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OLV Infants

Ms Murray's Class Blog

Friday 31st March

31/3/2017

8 Comments

 
What a great month we have had in Room 5! Thank you to all the parents and children who brought in lovely toys and animals for the pet shop play. They are really enthusiastic about sharing their toys with their peers. Sometimes they are happy to leave them in the pet shop over night but sometimes they want to bring them home again. That's absolutely fine. They can bring the toys in and out as they please. Below is a few photos of the new stations that are well underway. We have also done some really good reports and recounts in our Aistear copies this week. The children are now labelling their pictures with words and trying to write simple sentences. Their oral sentence structure and vocabulary is coming on in leaps and bounds! 
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Big Thank You to our wonderful Ann-Maire who made us this fantastic aquarium for our pet shop. Super creative and the children were delighted to have their very own Nemo! (or as one of the children corrected me... it's a Clown Fish!) 
The Children are delighted to have their water station back. They have been so imaginative and you will see here how they gathered resources from around the room and created their own animal bath/shower contraption. Great team work going on too!

Water Play from Ms Murray on Vimeo.


We have been practicing our questioning skills... I am trying to encourage the children to ask questions using language like who, what, where, when, why (The 5 W's). The video below was a quick Q&A session where they explored the idea of questioning. Next week we will look back at this video in class and discuss how we could improve our language and make our questions and answers even more interesting... check back next week to see how we get on.  

Goldilocks and 3 bears Q&A from Ms Murray on Vimeo.


We did lots of art this week to set up our new stations. We also were lucky to have a visitor Evan to help us build our new 'People Who Help Us' town. It's not finished but it's looking pretty cool so far! 
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Our Town play! from Ms Murray on Vimeo.

We had been working on our spring garden (making the rainbow below) When Maisy came up with the idea to call it a Relaxation Garden! I absolutely loved this idea, I just thought it was so lovely that that word 'relaxation' came to mind when she sat in that area! 
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I am really delighted with how quickly the children's handwriting has come on. They are working so hard and they really take pride in their achievements. We save our very best writing for our 'Good Writing' copies. I have told the children that they can take them home on Monday to show you their progress, they are really excited to share their hard work with you and are looking forward to your praise! Please make sure the copies go straight back into the bags though.
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Great homework this week. The children knew their Little Bo Peep Rhyme very well, so we recorded it for the blog. Enjoy watching the super performers below! 
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Little Bo Peep from Ms Murray on Vimeo.


Here is a sneek peek preview for my blog readers of a new area I made for the children after they went home today. I know they'll love this one for their DEAR time! 
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That's it for this week. Enjoy the spring weather!

Regards,
​Ms Murray
8 Comments

Friday 23rd March

23/3/2017

0 Comments

 
We had a short week in Room 5, only three days as I was out today. We did manage to get lots done though. We are off to a flying start with our new topic of Spring and animals. We are focusing on farm animals and domestic animal for the next few weeks. After a collaborative discussion we have decided on our Aistear stations... We are making a Pet shop that sells various pets, pet food and a accessories. We are turning our other area into a spring garden that will blossom and change as spring  moves into summer summer. We are making a water area that will be our class pond... and lots more! 
Wanted for our Aistear:
  • any plastic/fake plants or flowers
  • old soft animal toys for our pet store
  • any old pet accessories, leads, water bowls, pet beds etc.
  • I'm trying to source a strip of artificial grass if anyone has any suggestions? but I've little or no budget for it :(
  • any old aquarium/pond accessories

No pressure... just if you have something lying around that would won't mind getting ride of. Thanks
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We are learning about the different sounds animals make in the song below! Have a listen at home. 

Maths
We had fun in Maths recording sets and making patterns

Yoga

We are starting our Yoga and mindfulness. In the busy life of five year old it can be  difficult to take the time to stop, relax and appreciate the here and now. LOL! so we will be learning how to destress while working on our strength and flexibility. Namaste!

Enjoy the weekend... Lets hope the sun comes out!

Kind Regards,
​Ms Murray
0 Comments

Friday 17th March

16/3/2017

4 Comments

 
We had an event packed week in Rm 5. The week got off to a great start with the Spring Service. Everyone worked really hard to prepare for it and the Service was a great success. Together all the junior infants brought the walls to life with all signs of spring. It was lovely to see parents and grandparent who were able to make it. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!

Spring Service from Ms Murray on Vimeo.


Egg and Spoon

It was lovely to get out to enjoy the lovely weather earlier this week. We hope it comes back again soon.

Egg and Spoon from Ms Murray on Vimeo.


Maths - It's All About The Money!

We have been learning about these little copper coins. We discussed what is different about them (size, numbers). It is interesting to note that when the children were asked which of these amounts would buy me more in a shop, everyone have their reasons for picking one or the other. The commons misconceptions where that the 5c coin would buy more because it is a bigger coin or the five 1c coins would buy more because there are more coins. Interesting. Try to take any opportunity to talk about money when visiting the shops and maybe give the children a chance to hand the money to the shop keeper and wait for the change. 
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Best Sorters

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What makes these coins different?

Sorting
What makes the coins belong together?


Favourite Book Day

The children had a lovely Favourite Book Day in rm5. Ms Murray read out some of the books during the day using her best funny character voices! The children had lots of DEAR time and the where really happy to read for enjoyment and share with their friends. 
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Hand Writing

As we continue to improve our hand writing, we are returning our focus to the letters we have already learnt. Each week we have two letters we focus on, this week it was m and p. When we have done a little writing practice we write our very best work into our special writing copies. 

Well done to these super homework superstars! 
What lovely rainbows and pots of gold.


Happy St Patrick's Day 
We finished off our last day this week celebrating St Patrick. Here's a little video showing all the wonderful performances by the girls and boys in school. 

Have a great mini break boys and girls and stay safe!

Regards,
Ms Murray!
4 Comments

Friday 10th March

10/3/2017

1 Comment

 

Spring Has Sprung In Rm 5

This week we have been busy getting ready for the Spring Service on Monday. I hope you can all make it (1pm in the hall). Here is a sneak peek at what we've been up to.
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The children are really enjoying their word boxes and I am delighted that they are all able to stretch out the sounds to hear the word. As they become familiar and confident with this technique they can stop stretching out the word and quietly scan the letters to read the words fluently, but for most of the children it is still important to remind them to stretch out the sounds without a gap. For any children who are still unsure of some letter sounds (check their assessment sheet on the inside cover of their sounds copy) I have added a little reference chart. They should look at the letter symbol and then search for it on their chart (this reinforces their visual awareness of the letter symbol). When they find the letter symbol on the chart they will be prompted by a picture which represents the letter sound/action they have learnt. If you have any concerns or questions about your child's blending please just ask me. 

As we continue to learn about the people who help us in our community we have been exploring the difference between the city and the countryside. We are all aware that we live in a busy city. In the exercise below we are sorting different aspects that represent city life and country life. 
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Great Homework this week. Well done everyone. 
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That's it for this week... enjoy the weekend and we hope to see you on Monday for the Spring Service.

Regards,

​Ms. Murray
1 Comment

Friday 3rd February 

3/3/2017

2 Comments

 
The children had great fun this week... pancakes were the highlight! We enjoyed trying out some yummy toppings on our pancakes. We had a choice of chocolate sauce or lemon and sugar. 
Although we didn't make our own pancakes from scratch this time... we did learn what ingredients are used to make pancakes and the procedure involved. We recorded the procedure on our 'Pancakes' sheet putting special focus on our handwriting. The children did a fantastic job. They are really starting to understand that the written letter requires uniformity (i.e. tall letter, short letters, letters with tails) they also show an understanding that letters need to sit on the line, but NEVER start forming them from the line. We are still only starting our formal teaching of letter formation but the children are off to a fantastic start! Well done everyone! 
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They also had fun adding their own toppings onto their pancakes. I acted as scribe for them here... my favourite topping suggestion was chilly peppers! Flick through the photo and your child will show you their work.
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The children had fun reviewing their own work and each others. Their task here is to pick 'Two Stars and a Wish' (what they did well and what they can improve on in regards to their handwriting) 

We started our new 'People who help us in our community' topic this week. Thank you to everyone who brought in resources to use in our play. We did lots of role-play this week and are learning new vocabulary like stethoscope and thermometer for our doctor's surgery. We also opened a bakery with our lovely new play-doh that Ann-Maire made us. Thank you Ann-Maire!! The pink play-doh looks good enough to eat! 
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Well done girls and boys on another week of hard work! You are such Super Stars! Enjoy the weekend.

Regards,
​Ms Murray

2 Comments

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