Junior and Senior Infants put on a short show about Hansel and Gretal. Many thanks to Moss’s mum and dad for their fantastic set!

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.

The children looked closely at our school and the many activities and jobs that go on within it.In the Home Corner they had the opportunity to  took on the role of various jobs in ‘The School’.

At Small World the children designed and built a town from lego. They also, 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. The children played as builders  at the sand table.

In the Construction Corner the children built a town and buildings using large wooden blocks. A lot of them were very interested in building the new shopping centre that is under construction in Shankill. They also used boxes and wooden blocks to build a model of Rathmichael School’.

In Art we talked about what we see around us in our towns  and each of us made a street scene picture. We also drew a poster to encourage people to care for our environment.

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

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Our Aistear theme for November was ‘Families’.During this month we focused on the stories ‘Owl Babies’, ‘Peace At Last’, ‘A Quiet Night In’,and  ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’.

In the Home Corner the children took turns at playing the many different roles within a family. During ‘Birthday Week’ they prepared the corner for a party. They made cards, prepared the party food, played a party game and celebrated the birthday.

At the Art Table the children have been very busy. Our discussion on Homes at the beginning of the month led to the children making their homes out of junk and painting a picture of their house. They designed photo frames for pictures of their families and created an owl baby picture. The children also drew a plan of their bedroom which they later used when working at the Small World station.

In Small World they created a village with different types of homes and buildings using blocks and our wooden town set. They also sequenced story pictures and built a scene from the book ‘Peace at Last’.The children followed the plan of their bedroom and they built it using lego  and our  dolls house furniture.

In the Construction Corner the children worked as a team to build homes from Polydron blocks. They constructed apartment blocks,caravans.bungalows and two-storey houses.

At the Water Table the children were learning how to bath and care for babies. They learned how to dry them,put on nappies and feed the baby a bottle.During this month the children used playdough  to  create birthday cakes and to make the members of their family.

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. They build a castle and re-enacted the story of ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ and the children also designed and built a new chair for Baby Bear.

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 and the doll’s house with furniture to build the setting of ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ and re-tell the story.During Hallowe’en week the children used the train set and made a spooky ghost train.

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.They also did some lovely paintings of the story ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’.

In the Home Corner the children took on the roles 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.

November’s Aistear theme was ‘Fairytales and Fantasy’.  Our topics were ‘Superheroes’, ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’, ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ and ‘The Gingerbread Man’.

In the Home Corner, the children worked as superheros in the ‘Superhero Rescue Lab’ going on missions and saving the day. They also reenacted the stories of ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’,  ‘The Gingerbread Man’ and ‘Little Red Riding Hood’, taking it in turns to play the different roles.

At the Art Table the children made Superhero street scenes from paint and coloured paper which depicted themselves as the superheroes. They made a self-portrait on the ‘Mirror, Mirror on the Wall’  and they created a silhouette of Little Red Riding Hood and the wolf from coloured paper. They also made ginger scented salt dough from which they created Christmas decorations.

In Small World they designed and built superhero rescue mobiles. They also built the settings  from the stories of ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’, ‘The Gingerbread Man’ and ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ and they played out the stories with puppets.

In the Construction Corner they built a superhero rescue mobile in which they went on missions in, they built the castle from  ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ after learning the names of the different parts of a castle  and the built the wood from ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ and the river in ‘The Gingerbread Man’  .

At the Sensory Table they made gingerbread people from playdough.

This month the children learned how to play in role to tell a story. It was very good for working on turn-taking. We also used the tablets to film the stories in Small World and in the Home Corner. They enjoyed playing Kahoot quizzes based on the fairytales on the tablets also.

Lee Cole and Alan Sothern, our past pupils and past hockey coaches, will be representing Ireland at the Hockey World Cup in India, starting with playing Australia today! We are proud of you guys and can’t wait to see you in action! Go n-éirí on bóthar libh!