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1st, 2nd and 3rd Class 2022 - 2023 

January 2023

Maths

The children learned about 2D and 3D shapes.  We took the opportunity to walk around the classroom and look for 2D and 3D shapes in our environment.  We were fascinated to see so many different types of shapes in our classroom.  The children had exploring faces, edges and corners of the 3D shapes and 3rd class even explored the nets of the shapes.  We made some shape robots and some shape gingerbread houses to fit in with our Christmas theme.  Third class began their multiplication by practicing their skip counting.  We are playing loads of games every day to keep the numbers fresh in our heads. 

Science week

During science week the children had lots of fun exploring static electricity using balloons.  We could see our friends hair rising up as they rubbed the balloon off their hair and then lifted it up.  We also tried this with rice Krispies and to our amazement the rice Krispies began to rise up with the balloon.  The bubbles inside bubbles experiment was super messy but the best of fun.  Our tables were very clean after this experiment.  We made our bubble mixture in groups and then we used a straw to blow our bubbles onto the table.  It was a bit tricky at first but we persevered and by the end we were making huge bubbles, with more bubbles inside and even more bubbles inside that.  The children were really excited to walk on air.  We blew up plenty of balloons, half full of air.  We turned a table upside down and put the balloons under the table.  The children then stepped up onto the upside down table and we waited to see if any balloons burst.  More children stepped up onto the table and we counted 10 children walking on air with no balloons bursting.   Plenty of excitement, lots of mess and a noisy classroom makes for a fun and engaging science week. 

SESE

The children took part in activities about COP 27 again this year.  We watched videos about rainforests in Ireland and the importance of our trees around us.  We became aware of what greenhouse gases are and how they pollute our environment.  We were made aware of different causes of pollution and of ways we can help to prevent pollution.  We looked at pictures on how global warming is affecting our world and we discussed ways we can try to help our environment.  We also used the ipads to engage in some Kahoot quizzes to help us remember what we had learned.  A lovely, fun, engaging activity to help reinforce our learning in SESE.  We always love to see who gets on the podium at the end of the quiz.

PE

The children had 6 weeks of swimming as part of our PE curriculum.  The children enjoyed the excitement of getting the bus to the hotel.  They really benefitted from the swimming lesson and became very confident in the water by the end of the 6 weeks. 

English

Our writing genre that we focused on was writing to socialise.  The children in 1st, 2nd and 3rd class read the story ‘The Day the Crayons Quit’.  We then wrote a letter to one of the crayons asking them and encouraging them not to quit.  We brainstormed some phrases we could use in our letters together as a whole group first before we began our writing.  The children produced some wonderful letter writing.

1st , 2nd and 3rd class have had a very busy half term.


Art
We focused on Autumn and painted and constructed some lovely Autumn trees with coloured paper
and paint. We also went outside to collect some leaves from our school yard and we did some leaf
prints with these. They have brightened up our classroom so much.
In History, we were reading the story ‘The Children of Lir’ so to integrate art and history we decided
to construct some beautiful swans using white paper to finish our learning on this wonderful myth
and legend.
We also looked at colour mixing and how if we mix certain colours they make another colour. The
children were very busy mixing and making some lovely shades of colours and we created a beautiful
eye with our colour wheel.
As Halloween is fast approaching the children created some creepy haunted houses and painted a
white sheet with a spooky moon so they could have a nice backdrop for their haunted house. There
was some wonderfully, wacky looking houses being created.


P.E
We were really lucky this half term to have had ‘The Bike Wizard’ visit our school. The children all
really enjoyed cycling and playing games on their bikes and some children learned how to cycle. We
have been focusing on throwing and catching in P.E, so the children have been playing some team
games and games like basketball and handball to practice the throwing and catching skill.

Irish
The children have been working really hard on their Gaeilge this term. We have played some games
like snakes and ladders and 4 in a row to help us practice new words and phrases that we are
learning. We have also been learning a dance called ‘Shoe the donkey’ through Irish. We have such
wonderful Irish dancers in 1 st ,2 nd and 3 rd class.


Maths
We engaged in maths week where we played some new games like ‘pig’ and ‘24’ and we even tried
some tricky puzzles to challenge our minds. We used the ipads and laptops to play some maths
games on lovely maths websites. The children enjoyed practicing their tables on these websites and
challenging their friends at tables. We ended maths week with some art. The children used circles
to create their own circles picture using coloured paper. The colours were very eye catching.


SESE
We have been working really hard learning about Ireland’s four provinces and the counties within
each province. The children have amazed me at how many counties they can name in each

province off by heart. We have also been using the ipads and laptops to research bats and we have
been finding out so many interesting and fun facts about bats. They are amazing little creatures.

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