This is the link to our 1st Class padlet with resources to support classwork this year.
FEBRUARY
PANCAKE TUESDAY
AUSTRALIA
We learned about Australian culture, Australia Day, Aboriginal culture, Uluru, The Great Barrier Reef and Australian animals. We created wonderful Aboriginal art as well as boomerangs containing Aboriginal symbols. We picked Australian animals we would like to research and then wrote wonderful reports about them. We enjoyed presenting our facts to the class and our reports are now proudly on display. We learned Uluru was 3.6km long and then went to the Community Field and walked just over half the length of Uluru....it took us 28minutes! It helped us to realise how long Uluru actually is! We predicted how far a kangaroo can travel in one jump (9m) and then measured 9m to see how close our predictions were. We also got the chance to see and hold a didgeridoo and a boomerang.
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GRANDPARENTS' DAY
We put lots of effort into making and writing cards for our grandparents and special people so that they would know how important they are to us and how much we love them. We then went to the post office, bought our own stamps and posted our cards. We hope our grandparents and special people enjoyed receiving their cards in the post.
100 DAYS OF FIRST CLASS
In Maths we have been learning about tens and units and so we made a decision to count 100 days in 1st Class. On our 100th day of 1st Class we celebrated by doing some writing and colouring activities, playing 'Would you Rather?' based on 100, making 100 day crowns, predicting where 100 steps would take us (and then actually measuring where we ended up ... some people ended up outside!!!), we completed a P.E. activity based on the multiples of 10, made Rice Krispie buns and enjoyed toy time. What a fantastic day!
SCIENCE
We used torches to investigate if different materials in our classroom were transparent or opaque.
WEATHER
We kept a weather diary for a week, read daily temperatures from the thermometer and recorded wind conditions using the Beaufort Scale. We also investigated temperatures in different locations around the school, including in the boiler room!
ART
January
All About australia...
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Winter walk
We enjoyed our recent winter walk where we looked for signs of winter in the local area after learning all about the season. We used our checklists to record what we saw - frost, bare trees, robins and much more!
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Art
We have been busy creating some lovely artwork to begin the new year - 2026 fireworks paintings and mixed media hot chocolates based on our procedural writing on how to make a hot chocolate. We love doing a 'walking gallery' around the classroom to admire each other's finished work following art lessons!
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Maths
We have been working very hard on our numeracy skills this month in first class! We have been learning all about place value, 3D shapes, odd and even numbers and fractions. We have been working on describing 3D shapes by their properties, halving sets and numbers and recognising odd and even numbers. We have also been learning to group bigger numbers into tens and units. We have really enjoyed practicing these skills through games on our iPads.
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December
Christmas Fun!
1st Class did an amazing job performing their Christmas show and we are all so proud of them. For Christmas Art we created Santa and elf door hangers, personalised Christmas trees and we even sewed and decorated our own Christmas stockings. We had lots of fun at the wonderful Reindeer Run organised by the Parents Association and we were thrilled with the gift at the end also! Thank you!
Class Toy Show
After learning about toys from different parts of the world and about toys from the past, we had our very own class toy show! We told our classmates about our favourite toys, answered questions from the 'audience' and then at the end of the day we had play time with our toys. Afterwards we wrote wonderful reports about our class toy show.
PJ Day!
We had so much fun on our PJ day! We decorated buns, watched movies, had some hot chocolate and finished our day with toy time!
PICKER PALS
There was great excitement when our Picker Pals box arrived and we all sat around the package to see what was inside! We were delighted with the reading books and activity books we received and couldn't wait to start taking the Picker Packs home to go on litter picking adventures. We also had our first Zoom call with the Picker Pals, we learned how to draw Ami from Picker Pals and we created a Picker Pals board in our classroom where we will hang the litter picking reports from our litter picking adventures as well as our Picker Pals artwork.
HOMES
In Geography we learned about different kinds of homes and in History we learned about homes in the past. We went for a walk in the village to see how many different kinds of home we could find, we interviewed older people we know about homes in the past and in Art we created paper bag houses. We also learned about the artist James Rizzi and we then created James Rizzi inspired streetscapes.
Other Activities
- In Maths we explored data and graphs and we surveyed classes in the school to find out their favourite colour in Lego Six Bricks. We recorded the results on graphs and revisited the classrooms to share the results with them before proudly displaying our graphs outside our classroom door.
- In Geography we learned about night and day and created night and day wheels in Art.
- We talked about how we can show kindness to others and created kind deed flowers which are displayed on our classroom door.
- In P.E. we continued with our gymnastics sessions with Kenny and learned how to do a forward roll. We also learned a new game called Rock, Paper, Scissors Showdown which was lots of fun!
- In Irish we explored the theme of Bia (food). You will find some of our conversation work below if you would like to try it at home.
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REindeer Run!
We had a fantastic morning doing our annual Reindeer Run around the village. We had so much fun greeting parents and family and were very lucky with the weather! We were especially delighted with the selection boxes we received from the PA - thank you!
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Getting in the christmas spirit...
We have been busy making lots of Christmas art recently.. we loved using different materials to create our own snowman army based on a story we read called 'The Snow Day' by Richard Curtis.
We finished up with gymnastics this month - we really enjoyed our lessons over the past few months and loved practicing all the skills we have learned!
Our elf Tinsel has been keeping us entertained each day, he has been causing lots of mischief and Ms. Rothwell can't wait until he returns home to the North Pole!
On our last day before Christmas, we made 'gingerbread houses' as a STEM challenge - we used icing, biscuits and sweets to make unique edible houses!
We finished up with gymnastics this month - we really enjoyed our lessons over the past few months and loved practicing all the skills we have learned!
Our elf Tinsel has been keeping us entertained each day, he has been causing lots of mischief and Ms. Rothwell can't wait until he returns home to the North Pole!
On our last day before Christmas, we made 'gingerbread houses' as a STEM challenge - we used icing, biscuits and sweets to make unique edible houses!
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Toys!
One of our themes in December was toys and we really enjoyed learning about toys from the past and popular toys around the world! We got to play with Ms. Rothwell's favourite childhood toys and even had our very own Toy Show where we brought our favourite toys into school and presented them to our classmates.
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Pyjama Day!
We had so much fun wearing our pyjamas to school for Pyjama Day in November. We watched a movie and had hot chocolate too!
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English
We have been focusing on the recount genre in English this month. We have produced some brilliant written pieces!
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Gymnastics!
We are loving our gymnastics lessons this month! We have been working on our strength, balance and flexibility!
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Gaeilge
In Gaeilge, our theme is Bia and we have been learning the names of all our favourite foods. We have enjoyed discussing our mboscaí lóin and telling everyone what we ate for bricfeásta each day! We decided to write news reports and read them to the class...
We have also been practicing talking about our hobbies as Gaeilge - we love to playing games to practice our Gaeilge verbs.
We have also been practicing talking about our hobbies as Gaeilge - we love to playing games to practice our Gaeilge verbs.
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Maths..
We have been learning all about repeated and growing patterns in 1st class. We enjoyed working together to make patterns. We learned about data and different ways of representing data we collected - we made a bar chart of birthdays in our class and came up with questions to ask one another about the data.
We have also been working on our Maths Eyes and problem-solving skills - we love completing open-ended tasks and discussing our solutions as a class!
We have also been working on our Maths Eyes and problem-solving skills - we love completing open-ended tasks and discussing our solutions as a class!
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Science, History and Geography...
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Bí cineálta
For anti-bullying week, we have been carrying out acts of kindness and discussing all the ways we can be kind to others and do things with love! We are so proud that our class is full of kindness, friendship and inclusivity.
Houses and homes
We have been learning all about different types of houses and homes in 1st class this month!
We learned about apartments, cottages, bungalows, terraced, semi-detached, detached houses and many more.
We talked about houses and household items from the past and compared them to our homes today - we even interviewed family members to find out more!
We created some beautiful cityscape art after looking at and responding to James Rizzi's work. We also designed and constructed some houses using cardboard.
We learned about apartments, cottages, bungalows, terraced, semi-detached, detached houses and many more.
We talked about houses and household items from the past and compared them to our homes today - we even interviewed family members to find out more!
We created some beautiful cityscape art after looking at and responding to James Rizzi's work. We also designed and constructed some houses using cardboard.
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Happy Halloween!
In Ms Rothwell's First class, we have been getting excited for Halloween, learning about ancient, old and modern Halloween traditions and completing some spooky artwork. We have been learning some Halloween songs, Oíche Shamhna as Gaeilge and we even tried some Báirín Breac! We had great fun dressing up, decorating our classroom and engaging in 'show and tell' about our amazing costumes.
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Litter picking fun..
Big smiles, big impact! First class had a blast while making a real difference in our community—working together as a team to clean up litter and protect the planet.
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OCTOBER
Happy Halloween!
We celebrated midterm by dressing up, having a game of conkers (linked to our learning about Autumn) and having a mini-disco! Happy Halloween from 1st Class!
SCHOOLS IN THE PAST
In History we have been learning about schools in the past. We got a chance to sit in the old school bench in our school and we also visited the old school across the road. In the old school we got to see Ms. Murphy's old classroom. In Ms. Murphy's classroom in the old school the emergency exit was the window and so the boys and girls (and Ms. Murphy!) had to climb out the window onto a specially made bench outside the window when there was a fire drill! We had great fun trying the emergency exit for ourselves! When we returned to school we wrote wonderful reports about schools in the past.
ART
We hope you enjoy seeing some of our art work from this month below.
AUTUMN
We have been learning about Autumn and the life cycle of the oak tree. We went on an autumn walk to The Hugging Tree and collected some autumn leaves along the way. When we returned we used the leaves to make our beautiful leaf lanterns.
IRISH
In Irish our theme has been 'An Scoil'. We have been using partner games to work on asking and answering questions in Irish. Our cómhrá is below if you would like to try it at home.
OTHER ACTIVITIES
- We participated in a litter pick in the local community as part of our Green Schools work.
- We really enjoyed our visit to the school book fair.
- We started our gymnastics lessons with Kenny.
- In P.E. we worked in groups to create games using hoops and beanbags. We then taught our games to our classmates and we all tried each others games. It was lots of fun!
- For Maths Week we participated in a Maths quiz and we have also been playing lots of games including partner games and 'Buzz' with the days of the week and months of the year.
Book fair
We had a wonderful time visiting and choosing from the fantastic range of books at the Scholastic Book Fair. Huge thank you to all staff involved in this initiative, we really enjoyed it. Happy reading everyone!
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From all of the girls and boys in first class - BEst of luck Bride Rovers!
SPACE week!
We had lots of fun learning all about space during Space Week 2025! We read the report 'Adventures of an Astronaut', watched lots of videos about Chris Hadfield, read his book 'The Darkest Dark' and learned the poem 'Climb Aboard the Spaceship'. We created some wonderful artwork to celebrate Space Week, became more familiar with our solar system, and some of us have even decided to pursue a career with NASA in the future!
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Autumn is here..
We have been embracing the seasonal changes in Ms Rothwell's First Class! We have been adding to our nature table, learning about hibernating animals and using nature to create some lovely artwork! We read some reports on this topic too; 'Four Seasons in One Day' and 'Winter Sleep'. We based our hedgehog art on the story 'Don't Hog the Hedge' and learned the poem 'Bed in Summer'. We recently went on a nature walk to explore the seasonal changes in our local area and have been learning to identify leaves of trees that lose their leaves. In Maths, we have been learning about the four seasons and their months. We are also very proud of our reports about hedgehogs which have been hung on our 'Wow Work' wall. In Gaeilge, we have been learning the names of different animals such as 'gráinneog', 'coinín', 'sionnach', 'iora rua' and 'broc'. We have started to decorate for Halloween and we are very excited!
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Maths
In Maths, we have been exploring 2D shapes and numbers beyond 10. We have been enjoying lots of hands-on activities and learning through play. We created our own robots using 2D shapes and have been practicing our mental maths skills. We have enjoyed engaging with some Maths Week activities this October too!
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OUr class displays
Just a few of our displays for each subject this month in Rang a hAon!
Back To School!
Space Week
We are having great fun celebrating Space Week in school. We have been learning about the planets, the first Moon walk and the astronaut Chris Hadfield. We read Chris Hadfield's book The Darkest Dark, learned the poem Climb Aboard the Spaceship and completed art activities such as a drawing of a rocket blasting off from Earth and a moon walk that featured us as the astronauts! We also plan to write a report about space and create some aliens using clay! Below you will find some videos we have been watching to help us learn more about space.
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Science
In Science we have been learning about the 5 senses. We explored our sense of hearing by spending some time outside using only our sense of sound to identify what was happening in the world around us and we also played sounds bingo. For our sense of touch we tried to identify objects that our partners placed in our hands using only our sense of touch and we then investigated if it became harder to identify objects if we were wearing gloves. We also completed an obstacle course in the halla with our partners. One partner closed their eyes and, relying only on the senses of hearing and touch, let their partners guide them around the obstacles. We also completed a taste test to explore the 5 different taste qualities and our personal preferences. We tasted dark chocolate (bitter), Tuc crackers (salty), lemon (sour), jelly tots (sweet) and tomatoes (umami/savoury). Bitter was the least popular taste quality in our class. Sweet and salty were the most popular taste qualities in our class. You can see some of our reactions to the different taste qualities in the slideshow below as well as some photos of our other senses experiments!
Maths
We have been doing lots of active learning in Maths and having lots of fun exploring numbers beyond 10, 2-D shapes and time. We even used our Maths learning in our art to create pictures with ovals, squares, circles, triangles and rectangles!
Irish
In Irish we have been working on the theme of Mé Féin. We learned the songs Ceann, Gualainn, Glúin is Cos and An Luan, An Mháirt. We also worked on our conversational skills with our partners and used our finger puppets to help us! You will find a copy of our cómhrá below if you would like to try it at home.
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Drama and PE
In Drama we have been having lots of fun playing Drama games (our theme for September). In P.E. we have been working on our ball handling skills using beanbags, basketballs and footballs and we also enjoyed games with our Lego Six Bricks.
Classroom displays
Below are photos of just some of the wonderful work we have been completing.
Friends 😊
We are all great friends in 1st Class 😊