As part of our Mí na Gaeilge, or month of Irish, the children made books which were entered into a competition, Scríobhleabhar Awards. We had various types of books from paired books, individual books to class books. I attended the awards in Tallaght with 16 children. They were presented with certificates, medals and pencil cases. Well done to Ms McMurdock for all her hard work and the encouragement she gave us all.

The Setanta Book Fair took place I our school on 23rd April for a week. This was run by Ms Armstrong. I saw a lot of eagerness and enthusiasm from parents and pupils who wanted to buy books. A percentage of the books sold goes back into the school in the form of books. This is our year for concentrating on books with our new library so new stock is always welcome. The Fair made over €1700 which was a great success. Thanks to all who got involved especially parents who regularly helped.

We have a lovely Tree of Hope which was put up by Gillian Bourne who is in charge of our Green Schools Programme. Every child had a hope to share with the school. A lovely sight and worth a look.

Two teams were entered into the Spar FAI Primary School’s 5 a side soccer competition. The qualifiers took place in March and the boys’ team played in atrocious weather conditions, winning their section and being narrowly beaten on penalties in the decider. The girls’ team, pictured with coach, Garry Zambra, won its qualifying matches and went through to the Dublin Finals. The girls won their section and were narrowly beaten for a place in the Leinster finals – this was a brilliant achievement.  Well done to both teams for all their efforts – we are all very proud of them for the way they played and the exemplary manner in which they represented the school. Thanks also to Garry for giving his time and expertise so generously.

The school football A team, which is mixed, has one more match to play in its league and is in the quarter-final of the cup. The B team were narrowly beaten in the Junior cup.

During February Junior Infants focused on ‘Our Locality’. We used Google Maps to have a look at the different types of buildings in Shankill.We discussed the many different jobs and community workers that are in a town. We also talked about ways in which we can care for our environment and how we have a responsibility to look after our world.

In the Home Corner the children looked closely at our school and they took on the role of various jobs in the school. They also explored ‘The Fire Station’ which required them to take on various roles and act out varied scenarios. We learned about electricity and the dangers of it in the home ,about fire safety and we used magnets to explore some everyday items to find out which were magnetic.

At Small World the children built a town from lego and they followed on from this by adding in fire engines designed and made from mobilo.They also played with the toy fire station which they thoroughly enjoyed. The children used the road mat and toy cars to design a motorway scene. While this was going on the children, in groups, explored what could be moved by pushing or pulling. They used various surfaces and heights to test cars on the friction ramp thus exploring forces and gravity. Another group of children played at builders in ‘The Construction Site’ and at the sand table.

In the Construction Corner the children built a town using large wooden blocks.They also used Polydron Blocks to construct a town of burning buildings which they rescued and  saved by using the large toy fire trucks and emergency vehicles.

In Art we talked about what we see on our journey to and from school and each of us made a map of our trip. We also drew a poster to encourage people to care for our environment. In junk art we each designed and made a fire engine.

The story we concentrated on was ‘The Smartest Giant in Town’.

MARCH

This month our theme for Aistear was ‘The Zoo’ and it was led by Ms. O’Driscoll.

In the Home Corner we had lots of wild animals to care for so we took on the roles of zoo keepers and vets.

We designed and made animals by using lots of different junk materials and then the following week we made enclosures and cages.

The children built a zoo for the animals out of lego in Small World and out of large wooden blocks at the Construction Table. This activity required the children to work together and be part of a team.

At the sensory table lots of animals were created out of Play Dough and the children used cutters and tools to make lots of interesting creations.

The books we worked on were ‘Monkey Puzzle’,’Jungle Run’,and ‘Elmer’. We also got to listen to and enjoy ‘Dear Zoo’,’The Selfish Crocodile’ and ‘Giraffes can’t Dance’.

This month’s Aistear theme is ‘Showtime’.  They have been learning about the circus, Chinese New Year, carnivals and fairgrounds.

In the Home Corner the  children have been in role as performers and the audience at ‘The Circus’, they were wait staff, chefs and customers in ‘The Chinese Restaurant’ and they played a variety of games at ‘The Fairground’..

At the Art Table the children made paper plate clowns, Chinese fans and lanterns and carnival masks.

In Small World they put on puppet shows and played in the circus tent, built Lego circuses, created Chinese floats for the Chinese New Year festival and made a funfair out of Lego.

In the Construction Corner they built a dragon and fairgound rides.

We linked these topics with the following stories in English: ‘The Singing Mermaid’, ‘The Great Race’ and ‘Dogger’.

This month our theme was ‘Fairytales and Fantasy’.

In the Construction Corner  the Junior Infants worked together as a team to build a pirate ship  then they had an adventure in their ship. The children also build a castle and re-enacted the story of ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’.

In Small World the children created an island and pirate ships from lego.They built the Three Bears Cottage using lego and blocks. The children also used’ The Happy Architect’ boards to build the setting of ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ and re-tell the story.

At the Sensory Table the children explored a desert island and played with toy pirates. They used playdough  to make models on ‘ The Three Bears’ playdough mats. Each child planted a broad bean seed and learned about what plants need to grow.

At the Art Table each child created an island treasure map during ‘Pirate Week’ and they drew what they would like to find in a treasure chest. They made a clay bowl for one of the three bears and also made a clay hedgehog as we were continuing with our discussions on autumn and hibernation. The children made paper plate pumpkins and a picture of the witch on her broom for Hallowe’en.

In the Home Corner the children took on the ropes of the 3 bears and Goldilocks and played in The Three Bears Cottage. In our Hallowe’en week the children were in role as wizards and witches creating potions in ‘The Potion Lab’. They certainly had great fun at this activity.

The stories we focused on this month were: Cats ahoy; Jack and the Beanstalk; Goldilocks and the Three Bears and Room on the Broom.

Wow- fourth class were on TV today, talking about Team Hope’s Christmas boxes campaign. Well done to our wonderful students, we are proud of you!

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