Autumn and Halloween in room 3

We went on an autumn walk in the convent grounds to observe the changes in autumn time. We saw the sycamore tree and the sycamore wings. We had fun making the wings fly like helicopters! We saw the oak tree, but we couldn't find any acorns because the squirrels had gathered all the acorns up and have them hidden in their special hiding places in preparation for their big sleep 'hibernation'. We saw the huge horse chestnut tree and we found lots of chestnut shells and a few chestnuts or 'conkers'. We collected some leaves and brought them into our classroom to do leaf rubbings. We walked very quietly because we were hoping that we might see a squirrel or a hedgehog but unfortunately we didn't. Back in class we listened to a story about the squirrel and a song about the hedgehog. We drew pictures in our copies of our autumn walk.

 

 

We had great fun making beautiful autumn trees in art. Each group used something different to make the leaves. We used our fingerprints, tinfoil, corks, cotton buds and toothbrushes to create our lovely autumn trees. We also did squirrels and hedgehogs in art using our handprints, pieces of brown paper and leaves and we made clay hedgehogs and the following week we painted them.

We made capes during aistear, we used special glue to stick materials from the junk art box onto our capes. We did a wonderful job. On Thursday 27th October we had our whole school Green Fashion Show. We walked down the cat walk and showed our capes to all the other children and teachers in the school. We had so much fun. Here are some pictures of us.

 

For Halloween we had lots of fun. We used chalk to make bonfires and fireworks. Chalk can be very messy so we had to roll up our sleeves. When we were finished teacher sprayed our pictures with hair spray to stop the chalk from ruining our clothes. We made pumpkin masks. We sang Halloween songs and rhymes and we loved the story 'Room on the Broom'. 

We learned Halloween rhymes in Irish and we learned the Irish words for bonfire, sweets, witch, ghost, brack, nuts and pumpkin. We did a tasc éisteachta (listening task) where teacher gave us instructions in Irish and we had to colour our picture in the correct colours. We learned the colours orange and black in maths and these colours in Irish too dubh and óraiste. We made an orange and black table in class, drew orange and black things in our copies and watched powerpoints of orange and black things.

We visited the scary dungeon beside rooms 7 and 8.

We had lots of fun making witches potions. We put ingredients in the witches cauldron and we all had a chance to stir the potion. The best part was watching the potion bubble up and changing colour.

We dressed up for Halloween in our own costumes. Here are pictures of us: The whole school went for a walk after lunch to show off our costumes.

On the day of the holidays the 6th class girls had a cake sale and we bought delicious treats. We got eyeball sweets and a lollypop from teacher at home time.

Happy Halloween from all of us in room 3.

October in Room 3

For October our themes are School and autumn.

Our caretaker John Kelly came to talk to our class about the work he does in our school. He showed us all the tools he uses. He showed us his hammer, his screwdrivers, his saws, his pliers and pinchers, and his HUGE bunch of keys. It was lovely to have John visit.

 

Then we drew pictures in our copies of John - didn't we do a good job?!







On October 7th we had our welcoming ceremony in the hall. Thank you to all the mammy's and daddy's that came to see us. Here are some pictures of us practising in the hall with rooms 1 and 2. As a practice run we did our songs and rhymes for the rest of the school in assembly and we did a super job on the day.

We went on a tour of our school. First we visited Mary in her office. She has a special job as the secretary. She told us about the work she does in Scoil Mhuire on the computer, she answers the telephone and does the photocopying. We also saw Mary's special camera.

Ms Burke Heneghan the principal was busy but we might visit her another day.

Then we went upstairs to see the staff room where the teachers have their lunch. We had to hold the bar on the stairs .

Then we went to visit the big girls in 6th class and we finished our walk by looking at the top corridor and walking back down the other stairs.



The big girls from 5th class came to read to us.

 





We have been busy during morning activities. We had fun playing a bingo game to practice our letter sounds s a t i p and n. We did floor puzzles. We made our letters using our playdough mats, We cut out and sequenced the nursery rhyme Baa Baa Black Sheep. We did autumn trees for autumn and made beautiful rainbow sheep. We also had fun with the links and sorted sets of objects according to colour and type. Here are some pictures of us:

 

Lots of our Aistear activities have stayed the same this month but we are enjoying free painting. We have to wash our brush after using each colour so we don't mix the colours. We also are learning to tidy up after painting. We help wash the paint palette and brushes, we clean the table cloth and help fold it up and fold the art shirts too. Aistear is making us really independent.

During aistear we have also been having fun playing school. One person gets to be the teacher and the other children are the students.
We are getting really good at junk art now. We have been playing with the sand, blocks and playdough too. We made clay hedgehogs and did leaf rubbings and spot the difference. Here are some pictures of us.

 

We have been doing football in PE. We are doing bouncing, dribbling and kicking activities. It is lots of fun. We have been doing lots of activities with our partners.



We have been learning about Ar Scoil in Irish. We learned the Irish words for lots of things in our classroom: chair, table, white board, bin, window, table, lunch box, school bag, teacher, children, press, door.
We have been playing a special game in Irish 'Cluiche Kim' where we get to be the teacher if we can name the picture that is missing, it is so much fun and we are getting so good at Irish because we have to play the game using only Irish. We love Deir O Gradaigh game and saying our songs and rhymes in Irish.

We also practice our colours in Irish by showing teacher the correct colour crayon. Our new colours are corcra, bán dearg and donn.

In maths we have been learning our colours pink, purple and brown and we have been playing lots of games on the interactive whiteboard. We love using the special pens to play the games. We also made a chart to show how we come to school - car, bus or walk.