Schools and Forests

Senior Infants started the year with an Aistear theme we knew quite a bit about already: school! We interviewed a few of the people who help us in St Catherine’s, such as John our lollipop man, Breda our cleaner and Karen our principal and found out all about their jobs. In role play we worked hard in our school, and made sure all of the children got there safely in the morning. In construction and small world different types of schools were built, including schools for animals and even a school for minibeasts, complete with a mini-beast football pitch outside! We made our own books and even our own healthy packed lunches.

After all of that we were ready to travel back in time to find out what schools were like in the past. We found out that in Victorian times they were very different and a LOT more strict…

In maths we have started the year by revising all that we learned in junior infants about number, pattern and sorting. We’ve been using cuisinaire rods and numicon to compare numbers. We also used balances to check which numicon pieces can balance others and informally recorded what we found out. We have been practising our number formation and are making great progress but sometimes still need reminding, so keep an eye on any numbers that we write in our Learning Logs at home.

We visited Phoenix Park forest school before starting our next topic: the Forest. This was an absolutely brilliant day out: we tried our hands at loads of new skills, sawing, drilling, climbing, and building forts, and finished the day by picking out the perfect sticks for toasting marshmallows…

Since getting back we’ve been busy learning about forest creatures and their homes. We’ve built clay animals, constructed birds nests in outdoor play with Hazel, and recycled some junk to make hedgehog houses and bird feeders to help out the creatures in our gardens. We investigated where seeds come from by exploring flower heads and fruit, and are now waiting to see what grows!

In English we have been learning the story of The Three Billy Goats Gruff. We built bridges to help the goats cross the river, made play-dough trolls and retold the story in Small World play. We also made 3D maps of the goats’ world and used them to retell the story to our partners.

Finally, a note about Learning Logs. This year Senior Infants are using Learning Logs for the first time and they have really been doing a fantastic job so far. I’ve been so impressed with the creativity I see in these, and with the high standard of work the children are producing. Here are just a few examples to show you what I mean: