Penguins on the ice

We finished our penguins today and they turned out great!! Last week we painted the background using blue paint and a water wash. Thn we blotted on some white paint here and there to create the ice. When dry, we outlined the main shape of the penguin by painting an oval shape and two triangles on either side for the wings and painted it black. We then painted the beak orange and added two feet. When dry we stuck on a white paper oval for the tummy and addewd an eye. We are learning a lot about penguins at the moment in class and we will be making our own little book on penguin facts this week.

Fun in the snow!!!

We decided to make the most of the snow today and we went for a walk around our school. We had to take extra care in the snow. Our school yard was completely covered in snow so it was great fun to go out and make footprints in the snow.  We also visited the church and said a little prayer. On the way back to school again we had some more fun in the snow and even got to throw some snow balls!!

Acid cabbage test

We have been learning how important it is to take care of our teeth. Teacher had an enormous toothbrush and set of teeth and she showed us how to brush our teeth correctly. We learned that acid is not good for our teeth so we decided to test some drinks and other things to see if they had acid in them. To do this we needed some PH neutral water. Teacher put some chopped up red cabbage in a bowl and added some boiling water. When it cooled we were left with purple water. Then we tested some drinks and other things to see if they had acid in them. If the drinks turned pink after mixing them with the cabbage solution we knew that they contained acid. It's ok to drink these drinks accasionally but not too often as acid is very bad for our teeth and we must make sure to brush our teeth after drinking them. We found that orange juice, apple juice, lemon juice, coke and vinegar all contain acid and turned the solution pink. Bread soda and washing-up liquid are alkalis and turned the solution blue/green.

Have a look at this presentation for Junior and Senior infants http://www.dentalhealth.ie/download/pdf/toothday_2010_teachers_presentation_final_221110.pdf 

or other publications on http://www.dentalhealth.ie/publications/list/toothday/

Here's another great link.  This one is to the video story: Dr. Rabbit and the Legend of Tooth Kingdom http://www.colgate.com/app/BrightSmilesBrightFutures/US/EN/Kids/LegendVideoChapters/Chapter_01.cvspoChapters/Chapter_01.cvsp

.

An owl in a tree

Can you find an owl in each tree? We wet our pages with water first and then we painted the background (orange and yellow) by using our fingers.This was a lot quicker than using a paintbrush. Then when it was dry we painted the trunk of the tree and added the branches. We used our thumb print to make the owl. We added a moon and some stars. 

Dick Whittington

The West Midlands Theatre Company came to visit our school today and performed Dick Whittington. It was really great and we all enjoyed it immensely. The costumes were super too. Well done to all involved.  

Visit to the Bottle Bank

We visited the Bottle Bank and the Clothes Bank beside our school today. We saw the large bins where people put their empty glass bottles. Some bins were for green glass, some for brown glass and some for clear glass. We discussed the importance of putting the different coloured bottles into the correct bin. We also saw the Clothes Bank. On the way there and back we observed all the signs of winter. Most of the trees around our school are bare now. Also there wasn't a swallow in sight. They have all gone back to Africa now to escape the cold Winter here!!! There was also a touch of frost in the air and we were well wrapped up in our scarves and wore our hats and gloves.



Maths - 2D Shape

We are learning about 2D shapes at the moment. As well as identifying a square, circle, rectangle and triangle we also learned how to count the number of sides and corners each shape has. We saw that a circle has no corners at all. Then we made some lovely shape pictures using squares, circles, rectangles and triangles. Lastly, we played a shape game. Teacher put a lot of assorted shapes into a feely bag. One person came up and had to pick a shape from inside the bag but they couldn't look at it or show it to the rest of the class. They had to describe the shape in their hands by feeling it ie. my shape has 3 corners and three sides, what shape am I? Whoever guessed correctly came up next. We are getting really good at this game now.