Wednesday 18 May 2016

Newgrange Farm

On Monday we visited Newgrange Farm for our school tour. We had a long journey to the farm - over an hour - but we had great fun on our double-decker bus singing Old MacDonald and The Wheels on the Bus.


We were greeted by Jackie, our guide, when we arrived at the farm. The very first thing we did was have a snack as we were very hungry after our long trip! After our sos beag Jackie brought us into a large barn and we held some chicks and kittens.






We had a chance to see animals in the barns - we saw goats, a horse, pigs and piglets, cows, chickens and rabbits. We had great fun feeding the baby lambs - they needed some bainne for their sos beag!



The next part of the tour was probably our favourite part - we had a tractor trip around the farm with the farmer. We saw the tooth fairy's palace, a leprechaun's castle and the farmer's bath. The farmer showed us his crops of barley and wheat. We thought it was great fun when we left the farmer behind and he had to run to catch up with us! There were some steep hills around the farm and the tractor nearly slid down one hill but it all worked out well in the end as we were able to help the farmer to push the tractor up the hill. It was a very bumpy journey!

After our tractor trip it was time to feed the chickens.

We walked around the farm and saw some bulls, more goats and ponies. We picked some grass and fed the ponies.

There was a beautiful wishing tree on the farm. We ran around the fence twice before stopping under the tree to make a wish.



We had a chance to play in the different play areas around the farm. We had great fun rolling in massive pipes, building roads in the sand pit and racing boats in the water area.





At the end of the tour we had a quick session in the maze and on the toy tractors.


We were very hungry after our long day and we enjoyed our lunch in the beautiful sun at some picnic tables.



It was a wonderful day at the farm and we were all exhausted on the trip home after all the activities. There were no songs on the trip home as most people needed a well deserved nap! Everyone was very excited, however, to tell their mums and dads about the wonderful farm.





Monday 25 April 2016

Junk Art

We are getting better and better at junk art in Junior Infants. Our constructions are getting taller and more stable.





We are also coming up with lots of new ideas for our junk art.

One pupil even decided to create a mini Stuart!

Spring Planting

We have been learning about the topics of Spring and planting in SESE over the past few weeks.
We planted some mangetout seeds and we're looking forward to tasting the pods when they grow.
First, we sprouted the seeds in a plastic bag in a warm, dark place. We tried the cupboards in school but this didn't work so the teacher took the seeds home and placed them in the hot press. This worked and we planted the sprouted seeds in degradable pots. We made sure to water them carefully and placed them in sunlight. As an experiment, we are not watering one pot and we are keeping another pot in a dark cupboard. We predicted that these pots will not grow!

This is a photo of us mixing together soil and compost for the pots.

In group work our general topic has been Spring and gardening. We set up a Garden Centre in the role play area and we took turns as gardeners, customers, managers, cashiers and even as flowers.




We made some beautiful garden centres in construction.



Monday 4 April 2016

Easter Holidays

We had great fun talking about the Easter holidays today in school and we remembered the activities we had on the last day of school before the term ended for St Patrick's Day.

We took part in fun activities outside with the other Junior Infants class. We used hula-hoops and skipping ropes in two stations. We shared news in front of both classes on the bench in the front yard. We then drew pictures and wrote using chalk on the pavements. The egg hunt in the front yard after we finished the activities was a great way to celebrate the holidays. We collected big and small eggs in the grass.








We all enjoyed the break over Easter but it's good to be back in school. We have lots of fun activities to look forward to this term such as planting.


Friday 1 April 2016

Proclamation Day 2016

On Tuesday the 15th of March every school in Ireland celebrated Proclamation Day.

In Dublin 7 Educate Together we celebrated Proclamation Day by having a flag raising ceremony in front of the school. We sang the national anthem, Amhrán na bhFiann, and we listened to pupils play the national anthem beautifully on a range of musical instruments.



As part of the commemoration of the 1916 Rising, the whole school drafted a Proclamation for a New Generation. We used the original Proclamation as a basis and each class level had an area to discuss and consider. In Junior Infants we looked at sports and leisure and discussed what we would like to include in a new Proclamation.

The two Junior Infant classes drafted the paragraph:

Every child will have the right to play with toys, play games and play sport.
Every family will have lots of time off to spend time with each other.
Everyone will have the chance to play Irish sports and sports from around the world.
Every family will get money to spend on sports equipment.

On the day Kate read our paragraph from the Proclamation for the whole school.

 

Wednesday 9 March 2016

We Love Reading

We love reading in Junior Infants and we enjoy literacy stations every day. We have been busy blending and matching, and using our library corner.




Multicultural Week and Seachtain na Gaeilge

This week we are celebrating Multicultural Week and Seachtain na Gaeilge in the school.

We have taken part in some fun activities including an African drumming workshop on Tuesday. All the classes in the school created beautiful artwork from different cultures around the world which is displayed in the GP room. Our artwork was based on Ireland and the legend of St Patrick.



We worked together to make our multicultural artwork. Each group made one colour of the rainbow using their fingertips. We all made shamrocks and used these to decorate the finished picture.






We had a great GAA workshop today with Pádraig. We learned some skills for Gaelic football and we were excellent!

We have also been learning a dance called 'Skip to My Lou'. We will perform this dance on Friday for third class.