November and December have been two jam packed months in our classroom and we have lots of pictures to share with you all so you can keep up to date with our adventures!

Maths: Patterns
One of our maths topics in November was pattern and we really enjoyed this one! We made lots of patterns out of different maths manipulatives in our class and as we got more confident, we started to introduce three coloured patterns and even made tricky patterns for our partner to finish! Our last activity of this topic was making pattern snakes which were proudly displayed outside our classroom for everyone to see!

Aistear: The Italian Restaurant/Café

Aistear is one of our favourite times of the day and we think the Italian Restaurant/Café has also been one our favourites so far. We did so many activities in this Aistear topic for the month of November. 
We:
- designed and wrote our own menus
- Made junk art pizzas
- Used playdoh to create Italian Food
- Made art using different types of pasta
- Sequenced the cooking of a pizza
- Used restaurant utensils in sand. 

However, I think everyone's favourite station was making their own pizza, cooking it and eating it afterwards. We chose our own toppings and watched them cook in the oven. They were so tasty that every plate was empty afterwards!

Team Hope

Mr. Geaney would like to express a big thank you for all the donations to the Team Hope shoebox appeal. We raised €240 and were able to donate 12 boxes to those less fortunate. We were delighted to be able to help those that aren't as lucky as we are at Christmas. 

Art Galore!

We love our art lessons every Thursday and have become very good artists since September. Some of our favourite pieces to date include our adaptation of Renoir's 'Umbrellas.' We also really enjoyed working in our groups to create a collage of the seasons as we were learning all about them in SESE. 

Science Week

For Science week in Senior Infants, we took part in 3 different experiements. We first explored the skittles experiment and nobody could believe how the colours ran from the skittles so quickly to make such a cool design on the plate. 
We then investigated dancing raisins by placing raisins in a cup with some 7up. As soon as the raisins dropped to the bottom of the cup, they began dancing to the top. 
Lastly, we all watched as Mr. Geaney made a stick man come to life on a plate and we watched him move in water - this was really cool and we couldn't believe it when he started moving on the plate!

Maths: Number Stories

Number stories have been one of the hardest parts of maths this year but we have never been afraid of the challenge! We also started these topics by working on the number, the number formation and making sets. When we were experts at that, we began using our maths manipulatives and mats and we ended up being pros and the number stories. We were so good, Mr. Geaney called us Mathemagicians!

Science: Materials all around us

One of our Science topics in November was Materials. We explored so many different materials and became really good at identifying items that were made from these materials. We used concrete materials too and also categorised many pictures according to their materials. Check us out below!

Gaeilge

Is aoibhinn linn Gaeilge!! Mr. Geaney is so proud of our hard efforts during Gaeilge lessons and we always try out hardest in every lesson. We use Gaeilge in the classroom as much as possible and we have become really good at speaking in Irish to each other. We all work very hard because we want to become 'Gaeilgeoir na Seachtaine'! Check out some of us speaking as Gaeilge below:

Christmas in our Classroom

We have loved the build up to Christmas in our classroom. There was great excitement every morning to see what Jingles the elf had gotten up to. Mr. Geaney was worried that he might do something mischevious! We explored the nativity in Aistear, did lots of Christmas exercise, and some amazing art work including Jack Frost art and Pop Art Angels. Check it all out below!

Christmas Treats

Just before the Christmas Holidays, Mr. Geaney treated us to some delicious hot chocolate and kinder chocolate. We got to watch the panto from the helix as we drank our hot chocolate! What fun!

Looking back on term 1 in Senior Infants. Oh, what fun we have had!
​
September
In September, we were so excited to be reunited with our friends after the summer break. We spent some time getting to know each other and settling into our new classroom and learning new routines.
We really enjoyed working on our fine motor skills to help with our writing and colouring. We used pegboards, lollipop sticks, threading bead, stickle bricks and whiteboards.

​We used play doh to practice our letter formation.

In maths, we learned to sequence our numbers 1 – 5 and made and matched same as sets. Sometimes we did this with a partner and sometimes we worked on our own. We also gave ladybirds some spots to help add our numbers.

​We began an adventure on the ‘Construction Site’ in Aistear. We took on the role of builders in the role play area, ensuring safety first! We used lego to construct some of our own buildings and we dug through some soil and sand. In the art station, we made tool belts. Best of all… we had a building site right outside our classroom window and took the opportunity to observe some of what was going on, on an actual building site. We loved seeing some of the many construction vehicles in action. We may have even spotted someone’s Grandad busy at work!

​Take a listen to our singing as Gaeilge.

​October
October saw some great action in the P.E hall. We worked on our balls skills and built our gross motor skills.

In Aistear, we moved onto ‘Houses and Homes’. We have some natural Mam’s and Dad’s. Some were cooking up a storm in the kitchen, whilst others looked after the babies and one or two even made very important work calls. We made homes using lollipop sticks, played with the dolls house and even wrote about the different types of homes.

​After that, we couldn’t resist our Halloween themed Aistear. Check us out!

​In October, we celebrated our birthday twins. Not only do we have two sets of twins in our class, but we also have two sets of birthday twins!

​Lastly, Halloween! We had so much fun dressing up and parading around the school yard for our friends.

November
In November, we all returned to school after a well-earned midterm break.
We worked on our patterns in maths. We followed patterns, made some fantastic patterns of our own and worked together to find patterns.

​We raised money for TEAM HOPE! This will go a long way in helping those in need this Christmas.

​In Science, we learned about different types of materials and sorted them out into different categories.

​In Art, we made a season’s collage in our pods. We use different resources in each pod. Can you tell what each pod used?

​Our phonics have been getting a little trickier. We have been learning our digraphs. Ask your child what happens when two vowels go walking. We used a story to spot the ‘oa’ sound and worked as a team to match ‘oa’ words and pictures. Team work makes the dream work!

​We learned more ball skills in P.E. This time using a racket. Check out the look of concentration on some of our faces.

​Lastly, we travelled to Italy to ‘The Italian Restaurant’. We all agreed that the best part of the Italian restaurant was our homemade pizzas. They went down a treat – even if we did have to wait for our turn to make them to come around!

December
The month is not over yet, and we still have lots of very exciting things to come. We have been quite busy and didn’t get to take many photos. We are working on our hot chocolate challenge in a bid to have hot chocolate, cookies and marshmallows before the holidays. The tub of hot chocolate and cookies on teachers desk are very tempting!
We learned how to tell the time. We can now read o’clock time. Check out some of the fun games we played together.

‘Elfie’ is visiting our classroom and has been up to all sorts. He got stuck to the board, was chased by dinosaurs, fell asleep in the dolls cot and even let loose with some shaving foam. Who knows what he will get up to next!
We recorded our Christmas songs, which we know you will love.

​We are enjoying lots of Christmas art activities. Some you have seen at home already and some that will be with you in the coming days.
Oh, did you hear our new song? Play Feliz Navidad and hear me sing along. We were learning about Christmas in Spain and know this means ‘Merry Christmas’.
For now, we are going to begin to unwind (just a little) and enjoy the next few days in school before the Christmas holidays.
 
From,
Senior Infants 😊