#EAL & Language: Information for Parents: Traditional Tales: ‘The Three Billy Goats Gruff’.

We are learning traditional stories and rhymes. We read ‘The Three Billy Goats Gruff: Ladybird First Favourite Tales’. You might like to go watch this video from ‘Toddler Learning Fun’ to go back over the story with your child. Unfortunately it is on You Tube which is blocked in school.

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Traditional stories are useful when teaching children language. This is because the children find them interesting and the story line is repetitive. Some words and phrases are repeated throughout the story giving the children the opportunity to get them on their ear. Traditional stories enrich a child’s vocabulary in English and gives children exposure to a variety of grammar. 

There are other stories on the ‘Toddler Learning Fun’ playlist that your child might enjoy.
Watching videos in English will be good for your child’s language development.
We used resources for this story from Bev Evan’s wonderful website Communication4All

#EAL & Language: Information for Parents: Traditional Tales, Goldilocks and The Three Bears

Later this month we will be hearing the story ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’. Again the Ladybird First Favourite Tales book that I will be using is available as a slideshow on Vimeo. Unlike You Tube Vimeo is not blocked in schools. We will use resources for this story from Bev Evan’s wonderful website Communication4All

Goldilocks and the Three Bears from World Book Day on Vimeo.

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#EAL & Language: Information for Parents: Traditional Tales, ‘Little Red Riding Hood’

I am looking forward to next week’s story ‘Little Red Riding Hood’. Happily the Ladybird First Favourite Tales book that I will be using is available as a slideshow on Vimeo. Unlike You Tube Vimeo is not blocked in schools. We will use a workbook for this story from Bev Evan’s wonderful website Communication4All

Little Red Riding Hood from World Book Day on Vimeo.

#EAL & Language: Information for Parents:Traditional Tales: ‘The Three Little Pigs’

We are learning traditional stories and rhymes. We revised a story we did last term ‘The Three Little Pigs: Ladybird First Favourite Tales’. Last term we built a house like the three little pigs did. You might like to go watch this video from ‘Toddler Learning Fun’ to go back over the story with your child. Unfortunately it is on You Tube which is blocked in school.

 

There are other stories on the ‘Toddler Learning Fun’ playlist that your child might enjoy.
Watching videos in English will be good for your child’s language development.
We used resources for this story from Bev Evan’s wonderful website Communication4All

#EAL & Language: Information for Parents: Traditional Tales: ‘The Gingerbread Man’.

We are learning traditional stories and rhymes. We listened to the story of ‘The Gingerbread Man’ (Ladybird First Favourite Tales).

You might like to go watch this video from ‘Toddler Learning Fun’ to go back over the story with your child.

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We used a workbook about the story from Bev Evan’s wonderful website Communication4All

Then we ate a gingerbread man.

UPDATE Here is a version of Ladybird’s ‘Gingerbread Man’ on Vimeo. Unlike You Tube Vimeo is not blocked in schools.

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The Gingerbread Man from World Book Day on Vimeo.

#EAL & Language: Information for Parents: Traditional Tales: ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’.

We are learning traditional stories and rhymes. We started with ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ (Ladybird First Favourite Tales).

You might like to go watch this video from ‘Toddler Learning Fun’ to go back over the story with your child. Unfortunately it is on You Tube which is blocked in school.

We used a workbook about the story from Bev Evan’s wonderful website Communication4All

Then we planted some beans.

#EAL & Language: Information for Parents: Activities we did and topics we covered: Junior Infants – 1st Class: The Snowman

The children were learning about Winter from their class teacher. We talked about it too. We learned about how the weather gets colder and how we wear warm clothes. We heard about what animals do in Winter. We also talked about snowmen. We drew some in chalk on black sugar paper.

chalk snowmen

We made snowmen collage:

snowman collage

and we made snowmen out of plasticene.

making snowmen

We also played with finger puppets. We learned that you say: ‘One snowman’ but ‘Two snowmen’..

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As we were doing these activities we were learning vocabulary and grammar. As we went from Junior Infants, through Senior Infants and on into First Class, we did more work on grammar, particularly tenses, prepositions and plurals. You can read about all the activities we have done in EAL and Language HERE.

#EAL & Language: Information for Parents: Activities we did and Topics we are covering: Junior Infants – First : We are learning about Living Things

We learnt about bugs. In the Summer term we will go for a Bug Hunt in the school grounds. We learned the names of these creatures and talked about how they moved. We used verbs and adverbs.

Bugs

The children were learning about hedgehogs from their class teachers and we learned about hedgehogs too. Did you know hedgehogs can climb and can swim.

hedgehog collages

Iga and Alan taught teacher the Polish for hedgehog: jeż. We also learned about other animals; their names, where they live, what their babies are called and how they move.

Animals

As we were doing these activities we were learning vocabulary and grammar. As we went from Junior Infants, through Senior Infants and on into First Class, we did more work on grammar, particularly verbs and adverbs, tenses, ‘time markers’ and prepositions. You can read about all the activities we have done in EAL and Language HERE.

#EAL and Language: Information for Parents: Activities we did and topics we covered : Junior Infants – 1st: Learning about shapes and numbers

In EAL we have enjoyed learning about shapes
Shapes

and numbers. Many of these activities developed Fine Motor Skills also.

Threading

We learned about 3D shapes. Teacher was very impressed that some students already knew the word cuboid! Though a simple activity, building blocks was one that the children really enjoyed.

Blocks

We used Numicon. First we had free play. Later we made pictures. The children loved using Numicon too.

Numicon

The children were learning about ‘Houses and Homes’ from their class teacher. We talked about houses too and made some using shapes.

Houses

As we were doing these activities we were learning vocabulary and grammar. As we went from Junior Infants, through Senior Infants and on into First Class, we did more work on grammar, particularly tenses, ‘time markers’ and prepositions. You can read about all the activities we have done in EAL and Language HERE.

Information for Parents: Activities we did in class each day. Language Classes: Junior Infants – 1st

We were learning about parts of the body. We made faces out of playdoh.

BeFunky Collage - Faces

We made teddies out of playdoh too.

BeFunky Collage - Teddies

As the week went on the playdoh turned chocolate coloured. It was just perfect for making monsters. They had lots of eyes and legs.

BeFunky Collage

We talked about our favourite food and we made it out of playdoh.

BeFunky Collage - Playdoh Food

We have lovely books in school. Teacher asks us to find pictures in the books. We talk about what we see.

BeFunky Collage - Book

We did a lot of talking about colours. We used construction toys to make flowers in the garden.

BeFunky Collage - Gears

Marble Run was a very popular activity. Again we talked a lot about colours. We used playdoh balls instead of marbles because teacher thinks that is safer. 

BeFunky Collage - Marble Run

We had another chance to talk about colours when we played the fishing game. We also learned about plurals. You say ‘one fish’ but you also say ‘two fish’ or ‘lots of fish’.

BeFunky Collage - Fish Game

We talked about birthdays and how old we are. We practised ‘fine motor skills’ using candles and holders. Sadly the ‘cake’ was polystyrene!

BeFunky Collage - Birthday Cake

We practised more ‘fine motor skills’ picking up ‘bobbles’ and pipe cleaner ‘snakes’.

BeFunky Collage - FMS

We made shapes using plastic strips and split pins.

BeFunky Collage - Split Pins

Halloween is coming. We played ‘picking up spiders’.

BeFunky Collage - Spiders

So far the most popular activities were the ones using playdoh and Marble Run. We had lots of fun and learned lots. You can see more of the work we have done HERE.