We’re going to have a week full of science experiments, as well as celebrating St Brigid’s Day, the start of February (here’s to January being eventually over!!!) & the traditional beginning of spring this week at The Children’s House! We will be learning about why objects sink & float by dropping them in a bowl of water, & then extending this experiment by later in the week dropping different objects in a container with 3 liquids of different densities (water, oil, golden syrup) & seeing which are heavy/light & at which level they stay at – this experiment shows how liquids can have different densities, i.e. seem to be thicker.

Another experiment we will do about density is dropping raisins into a glass of 7up – the raisin will sink at first as it has greater density than the liquid, but as the bubbles gather on the ridges they lift the raisin to the top of the glass, then the bubbles burst & it sinks again, & then it happens all over again – this makes the raisin seem to dance!

I Can Sing a Rainbow

Red & yellow & pink & green,
Purple & orange & blue,
I can sing a rainbow, sing a rainbow,
Sing a rainbow too.

This week we’ll be learning all about Road Safety at The Children’s House, a hugely important topic, & quite timely as we seem to have a couple of storms in the country creating dangerous road situations this week!! So we will be doing many safety activities during the week, such as practising crossing the road safely (stop look & listen), doing a traffic light game, reading road safety social stories & discussing how we can keep ourselves safe, as well as various associated arts & crafts activities.

Teaching children about road safety from a young age is very important – especially living in places with lots of commuting traffic such as Sallins or Naas – so developing habits such as wearing high vis jackets, holding hands crossing the road, and remembering to stop look & listen when crossing are something we can help to reinforce from preschool age. At the end of the week we will be putting our safety strategies into practice while we go on a walk to the GAA pitch!

Road Safety Song (tune: If You’re Happy & You Know It)

When you want to cross the road
You stop and look,
When you want to cross the road
You stop and look.

If you’re clever and you know it,
And you really want to show it,
When you want to cross the road
You stop and look.

It’s all about our teeth this week at The Children’s House! The children will be learning all about dental health & the importance of looking after our teeth & developing good hygiene habits from an early age. We will be talking about the different types of teeth we have – incisors, canines, premolars & molars – & the different jobs that they do (biting food, tearing food, chewing & grinding food), as well as the number of teeth that we have – children have 20 baby teeth, adults get a total of 32, usually by the age of 21.

We will be doing activities to illustrate what makes teeth happy e.g. healthy food vs unhealthy, good brushing habits, dental hygiene art, & a science experiment to show if sugary or acidic drinks can damage our tooth enamel using using hard-boiled eggs immersed in coke & vinegar – the shell of the eggs are full of calcium as is tooth enamel so we use them as a comparison.

This is the Way we Take Care of our Teeth

This is the way we brush our teeth,
Brush our teeth, brush our teeth,
This is the way we brush our teeth,
At least twice a day.

This is the way we floss our teeth,
Floss our teeth, floss our teeth,
This is the way we floss our teeth,
Every single day.

This is the way we rinse our mouths,
Rinse our mouths, rinse our mouths,
This is the way we rinse our mouths,
To wash the germs away.

A very Happy New Year to you all, & welcome back!! Hopefully all the families had a lovely break & stayed healthy, & the children are ready to get back to their routine, I think the adults are! We’ve got a lovely relaxing week planned, with activities such as the sensory tray, new year’s resolution craft, yoga, & new year art – so it’s going to be a great start to 2024 in The Children’s House!

Just to let you know that from the collection for Barnardos that we held before Christmas, we raised & sent €235.50 to them, which will have really made a difference to some children who needed it – thanks so much for your generosity, as always.

Ring the Bells (tune: Row Your Boat)

Ring, ring, ring the bells,
Ring them loud and clear.
Let’s tell everyone around,
That the New Year is here!