Hello boys and girls in Junior Infants,
I hope you all had another lovely week. It’s clear that you all have been very busy! The photographs and videos you’ve shared on Seesaw have made me a really happy teacher! I’m delighted to see images of you doing some of the activities I suggested here on the website. This week I’ve seen and heard about children practising writing patterns, copying pictures, listening for sounds, sounding out words, counting, singing songs, saying their nursery rhymes, drawing pictures, baking, bird watching, reading stories, talking about feelings, making numbers with play dough, doing arts and crafts along with so much more! Every time you post a picture, video or message I’m delighted to be able to respond with a message just for you! Please keep sharing so we can keep the contact going! If you haven’t done so already, please send on your consent forms for using Seesaw to Mr. Donnelly. He is still waiting to receive a few.
Happy Birthday to Donato. I hope you have a wonderful day!
Well done Junior Infants on another wonderful week,
Ms. Leonard
Phonics Practise
By the end of this week we will have covered all the sounds that have been taught so far in Junior Infants.
Reminder of Link to phonics resources on C.J. Fallon website https://slp.cjfallon.ie/
- This website is worth a visit before your child practises their writing. The Letter formation videos will remind them of the correct way to form each letter.
- You will find ‘ie’ in Sounds Like Phonics Book B, Unit 1 The Park – vowel digraphs
- You will find ‘z’ in Sounds Like Phonics Book A, Unit 4 The Zoo
- You will find ‘w’ in Sounds Like Phonics Book A, Unit 3 The Toy Shop
- Remember, some of the sounds this week can be found in the middle of and at the end of words, as well as at the beginning. Encourage your child to repeat the words and to listen for the sounds in them.
- You will find suitable worksheets to practise this weeks ‘rainbow writing’ in pdf file link below:
large letter tracing (including ‘ie’)
- You may like worksheets from the Jolly Phonics website https://www.jollylearning.co.uk/resource-bank/cartoonito-activity-sheets/
(If you don’t have a printer, you could have a look at the worksheets to copy onto a blank page or to give you a few ideas of words that have the sounds)
Click on images above to link to Jolly Phonics songs
Below are a few more videos/songs to support the learning of this weeks sounds
Reading Choice Board
Click to link to website
I hope you all had a look at the Teach Your Monster to Read Website that I suggested last week. As I mentioned, if you access it on a computer/laptop you will gain free access to the activities. You will find a variety of fun games to help your child practise reading their phonics sounds.
Practise this week’s ‘w’ and ‘z’ sounds and any other sounds covered in our phonics revision over the last few weeks.
Online stories – this week’s suggestion
https://www.storylineonline.net/books/please-please-bees/
Nursery Rhyme Practise
Click on links above for videos of nursery rhymes
Maths Choices
Click for link to song
I have heard that some children would like to practise their maths by playing a few online games. Below you will find some links to games for you to try this week.
In Junior Infants we want children to have a good knowledge and understanding of numbers 0-5. Some of these games will help to consolidate some of the following skills that we have been working on this year.
- count forwards/backwards
- put the numbers in order
- identify what number comes before/ after each of these numbers,
- explore how each of these numbers can be made up (4 can be 1 and 3, 2 and 2, 3 and 1, 1 and 0)
- solve simple word problems using 0-5
I would recommend for you to select levels using these lower numbers to begin with. Allow your child to explore other levels if they show the interest and enjoy challenging themselves. Junior Infants are always curious about the larger numbers and enjoy counting ‘big numbers’. We want children to develop their positive attitudes towards maths so feel free to try other games that catch your eye also. Enjoy!
I hope you enjoyed watching the elephants on the Dublin Zoo webcam last week.
This week I would like you to have a look at the penguin webcam. The penguins eat their lunch at 2.30p.m. every day so perhaps that would be a good time to log in! You might even see the new penguin chicks that were born on 29th of March and the 3rd of April! The first baby’s parents are called Monica (7) and Joey (8). The second chick’s parents are called Magdalena (18) and Patrick (16)! Magdalena and Patrick first laid an egg together back in 2007 and are the parents of new mum Monica. Their other offspring include Chandler and Phoebe – both still in Dublin Zoo.
The two newborns become the newest members of the 16 strong colony in Dublin Zoo’s penguin habitat.
RTÉ Home School Hub has a lovely video with lots of interesting things to learn about the Humboldt penguins and also the California sea lions. Click on the penguin chick below to watch.
Click to link to see how to draw a penguin
Responding to Music
Click on the links below to listen to two more Junior Infant favourite songs by Enya to listen to, relax to and respond to.
Don’t forget –
- Have a look at activity suggestions made by some other teachers in our school
- Take pictures/videos of what you do and post them on Seesaw so I can see them.
- Read a story or rhyme every day.
- Count forwards and backwards every day.
- Do some colouring or drawing when you can.
- Play every day.
- Boys and girls help to tidy-up!
