Daily Plan Tuesday 31/03/2020

Morning all!



Hope everyone is keeping well! We had a meeting yesterday with myself, Jessica and Joe, and decided that this week we would take it in turns to post a daily plan. I understand from the feedback from some of the parents that they are not finished with the work I posted last Wednesday, which is absolutely fine. Please do not be putting yourselves under too much pressure, the aim of these daily plans is to have a guide of sorts of what to do if you are finished or feel you or your child would benefit from this sort of structured plan. Things are already stressful enough as it is and the last thing we want to do is make you feel more pressurised!



Tuesday's Suggested Plan: 

Maths:

• Master your Maths Tuesday Week 26
• Make your own number line! We would like to see the children getting creative and making their own number line from 0-10, to help them with counting and addition. I have attached some ideas below that are hopefully easy to do using bits and bobs that can be found around the house!

Literacy: 

• Complete 'qu' worksheet if not already done
• Tricky words to revise this week are two, four, goes, does, made, their. Please once again use the read, write, cover, check method to practise these words!
• Free writing: let's get creative! Today let's get the children's imaginations going by doing some free writing, starting with the phrase:

"If I won the lotto, I would..."

• Ask your child to finish that sentence by writing about what they would do with the money, and draw a picture to go with it. I'm sure we'll get some interesting responses!

Gaeilge: 

• Following up from the Séadáin Sí work from last week, this game will help the children with listening and matching as well as sentence structure. This game requires sound and may require the help of a grown up to start off!  https://www.seideansi.ie/naionain-mhora/gniomhaioch-2/dearg/7/index.html

SESE:

• Listen to the story of The Gruffalo at the link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8sUPpPc8Ws
• The following are some fun follow-up Gruffalo activities that could be fun to do this week in the lead up to Easter! 
• Gruffalo Easter Card: https://www.gruffalo.com/gruffalo/files/e1/e15b3aaf-63cc-419a-b614-aeecb653df30.pdf
• Gruffalo Easter Treats: https://www.gruffalo.com/gruffalo/files/c4/c42d3bc9-ffaa-4f5e-982b-86b498a1c4cb.pdf

Learn Together/SPHE: 

• Complete Card/Piece of Art for CareChoice Nursing Home and Email to hello@carechoice.ie with your name, your class and teacher's name and the school's name attached. 
• ZenDen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhXt7cpCPPs&list=PL8snGkhBF7nhwY-bD3Arzu7fY2guW61Hp&index=14

P.E:

• Joe Wicks Daily P.E Session https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAxW1XT0iEJo0TYlRfn6rYQ

As always, myself and Jessica love to hear from you guys so if you've any questions or stories, pictures or videos please do send them on!

Take care,

Maria and Jessica

💛

Monday Hello and Suggested Daily Plan 30/03/2020

Good morning everyone🌞

Hope you all had a nice weekend and everyone is keeping safe, happy and well. We just wanted to check in with you all today and see how the work is going as well as to let you know that tomorrow we will have a new schedule of work for the week and a new assessment form for you to complete on Friday.

World Book Online
World Book Online has just made their fabulous collection of over 3,000 ebooks & audiobooks available for free for children to access at home. There are also many other fabulous games, quizzes and other resources available too.

They have books suitable for all ages. You will need to set up an account to access the content. Click here: https://www.worldbookonline.com/wb/Login?id=800

Assessment Form
Just a little reminder to those who haven't filled out the assessment form, the link is below: 
https://forms.gle/A63UiwRyAFFVY8om9
It would be great if you could fill this out at some stage when you get a chance. We will have a new one to be completed on Friday for you all on the blog tomorrow.

Zoom Call 
Myself and Maria's Class are going to schedule a Zoom Video Call with everyone on Friday 3rd of April. If you don't have Zoom yet, you can just go to https://zoom.us/ and set up an account. We will then send an invite out through Aladdin for you all to join the meetings on Friday at 12pm and have a chat and a catch up about how everyone is getting on! 

Monday's Suggested Plan: 

Maths:

• Master your Maths Monday Week 26
• Make patterns using objects from your kitchen (spoon, fork, cup, spoon, fork, cup etc) 

Literacy: 

• Monday's News Writing

(This can be completed in their free writing copies or news copies and if they don't have these they could write it on another page. It would be nice to take a picture of it and email it to myself or Maria and let us know how your weekend was. 
The best way to complete this would be to write a template out for your child on another piece of paper or a whiteboard and your child can copy this and fill in their own news in the blank spaces. 
The template would be 'Today is Monday. It is a sunny morning. This weekend I ______________. My favourite thing I did was _____________________.'
They could also draw a picture to illustrate their writing.☺)

• Complete 'qu' worksheet if not already done
• Finish and recap on both readers as new ones will be given tomorrow 

Gaeilge: 

• Cula 4 app and recap on Bia section 

Learn Together/SPHE: 

• Complete Card/Piece of Art for CareChoice Nursing Home and Email to hello@carechoice.ie with your name, your class and teacher's name and the school's name attached. 
• ZenDen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlsG4ZqHVDE&list=PL8snGkhBF7nhwY-bD3Arzu7fY2guW61Hp&index=8 

P.E:

• Joe Wicks Daily P.E Session https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyCLoPd4VxBvQafyve889qVcPxYEjdSTl

As always, please remember that this is a suggested daily plan and we understand the pressures that parents are feeling so feel free to pick just a couple of these activities today and see how it goes. 

Maria and I are here to support you all as well as the children so get in touch if you have any questions or are looking for guidance in any way. 

Have a good Monday everyone and we will be in touch tomorrow.

Take care,

Jessica and Maria 

💛

Friday Feedback 27/03/2020

Hello everyone!

The link to the feedback/assessment form has been fixed and can be found here: 

https://forms.gle/A63UiwRyAFFVY8om9

If you encounter any issues please let us know ASAP and we'll try to fix it as quickly as we can! You will need to sign into your google account first to access it, and please include your child's initials so we can identify each student for our records. As Wednesday's blog post contained a lot of material to cover, we are not expecting this work to be completed by today. Please allow the children to continue working on this at their own pace throughout next week also.

You may have seen that RTÉ are starting an hour long show next Monday, with the aim of providing some tuition to students. While this is aimed at 1st class and upwards, it may be good for the children to watch for a break from work as it could have some interesting material. This is to be broadcast from 11am-12pm each day, along with a catch-up programme at 4:15pm later each day. More info can be found below:

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/education/rt%C3%A9-to-broadcast-school-on-tv-from-next-week-1.4213275 

Amazon has cancelled the subscription of books and audio stories for children and students of all ages so as long as schools are closed, children everywhere can instantly stream an incredible collection of stories, including titles across six different languages, that will help them continue dreaming and learning.

All stories are free to stream on your desktop, laptop, phone or tablet using the following link 

https://stories.audible.com/start-listen 

We know that it’s all a little bit strange at the moment because we can’t go out to many places and we can’t really visit people we want to visit so we decided to come up with an idea to cheer others up from the students in Belmayne Educate Together!

There is a Nursing Home very close to our school called ‘CareChoice Malahide’ where elderly people live. They can’t really have any visitors at the moment so we thought it would be a nice idea to give them a call and see would they like something to make them smile, and of course they said yes!😊

The idea is that each child could make a card, draw or paint a picture, make a piece of art, create something for Easter or come up with something else different, thoughtful and lovely. The children, with parent’s permission, could even make a video of themselves singing a song or doing a dance! It really can be anything to cheer the residents up as they have had a ‘no visitors policy’ for the last three weeks and a little kindness goes a long way.

Parents will then take a picture, send the video or scan the piece of art/card etc and email it to the nursing home directly and the lady Jessica spoke with said that they will print off the pictures and stick them around the nursing home so all the residents can see what the wonderful children from Belmayne E.T have made them. They’re also making a book during this time and our pictures could also go into that.

The email address is hello@carechoice.ie 

In the subject bar put: ‘To the staff and residents in CareChoice Malahide, from (child’s name) in Jessica's/Maria's Senior Infants at Belmayne Educate Together’ and attach whatever they’ve decided to send to them, maybe with a short note.

There is no pressure to complete this but we just thought it would be a caring way to cheer a group of people up during this time and random acts of kindness are the best way to help each other each day!💖

If you have any other questions or wish to send us updates, we are still checking our emails every day! Thank you all so much for the lovely emails so far, we're missing seeing all those smiling faces every day so much!

Thanks a million for all your support, it means a lot to us! 

Stay safe and enjoy the weekend,

Jessica and Maria

💛

Wednesday Work Update! (25/03/2020)

Hello everybody! 

Hope everyone's keeping well! We've been really enjoying everybody's updates throughout the week, we've loved seeing how much fun people are having from home! I can't believe how big our beanstalks have gotten so far, the ones I have at home here have outgrown their castle!

Our next sound is the revision of the "qu" sound. Have a look at the video below to hear what sound "qu" makes!

Next, we have a worksheet for the children to complete based on the "qu" sound. This can be found at the following link: https://s3.amazonaws.com/jolly2/Resources/Cartoonito+Group+7.pdf

For Tricky Words, revise saw, put, could, should, would, right using look, copy, cover, write and check method.

For dictation, our words this week are quiz, quick, queen and quilt. 

For Maths, please continue with the daily maths in the book. We would also encourage discussing the date and time on a regular basis with the children. The children can practise telling the time using the game below:

https://www.helpfulgames.com/subjects/mathematics/tell-time.html

For Gaeilge, we are working on the theme Bia. Please use the following links to help the children practise their vocab. The game may be a little tricky as the children wouldn't be used to reading the Irish phonics, so we would encourage on working on this together with your child!

https://www.seideansi.ie/dep/files/connacht/An_maith_leat.html

https://www.seideansi.ie/naionain-mhora/gniomhaiocht-1-dearg/ceim2.html

Fairy Tales

Our theme for this fortnight is Fairy Tales/Hedges and Forests. See the Oral Language sheet below and discuss with the children.

If anybody is out and about walking in their local park (and practicing social distancing of course!) we would encourage you to talk to the children about what they see, by asking the following questions:

• What animals live in this park?
• Where are their homes?
• Where do they get their food?
• Why do they live in their home? (ie. why do the birds live in the trees and not a hedge? Why do ducks swim in the stream and not sit up a tree?)
• How can we ensure we humans aren't impacting on these animals' homes?
• How do these animals protect their homes?

For some art and craft ideas, we recommend the ideas found at the link below. If anyone makes any of these, feel free to send myself or Jessica pictures as we'd love to see them!

http://www.playideas.com/25-fairy-tale-crafts-for-preschoolers/

We also encourage listening to the song below about habitats!

We also encourage the children to take some time each day to play "make believe" using their toys or just their imagination to engage with the Fairy Tales theme. They can choose a particular fairy tale to base their play on, or even make up their own!

A few of you have contacted saying you've had issues with the link to the survey which I appreciate! This will be fixed and posted on Friday so you can give us your feedback/assessment of the children's work. As always, if you have any questions or want to send us any updates, please feel free to email myself or Jessica and we'll get back to you!

Sending lots of love and elbow bumps!

Maria and Jessica

Happy Monday!

Good morning everyone and we hope you're all keeping well and staying happy! 

On Friday myself and Maria gave you all a lot of online resources and ideas to work through but these are to help with the children's learning over the next while. It all doesn't have to be done straight away so just take your time with it and pick and choose what resources might suit you and your child the best. 

We came across this poem and thought it might be a nice one to read together and have a little chat about, it's a nice way to discuss what's going on in a simple, open and clear way as well as doing a bit of literacy at the same time! 

Each child was given a work booklet, readers and tricky words to practice their writing, reading, maths and gaeilge as well as to recap on what we have been learning about in SESE and Learn Together. Do your best to complete these by the end of this week and then you can fill out the online assessment form when you get a chance. 

We don't want anyone to feel overwhelmed so we're saying to work through what we gave to the children (work booklet, readers etc) as well as some of the resources we have put on the blog on Wednesday and Friday.

Please just remember to take it day by day though and email myself or Maria if you would like some extra support or guidance. 

The website Twinkl are offering a free month to parents. This website is full of printable material and really good resources so it would definitely be worth taking a look at: http://www.twinkl.ie  

To access these, use the code IRLTWINKLHELPS

This web page offers ideas for different subject areas.

https://padlet.com/susan_b_gavin/xaxa8mv1axmi

 If you scroll down you can see a variety of suggestions. If you click on some of them they take you straight to the actual site but others you will possibly have to type into the search bar yourselves but they're all very good suggestions across the Senior Infant Curriculum.

I was out for a walk yesterday and I saw beautiful love hearts and pictures on the window of a house, with a sign saying 'love for the healthcare workers and shop assistants'. I know Maria suggested this on Friday and actually seeing it myself really was so lovely and it could be a really nice idea for you all to get involved in. At this time it's very important to be kind to others and show love for everyone so this might be a nice little time filler and an opportunity to discuss the important work that so many people are doing at the moment. 💗

Thinking of everyone and missing all the children a huge amount. Keep sending your emails and pictures of what everyone is getting up to, it definitely brightens up myself and Maria's day! 

Stay safe and remember, keep washing your hands! 

Jessica and Maria 

💙

Suggested activities and clarification about end-of-fortnight assessment

Hi everyone!

I hope everyone is keeping safe and well! Just hopping on to share some resources I've been collecting during the week that might be useful and to clarify the purpose of the google doc. The work assigned is to be completed over the two weeks which includes next week. Please allow the children to do this at a manageable pace. I understand how challenging it can be to maintain a timetable and routine at home particularly when parents still have to work from home. I hope Sinéad's email has clarified our expectations, as we do not want anyone feeling under any more pressure at this already stressful time!

Also, thank you to everyone who has emailed with pictures and stories from the kids, they have been lovely to read! I miss the children very much and the emails brighten up my day! Also, for any of the children who missed the last day of school, I took home your beanstalks and myself and Paudie have been looking after them, look how big they've gotten!

In order to keep track of how the plants are getting on, it might be a good idea for the kids to take notes of how the plants are developing using some of the pages in the following link as a guide:

https://madamedeals.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/gardening-journal-pdf.pdf

Also, if children are interested in more planting without making any unnecessary journeys to a gardening centre, the article below suggests how to grow different fruit and vegetables using the remains of fruits and vegetables! It's easy, cuts down on waste and is a great way to teach children about how plants grow!

https://foodrevolution.org/blog/reduce-food-waste-regrow-from-scraps/

I also recommend the children use this time to practice their free writing skills. It would be a good idea to keep a journal with daily entries outlining what they did each day! Also, for some inspiration, the children could make it their mission to do one act of kindness each day and document it in their journal. For ideas see the poster below!

For something a bit different, Dublin Zoo has announced that while it's closed, they will upload a new  activity book for a different animal each day, starting with the Red Panda! Click the link below and check back in each day for a new activity book!

https://www.dublinzoo.ie/news/dublinzoofun/

GillEducation are also providing free online access to their resources at the link below, which may be useful for parents!

https://www.gillexplore.ie/products?Type=0&SubjectList=0&LevelList=2

Dabble Doo Music are offering a months free full access to all of their best content so that parents and guardians can educate and entertain their kids at home.

The content available includes radio shows, sing-alongs, video lessons, games and activities linked to the primary school curriculum.

Finally, another lovely idea I saw recently is to make decorations/art for your windows! In a time like this where the world is full of stress and there seems to be no good news, what a fun idea it would be to create a beautiful display in your window to cheer up those who pass by! I know how creative the children can be, and I'm sure they would really enjoy the idea of having their artwork on display to help combat the doom and gloom of current times 💖

If anyone has any further questions or just wants to email me updates or ideas, please don't be shy! I'm missing everyone so much and I am thinking about all of the families and wishing the best for you all. 

Sending lots of love,

Maria xx

Let's do the Friday dance!

Hello everyone, 

Hope you're all doing good and keeping yourselves well. I'm definitely missing the chats and laughs!💛

I hope everyone is doing okay with the work booklets and the suggested work on the blog but please remember not to put too much pressure on yourselves (parents!) and children you guys could maybe use this idea below as a guide for different things to do each day at home ~ take a look! 

The best way to print this off would be to copy and paste the image onto Microsoft Word and then print from there. 

It might also be a good idea to make a little daily plan or timetable with the activities you're going to do so here is a little suggested one but of course, it might be nice to make and decorate your own one! 

There are so many wonderful authors, such as Oliver Jeffers (which has written many of my favourite children's books!) and musicians doing live readings and concerts online which would be a lovely way to relax and take a bit of time to float off to another world! Here's an article link of some of these authors and how to watch them. 

 https://www.creativereview.co.uk/authors-bedtime-stories-isolation/ 

I also hope that everyone is getting out into the fresh air, here's an activity you could do each time you go outside with your own name! 

The Body Coach, Joe Wicks is also offering daily P.E Workouts for children which would be great to do! 

                                      

Parents, there is a website called Folens Online which is now offering free resources that you can avail of. The details to sign up for this are below: 

I understand this can all be a bit much to be trying to figure out but please remember that I am sending you all positive thoughts and missing everyone so feel free to send me emails and pictures about what you're all getting up to and I will get back to you! 

And don't forget..........

                                       

Stay safe, (keep washing your hands!) and keep smiling😊

Jessica 

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone and hope you are all doing well!

Hi Jessica and Maria's Senior Infants,

We wanted to put a smile on your faces so Happy St. Patrick's Day from Jessica's dog Alfie! He told me to tell you all he says hello and hopes you're all getting out in the fresh air each day like he is in this picture!

We hope you are all doing well and keeping as busy as you can. Keep doing your best with the booklets and workbooks and helping around the house!

Here are some St. Patrick's Day ideas for you all today if you're looking for something fun to do but I think the most fun one would be to have a mini parade out your back garden with music and singing!

Paper Chain Pot of Gold Art:
https://www.allfreekidscrafts.com/St-Patricks-Day-Kids-Crafts/Paper-Chain-Pot-of-Gold#qElRk7Kuzec1LEiT.32

Spread Kindness Leprechaun Hat:
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/780037597947119576/?nic_v1=1aL0jmYmaEc8l5hYePUOHdX1fUINMg4FHtIIg%2FxJwHlQ8BgU3i8Z4I28ALhm%2FP6vFi

St. Patrick's Day Activity Page:
https://www.preschool-printable-activities.com/support-files/spd-activity-page.pdf

Let's Roll a Leprechaun Game:
https://www.preschool-printable-activities.com/support-files/spd-activity-page.pdf

St. Patrick's Day Bingo:
https://s28301.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/printable-st-patricks-day-bingo.pdf

As always, you can send myself or Maria an email to let us know how you're doing and what you're getting up to if you'd like.

Take care,

Jessica

Work for 2 Weeks Off

Hi everyone!

We hope everyone is well at home. We have prepared some work to keep the children up to date on the work they would've been doing in class. Please ensure the children do this work throughout the week and please fill in the google form at the end when everything is completed!

Literacy

Reading - The children have been given x2 readers to read at home this week as normal.
Tricky words - The children will revise their tricky words using their flashcards and read/write laminated sheet.
Sounds - The children can revise the sounds we've covered this year using the Sounds Like Phonics online programme, which can be found at slp.cjfallon.ie The children will also be able to complete some pages of the book for revision if not already done: Week 1 - p44,45, 46 and Week 2 - p47, 48, 49.
Dictation - The children will have 2 weeks of dictation revision as normal, this is found in the booklet. Please read the instructions at the top and complete in their copybooks.

Maths

There are Maths worksheets in the booklet to be completed (p70, 72, 73, 74)
Mental Maths - Masters At Maths books, they are to continue with one day of work Monday to Thursday, and then do the corresponding test at the back of the book. Week One will be Week 24 in the book and Week Two will be Week 25.
Number Formation - The children are to trace the numbers with their fingers daily to practise formation.
Revision: We recommend using the free app "Moose Math" to revise all of the concepts we've covered so far.

Gaeilge

In order to practice the work the children have been doing in class, we recommend using the Cula 4 and Scéal an Lae apps to ensure the children are still listening to Irish. Please select the themes "Bia" and "An Cathair" when prompted.
There is also a worksheet included in the booklet for Lá Fhéile Pádraig

SESE/Oral Language

The Market - the children will have a worksheet in their booklets to sort fruits and vegetables. We also recommend watching The Magic Schoolbus (Netflix) and Come Outside on the following links:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7tYI2XLYxM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6Zk_B8_UbI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uv60ErBegIo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGb8ZFgNDhc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuyyXLLIsvc

There is also a Spring vocab worksheet and "In the Spring I see..." worksheet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=op86kAE0Nsw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuqI6x0mf6Q

Learn Together

We encourage the children to engage in Daily Acts of Kindness as they help everyone at home during their time off! We also recommend practising mindfulness using the Cosmic Kids YouTube channel and completing the mindfulness sheets in the booklets.

P.E.

We encourage the children to keep up their fitness during this time off by using GoNoodle, Just Dance and The Learning Station, which can all be found easily and for free on YouTube.

Finally, when the children have completed their work, we ask that parents record the children's progress by filling out the form below:

https://forms.gle/m3uXW2Mi85jZYUzb8

Weekly Homework 9/03/2020

Hi everyone and happy Monday!

Hope you all had a good weekend - here is the homework for the week.

Oral Language:
Our new Aistear topic is 'The Fruit and Vegetable Market' so make sure to take a look at our Oral Language sheet and have a chat about all the vocabulary and discuss what we might see if were to visit a market.

Reading:
The children have new readers in their folders. Please make sure all readers are brought back in on Wednesdays and Fridays so we can listen to the reading and change the books each week.

Writing:
Here are the dictation words for the week:

Day 1:            blue            blue            blue            blue  

Day 2:            argue          argue          argue          argue

Day 3:            true            true             true            true

Day 4:            statue         statue          statue          statue     

Tricky Words and Worksheet:
We will now be revising all of our tricky words for the rest of the year. We will be focussing on learning them all from sight as well as being able to spell and write them correctly. Please practice writing the first 6 revision tricky words which are live, give, little, down, what, when.

Sounds Worksheet (ue sound):
Please complete the 'ue' worksheet and have a look at these videos with loads of 'ue' words☺

Any questions, as always, please contact myself or Maria.

Thanks,

Jessica

Garden Centre Aistear

The children have been working hard in the Garden Centre this fortnight, where they have been selling plants, planting beans and peas, making their own Jack and the Beanstalk Castle and designing their own Garden Centre, take a look!