First Class

June- Our last month of First Class…. We chatted about the memories of our year together and all the funny moments! We did our usual story time. We wrote about Sports Day and our School Tour. We also did some procedural writing – How to build the perfect sandcastle! 

Our theme for Irish was ‘An Trá.’ We thoroughly enjoyed these lessons. We loved the activities on the board and enjoyed singing along to ‘Taimse féin ag iascaireacht.’

In our Maths classes, we did a lot of fun activities- finding shapes at the beach, join the dots, I spy, colour by number among other things.

In SESE, our theme was ‘Summer.’ We learned about seaside holidays today and in the past, Newgrange and Carrowkeel, gathered important memories about our year in First Class, recorded seasonal changes associated with summer, learned some features of a beach, followed directions on a map, studied the life cycle of a ladybird and learned about the effects of heating and cooling on chocolate by making yummy rice krispie buns!

For Music, we learned two songs called ‘Bobby Shafto’ and ‘The Yellow Submarine.’ 

The older classes put on a drama performance of ‘Willy Wonka’-  they were absolutely superb! We also did our own drama activity where we concentrated on mime and did a role-play of various stories we studied throughout the year. It was great fun trying to guess what story was being portrayed. 

For Art, we made cards for Father’s Day and made jellyfish using crepe paper for their trailing tentacles. 

Our theme for SPHE was ‘How to be a Good Friend’ and ‘I Belong with my Class,’ which emphasised how special our school community is. 

Our PE classes consisted of outdoor activities as we had some nice sunny days. We also had Sports Day which was so well organised. 

Our School Tour was great fun! We went on the bouncy castles and enjoyed a lovely walk around the farm. Look at all the pictures to see what we got up to!

 I want to wish everyone a safe and happy summer. I am so proud of all your hard work all year girls and I will miss having you in my classroom.

Ms. O’ Brien 

May- Our oral language classes were based on mini-beasts and camping. We enjoyed chatting about these themes. We listened to various stories – We are going on a Bear Hunt, What the Ladybird Heard, The Gruffalo and Topsy and Tim go Camping. We wrote about the life cycle of the butterfly,  sentences about camping and wrote some facts on bananas. 

In Irish we studied the themes ‘An Teilifís’ and ‘Ag Siopadóireacht.’ We learned lots of new vocabulary and enjoy coming up to the board to do the different interactive activities. 

In Maths, we learned about the value of coins, giving back change and played shop! We also learned to tell the time and focussed on o’clock and half past in addition to keeping up with practising our adding and subtracting.

In SESE, our theme was ‘Food.’ We learned about Rosie’s life when she was young, different food from around the world, Shauna the baker and the different breads she made, learned more about our sense of taste, studied the food pyramid, learned all about Keeling’s family business, listened to a fictional story about stone soup, learned some basic facts on bananas and also categorised fruit and vegetables. 

In Music, we did the song ‘The Elephant Gang’ and listened to ‘Carnival of the Animals.’ We also learned an Irish song called ‘An Eilifint’, ‘Bravo Bravissimo’ and listened and responded to a Spring Sonata. 

In Drama, we played with food items in the play kitchen, carried out drama activities based on our stories ‘Going on a Bear Hunt,’ ‘What the Ladybird Heard’ and ‘The Gruffalo.’ We also did some improvisation on the theme ‘camping.’ It was great fun!

For Art, we made lovely butterflies using crepe paper, designed a snail, we made a ladybird in a garden using coloured card, finger-printed pineapples and designed a rocky road for our campervan art. 

For SPHE, we learned about the importance of secrets and when to tell, stranger danger, understanding the importance of rules and their reasons and learned about the extremely important guidelines around medicines.

In PE, we concentrated on our Games strand and went outside a lot due to the good weather. 

In Religion, we studied the Theme ‘Jesus is still with us’ and ‘Creation.’ May was all about the importance of appreciating everything around us. 

Stay tuned for more next month! 

April- Our handwriting is coming along nicely; we are really improving. We learned some facts on amazing animals. We also really enjoyed the story ‘The Koala Who Could.’ It portrayed a positive message about facing up to changes in our lives.

In Irish we concentrated on the theme of ‘Sa Bháile.’ We listened to songs and poems and really enjoyed ‘Mo Mhadra.’

For Maths, we explored with water and learned all about capacity. We also started regrouping and bringing over our units to make another 10. It was tricky!

Our theme for SESE was Transport. We learned about famous Irish bridges, the history of trains, a train journey to school, transport around the world, examined a map, learned all about the role of an Garda Síochána, made bridges with books and cardboard, explored slopes and learned about the damages of air pollution.

In Music, we listened to the ‘Swan by Carnival of the Animals’ learned songs called ‘Feet’ and ‘Elephants have Wrinkles.’

We love doing drama activities! We did animal mime, Garda role play and did a little improvisation of various scenarios at the train station.

For Art, we drew amazing animals, did lovely hot air balloon art, and made houses out of toilet roll holders!

For SPHE, we learned about safe and unsafe touches and the importance of listening when someone is speaking.

We finished up our Swimming lessons. We loved it! Back to our own PE lessons now where we continued our ball handling skills and did some games!

In Religion, we learned our ‘Prayer before Communion’ and ‘Prayer after Communion’ in preparation for next year. We also learned about various other religions, showing respect for people of other beliefs.

We really enjoyed playing with the B-bots, we had to programme them to turn in different directions. A big well done to all the girls who keep up their various after-school activities! We have medals and trophies coming in every week- keep it up! We also want to welcome Catriona, a new girl who has joined our class all the way from Africa!

March– We dressed up for World Book Day and Ms. O’ Brien had to guess what we were all dressed up as. It was great fun! We listened to stories such as the Tale of Peter Rabbit and the Smartest Giant in Town along lots of other things!

In Irish we finished off our theme ‘Eadaí’ and concentrated on special occasions such ‘Lá Breithe,’

‘Lá le Pádraig’ and ‘An Cháisc.’ We sang an Irish song and recited a poem for our ceolchoirm.

For Maths, we recognised various patterns on the hundred square, practiced our skip counting, revised our number strand.

Our theme for SESE was Spring. We listened to a story called the ‘Brown Bully of Cooley,’ learned about weather instruments, St. Patrick’s Day long ago, Signs of Spring, The Water Cycle, recorded rainfall, learned about baby animals, what we could do for a spring clean–up and all about the importance of recycling.

In Music, we had a taster session with the drums, it was really cool! We also learned ‘The Rain Song’ and ‘Mr. Sun.’

We did a drama based on the Smartest Giant and a little Easter drama activity with Mr. Bunny.

For Art, we made a ring holder for Mother’s Day out of clay, a Leprechaun Hat for St. Patrick’s Day and experienced with line by designing an Easter Bunny with glasses.

For SPHE, we studied the theme of Friendship and Bullying.

We continued our Swimming lessons and will be finishing up mid- April. We really enjoyed it!

In Religion, we learned about St. Patrick and all about Holy week/Easter.

We are really looking forward to the longer and hopefully brighter evenings!

February-  A short but busy month! We enjoyed listening to various stories- ‘Three Billy Goats‘ and ‘The Ugly Duckling’ to name a few. We did poems such as ‘Mix a Pancake’ and ‘A Spike of Green.’ We did some report writing on Spain and a native Irish animal- the fox! We also went on a trip to the library where we did a drawing activity and story time. 

In Irish, we concentrated on the themes ‘An Aimsir’ and started ‘Eadaí.’ We studied a poem called ‘An Bháisteach’ and a song ‘Bróga ar mo Chosa’ to name a few. 

In Maths, we worked on our Number Strand, learned how to represent and interpret data and learned about weight. We also estimated the weight of some classroom items, it was great fun!

In SESE, we learned about Spanish festivals, life in Spain, studied Picasso and we completed a fact-file on Spain. We also read about Christopher Columbus, learned about some native Irish Animals, the earth’s natural features, the life cycle of a tomato plant and discussed what we need for planting seeds and what is required for growth.  

For Music, we did the song – The Mango Walk, The Soda Pop Waltz, Tea for Two and used body percussion and various instruments to illustrate the story of the Gingerbread Man. 

Our Drama was based on the Three Billy Goats, a space theme and one-line improvisational Drama which can be very challenging as we had to improvise on the spot!

For Art, we made a lovely card for our parents, did handprints, space craft rocket art and drew like Picasso!

For SPHE, we learned about Internet Safety and what to do if we were bullied, learned about the importance of friendship through various activities for Well-Being week, strategies to prevent bullying and learned that exclusion is also a form of bullying.

For PE, we finished off our gymnastics lessons, did some playground games and movement breaks with Fyffes Fitness. We also started Swimming lessons and really enjoyed our first lesson. 

In Religion, we did the themes – Reconciliation, Lent and Celebrating Mass and the gifts that are brought to the altar. 

January has been a quick month! We chatted about how we can do our best to recycle and reuse. We also did poems called ‘I’m a little Penguin’ and ‘The Worm.’ Our handwriting has really improved too- we finished all our letters of the alphabet. 

In Irish, our theme was ‘Caitheamh Aimsire’ and we really enjoyed learning the poem ‘Cuimhil do Bhosa.’ 

We really enjoy Maths games. Telling the time and fractions were some of the things we were learning about this month. 

Our theme for SESE was ‘Play.’ We love anything to do with play! We learned about games in the past, games from around the world, active ways to play, investigated magnets, toys 100 years ago and today, designed a playground, learned about the park ranger and investigated bouncy balls and which bounced the highest. 

We learned a lot of songs about cats and illustrated the life of a cat by making various sounds! We really enjoyed the song ‘I wanna sing Scat!’

We love doing drama in our classroom. We really enjoyed the ‘Run-away Iceberg’ drama activity where we had to recall elements of the story. We also did other drama activities- a role-play of the Children or Lir was another one we really enjoyed. 

For Art, we made lovely Penguins and added textured tummies with white crepe paper, we painted a dark forest and added Little Red Riding Hood to it, made a colour wheel and did some paper weaving for St. Brigid’s Day. 

We learned about different feelings- safe and unsafe and what to do if we feel unsafe.

For PE, we started gymnastics. We also did some more playground games and enjoyed doing movement breaks with Fyffes Fitness Squad.  

In Religion, we learned about the gospel at mass, reconciliation and did some nice activities for Catholic Schools Week. 

Well done to Freya who brought in medals and a trophy for her Irish dancing and Kayla who brought in a medal for soccer.

December- We enjoyed the month of December because we did a lot of Christmas related things! We listened to some Christmas themed stories, we illustrated a poem called  ‘The Chubby Little Snowman’ and lots, lots more!

In Irish, we concentrated on the theme ‘An Nollaig’ and learned a lot of new vocabulary. We also listened to a story called ‘Bréagáin na Nollag.’

We learned about the value of Money and used coins up to 20c. It was very challenging as Ms. O’ Brien added in bigger coins to confuse us! We also practised number and we always enjoy coming to the board for various games.

Our theme for SESE was Winter, we listened to new fairy tales by Hans Christian Andersen, Christmas in the past, winter traditions around the world, animals/plants in winter, learned about directions by doing a Reindeer map, learned some facts on Lapland, learned about seals, did an experiment on salt crystals and another experiment on whether fat keeps us warm. We were very busy indeed!

We learned the song ‘Ten Little Angels’, ‘Mary had a Baby’, ‘Little Drummer Boy’ and sang various Christmas songs in the hall with all the other classes.

For Drama, we did a role play on a melting snowman, did some Christmas themed improvisation and also went to the hall to watch the Drama club put on a wonderful performance of Christmas traditions around the world.

We really enjoyed our Art for December. We did Snowman, 3D Christmas Tree Cards and we made an Elf Door Decoration.

We also learned about Media and Christmas, Safety at Christmas and did another Bullying lesson.

We enjoyed our Zumba classes. We also love going out on a Friday to do some playground games!

In our Religion classes, we learned about Advent and Christmas and the different colour candles that are lit each week in the church.

In the lead up to the holidays, we watched a Christmas movie and had popcorn and also some well-deserved down time!

November…

Back after the Halloween holidays, they flew! In English, we did a recount of our Halloween holidays, listened to the stories of Goldilocks, Jack and the Beanstalk, The Three Little Pigs, Owl Babies, did written activities based on these stories, studied a poem called ‘Spaghetti Challenge’ and wrote a poem about ‘Winter.’ We love library time on a Friday because we get to pick a new book to read! 

In Irish, we concentrated on the theme ‘Bia’ and did a poem ‘An Lón’ and ‘Cad atá uait don bhricfeasta?’ 

In Maths, we played shop with play money, measured things around the classroom including measuring our hallway with a trundle wheel, 3d shapes and lots, lots more!

In SESE, our theme was ‘Homes’. We learned about homes in the past, different types of homes, sources of heat, household items from the past, looked at a local landmark, developed a sense of awareness on homelessness, amazing animal homes and learned about owls. We also took part in lots of nice experiments for Science week which you will see from our pictures and this video Science Week

In Music, we listened to the song ‘Don’t Change Horses.’ We also learned the ‘Fruit Song’, ‘Tinga Layo’ and drew pictures to represent various music. 

In Drama, we did role play, voice production, mime and freeze frames based on Goldilocks, Jack and the Beanstalk, The Three Little Pigs and Owl Babies. 

For Art, we did a fruit bowl mosaic, watched a step-by-step video on drawing Goldilocks and the Three Bears, painted Owls and did some cool Winter Trees.

In SPHE, we looked at Fact or Fiction in relation to media, the different ways in which information can be communicated and designed our own advertisements! 

In PE, we did Zumba dancing and we like to do playground games on a Friday! We also had Fyffe’s fitness squad come to the school and do a fitness session with us. 

In Religion, we concentrated on celebrating the saints for the month of November, the importance of mass, Nano Nagle and learned about the beginning of Advent and what candles we might see in the church. 

We hope you enjoy looking at all our pictures!