We would sincerely like to thank the DAA for the funding that the Parents’ Association received from the Dublin Airport Community Fund. The Parents’ Association used this funding to purchase JAGGO Blocks for our school. These construction blocks offer many learning opportunities which support the development of essential skills such as creativity, critical thinking, reasoning, problem solving, communication and collaboration.
The children in Junior and Senior Infants have been busy using the JAGGO Blocks as part of Aistear (structured play). A construction area has been established in the Infant classroom. Pupils come together in this area to plan and create exciting structures relating to the weekly theme.
All classes in the school have access to the blocks for STEM activities. The blocks are used to promote ingenuity and engineering among pupils. Each year our school engages in the Discovery Primary Science STEM programme. Children in all classes complete engineering projects. They engage in the scientific principles and ideas that come from building a structure e.g. designing and constructing a bridge. The children use the JAGGO Blocks to test and develop their ideas through trial and error i.e. exploring incline and how to make a structure more sturdy.
The photos below show the children exploring photos of real bridges from around the world. They were asked to construct their own structures using the photos for inspiration. We have some future engineers in our midst!
The photos below show the children busy at work in the construction area during Aistear. They were exploring ‘The Zoo’ as their weekly theme and they had great fun designing, planning and constructing their structures collaboratively.
