Welcome back after the Christmas holidays. I hope you all had a wonderful break.
We are back to work in class with a lot of focus on blending and written work. We started out writing the number 1 just before the holidays and are writing 2 now. Next week, we are moving on to 3 and beginning writing letters, starting with i. We have finished all of the sounds we focus on in Junior Infants. (We look at all the alphabet sounds and "ch" and "sh." More letter combinations will follow next year.) Now, we have moved on and are using cvc (consonant/vowel/consonant) cubes to help us spell/sound words out. We are stretching the word out when we say it to help us. We are also focussing on word families - we started off with words that rhyme with 'at.' We drew pictures of things in the at family and some people even wrote words. We love the Jack Hartmann video on YouTube. It is great fun trying to read the words before he says them.
We are back to work in class with a lot of focus on blending and written work. We started out writing the number 1 just before the holidays and are writing 2 now. Next week, we are moving on to 3 and beginning writing letters, starting with i. We have finished all of the sounds we focus on in Junior Infants. (We look at all the alphabet sounds and "ch" and "sh." More letter combinations will follow next year.) Now, we have moved on and are using cvc (consonant/vowel/consonant) cubes to help us spell/sound words out. We are stretching the word out when we say it to help us. We are also focussing on word families - we started off with words that rhyme with 'at.' We drew pictures of things in the at family and some people even wrote words. We love the Jack Hartmann video on YouTube. It is great fun trying to read the words before he says them.
We are having a fantastic time learning all about the Arctic at the moment. We will be focussing on the Antarctic towards the end of January. Thank you for donations/lend of sheets, Styrofoam, books and more. It has been such a help.
We have been learning all about polar bears, Arctic foxes, hares, seals, beluga whales and Inuit people. Our small world area has had lots of use over the last few weeks. The children played with pretend snow, Arctic animals, ice floes and icebergs, as well as some odd bits. Polar bears went hunting for seals on ice floes. Bear caves were created and snow storms took place. Unsurprisingly, a lot of sweeping up snow happened also!
We have been learning all about polar bears, Arctic foxes, hares, seals, beluga whales and Inuit people. Our small world area has had lots of use over the last few weeks. The children played with pretend snow, Arctic animals, ice floes and icebergs, as well as some odd bits. Polar bears went hunting for seals on ice floes. Bear caves were created and snow storms took place. Unsurprisingly, a lot of sweeping up snow happened also!
In our art area has been lots of fun. We explored painting with frozen cubes. It was interesting to see how the paint changed as it melted and the effect it had on our paper. We also made igloos out of foam and plant pots or tubs (you will be seeing them at home soon!)
Our role play area was very popular. During the first week back, we pretended to be polar bears and had a bear cave. Some children decided to become other animals in the Arctic and were being hunted. This week, we played at being Inuits. We had an ice fishing hole, with sight word fish on magnets, a campfire and an 'igloo.'
Our other two areas so far have been sensory - making things we would find in the Arctic with playdough and the Quiet Area - reading and chatting about the different Arctic/Antarctic books.