Please note we are no longer keeping these pages live - each child's personal learning journey is now recorded on their private Seesaw account.
Maths Tables +2 Addition song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FpKfvE_K1k
Our Aistear theme this week is Halloween and we have been busy mixing potions, sorting bones and learning all about the human skeleton and how it helps our bodies to stay upright and move.
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Look Say Cover Write Check Homework- See video to right of page
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First Class 2021/2022
Welcome to First Class Emily!
Egg-citing Developments in Rang a hAon.
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We have been incubating our eggs for 21 days in our incubator. It is set at 37.5c which replicates the temperature of a mother hen.
We are documenting everything that is happening inside the egg in our daily chick journals and cannot wait for them to arrive. |
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone
First Class talked about all the things we’re grateful for today. Charlotte also brought us in some lovely sweets. Take a look at our Gratitude Turkey below to find out what some of us are thankful for.
First Class 2020-2021
Spellings Homework |
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16/11/20 L.S.C.W.C.- Look Say Cover Write Check. Watch the video to the right to find out more about our new spelling strategy and this week's homework.
For revision of older spelling sounds we have already completed try out the game like just below the vido. Click on Year 1- Patterns and then any sound we have already completed such as ir, aw, oi and see if you can remember how to spell some of our words. This week our spelling task is “silly sentences” with words containing the letters /all/ eg. ball. This means you take a word and put it into a sentence that sounds silly. For example- The bouncy ball was flat as a pancake. (Silly because balls aren’t flat)💁🏻♀️ Children can be as creative as they like as long as the sentences are not rude. You will also notice 4 HFWs included this week which are High Frequency Words. These are words that appear frequently when we are reading and writing and are thus very handy to be able to recognise and spell. If they aren’t highlighted for your child to learn then you can still practise reading them but they won’t be tested on them unless they are highlighted. 4 spellings highlighted= 1 sentence/word per night. 8 spellings highlighted= 2 sentences/words per night. 12 spellings highlighted= 3 sentences/words per night. Presentation is very important in First Class and children do need a little help with this so please ensure your child lays out his/her homework as per the picture/ video to the right. What are Dolch Words? (Sight/ High Frequency Words)
Reading is the most important skill a child will ever learn. It is impossible for a person to live a productive life without being able to read, i.e.; becoming literate. By third class, they are expected to be able to read almost any kind of text. As well as being able to "sound out" (phonetically decode) regularly spelled words, children must also master reading basic, common sight words. A list of English sight words, The Dolch Word List, was compiled by Edward William Dolch, PhD, in 1948. The list was originally published in his book "Problems in Reading". Dolch compiled the list based on words used in children's reading books in the 1930s and 40s. The list contains 220 "service words" that must be quickly recognized in order to achieve reading fluency. The Dolch Word List is also called Sight Words or The Dolch 220. It includes the most frequently used words in the English language. Sight words make up 50 to 70 percent of any general text. Therefore, teaching The Dolch Word List is a crucial goal of education in grades kindergarten through 3. Many of the 220 Dolch words cannot be "sounded out" and have to be learned by "sight," that is memorized. The list is divided into grade levels. It includes pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and verbs. The basic list excludes nouns, which make up a separate 95 word list. Because fluency in reading the Dolch 220 and the 95 nouns is essential to literacy, a variety of techniques are used to teach them, including: reading Dolch literature books, using flash cards, playing games, and writing activities. Repetition and practice are very important in making recognition of sight words automatic. Once this core of basic sight words has been memorized, children read more fluently, with greater comprehension. ****TO THE RIGHT IS A LINK TO A SIGHT WORDS GAME- SCROLL DOWN FOR “FIRST/SECOND GRADE” WORDS**** |
http://www.ictgames.com/mobilePage/lcwc/index.html
http://www.dolchword.net/dolch-second-grade-games.html.
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Homes and Buildings
We are learning all about the different types of houses people live in in different parts of the world this month during Aistear. We have been busy learning how to do household chores like the laundry, sweeping, ironing and folding the clothes. We have also been learning about the job of an architect and interior designer and have had great fun designing our dream houses on paper so we will be able to build them later in the month. Check out some of our pictures below.
Autumn Fun
For October we learned all about Autumn. We looked at how different animals adapt to the change in weather and took a particular interest in how some animals hibernate during the colder season. We also harvested lots of lovely vegetables and practised planting our own broad beans. We also went on our first nature walk where we collected sticks and materials we would be able to make nature-paintbrushes out of. We then painted some lovely autumn scenes using our very own paintbrushes.
First Class 2019 Dog’s Trust VisitSlide from Dog’s Trust Ireland called to our class and taught us about what to do when you meet a new dog. If you want to pet it you must ask for permission. If you are frightened, stand still and do the X factor pose looking away from the dog. If a dog knocks you over, get into the hedgehog pose to protect your neck and face. Only get a dog if you have enough time, love and space to give it a good home.
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We’ve been working with Catherine to create a Rubbish Land during our Drama lessons. The people of Rubbish Land aren’t happy with their mayor! Will the citizens get Rubbish Land cleaned up in time for the world renowned Michael Recycle to perform? Stay tuned to find out! |
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We made kitten homes and play areas out of recycled materials before presenting them to the GSPCA to entertain some kittens in need. Thank you Barbara for enlisting our help. 😺
Hinduism
We have been learning all about Hinduism. Thank you to Prangali who visited us and taught us about how the Hindu God, Brahma, can be found in everyone and everything. We made henna tattoos during our art.
FIRST CLASS 2019/2020
Biodiversity Guest Speaker
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Thank you so much to Mary who came into our class to speak about biodiversity. We learned that biodiversity is the variety of living things in a given place. Our school has lots of biodiversity. We found birds, slugs, worms, beetles, moths and ants during our quick garden scavenger hunt. We learned all about different types of mammals and how they survive. We had lots of fun learning about bats and how they use echolocation to catch their prey. We even got to play a fun game called Bath and Moth.
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Sports Day
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We had a wonderful time at Sports Day this year and especially enjoyed the yoga, dance time, obstacle course and potato and spoon races. We also enjoyed the delicious ice cream cones. Thanks to all who volunteered their time to help out. Already looking forward to next year.
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Did you ever wonder how many fish there actually are in the sea?
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Hans Gerritsen from the Marine Institute came to visit our class this week to talk to us all about his work on board the Celtic Explorer. He told us all about how they estimate the amount of fish in particular parts of the sea and how they sort through all those fish. He showed us the big nets and brought in some pictures of some of the cool fish that they have released back into the sea over the years like a shark! Thanks so much for paying a visit Hans!
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School Tour to Glendeer Pet Farm Athlone
We had a fabulous trip to Athlone for our school tour. We saw parrots, monkeys, hens, geese, puppies, horses, emus, goats, sheep, lamas, deer, peacocks, and guinea pigs. We found out that parrots love grapes but prefer to peel the skins off with their beaks before eating the juicy fruit inside. We also learned about life long ago in a very old cottage and found out how they used to iron clothes and churn butter. We went to the playground after learning about and petting all the different animals before returning home.
International Day
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First Class was well represented in International Day presenting stalls on India, Ireland, Scotland, Serbia, U.S.A., Morocco, France, Mexico, Spain and Holland. We had a very exciting day learning about different cultures around the world and tasting all the delicious food. Thanks to everyone for making it such an enjoyable day.
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Making Butter-Old School Style
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We have been learning about dairy farms recently and how people used to make butter long ago. We did a very exciting experiment using single and double cream to see which one could be turned to butter quicker by shaking it with a glass marble inside. We noticed that adding the marble helped to agitate the cream and speed up the process. The double cream fats also joined together quicker than the single cream and turned yellow very quickly. It was tough work but we got to enjoy our butter with tasty crackers soon after making it all worth it!
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Release the Butterflies!!
We had a very exciting day releasing our 4 new butterfly friends into the Walled Garden. We were a little sad to say goodbye to them after such a short time but, they stayed with us long enough to enjoy some nice juicy oranges before they flew off to the flowers. We had a teddy bear picnic before returning back to school.
Meet Our Caterpillars!
We have just started to learn about the life cycle of the butterfly. We have 5 little caterpillars that have been eating and eating all week long and they're not very little at all anymore. Check out their transformation so far.
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TECH WEEK CODING
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We learned how to turn on and off our laptops today. We used a search engine and located the website we needed to learn how to code our very own Angry Bird mazes. We had lots of fun taking turns and creating and debugging our maze codes.
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#ActiveSchoolsWeek
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Thank you so much to the Active Schools Committee who organised a load of fun activities for us to celebrate Active Schools Week. We participated in a scavenger hunt in the forest with 5th Class, had a rugby lesson and even got to play in a blitz with hockey, soccer, basketball, Olympic handball and dodge-ball. We have also been taking part in the Daily K- running a kilometer every day and doing some fun exercises as part of our homework. The highlight was having Matthew, an Olympian, visit our classroom with his medals for bocce. What a privilege to meet.
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Planting Out Veg
We have been busy hardening off our plants this week by leaving them out in the sunshine all day and taking them back in at night. We planted all our lovely veggies out into our raised beds and are going to keep an eye n them as they continue to grow.
HAPPY 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY K.E.T.N.S.
To celebrate our school's 10 year anniversary we had a school disco. Everyone had loads of fun dancing and jumping with all the balloons and participating in a surprise flash mob for our wonderful Principal Anna! Thank you to the parents and everyone who was involved in making this happen. Here's to another great 10 years! :)
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Spring Clean
First Class did a great job cleaning up our school grounds and beyond for our annual Spring Clean.
Egg-citing News
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Our two little chicks arrived Sunday morning around 9am after using their egg teeth to break through their shells Saturday morning. Check out the videos and pics below.
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Orienteering- Finding our way in Rang a hAon
We've been having a great time doing scavenger hunts and learning how to read maps for the past week. We even managed one as Gaeilge!
Incredible Edibles
We've been very busy planting over the last week. We had tonnes of fun filling out biodegradable pots with soil and popping in our little seeds. We've been watering them very often and cannot wait to see out little seeds starting to sprout. We hope to have carrot, beetroot, radish, chives, lettuce, spinach, turnip, potato, and strawberries by the end of the year. You might even be lucky enough to try some! :) Check out our pics below.
Daily Mile
For the next 4 weeks we will be participating in The Daily Mile by running or walking for 15 minutes per day around the courtyards. We can't wait to show off how fit we are by the end of it! Why don't you join in at home by doing 15 minutes of exercise every day between now and the Easter holidays! :D
EGG-citement is building in Rang a hAon
Incubation Date: 13.03.2019
A farmer gave our class seven chick eggs to look after for the next few weeks. We placed the eggs in an incubator in our classroom which will mimic the heat provided by the mother hen. It is set at 37.5 degrees.
It will take 21 days for our eggs to hatch! Each day we will find out what is happening inside our eggs. Today, our chick's heart, brain and eyes started to form.
Make sure to keep an eye on the poster outside our classroom. We will update this poster each day to let everyone know what is happening inside our egg!
Hatching Date 03/04/2019
A farmer gave our class seven chick eggs to look after for the next few weeks. We placed the eggs in an incubator in our classroom which will mimic the heat provided by the mother hen. It is set at 37.5 degrees.
It will take 21 days for our eggs to hatch! Each day we will find out what is happening inside our eggs. Today, our chick's heart, brain and eyes started to form.
Make sure to keep an eye on the poster outside our classroom. We will update this poster each day to let everyone know what is happening inside our egg!
Hatching Date 03/04/2019
Shamrock Shakes and Leprechaun Traps, it can ONLY be
Saint Patrick's Weekend!
We learned all about the legendary Irish leprechauns this week. We found out that these tricksters love rainbows and gold, sweets and bright colours. We know they're clever but we tried our very best to build leprechaun traps to try to catch ourselves a leprechaun over Saint Patrick's Weekend because as everyone knows they all come out to play on the March Bank Holiday. Leprechauns never follow any rules so we made sure to put signs up everywhere telling them NOT to explore our classroom and fall into our traps but who knows, we might catch ourselves a leprechaun or at least get a pot of gold!
We blended ice-cream, milk and green food colouring to make delicious Shamrock Shakes, we even got some yummy fizzy snakes to top off our shakes. A Happy Saint Patrick's Day indeed!
Our Favourite Tuesday-Pancake Tuesday
First Class had great fun going through the history of Pancake Tuesday and learning how to make our very own pancakes. We especially enjoyed the part where they got to eat their pancakes with caster sugar and lemon juice!
Fáilte chuig Rang a hÁon 2018/19
Welcome to First Class 18/19
It's beginning to look a lot like..shaving cream?
We were reading about snowmen recently and decided that white paint alone would not do their fluffy texture justice so we made our own paint using glue and shaving foam! Take a look at our lovely snowmen below. :)
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Is that dinner I smell?
We investigated how we taste our food this week and you wouldn't believe what we discovered. Our question was whether or not we needed our noses to taste and the obvious answer was no right? Wrong! We discovered that we cannot taste our food properly without our noses. A great trick if you have to eat something you don't like is to hold your nose and chew. We then tested if we could taste our food with a dry tongue and we couldn't taste our food either leading us to the discovery that our saliva actually helps us to taste flavours in our food. Try it out at home to see for yourself!
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The Secret Treasure of K.E.T.N.S. Aaaargh!
We had a very exciting afternoon of cracking codes and using map coordinates to locate secret clues hidden all over our school only to wind up right back where we started finding a treasure right under the teacher's desk! :D We got a lovely trunk of books and sweets!
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Salvador Dali's Surreal Elephants
Have you ever wondered what it would look like if you painted a picture of an elephant you dreamed about? Well Salvador Dali did just that, and so did 1st Class! Check out our efforts below! :D
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Eureka!
A big thank you to Naomi Lavelle who visited our school to talk to us about energy. We learned lots of exciting things about the transfer of energy from one object to another like making a tennis ball bounce higher by bouncing it on top of a basketball! We also made a huge circuit with Second Class to light up a bulb by just holding hands!
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Math with Patrick
We love when other teachers stop by to teach us something new. Patrick recently called in to show us another strategy we can use to solve word problems. We had lots of fun working out our sums on the tables using our special washable-ink markers. The new method we learned is called an 8-Step Model Drawing.
1. Read the whole problem
2. Who is involved in the problem?
3. What is involved in the problem?
4. Draw unit bars of equal length.
5. Read each sentence one at a time.
6. Put the question mark in place.
7. Do the computation to the side or underneath the unit bars.
8. Answer the problem using a full sentence.
1. Read the whole problem
2. Who is involved in the problem?
3. What is involved in the problem?
4. Draw unit bars of equal length.
5. Read each sentence one at a time.
6. Put the question mark in place.
7. Do the computation to the side or underneath the unit bars.
8. Answer the problem using a full sentence.
Hinduism- Happy Diwali
We loved making delicious ladoo to celebrate Diwali. We mixed condensed milk with coconut flakes and ground cardamon to make these yummy treats before spooning them into bun cases and sprinkling even more dessicated coconut on them. Happy Diwali everyone!
Hinduism-Guest Speaker
As part of our Learn Together this year we are learning about Hinduism and were lucky enough to get a volunteer sguest speaker into the class. A huge thank you to the wonderful Pranjali who visited First Class to talk to us about Hinduism. She told us lots of interesting facts. Did you know that the word Hindu comes from the River Indus in India? There are lots of different gods in Hinduism. Hanuman is a monkey god and Krishna even likes to play tricks on people. We learned all about some of the festivals celebrated in India and all agreed we would love to be a part of Holi to splash eachother with coloured water. Namaste!
Trad in the Classroom :)
We had a lovely visit from Eugene who played the uileann pipes for us and told us all about how he makes them. Thanks so much for coming in. We really enjoyed the music!
A Walk in the Woods with Vincent Van Gogh
We used techniques of creating perspective from Vincent Van Gogh to create our very own walks in the woods. Take a look at our masterpieces below. :)
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Maths Week Antics!
Between our Maths trail and competing in the Mathmania quiz we had a super week focusing on Maths and trying our best. Take a look at some of our fun activities below. Congratulations to Hypatia on being this year's champions. We hunted shapes, tossed bean bags, timed our jumping jacks and discovered our yard is full of 2D shapes!
Check out our pumpkin patch!
Our First Recount
The Leaf Hunt
First Class went on a Leaf Hunt last Friday, the 5th of October. First we all paired up and Caroline gave us a marker and a leaf card before we walked over to the woods beside the Walled Garden. We walked quietly so as not to disturb people who were enjoying their walks. It didn’t take us very long to get there but we were careful to stop, look right and left and listen before crossing the road.
We found Horse Chestnut, Rowan Tree, Oak, Birch, Sycamore, Ash, Holly and Beech leaves. Some of the branches were very high up but Senan used a big stick to pull down a branch so we could all see the leaves closely. We used a leaf identification sheet to tell us which leaves were which. Then we collected leaves from all sorts of trees. We were confident we would find lots of them and got very excited ticking them all off our list.
Maggie realised she had lost a pom pom off her jumper and Cara helped her to look for it while we all waited in our pairs ready to walk back to school. We were not looking forward to getting back to normal work but we had to because it was time to leave. Maggie was very upset until luckily we found her pom pom on the lawn between the Walled Garden and our school.
The Leaf Hunt took us about 30 minutes and we all had a good day. We were fascinated by all the leaves we found and the different varieties of trees that are all around us.
First Class went on a Leaf Hunt last Friday, the 5th of October. First we all paired up and Caroline gave us a marker and a leaf card before we walked over to the woods beside the Walled Garden. We walked quietly so as not to disturb people who were enjoying their walks. It didn’t take us very long to get there but we were careful to stop, look right and left and listen before crossing the road.
We found Horse Chestnut, Rowan Tree, Oak, Birch, Sycamore, Ash, Holly and Beech leaves. Some of the branches were very high up but Senan used a big stick to pull down a branch so we could all see the leaves closely. We used a leaf identification sheet to tell us which leaves were which. Then we collected leaves from all sorts of trees. We were confident we would find lots of them and got very excited ticking them all off our list.
Maggie realised she had lost a pom pom off her jumper and Cara helped her to look for it while we all waited in our pairs ready to walk back to school. We were not looking forward to getting back to normal work but we had to because it was time to leave. Maggie was very upset until luckily we found her pom pom on the lawn between the Walled Garden and our school.
The Leaf Hunt took us about 30 minutes and we all had a good day. We were fascinated by all the leaves we found and the different varieties of trees that are all around us.
Our Trip to Limerick
We took a trip to Limerick to see How to Catch a Star. The show was amazing and we all really enjoyed the puppets, music and set which we got to sit so close to. We also got to stop off in Mungret playground for our lunch and had heaps of fun going through the Jack Lynch tunnel during our bus journey. Check out our playground pics below.
STUDENT COUNCIL ELECTIONS
The Results are in! Congratulations to Liam and Amina who will be the 1st Class representatives on the Student Council this year. We wish them the best of luck! :)
Cycle Safety
Thank you so much to Michael Oakley for coming in to talk to us about cycle safety and the importance of wearing both a helmet and high-vis vest when walking or cycling on the roads. We did a really fun experiment to show how easily you can be spotted when wearing a high-vis or using a reflective light and also realised how important it is to be visable if you are going trick or treating over the mid-term break!
How clean is the air we breathe?
We tested the pollution levels of the air we breathe when we are playing outside. We put a strip of vaseline on paper and stuck it outside for a week before using a magnifying glass to study what we collected. Thankfully we were pleasantly surprised to find just a strand of hair and a few leaf particles stuck to our page showing that the air we breathe is lovely and clean. :)
Picasso Portraits
We've had lots of fun creating portraits based on Pablo Picasso's distinctive style.
Did you know we associate different movements and colours with our emotions? Check out our emotiscapes below!
Welcome to First Class 2017/2018!
Fáilte Romhat go Rang a hAon!
Fáilte Romhat go Rang a hAon!
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Our School Tour - Loughwell Farm 2018
We had a super time on our school tour! The role play area was particularly fun where we got to act as Firemen, Shopkeepers and Doctors and Nurses in the teddy bear hospital! We also got to meet and hold several little animals and took a ride on our own mini tractor! Sunflower ArtButterflies!
On Friday we bid a fond farewell to our four butterflies. We went out to the grass and set each one off on their journey. We will miss them in our classroom! 
Incredible Edibles!
We started a growing project called 'Incredible Edibles' in our classroom. Each group is growing a different vegetable. We had great fun sowing the seeds. The vegetables we are growing are chive, lettuce, carrot, turnip and spinach. As a class we are growing a bag of strawberries and potatoes. :) Jigsaw groups on Australia.
We discussed several aspects of Australian life and culture in our jigsaw groups such as The Kangaroo, Uluru, The Koala, Aboriginal Art and the Aboriginal people. We then acted as teachers and shared the facts learned with our original group. Projects on Australia.
In groups of six, we sorted pictures and designed posters on the topic 'Australia'. Alison gave us bundles of pictures and in our groups we had to decide which pictures belonged on the 'Ireland' poster and which belonged on the 'Australia' poster. |
Spring Clean 2018
We had lots of fun at our school Spring clean! We had to decide whether the rubbish belonged in the recycling or the landfill. We then sorted the rubbish into the correct bag! |
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Aboriginal Dot Art
We are learning about Australia in first class. Today we made our own Aboriginal Dreamtime Dot Art using cotton buds and brightly coloured paint! Our Easter Chicks!
Easter Egg hunt
We enjoyed an Easter Egg hunt in the yard yesterday. We had to run and search for both an egg and a lollipop with our name on it under all of the cones. There was great excitement! The first cracks show and our Chick Art!
On Tuesday, the first cracks in our eggs started to show. It was so exciting. We then designed our own chicks by printing using forks and yellow paint! Shamrock Shakes!
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The Countdown begins!
"Pop Art" and our School Garden
We created some beautiful pop art pieces for Valentines day. We divided our page into several lines and drew and coloured a pattern in each section. We also starting getting our new school garden ready and voted on the three vegetables we would like to see in our section. Thank you so much to all the parents who helped get our beautiful garden started! |
Artwork To Be Proud Of! - 2/2/18
In preparation for Valentines Day, we made prints today using something a little different.. celery sticks! We had lots of fun as we designed a beautiful, colourful vase, and then made prints using red paint and a bunch of celery sticks to create what looked like roses!
In preparation for Valentines Day, we made prints today using something a little different.. celery sticks! We had lots of fun as we designed a beautiful, colourful vase, and then made prints using red paint and a bunch of celery sticks to create what looked like roses!
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Yoga Day - 01/02/2018
We really enjoyed Yoga day as a fundraiser for our school! We practised lots of Yoga stretches and poses which fit in really well with our Mindful Movement that we do in the classroom! |
01/02/2018
Ten at Ten!
Every second day for the month of January, to help us get fit, we have been having lots of fun doing 'Ten at Ten'. We get active while having fun for 10 minutes, every morning at 10 o’clock in the classroom by doing a number of fun exercises and stretches. Each episode from Ten at ten from RTE Junior shows us how a little exercise every day can make a big difference!
The link to the website and some pictures are below. These exercises can also be practised at home, no matter what the weather is like outside, and they are all super simple and fun!
Ten at Ten!
Every second day for the month of January, to help us get fit, we have been having lots of fun doing 'Ten at Ten'. We get active while having fun for 10 minutes, every morning at 10 o’clock in the classroom by doing a number of fun exercises and stretches. Each episode from Ten at ten from RTE Junior shows us how a little exercise every day can make a big difference!
The link to the website and some pictures are below. These exercises can also be practised at home, no matter what the weather is like outside, and they are all super simple and fun!
https://rtejr.rte.ie/10at10/
30/01/2018
We Made Butter Today!
Today, we learned about dairy farming in the past and sorted some pictures from then and now. We then made our own butter from a pot of fresh cream and had a little taste on a cracker! We had to shake super hard to transform our butter from a liquid to a solid! We had lots of fun and sang the butter rhyme 'Come Butter Come' as we took turns shaking the jar around the class.
We Made Butter Today!
Today, we learned about dairy farming in the past and sorted some pictures from then and now. We then made our own butter from a pot of fresh cream and had a little taste on a cracker! We had to shake super hard to transform our butter from a liquid to a solid! We had lots of fun and sang the butter rhyme 'Come Butter Come' as we took turns shaking the jar around the class.
The Magic 'E':
For our phonics recently, we have been learning about the 'Magic E' which changes a short vowel sound to a long one when added to a word. We have worked on 'i' followed by 'e' and 'a' followed by 'e'. For example 'bit' changes to 'bite' or 'cap' turns to 'cape' when we add a magic e and completely changes the sound of the word! Here are some useful videos for the children to watch.
For our phonics recently, we have been learning about the 'Magic E' which changes a short vowel sound to a long one when added to a word. We have worked on 'i' followed by 'e' and 'a' followed by 'e'. For example 'bit' changes to 'bite' or 'cap' turns to 'cape' when we add a magic e and completely changes the sound of the word! Here are some useful videos for the children to watch.
Adding 3 digit numbers the Singapore way!
Below, Marley is performing her melodica for the class. Well done Marley!
Parent/Teacher Meetings to take place on the 21st and 22nd November. Please see child's folder for note.
Please continue to practice these tricky words with your child.
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Useful Literacy websites, just click on the link below.
www.literactive.comLiteractive is the leading provider of reading material for pre-school, kindergarten and grade 1 students available online. Excellent website!
www.ictgames.com/literacy.htmlInteractive games that help children develop writing skills, blend phonemes, recognise initial sounds, and improve letter formation.
www.mrsalphabet.com/alphabetrecognitionpoems.htmlPoems to help children learn upper and lower case letters.
www.bbc.co.uk/schools/bitesizeActivities and revision for English, Mathematics and Science.
http://resources.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/interactive/literacy.html#3 Lots of nice activities here.
http://www.starfall.com/ This is an excellent website for helping your child to read.
http://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/freeIndex.htm
www.literactive.comLiteractive is the leading provider of reading material for pre-school, kindergarten and grade 1 students available online. Excellent website!
www.ictgames.com/literacy.htmlInteractive games that help children develop writing skills, blend phonemes, recognise initial sounds, and improve letter formation.
www.mrsalphabet.com/alphabetrecognitionpoems.htmlPoems to help children learn upper and lower case letters.
www.bbc.co.uk/schools/bitesizeActivities and revision for English, Mathematics and Science.
http://resources.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/interactive/literacy.html#3 Lots of nice activities here.
http://www.starfall.com/ This is an excellent website for helping your child to read.
http://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/freeIndex.htm
Below is a link to a game that can help reinforce the Dolch words. You can scroll down to the First Grade game.
Below is the Dolch List for 1st class- We are currently learning List A Nov 6th
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Figuring out missing addends.
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Maths Trail and Bake Sale
First Class making themselves familiar with the Explain Everything app.
Brainstorming some hair raising experiences in 1st Class !!!
Swimming: Swimming takes place from Monday 16th for 8 weeks. Thanks to all the parent volunteers you are coming to help.
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Luke brought in his turtle to show to the class.
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Making paper cut out of our bodies to identify external body parts.
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Last Day :(
Full of joy and sorrow! Well done First Class 2017, have a super summer. You were awesome! :)
Seachtain na Gaeilge
Bhainimid taithneamh as a bheith gléasta suas le haghaidh ár seó faisiún inniu! We struck great poses during our fashion show today. We could have been on the catwalks of Milan with all of our twirls and excellent Irishness inspired outfits! Thanks to all the hard work that must have gone on in homes over the weekend and last night to make our fashion show possible. Bhí tráthnóna IONTACH againn! (We had a BRILLIANT evening!) :)
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Engineers Week
Steven came in to talk to us about engineering last week. We learned that there are all different types of engineers such as medical engineers and design engineers. We learned all about oil pipes and how they get to use cool robots and virtual reality headsets at work so they can work out difficult problems in the deep, deep sea without even getting wet! Thank you for giving us your time Steven! :)
Story Time for Rang a hAon
Our school library had a makeover today thanks to two very special story tellers turned our library into comfy, magical story telling fortress! We heard the story of the Princess and the Frog and a story about an Old Mansion that got taken over by clever, funny animals! We had so much fun relaxing and listening to fairytales that some of us almost fell asleep! :D
There's Something Awfully Familiar about Helen...
Alex's mom Helen came to visit us to talk to us about Charles Darwin. She showed us why species change over time to ensure greater chances of survival. Better yet, we all got to eat a smartie in the process. She showed us how moths in London used to be white but that made them easy target for predators. To ensure their survival they modified their colour slowly and over time they became black to blend in with the smog. We learned all about human genetics and found out why Helen looks so familiar. She has the same eyes as Alex, or to be more precise, Alex has the same eyes as her! :) Thanks for popping in Helen!
Visit from Dog's Trust
We had a lovely guest speaker from Dog's Trust Ireland who visited our class to tell us how to take care of our little four legged friends. We were really surprised to find out that if you're scared of a dog you shouldn't run away because the dog might think you're playing. Instead we should stand looking up into the sky with our arms folded. We also learned that you should always ask permission before petting somebody else's dog. We signed our names and fingerprints on a contract to remind us that we have a responsibility to look after dogs if we have them and to respect other people's dogs. We got certificates and stickers for being such great listeners too!
We Can Map the Seafloor!!!
Thank you to Ruairof í's mom Vera and her associates in The Marine Institute for taking to time to come out and talk to us about seabed mapping. We learned all about the continental shelf around Ireland and the different types sea creatures that inhabit different levels. We got to use a sand pit to build seabed features and see infrared images of our structures.
Christmas Village
We all had such fun coming up to Christmas between getting organized with our winter show and getting to mix icing with green food colouring, decorate and eat our very own Christmas trees! We even got a special visit from Santa Claus who told us about his very busy Christmas eve schedule and how his magic helps him to travel far and wide in just one night. He brought us yummy chocolate lollies because we had all been so good all year! If you don't get jealous easily then check out our pics below! :)
Thanks for visiting us Hans! :)
Rhona's dad Hans came to visit our classroom from The Marine Institute and told us all about mapping the number of fish in the sea. He told us it was all about mapping a small sample area and then estimating our actual count based on that small sample. He showed us how to do this using a big jar of pasta.. We found out that we were really good at adding all of our numbers up to get better estimations. Hans also brought in a huge net to show us how to catch a sample of fish! :)
Maths Week Tower Building
We were all winners today when we built towers together using plastic cups. The aim was to build a tall strong tower. We all had 21 cups and were in teams but what we found out was that the tall towers were much easier to blow over than the lower towers that had a stronger foundation. With only 21 cups however, it was very difficult to make a strong foundation and still make a tall tower. We had lots of fun working in groups and making sure we kept our building plans secret from the other groups until the end! :) Check out our 2 high towers and 2 strong towers below.
Fun Times: Maths Trail with Fourth Class
We had a great time with Declan, Anna, Mary and Fourth Class doing our Maths Trail where we found loads of real life examples of Maths all around our school. We counted how many steps it takes to get around the basketball court, we counted the amount of pairs of footprints painted onto the yard and we even found 2D shapes all over our school garden. We had great fun recording the number of jumping jacks we could all do in 30 seconds and the amount of bean bags we could get into a hula hoop in 30 seconds!
A Huge Thank You to Mr. David Finn of N.U.I.G. Neuroscience Faculty
We were lucky enough to have David come in to talk to us about neuroscience before the mid-term. We learned about how the skull protects our brains and how we can help to protect our skulls by wearing helmets while cycling or building. We learned about all the different sections of the brain and how it can be split into the left and right hemisphere. We got to see models of the brain and had lots of fun trying to understand how the brain adapts to different circumstances such as drawing on a piece of paper by looking at it through a mirror. At first our lines were really squiggly but they got better and better with practise. We even got to see stained sections of the brain through a microscope. Thank you very much to Izzy Finn's dad David for taking the time to talk to us. Take a look at our pictures below! :)
Baboró Children's Theatre Festival
We had a super exciting day out today as we got to get on a fancy bus, on thr motorway, through a tunnel and over the river Shannon on the way to the theatre in Limerick. First we stopped in Cratloe woods to eat our lunch and try our the fun playground. We walked on wobbly logs, went on a merry-go-round, swings, zip-lines and even a climbing frame! We were truly 'Blown Away' with the performance we saw today at the Belltable theatre in Limerick. We met three penguins, a polar bear, a monkey and a seal on their adventures between the cold and snowy antarctic and the warm, leafy forest. Check out some of our pics below. :) A huge thanks to 1st Class volunteers Lisa, Fergus and Elena who ensured our trip ran smoothly.
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Artist's Corner
This week we were learning about James Rizzi, an amazing artist who draws colourful skyscrapers with faces and lots of different shapes, like cat buildings and curvy lined buildings and even buildings with hair! Take a look at how we are getting on.
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Bows........Not Just For Fiddles
Asha was kind enough to bring in her bow and arrows that she bought in a medieval fair to show our class. Not just once but TWICE she brought it in to make sure that everyone got a chance to have a go aiming and shooting it. Luckily the arrows were plastic suction tipped so we still have windows in our classroom. Asha made a very good teacher, thank you Asha. :)
Is That Science I Smell???
We have been learning about the five senses recently and tried out a super cool experiment to test our sense of taste. We got to taste carrots AND celery when it wasn't even break time! We talked about how we taste our food and decided we definitely need a tongue but we didn't expect how much work or noses were doing. First we tasted the carrots and celery while breathing through our noses. Then we tasted them again but we pinched our noses and noticed that we couldn't taste that yummy celery as well when we weren't using our noses. Take a look at our pictures. Now you know why you can't taste your food so well when you have a cold or a stuffy nose. :)
Did You Vote? :)
There was great excitement in First Class as we ran our very own polling station to elect Student Council representatives for our class. We learned all about the voting process and how lucky we were to get a chance to practise voting even before we turned 18! Well done to all the candidates who ran for election who had amazing posters and speeches and a huge congratulations to Timmy and Dearbhla who were elected as the First Class Student Council representatives. Maith sibh!! :)
