Restaurant Dioramas

The Junior and Senior Infants amazed me over the past two weeks with the incredible dioramas they planned and created in small groups. Last week they got a shoebox and planned what they wanted their restaurant to look like. They also started on the 2D aspects of their plan, such as wallpaper, carpets, etc. This week they had to construct tables, chairs, people, ovens, walls...their creativity and resourcefulness were amazing! There were LOADS of problem solving, spatial awareness, oral language and social skills developed through this art project.

Menus on the fancy table cloth

The lights were a great idea, and the posters on the wall!

The only group to have the kitchen...the pizza in the oven looks yummy!

Comfy seats!

This group wanted people that they could move around the restaurant!

Brilliant problem solving with this group when they discovered a new way to make the adults stand up at the table

A lot of teamwork went into this diorama as the 3 girls split the jobs equally!

Worry Monster

We have a visitor in our classroom!!! After the midterm break, we came into school to find our classroom a MESS. We found a note from a very worried monster. He was hiding with our fairy, Síog, until he felt brave enough to come out. We made him a worry curry with all of our worries in it and he said it was delicious. We made worry monsters out of 2D shapes and he really liked them! Then, finally, he came out of Síog's house! Now, whenever we have a worry, we can draw or write it on a page and feed it to our monster! If it's a big worry, he might tell Ms. Keane before he gobbles them up, but usually he munches through the worries straight away! 

The children are doing Dance for P.E. Today they practiced dancing with different body parts, dancing slowly and then quickly, dancing at different levels, e.g. high and low, and moving in different directions while dancing. They then practiced these skills by playing Mirror Mirror, which is when they take turns mirroring their partner's dance moves. 

When we're dancing we get inside a pretend Dance Bubble. This bubble makes us the best dancers we can be, and stops us from banging into each other! We don't want to get too close to anyone's bubble in case it bursts! To finish off P.E. today the children all drew their magic bubble with themselves doing their favourite dance move in it. 

The Restaurant

Here you can see the other stations for playtime this week. Table 1 was a play-dough station were the children could make food and use markers to label them. I couldn't believe how well the Juniors could figure out what sounds were in what words!!! The art station was great fun-the children had to imagine their favourite dish and construct it using WHATEVER art materials they wanted. There was some amazing creativity here. The role play are was the restaurant. The children got into roles (e.g. customers, chef, waitress) and used props to engage with the drama. They were absolutely brilliant at this station. There was lots of appropriate language, social interactions, free writing, sequencing events...and it was fun too! 

Construction Station

Here are some clips of the construction station during playtime. The children were given the task of designing, planning and building their own restaurant. They are developing drawing skills, spatial awareness, imaginative thinking and motor skills. There's English, Maths, Science, Art and SPHE. This station also provides opportunities for team work, oral language, problem solving and more!