Wow! We have had a busy few weeks settling back into the new school year in Second Class. We have been working very hard at practicing, and getting used to, our new class routine and have already begun to delve into all the fun things planned for us this year!
We were very lucky to begin our new school year with a very exciting trip to the Airfield Estate for the Festival of Food. We learned so many amazing and fascinating things! We learned all about sustainability and were taught about how we can engage with food, with an aim to enhance our health and protect our environment.
When we moved on to the vegetable garden, we got to taste some very unusual (but yummy!) plants such as a garlic flower. After this, we visited the chicken coop where we learned all about egg production.
We then moved on to the farmyard (this was one of our favourite parts!) where we got to meet some of the dairy cows and learn all about the process involved in getting the milk from the farmyard to our fridges! We even got to taste some fresh milk. After this, we got to play for one whole hour in the Naturescape play area. This was so much fun! A special thank you to the parents who accompanied us on our day out.
We have been working flat out in 2nd Class since day one of being back to school! Wait until you hear about all the things we have done so far!
In English, we have been working very hard at revising our phonics and using our knowledge of these to brainstorm lots of interesting words! We have also started our new class novel; Flat Stanley! We are loving it so far! Stanley was flattened by a poster in his bedroom one night and is now enjoying all the benefits of being flat. We have been working very hard at practicing some new comprehension strategies and are enjoying putting these into action as we continue to read our novel. We were very lucky to have Orla and Linda come in and join our lesson this week. This meant we had four different Flat Stanley activities happening at the one time, each at a different table station. We are slowly but surely starting to fill up our Reading Response Journals!
In Gaeilge, we have been learning lots of new vocabulary. We have been learning how to talk about ourselves and have just started learning some new vocabulary to use when we go shopping! Everyone has been trying extra hard with their Gaeilge and I am so impressed!
In maths, we have been slowly going back over all the hard work we did in first class. This is so important before we move on to anything new! However, we have added a very exciting feature to our Maths lessons - Number Talks! Please ask us all about them as we are really enjoying them. During Number Talks, we do exactly what it says on the tin - we talk about numbers! We solve some difficult maths problems mentally but we place more emphasis on talking through our strategies rather than just figuring out the answer! We have a range of hand signals that we use to show that we are thinking of a strategy, that we have thought of one strategy or that we have thought of two, or even three, strategies! We are amazing at talking through the wide array of strategies available to use when we are solving our maths problems.
In History, we learned all about the fascinating story of Oisín in Tír na nÓg. In Science, we carried out a very cool experiment with soil and water! Why don't you ask us about the results of our experiment! We also explored different types of minibeasts and the features and characteristics of each. In Geography, we explored our own country of Ireland and all the features that make it unique and wonderful!
We also spent a lot of time discussing how we can keep our earth clean and healthy - in particular, the importance of recycling. We designed our own recycling posters, encouraging others to follow suit. To top this off, we then used recycled materials to create some collage cityscape art, inspired by our own city of Dublin!
We are just finishing off some Cubist art, also created using recycled cardboard and inspired by the work of Pablo Picasso! We can't wait to show you!
We will update you very soon on all the new things we learn over the next few weeks!
