We had a great Term 2 here at St Joseph’s Primary School for Children with a Visual Impairment. Here is a sample of all the good work and fun that was had in term 2.

Room 1:

   

Through Art the children are exploring a variety of senses and some though not all of the children like the tactile feel of various Art materials like paint. The children not only enjoy the Art but the one-on-one interaction with a familiar adult as well. During these times the children use their own individual forms of communication to interact. Some pupils prefer interaction with sensory toys and dislike the feel of Art materials. Room 1 have been very busy on the artistic front this term.

Thomas O’Dowd, Class Teacher

Room 3:

Room 3 really enjoyed Music Therapy in Term 3 with Katie.

Emer Tierney, Class Teacher 

Room 5: 

In Room 5, we love Reading. On Tuesday, we go to see Aideen in the Library. She helps us to choose a book that we can borrow from the Library. Each week we change our book. Aideen also reads us a Sensory Story when we are in the Library. We Love it! When we are in our classroom, we love to practice Reading. We Spend time every day doing activities that will make us better readers. For example, we practise sounds using phonics, diagraphs and vowel sounds and make words that we know using PlayDoh. We want to be good readers and enjoy lots of books.

Claire Keenan, Class Teacher

 

Room 6- Science Blast:

Room 6 attended Science Blast in the RDS on March 5th. ESB Science Blast encourages primary school pupils to get involved in the excited world of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths). Each class picks a question, and they use science to find out the answer. Room 6 chose the question “Does your sense of sight impact the taste of food?”

Our day at Science Blast

When we arrived at the RDS the staff brought us to our display stand, and we set up our project. After a while the judges came to our stand and we told them all about our experiment. They asked us lots of questions and we were able to answer them all!

We visited other school stands and looked at their projects. We went to the Expo stage and watched the Science Rapper’s guide to the Solar System. We also visited lots of exhibition stands. At the Dublin Zoo stand we touched an elephant’s foot, ostrich eggs, a tortoise shell and a gorilla’s skull.

We loved the rainbow sand when we visited the Met Éireann exhibition. There they asked us lots of questions about weather and each of us won a water bottle.

We played games at the Engineering Exhibitor stand including a bowling game and an electric current maze game. We loved playing these games! When we returned to our stand, the judges came back to us and gave us the feedback from our experiment. They also presented us with a trophy. Our feedback and trophy will be on display in our school!

Geraldine McMahon, Class Teacher

Word Processing:

The pupils in the school during term 2 completed great work which included Mother Day cards, St Patrick’s day blessings and poetry. Some of which can be seen here.

AN IRISH BLESSING Freya      A NICE LIFE Ciaran      I LOVE MY MUM Emma

Catherine Foran, Word Processing Teacher

Orientation and Mobility:

Pavel has been enjoying his advanced mobility training and learning the route to Tesco. The route provides the opportunity for Pavel to practice pedestrian controlled crossings, parked car crossings and recognizing a safe crossing time by listening out for cars before attempting to cross the road. In Tesco Pavel has been learning about the characteristics of different products, knowing where to find different items within the shop and understanding that there are several different brands/types of products such as low fat milk, goats milk, lactose free milk etc. He has had the opportunity to practice his coin recognition when purchasing items and learning how to use the new bottle return machine. Well done Pavel! Keep up the good work!

Laura Cleary, Orientation and Mobility Teacher