Category Archives: Junior Infants

Junior Infants-Term 3 2022/23

Junior Infants have had a very busy final term. We have had great fun learning in Aistear under the themes of ‘The Travel Agent’ and ‘The Airport’ – it is getting us excited for our own summer holidays! In Science and Geography we have been learning about the different layers of the hedgerow and what trees and animals that can be found in each. We went on a nature trail around the school grounds and found lots of hedgerow growing in our school environment. We have been learning about minibeasts too and went on an exciting minibeast hunt where we found worms, spiders, woodlouse, flies, bees and even ladybirds! Alan from Clann na nGael GAA Club has been taking us for Gaelic lessons over the past couple of weeks and we love being outside having fun in the gorgeous weather! 

Junior Infants- Term 2 2022/23

Junior Infants have been very busy this term. They have enjoyed learning about ‘The Adventures of Tom Crean’ , ‘The Weather’ and ‘St. Patrick’ in Aistear. As part of our weather theme, the children learned about weather instruments such as the thermometer and rain gauge and they even engaged in role play where they reported as weather presenters. In SESE they have been learning about the signs of spring and can identify spring flowers that can be found around Cloonakilla N.S.  Ms Shine and Ms McDermott brought in some colourful flowers and the children sketched beautiful drawings of  daffodils and tulips.  In English they have been learning about different writing genres and the focus this term has been on procedural writing – this gave us a great excuse to make delicious Rice Krispie buns! 

In February, we really enjoyed Gaelic sessions with Alan from Clann na nGael as well as learning ‘Skip to my Lou’ and ‘A bird flew into the woods’ folk dances under the Dance strand in P.E. 

At the beginning of March we celebrated World Book Day at Cloonakilla N.S. The children created colourful bookmarks, went on a scavenger hunt looking for the characters in The Gingerbread Man and Ms Kelly read them the story of The Hungry Caterpillar. To celebrate St. Patrick’s Day they created Seán the shamrock, Larry the leprechaun and striking rainbow artwork.

Junior Infants-Term 1 2022

Junior Infants have worked very hard since they started in Cloonakilla! In Aistear, they had lots of fun learning about The Doctor’s Surgery, Autumn and Halloween. In September, we had an exciting visit from Dr Lynam. He showed us some of the doctor’s equipment we had learned about in Aistear and we got to ask him lots of questions too!

The Junior Infants did lots of activities when learning about Autumn. They made leaf rubbings; finger painted autumn leaves and had fun painting and colouring hedgehog pictures in Art. They are fantastic at saying their poem, ‘The Hedgehog’. For Maths Week, Junior Infants had great fun playing the maths games that 5th Class made for them.  Last week, we really enjoyed going upstairs for the 6th Class performances of Goldilocks and the Three Bears and Beauty and the Beast in Irish.

Term 3

The children in Junior Infants have been very busy since we came back to school after the Easter holidays. We’ve talked about the importance of staying safe on the roads and learned the ‘Safe Cross Code.’ 

Our exciting theme this month for Aistear is ‘The Pizzeria.’ We’ve been very busy feeding all of our hungry customers in role play and making beautiful pictures using dried pasta in Art. We are really enjoying our weekly ‘Show and Tell.’ Children have brought in their favourite toys, teddies, medals, books and even a horse shoe which everyone thought was very cool! 

We started GAA sessions last week with our new coach Alan and cannot wait for all of the fun we will have in the forthcoming weeks.

Term 2 Junior Infants

This term Junior Infants have been learning all about the Toy shop, toys and games from the past,Tom crean and the weather station. The children took part in Aistear activities based on these themes such as making toys from playdough, playing hopscotch and skipping, creating Tom’s ships using tangrams, weather sorting, cutting Tom Crean pictures and in role-play all the children became shop keepers, customers & weather forecasters. 

As part of our weather theme the children learned about the thermometer and a rain gauge. The children also made yummy rice Krispie buns as part of procedural writing. They made lots of beautiful art creations: Splash umbrellas, Valentine’s handprints and beautiful snowdrops to name a few. It has been a very busy term for Junior Infants.

Term 1 Junior Infants

Junior Infants have been very busy since returning to school after mid-term break. In Aistear we have been learning about Neil Armstrong and his trip to the moon. We have been learning about the changes in weather in Winter and created beautiful winter wolly art. Finally, we had great fun in P.E. this term. Our tennis coach Josh has been teaching us how to play tennis.

Christmas 2021!

This October Junior Infants have had a very busy few weeks learning about the themes of autumn and Halloween. We completed lots of fun activities in Aistear and learned about how some plants and animals change in autumn. This month the children also learned about how they have grown and changed since they were a baby and we examined their baby pictures to see if there were any similarities or differences. Finally, this week we celebrated Maths week. The children had great fun going on a Maths trail, creating rockets using different shapes in Art and also creating lovely colourful patterns.

National Tree Day 7th October.

Junior Infants and Senior Infants at Cloonakilla N.S celebrated National Tree Day on Thursday 7th October. Students gathered outside with their teachers near our outdoor classroom. Gerry, our caretaker, planted a Wild Cherry Tree as we watched with excitement. Students from each class helped Gerry by watering the tree after it was planted. Our Green School Committee will check on the tree and water it weekly.   We are very excited to watch our tree grow and to see beautiful white and pale pink flowers in the spring.

 

Our Nature Walk.

Our Nature walk was on the 6th of October. We saw nettles, dock leaves, delicious blackberries, and lots of trees and birds.

Aistear The Doctor.

Aistear Autumn!

Digital Technologies.

Some of the Junior Infants pupils are busy learning coding! The pupils are creating correctly sequenced algorithms. They are accurately entering their algorithm into a Bee-Bot and using logical reasoning to debug their algorithm or code if required. Then they share this work with an audience of their peers!

The Junior Infants have created beautiful Arts and Crafts!