Ireland · NCCA Curriculum Specifications
Junior Infants Foundations of Language and Literacy
A comprehensive introduction to oral language, phonological awareness, and emergent literacy. Students develop communication skills through play, storytelling, and structured phonics to build a lifelong love for reading and writing.
The Power of Oral Language
Focuses on developing listening and speaking skills through social interaction and storytelling. Students learn to express needs, feelings, and ideas while building their vocabulary.
Students practice narrative skills by recounting personal experiences and listening to peers in a structured setting.
Building a rich bank of words through socio-dramatic play and themed interest areas.
Exploring the sounds of language through nursery rhymes, songs, and poems to develop phonological awareness.
Unlocking the Code
An introduction to phonics and print awareness where students begin to connect sounds to letters. This unit builds the mechanical foundations for early reading.
Learning the primary sounds of the alphabet and recognizing their shapes in the environment.
Understanding how books work, including directionality, the role of the author, and the difference between pictures and text.
Developing the ability to pull sounds apart and push them together to read and spell simple words.
Making Meaning from Stories
Moving beyond decoding to focus on comprehension and response to text. Students engage with various genres to develop critical thinking and empathy.
Using clues from covers and titles to make logical guesses about story events.
Exploring who is in the story and where it takes place to deepen understanding of narrative structure.
Learning to navigate non-fiction texts to find facts and answer questions about the real world.
Becoming Young Authors
Students explore the writing process from drawing and scribbling to emergent spelling. The focus is on communicating meaning through various marks and symbols.
Recognizing that pictures carry meaning and serve as the first step in the writing process.
Exploring different purposes for writing, such as making lists, sending cards, or telling stories.
Using phonics knowledge to attempt writing words by identifying the sounds they hear.