Hi everyone,
The start of Term 3 looms closer. Here is a short blog post on starting Term 3 with Junior Infants. Term 3 this year is quite short, so there will be lots to do with Junior Infants so that they can make the transition to Senior Infants quickly and easily.
While Junior Infants initially may need some time to settle into classroom routines again, it will take less time that at Christmas, hopefully. Once they have settled back into this routine the workload for Juniors might increase. As they are coming to the end of Junior Infants, they should be more independent both for their own belongings and their own classroom activities.
Take time in Term 3 to further develop their independence. In my class we had set quiet working time, to encourage the children to work independently and quietly. I had a traffic light system in my class to manage this, but now you could easily use the traffic light system on Classroom Screen to manage some quiet working time.
In Term 3 you could also build their assessment record which will provide lots of information for the teacher in Senior Infants.
Literacy
Many of you may have finished the Jolly Phonics programme by now, so it is important to revise the sounds and ensure they can blend words. I have used the different assessments from Miss Mernagh to keep a record of the Jolly phonics sounds they know. If they have completed the sounds, then there is also an assessment from NEPS for phonics skills. It can be found on page 23 of their Effective Interventions Pack. I have found this checklist really useful to identify any blends they may find difficult and also to check their knowledge of diagraphs and CVC words. Some sections of the checklist will be more suited towards a Senior Infant levels.
Term 3 is also important to develop their knowledge of sight words or Tricky Words from Jolly Phonics. In my class I had a list of the tricky words for each child and I would assess the children regularly. By using the same sheet it was easy to identify improvements or areas of concern. Jolly Phonics have their own assessment sheets ready to download. Both the sounds/phonics assessment and a tricky word assessment will provide the teacher both in Junior Infants and the Senior Infants with a level of progress and areas of concern if any.
Numeracy
Junior Infants will have developed their number sense to 5 and it is important to further develop this in Term 3. The Ready Set Go manual and games are ideal for resources and ideas on how to further develop these number concepts. The PDST have a great Maths Game resource which has games suitable for both Junior and Senior Infants.
Some Maths Schemes may have their own assessments and checklists which could be used as they transition to Senior Infants. Similarly Twinkl (subscription required) also have assessment checklists based on the curriculum which you could use to identify areas of strength and areas of concern in the class.
If you have any questions on the resources mentioned above, please send me a PM/email.
A.M.
Aistear Múinteoir 