Welcome to the last full week of March! This week at The Children’s House, we will be celebrating Spring – which seems to be trying to make the odd appearance!! – so we will be talking about the signs of Spring, e.g. days getting longer & warmer, baby animals being born, flowers starting to grow…the children will be making very cute cotton wool lambs, & cut & stick chicks! Towards the end of the week, we will be getting ready for Mother’s Day, & celebrating all the motherly figures in our lives; the children will be doing art & making cards to bring home for the weekend.

Mary Had a Little Lamb

Mary had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb,
Mary had a little lamb, whose fleece was white as snow.
And everywhere that Mary went, Mary went, Mary went,
Everywhere that Mary went, the lamb was sure to go!

Hope you all had a really lovely St Patrick’s day!! Following on from our Irish week last week, we will be focussing on the continent of Europe this week in our group project, so we are again welcoming family members into the Montessori classes who would like to share a song, or story, or tradition from a European country with the children.

Apart from this, we will be looking at European landmarks & animals, the children will be tracing, painting & glueing their European continent onto their world map, & we will learn a bit about some European painters as the children do their very own still life paintings at the end of the week!!

An tUasal ordóg – Mr Thumb

Cnag cnag nag an tUasal ordóg, an bhfuil tú ann?                 Knock knock knock Mr Thumb are you there?
Sshhh, tá mé I mo chodladh!                                                         Sshhh, I’m sleeping!
Cnag cnag nag an tUasal ordóg, an bhfuil tú ann?
Sshhh, tá mé ag ithe!                                                                      Sshhh, I’m eating!
Cnag cnag nag an tUasal ordóg, an bhfuil tú ann?
Sshhh, tá mé ag ól!                                                                         Sshhh, I’m drinking!
Cnag cnag nag an tUasal ordóg, an bhfuil tú ann?
Sea, táim ag teacht! Dia dhaoibh mo chairde!!                        Yes, I’m coming! Hello my friends!!

The Children’s House will be closed next Monday 17th March for St Patrick’s Day,

re-opening Tuesday 18th March for classes

Happy St Patrick’s Day everyone, Beannachtaí Lá Fhéile Pádraig daoibh!

Beannachtaí Lá Fhéile Pádraig daoibh!! Happy St Patrick’s Day to you all – this week in The Children’s House we will be celebrating Seachtain na Gaeilge with St Patrick’s Day festivities at the end of the week; we will be decorating the classrooms, making rainbow art and leprechaun masks, and celebrating St Patrick’s Day on Friday with a céilí/disco – all the children can come in to school on Friday wearing green for this if they would like to! We would like to welcome in any family members this week who can play Irish music / instruments / do Irish dancing / sing Irish songs to show the children at circle time!

Within the classroom we use Irish phrases such as ‘faigh do chóta’ (get your coat), ‘dún an doras’ (close the door), ‘cé leis é?’ (whose is this), ‘anseo’ (here) etc on a daily basis, so this week we will be practising our Irish vocabularies greatly!

Óró, sé do bheatha ‘bhaile         Oh-ro You’re Welcome Home

Óró, sé do bheatha ‘bhaile,                 Oh-ro You’re welcome home,
Óró, sé do bheatha ‘bhaile,                 Oh-ro You’re welcome home,
Óró, sé do bheatha ‘bhaile                  Oh-ro You’re welcome home…
Anois ar theacht an tsamhraidh!       Now that summer’s coming!

Rolaí Polaí (Irish rhyme)

Rolaí polaí suas, suas, suas,                    (roll arms and raise them up, up, up)
Rolaí polaí síos, síos, síos,                       (roll arms and lower them down, down, down)
Rolaí polaí amach, amach, amach,        (roll arms and stretch them out, out, out)
Rolaí polaí isteach, isteach, isteach!      (roll arms and bring them in, in, in, hugging yourself)

This week in The Children’s House we will be marking Shrove Tuesday by making pancakes (yum!!), celebrating World Book Day on Thursday by asking the children to bring in their favourite books to read with us – & if any family member is free to come in to read with us, all the better!!

We will also be progressing with our group project – the world map – and learning about North America this week! The children will be tracing their own continents & painting them, & then we are going to do some really creative art inspired by the North American artist Jackson Pollock; he was an innovative painter who introduced the idea of “action painting” by putting his canvases on the floor or leaning against a wall, & used a “drip technique” letting paint drip onto the canvas from the can, he also used knives trowels & sticks instead of a paintbrush. The children are going to make a joint group art creation together on Thursday, & then their own individual works of art on Friday – it will be wonderful process art!!

5 Little Ducks (using Lámh to sign)

5 little ducks went swimming one day,
Over the hills & far away,
Mama duck said ‘quack, quack, quack’,
And only 4 little ducks came back!

4 little ducks….3….2….

1 little duck went swimming one day,
Over the hills & far away,
Mama duck said went ‘quack, quack, quack’,
And all her 5 little ducks came back!