It’s Biodiversity week at The Children’s House! We will be talking with the children about what biodiversity is, & how important it is to protect our world & the plants & animals in it, down to the smallest fungi & even bacteria. The children will be making earth pictures using balloons & paint, doing rock printing & enjoying using their imaginations to come up with ideas on how to make art using objects from we find in nature!

The Biodiversity Song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qg4LRLLRisw

It’s going to be an exciting week at The Children’s House, as we will be going on our school tour on Friday!! Therefore, we will be spending the days leading up to it preparing for the big day – talking about how we stay safe when we’re out & about, practising lining up & walking outside with partners, learning about road safety, & discussing how we might behave on the bus & at the Playbarn! We will also be doing a compliment circle with the children, which is a lovely activity where each child thinks about the person next to them & tells them 1 thing they like about them; this supports children in learning how to give & receive compliments.

Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes

Head, shoulders, knees and toes,
Knees and toes,
Head, shoulders, knees & toes,
Knees and toes,
And eyes and ears and mouth and nose…
Head, shoulders, knees and toes,
Knees and toes!

This week at The Children’s House we will be doing all sorts of fun things like talking about hobbies & careers, dressing up, baking, & having a Teddy Bears’ Picnic!! We will be talking to the children about what they like to do in their spare time – e.g. art, sports, imaginative play, yoga, construction, drama – & talk about how important it is to explore all these things as this is how they may find their talents & end up one day working in it, as well as it being so important for relaxation & unwinding, & therefore having a positive impact on mental health.

We will be making scented playdough & matching different sets of it, a really lovely sensorial activity, & making cupcakes later in the week. On Friday the children can bring in their favourite teddy or toy, & we will have a teddy bears’ picnic with them!

Teddy Bears’ Picnic

If you go down to the woods today,
You’re sure of a big surprise.
If you go down to the woods today,
You’d better go in disguise!
For all the bears there ever there was,
Will gather there for certain because,
Today’s the day the Teddy Bears have their picnic!

Picnic time for teddy bears,
The littel teddy bears are having a lovely time today,
Watch them, catch them unawares
And see them picnic on their holiday.

We will be focusing on finishing the children’s All About Me books with them, containing pages they have done work on since September, so it’s a lovely thing to help them create, a real journey of their year in preschool! Along with this we will be doing some activities around following instructions & directions, games like Simon Says & direction games with a teddy bear. For children starting primary school in September the skill of following instructions is very important, & it is things like this along with promoting independence skills such as dressing themselves & opening/closing lunchboxes that we will be practising with the children in these last couple of months.

All Of Me!

My hands are for clapping,
My arms can hug tight,
My fingers can snap or turn out the light.
My legs are for jumping,
My eyes help me see,
This is my body & I love all of me!!

Welcome back, we hope you all had a lovely long bank holiday weekend!! This week at The Children’s House the children will be finishing off their group project on the 5 senses, which has been such fun to do, we’ve all learnt a lot about our senses & their importance in our lives! We will also be celebrating the start of May, the first month of summer, by making a May pole & dancing around it, & at the end of the week the children will be baking some delicious carrot cake cookies!

Mise an Traein (Irish poem)

Mise an traein, puff puff puff,            I am the train, puff puff puff
Mise an madra, bhuff bhuff bhuff,    I am the dog, woof woof woof
Mise an bus, bíp bíp bíp,                     I am the bus, beep beep beep
Mise an tsicín, tsíp tsíp tsíp!               I am the chicken, cheep cheep cheep!