It’s Music Week this week at The Children’s House!! We’ve got lots of suggestions for musical instruments you can make at home (we’re all about the recycling!!) & fun music games you can play together. Music can create such big emotions in us, & young children have the best imaginations, so it’s a great activity to listen to different genres & talk about why they are different; what do they like or dislike about each one. Play a mixture of music you like & your child likes – mix up nursery rhymes with rock/ jazz/ pop/ heavy metal/ hip hop – & expose them to all sorts to expand their musical horizons (just make sure the lyrics are appropriate!!)

Listen to some classical pieces – how does it make them feel? Is it happy, scary, sad, exciting? Does it make them want to move? Do they want to move lightly like a ballerina or stomp heavily like an elephant? You could try listening to Carnival of the Animals by Saint-Saens or Peter & the Wolf by Prokofiev (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfM7Y9Pcdzw) , both of which use instruments to represent different animals & characters, so the children can learn about specific instruments while also hearing a story.

To get the full benefits of music, children need to sing, clap & dance along with the tunes. Singing & moving to music tells the brain to make meaning of it, while interacting using musical instruments will help train your child’s musical ear – so get going on some of our homemade instruments like shakers, which can be made from toilet roll cardboard & filled with anything from pasta to flour to stones, explore what sounds they make & which is louder or softer. (You could use empty plastic ice cream tubs either.) Paper plate tambourines are another fun & easy instrument to make – all you need is paper plates, crayons/paint to decorate with, a handful dried beans/rice/pebbles to fill with, & a stapler to close with! To make a homemade guitar, simply stretch several large elastic bands around a cardboard box with an open top or a tissue box with a hole in the centre. Choose elastic bands that vary in width to ensure that all of your “guitar strings” will produce different tones and sounds when they’re plucked by little fingers.

Look at this Pringles drum, made by duct taping 7 empty Pringles cans together – a lot of Pringles to be gotten through for this, but if you love your children enough you’ll make that sacrifice….For simpler drums, all you need is a saucepan & wooden spoon – & some understanding neighbours!!! Get into the kitchen with jars, pots, pans & spoons & discover the effect that different materials, sizes & shapes have on the sounds you can make!

Check out making music with a glass of water with this amazing version of the Sugar Plum Fairy! See if you can do it home and find out what happens when different amounts of water are used… https://youtu.be/QdoTdG_VNV4

Music helps self esteem, listening skills, stress relief & creativity – celebrate all of these benefits with a dance party!! https://youtu.be/gCzgc_RelBA

Learn about rhythm with a copy cat game, which is also great for improving memory & concentration skills https://youtu.be/58p6QtMYN1M

And for the brave, the bored, & those with older children – challenge yourself to this… https://youtu.be/Y5kYLOb6i5I

The song this week is a classic, with fun actions too – I am the Music Man!

https://youtu.be/22kqia2ibVU

I am the music man. I come from far away and I can play. (What can you play?) I play the piano. Pia pia piano piano piano – Pia pia piano pia piano

I am the music man. I come from far away and I can play. (What can you play?) I play the violin. Vio vio violin violin violin – Vio vio violin vio violin Pia pia piano piano piano – Pia pia piano pia piano

I am the music man. I come from far away and I can play. (What can you play?) I play the saxophone. Saxo saxo saxophone saxophone saxophone Saxo saxo saxophone saxo saxophone Vio vio violin violin violin – Vio vio violin vio violin Pia pia piano piano piano – Pia pia piano pia piano

I am the music man. I come from far away and I can play. (What can you play?) I play the big bass drum. Big bass big bass big bass drum big bass drum big bass drum Big bass big bass big bass drum big bass big bass drum Saxo saxo saxophone saxophone saxophone – Saxo saxo saxophone saxo saxophone Vio vio violin violin violin – Vio vio violin vio violin Pia pia piano piano piano – Pia pia piano pia piano

I am the music man. I come from far away and I can play. (What can you play?) Well, I can play everything and here we go! Hit it! Play that piano. Play that violin. Play that saxophone. Play that big bass drum.

This week we’re going to do Science Week at The Children’s House!! Science is something that’s so easy to get excited about; there are lots of easy fun experiments to do, & also you can demonstrate how it exists in many activities that we do without even noticing it, so we’ll be giving a lot of different ideas for experiments for the week which you should mostly be able to do with things you already have at home.

Observing change is a great place to start with science, e.g.  when boiling a kettle, point out that the water is changing its state from liquid to gas; in making ice cubes water changes state again from liquid to solid. Making ‘goop’ is a really fun experiment to do at home – just mix cornstarch with water (about 2:1 ratio of cornstarch to water) to make a mixture that becomes hard & crumbly when you put pressure on it, then becomes a gooey liquid when you release the pressure; when you this is called a non-Newtonian fluid – like quicksand! It’s best to do this in something like a shallow basin, or out in a tray in the garden – it’s addictive to play with & can get very messy!!

Making predictions is another interesting activity which can really get children thinking – tell them you’re going to go for a nature walk in the garden/ by the canal,  get a notebook or paper & ask them to think about what they might find on the walk? Do 2 headings e.g. ‘what we might find’ &  ‘what we found’; write down their ideas under the 1^st heading, go for the walk & mark what you found under the 2^nd heading, then compare the 2. Don’t limit yourselves – use the senses when predicting & recording what you might hear/ smell/ touch as well as see! (Just not sure about tasting random things on a walk!!!)

Following on from this & to encourage your little scientists, try to reply to their questions with ‘well what do you think?’, ask them open-ended questions like ‘I wonder why we need the sun…’ or ‘what if there was no rain…’; this encourages a philosophising mind, which might sound very long-winded for preschoolers, but is just a way of encouraging them to think for themselves, & not to take things as set in stone but to question them – such an important tool for life, & one that preschoolers are well able to do!!! (On a random side note, books such as the Frog & Toad series by Arnold Lobel are wonderful for starting discussions, e.g. you could use Dragons & Giants to ask ‘what does it mean to be brave?’  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ang_5Gao33Y ) Anyway, back to science!!

Demonstrating how different liquids have different densities is such a fun experiment to do! Just get a nice sized clear container e.g. a large glass, pour in equal amounts of honey, water (add food colouring if you have some) & oil; these will sit in layers on top of each other in order of density – honey at the bottom, water in the middle & oil at the top. For added fun, drop in small objects to see whereabouts they settle e.g. a grape, metal bolt, ping pong ball…anything you have lying around – just make sure you have tongs long enough to get them back out, as it’s messy putting your hand down into the honey!! A variation on this which looks amazing is using oil, water, food colouring & alka seltzer… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evIPJSP_qwo&list=RDCMUC3339WgBDKIcxTfywuSmG8w&index=1

Lots of you might have already created homemade volcano ‘explosions’ before with your children using vinegar & baking soda, & you can also use the chemical reaction between the two to blow up a balloon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zq-jeGOzZs4&feature=youtu.be

Dancing raisins is also a really simple activity that the children love in Montessori – all you need is a glass, raisins, & carbonated water or 7up – when raisins are dropped into the fizzy water, the bubbles accumulate on the surface of the raisin, eventually lifting it up to the top of the water where the bubbles burst, the raisin sinks down to the bottom of the glass, & the process starts again!

Static electricity experiments are such fun to do, & all you need is either a plastic comb or a balloon, & a head of hair!! Rub the comb/ balloon on your chosen head of hair (or a woolly jumper if people are getting upset about frizzy hair…) & this will transfer electrons onto the comb/ balloon which makes it negatively charged. This means it is attracted to the positive charge of other items – so if you move it very slowly towards a very fine trickle of running water or tiny pieces of torn up tissue, the water will bend towards the comb/ balloon, & the tissue pieces will jump up to it! Encourage your children to try out different variations on this experiment & let us know what they discover!!

Another experiment we would usually do in school is to show transpiration – at the beginning of the week, we put stems of celery in 3 jars – the first with no water, second with water, third with coloured water. We then ask the children to predict what will happen, & observe during the week to see if they were right. This really shows how plants transport water all the way up the stem to the very top, & if the plant doesn’t have water it will die – as the first poor celery stick does! The second survives the week & the third not only survives but looks an impressively different colour too! You can track the journey of the dye up the stem of the celery too. An extension of this is to use white flowers e.g. carnations & put them in jars with various different colours dyed water. https://theimaginationtree.com/dyed-flowers-science-experiment/

It’s a good time to talk about the importance of water & learn about the water cycle as it doesn’t seem to be raining so much at the moment! The earth recycles water by heating water in oceans, lakes etc so it evaporates as water vapour up into the sky, then it cools down in clouds during condensation, and eventually falls in the form of rain, hail, sleet or snow during precipitation – then the whole process starts again. This process of evaporation, condensation and precipitation happens all around us all the time. You can relate this process to events that the children see all the time in their own environments – evaporation when water is heated like the steam from a kettle, condensation when that steam/gas cools like the droplets in the bathroom when having a shower/bath, and precipitation as the droplets fall as rain, which the children are very familiar with!

Science activities can also bring in a lot of maths – if baking a cake/bread you might need to use a measuring jug to measure liquids, a weighing scales to weigh solids – and using descriptive language e.g. hot/cold, heavy/ light, hard/ soft… Encourage your children to come up with their own experiments – 1 of the years a child spent most of a week standing on a chair to drop 2 different objects to see which was heaviest & so would reach the ground first, I had to stop him climbing onto the tables to get extra height at one stage, he was so enthusiastic!

Children are born with a natural curiousity about how things work in their world and they love to experiment and discover in their environment – their questions should be encouraged as their potential as scientists is unlimited!!

The Water Cycle (to tune of She’ll be Coming Round the Mountain)

Water travels in a cycle yes it does!
Water travels in a cycle yes it does!
It goes up as evaporation,
Forms clouds as condensation,
Comes back down as precipitation –
Yes it does!!

Hi everyone, hope you’re all keeping safe & well out there!! For this week our activities are going to be butterfly based! Sue has put together a wonderful arts & crafts activity pack which we will be delivering to you by the end of the week; this contains all your child will need to make a butterfly life cycle, a Hungry Caterpillar picture, butterfly collage, and a lovely card making activity to send hugs & kisses to someone! As well as focusing on the butterfly life cycle, which is a very appropriate activity for summertime, these activities will involve your child in colouring, cutting and glueing – all great tasks for developing & improving concentration, hand-eye coordination, & fine motor skills as well as strengthening muscles in the hand. The most important thing though is that it’s all about the process, not the end result – enjoyment of learning is always crucial to its success, so there’s no pressure on the children to be producing masterpieces, or even anything vaguely recognisable!

Cutting can be an especially hard activity and a child can get demotivated very easily if it’s too challenging, so for this reason we often put trays of cutting out in the classroom which just involve children cutting a straight line, then a curved, then a zigzag – slowly getting more challenging as the child develops this skill. For improving pencil control, joining dots is always a popular activity – you can dot their names/ a shape/ a number etc & encourage them to join the dots to see what they make!

Encourage your child to also improve their gross motor movements by playing the ‘Bug Movement Game’ – get them to flutter like a butterfly/ crawl like a caterpillar / march like an ant/ climb like a spider….the options are endless, & take turns making up your own with your child!

Some further ideas for butterfly art, 1 of which we should all remember from childhood – putting splodges of paint on paper, folding the paper in half & squashing it with all your might – such great fun!! http://mrsmeijerandco.weebly.com/butterfly-painting.html#

Another variation on this is to cut out butterfly shapes, dip string in paint & use that to make your mirror image butterfly https://artfulparent.com/string-butterfly-art-project-for-kids/

There are some great yoga poses you can do with your children under the insect theme as well as the butterfly pose https://www.kidsyogastories.com/insect-bug-yoga/ ; also cosmic kids do wonderful stories through yoga poses that you can access on youtube – they actually do a whole yoga version of The Very Hungry Caterpillar!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhWDiQRrC1Y

Lastly, the song we’re sending this week is a butterfly fingerplay which goes through the lifecycle just to further reinforce it!! We hope you enjoy this week’s suggested activities, don’t forget to send photos of your little ones taking part, or any news on how they’re getting on is always welcome!

Take care & stay well xx

Hi everyone! This week we are going to focus on fun things you can do while stuck in this strange situation to try make the best of it, & maybe make a record of it for posterity!! There are also some activities that might help with emotions in case they’re running high at any stage…it’s such a confusing time for us as adults, so we can only imagine how hard it is for the littler people to make any sense of it all.

You’ve probably seen that there are some lovely ideas out there about making time capsules to have a memento of this time when we’re out the other side, & this is a really nice template that you could help your child to fill out, or alternatively do up your own version – whichever suits best!!

https://havenpharmacy.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/My-Covid-19-Time-Capsule-1.pdf

During this time especially, a lot of children might be anxious about their worlds having gotten smaller, & might be missing their friends & routine – on the other hand, they might well be having the time of their lives at home with you!! We often make worry boxes in school at different times during the year – this is literally an empty tissue box that you can decorate, & when someone is worried about something we write it down on a piece of paper & put it in. This can help to mentally let go of the worry – some children are more anxious than others, and making an abstract thought into something concrete is very beneficial for them. We check the box periodically & these worries can then be torn up & put in the bin as they are dealt with, which is very satisfying, & also shows that they are only temporary!

There was also a really wonderful idea online about making a wish jar, so that every time your child wishes they could do something, go somewhere or visit someone that they aren’t allowed to do at the moment, you write it on a note & put it in a jar. Then when the restrictions are eased, you work your way through the wish list – so again this reinforces to the children the idea that all this is only temporary, and that things *will* improve at some stage. In the meantime, the jar is filling up with magical things to look forward to!!

On the jars theme, just in case you have a lot just waiting for something to be used for…!! Sensory jars are fantastic to make with the children – we made ocean bottles in school before & they were the biggest hit, really calming (even for us adults!!) – & SO easy to make!! All you need is an empty jar or bottle, water, oil & food colouring. The video attached is really straight forward & she makes 3 versions –a glitter bottle (water & glitter); the ocean/ oil & water bottle; party in a bottle (anything goes!!) You can use superglue to secure the lids if you’re worried about little people investigating the contents too closely!!

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=sensory+jar+ideas#kpvalbx=_p2S4Xt33CNOn1fAP7ImOsA04

Another really simple activity is to make stress balls – all that’s needed is balloons, water & cornflour! They’re addictive…

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=make+stress+ball+out+of+balloon#kpvalbx=_TW64Xor-EqHjxgPjwYII37

The song this week is a good one to get active to – ‘If You’re Happy & You Know It’ – don’t hold back & go all out doing happy, sad, angry & tired faces & actions with your children!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHQ1MMqXTw4

Finally, I’ve attached the link to the coronavirus book for children that again I’m sure many of you have seen – it’s written with the input of experts including a child psychologist, & illustrated by Axel Scheffler, the legendary illustrator of many Julia Donaldson books. It’s pitched at 5 to 9 year olds, but might be useful as a reference point. (There’s also an audio version available now)

https://nosycrowcoronavirus.s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/Coronavirus_ABookForChildren.pdf

https://nosycrow.com/blog/actor-hugh-bonneville-to-voice-audio-for-nosy-crows-coronavirus-book-for-children/

We hope you & your children enjoy this week’s activities, & don’t forget to send us on any proof, I mean photos, of doing them!! From all at The Children’s House, take care & talk soon xx

So this week’s learning suggestions are all about birds – there are so many around at the moment making so much exuberant noise!! The children could bird watch & make a note on how many birds they see & what different types – as the swallows are returning for the summer from Africa this could bring in geography & migration (http://www.askaboutireland.ie/…/…/feathered-friends/swallow/); listen to the different bird songs & try to identify them using either of these links (https://greennews.ie/know-your-birdsong-click-through-our-…/ or https://www.theguardian.com/…/home-birds-how-to-spot-20-of-… ); draw a picture/collage of a bird; make bird feeders using empty milk cartons & peanut butter & oats or various combinations (https://happyhooligans.ca/32-homemade-bird-feeders/ ); look at the bird’s life cycle; do yoga poses pretending to be a bird; learn songs about birds…🐦🕊️❤️

Dear families, we hope you’re all keeping well! Apologies in advance for the long post….😬We at The Children’s House have been discussing what’s the best way to keep in contact with you & the children – during these weeks at home with your children, we are not going to be sending you ‘work’ for your preschoolers to do – that would be against the ethos of our school, where the lessons are individually planned by following the children’s interests and abilities. We’re also very aware that we don’t want to be putting *any* pressure on anyone in these strange times, we know a lot of you are already working from home/home schooling older children, or ‘just’ trying to keep everything going while keeping well & healthy, but we’d also like to keep in touch to whatever extent suits you, as it seems we might not see you for a while yet.

To this end, we’re going to put up a weekly theme with songs, activities & links to Montessori exercises etc that you can do at whatever level suits you & your children, or not at all – it’s just ideas if you would like to use them. I’ll put up this week’s suggestions later on, but I just wanted to say that even apart from this you can easily adopt the Montessori ethos in your home by simply involving your child in everyday tasks – our main aim is to support your children to be confident and competent learners, happy in being the amazing individuals that they are, and to this end we encourage their independence in every way we can.

So for example you could ask your child to help sweep the floor, peel carrots/potatoes for the dinner, polish shoes, clean tables/windows, pour water, help in the garden…the list is literally endless, & all these tasks reinforce Practical Life skills such as developing gross & fine motor skills & hand-eye coordination.

In order to support Maths development, associate numbers with quantities, e.g. your child could count out how many crackers do we need so everyone in the family has one? They could pour drinks from a jug into beakers, thereby both using counting and division. Involve counting in all tasks you can like closing buttons, laying plates…ask your child to bring you 2 pencils, 5 buttons, 4 dinosaurs. Sing songs with numbers e.g. counting backward songs like 5 little ducks, 10 green bottles.

For Language development, play ‘I Spy’ using phonetic sounds (I can post a list of how to pronounce the letters phonetically). For name recognition, practice joining dots of letters in the child’s name, tracing name & letter shapes in sand/ plate of grains. Nursery rhymes, memory games are excellent for developing memory recall skills.

To support Sensorial development, encourage children to use their senses e.g. smell flowers, candles, spices, shower gels; close their eyes & name/match smells; feel rough & smooth surfaces ‘can you find me something rough/smooth’; reinforce the colours that are in their environment; grade objects small to large.

In the area of Culture – look at a globe or map, discuss the world, parts where relations live, discover which continents their favourite animals live; gardening, baking & cooking – these also use practical life skills such as measuring, sieving, mixing, pouring & science skills – liquid to solid, raising agents. Discuss how to recycle & reuse materials in the home.

These are only some brief ideas to give an overview, but linking their learning to the child’s environment helps to reinforce it, so use what you already have around you! Take care & keep in touch!!

Dear parents/guardians, we have been directed to stay closed for a further 3 weeks until Sunday 19th April. We will keep you updated with any further information; we are missing your children very much & cannot wait to see you all in happier times! In the meantime keep safe & well, from all at The Children’s House

Dear parents/ guardians, just to let you know that the advice at present from the HSE (10th March) is that pre-school services should remain open, whilst following the guidance available on hygiene and preventative measures.

If we get any further information we will share it with you immediately – in the meantime, we will continue to practice good hygiene with regular thorough hand-washing practices, & to encourage the children when coughing or sneezing to cover their mouths & noses with a tissue, then throw the used tissue away into a closed bin and wash their hands. If they don’t have a tissue, we are encouraging them to cough or sneeze into their flexed (bent) elbows.

If you have any health concerns about your child please let us know, and if your child has a fever, cough or shortness of breath, please contact your GP and seek medical advice.

Take care & stay healthy!