Infant Programmes
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Aistear
Our Junior and Senior Infants take part in the Aistear programme, a play based curriculum from birth to six years. It uses themes instead of subjects to outline what children should learn during their early childhood. The themes are Wellbeing, Identity and Belonging, Communicating, Exploring and Thinking. Through discussion and play, the themes connect to each other and link to the subjects in the Infant Curriculum. As the school year progresses, the junior and senior infants are very enthusiastic as they enjoy participating in Aistear. The children play in small groups and move to different stations while participating in these themes. Themes include the home corner, at the doctors, at the vets, airport, shopping…….etc……Aistear emphasises the importance of play-based methodologies in supporting children’s learning and development. We encourage parents to discuss all the activities when they get home.
Ready, Set Go Maths
Our infants take part in the Ready Set Go Maths Programme. This is an interactive, hands on programme which focuses on using concrete materials and manipulates. All the pupils are thoroughly enjoying exploring concrete maths equipment while discussing their findings. The classroom is divided into four different stations with different teachers as they guide the pupils to explore different mathematical concepts. This programme helps the children experience a sense of pleasure in mathematics that comes from solving puzzles and problems. Under the guidance of the teachers, the children’s curiosity is stimulated by formulating questions and investigating mathematical situations. Children get the opportunity to explore in small group activities that draw on mathematical skills and concepts. They can experiment with pattern and discover relationships.
Literacy Lift Off
Here in Newcastle N.S, we are continuing with our exciting literacy lift off programme. This is a literacy programme which provides children with lots of opportunities to read books at their own level of competency and gradually lift the complexity of what they can do in both reading and writing. It is a whole-class intervention aimed at increasing each child’s competency in oral language, reading and writing. During each literacy session, the pupils have an opportunity to spend time at five different work stations working closely with three different teachers in the classroom. They enjoy multi-sensory activities discussing new books, writing a response to the text and progressing through fun word study activities. Parents play a huge part in the success of the programme as they listen and promote reading with their child at home.
Coding
Our infants learn to code using Bee-bots. Bee Bots are exciting programmable floor robots, designed specifically for use by young children. They are colourful, easy to operating and friendly little robots which are used to teach directional language and programming aswell as sequencing, estimation, problem solving and just having fun. Bee bots are also used in our infant rooms to reinforce new words and mathematical concepts.
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