Birthday/Celebrations - September 2022

Welcome to our very busy P1/P2 classroom.

Our topic this month is all about Birthdays and Celebrations. We will talk about our favourite birthday presents and surprises. We will make party balloons to celebrate the month that we were born in. In Role-play we will create a ' Birthday  party Zone', making props for a birthday party using party banners, streamers, invitations, party hats , food and drink.

In Literacy we will read books about Bens birthday, Spots surprises and Spots party. In writing we will make invitations, cards and writing about the best birthday present.

In Numeracy we will solve problems solving problems relating to building and design tasks.  The children will use mathematical language associated with measuring long/longer/short/shorter. ;also counting plates/cups for party guests.

Outdoors we will make cakes, party food, in our new mud kitchen area.

It is truly fanastic to be back to school with all our friends in school  

October 2022  - Fruit and Vegetables & Autumn.

Our topic during this month of October will be focussing on Autumn and then moving on to Fruit and Vegetables. The children will be developing their knowledge and skills through a variety of play experiences in cluding-: The Fruit &  Vegetable shop/weighing with scales and using money. In the house corner we will introduce cooking utensils. We will make hedgehogs. We will make patterns using fruit /vegetables, also doing experiments with these on floating and sinking. We will explore healthy and non- healthy foods and also sort different types of leaves.

Through World Around Us we will be learning about Autumnal changes, characteristics of Autumn, how the leaves change colours , different clothes we wear in the seasons and the weather. We will learn about different types of fruit and vegetables and make a pictogram of favourite fruit and vegetables. Mr Mc Veigh is sending us out on a scavenger hunt to find various vegetables and Autumn leaves /twigs for his Maths topic around the playground. We can't wait!!!

We can't wait !!! 

 November 2022 - Colour

This month in the P1/P2 classroom we will be learning about the topic - Colour.

We will be learning about different colours, mixing colours/ light dark colours- cold/warm colours.

In Literacy we will be reading stories about Elmer the colourful elephant, the Gingerbread house, the day the crayons stooped working and The Rainbow fish.

We will experiment with different activities using food colours and shaving foam/ make coloured chains/ marble playdoh/ rainbows/ bubble footprints and many more. 

In Number/ topic we will make patterns using 2/3 different colours with playdoh cubes and beads etc.

We will make colourful shapes with colourful materials and pictograms of our favourite colours.   

December- Christmas and the PostOffice

Our topic in P1/P2 for December is all about Christmas and the PostOffice. 

We will -: Dress up in the Christmas Grotto as Santa's little helpers, wrap presents in the post office, post letters and cards and write labels, and hopefully 'Malachy' the Post Man will pay us a visit. At the art table we will be busy making christmas decorations, angels, trees , stockings and nativity cribs. Also we will learn about Christmas across the world and how it is celebrated. We will listen to lots of Christmas stories. There is a visitor and exciting adventure every morning in our classroom from 'The Elf on the shelf'. The children love to see what he has been up to every night when they go home. We will be writing stories about what he gets up to when we are sleeping.

Our show is going to be fantastic and we love learning the songs and dances for it. We are learning about the Birth of Jesus in class and playing with the lovely knitted crib figures which Mrs Maguires mum gave to our class a few years ago. 

Look at the pictures of our busy festive classroom... We just love Christmas in P1/P2.     

January   - Winter weather and Animals in Winter

Our topic in P1/2 this month is all about Winter. We will learn about -:

Winter animals, winter weather, winter clothes and keeping warm. In the World around Us we will learn about materials in the environment and seasonal changes. we will understand that water changes in different conditions(i.e water - to - ice).

Numeracy

We will sort random collections of materials, use money in the winter shop, build igloos out of junk art.

Measure blocks for the igloo and sort them in order of size.

Literacy

Enjoy a range of Winter storyboards; Use books to find out information about penguins, polar bears and seals.

Listen to and carry out instructions; Ask and answer questions: Read fiction/non -fiction books about winter. We will design snow /winter pictures in ICT. In TSPC we will build self confidence and form good relationships and learn how to respect others.

February  - Light Houses

This month our topic in P1/2 is all about Lighthouses.

In Playtime we will make a giant lighthouse for the children to play in. We will paint lighthouse pictures and make them out of play dough too. In Art we are making lighthouses out of junkart materials. We will design lighthouses using lego and stickle bricks. Using sand and water we will create a lighthouse scene with rocks and seashells. 

Literacy

We are focussing our writing and reading on stories about 'The lighthouse keepers Lunch' and enjoy a range of other stories too. In writing we will experiment with writing on sequencing a story about the lighthouse. We will use ICT to write our stories.   

Numeracy.

We will sort pebbles and shells, build bricks within addition /subtraction to 20. We will use money to buy ice-creams and learn how to give change from 10p, also measuring with cubes and connecting bricks in a pattern. We will be making sandwiches, squares and triangles etc. just as in the story.

Hopefully we can finish off our topic by a visit to St.Jonhs lighthouse.

The Health Centre/Hospital/Easter- March and April

This month in P1/2 classroom we will be finding out about the role of health centre/hospital worker and identify and name various parts of the body. The children will explore leaflets, magazines, books, posters related to the health centre. They will Understand the importance of a healthy lifestyle eg. diet, exercise, rest, leisure and hygiene.

The children will role play in a hospital setting, dressing up as Doctors and nurses and taking care of the toys and fixing them with bandages, slings etc. They will design and make an ambulance using junk materials.

In Numeracy children will-:

Sort for one,two,three criteria, make a 3D shape eg ambulance. Investigate measures- length, width,weight, height. Understand and use language of comparison eg long, short, width. Sequence events eg hospital routine, appointment. Match, recognise and write numbers around the health centre eg. Telephone numbers, time of appointments.

In Literacy children will-:

Enjoy a range of stories, poems non-fiction, texts including - At the doctors, story sacks. In writing they will have opportunities to experiment with writing using a variety of tools e.g prescriptions, appointments, booklets, signs etc.

It is so much fun and we will be very busy in our classroom. 

May - Fairytale and Castles

We have been learning about 'Castles & different Fairytale stories with castles in them, e.g Sleeping beauty, Cinderella, Rapunzel and Jack and the Beanstalk. We planned our work together and discussed all about the different parts of a castle and Kings and Queens who lived in them. We built castles out of lego, playdoh and stickle bricks and lots of recycled materials.

During our role play we dressed up in beautiful costumes and enjoyed being some of the characters in the fairytales. We measured the length of the different parts of the castle with cubes and string in Maths .

We made fairy marshmallows with chocolate and served them in our Castle area.

To finish off the children made their own castles at home as part of the project. We will put some photos up in our gallery. 

One day each week year 1&2 enjoy a structured play session in our assembly hall. Here they get to play with large toys and equipment , helping to develop gross motor skills , dexterity, balance , flexibility , social skills and lots more. View how we get on in our gallery.