January
School is back for 2020 and we are all excited to see what this new year has in store for us! We had a new student join our class so we were already off to an exciting start! We are a fantastic group in Room 6 so she has settled in great! Our themes for January were Winter and Countries.
We got straight down to work practising our reading. We got some new lights for our fingers to make this a bit more fun. We are doing really well!
Our first theme was Winter and we played Break the Ice game. This game was really enjoyable and was great for practising our fine motor skills.
We had some great helpers on hand to help Tony with a bit of DIY!
Also as part of our Winter theme we used some of our savings to go to town and have a hot chocolate. We practised using the machine and putting the lids on the hot drinks too. A lovely afternoon was had by all!
For our second theme, Countries, we learned about France. We learned some facts about the Eiffel Tower, the Notre Dame cathedral and of course, we had to sample some traditional French food. Surprisingly, the croissants got a bit of a mixed reaction!
Here we are cutting and sticking our miniature Paris streetscapes. We think they turned out great.
As our reward for reaching 20 tokens on our reward chart, we had a pizza party. Even though it's not a French food, a promise is a promise! Our teacher didn't want to make it too easy for us though so we had to make the pizzas ourselves. We worked really well together in small groups and even tasted a few toppings as we went along.
Here we are enjoying the pizzas we made. We watched the French film Madeline at our pizza party. We are now working towards achieving our next 20 tokens and receiving another reward!
November
Our themes this month were Homes and Shopping. We had a great month, despite lots of rain preventing us from getting to the shops as much as we'd have liked for our shopping theme! We are looking forward to an exciting December as we have three class birthdays coming up and a visit from Santa himself, not to mention all the other fun activites along the way!
Our class entered the Dungarvan Aglow writing competition. The competition involved naming the Polar Bear in the square in Dungarvan. We had the overall winner in St.John's! The polar bear was named Whuffy because he is white and fluffy. We also had a second student highly commended. Here they are with their prizes. A special thanks to Catherine for coming to the school to present the boys with their prizes.
In Art, we were looking at colour this month. For one activity we used warm and cool colours on each half of the house to create a night and day painting.
As part of our SESE, we discussed rooms in our homes. We then drew the rooms in our homes and attached them together to make a lovely display in our classroom.
As part of our SESE, we discussed rooms in our homes. We then drew the rooms in our homes and attached them together to make a lovely display in our classroom.
We were learning about electricity and how batteries are a form of electricity too! We then worked in pairs to group items into things that need electricity and things that don't.
As part of our theme on Homes we looked at homes in Japan and talked about the similarities and differences between their homes and ours. The pupils were particularly interested in the sleeping pods that some Japanese people avail of!
We talked a lot about our teeth this month and the importance of keeping them healthy. We learned about how cavities can occur and how to prevent them. We got a new toothbrush and cover each for our classroom and we will use these a couple of times a week to ensure that our teeth are the healthiest they can be!
As shopping was our second theme this month, we worked on money in Maths. We enjoyed working in groups playing shop.
We are also doing saving in our class and it a great way for us to get used to handling money, as well as learning about saving and spending.
Here we are in Dunnes finding items on our shopping lists and checking the prices. Back at school, we practised using calculators and some of us added up the total cost of the items on our lists.
We made a start on our Christmas display for the school mass. The snowmen turned out great!
We went to see Whuffy down in the square. This was followed by a delicious ice-cream as a treat because we had been so well behaved all week!
October
October has passed us by in a flash. We have been busy in Room 6! Here are some collages of our work from the themes Autumn and Halloween.
We learned about Pointillism in Art and completed an art activity using Autumn leaves as a template.
We learned some facts about hedgehogs as part of our SESE. Did you know a baby hedgehog is called a hoglet? All of the pupils were so interested in this topic. It was made even more real by hearing about the hedgehog that was found in the hedge in our school last month!
We had some fun practising some techniques with clay. The pupils used these skills to help them create clay hedgehogs. We think they turned out great!
We played a variety of maths games to help with our counting.
The students examined some leaves, identifying shapes, colours, sizes. They then did a leaf rubbing to help show up the veins.
A chance to decide what they think their teacher should be for Halloween. The finished projects were very funny and we enjoyed sharing them with each other. Some of the ideas included Bart Simpson, the Hulk and a crazy rabbit squirrel!
The pupils also made some paper skeletons which are hanging in our room for Halloween.
We tried out our cookery skills making some Rice Krispie coffins. It was a real team effort and they tasted great!
Penny, a Dogs Trust dog, came in for a visit to help teach us about being responsible dog owners. One young man from our class was chosen to rub the dog and he was like the dog whisperer. It was a really informative talk and we are grateful for their visit.
We're looking forward to our mid-term break for a well-earned rest. I hope all from Room 6 and their families enjoy!
A new school year
Welcome back to all for a new school year!
We had lots of getting to know each other to do so the theme of myself was a great one to start off with. We had lots of chats about ourselves. Things such as our likes and dislikes, our families and pets were all shared until we all felt we knew each other a bit better.
We have two SNA's with us this year, Tony and Kate, so the students were getting to know them a little bit better too.
Here we are decorating our names to brighten up our new classroom.
We did lots of activities about ourselves, including playing a fun board game.
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We followed a recipe to make some biscuits. The students took turns with measuring, adding ingredients, mixing the dough, and using the cutter to shape the biscuits. |
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The students then decorated the biscuits to look like themselves. A bit of tasting may have taken place during this process! |
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Some happy faces showing off their biscuit faces!
Some of the students have been practising their words through some games. Lots of learning and having fun in Room 6!
Active learning makes for more interested students!
As part of the Myself theme, in Science we did some practical investigations into our senses and what they do. It was great fun and the students enjoyed the smelling station (vinegar, peppermint oil, perfume) and the tasting station (cinnamon, cocoa powder, salt, honey and crackers) the most.
A writing activity based on 'Our Senses'.
Playing hockey as part of P.E. The students all participated fully and were very good at it. We even played with Ms. Hogan's class in a friendly match.
As a treat for working hard so far this year we went to McDonald's and the playground. We had such a lovely time. Hopefully we will have loads more nice afternoons throughout the year!