The boys and girls in Junior Infants took to school life like ducks to water this year, and it’s been all go in our classroom since August 31^st! Here is just a snapshot of some of the activities we’ve been up to over the last few months…

We worked on Fine Motor Activities like threading, jigsaws, cutting, tearing, sticking, creating patterns with lollipop sticks and buttons, pegboards and Play-Doh to strengthen the muscles in our hands and wrists, before focusing on pencil grip and handwriting.

Aistear has allowed us to explore topics like ‘The School’, ‘Autumn’ and ‘Halloween’ in an active and playful manner. Time was spent building a school, taking on roles of various members of the school community, playing autumnal games on the interactive whiteboard/I-pads, enjoying messy play (flour), writing small words on pumpkins, designing masks, making potions and casting spells on each other!

Junior Infants have been learning lots of rhymes and poems, along with revising Nursery Rhymes, which many were already familiar with from home. We’re flying with our Phonics (Sounds), and the boys and girls are getting very good at blending (CVC words). Daily Literacy Stations mean children get the opportunity to work in small groups and focus on Phonics/Rhyme/Blending, Handwriting and Word Recognition each morning. The benefits of this can already be seen on a regular basis.

Lots of time has been spent working on colours, sorting and counting in Maths, while we’ve looked at topics like ‘Mé Féin’, ‘An Scoil’ agus ‘Oíche Shamhna’ in Gaeilge. We integrated S.E.S.E. with Aistear, as Willie came in to speak to us about life as a School Caretaker, and we also chatted about what happens in Nature during the Season of Autumn.

S.P.H.E. informed us of the importance of our ‘Stay Safe’ Rules – Say No, Walk Away and Tell, while Yoga every Friday reminds us of the need, at times, to slow down, breathe and look after ourselves, both physically and mentally.

Our beautiful and colourful art work has adorned the walls of our classroom and corridors over the last few weeks. We look forward to creating many more ‘Masterpieces’ during the Season of Winter!