NETNS.ie» Senior Infants

Spring is in the room…

Karen Allen — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 13:54:31 +0000

This week we were very excited about the beginning of a new season. We have said goodbye to Winter and have given a big hello to Spring! On Wednesday, we learned about the story of St. Brigid and the Curragh and the boys and girls worked so well together in groups drawing and writing the story in sequence to display on our wall.

In Science we cut open some bulbs to see what the inside looks like! We know that the bulb stores all of the food for the plant to grow so we need to be very careful when handling them.

Today we read a story by Hans Christian Anderson called The Snowdrop. We heard about how delicate these flowers are and how, with a little bit of sunshine, the brave snowdrop pushes and stretches through the earth to say hello to Spring. We then looked at lots of snowdrops and saw how the flowers are white with tiny green stripes on the inside. With a snowdrop in front of us and using coloured card, we drew the stem and leaves green and then used chalk to draw the white flower. We were delighted to see so many beautiful works of art drawn with such care and attention.

Well done everyone; we can really enjoy the beginning of Spring in our classroom by looking at all of these beautiful snowdrops.

Have a great weekend,

Slán.

Wind, rain….we can explain!

Karen Allen — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 14:43:36 +0000

Senior Infants have used so many scientific skills this week! We knew all about wind direction from our work last week, so this week we used an instrument called an anemometer to measure the wind speed. We measured the wind speed on Wednesday and discovered there was a “near gale” blowing. We know this because the anemometer spun up to number 7 on the Beaufort Scale.

For ten days we have collected and measured the rainfall, using a rain gauge. Only 1ml fell yesterday but earlier in the week we had a collection of 36ml! It was so much that we had to pour it into a bigger measuring jug to record the amount. Having collected all of our data, we made bar charts so as we can easily see the amount of rain that fell over the ten days. It has been great learning all about the weather and we carried out a survey in our class to see which is our favourite weather type. We recorded the results in a bar chart that we have displayed.

Great work everyone, enjoy a well earned weekend break!

Reminder: Early finishes next week

NETNS Office — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 13:46:26 +0000

School will finish at 1.55pm on Tuesday and Wednesday (31st January & 1st February) next week to facilitate some of the progress meetings which are taking place.

Infant classes will finish at the normal time of 1.10pm.

The After School Facility will operate until 1.55pm and school buses will depart at 1.55pm.

Ag déanamh ceapairí in Karen’s class!

Karen Allen — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 14:01:16 +0000

In Geography this week we have continued to learn about the wind. We made wind socks and went out to the yard with a compass to find which direction was North. Once we found North, we found South, East and West. It was a very windy day and when we held up the wind sock we discovered the wind was blowing from the East – we guessed it was North or East as it was cold out! We also tested the wind direction using bubbles; that was great fun.

This week in Gaeilge we have been learning “conas ceapaire a dhéanamh.” In class we had: arán, im, scian, cáis, agus tráta (bread, butter, knife, cheese, tomato) and the children took turns to put the sandwiches together. Only Karen spread the butter with the knife though! Today we made yummy “ceapairí” by drawing and cutting out what we needed and colouring everything the right colours, then sticking them together. Bhí na daltaí go h-iontach ar fad.

We have also been learning about the magic “e” and how it changes a short vowel to long vowel by making it say its name. We remembered that there are five vowels and they are: a, e, i, o and u.

What a great week in school and today we had the best listening day of the week, so well done everyone!

Slán anois.

Senior Infant Arctic Explorers

Michael Barrett — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 14:00:36 +0000

This week in Michael’s senior infant class, we learned a lot about animals who live in very cold places! We discovered interesting facts about polar bears who live at the Arctic! We learned that they hibernate all winter and emerge in Spring with baby bear cubs! We discovered how they stay warm, under all that fur and blubber! We worked as scientists, using furry cloths and ice-cubes, and we deduced that the furry cloth protected our hands from the cold ice-cubes! Now we understand how well the bear can keep warm on the cold ice under all that fur!

We read the Book,” Going on a Bear Hunt”, and made our own map of the bear hunt. We also went on a North Pole expedition in the classroom, and found seals and polar bears in the snow. We planted our Polar flag when we got there to let everyone know that we reached the North Pole.

We made animal masks in Art and listened to music about animals from the famous symphony; “Carnival of the Animals”.

We had so many different animals in our classroom this week! Leo the Leopard, a happy little puppet, helped us to talk about different animals in our Gaeilge lessons. Topsy Tiger had to go back to his Mammy at the Zoo as she missed him too much.

Monica

News from Senior Infants

Karen Allen — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 14:31:14 +0000

Senior Infants have had a really busy week this week! Our friend Molly went home to Australia and so we had an Australian Day on Wednesday. We already knew lots about Australia but we learned so much more; did you know that Australia is also called “Down Under?” We looked at a globe and found where Ireland and Australia are – they are half way around the world from each other! We were surprised to learn that it is summer Down Under at the moment and the weather is very hot. Barnaby Bear took a trip to Australia and showed us the Sydney Opera House, the Harbour Bridge and Ayers Rock as well as lots more!

In music this week we were learning about the orchestra. We learned that the person who directs the Orchestra is the conductor and we also discovered the String Family. We know that the Strings include the violins, violas, cellos, double bass and harp. We enjoyed listening to music and conducting it ourselves!

We have been learning lots about the wind in Geography. Did you know that wind is air that moves from high pressure to low pressure? We tested this out using a balloon and then we went out to the yard and tested it again using only ourselves - the children will be able to explain to you what we did! Today we did great experiments to see how strong the wind can be using straws, toy cars, hats, crayons and a hairdryer! It was great fun.

Have a lovely weekend everyone,

Slán.

The Week in Senior Infants

Michael Barrett — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 14:09:31 +0000

This week in our class we had some very exciting news. We have a visitor that is going to be helping us with our work for the next five weeks. We have already worked on some very exciting projects about animals. We also looked at animals that live in the North Pole and the South Pole and where both these places are on an interactive globe. Check back with us next week for more exciting news.

Progress Meetings

NETNS Office — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 13:15:06 +0000

Progress Meetings will take place during the coming weeks. Teachers will inform individual parents /guardians of their own specific time, day and date.

Due to Department regulations, progress meetings must take place outside school hours. School will close to pupils (1st to 6th class) on Tuesday 31st January and Wednesday 1st February at 1.55pm in order to facilitate some of these meetings.

Please be advised that after school care will finish at 1.55pm and the buses will also be departing school fifteen minutes early on these dates.

We will endeavour to accommodate all parents/guardians with times that suit both parties.

Craft Fair Sneak Peek!!!!!

Sacra Rodgers — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 15:20:22 +0000

Here is a little preview of all the fabulous crafts the children have made. Looking forward to seeing you all tomorrow!

North and South poles…

Karen Allen — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 14:45:00 +0000

This week in Maths, 7 was our magic number and we used our great problem solving skills to find lots of different ways to make the number seven. In Science we learned all about magnets – it was great fun. We are getting so good at working as scientists that before we started, we predicted what we thought the magnets would stick to and then we tried it out. We were right on most things! We learned that there are two poles, the North and South, and they attract each other; which means the magnets stick to each other. When we put the south pole facing the south pole they pushed apart - in fact, when we placed the magnets on the table, south pole facing south pole, one magnet spun around all by itself and then stuck to the other – it was fantastic. We have learned so much about magnets that we are going to make something very special next week….. it’s a surprise!

Have a lovely weekend everyone,

Slán.