Well it’s the last few days of the school year and we just can’t believe how fast it’s gone by!!! We’ve had such a wonderful year with your fantastic children – thank you all so much firstly for entrusting us with your children, it’s been a real privilege to facilitate them in their learning, and secondly thank you for all your ongoing participation and support in that learning, and for all the input you’ve given to us in the school! We’ve had so many visits from family members – parents, grandparents, siblings & pets!!, you’ve been a big part of your child’s year whether heping out with our school trips and excursions to the GAA pitch, or coming into school to be part of your children’s birthday walk, pet visit day, music week, reading stories or coming in for observation days – it’s meant so much to the children as well as us staff, so thank you, as it has added hugely to all of our experiences this year!!

So onto this short week – we will be having sports day on Tuesday and a party on Wednesday to finish up the year with, and in between we’ll be spending precious time with your children before they head off for the summer – it’s not an easy thing to say goodbye to all the little people who are moving on to ‘big’ school after spending the year or 2 getting to know them and being part of their wonderful journey of growth & learning, but they’re ready for that step, and it’s an exciting time for them and for us all! If you don’t have a child returning in the near future, we hope that you & your child will continue to visit any time – and this year we had 4 secondary school students on work experience who were ex-pupils of the Montessori, so there’s no excuses – we can always find a space for your children!!

The Children’s House will be closing on Wednesday 26th June for summer holidays,

re-opening Wednesday 4th September

– have a wonderful summer everyone, and thanks for another amazing year!!

It’s hard to believe that we’re at the last full week of this school year!! We’ll be taking time with the children this week to talk through the change that is coming for them next year – some children are moving to different classrooms within the Montessori, while some children are moving on to primary school, so we will be discussing this change with them in a positive way and their feelings around it – encouraging children of this age to verbalise their emotions is hugely important for them in order to support them in regulating their emotions (discovering why they are feeling a certain way, & what they can do to help themselves feel better about it) – it all leads to building resilience.

The main focus of the week will definitely be our annual Pyjamas Party which will be this Friday!! This year it will also be a HB Fundays ice cream party in conjunction with Down Syndrome Ireland, so we will be having extra fun in our pyjamas! All donations received will be given to Down Syndrome Ireland so will be gratefully received!

We will also be going down to the GAA field to do some exercising after being indoors so much with the bad weather recently, using the puppet theatre, doing yoga and finishing off the All About Me books – a busy and fun week ahead!!

Mr Sun (with Lámh signs)

Oh, Mister Sun, Sun, Mister Golden Sun,
Please shine down on me.
Oh, Mister Sun, Sun, Mister Golden Sun,
Hiding behind a tree.

These little children are asking you
To please come out so we can play with you.
Oh, Mister Sun, Sun, Mister Golden Sun,
Please shine down on me.

This week all the classes will be having a teddy bears picnic as well as doing drama and dress up, so we’ll be having a lot of fun! The children will also be making worry dolls – very small and colourful dolls traditionally made in Guatemala, which the child can tell their worries to and put under their pillow before going to sleep, and according to folklore, the doll worries instead of the child who can then sleep well and wake up with their worries gone! While the child is making their worry doll we always emphasise that they should always tell their parents or teacher if they have any worries – the doll is just an extra help during the night! As well as this, we will be making cards for Father’s Day at the end of the week, so it’s going to be a busy one!!

D.A.D.D.Y.

I know a man so big and strong,
And Daddy is his name-o
D.A.D.D.Y., D.A.D.D.Y., D.A.D.D.Y.,
And Daddy is his name-o!

It’s a new month, and the start of the last one of the school year here at The Children’s House, hard to believe!! We will be discussing all about growing up this week, with the school year moving on swiftly & a lot of the children getting ready to go to primary school next September. With this in mind, we have arranged for the older children to go on a visit to Sallins primary school where we get a little tour of some of the school – we are shown the library, fish tank, the playground full of children at break time, and we get to see one of the junior infants classes and learn important information such as where the toilets are! Children can often become nervous at the thoughts of transitioning from the safety of preschool, and we find the visit to ‘big school’ really does a lot to reassure the children about this change, and opens up lots of conversations about it. Also, learning such basic facts like the location of the toilets can take the stress away from children about having to ask their teacher in school if they are shy or embarrassed about these type of things. It is an exciting time for your children and we always focus on the positivity of this step in their journey of learning, even though we don’t look forward to them finishing up with us as we will miss them so much!!

Nursery Rhymes

Little Miss Moffet
Humpty Dumpty
Hickory Dickory Dock
Five Little Ducks
Incy Wincy Spider
Etc….