It’s all getting a bit spooky at The Children’s House this week! The children will be decorating the classrooms, carving pumpkins, making Halloween arts & crafts, doing science experiments – creating a bubbling witches brew with bread soda, vinegar & food colouring, and making dancing worms with sparkling water & jelly worms – and at the end of the week we’ll be having a Halloween party!

Flutter Flutter (tune of Twinkle Twinkle)

Flutter flutter little bat,
How I wonder what you’re at –
Swooping through the darkest night,
You find your way without a light.
Flutter flutter little bat,
How I wonder what you’re at!

Three Black Cats (tune of Three Blind Mice)

Three black cats, three black cats,
In black hats, in black hats.
They all jumped into the witches brew,
They teased the ghost and the goblins too.
Did you ever see such a hullabaloo?
On Halloween, on Halloween!!

Following on from many children’s current interests in farm animals and playing with the farm, we have a week full of animal related activities this week at The Children’s House. We will be learning how to do animal names in Lámh (Irish sign language), making handprint animals, building our own farm yards, as well as talking about where milk comes from and doing a milking activity!!

Many thanks to all the grandparents who came in last week to visit us, we really enjoyed having your company, and please make sure to visit any time at all throughout the year; you’re such an important part of your grandchildren’s lives and we would love you to be a big part of their preschool lives too!

Old MacDonald

It’s Grandparent’s week this week at The Children’s House! We will be doing a history project about older generations, involving inviting grandparents (or any older relations) into school and chatting with them about various topics relating to when they themselves were at the preschool age – e.g. what was their favourite game/toy, what was school like etc – and talking about the differences and similarities between then and now. There’s usually a bit of shock when an older visitor to the school tells the children that they didn’t have a phone/telelvision/Nintendo DS growing up!! As well as this, we will be making our first outing to the playground and asking for volunteers to come with us – especially grandparents, for the week that’s in it!!

Grandparents Poem

I miss you when we’re not together,
I’m growing up so fast,
See how big I’ve gotten since you saw me last?
As I grow I’ll change a lot,
The years will fly right by,
You’ll wonder how I grew so quick – where and when and why?
So look upon this handprint,
That’s hanging on your wall,
And memories will come back of me when I was very small.

This week at The Children’s House we’re talking about emotional well-being; the beginning of the school year can be an unsettling time for children who have separation anxiety or who have trouble expressing their feelings, so it’s a good time to discuss our emotions and show how we recognise and talk about them and following from that how we manage them. Self regulation of emotions is a huge concept for preschool children to grasp, so at the beginning we often use visual aids such as emotion wheels to name a feeling, e.g. ‘I can see you’re feeling happy/ sad/ tired/ angry’, and then ask (if needed) ‘what could we do to help you feel better?’. Sometimes the child mightn’t know what will help them, but often a hug from a friend, doing a special piece of work, or holding teddy helps – the deep breathing from yoga is always a good help at emotional times, for child and adult alike!! As the year goes on, we progress to asking ‘what could you do to help you feel better?’, showing the child that they are in charge of their emotions, and giving them the confidence to self-regulate their emotions – this is such an important life skill.

Further to this, this week we will be describing different emotions, discussing strategies we can use to help self-regulate, practising mindfulness, and philosophising as a group about how it would feel if someone didn’t want to work or play with you – helping to promote empathy for each other.

If You’re Happy & You Know It

If you’re happy & you know it clap your hands,
If you’re happy & you know it clap your hands,
If you’re happy & you know it & you really want to show it –
If you’re happy & you know it clap your hands!

If you’re sad & you know it wipe your tears…
If you’re angry & you know it stamp your feet…
If you’re tired & you know it rest your head…
If you’re happy & you know it shout hooray!!