This week we are going to get ready to welcome one of the most beautiful signs of Spring - the flowering cherry blossom tree. The cherry blossom flowers come out when the weather warms up so we might have to wait a bit longer but, when they bloom we will know that Winter is over and Spring is finally here!
We have a beautiful cherry blossom tree in front of our school.  We went out  to see if there were any signs of buds or new group. As you can see from the photos below there was nothing to record but we will be watching out over the coming weeks. In the meantime, we will be learning all about the cherry blossom tree.



Label the cherry blossom tree.
​Click on the cherry blossom tree to download and print. Then cut and paste the labels where they belong or write the names yourself. If you prefer, you can label the cherry tree on our class Jamboard. There is also a Jamboard activity  on the words we can use to describe cherry trees.

​We hope you all have a lovely mid-term break. Here are a few activities to try out over the break. Fingers crossed for good weather!
 The YES/NO app is a free app designed  to support communication. It that allows you to answer YES or NO  to questions, requests etc.. Why not try it out on a Spring nature  walk or  try it to answer some questions on Spring below. Click on image..
This week, our story is a classic written and illustrated by Eric Carle. It follows a young boy called Jack as he gathers together all the ingredients needed to make pancakes and in this story, they don't come from the supermarket. We have adapted the text. We hope you enjoy it. Just click on the cover to visit our online library.
Have a look at this step by step video showing you how to make pancakes.
It is great fun making them and so delicious eating them.
​Enjoy your pancakes.
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This Tuesday, February 16th, is pancake Tuesday. We all love making and eating tasty pancakes. It's time to a make a shopping list of all the ingredients we will need to make our pancakes. let's not forget to put our favourite toppings on the shopping list too.
Go to the Senior 4 class Jamboard to make your shopping list.


Making a shopping list on Jamboard

Time to go to the post office to post off your beautiful cards to make sure they will get there for February 14th. Let's take a look at the 5 steps we need to follow to post a card or a letter. 
Then let's follow along with Claire as she goes to the posts office to post a Valentine's day card to Senior 4.
Delicious fruity treats for Valentine's Day. Follow the recipe below to make your own tasty treats at home.

Time to get creative with your own Valentine's day card. Click on the image for a selection of card templates. Pick the one you like and have fun colouring and decorating your card. 
 If you would like to sit back and listen to some Valentines' day stories, why not visit our online class library. There's a selection of books including some of our old favourites. Link has been emailed.
Here's a fun dance routine to follow so you can exercise and have fun at the same time.
Last work out of the week with Anibal
Look who's is having great fun walking in the snow. 
Walking is a lovely way to exercise. Time to take a walk in the woods with Claire and JJ. Take note of all the things you can see and hear. What do the woods smell like? What do trees feel like? Let's take a look.

​Would you like to go on a sensory walk? Click on the template to the right and keep a record of what you see, hear, smell and touch along the way. You can draw a picture, take a photo or write about your walk. Enjoy!
Are you ready for Wednesday's  workout with Anibal? Have fun!
Some things you need to remember when you are getting ready to exercise.


​ Someone is doing a fantastic job exercising on her rebounder.  Great work ! !
Are you ready to exercise? First you need to get,
  1. Your work out clothes 
  2. Your work out shoes
  3. A bottle of water
Now you are ready to exercise with Anibal. Have fun.
A TALK and SORT activity to complete on our interactive class Jamboard.
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    Happy Friday everyone, Looks like some of you have been having      fun with Chatterpix. Let's take a look.
This is Aoibhe with her dog Punky. We love his blingy gold chain collar!
This is Claire with her dog JJ. He has a special message for everyone.
Follow along with Dave to make a bubble solution for blowing bubbles. Blowing bubbles is a good way to practice calm breathing .

When you use calm breathing, you take slow breaths.  You have to  take a slow, deep breath to make a big bubble, and you have to blow the bubble really slowly or it will pop! So let’s practice. Take a slow, deep breath in, hold it for a second, and then slowly blow some bubbles. Good job! Now let’s try that again.”
Is it HOT or COLD?
The sky has been very grey but hopefully the sun will come out soon. If the sun does come out to shine, look out for rainbows. Rainbows are formed when the sun shines through  raindrops. Here's a song from Anibal, called Somewhere over the Rainbow.
Click on the work sheets below  for some fun counting , matching and colouring activities.
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​Have fun building an online snowman.
Access this lesson using pin code: HK4057
at Twinkl Go
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​    Practice labelling your warm, winter           clothes.
​   Access this lesson using pin             code: HU8912
    at Twinkl Go
Today we have two poems for you. The theme of both poems is winter weather. 
The first poem is Snow Kisses by Barbara Vance and its about that cold, icy feeling you get when snowflakes fall on your face.
The second poem is from The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss  and its about being stuck in the house all day because it is raining outside.
We'd like to share some of our favourite Apps for learning and having fun at home. This week's App is called Chatterpix. It is free to download from Google play or Apps store. It can be used on an Ipad, iphone, or Android phone or tablet.

The App is easy to use. You  take photos of your pets (  teddys, toys, flowers, or anything else you like.). Next you draw a mouth on your photo and then record a simple message. You might like to say hello to your friends, say your name, do some counting etc,,). You can add text, borders and clipart to your photos. 
​Here's one I did earlier with my cat , Ruddy.
​I hope you all try it out. You will have a lot of fun and don't forget to share your Chatterpix !

Claire has put together some photos from our first term in Senior 4.
We hope you enjoy looking at the photos and remembering the fun we had.  
We really miss you all and hope to see you all again very soon. 

Our book this week is perfect to read when it is raining outside and you are feeling nice and cozy sitting in by the fire. Maybe you are feeling a little sleepy. The characters in the story are feeling sleepy. They were having a nice nap when something suddenly woke them up. Take a look inside  The Napping House by Audrey Wood.
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​Time to get out your mat and practice some relaxing yoga poses from our story. Anibal will show you how to do the poses.

Time to have some fun designing your own emoji. Click on the image to print and design your own  emoji. 
What colours do you need?
​Are you going to use crayons or paint?
What emoji will you draw?
Here are a some of our favourites:
  • Margaret: 🤣
  • Claire: 🤩
  • Anibal: 😋

Distance Learning

 A social story for you to  read together to help develop an  understanding  of distance learning and about why we are  learning at home at the moment. If you prefer, you can listen to Claire reading the story by pressing  the read to me button. Click here to bring you to our class library.

Some online activities we enjoy in school

We all enjoy playing this virtual piano on the interactive whiteboard. First go to the drop down menu and select the tune you want to play. We have been learning Twinkle, Twinkle and Happy Birthday. Next press the Teach button( hat) and follow the keys as they light up. You can play on a tablet or your laptop. ​Access this lesson using pin
 Code:EC0859
at Twinkl Go
This is another class favorite for practicing our fine motor skills on the whiteboard. Drag the car around the race track and across the finish line. Be careful not to crash into anything along the way! Access this lesson using pin code: JS9205
at Twinkl Go
We all really love listening to music. This week we have a choice of two songs for you to choose from, Three little Birds by Bob Marley or You've Got A Friend in Me by Bobby McFerrin. Pick the song you like and enjoy!
Time for one of our favourite activities, a GoNoodle dance. Anibal has made a video to teach the dance steps for  Banana, Banana Meatball. Do you remember the moves? Take a look.
That was great. Are you ready to dance along with Anibal? Let's go!!
We are all having a lot of different feelings because we have to stay at home all the time and we can't go to see our friends and other family members. Sometimes we feel happy, other times we might feel sad. We might  feel angry or maybe  even afraid  and or worried. It's ok to have a lot of different feelings.
Here's a poem called Joe the Emoji that reminds us about all the different feelings we can have.

Preparing for work

As part of our Junior Cycle curriculum we all took part in  a class enterprise to make and sell handmade Christmas cards. We choose designs we liked and got to work using Christmas paper punches, ink stampers, colours, card stock, glitter cut-outs and glue. It was a lot of work but we all took turns in different roles. Using the paper punches to make different Christmas shapes was probably everyone's favourite job. Once the cards were made, we counted and sorted them into packs and made a poster to let everyone know about our cards.  

Here we are hard at work on our class production line


We had great fun in cookery class this week!
They made individual pizza's, choosing the toppings and of course the best part was eating them.
We also made Spaghetti Bolognese and there was great concentration shown serving up a portion.

Music

On our camping trip with Baboro, we had great fun singing Twinkle Twinkle  as we were gazing into the night time stars overhead. When we got back to the classroom, we decided to have a go at playing it on our online piano. We did really well, take a look. 

Drama

P.E class with Karen
We had our first class birthday this month in Senior 4. We'd all like to wish Conor a very, very Happy Birthday! Thank you for the delicious cake and the fun birthday party.

ART

Now that Autumn is in full swing, we  have been getting out and about investigating the changes that the season brings. We have used the season's colourful display to create some beautiful artwork. Take a look.


​This week in the kitchen we cooked delicious blueberry muffins. If you'd like to try the recipe at home and  have some cooking fun, the recipe is available in your Google drive cookery  folder. Take a look at our work in the kitchen.


October is nearly here already so we are starting to get into the Halloween spirit with one of our favourite seasonal books, The Little Old lady who wasn't afraid of anything.  We are working on telling the story on the whiteboard and on our worksheets. Click to the right to listen to the story. 
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Personal Care
During our first few weeks back at school, we have been paying a lot of attention to our personal care especially to how we wash and clean our hands. Sometimes we use soap and water and other times we use sanitising hand gel. We created some class books to help us remember the materials we need to use and the steps we need to follow.

Art and Craft
We had great fun making our very own soap. We picked our own colour for the soap along with some essential oils to give it a nice smell. Everyone liked  orange and lemon. We also added some honey and dried lavender from the garden. It turned out great, take a look.
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