Learning through play: Holidays, Dinosaurs and a trip to Imaginosity

Senior Infants spent most of May on the very summery theme of Holidays, where we focused on travelling by air and a country study (chosen by popular vote) of Australia. We had a lot of fun packing suitcases for various sunny destinations, making planes out of junk, weighing and scanning bags and passengers – and confiscating any extra liquids in their cases! After we arrived in Australia, we turned our role play corner into a beach complete with sand and paddling pool (Thanks Natalie!). We learned about aboriginal Australians and some fascinating Australian wildlife like the box jellyfish and the Great Barrier Reef. We also tried our hands at felting, making some colourful beach towels in messy play.

In June we began to learn about dinosaurs, a topic that a some of us already knew quite a lot about! An archaeologist came to visit us to tell us all about working on a dig site and we learned about fossils and other types of artefacts from the past. In messy play we made dinosaur dung, making sure to mix in some evidence of their herbivore or carnivore diets, and also created erupting volcanoes with baking soda and vinegar. We measured and drew some life-size dinosaurs in the playground, made dinosaur museums, constructed dinosaurs from blocks and tubes, and played in a dinosaur mud pit!

As a reward for our great work on Friendship over the last term we visited Imaginosity – thanks a lot to the parent volunteers who made the trip possible. Finally you will see a few pictures of us enjoying the brilliant Djembe drumming workshop that Dónal recently organised for us.

I have had so much fun teaching Senior Infants this year and never ceased to be amazed by their creative ideas and determination to see them through to the end. Thanks a lot for all the support from home, which really makes all the difference, and have a wonderful summer everyone!

Fiona