Penguins in Junior Infants

The penguin is a flightless bird.  There are many different types of penguins.  We learned all about Emperor penguins.  We found penguins to be very interesting birds. 



The Emperor is the largest of the 17 penguin species.

Emperors are the deepest divers of any bird. 

They are also very strong birds.

The mummy lays her egg in mid-May, then leaves to spend the winter at sea.

The daddy spends the next 65 days looking after the egg which he rests on his feet.

In mid-July, when the mummy returns, she finds the daddy by having memorised his call. The daddy penguin carefully gives the egg to the mummy.  The egg hatches soon after.

Emperor chicks grow quickly because they have only five months (that is just from when we started school to now) to reach the stage where they can fend for themselves. (we dont think we are quite ready to leave home just yet)

Penguins eat Antarctic silverfish Pleuragramma antarcticum. They also eat other fish, Antarctic krill and some species of squid

Learning about colours in Senior Infants

Boat races in Junior infants

Today we were investigating floating and sinking. We discovered boats sail on the water. We decided to have boat races. We put up the sails on the boats and then we used our breath to blow the boats across the water. We raced against each other to see who would get the other side first.

Floating and sinking in Junior infants

Today we were talking about objects that sink in water and objects that float on water. First of all we predicted whether the object would float or sink. Then we tested this by dropping the object into water. We experimented with keys, feathers, ducks, crayons, scissors, paper clips. We had great fun investigating. We love science in room 1.

Releasing our moth: Senior infants

Hyacinth bulb flowers: Junior infants

The bulbs we planted in Autumn are now in flower. This is quite late due to the cold weather.

Looking at our moth: Senior infants

Tuesday, January 25th, 2011

 We all had a good look at our moth today.  It started as a little green caterpillar, then became a dark brown cocoon and is now a brown and grey moth.  We love looking at it, and feeding it fresh oranges and water.

A brave moth: Senior Infants

The first primrose bud of spring

Saturday, January 22nd, 2011

Teacher has spotted the first primrose bud.  It thinks spring is coming, and you can see its lovely yellow bud.

Feeding the birds

Teacher feeds the birds that come to her garden.  She leaves out peanuts and water for them, and even leaves out chains of monkey nuts (still in their shells).  The birds love to visit her garden.  Here is a picture of a blue tit eating the monkey nuts.  Remember to leave nuts and seeds out for the birds to eat in this cold weather.

Investigating Materials: Second Class

WE COLLECTED DIFFERENT MATERIALS AND STUDIED THE PROPERTIES OF THEM.
PROPERTIES SUCH AS BENDY,HARD,SOFT,TRANSPARENT,OPAQUE,SMOOTH,ROUGH,WATERPROOF,ABSORBENT ETC.
WE ALSO SHONE A TORCH THROUGH EACH MATERIAL TO SEE IF IT WAS TRANSPARENT OR OPAQUE.

Making Playdough: Second class

We made playdough by mixing together flour, oil, cornflour, salt and food dye.