Senior Infants Ms. Collins & Ms. Hurley 11th – 15th May

Dear Parents/Guardians,

We are so impressed by the amount of work the boys are doing at home. Well done to everyone!

 We have a very creative and hard-working group of senior infants in our school and we are extremely proud of these boys.

Please remember, just keep doing your best and don’t allow school work to cause any stress at home.

• Feel free to contact us by email if you have any questions or concerns regarding your sons work. ahurley@togherboys.com or mcollins@togherboys.com
• You can also send us some photographs of your child’s work via Teams or email, if you wish.
• Remember we will be available on Teams daily between 10-11am.

Thanks for all your continued support!

Ms. Hurley & Ms. Collins

Literacy- Oral Language

We will continue with the ‘The Garden’ themethis week.

Chat to your son about gardens, perhaps go for a walk and let him describe the different gardens he sees on route.

• Use some of this “Garden” vocabulary regularly – gardener, season, spring, summer, fence,  lawn, lawnmower, landscape, soil, compost, grass, weeds, moss, flowers, bloom, stem, petals, pollen, daisies, buttercups, dandelions, pansies, roses, herbs,evergreen trees, blossom trees, palm trees, oak trees, apple trees, orchard, trunk, bark, branches, twigs, leaves, roots, hedges, flower beds, digging, cutting, planting, pruning,green house, growing, seed, scrubs, shovel, watering can, hose, rake, trowel, wheel barrow, patio, garden furniture, barbeque, earthworms, caterpillars, ants, bees, slugs, ladybirds, butterflies, birds, nest, insects.

*Have a look at different types of flowers online with your child or in the garden. Discuss and compare their colour, shape, smell.

* Discuss the different parts of the flowers e.g. roots, stem, leaf and flower.

*Invite your child to taste different types of fruits which can be grown in a garden (berries, tomatoes, etc.)

*Gather gardening tools and accessories. Let your child touch them. Name each tool. (shovel, glove, rake, etc.)

Literacy- Poetry

Literacy- Phonics

• Revise oa sound

Task: Watch the videos below and try to write down 10 words containing the ‘oa’ sound (Maybe race your mum or dad and see who gets the words down first).

• Revise ie sound

Task: Watch the videos below and try to write down 10 words containing the ‘ie’ sound.

• https://slp.cjfallon.ie/ . You will find “oa” and “ie” activities in Activity Book B – Unit 1 The Park
• Just Phonics, revision pages 84, 85 (if you have the book)
• Rhyming Words: Discuss words that end in “ut” and “ar” e.g. nut, cut, hut/ car, jar, star.  Encourage your son to orally list out “ut” words and then “ar” words to you. Then progress to writing these words out independently.

Literacy – Reading

• Encourage your son to keep practising reading for 15 minutes each day.

• Continue using the levelled readers suitable for your son on https://connect.collins.co.uk/school/Portal.aspx

Click teacher log in.

Enter User name: parents@harpercollins.co.uk

Password: Parents20!

• The boys would really enjoy listening to some audio books on https://www.booktrust.org.uk/books-and-reading/have-some-fun/storybooks-and-games/.

A challenging task: Let your son listen to the story once uninterrupted. Then write out 5 questions based on the story and read these with your son. Play the story again but this time he can pause it to write down his answers as you work your way through the book.

Literacy-Tricky Words

• Please watch the video below and practise/revise reading the following tricky words; saw, put, could, should, would, right, two, four, goes, does, made.

I wonder if any boy can read these faster than the teacher in the video? Race him!

• Call out the following sentences and encourage you son to write them down independently;

1. She saw some birds in the garden.
2. I put the game on the shelf.
3. Could you play ball with me?
4. We should go surfing today.
5. My mum would love those flowers.
6. That is the right way to go.
7. I have two feet.
8. Dan had four chocolate bars.
9. He goes to the park every day.
10. Does my teacher have a dog? 

• Tricky Word Game

1.  Tricky Word Reveal– this game requires two pieces of paper. Write a word from the list on a piece of paper and then cover the word completely with the other piece of paper. Slowly reveal the first letter of the word. Ask your child if they can guess what the word will be from looking at the first letter. Then move on to reveal the next letter etc.

• What’s Missing Game – Write out 6 of your tricky words. Ask your son to close his eyes. Remove one tricky word. Son opens his eyes and he has to figure out which word is missing.

Literacy- Writing

Dictation Sentences: This week they will be based on ‘oa’ and ‘ie’ words.

Call out the following sentences and your son can write them in his copy or a sheet of lined paper. **Remind your child to use capital letters, finger spaces and full stops.

1. The boat is red.
2. The goat ate my shirt.
3. I must wash my hands with soap.
4. We all put on our coats.
5. Will the ball float?
6. The little boy cries.
7. I have a tie.
8. I love french fries.
9. The car flies up the road.
10. The goat ate all the pies.

Literacy – Handwriting

Capital Letters W and X

(Just Write – p28 & p40 (if you have the book)

Literacy- Writing – Retelling a Story

Listen to the story Jack and The Beanstalk

Task (A challenging task, one that will need to be done together) : Write out the story of Jack and The Beanstalk in 6 – 8 sentences.

Tip: Before writing, practise retelling the story in a few sentences orally. When he has gained some confidence in doing this, then move onto writing. 

Here are some words to help you; lived, mother, magic beans, throw, stalk, giant, castle, chopped, climbed, hid.

Example of level expected:

One day Jack sold his cow for magic beans.

The beans grew into a big bean stalk. Jack climbed it.

At the top he found a giant’s castle.

Jack took treasures and climbed back home.

The giant chased him but Jack’s mum chopped the stalk down just in time.

Maths – Capacity

• This week we are going to look at capacity. The boys can have lots of fun filling up different sized containers with water and exploring which container holds the most and which container holds the least (an outdoor activity to keep them busy and the mess away from the house).  Use some of the following words when chatting about capacity; empty, full, up to the top, containers, measure, holds more, holds less, not as much as, more than, more/most, less/least.
• This is a useful video clip that will help the boys to understand the topic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zF3JSnEq7tU
• Task: Fill up a basin of water. Use a cup to discover how many cupsful of water it will takes to fill up a jug, a bowl, an empty can etc…

• Busy At Maths – p 115, 116, 117, 118

(Please remember if you don’t have the book you can assess it here:  https://my.cjfallon.ie/dashboard/student-resources Click on links maths, senior infants, busy at maths )

Number Game-

• Roll Two Die.
• Count the dots facing upwards on the two die.
• Add the two numbers together.
• Write it as a sum/ number sentence: 2+4 =10.

Gaeilge/Irish

*** You can view this week’s Irish videos on Microsoft Teams, Under Files.

Here are some Irish words to accompany the videos:

Téama–> Ag Siopadóireacht/Shopping

Cad a chonaic tú? Chonaic mé ___. (tarracóir, leoraí, carr, bus, rothar, veain, eitleán) – What did you see? I saw ___. (tractor, lorry, car, bus, bike, van, plane)

Cad atá ag teacht? Tá ___ ag teacht. (carr, rothar, tarracóir, leoraí, eitleán)  – What is coming? A ____ is coming.

Chuaigh ___ go dtí an siopa bréagán. – ____ Went to the toy shop.

Bhí sé/sí ag siopadóireacht. – He/she were shopping.

 Fuair sé/sí ___ nua. (liathróid, cluiche, scútar) – He/She got a new ____ (ball, game, scooter).

Faigh ___ agus cuir isteach sa tralaí é. (leabhar, cluiche, eitleán, bus, capall, carr, bád)  ( Get _____ and put it in the trolley).

Tá an tralaí lán/folamh. – The trolley is full/empty.

S.E.S.E- History/S.P.H.E.

– This week we are going to explore the power of friendship.

• Chat to your son about his friends. Discuss the traits that makes a good friend e.g. kind, generous, caring, forgiving, a good listener and good at taking turns.
• Tell him about some of your friends and then let him tell you about his.
• Task: Draw a picture of some of your friends and write a sentence to describe what you like about them.   

S.E.S.E- Science

Task: Bug Hunt

• Have a look in your garden (if you don’t have a garden, perhaps take a walk to a green area if convenient) for some bugs.
• Dig a little hole and you may find a worm. Check under stones and you may come across a woodlouse. Have a look around the outside of window frames for spiders.
• Keep your eyes peeled for butterflies and bees.
• Task: Record how many ants, spiders, worms, bees, butterflies you saw.

Keeping Active:

• Practise the egg and spoon race, wheel barrow race, sack race (use a black bag) and short sprints to recreate your very own sports day!
• Join Joe Wicks on youtube daily at 9a.m ‘P.E. with Joe’.
• Cosmic Kids Yoga on youtube
• Go for a run/scoot/cycle with someone in the family

ART

• Learn how to draw a butterfly. Watch the following video and follow the step-by-step instructions carefully https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzX-xntLpL0
• Paint some stones to create your own ladybugs.

Religion

Work on the Hail Mary prayer this week. We remember Mary during the month of May.

Other suggestions

• Leaf rubbings – collect some leaves and put them under a sheet of plain paper. Colour on top of the page to reveal a print of the leaf underneath.

• Lego Challenge – Build your own lego garden.

• Build you own fairy garden – Fill a container with soil. Add some small pebbles. Decorate an empty yoghurt container for a little fairy house. Pick a few flowers to brighten it up.