We love to integrate technology into the classroom whenever we can. Children are so adept at using IT now they are practically teaching us. We We love to use the school tablets to enhance our learning, particularly during Maths stations.
We use the IWB daily in the class and children love to get a chance to play games in literacy and numeracy activities.
We teach basic programming throughout the school and love to get a chance to use the Beebots to teach early programming skills.
We divided into groups of three. Each group got 6 sheets of paper, 30 cm of sellotape and 2 pipe cleaners. A classroom timer of 12 minutes was set on the board. The aim of the challenge was that each group had to make the longest snowman they could in the time given. Take a look at the different ways we made our snowmen:
Christmas Catapults:
We decided on an easy structure to follow to make our catapults. All we needed was a spoon, lollipop sticks and elastic bands. They turned out amazing!
When they were made we tested them in loads of challenges- who could launch their catapult the furthest, who could make it to the end of the hall first catapulting snowballs and who could catapult a snowball onto certain spots first. It was so much fun!
Santa’s sleigh and workshop- Lego edition.
1st class were given the chance to make Santa’s sleigh or Santa’s workshop using Lego. We made some amazing structures!
In 2nd Class we have been exploring Christmas Traditions in Ireland and in other countries. We had great discussions about what the children were looking forward to for the New Year and Christmas Day.
We created Christmas lanterns – with our Christmas wishes in them – and Christmas wreaths in preparation!
Welcome to the St. Peter’s Christmas Play 2021! This year, our classes have been really busy putting together fantastic videos of the students singing, dancing and acting for you. We really hope you enjoy the show!
We made Santa sleighs out of Lego last week in 5th class. We tested our sleighs for speed, safety and distance! We also tested to see if they would stay together after a crash test!
We had a busy week last week making sleighs out of Lego 🛷 we tested their speed, how many pushes they needed to travel 6 metres and we did a crash test! The children really enjoyed it 😊
With all the excitement of Christmas we thought we would do a festive experiment. Our questions –Which liquid will cause our candy cane to disappear the fastest?
To conduct our experiment, we needed: 4 plastic cups, 4 candy canes, vinegar, warm water, milk and cold water.
We labelled our 4 clear cups and then filled the cups with warm water, cold water, milk and vinegar.
Then, we made predictions. The vast majority thought the warm water would melt the candy cane the quickest!
We put one candy cane in each cup and watched to see what
would happen.
Within 2 minutes all three candy canes were starting to turn the liquids pink or red. It was definitely magic!
We observed the four cups and compared the reactions. After break, we had our results and we could determine if our predictions were correct or correct.
The cup with the warm water was the fastest liquid to make the candy cane dissolve.
The vinegar cup was the first liquid to remove all the red
from the candy cane.
The cold water and milk removed the colour and disappeared but more slowly than other two liquids.
Next, we recorded our observations and results. We learned lots of new vocabulary words such as dissolve, prediction, result.
By the next morning, all the candy canes had dissolved into the liquids.
Even more interestingly and in the interest of science we discovered later that the quickest way to make a candy cane disappear was to eat it!!!
We had a great month in senior infants this month – we were learning all about The Sports Shop in Aistear. We played in our ‘Lifestyle’ Sports shop during our role play area, designed and made our own GAA jerseys from different fabrics in our art station. We designed the layout of our own sports shop using large Jenga blocks and designed our own obstacle course and then made it from LEGO.
Our Lifestyle Sports Shop
We celebrated Science week during November. We carried out an experiment in class – we added gummy bears to water to see what would happen – they grew larger! We also got to spend time in the hall doing different experiments in stations, they were very cool. The stations included Bee-bots, LEGO, making bubbles, making paper aeroplanes and making the tallest tower possible from plastic cups.
Science stations in the hall
Science stations in the hall
Our gummy bear experiment
Our gummy bears grew
Finally, this month we celebrated Anti Bullying month in school. Senior Infants spent a lot of time learning about what bullying is (repeated, unwanted behaviour that is on purpose). We talked about ways to be a buddy, not a bully. Then Senior Infants gave their thoughts on what they felt bullying was to them.
We were delighted to take part in STEM for Fun recently in the school hall. STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths. Different stations were set up around the hall all containing elements of STEM.
Junior Infants really loved the different challenges. They were tasked with constructing the highest tower they could out of paper cups and giant playing cards.
They also had to make their own paper planes and measure to see how far they travelled counting in steps.
It was very exciting getting to explore programming with Beebots, trying to input the correct instructions so the beebot could escape the maze.
They experimented with making friction bubbles using soapy water on a flat surface and almost made a bubble within a bubble (unfortunately we could figure out how to keep them from bursting)!
Finally, they had to help the poor Gingerbread Man cross the river by designing and making a Lego Bridge.
We had great fun and can’t wait for the next time. Special thanks to Ms. Whyte and Ms. Sexton for running the stations.
