***************************************************************************************************************************************************************

Funky Fish

Junior and Senior Infants have been learning all about fish and water. For art we decided to make “funky fish” using marbling ink. To create this “marbling effect” on fish , all you have to do is add a few drops of marbling ink to a tray of cold water and dip your fish template in the tray. Have a look at some of Infants “Funky Fish”

***********************************************************

3D Snow Scenes

Ms Byrne’s Infants were busy creating “3D Snow scenes” . We made our snow from water, flour and added salt to get it a sparkly look. We also used matchsticks to make a winter tree and made a little scarf for our lovely snowmen……

*******************************************************************

Ice – Skates (16th Jan)

Juniors and Senior Infants are getting ready for the frosty months! We made cool ice skates today in Art class……..have a look at some of our skates 😉

 

 

 ****************************************************************

” Flying High in Infants”

Ms Byrne’s Infants have been learning all about different types of transport. We have a vote on which type of transport we would love to travel in the most and all agreed on hot air balloons……so we did…………….. !!! 😉

************************************************************************

Historians in Infants

Junior and Senior Infants have been learning the skills of a historian as part of their History curriculum.

We found some lost luggage and worked together to try figure out  what information the contents of the bags would tell us about the people who lost them, have a look at some of our pictures………….

*********************************************************************************************

Halloween in Junior and Senior Infants

Infants had great fun this Halloween.

We listened to some spooky sounds.

We read the story ” Room on a Broom”.

We made Halloween Silhouettes and Clay Spiders.

 

We dressed up on the last day before our Halloween holidays, can you guess who is who???

************************************************************************************************

Junior and Senior Infants Name Art

Have a look at Infant’s colourful name art

*****************************************************************************************

Planting Daffodils ( Oct 2014)

Ms Byrne’s class planted daffodil bulbs in October. We learnt that plants need food ( soil) , water and sunlight in order to grow. We look forward to seeing our beautiful daffodils next spring

Our Senses ( Sept 2014)

Junior and Senior Infants spent a lot of time talking about themselves in September.

We learned a lot about out different type of senses that we have.

We explored sight, smell, touch and hearing  in our school garden.

We drew a picture of what we saw, what we smelt, what we heard and what we could touch………..

 

 

**********************************************************************************************

What have Infants been up to??

Junior and Senior Infants had a very busy start to the year.

Senior Infants have been very good looking after our new Junior Infants and showing them where everything is.

Every morning Infants start their day with Aistear – structure play. We work together to explore our imagination & creativity and also develop our oral language skills ,  in role play and making things.

Here are some of the things we do during Aistear time:

****************************************************************************************************

Minibeast Hunt  ( May 2014)

Yesterday, Ms Byrne’s Junior and Senior infants had fun exploring the school garden habitat. They found lots of different mini-beasts in the garden.

Before they started exploring , we looked at some pictures of different flies, insects and other creepy crawlies to see how many we could name. We then examined some of the “tools” we were going to use in our hunt, which included various containers and also magnifying glasses.

****************************************************************************************

Reading Outside ( May 2014)

 

Reading Stations

As it was so sunny , Junior and Senior infants took their reading outside. A book was placed at each mat, and each child found a mat and read that book. When Ms. Byrne blew the whistle, children moved to another mat to read a different book. They all read 3 books and then before concluding the lesson, children were paired up to discuss which books they read and which book was their favourite. This is a really enjoyable way of encouraging & motivating children to read more.

****************************************************************************************

Fun in the Sun – Orienteering

Ms Byrne’s Junior and Senior Infants have being making the most of the sunshine!!

We had great fun orienteering during P.E. Children worked in pairs. Each pair received a card with some pictures on it. These pictures were scattered all around the school yard. The pairs worked together to find the pictures they had, and then coloured the corresponding box with the correct colour crayon.  When we were all finished, each pair compared their card with a pair that had the same card. It was great fun to run in the sun 😉

*****************************************************************************************

Buzzing Bee’s ……………………..

Ms Byrne’s Infant classes learned all about bees last week , in particular the honey bee.

Here are some of things we learned…

• We know that they are different kinds of bees, and a wasp is not a bee.
• Bee’s don’t sting unless they have too , as they will die once they have stung you.
• A bee’s home is called a hive.
• The “boss” of the bee’s is the “queen bees” and all other bees look after their queen bee.
• Bee’s communicate by dancing, when they have found flowers with nectar and pollen , they dance in the air to let other bees know.
• Bee’s can’t see the colour red.
• A bee’s lifecycle is very similar to that of a butterfly
• Stage 1 – egg
• Stage 2 – Larva (after 3 days the larva which is like a worm emerges from the egg.
• Stage 3 – Pupa – on day 10 the larva stops eating and spins a cocoon around itself
• Stage 4 – Inside the cocoon a pupa develops and begins to look like a bee.  When it is fully grown it chews its way out.

We then made our own bee’s in art using toilet roll holders. Have a look at our “Buzzing Bee Display”…

 

 

************************************************************************************************

Spring Time in Junior and Senior Infants

Ms Byrne’s Junior and Senior Infants had a very busy spring!

Animals….

We learned all about the different kind of living things – people, animals and plants.

Children learned all about animals and their young , and classified animals into groups based on whether their bodies were covered in fur, feathers or scales. Have a look at some of our group work…..

 

They also learned about the lifecycle of a butterfly. We know that when a butterfly’s egg hatches open, out comes a hungry caterpillar. The caterpillar eats and eats until he’s ready to build a cocoon around himself and then goes asleep for a while. Inside this cocoon, something magical is happening. The caterpillar is undergoing a huge change and when he’s ready , he’ll burst out of the cocoon as a beautiful cocoon.  The children read the story “A Very Hungry Caterpillar” which helped them understand a butterfly’s life cycle……..

 

Spring Display

Junior and Seniors worked really well together to create a gorgeous Spring Display. The class was divided into groups and each group had a task…. Colour some beautiful butterflies & birds,  make some fluffy white lambs, make some spring flowers and paint some spring trees. We hope you like our display

 

*******************************************************************************************

Easter in Junior and Senior Infants ( 2014)

Easter was a busy time in our classroom.

Junior and Senior infants learned all about why we celebrate Easter.

We had an “Easter Egg Hunt” on our last day of term 2.

Children made a “Funky Chicken “ in art using paper plates and colourful feathers.

They had lots of messy fun making their own Easter Egg.

We had to cover a blown up balloon with paper maiche….(very very messy!)

When this was dry, we popped the balloon and painted the outside. Ms Byrne then added some tasty Easter treats in everyone’s egg for Easter Sunday. Have a look at some of our art…….

 

***********************************************************************************************
Looking at Plants ( April 2014)

Ms Byrne’s class have being very busy investigating the different parts of plants and learned what plants need to grow. We sowed some cress seeds into 5 different pots. One pot has been placed in the dark, another pot is not being watered, the third one is not getting any air, the fourth one has no soil and then the last pot is being watered, has soil (for food) , is getting air and is also in the sun. We think this one will grow the best but we are going to examine them all again after Easter.

We also learned that water travels up through the roots in plants. We completed an experiment, where we put flowers that had white petals in water with red food colouring. Infants were amazed when the saw the petals turning red.  We also put a celery stick in the water and when Ms Byrne sliced it we saw the red water had travelled all the up the celery stick.

*******************************************************************************************

Lá Fhéile Padraig (2014)

The children of Kiltealy National School had great fun learning about St Patrick and Irish traditions. They had a busy week preparing for the Céilí which we had in the community hall on Friday 14th. Some of the dances we had were ‘Ionsaí na hInse’, ‘Ballaí Luimnigh’, agus ‘An Staicín Eorna’. Legs were flying!! They all did a great job…bhí an-spraoi again!!

Junior & Senior Infants learned about the life of St. Patrick and also the significance of the shamrock. We learned St Patrick’s song….and we love singing it…morning and afternoon  . We even made our own headbands for the parade and St Patrick Day cards for our families…have a look…

 

***************************************************************************************************

The Infants Galaxy

After the infants learned all their shapes, we made shape rockets.

We then made our own 2D planets, using marbling ink.

We cut out our planets, we then choose 2/3 colours of marbling ink which we mixed into water. We then dipped our planets into the water. Have a look at the cool marbling effect which make great planets!!

************************************************************************************************

Shape and Space ( Feb 2014)

Ms Byrne’s class learned all about the different shapes we have in the environment around us and in things we use everyday.

We looked at 2D shapes and 3D shapes. We were able to test which shapes would roll and which shapes we could stack. We learned we can stack cubes and cuboids, we can also stack cylinders but there are gaps between them.

We have some poems for our 2D shapes:

Triangle

Tommy Triangle is the name for me,

Count my sides, 1,2, 3.

Sammy Square

Sammy Square is my name,

My 4 sides are all the same,

Turn me around, I don’t care

I’m always the same, I’m a square.

Ricky Rectangle

Ricky Rectangle is my name,

My 4 sides are not the same,

2 are short and 2 are long,

Say I’m a square and you are wrong.

Cindy Circle

I am Cindy Circle

Watch me turn around and around

And you will learn,

I’m not straight and I don’t bend

My edges never end.

**********************************************************************************************

What time is it Mr. Wolf???

Ms. Byrne’s class have learned all about time. We learned that time can be very short – seconds, minutes but time can be long too – hours, days, weeks, months, years.

Children learned the sequence of the days, months and seasons. They also identified the changes that occur in each season in especially with regards to the leaves on the trees.

We talked about things me do in the morning, afternoon, evening and night time.

We were able to sequence activities that we do during the day from things we do first thing in the morning to what we do last.

Senior infants also learned how to read the time on the clock. They know the long hand is always at 12 for o’clock and the short hand will tell us the hour.

Have a look at our classroom display and some of our work

 

************************************************************************************************

Homes – Old & New ( Jan 2014)

Junior and Senior Infants spent some time learning about different types of homes. We looked at different homes all around the world….igloos, huts, apartments, mobiles, cabins , terraced houses, detached houses etc.

We also looked at how homes have changed over the years. We saw photos of homes that had only 1 or 2 rooms and many homes had a toilet outside. I think we all agreed we preferred to live in our own homes.

The children learned about things that have changed in the homes, such as the telephones, how clothes were washed years ago,  baths – years ago children had a bath in large tin tubs in front of the iron, lights – we examined how an oil lamp worked, we looked at a old hot water bottle and iron….have a look at some of our pictures…..

*****************************************************************************************************

What have Junior & Senior Infants been getting up to??? ( Term 1 –  2013)

Here are some more photos from the Junior and Senior Infants classroom – please have a look at the photos taken earlier in the year which were recently added to our older post “Junior and Senior Infants the Story so far….”

Gaeilge:

Junior and Senior Infants love comhrá time in the classroom. Sometimes we play a game where infants have their own little bag of picture cards and we ask questions like “An bhfuil ____ agat “? and “An maith leat x” ….”Cad atá agat”??

Look at the fun they’re having……

Clothes theme:

Back in November we had a look at clothes in the junior and senior infants classroom. We talked about the different materials and fabrics used in the clothes. We looked at clothes we wore when we were younger and clothes our parents wear and we then made our very own clothes timeline….

 

Fashion Designers

Infants were fashion designers for a day in school. Children got t-shirts and skirts to design……. they used lovely bright colours in their designs….

 

History…..

As part of the history curriculum, children use skills such as acting as a historian…using evidence to make conclusions. Ms Byrne found some bags that had various items, and junior and senior infants were so good to help Ms Byrne try and find out who owned the bags , or where might the person be going or what they were doing. Some groups found a towel, sun-cream, swimming togs and a book so they think it must have been a girls bag who was at the beach. Another group found a flight ticket, a map and a book so they think it was someone on holidays, some other children got a bag that had sweet wrappers, a toy and a birthday card for a 6 year old……………have a look at our fantastic investigators..;)

 

*******************************************************************************************

Infants School Tour ( posted 3rd Dec 2013)

Junior and Senior Infants are off on their school tour tomorrow. We are going to see a Christmas play “Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer” in the Little Theatre in Gorey. We are really looking forward to seeing Rudolph….with his nose so bright!!!! We also have a Christmas CD to sing songs on the bus on our way…..maybe we should warn the bus driver!!!

***************************************************************************************************

Jollyphonics at Home

Practice Jolly Phonics at home with your child using these Jolly Songs and the actions that go with them.  Your child should be able to show you the actions for the sounds.  Keep checking your sound book for the sounds that have been learned in class and any new sounds that have been covered, and then sing the songs at home while you practice the songs.

The Jollyphonics songs are available on you tube – here is a link for one of the videos from British Early Years Centre. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCjJYB07aSU

************************************************************************************************

Junior and Senior Infants – The Story so far!!!

Posted on 05/11/2013 

 

We painted our won autumn trees using brown, yellow, orange and red…

 

 

We collected leaves that had fallen from the trees but have not yet changed colour. We examined each leaf and described what it was like and then we sorted our leaves into the different piles – ash, sycamore, chestnut and beech

 

 

We also learned about hedgehogs, spiders and bats.

 

• We know hedgehogs are nocturnal and will hibernate during the cold winter months.
• The children also found out that not many animals will eat hedgehogs…not surprising with all their spines!! However if the hedgehog is afraid and thinks someone might try eat him, he will curl into a ball.

Halloween

Juniors and Seniors really got into the spirit of Halloween. We all dressed up on the last day before our holidays……..

 

We also made our own witches…………

 

 

 

Art

Juniors and Seniors love art…..it’s not fun if we don’t create a mess .

We explored different lines that we can make when we took our line for a walk. We then filled in the spaces with as many different colours as we could….

 

We talked about how we are all so special in Religion and SPHE.  We know we all look differently, we all like different things and we are all good at different things which is what make us some unique. We then had a good look at ourselves in the mirror and drew really nice portraits of ourselves…we then had a game to see if our friends could find our picture on the wall!!

 

We read a story about Ozzie, the Lazy Owl and made our own Ozzie Owls using paper plates, and hung them around the classroom…don’t they look great ??

Songs

We have learned several songs in the first couple of months…..Lámh, Lámh eile, a haon a dó,  If your happy and you know it; Head, Shoulder, Knees and Toes; Slap the Sillies out and many more. We had a vote on our favourite song and Slap the Sillies out won!

Classroom Poem

We learned a poem about classroom rules which we say most days to remind ourselves!

We raise our hands to speak.
We sit quietly in our seats.
We use our voices soft and sweet.
We keep our places tidy and neat.
We are helpful, friendly, and fair.
We take turns and like  to share.

We also have a simple song for when we’re tidying up and getting ready for our next lesson:

Be quiet, be quiet how quiet can we be,

Be quiet, be quiet and soon you will see,

Just how quiet we can be…….sssshhhh!

**************************************************************************************