Schoolwork May 25th to 29th

Gaeilge

If your child doesn't like these videos please feel free to go back to watching TG4 for 10/15 mins

Oral Language

Please open up the Oral Language and Interactive Resources secion in Unit 8 and look at the poster in Story Mode... some questions to ask.... Who is in the picture, Where are they, what are they doing, What time of the year could it be and why are the animals in enclosures? Can they think of any questions they would like to ask if they were the teacher? Listen to the story ......

Some useful vocabulary to introduce during this topic.... enclosure, furry, spotty, feathery, scaly, spots, stripes, enormous, ginormous, slithering, galloping, waddling, African plains, reptile house.

Return to the Interactive resources and listen to the interactive poem a few times. It is called The Zoo Please ask your child to close their eyes while listening to the poem and ask them to think about what pictures they can see in their head as they listen.They should be able to say this poem off by heart on Friday. After listening to it a few times can they please make up some actions to go along with it

Then they can play the first 2 matching cards activities...1. Matching rhyming words 2. Matching each animal to it's food

Reading

SpellWell Week 32 one box and one activity each day please

Just Phonics Page 86

SESE

Literacy

Oral Language

Listen to the poem... Can you say it in a curious voice, a delighted voice, a scared voice?

Look at the flash cards game.... sound out each word ..... try the matching memory cards game too. Can you name all the animals

Reading pages 1 to 9

Please select the Genre Story eBook today. It is called Life in the Zoo...... Ask your child to look at the front cover and make some predictions.... What do you think life is like at the zoo? who works in the zoo and what jobs do you think they do? Why do you think the class are at the zoo.

Listen to the story..... can they look at the report about the Flamingo on page 4 and 5. It begins by telling us what the subject is.... then describes what a flamingo looks like, where it lives and some fun facts... Look at all the words used ti describe the flamingo. This helps people to learn more about it.

Practice reading the report on the Hippo out loud a few times..... please tell them any difficult words

Ask your child what does Over the Moon mean? Can they put it in a sentence. Miss Noonan was over the moon when she heard she could go back teaching her class! Why was everyone tickled pink when Mr Lillis got splashed. What could they do at home to make someone tickled pink? maybe help stack the dishwasher... tidy their room? etc

Just Phonics Page 87

Spellwell Week 32 One box and one activity each day please

Maths Page 67 Figure it Out.

Literacy

Oral Language

Look at the poster today in Explore Mode... Dont forget to play the I spy game and answer the 10 questions.

Remember to practice saying the poem and add in your actions.... What style of voice will you say it in today?

Play the sorting game.... real and nonsense

Reading

Finish reading the Genre Story ebook today.... page 9 to the end. can they read the report on the Zoo keeper on page 15 a few times by themselves

What does as busy as bees mean? Can they put it in a sentence?

Writing

Just Phonics Page 88

Spellwell Week 32 One box and one activity each day please

Maths Page 68 Figure it Out

Literacy

Oral Language

Practice the poem again today.......Why do you think the monkey made them laugh? Why do you think the elephant is the authors favourite? What are the rhyming words in this poem?

Play the Odd One Out game. They have to say Why it doesn't belong

Reading

Open up the Non Fiction reader eBook please. The Zoo Keeper....... have a quick look at the inside front cover for some excellent tips on exploring this book. Some questions to ask..... Do you think this is a fiction or non fiction book.... what can you see..... What do you think this book teaches us..... What job is the zookeeper doing in the picture...... predict what other jobs the zoo keeper might do? Is there anything you would like to know about zoo keepers.? Does this book remind you of anything

Then listen to the book being read by clicking on the yellow triangle.... after reading your child might like to tell you something that they learned during this story. Then they can read it by them selves once or twice by them selves

Writing

Today can you please pick a zoo animal that you are interested in.... find out some facts about it and then draw a picture, label it and write a report. I'm really looking forward to seeing what zoo animal that you choose

Just Phonics Page 89

SpellWell Week 32 One box and one activity each day please

Maths Page 69 Figure it Out

Literacy

Spelling Test

Oral Language

Play some of your favourite games from the interactive resources

Reading

Today we are going to have a look at a story called Dear Greenpeace..... Can you ask them to do the following before they even look at the picture

Close your eyes and start making a movie in your head.... Our story today is called Dear Greenpeace....... can you imagine a garden belonging to a little girl called Emily? It has a pond in it? ..... Visualise it.... Picture a whale in the pond. What can you hear.... what is it doing? what does it smell like?

The show them the front cover ofthe book and discuss it.... what time do you think it is.... what is the girl doing.... what do you use a stamp for? why do people write letters... Looking at the illustration what do you think happens in the story? Discuss what Greenpeace is..... (For nearly 50 years, Greenpeace has been sailing the world’s oceans protecting our planet and fighting for environmental justice ) Why do you think Emily is writing to Green peace?

Then listen to the story

STEM........ Build a birds nest!

you will need!

• Eggs or small rocks that you can pretend are eggs

• Assorted natural materials that you find outside such as twigs, grass, leaves, dirt, rocks, sand, etc. The materials you have available will depend on where you live.

• Bucket or other container to collect materials

Prep Work

1. This activity can get messy. If possible, do your work outside. If you are working inside, build your nest on a tray to make cleanup easier.

Procedure

1. First, go outside to see if you can find any bird nests nearby. If you find one, observe it carefully from a distance—do not get too close and disturb the nesting birds! Can you tell what materials the nest is made of?

2. If you can't find any bird nests outside, search for pictures of bird nests online. How many different types of nests can you find? What are the nests made out of?

3. Now, look around you for materials you can pick up easily, like twigs and rocks. Think about the purposes different materials could serve.

What materials do you think would make a good nest? Do any of them match the nests you saw in person or online?

4. Use your bucket to gather a bunch of materials. Note that the bucket is a convenient time-saver for you, but birds don't have that luxury. They have to make many back-and-forth trips, often carrying one twig at a time!

5. Now, use your materials to try and build a nest that will be able to safely hold at least one egg. This is an open-ended process—there is no single "correct" procedure to follow.

6. "Test" your nest (gently at first!). Can you blow on it (or aim a fan at it), pick it up, or place an egg inside it? Does the nest fall apart or stay together? If it falls apart, what can you change to make it sturdier?

Cleanup

When you are done with your bird nest, dump all your materials back outside where you found them.

What Happened?

You might find that building a bird nest can be surprisingly difficult! If you just made a pile of dry materials like sticks or grass, your nest probably didn't stay together very well. It might fall apart if you blow on it or try to pick it up. You can make your nest much sturdier by weaving the materials together to form a basket, or using a binding material like mud as "glue" to hold the pieces together. Now the next time you see a bird nest, maybe you will be a little more impressed with these natural feats of engineering!

Role play/Imaginative Play

set up a zoo vets clinic.... we did this at school...... what is the matter with each animal..... maybe the cheetah has lost its sports, has the elephant something stuck in his trunk.....

• Zoo vet using the doctor’s kit to check the animals’ health

• Zoo tour guide gives visitors information on the animals

• Zookeeper feeding and cleaning the animals and their enclosures

• Zookeeper coming off night duty, telling the morning zookeeper what s/he saw on her/his shift

Construction

Build Zoo Enclosures

Supply children with photos of various zoo enclosures (see downloadable Aistear materials) and ask them to plan a zoo. They must give consideration to what animals they will include, where best to place them and how to contain/house them. Children should be given clipboards, pencils and paper to do so.

Next, children build their zoos. They could decide to build with either large or small building materials. Additional materials could be supplied such as straw, green shredded paper or sheets of green paper, as well as plastic zoo animals.

Children could create labels for animals or signs such as ‘Do Not Feed’. Children could also create information posters, drawing and labelling various zoo animals.

Sensory Play

Art

Supply children with paper plates, paint and a range of junk material for them to create a zoo animal. They could initially paint the paper plate the appropriate colour and, when dried, add collage materials and draw in facial features using a black marker.

Small World

The Zoo Small World

Setting up the area

Children could set up a zoo scene using plastic animals, trees, pieces of green and blue paper and crêpe paper. Figurines could be used for zookeeper, visitors to the zoo, vet, etc. make some simple lollipop stick puppets

Gathering resources

• Zoo background

• Report templates to write reports on the animals

• Plastic fruit boxes

• Animals

• Plastic tractors to deliver the food

• Miniature dolls to play the visitors and the zookeeper

• Seeds to act as food

• Bits of paper to label enclosures

Possible play scenarios

• Visitors queueing to visit the zoo, purchasing tickets.

• Families taking a trip around the zoo.

• The zookeeper giving a talk on various animals.

• The zookeeper feeding animals.

• The vet doing rounds and checking animals.

This could be further developed by asking children to create posters or information sheets for the zoo. Children could pick their favourite zoo animal, draw a picture and label the animal and various body parts. This ties in with report writing we did during the week.