18th – 22nd December

The Children’s House will close for Christmas holidays on Friday 22nd December, reopening Monday 8th January Wishing you all a very peaceful, happy Christmas, & good health for the New Year!

The children will be doing the last of their Christmas songs this week on Monday, & for the rest of the week we’ll be busy getting completely into the Christmas spirit – making wreaths & reindeer food, having a disco on Thursday, a puppet show on Friday & a visit from a very special person on Wednesday – yes, Santa Claus is coming to town!!!

We have asked the children to bring in €1 if possible to donate to Barnardos Children’s Charity to support vulnerable children in Ireland this Christmas, & to mark this we will be having a pyjama day on Friday  – so if your children would like to, they can wear their festive pjs to school on Friday!!

Let’s Be Thankful

Let’s be thankful for this day,
For our friends and for our play.
Let’s be thankful, let’s be glad,
For the food and things we have.
Let’s give thanks for you and me,
And our home and family!

11th – 15th December

It’s a week of Christmas arts & crafts at The Children’s House this week! So the children will be continuing doing seasonal activities such as Christmas stencils, painting & glueing, Santa nesting dolls, threading baubles, opening & closing Christmas tree pegs etc… As well as this, during the week they will be making candy cane pipe cleaners, glitter star decorations, love heart penguins, & peg & bobble paintings. The children will also be practising singing their songs & poems for their concerts on Friday & next Monday – as we hope you all are!!!

Friday 15th December: 9am class Christmas songs @ 11am

Friday 15th December: 1pm & 1.15pm classes Christmas songs @ 3.15pm

Monday 18th December: 9.30am class Christmas songs @ 11.30am

 

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

Rudolph the red nosed reindeer had a very shiny nose,
And if you ever saw it you would even say it glows,
All of the other reindeer used to laugh & call him names,
They never let poor Rudolph join in any reindeer games.

Then one foggy Christmas eve Santa came to say,
‘Rudolph with your nose so bright, won’t you guide my sleigh tonight?’
Then all the reindeer loved him, and they shouted out with glee,
‘Rudolph the red nosed reindeer, you’ll go down in history!’

4th – 8th December

We’re well and truly in the run up to Christmas now, so this week at The Children’s House we will be talking about how we celebrate Christmas, and how important it is to show people that we care not just through presents, but by how we act towards them and how we show love and respect to each other. We will be doing lots of fun stuff like making Christmas cards, doing Christmas cooking & crafts, mindfulness & doing winter puffy art!!

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!)

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

Rudolph the red nosed reindeer had a very shiny nose,
And if you ever saw it you would even say it glows,
All of the other reindeer used to laugh & call him names,
They never let poor Rudolph join in any reindeer games.

Then one foggy Christmas eve Santa came to say,
‘Rudolph with your nose so bright, won’t you guide my sleigh tonight?’
Then all the reindeer loved him, and they shouted out with glee,
‘Rudolph the red nosed reindeer, you’ll go down in history!’

27th November – 1st December

We had a lovely week celebrating Thanksgiving last week and learning about the importance of being grateful for what we have in our lives, as we all have so much to be thankful for. This week we will be welcoming in December, and start to get psyched up for Christmas…..!! We will be practicing mindfulness, making Christmas ornaments from clay & starting to decorate the classrooms as well as making a Gratitude Wall!

When Santa got stuck in the Chimney

When Santa got stuck in the chimney,
He began to shout:
‘You girls & boys won’t get any toys,
If you don’t pull me out –
There’s soot on my back, my beard is black,
My nose is tickly too!’
When Santa got stuck in the chimney,
ACHOO, ACHOO, ACHOO!!

20th – 24th November

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!! We will be learning all about this lovely North American celebration in The Children’s House this week, as it falls on this Thursday. It is a wonderful opportunity to focus on things that we are thankful for in our lives, and to gently remind the children to be aware of the fact that not everyone in the world has food, or a home, or even a family, and to be grateful for all of those things; it is a really positive celebration!

It’s also College Awareness Week, so will be talking to the children about their journey of learning – which starts as soon as they are born – with their parents/guardians at home, with us in preschool, then primary,secondary, third-level….To link into their home environment, we are asking that family members also give us information about where they went on their journeys of learning, and if they have photos from graduations to please send us in copies to display on our Timeline of Lifelong Learning!

Let’s Be Thankful (tune of Twinkle Twinkle)

Let’s be thankful for this day,
For our friends and for our play.
Let’s be thankful, let’s be glad,
For the food and things we have.
Let’s give thanks for you and me,
And our home and family!

13th – 17th November

This week we’ll be planting bulbs for the spring time, talking about the change of season from Autumn to Winter, doing yoga, and learning all about Diwali, the festival of lights which originated in India, which starts this year on Sunday 12th November. This is a wonderful occasion which celebrates the triumph of good over evil, and light over darkness; we will be learning about all the different preparations and rituals that are practised at this time.

During the week the children will be colouring in rangoli (an Indian art form in which patterns are created on the floor or the ground using materials such as colored rice, dry flour, colored sand or flower petals, usually done during Hindu festivals), and also making their own lanterns and decorating them – some lovely art, gardening and culture this week!

My Garden

This is my garden, I’ll plant it with care,
Here are the seeds I’ll plant in there.
The sun will shine, the rain will fall,
The seeds will sprout and grow up tall!

The Snowman

There was a little snowman who had a carrot nose,
Along came a rabbit, and what do you suppose?
That hungry little rabbit, looking for his lunch,
Ate the snowman’s carrot nose….
Nibble, nibble, crunch!!!

6th- 10th November

We are starting our group project this week, & are VERY excited about it!! It is all about Flat Stanley – the story of Stanley who got squashed as flat as a pancake, & can now handily travel all around the world folded up in an envelope!! This leads us to a fun geography project that your children can take part in – they will be getting their own Flat Stanley, who can be posted to anyone they know who lives in a different part of the world, whether it’s Timbuktu or Tipperary!! We’re hoping that Stanley will return with lots of pictures & little notes recording where he’s been in the world, & then the children can record it on the map in their classroom.

Along with this, we will be discussing the postal system, how we use stamps, who we know who live in different parts of the world, what different parts of the world are like – how they’re alike/different to where we live at the moment.

Flat Stanley Song

Once upon a time when I was asleep,
A bulletin board came crashing down on me,
I thought it was a dream but it’s a fact –
That when I woke up I was completely flat!

Chorus: They call me Flat Stanley, I’m ready to go,
From The Children’s House to Mexico*,
Just put me in an envelope nice & flat,
And send me in the post it’s as simple as that!

Now being flat is not as bad as it seems,
You can do stuff that’s in your dreams,
Slide under doors or fly like a kite –
Being flat is quite alright!

Chorus * – change Mexico to Tokyo

I love to have adventures far and wide,
Just write a letter & I’ll jump inside,
I don’t need to travel by plane or boat –
I travel the world straight through the post!

Chorus * – change Tokyo to Ohio

They call me Flat Stanley, as flat as a pancake
Being flat is really great!!

23rd – 27th October

Happy Halloween everyone!! We’re doing all things spooky this week at The Children’s House!! The children will be enjoying pumpkin carving, learning about parts of the pumpkin & making sensory bags from the pulp – nice & messy!!! Later in the week we will be doing pumpkin hammering, q-tip painting, and at the end of the week we will be having our Halloween party, so the children are welcome to come in dressed up as scary as they like!!

5 Little Pumpkins

Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate,                                       (hold up 5 fingers)
The 1st one said “Oh my, it’s getting late!”                               (put hands to cheeks)
The 2nd one said “There are witches in the air,”                     (flutter fingers above head)
The 3rd one said “but we don’t care!”                                        (shake head)
The 4th one said “Let’s run and run and run.”                         (mime running with arms)

The 5th one said “I’m ready for some fun!”                               (thumbs up)
Then ‘Oooo’ went the wind, and out went the lights…           (clap hands)
And the five little pumpkins rolled out of sight!                      (roll arms)

16th – 20th October

This week at The Children’s House we will be focussing on our emotions for the week! Sometimes young children can find it hard to express how they are feeling, and naming and discussing those feelings, and how it is appropriate to deal with them, can be very helpful to them. For this reason, we will firstly be looking at different emotions (e.g. happy, sad, angry, lonely, loved, jealous), recognising them in ourselves and talking about what we do when we feel like that. We will be practising relaxation techniques like yoga and deep breathing, expressing emotions through making & using emotion masks, and discussing appropriate vs inappropriate ways of expressing emotions – emotional regulation is a huge thing for young children to learn, so we try to support them in this in preschool as much as we can.

During the week we will be making a worry box with each of the classes – this is a box that we decorate together, and if any of the children are worried about something, we write it down on a piece of paper and put it into the box until the child decides that they’re not worried about it anymore, whereupon they can tear it up and put it in the recycling bin! This gives a very real representation to the children that worries are temporary things, which come and go, so it can help to put anxieties they may have to rest.

If You’re Happy & You Know It

If you’re happy & you know it clap your hands,
If you’re happy & you know it clap your hands,
If you’re happy & you know it & you really want to show it –
If you’re happy & you know it clap your hands!

If you’re sad & you know it wipe your tears…
If you’re angry & you know it stamp your feet…
If you’re scared & you know it say ‘oh no’…
If you’re happy & you know it shout ‘hooray!!’

9th – 13th October

The children are going to be doing lots about gardening this week, and we will be discussing what we can grow in our gardens – whether they are enormous, or as small as a window box! – as well as making stewed apple later in the week, and doing a frozen flowers sensory tray, and contact flower designing – a very creative week ahead!!

As well as this, we will be doing our monthly fire drill, so the children get used to it & are nice & calm & know what to do if the alarm goes off at any stage.

The Farmer Plants the Seed

The farmer plants the seed,
The farmer plants the seed,
Hi ho the cherry-o,
The farmer plants the seed!

The sun begins to shine…,
The rain begins to fall…
The plants begin to grow…
The flowers smile at us…