We have had 3 full weeks of school now and the children are settling down so well. We have been busy learning all of new routines and beginning school work. There are lots of new friends now and fun games happening in the yard.
We are working on our pre-writing skills at the moment - drawing different types of swirls, squiggles and lines and strengthening our hand muscles. We use lots of pinching exercises for this, such as opening clothes pegs, tearing strips of paper, using playdough etc.
We are working on making matches and things that go together (eg - toothbrush and toothpaste) in maths. We had fun playing this game on our new touchscreen interactive whiteboard http://www.primarygames.com/puzzles/match_up/findthepair/ It got progressively more difficult so if you are playing at home you might find the children need a little help. We have also been playing lots of memory matching pairs games, which helps us with so many different skills.
We have started our Jolly Phonics sounds and have just finished phase 1. These sounds are 's a t i p n.' It would be a huge help if you would keep practicing these at home. You could play "I Spy," go on a sound hunt or spot a specific sound on 1 page of a book or on signs in a shop etc. For the sounds, we don't use their names in Junior Infants, we refer to them as the sound they make instead. (We say 'i' as in the start of igloo, not I as in 'eye.' This makes it much easier for the children when they begin to blend their sounds later in the year.
We are working on our pre-writing skills at the moment - drawing different types of swirls, squiggles and lines and strengthening our hand muscles. We use lots of pinching exercises for this, such as opening clothes pegs, tearing strips of paper, using playdough etc.
We are working on making matches and things that go together (eg - toothbrush and toothpaste) in maths. We had fun playing this game on our new touchscreen interactive whiteboard http://www.primarygames.com/puzzles/match_up/findthepair/ It got progressively more difficult so if you are playing at home you might find the children need a little help. We have also been playing lots of memory matching pairs games, which helps us with so many different skills.
We have started our Jolly Phonics sounds and have just finished phase 1. These sounds are 's a t i p n.' It would be a huge help if you would keep practicing these at home. You could play "I Spy," go on a sound hunt or spot a specific sound on 1 page of a book or on signs in a shop etc. For the sounds, we don't use their names in Junior Infants, we refer to them as the sound they make instead. (We say 'i' as in the start of igloo, not I as in 'eye.' This makes it much easier for the children when they begin to blend their sounds later in the year.
We are trying to do increase our independence in school. Lot of the children are excellent at opening and closing their lunchboxes/beakers themselves. If you notice your child is struggling a little with theirs, please do some practicing at home. Also, if you feel they aren't eating enough lunch each day please remove packing/peels at home. This definitely slows some of the children down, as do yoghurts. At the moment, we take 20-25 minutes to eat our big lunch each day, so the children should have plenty of time....but it can be hard to concentrate with so many other children around. :)
Keep practicing with taking off jumpers, turning the sleeves the right way around and putting coats on and off independently. The children should be well able to dress themselves by school age but turning sleeves the right way around can still be a bit tricky.
Our lining up in the yard in the morning is going really well. Such big kids coming in by themselves! You are, of course, still welcome to bring them in if they are nervous but they seem to be doing really well with that at the moment.
I am still missing 3 contact forms/permission slips. If you could please return these this week to school. I will hopefully be able to put up photos of the children here when I get these all back.
If you are worried or concerned or just want to check in, pop in to me after school any day.
Keep practicing with taking off jumpers, turning the sleeves the right way around and putting coats on and off independently. The children should be well able to dress themselves by school age but turning sleeves the right way around can still be a bit tricky.
Our lining up in the yard in the morning is going really well. Such big kids coming in by themselves! You are, of course, still welcome to bring them in if they are nervous but they seem to be doing really well with that at the moment.
I am still missing 3 contact forms/permission slips. If you could please return these this week to school. I will hopefully be able to put up photos of the children here when I get these all back.
If you are worried or concerned or just want to check in, pop in to me after school any day.