We’re going to be having another week of music appreciation this week at The Children’s House following on from all the fun last week! We will be learning all about composers, conductors & their roles in the orchestra, playing musical instruments from the different families of the orchestra (string, woodwind, brass, percussion), doing drum painting, and moving to different types of music with streamers.

We’re still having family members coming in to join us in the classes & play an instrument or sing a song for us, and we would love to have more, so just please let us know!

Elsie the Elephant

Elsie is an elephant who wants to play,
She is musical & big & grey.
She is good at singing Mi Re Do,
That’s why the little children love her so!

(youtube link: https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=elsie+the+elephant+song#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:7048e629,vid:nsYv-7ax-w4,st:0)

Welcome back everyone from the Easter break – we hope you had a lovely couple of weeks! We’re going to be doing all about music appreciation for the next couple of weeks, so this week we will be doing warm up songs, learning to keep to the beat, discovering about dynamics, the four families of the orchestra, practising playing songs on the Montessori bells, & listening to musical stories e.g. Peter & The Wolf, where instruments each represent a different character in the story.

If there are any family members that would like to come in & join in the class & play an instrument or sing a song for us we would love to have you, just please let us know!

Hey Beetle (poem)

Hey beetle say beetle is your larder bare,
My worm you can share.
Thank you but I’m far too shy,
Said the beetle passing by.

Hopefully everyone had a lovely long weekend, despite the weather….well it’s a short week in the run up to Easter here at The Children’s House, so we’ll be packing in the fun!! We will be doing Easter crafts during the week, a magic Easter egg experiment, sensory tray, playdough Easter eggs & potato printing, as well as Easter dancing & games on Friday to finish up for the holidays.

We will be closed for holidays from this Friday March 22nd until Monday April 8th – have a lovely break everyone!!

Funny Bunny Hop (poem)

Funny little bunny goes hop, hop, hop,
Funny little bunny please stop, stop, stop!
Wiggle your ears & crinkle your nose,
Then wiggle, wiggle, wiggle right down to your toes!

Happy Seachtain na Gaeilge everyone, agus Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig! As we celebrate the Irish language this week in a lead up to St Patrick’s Day on Friday, the children will be learning how to sing Ring a Rosie in Irish, as well as learning about the story of St Patrick and doing arts & crafts for St Patrick’s Day on Sunday. We will also be having a parade for St Patrick & enjoying doing Irish dancing!!

Roille Ráinne (Ring a Rosie in Irish)

Roille roille ráinne,
Timpeall linn i bhfáinne,                          (around in a circle together)
Rílea ró! Rílea ró!
Suas san aer le me choisín ó!                 (up in the air with my little feet!)

It’s going to be a week of well-being here at The Children’s House, as we pause to slow down, take in our surroundings, & check in with our bodies. The children will be doing some mindful breathing and yoga, body scans & 5 senses grounding in the garden, & playing games like mirror twins, dressing up & musical chairs!

It’s a wonderful thing to try to help instil a sense of themselves in the children at this age, to be aware of what their bodies are feeling like & if they need to stretch/ calm down/ relax etc – & then to do that by deep slow breathing, or yoga poses, or mindfulness. If they start practising habits of well-being at this stage then hopefully these habits will stay with them as they get older, as self-help strategies & supports in life.

You Can Be Whatever You Want To Be (poem)

You can be whatever you want to be,
There are so many choices, let’s have a look & see –
A firefighter, a ballet dancer, a race car driver who likes to zoom,
Think about what’s interesting, the choice is up to you!
You can like any book, movie or toy,
Nothing in this world is just for a girl or boy!

We’re all about fruit & vegetables this week at The Children’s House!! The children will be introduced to the theme at the beginning of the week, & we will be discussing different fruit & vegetables that we eat and grow, then we will be tasting different & new types during the week. The children will be doing process art & painting with citrus fruit, as well as doing a science experiment with lemons, & finally planting apple seeds at the end of the week, to show how we can start growing our own foods from what we already have.

Strawberries, Oranges, Watermelon Too (tune: Twinkle Twinkle)

Strawberries, oranges, watermelon too,
Some for me & some for you,
They are tasty, they are sweet,
They are such a lovely treat.
Strawberries, oranges, watermelon too,
Some for me & some for you!

Well it’s a short but sweet week here at The Children’s House! We will be celebrating Pancake Tuesday, making art for Valentine’s Day & having our annual Valentine’s ball on Wednesday!!!  We will be focusing on emotions and talking about what love means to us all – who we love, who loves us, and most importantly, the necessity in life to love our own selves! ❤️❤️

We will then be closed on Thursday 15th & Friday 16th, back to school next Monday 19th February – have a great mid term break everyone!!

Lots of People in my Family (tune: Baa Baa Black Sheep)

Lots of people in my family,
Special people, dear to me,
Some who are near me, some far away,
These are special people that I love every day.
Lots of people in my family,
Special people, dear to me!

Gong Xi Fa Cai!! It’s the Chinese Lunar New Year on Saturday 10th February, 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 Dragon, and the children will be making Chinese New Year craft and learning about the lucky Red Packets/Envelopes, and at the end of the week we will be dancing with streamers in the garden to a special Dragon dance!!

Dragon Dance (tune: London Bridge)

See the dragons dance & prance,
Dance & prance, dance & prance,
See the dragons dance & prance,
On Chinese New Year’s Day!

See the dragons shake their tails,
Shake their tails, shake their tails,
See the dragons shake their tails,
On Chinese New Year’s Day!

See the dragons turn around,
Turn around, turn around,
See the dragons turn around,
On Chinese New Year’s Day!

See the dragons go to sleep,
Go to sleep, go to sleep,
See the dragons go to sleep,
On Chinese New Year’s Day!

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.