Senior Infants Work Pack May 5th – May 15th

Dear Parents/Guardians,

And a big HELLO to all the boys and girls from the senior infant teachers!!! We are looking forward to seeing you all and hearing all your news! Keep on playing, being good and doing your work.

First of all, thank you so much for engaging so much with the previous work packs, we know this is a challenging time for Children, parents and teachers and we are very grateful for all the hard work and cooperation.

With further school closures confirmed, we have compiled a list of suggested work for the children to do at home.

This work pack is for the fortnight spanning from May 4^th-May 15^th

A lot of the activities in this work pack has appeared in previous work packs and we would like you to continue doing it. A lot of this work focuses on the basics which need to be worked on constantly.

Also, these activities are guidelines for how to teach the content. All of this work is not compulsory, and it does not need to be completed during the two weeks. We would recommend attempting 2-4 activities every day where possible.

Some subjects are divided into weekly sections however these activities and tasks can be completed whenever suits both you and your child.

Here are some ideas for Learning from Home for the next two weeks. Choose some activities to do each day! Senior Infants learn best by constant repetition and revision. It may seem repetitive to you, but this is how they consolidate and retain their learning.

During this time, it is important to stress that one of the best methods of learning for your child is through play. The benefits of play are huge for a child’s development at Senior Infant level. Please see below a list of the different types of play your child may engage in.

Types of Play:

Creative play: Painting, playdough, junk art.
Games with rules: bingo, board games, word and number games and puzzles, hide and seek, snakes and ladders, hopscotch
Language play: All types of books, books with no words where a child can make up a story, puppets, materials to make books about themselves and family, story bags-pillow case with a book and supporting material
Physical play: sand, water, twigs, pasta, Lego, Hoops, balls, jigsaw, magnets, old broken toys, paints and brushes, textured materials, straws, lollipop sticks, crayons, paper Musical instruments, cooking and baking.
Pretend Play: Playing shop, post office, dentist, vet, restaurant, mechanic, dolls, dress up, cars, make a den (inside or out)

If you would like to receive this work pack in an email which is easier to print off, please feel free to email your teacher directly and they will email you the pack

If you have any pictures of activities, you would like to share on the school twitter page or school website please feel free to email them to: room1@stconlethinfantschool.ie

Zoom:We, the class teachers, will be trialling out an optional Zoom Catch Up with our classes. This will be an opportunity for the teachers, SNA’s and children to see each other virtually and have a quick catch up and maybe share some news and a picture. If you are interested, please email your consent to your class teacher and they will get in touch with the details of the Zoom Catch Up. Again, this is for the children and teacher with the parent on hand for any technical difficulties. We are provisionally planning these meetings for Friday the 8^th of May however this date may change. If you have any further questions or queries, please email your teacher directly.

Thank you for your continued co-operation and we hope this is helpful to you all.

Kind Regards,

Senior Infants Team

An extremely helpful website for both English and maths is IXL classroom

https://ie.ixl.com/

This website goes through most skills that we will be covering this year and they are clearly laid out on this website

Literacy

Please find below some updated tricky word box tables which can be used as colouring/ oral language activities. With these tables each child can sound out/ read each word and put it into a sentence. If they can do this, they colour in the box. In addition to this when colouring in the boxes your child can try and make a pattern.
Your class teacher has some very useful and enjoyable phonics worksheets which we have been unable to attach to this document, if you would like to receive these worksheets please email your teacher directly
Your child can also practice writing these tricky words.
In the handwriting book children can practise some of the Uppercase/Capital letters. We would recommend doing one letter in the book every 2-3 days While also practising them on scrap paper or whiteboards.
Read books with your child. Get them to tell you about the beginning, middle and end. Get them to guess what’s coming next or how they think the story will end.
If your child would like additional readers, you can find a great variety of levelled readers along with books about animals, birds, biographies, fantasy, health, environment, craft etc, at the world book website. You can follow this path: Scoilnet website, click on world book kids, click on eBooks, choose book to read. Your child also has the option to hear the book read aloud. Oxford Reading also have a huge free e-library of levelled books. Your child can do a simple online test to assess their level. oxfordowl.co.uk/for-home/find-a-book/library-page/.
Draw pictures. Cut out pictures from magazines/newspapers in order to make collages.
Also check out phonicsplay.co.ukfor more great ideas and activities. You can access all resources on this website for free using the following: Username: march20 Password: home
In the word family booklet children can revise a word family every 2-3 days Write in words from each word family and draw accompanying pictures. Practice making sentences with these words and telling stories with as many of these words as possible.
We hope that the blank copy is going well, and they are writing a sentence or two each day saying what they did and who they were with as a running journal. Continue to practise writing sentences using capital letters, full stops and finger spaces.
Also, in the blank copy please find attached below another list of simple sentences that you can dictate to the children (call out the phrases and ask the children to write them down) Please find updated phrases below
It is also beneficial to let children free write also without correction at times. Maybe when making up a story or making up a sentence they can try to write it into the copy. If the spelling is incorrect don’t worry about it as this task is focusing on their expression and imagination.

Listening Skills

Please find below some pictures with accompanying instructions that can be used for very effective listening exercises.
Your child uses both pencils and crayons to complete the instructions which will help improve their listening skills
We have included two of these activities, one for each week.
Some other simple listening exercises that can improve your child’s understanding the difference between certain preposition words (on, in, below, behind, in front of, beside, beneath) these words can be learned by doing physical activities e.g., “stand on top of the box” or “put the teddy behind the tree” etc. Or they can be done with a blank piece of paper where your child listens to your instructions and complete it on the page e.g. “Draw a star beside the circle”, “Draw three teddies to the left of the square” Etc.

Oral Language

Revise Nursery Rhymes Both new and old
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCe1VpF4wS_kdcjyTRSXBcnQ (The Singing Walrus Music Channel)
The singing walrus music channel is a great resource to use for repetitive work on the basics of oral language e.g.- days of the week, months of the year, seasons, weather etc.
Other online video resources that can be used if you want include:
- Phonics pop https://www.ictgames.com/phonicsPop/index.html
- The dinosaurs eggs https://www.ictgames.com/dinosaurEggs_phonics/mobile/
- Sentence substitution https://www.ictgames.com/mobilePage/sentenceSub/index.html
- Foam Phonemes http://www.ictgames.com/mobilePage/foamPhonemes/index.html

Numeracy

Children can sequence the day and the week either orally or by drawing or matching pictures.
When developing your child’s numeracy skills, it is very important to focus on the basics. We ask that you keep working on all of the activities that we sent out in the initial pack. Along with these activities please find these extra guidelines beneficial to both you and your child.
If possible complete a new page in the Busy at Maths Home link book every 2-3 days.
Explore, discuss, develop and use the vocabulary of spatial awareness – above, below, right, left, etc.
Use the language of ordinal number: first, second, third, last
You and your child can make up a story to go with a number sentence _ 3+2+5=10. Try and use examples from the environment around your child e.g. I had 3 books, my dad gave me 2, and I found 5 more. I had 10 altogether.
Please find attached a picture explaining a game called bunny ears, a maths addition game which is both fun to play and
The following website is very useful for both literacy and numeracy as it contains many games and activities you can play with your child.https://www.ictgames.com/
The Maths topic that we would be covering for these two weeks in school is money, please find attached a sheet which gives details on a number of activities that can help teach your child aspects of the topic.

Gaeilge

Where possible at home:

Encourage children to sing/recite any songs or poems they know in Irish – for example:

Rólai Pólai https://youtu.be/q5KxTACF3cM

Lámh lámh eile https://youtu.be/MhwVt1SU4ts

Is mise an traein https://youtu.be/aYxfF5a1FOU

Cad atá sa mhála? https://youtu.be/73LyagWCSJE

Talk about the weather. Cén saghas lae é? Tá an lá fuar/té/tirim/ag cur sneachta/fliuch, tá an ghrian ag taitneamh.
Practise the colours (dathanna), cén dath é sin? Dearg, gorm, glás, buí https://youtu.be/4jUO1bmbIug
Count as Gaeilge: a hoan, a dó, a trí, a ceathair, a cúig, a sé, a seacht, a hocht, a naoi, a deich

https://youtu.be/qpYIa4iReRc

Practise naming items as much as you can e.g. fuinneog, doras, cófra, bord, cathaoir, lón, peann luaidhe, leabhar, leaba, bainne, ceapaire, úll, milseain etc
Dino Lingohttps://youtu.be/LvBSZb6y5FA
Cula 4 na nÓg cula4.com/en/cula4-na-nog/home/Cartoons, games and activities for younger children.
Séideán Sí https://www.seideansi.ie/naionain-bheaga.phpThere are free games/activities available here

Art

There are a lot of fantastic, easy and creative ideas on Pinterest and the following link has some easy activities that apply to all curricular areas
As the weather is improving and hopefully it will remain as beautiful as it has been, some outdoor art activities are a great way of being creative and active at the same time.
- Colour your path/driveway with chalk
- Making window friendly paint is very easy to wash off is a great idea for decorating the inside and outside of the windows in your house. The following link is one of many simple ways to make this paint https://taminglittlemonsters.com/washable-window-paint-recipe/
- Decorate or paint words on rocks in your garden and make a word wall or a creative mosaic by painting rocks different colours.

SESE

Go on a spring walk (if possible) and look for signs of spring and what to expect for the arrival of summer in nature.
Talk about animals, their young and where they live.
Discuss the life cycles of various animals and insects (chicken, frog, butterfly etc.) please find a YouTube video attached based on the life cycle of:
Week 1:Butterfly- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1S8WzwLPlM
Week 2: Plant- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TE6xptjgNR0

Discuss both spring and summer flora and fauna and how to take care of plants.

Active Learning

These links below provide you with some fun activities to help keep your children active and engaged during the day

https://rtejr.rte.ie/10at10/#
https://www.gonoodle.com/(Free sign up)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3LPrhI0v-w&list=PLyCLoPd4VxBuxu3sLztrvWFehzv-LnR2c(Joe Wicks Body Coach)

Here are some ideas for PE games and activities that can be done outside if the weather is fine.

Have races with your child or time them using various obstacles or different ways of racing e.g. crabwalks, tippy toes, crawling, etc.
Set up a small target like a hoop or bucket in your garden (away from any windows) and maybe throw/kick/roll something soft at the target 10 times and see how many times you can get it in.
Chasing bubbles in your garden
Create your own Sports Day (sack race, egg and spoon race, wheelbarrow race)
Skipping
Playground games (Bean game, duck duck goose, what time is in Mr Wolf? Traffic lights etc)
Check out Sarsfields and Moorefield Facebook pages for GAA skills
Cycle your bike
Go for a walk

If you so wish, you can watch clips of the following on YouTube

Alphablocks
Numberblocks
Numbertime (1 2 3 4 5, shapes)
Super Simple Songs
Tricky Word Dance Song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2HYM9VXz9k(Jolly Phonic Jingles)
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCe1VpF4wS_kdcjyTRSXBcnQ (The Singing Walrus Music Channel)

Religion (Optional)

As the month of May is the month of Mary, we would suggest the preparation of a may altar and revision of the prayer ‘hail Mary’
The song Bring flowers of the rarest is also a song about Mary that can be listened to, read or learned from this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ld4FNjK4IEQ

Also, as you may be aware Jonathan Seaton, the CEO of Twinkl has in light of recent developments in relation to Covid-19, offered his support to parents’ pupils and children. Twinkl are offering all parents and teachers a One Month FREE Ultimate Membership to Twinkl.ie. This will allow parents and teachers unlimited access to every single resource for every single curriculum subject from junior infants to sixth class.

Setting this up is really easy to do – go to www.twinkl.ie/offer and enter the code IRLTWINKLHELPS. We’d like your support to get this message out.

Phrases for Dictation (Blank Copy)

Only attempt 2-3 of these phrases at a time.