June - Under the Sea

At last its summer time and we are learning all about sea creatures  that live 'Under the Sea'. We have read all about the 'Rainbow Fish', linked it in with circle time and wrote about how we would feel if we could have one of his shiny gills! Then the children made their own rainbow fish, star fish , jelly fish and octopus. We learnt facts about the different sea creatures. In our play area we introduced a sea-side café shop, beach area, sand  and water and painted different fish. In topic maths we worked on pictograms showing our favourite fish.  A lovely topic to finish our school year. 

May- 'Fairytales and Castles'.

We have been learning about castles and Fairytales with castles in them, e.g Rapunzel, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. We based our narrative writing around the story of 'Rapunzel'. We acted it out in our role -play area , dressing up in princess costumes and making crowns for the 'handsome' Prince. We planned our work together and discussed about the different parts of the castle.

During Play based learning we built a castle and measured the flags, bricks and the draw bridge. The children organized a party in the castle for Cinderella's wedding, it was great fun.

Finally the children mad their own castles at home and brought them into school to show everyone.

They were amazing and thank you to mums and dads for all your efforts. 

March /April 2021 “ Spring Farm”

During this month P1/P2 have learnt all about ‘The farm and farm animals in Spring’.

The children  developed their knowledge and skills through a variety of play experiences:

1. Shop – A farm shop selling milk, butter, cheese, egg, fruit and vegetables.
2. Role play – Dress up as a farmer and act.
3. Act out the story ‘Mud Walk’ – my wishy washy.
4. Learn about differences between adult, baby animals.
5. Living / non-living things on the farm.
6. Farm live, crops and machinery.
7. Safety on the farm.
8. We will paint farm animals, tractors or diggers etc.
9. Make farm animals out of play dough.
10. Junk art – make a farm yard scene.
11. Grow sunflowers and measure their growth.

In ‘World Around Us’ we have learned about:

1. How the weather affects the crops on the farm.
2. Where do animals live on the farm.
3. How do they get fed / clean.
4. Know different names of animals.
5. The jobs of the farmer.

Numeracy:

1. Sort seeds.
2. Compare colour / size of animals.
3. Use money in shop change from 10p and beyond.
4. Measure how much the sunflowers grow.

Literacy:

1. Books about farm / animals.

1. Write list of jobs on the farm.
2. Write about ‘Mud Walk’ – Three wishes.
3. Narrative writing – A farm story.

Birthdays and Celebrations - September 2020

It was a great joy to invite our New Primary Ones to St.Josephs.

Aoife, Dearbhla, Erik, Faye, James, Jessica, Romy, Shauna and Shea.

We have been very busy in The P1/P2 classroom. Our topic was all about 'Birthdays and Celebrations'. We talked about our favourite birthday presents and surprises. We made party balloons to celebrate the month that we were born in.

In Role play we created a 'Birthday party Zone', making props, party banners, streamers, invitations, party hats , food and drinks.

In Literacy we read books about 'Bun's Birthday, Spots Surprise and Spots Surprise'. We made party invitations at the writing table and wrote about best birthday presents.

In Numeracy we had fun problem solving relating to building /designing tasks. We matched ,sorted hats, plates, buns, for each person at the party.

The children used mathematical language associated with measuring long/longer; short/shorter; counting plates/cups for party guests.

Outdoors we enjoyed playing party games, Parachute games and musical statues.

It is truly fantastic to be back together again.

October - 2020 - Chocolate , Autumn and Halloween.

Our Topic in P1/P2 for this month is all about 'Chocolate , Signs of Autumn and Halloween.

We Will learn about:

• Different types of Chocolate
• How Choc is made/changes that happen when it is heated and then cools.
• How to make chocolate play dough.
• Stories about chocolate
• Signs of Autumn/Collection of Autumn leaves.
• Getting ready for Halloween.
•  
• Literacy

  - Enjoy a range of books on Chocolate/Autumn/Halloween

    Create Menus/Take orders/lists in 'The Chocolate Cafe'

    Write recipe for 'Hot Chocolate' and make some delicious Hot chocolate. 

    Numeracy

    - To encourage Mathematical language associated with measure(big, bigger, smallest,full,half -full, empty.

     To use money in role play/Make sums to 10p(p.1)/ 20p/P.2)

As usual ….a busy and fun time in our classroom. 

November:  2020 “Colour “

Our topic this month is all about ‘Colour’. We will be learning about different colours, mixing colours/light dark colours – cold / warm colours.

In literacy we will be reading stories about Elmer the colourful elephant, the Gingerbread house, The day the crayons stopped working, the rainbow fish and Bear, bear what do you see?

We will make lots of different things in art using food colours and shaving foam/ coloured chains / marble playdoh/ bubble footprints and many more.

In our number / topic we will make patterns using 2/3 different colours / with playdoh, cubes and beads etc.

We will make colourful rainbows and pictograms of our favourite colours.

December 2020: " Christmas "

During Structured Play sessions we will be -:

• Dressing up in the Grotto,
• Wrapping presents,
• sorting the special letters and Christmas Parcels,
• writing cards and labels.
• Making Christmas decorations, angels, trees, stockings
• making a crib for baby Jesus.

Literacy hour will allow us time to Read and listen to lots of Christmas stories. We will also be writing our ‘Santa letters’. We will be busy little Elves helping Santa in his grotto to help develop our oral language skills. Hopefully Malachy (the Post Man) will call and safely deliver our letters to the North Pole. It is a very exciting place to be in the P1/2 Classroom, as we count down to Christmas and watch for the Sparkle in the sky. Every day we will be watching to see the little elves fly over Tyrella to check that we are being good!!!        

One day each week year 1&2 enjoy a structured play session in our assembly hall. Here they get to play with large toys and equipment , helping to develop gross motor skills , dexterity, balance , flexibility , social skills and lots more. View how we get on in our gallery.