Blog Posts

September 29th, 2018

29/9/2018

What a fantastic first month back to school! Having the same class has been super and we just got straight into things! I've lots of videos to share with you this week, we've done soon much! But first, Just a few notes about what has changed for your child this year now they've made the big move up to senior infants!

School finishes at 1.45 this year. This allows the junior infants a few minutes to get out safely before us. Delivering your children to you safely is my absolute priority. I am very grateful to the parents and child minders for your patience here. If someone else collects your child please take the time to explain this system to them. I take the children over to our line up area BEFORE they are allowed to be taken from the line. They must say goodbye to me before they leave and I have made eye contact with their parent/minder. if that mean the child hanging out of me to get my attention, I really don't mind ?
Homework. Reading practice is the most important homework you can do with your child each night. I have sent home readers in their folders and on Monday I will send home a reading tracker. If you could fill in the tracker when your child has read and re-read the book and is ready for a new one (they will need to ask me). Be mindful not to rush the readers, enjoy re reading them and asking questions about what they have read. Comprehension and fluency are equally important. I will also include tricky words that the children are to learn by sight. We will be moving onto the yellow set and doing two a week. If any parent of struggling readers wish to have a quick parent/teacher/child reading workshop with me please come talk to me. *Please keep readers and homework sheet in folders and return to their schoolbags everyday* Use pencil for writing activities and colouring pencils for colouring activities. Thank you!

So here's the fun bits...

Visit to the Botanic Gardens

It's always a treat to get out of the classroom to explore our local commnity and this month the Botanic Gardens were having a sculpture display.

A week of Sculpture

In this video the children were reviewing and retelling our Week of Sculpture inspired by the above trip. Our focus was on exciting the senses (sight, hearing, touch, taste and sound).

A week with The Little Red Hen

We had lot's of fun around the story of the Little Red Hen. We did some acting, movie making and bread making! Check out the movie below and ask your child to identify their role in the making of the movie. Each child participated in the voice overs and stage props. The improvement in child's articulation and language is very clear when compared to our last story production of the Smartest Giant last year. Well done girls and boys!

Of course no Little Red Hen week would be complete without making our own "Bread in a Bag!"

That's it for this week!

Ms Murray

11 Comments

School Year 2018/19

22/9/2018

1 Comment

Welcome back to a new school year! Keep posted for regular updates and enjoy getting an insight into the school world of your presious little ones. I look forward to sharing our learning journey with you.

Ms Murray!

1 Comment

The End of an Era!

28/6/2018

0 Comments

Summer Fun!

It's hard to believe that we have reach the end of Junior Infant! What an amazing fun pack year it has been with good dose of hard work all round!
Since the 1st of September your wonderful little person has learnt so many new things. Through playful learning and exploring to focused learning challenges your child has grown in so many ways! What a fantastic start to their school life!
Here's just a few things we got up to during our last precious days of junior infants...

Untitled from Ms Murray on Vimeo.

Attendance Awards!

Congratulations to these wonderful children for excellent attendance this year! Well done!

A final word...

I just wanted to take an opportunity to say thank you so much for your extremely thoughtful gifts. To think you all got together and took the time to make such a beautiful presentation of crafts, flowers and goodies is so kind, and while it is not expected, it is very much appricated. So Thank you so much. I would also like to say that your support and encouragement this year has been tremendously helpful and has greatly inhanced the educational experience of your wonderful children, it is very much a team effort comprised of all of us working together.
Wishing everyone a fantastic summer holiday and I look forward to continuing all the super work with your little ones next year in Senior Infants!

Kind Regards,
Ms Murray!

0 Comments

Friday 22nd June

22/6/2018

0 Comments

Garda Mounted Support Unit

It was so lovely to have a visit from the Garda Mounted Support Unit and the beautiful Oscar & Fiachra in school this week. The children were really excited and full of questions. It was so interesting to hear the story behind these wonderful animals and their important job! Well done to Mason, Sarah & Rada for asking such interesting questions! Check out the video below...

Fun in the Sun!

Hope everyone enjoyed the beautiful weather this weekend! Looking forward to all the lovely activities planned for the coming week! Can't believe it's the final week of Junior Infants!
Just a taster of what I have planned...

Teddy Bear's Picnic
Movie & Popcorn Day
Slime Party
and lot's more :)

Have a Super weekend,

Ms Murray!

0 Comments

Friday 15th June

15/6/2018

1 Comment

School Tour to the Farm!

Every year our tour to Red Mountain Farm is a massive success! What a perfect day out for the children. Everyone had an amazing time.

Houses and Homes!

We've had great fun exploring our building design!

We learnt about electricity and how we use it in our homes.

We measured our designs to see who had the tallest or longest structure.

We even designed our own cut out homes and discussed the different rooms and furniture in a house. Check out the video below!

Writing and Spelling

It's hard to believe that 9 months ago these little troopers couldn't read or write! Now look at them fly... we only started letter handwriting in February and now every child has grasped the intricate task of correct letter formation! Hard work really pays off! Well done girls and boys!

Have a great weekend!

Kind Regards,

Ms. Murray

1 Comment

25thth May 2018

25/5/2018

2 Comments

Sports Day 2018

What a fantastic day for our Sports Day last week! The sun was shining and everyone was in great form! A special thank you to the parents who were able to help out on the day... check out the video below to see what we got up to.

New Topic: House Design

Our new topic over the next two weeks will be house design. It will include language arounf furniture, building structure, electricty, creative design and more. Please practice the words sent home on your child's homework sheet this week.

Fun In The Sun!

The sun doesn't shine too often in Ireland so when it does we head outdoors to learn! Please make sure you send your child to school with suncream on when the weather is good.

Notes to parents...

This week will be the last week for homework sheets. I will continue to practice reading and word boxes for the next few week. However, it is extremely important that you continue to read daily with your child over the summer months. Continue to practice tricky words and encourage the children to spot them at your story time.
Some of the children have been sent home with new, more challenging readers. Take your time reading through them, completing a few pages each night. Encourage your child to re-read the story a few time. Each time the they will be slightly more familiar with the words and they can work on fluency and expression.

Have a great weekend!

Kind Regards,

Ms Murray

2 Comments

Friday 4th May

4/5/2018

1 Comment

Aistear

While the weather was a little hit and miss this week, we still got outside for some fresh air when we could. Having the bigger space outside also allows the children from different classes to play together.

Pond Dipping

It was so exciting to have a chance to go 'Pond Dipping' this week! We were surprised to realise just how many different animal live in our school pond habitat! The little tadpoles were a special treat to see! Have a look at the video below.

Pond Dipping from Ms Murray on Vimeo.

Enjoy your week off everyone! I hope the sun shines...

Kind Regards,

Ms Murray

1 Comment

27th April 2018

27/4/2018

0 Comments

Maths

This week we are still learning about money. Your child should now be able to regognise a 1c, 2c and 5c coin and also add up a simple collection of coins. Why not round up some copper coins at home and see what they've learnt! We have great fun integrating money into our animal topic. What better way to learn about money and animals than playing 'Cattle Mart!'

Farmer Duck

This week's focus story was Farmer Duck! Watch it it with your child and ask them what kind of man was the farmer!

Farmer Duck by Martin Waddell from Candlewick Press on Vimeo.

Here is what Charlie, Heather and Antek though of the farmer!

We drew a picture of the lazy farmer and wrote a sentence.

Dictation

Now that the children are able to sound out the spelling in their words and really good using correct formation of the letters, they are now practicing their dictation. I call out a word and they have to write it on their board. This is a great way to build fluency in their spelling and writing so try it at home whenever you have a chance.

Aistear

During Aistear the girls built a fantastic cage for Maaya's parrot!

Operating on a snake is serious business! Always have a kettle close at hand for tea breaks!

That's it for this week folks! Enjoy your wknd!

Kind Regards,

Ms Murray

0 Comments

Friday 20th April

20/4/2018

3 Comments

New Topic: Animals

The children are really enjoying their new topic around animals. Ask your children about our focus story Pig in The Pond. You can watch it online here.

Learning About The Farm.

We love listening to music when we do our quiet work! The children are focusing really hard on their farm yard drawings in this video.

Phonics and letter writing

The children are working hard to keep their letters uniform and making sure they form them the correct way.

D.E.A.R Time (Drop Everything and Read)

D.E.A.R Time in rm 5! from Ms Murray on Vimeo.

Fun in The Sun!!!

Enjoy the weekend... here's to hoping the sun hangs around for a while!

Kind Regards,

Ms Murray

3 Comments

Friday 13th April

13/4/2018

4 Comments

Back to School!

It's great to be back to normality after the Easter break, March was just funny month so we've lots to catch up on. Here is a video of the Easter fun we had hunting for eggs before broke up for the holidays.

Homework

Firstly, I want to say a massive thank you to all of the parents! The children have shown great improvement with their tricky words, blending in their word boxes, letter sounds and writing. I can hardly keep up with them! Just a few notes on each homework task:
Tricky Words: Most of the children are flying with their tricky words so I will be including a new green set in some of the homework packs from next week.
Word Boxes: I am thrilled to see such improvement with the blending. It is great to see them using smooth, clear blending with precise pronunciation of their letter sounds. I have started to put in two word boxes each time so you can continue to practise at a steady pace. I try to give each child the time they need to hear them so it may take time to get to everyone.
Writing Workbooks: Well done to the children who have been practicing their writing. Please make sure you follow the following instructions when conpleteing the workbooks.

Only complete assigned letters (2 each week).
Please use pencil only.
Please supervise your child and make sure they are using correct formation every time. Practicing incorrect formation will only hinder your child's progress. Rub out any mistakes and have your child try again.

Well done on this week's homework sheet, I meant to take a picture of the lovely colouring but forgot!!

New Topic: Animals

Our new topic is animals. We have had great fun learning about people who care for animals. The ficus this week is on domestic animals so we have adding a vet to our play as well as a farm area and a pet sitters. The sheet below will be going home in their HW folders next week.

Maths - It's All About The Money!

Sorting the Trocaire money! LoL!

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.