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Exploring The Arctic in Senior Infants!
Our Aistear theme in Senior Infants for December was The Arctic. The children really enjoyed learning all about the Arctic Circle, it’s animals and the people who live there. Our Aistear stations were; role-play, construction, junk art, sensory play, playdough and art.
In the role play area, we took a trip to the amazing Arctic. We built igloos, went camping and looked after some arctic animals.
We use sago seeds as snow in our sensory play station and it was a huge hit!
We made beautiful winter scenes.
Senior Infants Blast Off!
In Senior Infants, our theme for November was Space. We learned about night and nay, the 8 planets and what it is like to be an astronaut.
For Aistear, our role-play area was The International Space Station. The children had lots of fun conducting space experiments and meeting aliens!
For art, we made really cool clay aliens. We also made aliens at our playdough station.
In junk art, we made everything from rockets to space stations.
For construction, we challenged ourselves to make really cool bridges.
In English, we learned lots of lovely poems about space and wrote about what we would bring with us to space.
An Outstanding October
Senior Infants have had a fun and busy October. Our theme for this month was ‘Houses and Homes’ and we learned lots about the different types of homes, the materials used to build them, the rooms in the home and different kinds of families.
We embraced the seasonal changes that are happening around us and we learned lots about autumn. On National Tree day we went on a walk to Finsbury Park to look out for signs of autumn and to collect some leaves and identify the different trees that grow there.
We also celebrated World Mental Health Day with a whole week of nice activities. We did some yoga, lots of mindfulness activities and we had a picnic outside in the outdoor classroom.
Our Aistear this month was based around our theme. The children enjoyed buying and selling homes in the Estate Agent role-play area. The houses for sale become quite spooky, towards the end of our last week!
We used Lego as our construction material and built lots of different kinds of homes.
We made bedrooms and homes using junk art.
We drew our families and made lollipop stick homes at our art station. We also made pumpkins!
Small world was a big hit this month. The children loved playing with the doll’s houses and setting up the furniture in the different rooms.
A Super September in Senior Infants!
We have had a fun and busy September in Senior Infants. We have settled back to school so quickly and have been working super hard. Our theme for September is ‘All About Me’. We have been learning about our senses, chatting about our likes and dislikes and learning about our differences.
In Maths, we have been engaging in lots of sorting activities and also creating patterns. We have also been learning about the Story of 5 and revising number formation.
Aistear has gotten off to a great start. There children take turns engaging with 5 different station activities.
The children love our ‘Optician’ role-play area.
Junk art is a big hit and our creations are amazing!
We have also been making really interesting constructions.
We have been designing our own glasses range, some of which have superpowers.
Senior Infants have been painting with a twist!
The children used scented paints to paint a picture of their own. As they began painting, they noticed that each colour smelled like something different. The children used their sense of smell to try and identify each of the different scents!
We have learned lots of new vocabulary at our oral language station.
Well done Senior Infants!
June in Senior Infants
Senior Infants have been making the most of the lovely June weather and spending lots of time outside. We took our maths stations outside and also our Aistear activities.
Our theme for June was ‘water’. We learned about capacity, water sources, water safety, looking after our oceans and ocean creatures. Our Aistear activities included junk art, construction, water beads, sand and plasticine.
Senior Infants spent lots of time in our new outdoor classroom this month. We enjoyed relaxing and reading some books in the sun. Senior Infants also did some planting and learnt lots about the importance of bees with Caroline. She even brought us in a friendly bee to meet!
Travel and Transport in Senior Infants
Senior Infants have had great fun this month learning all about travel and transport!
They enjoyed their time at ‘The Airport’ role play station area during Aistear. We made our own passports, checked our baggage weight at the check in desk and we even took on the role of the pilot. We are all set for when we are allowed to travel again!
The children made runways, aeroplanes, airports and many more exciting things at the construction area.
We painted pictures of hot air balloons flying over places we would love to visit in the future!
The children played with vehicles in the small world area. They used Lego to build towns and cities and practised driving cars and trucks around these busy places!
Earth Week in Senior Infants
It was Earth Day on the 22nd of April, and Senior Infants decided to celebrate for whole week! We did lots of fun, nature based activities, went on a minibeast hunt and spent lots of time learning and playing outside.
We made clay ornaments with pieces of nature.
We wrote about ‘Our Favourite Place on Earth’.
We made nature ‘people’ with lots of natural materials.
We ate our lunch outside in the beautiful sunshine!
And we learned all about our Earth and how to look after it. The future is in good hands!
A Very Happy March
Senior Infants have had a lovely March back at school. We have settled back into our routine and been so busy doing lots of fun activities.
In maths, we have been learning all about number patterns.
In English, we have been enjoying some station activities when we arrive each morning.
This month, our theme for Aistear is ‘The Garden’. We planted sunflower seeds in toilet roll holder pots. We are having great fun in the ‘Garden Centre’ role-play area. We have been using construction materials to design and make gardens and we have been making interesting creations with junk art. We have also made lots of spring themed art. We even took our Aistear outside in the sun and did some real ‘gardening’.
We worked in pairs to design our own garden/ park. Here are some examples of our work.
Senior Infants in the Arctic
Our Aistear theme for December was the Arctic and the children really enjoyed learning all about the Arctic Circle, it’s animals and the people who live there. Our Aistear stations were; role-play, construction, junk art, sensory play, playdough and art.
In the role-play area, we journeyed to the Arctic Circle to explore and look after the animals.
For sensory play, we had great fun with little white beans. We pretended it was snow and played with little animal figurines.
Construction and junk art are always a hit during Aistear!
For art, we made a beautiful winter scene.
Senior Infants in Space
Senior Infants have been learning lots about space and enjoying our space themed Aistear activities this month.
For junk art, we have been busy making cool creations like rockets, space stations and aliens!
We have also made some really cool aliens with playdough.
Senior Infants have loved playing in our Space Station role-play area. We have been going on moonwalks, taking the rocket ship to mars, fixing broken planets and even saving aliens!
At our art station, we have made some lovely alien and planet pictures and next week we will be making clay aliens.
Construction is always a hit with Senior Infants. We have been making rockets, solar systems, space rovers and space stations.
September Fun
Senior Infants have had a great start to the school year. We are working very hard and enjoying lots of fun activities.
Aistear has been a huge hit with the class. Our theme this month is ‘Houses and Homes’. We have been having great fun building homes using waffle blocks, making homes in junk art, playing with the small world house and selling houses in the estate agent role-play area.
For National Tree Day we talked about the importance of trees and we went on a little walk around the school grounds to look at the beautiful trees we have here. We even gave them a little hug!
In English, we have been doing station teaching. The stations include handwriting, free writing, interactive phonics games on the ipads, a phonics station and a word family station.
Back to school!
Our classrooms and corridors came alive again this September.
Whole School Singing At Home!
While we can’t be together, let’s sing together! Follow the link to join in with our whole school singing assembly at home:
http://tiny.cc/WholeSchoolSingingBETNS
10 familiar songs from our whole school singing assemblies are waiting. We would love to see your videos of you and your family joining in with some of our school songs. If you have a favourite Ballinteer Educate Together song that you would like to hear, please send us your requests : )
Welcome chicks!
http://tiny.cc/SeniorInfantsChicks Follow the link to see the first video of Senior Infants’ newly hatched chicks!
The chicks were due to hatch on Tuesday, but one hatched on Sunday, while three more hatched on Monday. No more have hatched today, and while fingers are crossed, senior infants have always understood that hatching is very difficult, and even if everything is kept just right, sadly, some of them may not hatch.
When they hatch, the chicks have a little “egg tooth” on the tip of their beak which they use to chip out of the shell. This falls off a couple of days after hatching. See if you can spot an egg tooth!
They have been moved to a “brooder” where they have food, water, warmth, and air, which all living things need to survive.
If there are 11 eggs, and 4 have hatched, how many are left?What would you name these little chicks? We won’t know if they are boys or girls until they grow up!
Spring Chicks Hatching in Senior Infants
Laura’s class are hatching spring chicks this month. Watch their progress here!
Infant Disco
Not to be left out of Thursday night’s Winter Disco fun, our children from Junior and Senior Infants had their own disco on Friday, 20th December. DJ Rob (Katie and Georgia’s dad) got the party started and the children had a fantastic time breaking out their moves to celebrate the end of term!
World Book Day
On the 25th of October Senior Infants dressed up as their favourite book characters. We had great fun discussing our favourite books and characters!
Helpful Otto
We had a very exciting day in Senior Infants today, we met Otto. Otto is a highly trained ‘task specific’ golden retriever dog. He is assigned to a wonderful child and he helps keep him safe and calm during stressful situations. He walks very well on a lead and helps him with day today tasks.
He follows directions and stops when asked. We learned the importance of not disturbing assistance dogs when they are working. We can tell Otto was working when he is wearing his blue vest.
Otto walking on his lead. 
We had lots of fun getting to know Otto today and learning how certain animals can be trained to do special jobs for people.
Otto uses a special lead that is attached to the person he is walking with and they can hold Otto using another lead. We want to thank Otto’s family for bringing him into our class today and helping us learn more about assistance dogs and Autism.
Spring is in the Air!
Senior Infants took a trip to Airfield Farm to look out for all the signs of spring. We looked at the daffodils and all the other flowers that are beginning to bloom. We learned all about chickens and watched the eggs being collected. We even got to see the cows being milked. We finished off our visit with a trip to the play area. We had a great day and were all very tired after the long walk back to school!
Food Glorious Food
Senior Infants have been doing lots of activities around the theme of ‘food’. We have been discussing the different kinds of foods, our likes and dislikes and how food is important for giving us energy and keeping us healthy.
For art, we used potatoes for printing. We used our imaginations to create flowers, bugs and even monsters!
In Aistear, children built restaurants using waffle blocks and lego. We also had an art station, where the children used clay to make pinch pots. Our very popular role-play area returned again, this time as a restaurant!
We also did some apple tasting. We tried different kinds of apples like Bramley, Gala and Pink Lady and discussed the difference in taste. Pink Lady was the most popular!
Senior Infant Disco
Senior Infants finished off a great first term in school with a disco in the hall. We loved dancing along to all our favourite songs and had so much fun. Check out our moves!
The Arctic
This December the Senior Infants have had the joy of becoming Arctic explorers and going on an expedition to the Arctic. The boys and girls been learning all about Arctic traditions and animals. They boys and girls have been looking at the many ways people and animals have had to adapt to survive in the Arctic.
Some of the traditions they enjoyed learning about were throat singing and ice fishing. They boys and girls agreed that they would enjoy building snowmen if they were in the Arctic. They thoroughly enjoyed learning all about caribou, lemming, huskies, polar bears, seals and snowy owls.
We also introduced a sensory box, full of sago seeds which looked like snow. The children loved the feel of the beans. They constructed Inuit villages in the sensory box and played with the Arctic animal figures. They also enjoyed building Igloo’s out of Lego and cubes.
Thank you to everyone who send in books and toys to help our exploration of the Arctic.
Senior Infants Blast Off!!
This year, for Science Week (November 11th -18th), the whole school decided to focus on the theme of space. The children loved learning about night and day, the planets, the life of an astronaut and much more. We read lots of stories which tie in with this theme like ‘Man on the Moon’ and ‘Alien’s Love Underpants’. The children also brought in lots of space fact books for us to read. We also did lots of fun ‘space’ writing activities like ’10 things I would bring to space’ and ‘My Alien Poem’.
Our ‘Space’ themed Aistear was so much fun. Our role play area was the International Space Station. The children loved monitoring space for asteroids and exploring the moon.
For sensory play we used play dough and lots of other materials like pipe cleaners, marbles and goggly eyes to make little aliens.
The children made super rockets, moon cars and space stations in using the junk art.
The children used their imaginations and the small world figures to explore space and all its’ wonders!
The Estate Agent
In Senior Infants, the theme for October has been ‘Houses and Homes’. The children have really enjoyed learning all about the rooms in a house, the different kinds of homes and the importance of families. Our Aistear was based around the ‘The Estate Agent’ and the children have had so much fun.
In the role-play area, the children have been taking it in turns to be an auctioneer at a property auction. They have also been working in an estate agent office, answering phone calls and helping the customers to find their dream homes.
In the construction area, the children have made some amazing properties, from boat houses to apartment blocks as high at the classroom ceiling!
For junk art, we have been working on bedroom dioramas. The children really used their imaginations to turn items like egg cartons into beds. We had a visit from Aoife’s 4th class to check out our brilliant work.
The introduction of a small world activity has been a huge hit. The children loved playing with the small figures in the toy houses. They loved to pretend that there was a birthday party happening in the houses or that a moody teenager was causing trouble!
Shapetastic
We have had lots of fun in Senior Infants this month learning all about shapes. We used lots of materials in our classes to learn about shapes. Have a look at our cool pentagons and hexagons. We love using lollipop sticks and straws to make new shapes.
We had a lot of fun arranging ourselves into various shapes in our groups. We organised our groups into the new shapes in our classrooms. We love maths and we had so much fun.
We had so much fun using markers and straws in our classes to build shapes and the best thing is we can do the same activities at home. We can’t wait.
Some of the songs we listened learned to help us remember our shapes are:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M44hNrLgT3I
The Optician
Senior Infants have just started Aistear and we are having so much fun. Our Aistear activities this month are based around ‘The Optician’ and include; an optician role-play area, junk art, construction and play dough.
The Optician role play area is a firm favourite with the children and we are super at taking it in turns to be a customer, a receptionist and an optician. We have had costumers coming to the optician looking for prescription sunglasses, eye drops for eye infections and eye tests. We even had a customer come in with two lazy eyes!
We have loved getting creative with the junk art and we have made really cool eye machines. Some dispense glasses when you enter money, some are x-ray machines and others tell you which kind of glasses you need. Check out our junk art glasses and eye patches.
The children had the great idea to use the eye play dough mats as the x-ray scans and used play dough to show what was wrong with the eyes. Here are some eye scans showing water and sand in the eyes.
We also put on our hard hats and high-vis jackets and got to work building opticians offices, glasses, eye machines and even apartment blocks! We made one taller than Emer!
Ready, Set, Go!
Senior Infants have had a great start to the year. We have settled in very well and are working really hard.
In Maths, we have been following the Ready, Set, Go programme. It is a very hands on programme and the children are really enjoying making sets and patterns using all of the lovely resources we have in school. 
January in Senior Infants
Well 2018 has been very busy so far here in Senior Infants! During January we started Literacy stations and we are loving all of the activities, from using the iPads to working with Ciara on the P.A.T. Programme. We even started D.E.A.R. Time and really enjoy picking our own books and reading independently.
We have also shared books with our new Reading Buddies, Aongus’s Fourth Class.
In Maths we have been playing active learning games and here we are having great fun!
Unfortunately we have to say ‘farewell’ to the Healthy Eating Café but our next topic is Space and the Solar System so ‘watch this space’! We have cooked up so many nutritious meals and written so many delicious menus that our start to the New Year has been a very healthy one.
As we say ‘goodbye’ to winter and ‘hello’ to spring we have many things to look forward to so stay tuned for more exciting news from the Senior Infants!
Our Trip to Airfield
We braved the elements to visit Airfield last week and even though it was a very cold day we enjoyed our trip.
We were lucky enough to see the farmer collect the eggs and milk the cows and we even saw other gorgeous farm animals huddling together for warmth!
Our numb fingers and toes didn’t stop us from having a great time and we very much look forward to our next visit. Thank you so much to all the volunteers, we couldn’t have made it without you!
The Weather Station
Here in Senior Infants we have settled in to our new classrooms and are really enjoying all the space that we have, especially when it’s time for Aistear!
This month we have been studying the weather, which seemed very appropriate after the events in October and our visit from storm Ophelia. During Aistear we have participated in many different activities.
We have been making weather instruments using junk art… 
…writing weather reports…
…designing weather-appropriate outfits…
…role-playing in the weather station…
…and using the water station to investigate floating and sinking. Some of us have even been carrying out weather experiments!
Picnic in the Park!
Senior Infants went for a wonderful walk in the sunshine to Balally Park today. They played in the playground and had a picnic on the grass. Look at all the fun they had!
Picnic Time in Senior Infants!
We love when the sun shines! Today we were practicing our GAA skills with Dónal, our coach from Ballinteer St Johns. We were hand passing the ball, catching it and kick passing. We were sprinting also. After GAA, we went out to the grass and had a picnic in the sunshine! It was fantastic!
Air Control to Senior Infants!
Senior Infants have opened a new airport in Aisling’s room. The children have been inspired by the stories of Amelia Earhart and the Wright brothers so they are inventing new methods of air travel, as well as operating a commercial airline!
Flights are departing daily to Canada, Norway and Spain (among other places). Security is tight so make sure to check your belongings for sharp objects before passing through our metal detectors. Our flights are strictly hand luggage only, which must be placed in the overhead bins or under your seat. Listen closely to the safety instructions and keep your seat belt securely fastened. Enjoy your flight!
The Beat Goes On…
We have been learning about rhythm in music.
Some words like duck have only one syllable, so for this we learned to represent this with one tap.
However, other words such as duckling have 2 syllables, so we represent this with two taps.
Then we put our knowledge to the test and using various images we tapped our compositions.
Can you guess what they might be?!
Picasso Portraits
We learned about Pablo Picasso in Art. We looked at some of his most famous paintings with a focus on his use of colour and shape. We discussed how he went against the conventions and traditions of the previous generations.
We had a look at his ‘blue period’ and spoke about how the colour blue represented his sadness. Then we created our own Picasso portraits using oil pastels.
Curious Curators
To conclude our Artist in Residence programme we paid a final visit to Dunlaoghaire Lexicon.
In advance of our trip, Claire from the arts office visited us in school to talk to us about the concept of curatorship.
Curators, like many of us, like to collect items. We talked about our collections of shopkins and stickies. Curators then decide which items are their favourite and how best to display these items.
So on this trip to the Lexicon we had the opportunity to meet Martin Drury the curator. He explained to us the reasons why he has hung some of the images down low; so that they will be at eye level for children in buggies.
We are now also able to distinguish between the various art forms; paintings, drawings and sculptures. Our artistic vocabulary has really expanded since we began this project in January and I think we all have gained a greater appreciation for the importance of art in our lives.
Minibeast Invasion!
Senior Infants have been learning all about gardening and minibeasts over the last few weeks. They loved exploring nature through play when we were doing ‘The Garden Centre’ in Aistear. The children then made their own minibeats using clay. They experimented rolling, pinching, scratching and stretching the clay. They used some of our art supplies to add eyes, wings and legs. Have a look at some of our fantastic results (before they were even painted!)!
Shadow Puppets
Senior Infants have been learning all about the sun recently. We made shadow dinosaurs to help us discover what caused shadows. We did an experiment to see if we could make the shadow puppets larger and smaller. We used torches in our investigations. Then we went outside and used the light of the sun to play with our puppets. We played shadow tag and tried to make different shapes with our shadows – it was a lot of fun!
The Garden Centre Opening!
The space station has shut its doors in Senior Infants. A new garden centre is opening instead. The garden centre will be selling flowers, seeds, tools and equipment so make sure to pay us a visit for all your landscape gardening needs! Have a look at our garden centre assistants and gardeners hard at work today.
The Aliens Have Landed!
Senior Infants are learning all about Space this month. We have loved learning all about Neil Armstrong’s moon landing. We have been designing space aliens in art and writing about our aliens in English. We have been reading a variety of factual and fictional books about space. We have been singing songs about the planets and learning poems about going to space!
During our play, we have been designing space rockets in construction and making sock aliens in junk art. We have been constructing alien homes on the moon in the sand area -as well as acting out the moon landing and making the astronauts footprints! Aliens have been appearing in our play dough area and there have been several UFO sightings in the socio-dramatic area! The astronauts working there have even made contact with some friendly space creatures!
Have a look at our gallery to see how much fun we are having! 
Lá Fhéile Pádraig!
Senior Infants have been practising their Irish dancing this month. They have all really enjoyed doing their 1, 2, 3 ‘s and listening to Irish music. Today we even got to do a céilí dance ‘The Walls of Limerick’ / ‘Ballaí Luimnigh’ . Have a look at our video to see us doing some of our moves at the end of the céilí!
We also learnt the ‘Haka Gaelach’, which is based on the famous pre-match Haka of the All Blacks! We really tried to use our scary faces while we were performing!
To finish off our day, we coloured some beautiful shamrocks and even got keep a piece of real shamrock – after giving it a rub for good luck!
Senior Infants Love Reading!
We love reading in Senior Infants! Today was World Book Day and we have been doing a lot of fun activities in Senior Infants to celebrate. All week we have been having visits from ‘Secret Readers’ who have been sharing their favourite books with us. We have heard stories about Rosie the engineer who made contraptions that could fly and Natalie who had a pig up her nose! Thank you to all our Secret Readers – we have loved listening to your stories!
Today we brought in our favourite books and read them with Aongus’ Second Class. We had factual books about dinosaurs, animals and history. We had fictional books about fairies, gingerbread men, mermaids and much much more! They were all very interesting and we enjoyed every minute of it!
Do not feed the animals!
This month Aisling’s class have been learning all about the zoo, during their Aistear hour of play. We have been designing habitats within the zoo for animals, building rescue centres for ill or endangered animals, creating animal masks using fabric and fibre, making animals and animal food out of playdough and pretending we are zoo keepers and vets in the zoo. We have had an exciting few weeks, with lions escaping, baby animals being born and people falling into the animal enclosures! We are very sad that the zoo will be closing soon, as we have had so much fun! Have a look at our gallery to see a snapshot of our exciting month.
Pancake Tuesday in Senior Infants!
The children in Aisling’s Senior Infants read the stories ‘The Runaway Pancake’ and ‘Mr Wolf’s Pancakes’ in school today because it is Pancake Tuesday! We discovered the ingredients needed to make pancakes, and we discussed our favourite toppings. Nearly everyone loved lemon and sugar!
But sadly we do not have a hob to cook pancakes on in school. We brainstormed cooking our pancakes over a fire or over birthday candles – we even thought about eating the batter without cooking it!
Instead we decided to make pretend batter and bring it to the staff room – where it magically became real! Aisling brought the real pancakes back into the classroom and we devoured them with lemon and sugar. We were all stuffed and very happy!
Helping at Home Challenge!
In Ballinteer ETNS we have all been helping out at home this month. In Senior Infants the children have been tidying up toys, emptying dishwashers, folding clothes and even helping with babies nappies! Have a look at our video to hear all about our hard work!
Outdoor Pursuits
In the wise words of Elsa; the cold never bothered us anyway!
Críona’s Senior Infants have been channeling their inner Bear Grylls and learning the basic principles of orienteering, as well as enjoying the great outdoors.
Working cooperatively with a partner, we have been using our reading skills to solve clues and complete our missions. We are progressing well and we will soon be moving on to learn some basic mapping skills. We look forward to milder weather conditions once spring has fully sprung.
Print Charming!
Críona’s Senior Infants have been letting their artistic juices flow for the past few weeks with the help of Tunde and Kim. This week, the boys and girls used the foam printing blocks they made previously to create their own original prints.
The results were spectacular as you can see from the photos. Here are just a few samples…
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs!
We have been learning all about the weather in Aisling’s Senior Infants. We have been reading factual and fictional stories based around the topic of the weather. When we read ‘Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs’ we knew it must be fictional – there was food falling from the sky!
We then pretended we lived in Chewandswallow (the town in the story) and we drew our favourite dinner falling from the sky! Have a look at our video to see what we would like the food weather forecast to be!
Chinese New Year
Senior Infants have been learning all about Chinese New Year, which begins this Saturday, January 28th.
We looked at the story of The Great Race and learned that this year will be the Year of the Rooster. We completed some lovely writing and pictures based on the story.
Following that we enjoyed making our own lanterns in red, which we now know is a lucky colour in China.
Happy Chinese New Year!
Numeracy & Literacy Games
Críona’s Senior Infants have been having lots of fun while learning through play.
Through various numeracy games we have been practising our skills in counting, number recognition and our knowledge of shapes.
Through our literacy games we have been reinforcing our knowledge of phonics and learning lots of new words.
We are also learning important life-skills; learning to take turns, help others and the best bit – enjoying a shared sense of fun with our classmates!
Letter Writing & Stamps
Críona’s Senior Infants have been looking at letter writing through our recent Stories the Week; The Day the Crayons Quit and The Jolly Postman.
We looked at how language can often be persuasive and discussed the feelings of the various crayons and the characters in the stories.
Then wrote our own letters and designed our own stamps too!
Artist in Residence
Críona’s Senior Infants have been lucky to have the opportunity work with two artists; Tunde and Kim from the Dunlaoghaire Rathdown Artist in Residency Programme.
We began the project with a visit to an exhibition in Dunlaoghaire library. We looked at various images and discussed the shapes that we saw. Then using oil pastels we created our own shape images.
Back in the classroom we have been exploring how we can create our own pictures using shapes. The next part of the process involved gluing foam pieces onto our shape design in a mosaic manner.
We will keep you updated on our progress…
Senior Infant Weather Symphonies!
Aisling’s Senior Infants are learning all about An Aimsir (the weather) this month. We will be exploring different ways to measure and predict weather, reporting the current weather and recording the weather.
Here are some of the phrases we are practising:
Cén saghas lae é? (What sort of day is it today? )
Tá an lá fuar, te, fluich, tirim, gaofar, scamallach. (It is a cold, hot, wet, dry, windy, cloudy day. )
We have also been listening to some orchestral pieces based on the weather. We then decided to compose our own musical symphony based on rain. Click on the link to have a listen!
Senior Infants are Arctic Explorers!
Aisling’s class have been learning all about the animals that live in the Arctic this week! We have been on adventures finding out about the animals during our hour of play. We have seen polar bears, Arctic hares, snowy owls, seals, Arctic foxes and much more! Some penguins even came from the Antarctica for a visit! Have a look at our video to see what we have been doing!
https://youtu.be/qx1EAIWpSxU
The Thankful Turkey
Senior Infants have been learning all about Thanksgiving. We decided to create a ‘Thankful Turkey’ to show all the things and people that we are grateful for. When we wrote down all the things we were grateful for, we were amazed by how lucky we are! Our turkey looks very big and tasty! We are thankful for our families, our friends, our school, our toys and our homes.
Math Games in Senior Infants
In Senior Infants, 7 is the magic number! We have been doing a wide range of counting games and math activities over the month of November, all focusing on the number 7. We have been making sets of 7, building number towers and using our math eyes to find the number 7 in our school and home environments. We have been having a lot of fun! Have a look at some of our work.
Aisling’s Senior Infants was full of wonderful characters to celebrate the last day of midterm. Have a look at some of our brilliant costumes!
Aisling’s Authors and Illustrators
The Ballinteer ETNS Book Fair is starting next week and we are really excited about it in Senior Infants. To celebrate our Book Fair we have written and illustrated books about Autumn. We are very proud of our writing! These books will be displayed next week so make sure you have a look at them! Here is a little video sneak peak of all our hard work!
Autumn Adventures!
Last week Senior Infants went on our Autumn walk. We had a lot of fun on our adventure with Aisling, Ann and Críona. We saw the leaves turning gold, red and orange. We collected pine cones, acorns, conkers and leaves. We even saw a squirrel! We finished off our walk with a quick trip to the playground. It was a fantastic day!
Math in Senior Infants
This week in Senior Infants, we are learning all about the number 6. Have a look at our gallery to see how we are learning to partition and combine within 6. We are having a lot of fun while we learn.
Television Debut
Our Senior Infants have been discovered and are all set to take the world of television by storm!
Ashling, Tara’s mum, works with RTE Jr. She had an idea of doing a multi lingual piece, featuring children saying ‘Get Giggly’ in many different languages. Lots of our children took part in the recording in RTE studios in Donnybrook. They were delighted to receive a goody bag containing an RTE Jr t-shirt!
We are so proud of our growing collection of budding stars!
See if you can spot the familiar faces in the clips below.
Well done Senior Infants!
The Opticians has Opened!
Ballinteer Opticians has opened its doors in Aisling’s room. All the children are delighted to be having their eyes checked and picking new contact lenses, glasses and sunglasses. The teddy bears need eye tests as well! Thankfully our helpful opticians are testing bears as well as children! The designers are hard at work designing new glasses and our new store should be open soon now that the Ballinteer builders are on the job! Appointments are on a first come, first serve basis so be sure to drop in and get your eyes checked!
Learning Through Play in Senior Infants!
In Senior Infants, we have been doing loads of fun activities to help us with our number formation. We have been writing numbers in sand and shaving foam! We have also been making the numbers out of play dough. As well as that, we have been writing the numbers on whiteboards with markers and on sugar paper with chalk. We are really enjoying practicing our numbers!
Welcome back Senior Infants!
Senior Infants are really enjoying being back at school. We have been getting to know all our new friends and we are having great fun with our old friends too!
We have been using the topic of homes and the story of the Three Little Pigs during our play for the last two weeks. In the Construction Area we have been building homes such as castles, apartment blocks, detached houses and caravans. We have been recounting the story of the Three Little Pigs in our Creative Play dough Area and our Pretend Play Area. We have met the ‘Big Good Wolf’ as well as ‘Big Bad Wolf’ in these areas. The pigs were delighted to find out that the ‘Big Good Wolf’ is actually a vegetarian! In our Small World Area we have been building homes for the animal and people puppets. In our Junk Art Area we have been using catalogs to design the perfect home.
Have a look at the gallery below to see some of the fantastic things Aisling’s class have been doing!
Teddy Bear Invasion in Senior Infants!
Our teddy bears came to school today! Have a look at our video to see how they got on!
https://youtu.be/Wvx0BAzkCUE
The Olympics in Senior Infants!
We are learning about the theme of ‘The Olympics’ through Aistear this month. We have been really enjoying our socio-dramatic area, where we are warming up and competing in different events. We have been looking at old Olympics mascots and designing new mascots, as well as writing about the Olympics in our writing area. In our small world area, we have been making puppet arenas so that our finger puppets can become Olympic athletes too! We have been building arenas with a field and running tracks in the construction area. In the junk art area, we have been making medals, trophies, swimming pools, diving boards and more! We have learnt lots of fun information and facts about the Olympics past and present this week. We hope that you enjoy looking at our pictures!
School Tour Video!
Listen to some of the boys and girls from Aisling’s class as they tell you about their favourite activities on the school tour.
https://youtu.be/NY6RPP9zb6g
Ipads in the Classroom
Senior Infants are using ipads to help us with our literacy! We love playing the phonics games, learning new sounds, writing letters and collecting monsters along the way! It is great fun!
The Garden Centre
Have a look at all the hard work children in Aisling’s class are doing! We are planting seeds, working at the cash register, designing new machines and weighing seeds during our play.
https://youtu.be/ubnFP-idCYk