A Day in the Junior Infant Classroom

Sample Schedule of the Junior Infant Classroom

9:15 - School Begins
Students line up in the hall (gym) for teachers to collect them.
9:20 - Put Things Away
9:25 - Prayer
We recite a classroom prayer and have silence for individual prayers.
9:30 - Calendar
We go through seasons, months, days of the week, and weather. The kids sing a song to help them remember the seasons and months.
9:40 - Show and Tell
Each day two "teams" (table groups) bring an item or two to share and tell the class about.
9:55 - Table Talk
Students talk with their table groups about a topic. Today's was "what I did this weekend."
10:05 - Coloring
After the table talk, students colored pictures of their weekend. Papers were labeled with names and the caption "My Weekend" (which students copied from the board).
10:35 - Movement
Students paraded around the classroom with their pictures while music played (it was a High School Musical CD because the girls are wild about it). When the music stopped, they shared talked about their pictures with the closest person to them.
10:45 - Interactive Dinosaur Computer Game
This game, displayed on the interactive white board, involved reading Kindergarten level sentences.
11:00 - Small Lunch & Play Time (Recess)
All students bring lunch from home and eat in the classroom, which is monitored by two 6th class students. Lunch is 15 minutes and play time, which happens on the field outside, is another 15 minutes. Parent volunteers are often on play field duty.
11:30 - Poetry
Students often learn and recite short poems. The girls know quite a few.
11:45 - Irish
Students in all the classes learn Irish. The girls are currently learning the words for weather. They know quite a bit of Irish vocab already.
12:00 - Word Study
Each letter of the alphabet has a sound that goes with a hand movement learned at the beginning of the year. Students work on reading words using these sounds and movements. Each student has a workbook for practicing writing letters and learning sounds and words. Our class has a curriculum we use that includes related, leveled individual books, word strips, and oversize classroom books.
12:30 - Activity Time/Individual Readings
There are different activity stations each team is assigned to which rotate by day. Some activities include the play corner, blocks, chalkboards, play dough, beads, and Legos. While activity time occurs, the teacher does individual readings with students to monitor and track student progress. She uses this information to choose books that go home with students to read with parents. Daily reading logs go home as well that come back signed with comments.
1:00 - Big Lunch & Play Time (Recess)
Students eat twice per day. It's really nice and the students seem to do well with having two big breaks and eating times.
1:35 - Tidy Up
Students have classroom jobs. One job is "tidy up monitor" who will go around and make sure the girls are straightening up properly.
1:40 - Read Aloud
Each day there is a book read aloud before the girls go home. We're currently reading fairy tales.
2:00 - School Dismissed (1st-6th classes dismissed at 3:00)
Parents, relatives, and nannies pick students up- there are no school buses.



What is a National School?
St. Brigid's is a national, or publicly funded, school. National Schools can be co-ed or all boys/girls, as is St. Brigid's. Students in National Schools wear uniforms. It is required by Ireland that all students who attend National Schools learn Irish in every grade level. There are a few National Schools that teach all subjects solely in Irish. Teachers in all National Schools must pass an Irish exam with very high marks. I would not be able to teach in Ireland without passing this exam. Though it is publicly funded, students at St. Brigid's will learn about Catholicism and engage in classroom prayer and school-wide prayer services in the Hall. Students of all religions are welcome at National Schools.