As world book day approached, we had the opportunity to visit Raheny Library. We were told a story by a storyteller and we created a story den. This den was decorated with characters from our favourite books. On world book day, Ms Downes visited us and read us an excerpt from ‘The Twits’ by Roald Dahl. We all squirmed in our seats listening to the horrid pranks which they played on each other!
In the days coming up to Pancake Tuesday we filled our pom-pom reward jar for great listening! The reward was making pancakes. Each group made a bowl of batter, cracking the eggs, measuring the milk and stirring. They were yummy!
When we came back after Christmas, the children began learning about orienteering. We played some crack the code games and learned how to read a key. Here are some snaps of the fun we had!
Throughout December, 2nd class had lots of fun getting ready for Christmas. We made beautiful outdoor decorations for the yard, we turned into fashion designers and created real outfits and we made beautiful decorations for the yard. A highlight of our PE was our gymnastics circuits! In late December we had a visit from Santa, made some tasty treats and even had a pj day! Here are some of the snaps of our December highlights.
Just after we retuned from October half-term, Reverend Kevin invited our school to participate in a church service, celebrating the new school year. We had a wonderful time singing some of our favourite songs and listening to some readings and poems too. Reverend Kevin also gave us a short tour of the church explaining what each the different items at the front of the church were used for.
It was science week in November! To celebrate this we experimented with electricity, making working circuits. We used bulbs, buzzers, wires and battery packs. After all the children got their circuits working, they were tasked with the challenge of creating a working lighthouse. Here are some of our very creative creations.
In celebration of filling our pom-pom jar to the half-way mark, rang a dó had an ‘Australia Day!’ Over the past few weeks, we have learned about schools in the outback, the climate and all about the native animals. Today, each group presented their projects on native Australian animals. It was great fun having all the children in the class present to each other. To help us celebrate we also had some teddies, we tried our best accents and we ‘roasted’ marshmallows on our ‘campfire’.
Over the past three weeks, 2nd class have been very creative! We have looked at patterns and lines using paper cuttings, charcoals and paint.
Firstly, everyone made a funky self portrait of themselves using bright colours.
Then, after a fun activity of drawing our friends (without looking at the paper!) 2nd class picked someone in the class and used charcoals to draw the back of their head. We focused on the lines that we could see. They used smudging techniques to blend the harsh charcoal lines.
In our final week of looking at lines, we used random classroom objects (lids, crayons, egg cups, straws, pegs) to create inventive marks. After everyone trialed what sort of marks they could make individually, 2nd class worked as a team with the other children at their table groups to create weird and wacky aliens.
We have been learning all about bones and skeletons in Science. Last week we made skeletons to help us focus on how many bones the body has. Currently the children are hard at work creating books about all they have learned on the app book creator.
Maths:
Hit the Button is a game we have been playing as one rotation of our maths stations. It is super for developing their mental maths – playing this for 5 minutes a day would be very beneficial. We have used the doubles, halves and number bond games. It can be downloaded as an app or played online.
Here is a link to the game:
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button
Gaeilge:
There is a number of fun Irish games on this website. The children have to read the sentence or listen for an instruction and match it to the correct picture. Some of them might enjoy the weather game!
https://ccea.org.uk/snas-ar-sceal/cluichi-ec2/
This website has simple yet interesting read aloud books that the children can listen to and then try to read for themselves.
https://www.leighanois.com/leabharliosta.php?banda=2
This is a lovely padlet which has a wide range of stories and fairytales read by fluent Irish speakers. You and your child may enjoy listening to one of these together!