Junior Infants' Christmas Performance

The Junior Infants' Christmas Performance of Little Drummer Boys is below.

We hope you enjoy!!

Welcome to Junior Infants, 2020/21.

Junior Infants 2021/22.

Welcome to our New Infant Class!!

November 2021.

Kildalkey Celebrations!!!!

The pupils in all classes had fantastic fun

dressing up in our village colours to wish our

Team well for the BIG final!!

The team did our village proud and we were 

excited to welcome the cup and some of the

team to our school.

Our Mascot looked well in his Kildalkey Colours.

The children looked brilliant in their colours too!

We made loads of flags to decorate!!!!

Our Aistear Post Office.

We had great fun creating and playing in

our Post Office.

Hand washing and Hand Hygiene

with Rufus.

We are still doing great work with

all our handhygiene and hand washing.

Rufus was on hand again to help us

keep all the bugs and germs at bay.

Self care and zipping, lacing and buttoning skills.

We have been working hard to zip our coats,

button buttons and lace laces. It is hard work, 

but we are doing great!!!!

October.

Another busy month and great excitement

as we celebrated Halloween at school.

We loved creating Spooky Lollipop Monsters and

Chalk Relief Púca pictures.

Class was very busy and we are 

learning so much about phonics, CVC

words and we are doing superb

work at our stations!!

September.

It has been a very busy and productive few weeks here

in the Junior Room.

We are settled into our pods and class, and VERY busy

with all our school work.

Drama and art in September.

We loved exploring the story of the Gruffalo and 

creating art and role plays around the fairy tales.

Mouse was the hero of the story!

Our favourite was Little Red Riding Hood Cloak art.

Six Bricks.

The Junior Infant pupils are

participating in the SIX BRICKS

project and it is off to a flying start.

These just a tiny few pics of our

S.T.E.M stars of the future at work. 

Happy 1st Day of School.

The Junior Infant pupils had a wonderful

introduction day at school today.

The Class will have a 2 week induction period with a 

12o'clock finish and move to the full 2pm finish on

Monday, 13th of September.

We are looking forward to a very happy year ahead.

We are so looking forward to welcoming our new Junior

Infant pupils to the school on Thursday 26th of August.

The full details of this morning have been posted to you

in June.

When you arrive at the school,the Infant entry door is on

your far left and will be marked with baloons and an area

for a photo, before letting your child in the door to waiting

staff members who will escort them to their new

classroom.

Due to COVID-19 measures, parents and guardians are

unable to enter the school or classroom, but please be

assured we will have lots of happy, smiling staff members

to take your child from the door. This worked brilliantly

last year and the children settle so quickly, so please try

not to worry.

Your child will not need all their books on the first day,

but you are being asked to get a plastic tub (as pictured below)

This tub can be filled with all the school books and left

into the entry door. This will leave your child only to carry

their lunchbox in their bag.

Remember, there is no need to cover any books, just label

everything in a few places. My school email will be

operational from Thursday and I am asking you to email me

on Thursday or Friday to initiate a communication link for

any questions, permission forms and information.

My new school email address is;

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

I look forward to meeting all your wonderful children and

wish you all a very happy weekend.

Anita Halligan.

A Picture of Happiness!!

May, 2021.

This month was all about Space and

in our Socio-dramatic Aistear, our topic 

was the doctor and village surgery.

Our Village Surgery was a very busy place!

The Waiting Room was very busy every day!!!

Hurling Skills.

We started Hurling Skills with Ian on Friday mornings.

St. Dympna Celebration.

April 2021.

We are loving the sunshine.

This month our Aistear topic is the Vet's

Surgery.

Mrs. Prickles, anAfrican pygmy Hedgehog came to visit.

3D shape work, sent us on a visit to the Pyramids

of Egypt. We made group Pyramids.

Easter 2021!!

We wish you all a very Happy Easter.

We have been super busy with our

school wellness week and had great fun

exploring feelings, emotions, mindfulness,

affirmation and meditation.

We loved the meditations, especially the 

Chocolate meditation.

Teacher had to 'taste test' a lot of the

squares to ensure they were suitable.

We looked forward to our daily..

'Drop everything and Dance'. A super week.

Easter Art.

We had wonderful fun creating paper weave

baskets and we used crepe paper to create

Easter egg decorations too!!

March 2021.

Welcome Back to School. Hip, hip, hooray!

We were so excited and delighted to get back to school.

Max, our class Mascot, was especially eager to get back

to see all the children and staff.

Max happily back in the classroom.

Max was up super early on the morning of March1st to get off to school!!

Max couldn't wait to reach Kildalkey.

Max quickly got back into the routine of hand/paw

washing and sanitiser!!!!

 Saint Patrick and Irish Stories, Myths and Legends.

The month of March is all about Saint Patrick, Ireland,

Irish Myths and Legends.

We have a dress up costume that looks a little like the clothes Sanit Patrick

might have worn.

We learned all about the Irish Flag and all the symbols of Ireland.

We learned all about our President and even read some very funny books based

on his adventures with his dogs, cats and pigeon!!!!

We created the most fantastic portraits of our President, Michael D. Higgins and

posted them on Seesaw. 

We have been exploring lots of Irish history and visiting

old Irish Myths and Legends.

We adored exploring the Myths and Legends

from old books and video clips.

In Áistear, our topic this month is the bakery, coffee shop

take-away and Chinese take-away. 

We have had the most amazing fun creating shopping lists,

menu pages, specials posters and taking orders.

December 2020.

Bells Are Ringing....

Bells are ringing, elves are misbehaving,

sleeps are being counted...it's Christmas!!

Christmas Tableau and Nativity Performance.

 This year our Nativity and Christmas Performances were a

lot less interactive and involved filming our Performances for Seesaw.

We hope you enjoyed them as much as we enjoyed making them.

We loved making our Christmas Dance.

Christmas Art.

We created Clay Pinch Pot candle holders and

experimented with printing and stamps to create our very

own Christmas cards.

Lollipop sticks were re-invented as Christmas Tree decorations

and we has lots of fun painting,cutting and sticking.

In Elf News.

Elf found himself in many mischievous adventures, from driving

Hummer cars, swinging out of the doors and windows, right down to

being eaten by the T-rex!!

The Toy Show marked the beginning of the Christmas count down and

the excitement levels are rising here in the Junior Room.

We have created a Santa's Workshop in our Aistear and Socio-dramatic

space and we have been learning all about the Nativity story.

We left out an Atlas to plot Santa's course and see all the wonderful countries

he travels to!!

This beautiful Bethlehem scene has pride of place in our classroom and the child-friendly

figures are lovingly used and played with every December.

Bethlehem also features in this stunning wall hanging, hand painted and made many

years ago by two former teachers, both moved on now, but always

in our thoughts! This Christmas it is even more precious, following the passing of the 

artist and gifted teacher who created it, Mrs. Margaret Maguire.

Our very kind village postperson, dropped by to signal the arrival of our

North Pole Elf, Twinkles and our school had a most wonderful

message  last week from the Man in the Red Suit, Santa!!

See the main webpage for the link.

Elf arrived with us on Tuesday!!

Elf is in sELF-Isolation for the next while.

November.

In November, We Remember.

This year, more than ever, we remember all those who

have died. We remember all the people from our families

and school and village community who have passed away

and spare a special thought for all the loved ones who are 

missing them during this sad and lonely time.

The Junior Infant Class have created a special space

at the end upstairs window. A candle will remain lit in this

window throughout November and act as a beacon of 

hope and healing for all those who are experiencing

loss at this time.

The Junior Infant Children created memory cards

and pictures of loved ones to leave in the window with

the candle.

Autumn Leaves.

We went on a nature walk to gather Autumn leaves and

explore the changes to the school grounds since September.

Harry the Hedgehog.

We created a hibernation nest for Harry our Hedgehog.

He looks so snuggled up and cosy and even has

a timer for Spring!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN.

This year Halloween will be very different.

We will think of lots of fun and safe ways to celebrate and trick or

treat at home and in our gardens. We can send pictures and facetime 

our family, cousins, grandparents and friends.

We will have a spooky night in and enjoy movies and popcorn

with our siblings and family members.

Happy and safe Halloween everyone!!

October.

All of us here in the Junior room are fully settled into the daily

routine. Our days are super busy and full of adventure and fun

learning activities. We started our station work and Aistear just

this month and have had a great time learning through play and

fine motor activities.

October has been all about Autumn, hibernation and of course

Halloween. We started our art by making wax crayon fireworks

and by creating spell cauldrons for Oral Language and later art.

In October we have continued with the brilliant

hand washing and snuffle station work. We are

so good at cleaning our hands and work stations 

that our teacher is running out of space in the 

Cookie jar and had to make lots of extra Star of the Day

awards!!!!

September has been super busy.

We are fully settled into school and the daily routine. 

Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf were the basis of our

literacy, drama and integrated learning work.

Meet the Big Bad Wolf and poor Little Red Riding Hood.

This beautiful Red Riding Hood was handmade for Juniors many years ago by a very gifted former staff member and cherished every year.

We explored colour and tone in our tonal cloaks. 

Our teacher thinks our colouring skills are amazing!!

We are doing a fantastic job with our handwashing, work station 

cleaning and using the snuffle station. 

Three cheers for Junior Infants!!!

Hand Hygiene and Rufus- our Macot Monster!!

Rufus came to check on our hand washing and hand hygiene skills.

He was super impressed with the Juniors!!!

Junior Infant Induction.

The Junior Infant Induction is going so very well and the children are so settled.

The 12 o'clock finish will remain in place daily 'til Wednesday 16th of September, when the Infant class will stay at school for their first full day and finish at 1.55pm daily.

The same collection point will be in place.

Some other points to note are;

• Friday is our allocated PE day.
• Homework will begin on Monday 28th of September- further details and information to follow.

What a super start to the school year.

The juniors are all settling so very well and are busily adapting to school life and all the new routines.

A very big congratulatios to you all on preparing the children so well.

We have been super busy learning all about our pods, bubbles, desk

and work place hygiene and hand washing and sanitiser use and routines.

We are also really busy learning all about MATMAN, the mascot for our handwriting scheme, Handwriting Without Tears.

Meet Matman.

Our story this week has been The Gruffalo and we had lots of fun re-telling the story and even drawing and colouring our own Gruffalo pictures.

Our New Junior Infants.

Hello and welcome.

I just can't wait to finally meet you all!

Dear Parents and guardians,

Welcome to the Junior Infant web area. The next few weeks will be very busy and,

I hope, exciting time for our new in-coming Junior Infant pupils. 

The Department of Education has published a Roadmap outlining the steps ahead in 

planning for the re-opening of our schools.

The following are some helpful websites which deal with the transition of Junior

pupils and some content may be of interest to you as a parent. 

 Welcoming junior infants – supporting their transition

Starting primary school in 2020 is likely to generate even greater anticipation, anxiety and excitement than normal for children and their parents/guardians. The impact of experiences during the pandemic may require schools to provide support for children in relation to separation anxiety, independence and language development. Given the well-recognised benefits of play and its role in connecting pre-school and primary school learning experiences, schools are encouraged to provide children in infants and junior classes with opportunities for play. NCCA resources on such provision can be found at: https://curriculumonline.ie/getmedia/3ac44a69-57f9-49ea-80db-ebec76831111/PLC-Support-Materials_All-Strands-Final.pdf

To ensure children starting in primary school are supported as fully as possible, a wide range of resources and support materials have been prepared and published by both the Department of Education (DE) and the Department of Children, Disability, Equality and Integration (DCDEI). They include:

$1·         Let’s Get Ready, a resource to provide guidance for parents, teachers and Early Learning and Care (ELC) practitioners in supporting children’s transition from ELC settings to primary school, available at https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/a8d8f-ready-for-school/

$1·         The Let’s Play Ireland website: https://www.gov.ie/en/campaigns/lets-play-ireland/

$1·         Guidance developed by NEPS on how the transition from pre-school to primary school can be supported, available at https://www.education.ie/en/Schools-Colleges/Services/National-Educational-Psychological-Service-NEPS-/guidance-transitioning-pre-school-to-primary-school.pdf

$1·         70,000 transitions packs are being made available to parents to support children starting school. Each pack includes the Mo Scéal template developed by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA), available at https://ncca.ie/en/early-childhood/mo-sc%C3%A9al) and a postcard for children transitioning from ELC settings to share with their primary school teacher.

What will the First Day of School look like?

This year will be a very different "First Day at Big School" for all involved.

COVID-19 and social distancing protocols, mean we can no longer welcome

the pupils and their parents/families into the school building and

classroom on the first morning.

In line with all current public health and NPHET advice on the limits of

people indoor (6) and outdoor (15), the following is the revised plan for

the first morning of Junior Infants, 28th of August.

9.45am-9.55am: Pupils from families with more than 1 pupil in the school: 

9.55am-10.05am: Only and first time pupils to the school.

Parents/family members can accompany the Junior Infant pupils to the PE Hall door.

A small Photo Area will be set up on the grass area near the door.

There will be an opportunity to take a photograph and see your child to the

assembly point. 

Hand sanitiser will be available at the entry.

Class teacher and staff will be ready to greet the children and accompany

them to their new classroom.

We will make this transition as happy and positive as possible.

The plastic tub with all your child's books and belongings can be dropped at this point also.

If the morning is wet, unfortuately we will need you to drop your child at the

PE Hall door at 9.45 am. 

12 o'clock- you will be able to collect your child at the front of the school via the

PE Hall door. The Junior Infant pupils will finish daily at 12 o' clock for an induction

period of approximately 2 weeks and the children will have their first 2pm finish on Wednesday 16th of September.

On and from, Monday 31st of August, your child will enter school via the appointed

Junior Infant drop off/ entry door. This will be clearly labelled by door signs and a cone. 

Please see a picture showing the Infant door here.

You will collect your child from this school area each day.

Teachers will let 1 child at a time out to waiting parents, guardians and carer/minders.

Single children- ie.children with no other siblings in the school should arrive

between 9.20 and 9.30am.

Children from families with several children,-should arrive between 9.30 and 9.40am.

This is to avoid congestion in the car park, at entry doors and on footpaths.

Pupils will enter the building via the allocated door.

Pupils only are permitted beyond the entry door.

Once inside they will be greeted by a member of teaching staff.

Each child will be shown to sanitise their hands at the sanitisation points at each door. Your child will then go straight to class and be greeted by their class teacher. Once you have seen your child to the door, you can be safe in the knowledge that they are secure and safe in the building.

Parents are asked to note all COVID-19 posters and signs and ensure correct social distances are maintained at all times.

Hometime: Junior Infant pupil will finish daily for collection at 1.55pm. We ask you to be prompt in collecting the children and to avoid congregating and chatting once children have been collected for COVID and social distancing reasons.

 We encourage all adults to social distance when collecting and dropping off

children and the following are just a few new ways our classroom will be adapted

to deal with COVID-19.

 Points to note.

- All Junior Infants will need a plastic tub/storage tub, such as the picture attached.

•   This will house your child's daily books, copies, school bag, lunch and even their

             coats, hats, gloves etc. This box will be stored under your child's desk.

• The classroom environment will be free of clutter on surfaces, desks and walls.
• Staggered entry, exit and lunch times will be in place. Junior Infant pupils will be part of Team/Group A and have break at 11-11.10 and lunch from 12-12.30 daily.
• Each class will act as a pod and be separate for as much as possible.
• Pupils will be taught to wash their hands correctly and often.
•  The use of hand sanitiser and regular cleaning of hands will be part of the daily routine. If your child has any skin sensitivity or needs to use their own specific sanitiser, please make contact in writing with the school and we will be happy to facilitate your child using gel supplied by home. This hand gel will only be for your child to use and should never be shared. Young children should not have their own containers of hand gel unsupervised.
• Work stations and high traffic areas will be cleaned regularly.
• Children will be assigned a dedicated desk and group within the class.
• Ensure all your child's property is clearly labelled.
• Pupils will not be able to share pencils, colours etc.These will also need to be labelled.
• Pupils should wear velcro or slip on footwear.
• Please ensure your child can put on his/her own coat and shoes without adult help.
• Ensure your child can open/close his/her lunch box, bottle, bag unaided.
• Pupils will be taught to use their lunch box like a plate/bowl and eat from the containerand avoid placing food on the desk etc.This could be tried out at home a few times, or on a family pic-nic etc.
• The Junior Infant pupil books are mostly workbooks and do not need to be covered.Write your child's name clearly on the cover and again on the inside cover page.
• Place  all the books, art apron, folders etc in a separate plastic bag/in the plastic storage tub and I will dedicate a drop off point on the first morning. This avoids your child needing anything other than their lunch in the school bag on the first day.
• Check this page closer to the return date for further and more up to date information.
• The welcome/home page of the website has a really child friendly information about school and what to expect as well as a lot of important information and school documents for Parents and Guardians.
• As advised in school documents and the re-opening information for parents, contact with the school and class teachers should be made via email. My school email address is This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
• I will be back at my school email from Friday 28th of August and will be able to receive and deal with any correspondance between 9.30 and 4pm daily. Email contact made after 4pm will be dealt with on the next working day.

• Most importantly, please enjoy and make the very best of the next few special and precious days.

           We will be busy preparing and looking forward to receive your child

            safely and happily on Friday the 28th of August.

Wishing you all a wonderful and safe weekend,

Anita Halligan.

______________________________________________________________________

Archive.

_____________________________________________________________________ 

Off to Senior Infants and your beautiful new room!!!

Fun and adventure awaits!!!

Tuesday, 23rd of June.

Wednesday, 24th of June.

Today is our Last Day.

No Seesaw or formal school tasks.

Have a magnificent summer children and thank you all so much for your beautiful messages, pictures,

task engagement and for your constant smiles.

Week beginning 15th of June, 2020.

Dear children and parents,

We are now in our last full week of Junior

Infants. This week we will begin to wind 

down and focus on revision, completion of

maths topics and building in some fun and

creative tasks daily.

This week choose just 1 activity from the  red labelled

topics/literacy. Choose 1task from the blue maths subject

and 1 task or activity from the green subjects

daily. Different fun activities will be posted on

Seesaw each day to choose from as well.

I wish you all a brilliant week ahead.

Anita Halligan

Monday.

Tuesday.

 Please choose 1 red subject activity, 1 blue and 1 green + fun Seesaw activity.

Wednesday.

  Please choose 1 red subject activity, 1 blue and 1 green + fun Seesaw activity.

Thursday.

  Please choose 1 red subject activity, 1 blue and 1 green + fun Seesaw activity.

Friday.

  Please choose 1 red subject activity, 1 blue and 1 green + fun Seesaw activity.

Starlight Weelky Plan.

Junior Infants Core/Foundation Reader 4 – Guided Reading and Writing Lesson Plan

Virtual Sports Day 2020.

The following are a list of suggested Sports Day Activities.

The link below is excellent for seeing examples of the different tasks and even

watching 1 or 2 might be enough to give your child some inspiration.

Some of the activities have music links too, which is cool!!

Sligo Education Centre – that link is

https://sites.google.com/holyangelsns.ie/virtualsportsday/the-activities.

They give little demonstrations on each activity etc.

Lots of daily activities will also count as Sports Day engagement too, such as;

A family walk or cycle, with all social distancing rules would also count as a great

sports activity.

A chalk or toy box obstacle course for younger siblings would be a lovely whole

family task.

You can create your own Sport Day by choosing 3 or 4 activities from the list below.

If you are the youngest or an only child, why not use a Teddy to be your partner for

the Penalty shootout. Try to score a goal without hitting poor Teddy.

Another thing we always had on Sports Day was a Teddy Bear pic-nic, this would be a

lovely activity to try in your garden- if the weather allows.

Suggestions of Sports Day Activities.

$1·         Three legged race

$1·         Sack Race

$1·         Long Jump

$1·         Standing Jump

$1·         Egg and Spoon Race

$1·         Long Puck

$1·         Long Throw

$1·         Sponge Race – Filling up a Bucket with Water using Sponges

$1·         100 metres, 200 metres, laps of field etc.

$1·         Wheelbarrow Race

$1·         Penalty Shoot Out

$1·         Chin Race – Running with a ball under Chin

$1·         Obstacle Course

$1·         Hula Hoop Race

$1·         Hopping Race

$1·         Crawling Race

$1·         Frog Leap

$1·         Treasure Hunt

$1·         Long Kick

$1·         Rounders

$1·         Welly Throw

$1·         Soloing Competition

$1·         Basketball Shooting

$1·         Musical Chairs

$1·         Kangaroo – (Ball between feet)

$1·         Bottle Bowling – Using Football and Bottles

$1·         Timed Jigsaw making

$1·         Create an obstacle course for you and your siblings

$1·         Flip Cup!

$1·         Keepy Uppies!

$1·         Dances from ‘Just Dance’. Or create a new dance!

$1·         Skipathons

$1·         Dribbling ball around obstacles in the garden.

$1·         Bicycle Race/Skills

Junior Infant Daily

worklist and Seesaw details.

Dear Parents and children,

June is traditionally the month when all the fun and exciting

events take place, such as Sports Day and school tours!!

This week the school will have a virtual Sports Day. It will

take place on Thursday and a list of suggested activities

will be posted here on the School Website with further,

more Junior Infant level, activities posted on Seesaw also.

On Friday, the work list tasks are optional and I suggest that

the pupils create a picture, written(list of words) or voice recorded

note about the Sports Day and how they got on, instead of any

formal school work. 

I hope you all have great fun planning your week and

please remember,the daily work list is just a suggested

menu to choose from. I would suggest the following;

Take 1 or 2 tasks daily from the Red colour-coded subjects,

1 blue and then just 1 green subject daily.

I also suggest that if the children are engaging in other

tasks and exploration at home, treat it like a subject/task

and reduce the formal school/home work accordingly.

To all the parents returning to full time work inside and

outside the home, please do not feel under pressure to cover

all the work listed. I would recommend using Seesaw to just

upload snaps and examples of the colouring, lego building, reading,

making etc they children are engaging in and that will count

as learning. We are here to support you and the children in

any way possible- not add to your workload after a full day of work.

The children are doing so well and are a credit to you,

their families.

I wish you all a very safe and happy week ahead.

Anita Halligan.

Week beginning 8th of June.

Monday.

Handwriting Without Tears.

Remeber to start at the top and work left to right.

Use the pointer finger from your helping hand to create a finger space.

Clear finger spaces help the reader see each word in the sentence.

Tuesday.

Wednesday.

Thursday.

Friday.

 Starlight Reading and Oral language Plan

for the Week- 8th to 12th of June.

Junior Infants Core/Foundation Reader 4 – Guided Reading and Writing Lesson Plan

Archive.

Curriculum Focus this week was Visual Arts and the

very beautiful works of;

Vincent Van Gogh.

His very famous works of Art include priceless works

such as;

Starry Night. 

A painting made of his room in Arles in France.

Many galleries and museums around the world are allowing

acces to their collections and have set up virtual tours/

online free tours of their famous collections and I would

highly recommend a family virtual museum or gallery tour

on the next wet, miserable day!!

Friday 5th of June.

Look at your Sunflowers!!

Thursday 4th of June.

 Handwriting Wwithout Tears Formation sheet.

Wednesday 3rd of June.

 Handwriting Without Tears Writing Formation Sheet.

Tuesday 2nd of June.

 Maths examples of how to create a number sentence and

addition work.

Starlight Plan for the week.

Starlight Lesson Plan to accompnay Planes Trains and Airplanes topic. This is 2 week plan so please only consult for ideas or pick a few tasks, pointers etc from it. It is not prescriptive

and the Flashcards and new vocabulary online via the story link will be to aid the

exploration of the story,

rather than be learned off as sight words, but if your child wishes and is able, they can learn

some of the key new words too!!