Hello everyone,

Well done on all your work so far. I hope the learning that I am setting the class is not too difficult and that it is enjoyable. Here is some more work for this week to keep you busy and learning. Again, please do not worry if you don’t get to complete it all, just try your best. 😊

We will be continuing to use a lot of sensory activities in Junior Infants to help all types of learners when we are learning our letter and number formation. I will keep the examples and videos here as a reference.

Chalk on the footpath/driveway Tracing on the grass/carpets/ rugs Rice on a plate Paint Sand On household members backs Sensory bag – here are a couple of video links of sensory bags using different materials that

you could find in your cupboards, please do not buy anything you don’t have as the other options available are perfectly fine.

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZ5hL6qsgx0 2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbP2r-jMTPk 3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuYaH12pNFI (1st part of the video)

Additionally, if you want to do more sensory activities to help with your child’s fine and gross motor skills, Ms. Agnew and Ms. Lynch have created great resources. You can find these in The Wrens class tab.

Everyday1. Gaeilge : The phrases for this week are:

Is maith liom _____. I like ______. Ní maith liom ______. I don’t like _______.

Here is a list of foods that can be used with these phrases: úll= apple, oráiste=orange, piorra=pear, cáis=cheese, ceapaire=sandwich, bainne=milk.

Try to use these phrases daily within the household for the week. I tried to pick food that would be eaten/ drank on a daily basis so that it’s easier to integrate this learning into everyday life.

2. Literacy : The letter for this week is ‘v’. So ‘v’ is the name and ‘vvvvv’ is the sound. The story for this week is: Uncle Vic arrives in a van and asks if the children would like to come with him to pick up some people from the station. He drives around the village dropping people of at their houses. As he drives, the children make a ‘vvvvvvv’ sound. Encourage your child to find ‘v’ words in the picture.

The following links are stories linked to the letter ‘v’. Alternate between videos each day to keep your child engaged and for variety. This one is the Jolly Phonics song linked with the Vic’s Van story. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lgu518uU9RI

This video does a quick recap of all the letters and then continues on to focus on the letter ‘v’. It covers letter formation so you can pause the video to allow your child follow along/practice with their pencils or sensory resources. The character moves on to naming things that start with ‘v’, and then tells a ‘v’ story. This video can be watched daily as it gives repetition of learning. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpOZXJ9F6yo

Allow your child to use/do one of the sensory activities above to practice the new letter. It is so important that your child starts the letter in the correct place and forms the letter correctly.

3. Blending : We are going to focus on the blending of ‘an’ this week. Here is an interactive game that will help your child sound out words that have this blend. https://www.starfall.com/h/ltr-sv-a/maw-an/?sn=ltr-classic

4. Reading: This week we are going to start our third class reader called Fun at the Park . Click the tab and tick boxes, Primary, Junior Infants, English, Rainbow-Stage 1 and the book should appear in the list below. The 1st story is Emma’s kite. Focus on reading 2/3 pages a day. Re-read the entire story by the end of the week. You can check your child’s word recognition by picking out random words in the text and also trying to read sentences backwards for fun.

ONLY IF YOU WANT, you can continue using the oxford readers online but the main reading this week should be with Fun at the Park.

The Oxford Owl account for the class is easy to access. Go to the website www.oxfordowl.co.uk and click on the tab My class login at the top of the page. The class name is: Team tullydonnell. The class password is: JuniorInfants. (capital J and I, all one word). Click on the tab My Bookshelf and enter in ages 4-5 and series Oxford Reading Tree.

5. We Are Writers . Well done Conor Kearney, Katelyn Connor and Noah O’Neill for sending in beautiful poems based on their experiences during this strange time. They are absolutely fantastic! I will keep the resource that Ms. Lynch created on the page for all to access and I look forward to reading them all!

6. Staying Active: From this week on, we are going to focus on Fundamental Movement Skills. Families can focus on 2 skills a week. Now that organised sports have been cancelled for the time being, it is the perfect opportunity to develop these skills in a non-competitive environment! This week the whole school will be focusing on walking and balancing. Go to the Active School tab in Activities to find more information on this and fun games to develop these skills correctly.

Monday 27 th of April 1. Practise Gaeilge phrases. You can include the phrases from last week too to build up vocab.2. Literacy: Letter ‘v’ videos and sensory activity. 3. Just Handwriting practice copy: First line only of ‘v’s on ‘v’ page.4. Skills Book A p61. 1st read each sentence using the picture as a prompt. Trace over the letters

ensuring your child always starts at the dot for correct letter formation.5. Fun at the Park- Emma’s kite p2-4. 6. Planet Maths p30. Number 0 formation. Here is video showing examples of zero and it’s

importance. You only have to play it to 1.45 as then it goes onto revise all the other numbers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ra5YpPxKqXU

7. Science: Plant a flower/plant. Allow your child to help out with planting bulbs or seeds at home, explaining the process of digging a hole and putting the seed/bulb in, covering the hole and making sure the plant is warm enough, is watered and the sun reaches it. Here is an interactive game reinforcing the steps. https://www.tvokids.com/preschool/games/get-growing

Tuesday 28 th of April

1. Practise Gaeilge phrases.2. Literacy: Letter ‘v’ videos and sensory activity. 3. Just Handwriting practice copy: Second line only of ‘v’s on ‘v’ page.4. SENTENCE OF THE DAY: Everyone is good for Mammy and Daddy. Read the sentence.

Build this sentence using words from word wallet. Write the sentence, making sure that your child is using finger spaces and draw a picture of the sentence.

5. Fun at the Park- Emma’s kite p5-6.6. Planet Maths p31. Analysis of number. Draw the correct number of objects in each box.

Be careful with the 0. Here is a website with a few simple games. Go to ‘Count with Counters’ to reinforce todays learning. https://www.splashlearn.com/math-games-for-kindergarteners

7. Music: Listening and responding. Listen to Horse and Buggy by Leroy Anderson and ask your child to think about the following; What animal can they hear?, What speed is the horse travelling at the start and at the end?, At what point does the horse speed up at? Ask your child to respond imaginatively to the piece- either with drawing a picture, creating a dance/movement of the song. It would be lovely if parents could send in a picture of their children’s work to the school email sncwebsite1@gmail.com and I could create a collage to put up in our class page.

Wednesday 29 th of April

1. Practise Gaeilge phrases.2. Literacy: Letter ‘v’ videos and sensory activity. 3. Just Handwriting practice copy: Third line only of ‘v’s on ‘v’ page.4. Fun at the Park- Emma’s kite p7-8.5. SENTENCE OF THE DAY: Here is Pip. She goes up the tree. Read the sentence. Build this

sentence using words from word wallet. Write the sentence, making sure that your child is using finger spaces and draw a picture of the sentence.

6. Planet Maths p32. Number formation practice. Using the same website as yesterday go to the ‘Count forward within 10’ to reinforce number line recognition. https://www.splashlearn.com/math-games-for-kindergarteners

7. History: Goldilocks and the 3 bears Look/ listen to the story and then draw the story in order. You can divide a page into 4 parts labelled 1-4 and allow your child to sequence the story themselves. This would also be a lovely picture to send into the website for me to display.

Thursday 30 th of April

1. Practise Gaeilge phrases.2. Literacy: Letter ‘v’ videos and sensory activity. 3. Just Handwriting practice copy: Fourth line only of ‘v’s on ‘v’ page. (Use a highlighter if

your child is finding this difficult).4. Skills book A: P62. Read all the words in each line. Put a circle around the word that

matches the yellow word. It is important that your child reads all the words as this act as revision and improve their sight word recognition. Read the sentence at the bottom and write the sentence ensuring your child starts at the dot for correct letter formation.

5. Fun at the Park- Emma’s kite- reread the whole story.6. Planet Maths p33. Number formation practice. Use the sensory methods outlined above

to practice number formation on a larger scale. HOPSCOTCH This is a brilliant game that reinforces number formation and counting in a fun and active way. Here is a video on how to create and play the game.

7. Geography: Recycling. Continue to reinforce recycling at home allowing your child to clean out containers and to put waste into the correct bins. https://www.turtlediary.com/game/recycling-waste.html

Friday 1 st of May 1. Practise Gaeilge phrases2. Literacy: Letter ‘v’ videos and sensory activity. 3. Just Handwriting practice copy: Ask your child to draw a ‘f’ word in the space at the top

of the page. If you could label the pictures when they are complete so that the children can use it as revision. Also this page has a few activities that could be used as recap for the week. Go to Activity book A and then The Zoo tab for ‘v’ activities. https://slp.cjfallon.ie/

4. SENTENCE OF THE DAY: Boo cannot walk. He is a fish. Read the sentence. Build this sentence using words from word wallet. Write the sentence making sure that your child is using finger spaces and draw a picture of the sentence.

5. Fun at the Park- Emma’s kite- Today pick out random words for your child to read to check their word recognition.

6. Storytime- There will be a video of me reading a story for the children found in the resource tab. The password is Junior2020

7. Maths- Adding up to 5! Today we are going to prepare resources to help your child with addition for next week. You can use paper plates, dinner plates, hangers or draw circles with chalk outside. Anything can be used as counters including buttons, pebbles, Lego pieces, matches, pegs, marbles etc. Play around with counting today creating different numbers within 5.

Hope everyone is well and helping out Mammy and Daddy! Stay safe 😊

K. Healy