Welcome to the senior room of 5th and 6th class! The senior room is always a very busy, creative, interesting and fun classroom and this year is no different. This year we have 25 students in the senior room.
Maths is an important part of the curriculum and thankfully the students are embracing the heavy workload. The curriculum is presented in a variety of different ways throughout the year. We are currently revising all the multiplication tables and children are battling it out for King and Queen of the Tables weekly! Olivia joins us for maths during the week to assist in the classroom for some extra support. It’s great to have two teachers in the classroom at the same time! This is an hour of maths group and pair work designed to help pupils learn strategies to tackle problem solving in maths. Once a month we will have Maths 4 Fun in the classroom in which we have the use 8 ipads and headphones. Pupils also learn about using their “Maths Eyes” to recognise maths in the world around them.
The children learn the core language subjects of English and Irish daily in the classroom. They are working hard on a variety of reading comprehensions, oral language exercises, grammar exercises, writing, spelling, poetry and songs.
On Tuesday Shona Flaherty visits our classroom and we have a great Traditional Music Session. We are so lucky that children play a variety of instruments such as tin whistle, accordion, concertina and fiddle in the senior room. Liz comes on a Wednesday to teach fiddle. We try to practice a few times a week as we all enjoy a few tunes in between other subjects.
Sport is always eagerly looked forward to and we are grateful to Connemara Rugby Club who teach the pupils Tag Rugby. We will also complete a 6 week course of Swimming lessons in the Station House in Clifden. Later in the year the pupils will have the opportunity to participate in Yoga, Gaelic and Soccer. In June we compete in Cuman na mBunscoil GAA tournament and also the FAI Soccer tournament in which we have had great enjoyment and much success down through the years.
The children will participate in two Microteaching lessons at the GMIT. The lessons, presented by the second year students in the college, are always very interesting and enjoyable.
Every Wednesday we do a Visual Arts lesson which will usually be linked into some other aspect of the curriculum. The children are very talented and highly motivated when it comes to art. We look forward to visiting artists October for Sea Week & in May during Bog Week.
MindUp brain breaks are practiced 3 times a day.
I am sure the year ahead will have many more exciting opportunities for us all in the senior room. I will keep you posted!