Hello children,

We hope that you and your families are keeping well. Hopefully you are enjoying the extra hour of daylight in the evenings. It’s good to get outside when you can. Please remember to include lots of playing in your days! We would also love for you to try some of these activities during the next two weeks.

Take care,

Ms.Hanlon and Mrs. Condron

Senior Infants

Please practise vocabulary and phrases associated with Easter, spring and animals

Here are some cartoons made specifically for learning new words and phrases:

https://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/short-stories/the-lazy-bear

https://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/short-stories/no-dogs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEb1GsqxhZc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tyyh8rhwKQ8

Here are some word games to learn and practise vocabulary:

https://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/word-games/easter

https://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/word-games/birds

https://www.eslgamesplus.com/farm-domestic-animals-vocabulary-esl-memory-game/

https://www.eslgamesplus.com/sea-animals-aquatic-animals-vocabulary-esl-memory-game/

1st and 2nd Class

Atlas skills:

Find these countries in an Atlas or online:

• Burkina Faso
• Lithuania
• Argentina
• Uzbekistan
• Greenland

Can you find out which continent each of these countries are in?

Draw and colour the flag of two of those countries

Countdown Challenge

• What is the longest word you can make using these letters?
• How many short words can you make?

o k r i h s m a f

Start a project!

Over the next few weeks, you could work on a project about a famous person who you are very interested in. They could be a famous person from the past or from today. You could look up some interesting facts about them and perhaps write about why you are interested in them. Headings could include:

• Their name
• When they were born
• Where they are from
• What they are famous for
• Any other interesting facts or information about them
• You could draw a picture of them

Please save your work carefully. We really look forward to seeing it and talking all about it soon!

Please note: For internet based activities please ensure your children are supervised while accessing the internet.

Dear parents and guardians,

We hope you and yours are well. We appreciate this is a difficult time for you as parents. With this in mind, please find links to some resources and tips below which deal with general parenting, coping with your children and minding yourself during this period. Our own personal and mental health and wellbeing can sometimes be the last thing parents think of; it is now more important than ever.  Trying to keep a routine for yourself as well as your children can help. Don’t forget to stay in touch with family and friends by phone or social media; the right kind of social contact can benefit everyone at this time.  Continue reading →

Fine Motor Skill Activities:

Practice Number Formation: Drawing 1,2,3,4,5 in sand/flour/sugar/soil from the garden/shaving foam.

Clothes pegs: Allow your child to practice pinching pegs open and closed. Keep it fun by having them make a long line of clothes pegs by pinning one to the other. Or they can use one clothes peg to pinch cotton balls from one bowl to another.

Playdough is great as it encourages a variety of ways to use hands.

Guide your child through simple activities with the play dough, then let their imagination take over. You can:

• give a plastic knife to “cut” the play dough into smaller pieces.

• help turn one play dough into smaller balls.

• show how to roll the play dough into “snakes”/

• mix different-colored play dough together to form new colors.

• flatten the playdough into pancake shapes.

• squeeze, stretch and pinch the play dough.

Scissors: Using a child friendly scissors is a fantastic way to develop fine motor skills. Use smaller pieces of card stock or construction paper to make for easier holding and cutting. Children can also use the pieces they have cut to create a collage.

Painting allows your child to use paintbrushes to develop fine motor skills. Experiment with different-sized paintbrushes, as well as a variety of things to paint on. One day children might paint on a large cardboard box, and another on finger paint paper.

Lego Toys: To start, give your child larger Lego blocks to practice building and getting used to locking and unlocking the pieces together.

Then, as they get better playing with those, offer the standard Lego pieces, small enough to truly hone in on their fine motor skills.

Buttoning: Buttoning and unbuttoning clothes or teddy/doll’s clothes.

Make a necklace: Using either cheerios or pasta, create a necklace by placing them onto a string.

Gardening/Planting: There are parts of gardening that require smaller muscle control. For instance, transferring seedlings into a garden requires hand-eye coordination skills to safely carry the smaller plant to the new hole. Your child will also need to be able to grasp a trowel to dig and to use a pincer grasp when picking up seeds to plant.

Gross Motor Skills Activities:

Dancing, either freestyle or through songs with movements, such as “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes,” “I’m a Little Teapot,” “The Wheels on the Bus,” or “Popcorn,” provides lots of movement.

• Standing on one foot for 5 seconds

• Standing on tiptoes for 3 seconds without moving feet

• Hops on one foot 5 times

• Walks backwards on a line

• Target Practice: Toss a ball into a hula hoop

• Catching and Throwing a ball.

Move like an animal

You’ll need some open space, but this is a great way to get kids using new muscles. Here are some ideas:

• Move like a bird (run with arms outstretched)

• Move like a snake (wiggle on tummies on the floor)

• Move like a bear (walk on all fours)

• Move like a frog (get down on haunches and hop)

• Move like a kangaroo (take big leaps with arms in front of chest)

• Move like an elephant (with heavy stomping)

• Move like a penguin (waddle with ankles close together and arms pinned to sides)