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Tips for teaching the theme of ‘Ag Siopadóireacht’

Ag Siopadóireacht is one of my favourite topics to teach. Pre-covid the children would take in dress-up clothes and there is also great opportunity for integration in maths with the strand of money and through Aistear. I usually stay on the theme of ‘Ag Siopadóireacht’ for a fortnight-a month. In this blog post I will outline ideas and strategies to help with your teaching of ‘Ag Siopadóireacht’ as well as some integration ideas.

Integrating ‘Ag Siopadóireacht’ with other subjects

• Maths– Money
• Aistear– Clothes shop/ Grocery store
• English– Writing a shopping list
• SESE– Different types of materials.
• Music– An Siopa Ceoil (Mo Cheol Thú)

Books/ Leabhair related to ‘Ag Siopadóireacht’

• Maisy Goes Shopping
• Shopping with mum
• A Dinosaur at the Supermarket
• Our corner store grocery
• Teidí ag Siopadóireacht
• Ag Siopadóireacht le mamaí

Key Vocabulary/ Phrases

• Cén praghas atá ar___ ?
• Tá costas ____ euro ar an ___.
• Fáilte isteach!
• Céard ar mhaith leat a cheannach?
• Ba mhaith liom ____ a cheannach.
• Cad a cheannaigh tú sa siopa?
• Cheannaigh mé ____ sa siopa.
• Céard é an siopa is fearr leat?
• Is maith liom an siopa ____.
• Seo duit do shóinseáil/ bhriseadh.
• An bhfuil cabhair/ cuidiú de dhíth ort?
• An maith leat a bheith ag siopadóireacht?
• Is maith/ ní maith liom a bheith ag siopadóireacht.
• Cad atá ag taistáil ort/ de dhíth ort?
• Tá ____ uaim.

Each of these is available in poster format in the ‘An Aimsir’ pack in the membership resources area of the website.

Activities to reinforce key vocabulary and phrases.

Biongó: Always a firm favourite, I use Biongó as one of my literacy stations to reinforce vocab. To differentiate this, a basic level of the game would see the children select a card e.g. siopa éadaí, and say what they see. A more advanced level would see the children putting this into a sentence e.g. is maith liom an siopa éadaí/ cheannaigh mé madra i siopa na bpeataí.

Siopa bréige: The teacher could divide the children into table groups with each group acting as a different type of shop. 4-5 key shops could be focussed on during the fortnight with emphasis on developing the key phrases. Modelling of each of the shops should be done prior to allowing the children to engage independently in the activity with key phrases on display in the classroom.

Cén saghas siopa atá i gceist? The children in my class love this game. They come to the top of the class and I present an image behind them of a certain type of shops. They have five chances to guess the correct weather e.g. ‘An siopa seodra atá ann?’, the other children respond ‘Is/ Ní hé siopa seodra atá ann’.

Cluiche Kim: Another firm favourite for most age groups and a brilliant way to hone in one vocab. I place images of different types of shops or related phrases on the board (roughly 3-5) and the children close their eyes and I remove one of the ag siopadóireacht flashcards from the board. They must guess which image is missing.

I have included 3 free worksheets on ‘Ag Siopadóireacht’ which you can download below. If you wish to become a member of Áiseanna as Gaeilge and gain access to the full Ag Siopadóireacht resources pack and all our wonderful Gaeilge resources for primary school then click on the ‘JOIN NOW’ button below. Membership is either €9.99 per month or €95.00 for the year.

How to use Boom Cards

Boom cards are interactive activities created by teachers like me and you! I first heard of Boom cards during the closure last year but figured they wouldn’t be worth investing my time in learning how to use them as we’d be back to school in September. Fast forward to our second school closure and I began looking into Boom and wow I was so wrong in thinking they were only useful for home learning. I am OBSESSED with Boom cards at the minute.

Boom cards allow for self-correction, so usually a multiple choice where your students select an answer and will be told whether or not it is correct. The best part? It is completely free providing all you want to do is share the link to the activity. If you want to create your own deck of Boom cards you will have to pay a yearly subscription of €30. There is a lower fee if you just wish to set up a class so you can monitor the progress of your students. Or alternatively, you can set up a free account, purchase your Boom cards of choice, these will be saved to your library and you can share the URL link with your students. When we return to school you can just open your chosen Boom cards deck and play on the Interactive Whiteboard.

Steps for creating a Boom account

1. Go to wow.boomlearning.com
2. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and select the starter pack which is free and get yourself signed up.
3. Once you are signed up you can purchase Boom cards either on the Boom Learning website, on Tpt or Mash, or if you are a member of Áiseanna as Gaeilge you have free access to our Boom cards.
4. You will be given a link to your Boom cards on a PDF and they will save to your Boom account under ‘Library’.
5. Choose which Boom deck you wish to use, select the blue ‘action’ button, select ‘hyperplay link’ from the dropdown and your boom cards will be available there for your students.
6. If you are using the deck in class you simply just select and open the deck you wish to play.

It is super easy! I can’t wait to begin using the cards when we go back to formal teaching. I know my class will love them.

Boom Cards available on Áiseanna as Gaeilge

I have uploaded Boom Cards for the first phonics pack and the others will be uploaded throughout the week.

Pack 1 coadg (x44 Boom cards)

Pack 2 lthbf (x43 Boom Cards)

Pack 3 rnmiu (x34 Boom Cards)

Pack 4 pves (x26 Boom Cards)

Pack 5 áéíóú (x47 Boom Cards)

To access our Boom cards, simply join our fantastic membership of over 100 resources all as Gaeilge for only €9.99 per month with cancellation anytime.

If you have any other questions, please feel free to email me or contact me on Facebook or Instagram.

An Aimsir Teaching Ideas

An Aimsir is a great topic to teach whether you are a teacher in a T1 or T2 setting. Below I will outline some ideas I use when teaching An Aimsir and some resources that you may find beneficial to support the teaching.

Key Vocabulary/ Phrases

• Cén sort aimsire atá ann inniu?
• Tá sé scamallach agus grianmhar inniu.
• Tá bogha báistí/ tuar ceatha sa spéir inniu.
• Tá sé ag cur sneachta inniu.
• Tá sé scamallach inniu.
• Tá sé ag cur báistí inniu.
• Tá sé gaofar inniu.
• Tá sé grianmhar inniu.
• Tá tintreach ann inniu.
• Tá an aimsir go breá/ go dona inniu.
• Tá brat bán sneachta amuigh
• Tá mé fliuch go craiceann.
• Tá scamaill sa spéir.
• Tá sé stoirmiúil
• Tá an ghrian ag scoilteadh na gcloch.
• Tá mé ag cur allais.
• Tá mé marbh leis an teas.
• Tá sé gaofar inniu.
• Ní hé lá na báistí lá na bpáistí.
• Lá breá grianmhar atá ann.
• Lá breá brollach atá ann.
• Tá an ghrian ag spalpadh anuas.
• Tá mé préachta leis an bhfuacht.
• Conas atá an aimsir sa tír inniu?
• Tá sé ____ san iarthar/ deisceart/ tuaisceart/ oirthear.
• Láithreoir aimsire.
• Réamhaisnéis na haimsire
• Méadar báistí
• Scamall
• Ag cur báistí
• Bogha báistí/ Tuar ceatha.
• Braonín Uisce
• Tintreach
• Ag cur sneachta
• Calóga sneachta/ calóg shneachta
• An ghrian
• Tornádó
• Teirmiméadar
• Tintreach agus toirneach
• Gaofar

Each of these is available in poster format in the ‘An Aimsir’ pack in the membership resources area of the website.

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Activities to reinforce key vocabulary

• Chairt/ Dialann aimsire: The children could keep a copy of the weather for a week. Depending on the level of your class, this could be as simple as drawing a picture of the weather and being able to orally say what they have drawn, to drawing a picture and adding sentences to it e.g. ‘Inniu tá sé scamallach agus grianmhar’.

• Biongó: Always a firm favourite, I use Biongó as one of my literacy stations to reinforce vocab. To differentiate this, a basic level of the game would see the children select a card e.g. ag cur báistí and say what they see. A more advanced level would see the children putting this into a sentence e.g. ní raibh sé ag cur báistí inniu, or reading the biongó cards without the pictures as prompts.

• Laithreoir Aimsire: To coincide with news time in the morning, one or two children could come to the top of the class and give a ‘réamhaisnéis na haimsire’ (the weather forecast) for today in your area or somewhere else in Ireland. A large image of Ireland could be placed on the IWB (included in the poster pack) and the children could either stick pictures on the whiteboard to describe the weather in the different areas of the country, e.g. beidh tinreach sa tuisceart inniu agus báisteach, or simply give a review of the weather they can see out the window at a more basic level, e.g. tá sé gaofar inniu.
• Cén sort aimsire atá ann? The children in my class love this game. They come to the top of the class and I present an image behind them of a certain type of weather. They have five chances to guess the correct weather e.g. ‘An bhfuil sé grianmhar inniu?’, the other children respond ‘Tá/ Níl sé grianmhar’.
• Cluiche Kim: Another firm favourite for most age groups and a brilliant way to hone in one vocab. I place images of different types of weather on the board (roughly 3-5) and the children close their eyes and I remove one from the board. They must guess which image is missing.

Lesson Idea

Réamhcumarsáide- Ag múcailt suim na ndáltaí sa cheacht.

• To introduce the lesson, we will recite the poem An Aimsir

“Bhí an báisteach ag titim oíche Dé Luain,

Ag titim ón spéir, chomh bog ‘s chomh ciúin,

Bhí an ghaoth ag séideadh maidin Dé Máirt,

Na duilleoga ag damhsa ‘s ag séideadh thart,

Tráthnóna Dé Céadaoin, bhí an sneachta amuigh,

Amach leis na páistí, amach leo ag rith,

Tháinig storim ar an Déardaoin, tintreach ‘s toirneach,

Níor thaitin sé liom, bhí sé ró ghlorach.

Faoi dheireadh Dé hAoine amach leis an ghrian,

Ag scoilteadh na gcloch, an aimsir is fearr liom.”

• I will introduce today’s vocabulary- ag cur báistí, grianmhar, gaofar, ag cur sneachta, scamallach.
• We will play ‘cluiche Kim’ using our new vocabulary.

Cumarsáide-  Úsáid na teanga

• Next, I will call some children to do ‘réamhaisnéis na haimsire’ (this can be as basic or as advanced as you like depending on the level of your class). The children must focus on the vocab taught today.
• Cómhra beirte: After this the children will engage in a ‘cómhra beirte’ (a paired discussion), where they can either;
• Discuss which type of weather is there favourite/ least favourite (is breá liom nuair atá sé _______. Is fuath liom nuair atá sé _________.) Their partner can tell the class which weather they prefer e.g. “Is breá le Saoirse nuair atá sé grianmhar. Is fuath le Saoirse nuair atá sé ag cur báistí.”
• Discuss what kind weather they think may be in store tomorrow (Beidh sé ag cur báistí amárach).

Iarcumarsáide- (tuiscint a daingniú)

• The children will fill in ‘Dé Luain’ on their ‘dialann aimsire’ using today’s vocab.

What do you get in the ‘An Aimsir’ pack?

• Cluiche Biongó
• Cártaí Lúipe

• Póstaeir
• Bileoga Oibre
• Cluichí Boird

If you wish to become a member of Áiseanna as Gaeilge and gain access to the An Aimisr pack and all our wonderful resources as Gaeilge then click on the ‘JOIN NOW’ button below. Membership is either €9.99 per month or €95.00 for the year.

I hope this helps you gain an idea or two for the teaching of ‘An Aimsir’.

Tabhair aire,

Sarah

Áiseanna as Gaeilge