Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Learning about life long ago

We had a lovely surprise today.
One of the lovely grannies from our class came in to tell us about life long ago.
It was really really interesting.  We heard about life in school and at home when Eileen was a little girl.  We think it would have been very strange to have no electricity or indoor toilet (although she was lucky enough to have had both).  Life long ago sounded very busy.  Eileen had to help her mum milk the cows, bake and pick potatoes and vegetables for her dinner every day after school.  In the evening she had lots of fun with her family, playing cards and board games like Scrabble and Monopoly.
Eileen's school doesn't sound much like ours.  The children had to bring in sods of turf so that the stove could heat the classroom (we are so lucky to have nice warm radiators in our class).  It was a small 2 teacher school and they had no whiteboard or indoor toilets (how would we manage without?)
The thing that surprised us most was the fact that there were no supermarkets, just small shops and a travelling shop that came once a week, and sold tea, flour, sugar and SWEETS!  Everything else they could get at home: meat, potatoes and vegetables from their farm, and tarts, bread and biscuits from their own kitchen.  Ice cream was a real treat (for after first communion and other really big occasions), since they had no freezer or even fridge in her home.
We really enjoyed Eileen's visit, and we learned such a lot about life when granny was a child.
Thank you so much Eileen for your wonderful visit.  Come visit us again any time.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Litter Recycling in Junior infants




This week we were talking about litter. We learnt all about the different bins and what belongs in a green, brown and grey bin. We learnt how to keep our classrooms, school yard, outside areas clean and litter free. We learnt about objects that can be recyled and we paid a visit to our local recycling bank by the Kingfisher. We spotted some dut bins along the way.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Journey of a raindrop: Senior infants



We looked at the water cycle and the adventure of a raindrop.........mountains, streams, rivers, oceans, clouds and rain.