Active Breaks involve the children dancing and participating in various busy break activities which promote physical activity. Some of these examples include Just Dance, Go Noodle Dance, Busy Breaks and 10@10 challenges.
Children also do various exercises after each break for 10 seconds (Active Lines led by our Active Leaders) before entering the school.
Food Dudes is a programme developed by the University of Wales, Bangor, to encourage children to eat more fruit and vegetables both in school and at home. It is based on positive role models (the Food Dudes characters), repeated tasting and rewards. For the second time in May 2016 our children participated in this programme, tasting a variety of fruit and vegetables and receiving some wonderful awards for their efforts. Children got to taste foods they hadn’t eaten before and experiment with trying out some new ideas for healthy snacks.
As part of our Healthy Eating Promotion and our Irish Lessons, children got the chance to eat a healthy breakfast in school ‘as gaeilge’. Our Health Promoting Team continue to monitor the eating habits of the pupils in our school. Each class has appointed junk detectives to remind children of healthy eating Monday to Thursday, allowing for a small treat once a week on a Friday. Once a month a member of the team discretely does a lunchbox spot check to see that everyone is doing their best to eat healthily. We also choose one person a month from each class who has made a special effort to bring in a healthy lunch. Their names are displayed in our school each month. Literature and Newsletters are constantly sent out, providing parents with information on maintaining a balanced diet, providing parents with tips for healthy lunches and meals and also information on recommended portion sizes and daily dietary requirements for both adults and children. Our committee members have surveyed children on the most popular treats they eat and from that have compiled a Sugar Display Chart-highlighting the amount of sugar in those foods. They regularly visit the rooms to remind children of these ‘sugar-rich’ food. They also bring food props to our classrooms-showing children what portion sizes look like for children and adults alike. This gives a child a better idea of how much they should be eating each day. A suggestion box is also available for children to post suggestions of any healthy lunch ideas they may be able to provide!
World Mental Health day is celebrated every year and this year in school, we focused in particular on mental health among our pupils. We incorporated mental health lessons into our teaching on each day of this week!
We used child appropriate lessons to teach children about the importance of looking after their mind, just the same as they would look after any other part of themselves if it was unwell. The children enjoyed learning about their feelings and emotions and finding out some techniques for dealing with ‘negative’ feelings they encounter as part of their everyday lives!
We also listened to and learned about how real people (both adults and children) deal with difficult feelings. The website https://walkinourshoes.org. was used to explore these feelings. The children were interested to find out that everyone experiences ‘negative’ feelings sometimes and that this is perfectly normal. We also talked about different ways we may find useful to help us deal with our emotions
We held a design competition which encouraged children to design a poster incorporating a healthy living motto. Congratulations to Kiva who designed, what I’m sure everyone would agree, is a perfect Active Motto for our school to follow!
We use our WOW WALL to recognize children’s achievements both within school and also outside of school! This wall is an excellent way of encouraging both physical and mental well-being in our pupils!
Junior and Senior infants designed their own Easter Eggs using a combination of printing with pom-poms, and using a variety of brush strokes with their paint brushes. They also made beautiful Easter cards. However, the highlight of our Easter crafts was making our Krispie bun nests with mini eggs..Yum Yum!!
We had an Easter colouring competition and congratulations to our two winners as they proudly present their prize. Well done to all the children who took part as the standard was amazing!
Happy Easter from all the children in Junior and Senior Infants!!
As part of our SESE programme, the infants learned about Living Things and Non-Living Things. They learned to identify the parts of a plant together with the functions of each and the essential elements plants require for growth. To consolidate this learning the children planted their own seeds which they will nurture in the coming weeks and watch them grow…how exciting!!
First, Second and Third Class were ‘Busy Bunnies’ today Thursday 11th April 2019. We completed lots of lovely activities around the theme of Easter. In Religion, we looked at the history of Easter Symbols and how they are connected to the Easter Story. In Gaeilge, we learned lots of Easter vocabulary and made a lovely Easter card. For our maths lesson, we completed maths challenge cards and worked in groups to solve the Mystery of the Explosive Easter Egg. In English, we listened to some Easter poems and created our own EASTER acrostic poem and wordsearch. Our music lesson consisted of singing some Easter themed songs and adding in our own actions. For art we made an Easter Bunny and held an Easter colouring competition. We looked at the effect of heat on solids in science and made some chocolate Easter nests.
See some of our activities below!!
Have a Look at our Easter Colouring Competition Winners !
As part of our Green Schools Campaign, Ms Atkinson’s class were very lucky to travel to ‘Lough Neagh Discovery and Conference Centre’ in Craigavon, County Armagh on Friday 5th April 2019. Children were given a tour of the centre, went pond-dipping for mini-beasts and spent some time bird-watching.
Linda Finn, Joan Rooney and some of the students from St. Michael’s National School with the cheque they presented to the Oncology Unit in Our Lady of Lourdes hospital Drogheda following our 5K Fundraiser.
A massive thank you to all involved in organising this event!
