn’t blow these houses down. Take a look at all the fun we had being scientists!  

Junior Infants have been learning all about the number 1 this week. We had great fun searching for buttons with 1 hole in the sandbox. We decorated a number 1 template using buttons, sticks and counters. We played with board games which involved tracing the number one. We coloured in number one templates beautifully and we practised writing the number one on our mini whiteboards.

We have been practicing reading and writing our first two ‘Jolly Phonics’ groups this school term.  We are able to blend sounds together to help us read CVC words. During our station work we made the letters with play dough, wrote letters on white boards, wrote them in sand and played a matching game to help us learn. We have been exploring the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears also. We have sequenced the story, acted it out with finger puppets, created scenes from the story with play dough and are preparing for our show in November. 

We have been very busy painting, printing, cutting and sticking in Junior Infants.  Our favourite piece of art was the bats we made from paper plates. We enjoyed playing with our bats in the playground                 

Junior Infants had lots of fun outdoors for Maths Week. We worked together in groups finding and taking photographs of 2D shapes and numbers outside in the playground. We also went on a nature walk to explore the Autumn trees. We had lots of fun counting the leaves, trees and horse chestnuts we saw. We continued working on patterns in the classroom. We made some very impressive patterns, please take a look.             

Our theme for October is food. We’ve been learning poems about food and read “Handa’s Surprise,” which is all about exotic fruits from Africa. After reading the story the children had the opportunity to taste some of the fruit mentioned in the book. We also received our very own pumpkin to display on our Autumn window. The pumpkin was harvested from the school garden with the help of Jim, Third class and Anna’s mum Laragh.

For the month of October,  Junior Infants have been learning lots about patterns in maths. First we copied patterns, then we extended patterns and finally, we had great fun making patterns of our own. We made patterns using different colours, shapes and sizes. Have a look at some of our amazing work.

On the 6th of October, Ciara’s Junior Infants celebrated National Tree Day. We talked about all the wonderful things that trees give us, like oxygen, fruit and paper and then we learned the names of the parts of the tree. We went on a little ‘Tree Walk’ to have a look at the lovely trees on the school grounds and we whispered ‘Thank you’ to the trees for all that they give us.

Junior Infants have been very busy bees this September. Take a look at what we have been doing.

We have been working very hard at our letter formation. It is great fun making the letters in sand, with play dough, on the interactive whiteboard, with crayons and with markers.

We have been learning about 2D shapes and have had lots of fun making these too. We have been doing lots of sorting activities and have made sets using Venn Diagrams.

We were very lucky to have a visit from Nessa’s dad Joey. Joey works for ESB and came in to chat to us about safety around electricity.

Neola’s class have been learning all about the hospital for Aistear. During role-play we have been pretending to be radiographers, doctors, nurses, patients and receptionists. At the construction station, we made x-ray machines, hospital buildings and ambulances, to name but a few. We made x-rays of our arms in art.

Junior Infants have settled in very well to school and are already busy learning, working hard and making new friends. Take a look at what we have been up to!

We have great fun during activity time with our friends.

We have been reading lots of books.

We have been doing some matching activities in Maths.

We are looking forward to the year ahead!