VIRGIN MARY BOYS NATIONAL SCHOOL
  • News
    • Golden Tickets
    • Calendar
    • Pupil of the Week
    • World Book Day
    • Celebrating our Students
    • Multicultural Week
    • Stronger Starts
    • Gardening
  • Contact
  • Home
    • Our Ethos >
      • SET
    • Staff
    • Facilities
  • Classes 2024 2025
    • Ms O Connor's class
    • Early Start 24
    • Junior Infants Mr Berry
    • Junior Infants Ms. O Connor
    • Senior Infants Mr Davidson
    • 1st Class Mr Byrne
    • 2nd class Ms Duane
    • 3rd Class Mr Murphy
    • 4th Class Mr Doogue
    • 5th Class Mr O Brien
    • 6th Class Mr Conlon
  • School Programmes
    • Homeschool Liaison
    • KiVa School
    • Active Schools Flag >
      • Physical Activity
      • Partnerships
      • ASW
      • Physical Education
    • Amber Flag
    • Green Schools
    • Maths for Fun
  • Policies
    • Enrolments >
      • ASD class enrolments
      • Early Start enrolments
      • Junior Infants enrolments
      • Other Enrolments
  • Resources
    • Literacy
    • Numeracy
    • Archive >
      • 2023 2024 >
        • Special events 2023/24
        • JI 2023 Ms Duane
        • JI 23 Mr Davidson
        • Senior Infants 23
        • First Class Mr. O'Dwyer
        • 3rd Class Mr Murphy
        • Second Class 23
        • Fourth Class 23
        • Fifth Class 23
        • Sixth Class 23
        • Ms O Connor's Class
        • Special projects
      • 2018-2019 >
        • Junior Infants 18/19
        • Senior Infants 18/19
        • First Class 18/19
        • Second Class 18/19
        • Third Class 18/19
        • Fourth Class 18/19
        • Fifth class 18/19
        • Sixth Class 18/19
      • 2019-2020 >
        • Sixth Class
        • Fourth Class
        • Third Class
      • 2020-2021 >
        • Early Start
        • Junior Infants
        • Senior Infants
        • First Class
        • Second Class
        • Third Class
        • Fourth Class
        • Fifth Class
        • Sixth Class
      • 2021-2022 >
        • Junior Infants
        • Senior Infants
        • First Class
        • Second Class
        • Third Class
        • Fifth Class
      • 2022-2023 >
        • Early Start
        • Ms Guerins Class
        • Junior Infants
        • Senior Infants
        • First Class
        • Second Class
        • Fifth Class
      • 2023 2024
      • SESE/ART
      • Home, School Liaison
      • Sixth Class 2016/17
    • Extra Curricular activities
  • News
    • Golden Tickets
    • Calendar
    • Pupil of the Week
    • World Book Day
    • Celebrating our Students
    • Multicultural Week
    • Stronger Starts
    • Gardening
  • Contact
  • Home
    • Our Ethos >
      • SET
    • Staff
    • Facilities
  • Classes 2024 2025
    • Ms O Connor's class
    • Early Start 24
    • Junior Infants Mr Berry
    • Junior Infants Ms. O Connor
    • Senior Infants Mr Davidson
    • 1st Class Mr Byrne
    • 2nd class Ms Duane
    • 3rd Class Mr Murphy
    • 4th Class Mr Doogue
    • 5th Class Mr O Brien
    • 6th Class Mr Conlon
  • School Programmes
    • Homeschool Liaison
    • KiVa School
    • Active Schools Flag >
      • Physical Activity
      • Partnerships
      • ASW
      • Physical Education
    • Amber Flag
    • Green Schools
    • Maths for Fun
  • Policies
    • Enrolments >
      • ASD class enrolments
      • Early Start enrolments
      • Junior Infants enrolments
      • Other Enrolments
  • Resources
    • Literacy
    • Numeracy
    • Archive >
      • 2023 2024 >
        • Special events 2023/24
        • JI 2023 Ms Duane
        • JI 23 Mr Davidson
        • Senior Infants 23
        • First Class Mr. O'Dwyer
        • 3rd Class Mr Murphy
        • Second Class 23
        • Fourth Class 23
        • Fifth Class 23
        • Sixth Class 23
        • Ms O Connor's Class
        • Special projects
      • 2018-2019 >
        • Junior Infants 18/19
        • Senior Infants 18/19
        • First Class 18/19
        • Second Class 18/19
        • Third Class 18/19
        • Fourth Class 18/19
        • Fifth class 18/19
        • Sixth Class 18/19
      • 2019-2020 >
        • Sixth Class
        • Fourth Class
        • Third Class
      • 2020-2021 >
        • Early Start
        • Junior Infants
        • Senior Infants
        • First Class
        • Second Class
        • Third Class
        • Fourth Class
        • Fifth Class
        • Sixth Class
      • 2021-2022 >
        • Junior Infants
        • Senior Infants
        • First Class
        • Second Class
        • Third Class
        • Fifth Class
      • 2022-2023 >
        • Early Start
        • Ms Guerins Class
        • Junior Infants
        • Senior Infants
        • First Class
        • Second Class
        • Fifth Class
      • 2023 2024
      • SESE/ART
      • Home, School Liaison
      • Sixth Class 2016/17
    • Extra Curricular activities
Search by typing & pressing enter

YOUR CART

Picture

Well, what a great year of fun and learning it has been. The children have made great friendships in Early Start. They had lots of learning and experiences throughout the year and have grown in independence. This year has flown by. It has been a pleasure to teach this class. We wish them well starting junior infants.
Have a great summer holiday.
​Teacher Karla and Karen
​

Sports day.

The children enjoyed their sports day. We were very lucky with the weather. They had sprint races, egg and spoon, sack race, relay races, bean bag tray race, water challenge, shoot into goals and an obstacle course.
They felt very proud receiving medals and certificates.
​Thanks to everyone who came to watch and support.
​Enjoy the slideshow below

Picture



​School tour to Newbridge Farm

The children had a lovely farm visit, a picnic and time in the play ground.
​A big thank you to all the parents that joined us. We hope they all enjoyed their first school trip.

Picture
Picture



​We used a paddle pool to play fish games..... The rule was the kids had to wear swim hat and goggles..... Just a bit of fun

Picture
Picture
Picture

Splashing our feet

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture

We have a beach in our classroom

Picture
Picture
Picture

The children are loving the beach. They can take their shoes and socks off and really sit and have a great play. Below is a slide show of the fun on the beach.



​Our chicks have hatched. We only hatched 2 out of 7 eggs.
​Welcome LUCY and ROSIE

Picture
Picture

Slide show.... Meeting the chicks



​Ice cream parlour

Picture
Picture
Picture

This weeks theme is an ice cream parlour. There are cones and lots of icecream flavours and some ice lollys to sell. The children go into the tent to eat their ice cream. Below is a slideshow of the kids enjoying this theme.

Picture

Making Fathers Day cards

Picture

Blowing bubbles is so much fun

Working hard in class

Picture

Free painting.

We made a blackout tent with our tuff tray. We put a colourful rotating light projector inside. The children loved this den space. Below is a slide show .....

Picture

Matching numbers activity

Picture

Hair themed activities

Picture

Playdough hairdressing set

Picture

Cutting activity

The Salon is now open for business

Picture

The aistear theme for the next 2 weeks will be a hairdressers. The children are loving it so far. We have a receptionist, someone who washes hair and then a stylist. We have lots of wigs if the children want to change their hair.... They take turns being the customer and the hairdresser. Great style going on here in the classroom. We also have 2 doll heads to practice on....
​Below is a slideshow of the fun they had this week. Enjoy

EGGciting News

The eggs are now in the incubator. This takes 21 days. The children cant wait.....

Picture

The children had a lovely teddy bears picnic. We played some games, had lunch outdoors and had fun rolling down the hill.

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture



​Insect printing

Picture
Picture



​Blowing bubbles is fun

Picture



​Alex and Noah doing their jobs for the day.

Picture
Picture



​FARMERS MARKET


The Farmers Market has arrived in Early Start.
These are all real vegetables. The children are learning about food and where it comes from. They have a trolley and baskets and can come buy veg in the shop. The shopkeeper puts them into a bag and the children go into the home area to cook it.
​This set up is great for language skills, working together and very practical for the children.

Picture
Picture
Picture



We passed each vegetable around in circle time so each child could look, feel, smell, touch and name each veg.
​Taking time to do this helps the childrens memory and experience.

Picture
Picture

Below you will see a slideshow of their play this week.

​ CHICKEN COOP

The children painted some lovely hens. We set up the coop and waited a few days..... The children were very excited to see the ...hens...had layed eggs.
Now they can collect the eggs and sell them in the market.
​
NEWS FLASH
​We will have some more exciting news regarding real chick eggs next week

Picture



​Number game on the white board

Picture
Picture

Number 2

Picture
Picture
Picture

Slideshow




​These are our seeds we planted weeks ago. There are peas, chard and spring onion. We water them in our classroom. Soon we will replant them in our bay in the garden.

Picture


​Planting seeds with Sharon

Alex and Varnik are digging the soil to plant some peas....
Alex very carfully spaced the seeds out and covered them over with the trowel. Varnik actually loved the soil and sat in it, used the trowel to cover his runner ....
​



​Playground fun

Rainbow Number 1

Picture

We are concentrating on our numbers for the next few weeks. We are playing white board number games, using cubes and counters for visual prop number games, chalk boards, dice games and singing lots of number songs.
Practical, hands on games are great to reinforce number learning.
​Below are a few photos of number 1 learning



​Happy Easter to all our Early Starts. Hope the Easter Bunny comes x

Easter Bunny came to visit

Picture

Bella feeling very relaxed

Picture

Bella came to visit us. We watched her hop around, eat some lettuce and hay. The children took turns in pairs to come pet her to feel how soft she is. We learned about the litter tray, what she eats, what she likes to play with and how to take care of her.
​We sang bunny songs and made our own bunny tails

Look at our cute bunny tails

Picture
Picture

Easter egg hunt

Picture



​Easter Art... The children used a wooden stick to etch a pattern onto their egg.

Picture

Easter Threading Activity

Picture

Feather Chicks for Easter

Picture




​Patterns

The children are taking turns to follow trails and patterns on the easter egg. We try it on the white board first and then everyone gets their own sheet to try.



​Alex found a ladybird and we all went over for a look. Oziel put it on his hand for a better look.

Picture
Picture



​Super climbing out in the rainbow playground...


SEACHTAIN NA GAEILGE

Here we are performing our song in class. We are singing 2 little dicky birds in irish. Dha Einin Deasa.
​They did a great job.

We had great fun in the hall. Each class performed an Irish song. Then we had a cheile dance.

Picture
Picture

The wind blew away Leprechaun Fionns gold. We went on a treasure hunt to find his gold in the yard. We even found a bridge and some magic dust.

Picture

The children enjoyed colouring rainbows and making leprecaun handprints.

Picture

Things are turning very green for St Patricks day.....

Picture
Picture
Picture

Hard at work

Picture

Blowing bubbles is fun.... But even more fun, is bursting them with your nose....... Pop..... Pop..... Pop

Picture
Picture

World Book Day

Picture
Picture

We are participating in a school running challenge. Its called run around Europe. Here we are doing 2 laps of the big yard.

Picture

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY

Picture
Picture

We have started some St Patricks day art. We are enjoying learning leprachaun dances and songs.

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture



​The children were so excited to go outside and play in the snow

Picture

Happy snow day

Picture

Mindfulness

Picture


​The children are enjoying gymnastics in the hall. We are learning different types of rolls. Pencil roll, egg roll and a forward roll.
​Here are some photos of an egg roll

The children made their own chef hats. This was a good cutting activity.

Picture


​PIZZA SHOP

The aistear theme for the next few weeks is a pizza shop. We have chefs outfits, pizzas and an oven.... We even have pizza boxes and do deliveries. We are the best pizza shop in Ballymun. Our staff are highly trained. Enjoy the slideshow.

​We have also enjoyed pizza bingo, pizza songs, making pizzas with different toppings.

Picture

Slideshow

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture



​Have a lovely mid term break everyone. See you on Monday 19th February.

HOOK A DUCK

Picture



​We are getting messy making pancakes. The kids had fun trying to flip them over

Picture

Alex flipping his pancake over

Picture
Picture
Picture



​We are on to our next shape..... Ricky Rectangle. This week we will sing songs about rectangles, include this shape in activities to get to know it and find rectangles in the classroom.

Finger painting around the rectangle shape

Picture
Picture



​Happy Valentines Day to all

BEE my valentine

Picture

Lots of construction and building going on in Early Start

Picture

We displayed our transport art work on the corridor.

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture

Our aistear theme is transport. We built this hot air balloon. The kids can buy tickets and take a ride......
​We also built a rocket and added lights and windows.
​Below is a slideshow of more photos

Picture
Picture



​Anyone for tea

We got some new tea party toys so we set up a nice table with a table cloth and the kids set up their own tea party. They really enjoyed this.

Picture
Picture

We are learning shapes. This weeks shape is Cindy Circle. The children enjoyed printing circles.

Picture
Picture
Picture

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all . Looking forward to more fun and learning in 2024.

Santa came to visit.

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture

Our First Nativity

Picture

We are very proud of the children. They spent the last 2 weeks learning the songs and lines for our play.
They loved dressing up in costumes.
​Well done to all for a great performance in church today.
​Below are a few photos of the children




Getting very Christmassy in Early Start. We have a santas grotto in the classroom. We filled our trough with fake snow. We made clay decorations and painted them. We painted green glitter christmas trees. We are busy learning our Songs for our Nativity play. We decorated our christmas tree in class and the elf moves every day so the children are excited to find him.

Picture

The children made these candy canes using patterns. They had to try follow the pattern

Winter wonderland on the corridor
​

Picture
Picture

The children are visiting the crib

Picture

Winter Hats

Picture
Picture

Counting activity

Picture
Picture



​Arts and crafts with Sharon

Picture

Making Christmas tree decorations using clay. The children went to the poly tunnel and made crafts with Sharon out of clay.

Slide show

Picture
Picture

Christmas Art

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture

Noah enjoying some painting

Picture

The afternoon group love this construction activity. They are very good at using screwdrivers

Picture
Picture
Picture

Making a Gruffalo
​We read stories about the Gruffalo, sang the song and made him from paper plates. The children stuck on all the accessories

Picture
Picture

Science Experiment.... Magnets

Is it magnetic or non magnetic

Each child came up to test an object and had to place it on the correct tray.
​We also found lots of magnetic things around the classroom

Picture
Picture

Clothes Shop

We sell lots of things in our shop. The children try on clothes and buy them. They love the high heel shoes and the hats

Picture
Picture

We are learning the first letter of our names this week.

Picture
Picture

Sand play

Alex buried his hand in the sand...... He didnt like sand in September but we are so proud that he is getting use to this texture.

Picture

Gardening with Sharon

The children enjoyed planting daffodil bulbs this week. Each child got to bring a pot home.
Picture

The children are using hammers to put golf Ts into a pumpkin. This is a good activity for hand and eye co ordination and for building strength and muscle in the fingers and arms.

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture

Happy Halloween Everyone

Spooky Frozen Skulls

The children used pipetts and warm water to melt the ice and free the spiders and rats inside.

Picture

Congratulations to our 2 raffle winners...Oscar and Charlotte.

Picture

Halloween Fun

The childrens green hands turned into witches.....

Picture

We painted the childrens feet to make frankensteins and ghosts.....

Picture

Green Goblin Guts.....

Picture

Hard at work..

Picture



​We have been doing lots of activities for Halloween. Halloween bingo, shadow matching, sorting Halloween pasta, I spy, finger painting, hand and feet painting, colouring, using tweezers, cutting and sticking. We have been very busy.
Our home corner was turned into a haunted house.
​The children are enjoying Halloween songs and stories.
​We set up our pumpkin and sang a scary pumpkin man song.
Below is a slide show of some things we got up to last week.

Autumn Activities

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture



​Noah enjoying some table top activities

Picture
Picture


​Painting activity

The children are using forks and brown paint to create prickles on the hedgehogs back

Picture
Picture



​Making hedgehogs from clay.

The children enjoyed this activity. They rolled the clay into a ball shape. They added eyes and a button nose and coloured sticks for the prickles.
They will dry and the children can take them home
​Below is a slide show of the hedhehogs they made



​HALLOWEEN ACTIVITIES AND ARTS AND CRAFTS

Picture

Painting our feet to make Frankensteins and ghosts.....
​

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture


The school corridor is very spooky... We have a dark tunnel.... Below the children are walking through having a look at all the scary Halloween things.

Outdoor fun

Picture



​Doctors Surgery

Our theme in Aistear is the Doctors.
​The children are taking turns to be doctors and patients. They can dress up. They are learning about all the equipment that a doctor uses. We have a receptionist who shows them to the waiting room.
We also have a chemist where they can buy medicne...
​We will keep the doctors theme for 2 weeks.

I brought in a real blood pressure monitor and a few of the children tried it out.
Below is a slide show of the children at play

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture

Slide show of the Doctors Surgery



​Planting with Sharon.

We used shovels to dig the soil. Sharon showed us some vegetables that were growing.

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture

We got to see a pumpkin that was growing.

Picture


​During circle time each day, the children learn about the date, the days of the week and the weather. We have a job chart. Every child has a job to do. We tell our news and dress our weather frog. We sing songs and play games. Some of our jobs are.... Leader of the line, ring the bell, pick a song, calendar, turn off the light.

Picture
Picture
Picture

Our story this week was The Three Little Pigs. After the story, the children took turns coming up to the board and completing a trail.
​The children also enjoyed a sticking activity where they made a straw house, a stick house and a brick house.

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture

Water play this week is washing the dolls.

Picture
Picture

Play Dough

The afternoon group are enjoying play dough activities. They are using roller, cutters, scissors, shapes and extruders.

Picture
Picture
Picture

Painting

The children are busy making a wall for Humpty Dumpty. They are using a sponge to create the bricks.

Picture

Colouring, painting and sticking activities

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture

Playground

The children are enjoying yard time. They can run, climb and balance on the various climbing frames.

Picture

Lunch time.
​The children get to choose water or milk and from a selection of sandwiches which include chicken, cheese, ham and plain. We have also introduced fruit this week.

Picture

This week we are practicing our line and will go out to play in the yard. Fresh air and physical activity will be part of every day. Fingers crossed for more sun.
​Will post some outdoor photos next week.


​Painting

Picture
Picture

The morning children have painted their hand prints which they enjoyed. We will display them on the corridor


​Having fun

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture

Slideshow of more fun and learning

Circle Time

Picture
Picture
Picture

We have started our basic routine. After activities and play time the children are learning to clean up. They get a turn to ring our bell and then we clean up. We all sit on a circle bubble on the mat. At the moment we are singing a welcome song for each child, using their photo. They come up and place their photo on the chart. This is a great way for them to learn each others names and also to learn to wait and turn take

Our afternoon group are learning to sit for a short period of time. We are taking things slowly and at a pace they are able for. We are enjoying the song 5 little ducks this week.

Picture

We are teaching the children how to line up. They are getting the hang of it already....

Making friends

Picture
Picture
Picture

The children are enjoying their first week in school. There are lots of fun activities set up in the classroom. This week is all about exploring, playing and making friends. They can freely move around and choose what activities they would like to play with. Here is a slide show of their first week.

​First Day Photos

Welcome to Early Start


M-F: 9am - 3pm

Telephone

01-8421314
[email protected]