We took St Valentine’s to be an opportunity to discuss all things love in our classroom.
We started with a read aloud on the subject and then shared what we thought love was and examples of it in our lives.
We then focused on some self love and wrote down some affirmations because it is important that we can point out some of the wonderful things about ourselves.

We celebrated global day of play in first and second class on February 5th. This was part of our creative schools programme and we had great fun!

First the children worked together to come up with a plan for the day and we went from there. There was plenty of singing, dancing, painting and free play. The children brought in a toy from home to enhance their play. Play is the real work of children and it is so important that they get the opportunity to choose their activities and develop their problem solving, collaborating and developmental skills. 

The children loved exploring items around the classroom to identify what was magnetic and what wasn’t. It was also fun for the children to estimate and predict what might be magnetic too. We also identified some similarities between some of the magnetic items in the classroom.  

We have been exploring length in 1st and 2nd and area in 2nd too.
The children loved using concrete materials to develop their measuring skills. We also worked on estimating too.

We were very busy during science week in first and second class. We read a story a day about different scientists- Marie Curie, Stephen Hawking, Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein and Alexander Graham Bell. 

We completed two science experiments-one with hot chocolate and the other was lava lamp making. 

We completed numerous stem activities including-catapults, marble mazes, box designing and dream house floor planning. We read some great books to whet our appetites-If I Built a House and Marshall Mellow.

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In first and second class, twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays, the children participate in imagination stations.

These are based on our theme for the month whic for September, was Growing Up in Ireland.

We learned about Ross Castle, the different amenities in our area and all about growing up in Ireland.

The imagination stations are both play based and inquiry based in nature. There is usually a creative area, junk art area, small world area and a construction area.

Children are free to go to whichever area they like. Most recently, we have designed a new bridge for Mountnugent, created our own Ross Castle and imagined what life was like in Mountnugent 100 years ago.

We focused on the strand of drawing in September in our art lessons and had plenty of opportunities to explore and develop our skills. 
We read the story, The Dot by Peter Reynolds and we responded to the story through drawing the endless possibilities of one black dot. 
We made self portraits with lovely colourful backgrounds too.
Our artist of the month was the street artist Banksy and we learned about his fascinating pieces including the shredding of his piece of art at an auction. 
We created our own version of ‘Girl with Balloon’ using he original for inspiration. 

We have been busy in First and Second creating some Spring Art. 

Two topics we have explored in January are data and time. We took part in some fun activities to consolidate the learning