Hand Print Flowers

Another find in my pictures folder :-)

These were finished off with the child's picture in the middle.

Valentine's Art Work

Mosaic Love Hearts Found these in my pictures album from last year. I must not have had time to upload them.

Making Patterns

Patterns 2012 on PhotoPeach


Pattern Work 2013 on PhotoPeach

Dr Seuss

This week we are going to watch Seussical the Musical so in preparation we having listened to some of his books being read aloud and some cartoons while staing inside on our lunchtimes due to the wet weather we have at the moment.

Here is a lovely cartoon of Horton Hears a Who. It is 25 minutes long so a nice length for lunchtime, it has some lovely songs in it.




Here is Cat in the Hat read by Justin Bieber




Yertle the Turtle

Bucket Filling

We are creating a happy board in our class. The children share happy stories from the yard and these are displayed on our "Happy Board" on a post it. We are hoping to fill our board and then start to fill a bucket full of Happy stories and events.

Here is a story we listened to about being a Bucket Filler.

Two vowels

Today we are learning about the sound ai. We are also learning about what happens when 2 vowels meet in a word. Here is a lovely song we listened to, the words of this song are at the end of the post.



We also listened to a song on starfall and there was a game at the end, we will play the game later today.

When Two Vowels Go Walking

When two vowels go walking
The first one does the talking
In "boat" you hear the "o" and not the "a"

In "meat" you hear the "e"
The "a" sits quietly
The second vowel you see but you don't say

But...
Shh!

Just the two of us together
In "train" and "pail" and "rain"
The "a" speaks up; the "i" does not
But...
Shh! Let me explain

When two vowels go walking
The first one does the talking
In "brain" you hear the "a" but not the "i"

In "soap" the "o" is clear
The "a" you never hear
In "say" you say the "a" and not the "y"

But...
Shh! Isn't it neat?
But...
Shh! It can't be beat!
But...
Shh! It's such a dream!

Don't mean to boast
But here's a toast
We're quite a team!

When two vowels go walking
The first one does the talking
I'm sorry, number two, it's such a shame

Although it gives you pain
The rule is very plain
When two vowels walk
The first one says its name!

But...
Shh!

Yes, when two vowels walk
The first one says its name!

The Ugly Duckling

This week we enjoyed watching the Story of the Ugly Duckling and learning the song. We learned that it is important to be kind to everyone.

from gimmiethe prize (youtube)

There Once Was an Ugly Duckling

There once was an ugly ducklingWith feathers all stubby and brownAnd the other birds in so many words saidGet out of town, get out, get out, get out of town
And he went with a quackAnd a waddle and a quackIn a flurry of eiderdownThat poor little ugly ducklingWent wandering far and near
And at every place they said to his faceNow get out of here, get out, get out, get out of hereAnd he went with a quackAnd a waddle and a quackAnd a very unhappy tear
All through the wintertime he hid himself awayAshamed to show his face, afraid of what others might sayAll through the winter in his lonely clump of wheatTill a flock of swans spied him there and very soon agreed
You’re a very fine swan indeedSwan? Me, a swan? Go on, you’re a swanTake a look at yourself in the lake and you’ll seeAnd he looked and he saw and he saidIt's me, I am a swan, whee
I’m not such an ugly ducklingNo feathers all stubby and brownFor in fact these birds in so many words saidThe best in town, the best, the best, the best in town
Not a quack, not a quackNot a waddle or a quackBut a glide and a whistleAnd a snowy white backAnd a head so noble and highSay, "Who’s an ugly duckling?" Not I

The Number One

We listened to Sian's story of the number one.

Using the back of our finger we dragged the snail down to make the number 1.

We then played a counting game to find the flower pot that has only 1 flower in it.

The Bubble Game. We had to find the bubble with the number one in them, the other bubbles had straight lines, curvy lines in them to try and catch us out.

Catch the Snails.

This was the last game we played. The snails were sliding around trying to run away from us, but we caught them all. We only caught snails with a number on their back.

The we went to more.starfall.com and played the number one video.

Letter C Writing Stations

We had lots of fun using the whiteboard, playdough, the interactive whiteboard and rainbow writing to make the letter C today.

Hallowe'en

Skeleton Dance

Love this song for Hallowe'en and learning about parts of the body.




Making Hallowe'en pictures using 2-D shapes

We started by painting the orange background, left to dry and then glued shapes to create a witch picture.

Sorting

These pictures should have been posted back in September :-)

Scroll down to find a link to an online sorting game.

Colour Sorting Game

Music in the Classroom

We are very lucky to be going to Music in the Classroom in Leisureland, Galway in January. We are busy learning songs and moves. It's great fun!
Here are the actions to the songs we are learning.




We are also learning about music and the orchestra. We will get to see the RTE orchestra and conductor Gearoid Grant at the concert.

2-D Shapes

We are learning about shapes.
We learnt about squares, triangles, circles and rectangles. We can count the sides of a shape to find out what it is. We watched these videos. We hope you like them.








We went hunting for shapes in this game

Animated Stories from Youtube

There are some gorgeous stories available on youtube. I have already posted Michael Rosen's We're Going on a Bearhunt, here are some more.

The Gruffalo

Unfortunately I can't embed this video for you but the link above will take you directly there. This is the full video of the film made out of the Gruffalo, it is approx. 25 minutes long.

The story, rather than film,  read aloud is here



Here's The Gruffalo's Child

Nursery Rhymes

Back to School!! Sorry have not updated this blog since January but will give it a go now for another few months :-)

Nursery Rhymes


Literactive
Have focused a lot on Nursery Rhymes over the last ten days or so using activities from Literactive as well as learning and singing the Rhymes. The nursery rhyme activities in the Road to Reading section are great.
I also like Speaksboos most if not all of their Nursery Rhyme videos are free, and there are also lots of stories read aloud for free.

Story time

Have come across lots of great sites for story time, one of my favourites is StoryLine Online featuring stories read by members of the Screen Actors Guild Foundation. It is definitely worth checking out.

We Give Books

Another great websites to view and read books from is We Give Books the books are not read aloud for you but it is great to be able to see the books enlarged on the whiteboard. You can also zoom in on the book by double clicking it.

I particularly like the DorlingKindsley books, they are great for S.E.S.E.

I hope you like the links and that they are of some use to you.

Catch it, Bin it, Kill it!

Colgate Lather Up for Good Health 

Lots of excellent resources on this website, generally more suited to junior classes with whom you may need to explicitly teach the importance of hand washing. The links below all come from this site.

When to Wash

When to Wash Hands

An undersea explanation of why, when, and how to wash hands.

Featuring Handy™ the Hand

How to Wash Your Hands

How to Wash Your Hands

How to Sneeze Correctly by Elmo

Simple song from Sesame Street to sing while washing hands, its is recommended that it is sung twice while lathering hands;

Wash, wash, wash my hands
Make them nice and clean
Rub the bottoms and the tops
And fingers in between (to the tune of Row, Row, Row your Boat)

Fabric Angel

Fabric Collage Angel

There are a couple of stages to the Fabric Angel but its easy and looks gorgeous! 

I precut out the fabric triangle and circle in lots of different colours and patterns. Children decorated the angel's dress with buttons, ribbons and sequins.

Handprinting

 Dresses

Assembling

Face and hair detail

Finished product!

Winter Art

Jack Frost Collage

Straight forward collage using tinfoil, which is a bit more difficult to manipulate than ordinary paper, some students found this difficult to complete and needed help and encouragement!

Christmas Cards

We created these prints which were then used to make a class Christmas Card.
We used sponges to print the Snowman's head and body and cardboard to print the hat and arms. Buttons and facial features were fingerprinted on.

The tree was printed using cardboard again and the decorations were fingerprinted again, with a sticker star on top!

Bouncing Snowmen

Hoping to post some of the art work that we made just before the holidays, I like this one and will probably do it again. It was great for fine motor skills and cutting skills and of course following directions! A few snowmen had bits of their body cut off but that's to be expected, I always have a few spares when attempting these type of activities.

I have attached the template and instructions for the snowman below. 

Bouncing Snowman -

2 of My Favourite Youtube Clips

We're Going on a Bearhunt.

We really enjoyed Michael Rosen's reading of his book, he really brings it to life.




Twinkle Twinkle

I adore this version, the animation is gorgeous.