SEE for Senior Infants

The middle of October to the end of November: birds that leave, stay or arrive, the trees of the grounds named by their leaves, the ground underfoot, a hedgehog's year, and darker evenings measured against the school's own sunrise and sunset. Halloween is set beside what a writer saw in 1783, and Diwali is met through a made-up family and the story it tells. A made-up granny's kitchen, the people who work at night, an old Irish story of a boy and four animals, a story from Germany and a children's festival in Japan complete it.

December to the middle of January. Day and night and the moon's changing shape are worked on the model of the sun, the Earth and the moon, and the shortest day is met in the school's own sunrise and sunset. Hanukkah, Christmas and St Stephen's Day, and three new years people in Ireland keep, are met as what people do. In January the class watches ice in three places, compares an evergreen with a bare tree, meets the workers who put a town right after a storm and what children do in January in Mongolia and in Australia, and hears how Setanta got his name.

The end of January to the middle of March. The class counts winter birds, compares the wind in two places, looks out to both sides of the school gate and counts the signs of spring, and meets lambing time and frogspawn. St Brigid's Day is set beside what a writer saw in 1889; Chinese New Year comes through families getting ready for it, and Eid through a made-up family. A fable from Greece, the places people in a town like ours gather, and a street long ago complete it.

The middle of March to the start of May. St Patrick's Day is set beside what a traveller wrote in 1681, and the young Patrick is met on Slemish; Easter, which moves with the moon, works in whichever week it lands; May Day is set beside what a writer saw in 1682. The class compares minibeasts in two places, counts the bees on a tree in blossom and asks somebody who works in the school about their day; it hears an old cuckoo rhyme, a story from the Philippines and the legend of St Kevin and the blackbird, meets three made-up families welcoming a new baby, and helps a made-up family find its way on the school's own map.

May and June. The Earth's year-long trip round the sun and the planets come first; a shadow is marked at the start and at the end of the time outside, sun and shade are compared, and a tree is set against its whole year. Children's lives in other countries come through kites in Botswana and Indonesia, Vesak in Sri Lanka, and a very wet place and a very dry one; summer work comes through two old paintings, the sun, the clouds and the wind through a story from India, and the longest day through the school's own sunrise and sunset and the bonfires of St John's Eve. The year ends on the class's own milestone: getting ready for First Class.