​We spent the month of September settling into our new school environment, learning all about ourselves and getting to know each other.  We spent September learning all about Little Red Riding Hood. By the end of the month, the children were very familiar with the story and they re-enacted a scene from the story of the Big Bad Wolf disguised as Grandma. Check out some videos of the children performing this scene below:

Each afternoon, the children engage in forty minutes of integrated learning through play (Aistear). During ‘Aistear’, the teacher provides rich environments where the children can explore, touch, manipulate and experiment with a variety of real life and diverse materials. Children ask questions, make predictions and develop their thinking. They learn together with others. The environment offers opportunities to actively explore, to work independently and with others, to make decisions and follow through on their ideas, to solve problems, to engage in real life activities and to experience co-operative, symbolic, dramatic or pretend play. A rota is set up at the start of each week so that each child spends one day at each station and therefore engages in each station by the end of the week. Stations tend to include role play, construction, small world, márla, sand, water and junk art. During September, the children engaged in activities based around the home. The theme for October has been the fire station whereby the children engage in fire station role plays, fire safety awareness and water stations. We also decorated and built our own Autumn-themed small world. Check out the photos below: