We’re back to a full week of school, & the last week of January – hopefully February brings better weather & less school closures!!! This week we will be learning about 2 important festivals – the Chinese New Year, & St Brigid’s Day! The Chinese Lunar New Year is on Wednesday 29th January, so this week we will be learning a bit about China – looking at where it is in Asia, learning about some customs & superstitions, and looking at some photos and objects from China. It’s the Year of the Snake, and the children will be making paper plate snakes during the week, as well as learning about the animal from the year that they were born!

We will then be celebrating St Brigid’s Day (which is on 1st February) by learning about the story of St Brigid , the patroness saint of Ireland, who was from Kildare, so especially important to us in Sallins! The children will then make St Brigid’s crosses.

Chinese New Year Song

Gung hay fat choy,
Gung hay fat choy,
Sing happy new year,
Gung hay fat choy!

The Children’s House will be closed tomorrow Friday 24th January due to the red wind warning which will be in place in Co Kildare – stay safe and take care during the storm 

This week at The Children’s House we will be continuing our world map project by starting to add our first continent – Asia! We currently have families who were originally from Japan, the Philippines and India, so we will be learning how to say “hello” & “goodbye” in their languages, and learning how to sing “Head shoulders knees & toes” in the different languages too! The children will be painting their continent of Asia and glueing it to their world map this week, learning about different animals that live in Asia & decorating their continent with some, and listening to Asian music.

Atama Kata Hiza Ashi (Japanese head shoulders knees & toes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aJ7dzeB3Ro

Head
あたま atama

Shoulders
かた kata

Knees
ひざ hiza

Toes
つまさき tsumasaki

Eyes
め me

Ears
みみ mimi

Mouth
くち kuchi

Nose
はな hana

This week at The Children’s House we are starting our group project all about our world – we are so lucky this year to have children with family members from all over the globe, so we will be taking advantage of this & inviting family members in to talk to the children about customs or traditions that you might practice at certain times of the year, to show us dress or foods that might be a bit more unusual, or to teach us words or songs in different languages, alongside learning about traditional Irish customs & celebrations!

The children will be starting to make their world map this week, sponge painting the oceans! We will be looking at the globe & continents & learning our continents song, as well as learning how to sign in Lámh the signs for “hello” & “gooodbye”. We would love if families who use other languages other than English at home would let us know how they greet each other in these languages, so please text us the words for “hello” & “goodbye” and we can all learn together!

Here We Go Round The World

Here we go round the world,
Round the world we go –
North America, South America,
Europe and Asia,
Africa, Antarctica….
And don’t forget Australasia!

Happy New Year everyone, we hope you had a wonderful couple of weeks & here’s wishing you all a happy & healthy 2025!

This week at The Children’s House we will be talking about the change of year and month, doing New Year art, snow & ice art (considering the weather at the moment!) and also mindfulness at the end of the week. We will also be doing a show and tell where the children can bring in something that they got over Christmas that they would like to show their friends & teachers.

Next week we will be starting our group project which will be all about looking at the world that we live in – we will be looking at the people, animals, culture, music, food, language all around the globe…so we will be asking for a lot of help from you the families!! Watch this space…

New Year Song (tune: The Muffin Man)

Now we have a brand new year,
Brand new year, brand new year,
Now we have a brand new year,
It’s 2025!

The Children’s House will close for Christmas holidays on Friday 20th December, reopening Monday 6th January

Welcome to the last week of 2024 at The Children’s House – it’s hard to believe Christmas is almost here!!! We’re going to enjoy our week with the children, making Christmas photo frames, reindeer food, having a party & disco,& of course a visit from our very special guest Santa Claus himself!!!

Thanks so much to everyone who’s given in their donations – we will be making a donation at the end of the week on the children’s behalf to Barnardos Children’s Charity to support vulnerable children in Ireland this Christmas.

We’d like to wish you all a wonderful Christmas, and every happiness for 2024 – we’re looking forward to seeing you all in the New Year!

We Wish you a Merry Christmas

We wish you a merry Christmas,
We wish you a merry Christmas,
We wish you a merry Christmas,
And a happy new year!
Good tidings we bring,
To you and your kin –
We wish you a merry Christmas,
And a happy new year!

It’s a week of Christmas fun at The Children’s House this week! So the children will be continuing doing seasonal activities such as Christmas tree beading, Santa nesting dolls, threading baubles, opening & closing Christmas tree pegs etc… Also during the week they will be making Christmas tree art, as well as Christmas cards. At the end of the week the classes will be putting on a show with some songs and poems that we’ve learnt since September, which we are very excited about!!

Friday: 9am & 9.30am classes Christmas songs @ 11am

Friday: 1 pm & 1.15pm classes Christmas songs @ 3pm

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

You better watch out, you better not cry,
You better not pout, I’m telling you why,
Santa Claus is coming to town!

He’s making a list, he’s checking it twice,
He’s gonna find out who’s naughty or nice,
Santa Claus is coming to town!

He sees you when you’re sleeping, he knows when you’re awake,
He knows if you’ve been good or bad –
So be good for goodness sake!!

Oh! You better watch out, you better not cry,
You better not pout, I’m telling you why,
Santa Claus is coming to town!

After having a lovely week celebrating Thanksgiving last week, we’re getting into the swing of Christmas this week at The Children’s House, so the children will be decorating the classrooms & we will be putting seasonal activities out on the shelves to do, such as threading Christmas baubles, hanging little clothes using Christmas pegs, matching, counting & sorting activities etc – reflecting the time of year in the Montessori activities!

As we are starting to talk about Christmas this week, we will be hearing from the children on how they celebrate the occasion at home with their families – to this end, we are asking you to write down briefly how you celebrate Christmas, & maybe your child can draw a picture to go with it, & then we will be talking about all our different celebrations on Friday at circle time! The children will also be doing an art activity making Christmas tree decorations, and we will do Christmas yoga at the end of the week.

Jingle Bells

Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way,
Oh what fun it is to ride on a one horse open sleigh – hey!
Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way,
Oh what fun it is to ride in a one horse open sleigh!

Bualadh Bos (Jingle Bells in Irish)

Bualadh bos, bualadh bos,            (clap hands, clap hands)
Bualadh bos go léir,                        (everyone clap hands)
Tá San Nioclás ag teacht anois,    (Santa Claus is coming now)
Anuas an simléar;                             (down the chimney)
Bualadh bos, bualadh bos,            (clap hands, clap hands)
Bualadh bos go léir,                        (everyone clap hands)
Tá San Nioclás ag teacht anois,    (Santa Claus is coming now)
Anuas an simléar!                             (down the chimney!)

It’s all about learning & careers this week at The Children’s House!! This is the week that we celebrate life-long learning, as we are lucky enough to be meeting these children at the start of their formal educational journey (although they of course started their learning journey the second they were born!) & we want to show them this week that you never stop learning, whether in a formal or informal way. Because of this, we are asking parents & family members to come in to us & talk to us about their own learning journey or careers – whether it’s to talk about their past or current jobs, their studies whether in secondary school or third level, apprenticeships, work experience…anything at all to show the children how we are always capable of learning in life, no matter what age we are!

The children will be doing their All About Me page on what they want to be/do when they grow up, we will be making a Lifelong Learning Timeline, there will be a dressing up day for different careers, and we will also be making some delicious cookies!

Special Me (tune: Twinkle Twinkle)

Special, special, special me,
How I wonder what I’ll be?
In this big world I can be,
Anything I want to be…
Special, special, special me,
How I wonder what I’ll be?!

This week at The Children’s House we will be talking and learning about personal space, and boundaries – it’s a really important topic for children at this age, as they sometimes have no idea that another child’s idea of personal space could be so different to their own! Some children for example love to hug/ tickle/ stand close to their peers while other children are much less tactile and these sort of things can make them feel very uncomfortable. Therefore this week we will be discussing how we should ask others before coming into their personal space, and it’s completely fine to say ‘no thank you’ to things that make you feel uncomfortable. In this way we help to create an environment that is safe and fun for everyone, from a young age!

The Boundaries Song

Please stop, I don’t like that,
I’m feeling uncomfortable,
I need more space.
Not around me, don’t take it personally,
That’s just a boundary,
That’s a boundary!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSFvJbSQdA4