It was such a lovely surprise to have snow at school. These pictures show how mesmerised we were by the snow!

​PE: For November a d December we have been concentrating on the strand Games in PE. The children have been given the chance to develop their kicking and ball handling skills. We had some very brave volunteers putting themselves forward as goal keepers. There were many a goal celebrated but plenty saved too. We took our practice outdoors last week, as we needed the space to really test out the skills we have been learning. Our pre-tennis skills are coming along nicely and hockey lessons will follow after Christmas. Wish us luck!

​Maths: Maths has been great fun this term. We were learning all about patterns. We started simple with some short ABAB patterns and soon progressed to patterns requiring the children to really use their problem solving skills. The children loved using our maths materials to solve pattern cards and by the end of the topic they were creating their own complex patterns for each other. 
We followed on from patterns to study the number 7. I couldn’t believe all the examples of 7 the children could share from their everyday lives. We practiced forming the number 7 with play dough and on mini whiteboards. When the children were given the freedom to “create seven” they had wonderful ways of doing it. We completed the story of 7 with our partners too. Then came Time which we loved! Our games of “What’s the time Mr. Wolf were so much fun. We concentrated on recognising and drawing the hour. Number 8 has been the topic to get us to the Christmas holidays with lots of very interesting combinations.

​Líne Competition Winners🏅:
The children were absolutely amazing at lining up on the yard at break time and lunch time in November. So much so, we were the winners of the line competition TWICE. This resulted in two fun-filled visits to the school playground. Well done boys and girls 👏🏻

Play: 
In November our theme for play was based around the Italian Restaurant. The children learned lots of new vocabulary and used it during role play, writing, art, play doh, construction and matching activities. We had such a great time. Here they are in action…

​In December our theme was based on The Story of Christmas. The children were so enthusiastic about this theme that we had to expend our arts and craft station to cater for the demand. They were so creative! We had a great time in role play too and many stables and palaces were built in our construction area.

Letter Formation: 
The boys and girls have been very busy practicing their letter formation. We have been using our mini whiteboard and markers, play doh and pencils to form lower case letters.

Art: This term we have been very arty. The children have created some beautiful pieces and had great fun in the process. There was great excitement the day we did our blow painting to create puddles. Their wellies are so unique and we were thrilled with the final product. Clay was a big highlight and we hope you enjoy our decorations for many years to come.

World Children’s Day: 
We celebrated World Children’s Day on Monday November 20th. The children learned about their right to Education, Healthcare, Play and Protection from Violence. We had great chats and the children created a collaborative piece of art: “The Perfect World”. It was really lovely seeing them work together and enjoying the activity.

​Engineering Week: 
Engineering Week ran from 13th-17th of November. We did our STEM challenge and the children loved their task of trying to build the tallest tower in groups, using only cups and lollipop sticks. 
We decided the work of an engineer is very tricky. You need to plan your ideas, you must talk about how you're going to use your materials, you need to make changes if something isn't working and of course understand that you might run out of time before you're successful. We added the cups and sticks to our construction area during Play that week (children's request) and kept going with the challenge!

The children from Ms Dunne and Mr Geaneys class were accompanied by our 3 5th class groups to a teddy bear picnic in Gerry’s Garden. The children took such great care of their teddy bears on the walk up and were delighted to see all the hard work Gerry puts into his garden!

And just like that we have almost come to a conclusion of our time in Senior Infants. We've had a great year and want to fill you in on what we got up to in our last term. 

Phonics:
We have been working hard on our digraphs and in this term we took a digraph a week to focus on. Each day we completed a hands on station based on the digraph and by Friday of each week, we had learned lots about the digraph and also had great fun. Here is a sample of us working on the digraph 'ng'

Aistear: Space
This aistear topic could definitely be voted as one of our favourites. We enjoyed so many fun activities like making clay aliens, creating space crafts, writing about what we would bring to space and making cool solar systems. We learned so much and had lots of fun along the way!

Minibeast Hunt
We learned about lots of different minibeasts and what better way to put our learning to the test than heading to our lovely garden with our 6th class pals to go in search of some small creatures! We also learned a new song about Minibeasts that we think you'll love!

Money
Money proved to be a popular maths topic. We learned about all the coins and became very good at identifying these coins. We did lots of sorting, and worked very well in groups and pairs during station work!

Our School Tour
One of the highlights of this term has got to be our school tour. We headed to Tullamore on our lovely coach bus and visited a park first where we ate and played together. We then set for Playtown and had so much fun entering the world of make believe in so many different rooms. The pictures below definitely show how much fun we had!

Active Week
We had a brilliant active week and go to take part in so many activities. Our sports day was amazing, we visited the tennis courts and did lots of dancing with the whole school!

Teddy Bear's Picnic
With some lovely weather in the month of June, we had to take advantage of it. So, we headed to Gerry's Garden for a picnic with some cuddly friends and the 5th classes. We enjoyed eating our lunch together and playing in the garden!

​The boys and girls in Junior and Senior Infants were delighted to have a visit from All Ireland champions Ryan and Darragh. They had a great chat with the children about the commitment involved in playing with Kildare. The encouraged the children to continue to play football and  to always try their best. Thank you to both Ryan and Darragh!

​We had great fun on our school tour to Llyold Park in Tullamore where we enjoyed a picnic and played on the equipment. We then went onto Playtown where the children engaged in some fantastic imaginary play. The Garda Station proved a great hit!

Wow - what a term this has been. We have been extremely busy this term and had so many fun events. We also had the pleasure of a student teacher - Ms. Mullins, taking care of us for 4 weeks. Check out an update of what we have busy working on and having fun with below:

Colour Mixing:
We learned all about primary and secondary colours in January. We mixed primary colours and were able to make secondary colours as a result. We put our knowledge to practice then and create a beautiful 'Colour Wheel Caterpillar' that is proudly displayed outside out classroom for passer bys to see!

Planting in the Garden:
We were delighted that Gerry asked us to contribute to the school Garden. We planted an apple tree which will now proudly grow and provide fruit for many years to come. When we look back at this tree in a few years, we will remember our year in Senior Infants and the fun we had!

Aistear - The Post Office:
We really enjoyed the theme 'The Post Office' in Aistear. We delivered important letters around the classroom, sorted materials, filled out forms such as TV licences, wrapped parcels and went on word hunts around the classroom. We also had sand and water play too. Check out so busy postal workers below:

Art - Clay:
One of our favourite art projects this year was making pinch pots with clay. We did an amazing job following the instructions step by step, smoothing the sides and using water to make sure the finish was perfect. We let them dry for a week before painting them and brining them home. Check them out below!

Pancake Tuesday:
Who doesn't love Pancake Tuesday? We had been working so hard in school that Mr. Geaney treated us to some heated pancakes with a choice of toppings. We really enjoyed them and watch somethinig on the board as we ate. What a great Tuesday!

World Book Day 2023
We love reading in Senior Infants so it's no surprise that World Book Day was one of our favourite days of the year so far! We dressed as characters from our favourite books and showed off our costumes in the hall to all the children in our school. We also decorated our door with our favourite book - Owl Babies!

Art - Crazy Cows
Because we were working on the farm as part of our Aistear theme, we decided to create some crazy cows! Everyone followed the direction of the teacher slowly and then added as much bright colours as possible to make our cows look CRAZY!!

Science - Shadows:
One of our studies in Science recently was shadows. We really really enjoyed learning about shadows and how they are formed. We formed some dark spots and used torches to make our own shadows too. Check out our creations below:

Maths - Heavy vs Light:
At the beginning of our maths topic weight, we focused on the words Heavy and Light. We did lots of hands on activities to learn more about these words. You will see us in the pictures below sorting objects in our classrooms into heavy and light categories. When we perfected this, we moved onto using pan balances which was very fun. We really got creative with some of the heavy ones!!

 Art - St. Patrick's Day:
We created our very own self-leprechauns. We used forks to create a lovely orange beard and then used green card to finish our creations. We hope they are proudly displayed at home! As it was our Lá Glas, we also visited our Senior Infant friends and had a biongó as Gaeilge together. 

Seachtain na Gaeilge & Lá Glas:
Seachtain na Gaeilge was for two weeks and what a busy two weeks it was. We had shared reading with fourth class who read to us as Gaeilge. We did lots of practising for the céilí and dances such as Rós sa Ghairdín, Ballaí Luimnigh and Ionsaí na HInse. We also took on a special challenge that Mr. Geaney set to us by performing the tradition brush dance. We used hurls for our dance and dances so bravely in front of the entire school. We got a massive round of applause and everyone thought we did a brilliant job! Tadgh also won the Cárta Glas competition - Well done Tadgh!

Easter Art
We worked with our 6th class friends on two different pieces of art to create an amazing display outside our classroom. We made some Easter bunnies and some Easter eggs to accompany our bunnies also. Check out the pictures below!

Spring Chicken
Check out our song 'Spring Chicken.' Have a great Easter everyone!

​“Happy St Patrick’s Day from Senior Infants”

Ms Dunne’s senior infants all looked great in their yellow today celebrating Daffodil Day. Well done to all the children on such a great effort to fundraise for the wonderful cause that is the Irish Cancer Society!

​The boys and girls in Senior Infants have been working really hard to learn the song “Im a Spring Chicken”. What a perfect day to perform it with them all dressed in their Spring colours in celebration of Daffodil Day!