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.

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.

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.

 

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.

Capacity

We have been learning about the topic of capacity in maths.

We looked at different containers from home and in the classroom. We experimented in the sand and water area to show full, empty, nearly full and nearly empty containers. We learned that capacity is a measure of how much something can hold.

We had great fun experimenting with different containers and guessing which holds the most sand!

The Doctor's Surgery

We have been learning about people who work in the community and people who serve the community in our SESE lessons. Our play theme was based on these lessons over the past few weeks.
In the role play area we set up a doctor's surgery. We took turns taking on the roles of doctors, nurses, receptionists and patients. The doctors and nurses were kept very busy as the patients presented with a number of illnesses. The doctors examined the patients and wrote prescriptions for medicine. The nurses bandaged a number of wounds and gave injections when needed. The receptionists were also very busy making appointments and ensuring that patients were comfortable in the waiting room.

In the small world station we used puppets and dolls in our toy hospital.

In construction we built a number of hospitals, fire stations, surgeries and schools.