Welcome back to The Children’s House and a very happy new year to you all!! We hope you had a wonderful Christmas and enjoyed the break – we’re definitely ready to get back into our routine here and see all our friends again! This week we’ll just be settling back in, doing some new activities on the Practical Life shelf and progressing with others, while talking about the importance of giving, after all the things we’ve received at Christmas. The children will also be making New Years crafts as well as dressing up and doing drama at the end of the week.

Cheer the Year (tune: Row Your Boat)

Cheer, cheer, cheer the year,
A new one’s just begun.
Celebrate with all your friends,
Let’s go have some fun!

Clap, clap, clap your hands,
A brand new year is here.
Learning, laughing, singing, clapping,
Through another year!

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

Welcome to the last few days of 2019 at The Children’s House!! It’s hard to believe Christmas is almost here, the time has really flown since Hallowe’en, but that’s probably because we’ve been so busy having fun and learning loads! This week each class will be putting on a show with some songs and poems that we’ve learnt since September, and then on Friday we’ll be finishing with a party after a visit from a very special jolly person on Thursday…have a wonderful break everyone and we look forward to seeing you all again in January!!

Monday: 9.30 am class Christmas songs @ 11am

Monday: 1 pm class Christmas songs @ 2.30pm

Tuesday: 9 am class Christmas songs @ 10.45am

Tuesday: 1.15 pm class Christmas songs @ 3pm

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 stencils, painting & glueing, Santa nesting dolls, threading baubles, opening & closing Christmas tree pegs etc… Also during the week they will be making snowflakes, as well as banana & strawberry candy canes, and we will be having our monthly fire drill on Friday. The children will also be practising singing their songs & poems for next week – as we hope you all are!!!

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!’

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!

Happy December everyone!! 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 decorating the classrooms, dressing up, making salt dough decorations and also making wrapping paper!

Bualadh Bos (Jingle Bells in Irish)

Bualadh bos, bualadh bos, bualadh bos go léir,
Tá San Nioclás ag teacht anois,
Anuas an simléar – oh!
Bualadh bos, bualadh bos, bualadh bos go léir,
Tá San Nioclás ag teacht anois,
Anuas an simléar!!

I’m a Little Christmas Tree (tune: I’m a little teapot)

I’m a little Christmas tree tall and straight,
Here are my branches for you to decorate.
First you put the star on the very top –
Just be careful that the baubles don’t drop!

Thanks to everyone who sent in photos for our wall display of lifelong learning – & remember it’s never too late to do so!! This week, we’re learning all about oral hygiene & first aid! We will be looking at what sort of foods are healthy for our teeth, and those that are not so healthy (following on from the food pyramid, which was a great success) – and we will be talking about the importance of cleaning our teeth, and why we do it. As well as this, we will be studying the parts of the tooth, and doing art activities to do with teeth – be prepared for a lot of energetic teeth brushing at night!!! During the week we will also be talking about first aid: what to do if someone has an accident, who should we call, how could we help etc, and showing the children how to do a basic bandage – should be a lot of fun!! At the end of the week we will be starting to talk about the story of Christmas, as the time is flying in…..

Brush Your Teeth (tune: Row Your Boat)

Brush, brush, brush your teeth,
Brush them every day,
The front, the sides, the back, the top,
Keep the germs away!

It’s all about lifelong learning this week at The Children’s House! To coincide with College Awareness Week, we will be talking with the children about their journey of learning – which starts as soon as they’re born – and all the steps along the way that they might take, such as preschool, primary school, secondary school, third level education….alongside their primary educators of course which are you, the parents/guardians! 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!

We will be doing healthy eating in school this week, and learning all about the Food Pyramid. It’s a very visual and interactive way of learning about what we should eat, as the children match up physical samples of food in jars to the pictures in the food pyramid, and it shows how we should eat plenty of grains fruit & vegetables, and only a little of less healthy things such as sweets and chocolates – everything in moderation! Following this, the children will be making soup later in the week, practising mindfulness, and doing planting for springtime!

Lámh, lámh eile

Lámh, lámh eile, a haon, a dó,           (Hand, other hand, one, two)
Cos, cos eile, a haon, a dó.                  (Leg, other leg, one, two)
Súil, súil eile, a haon, a dó,                 (Eye, other eye, one, two,)
Cluas, cluas eile, a haon, a dó,           (Ear, other ear, one, two,)
Ceann, srón, béal, smig,                      (Head, nose, mouth, chin,)
Agus fiacla bána i mo bhéal istigh.   (And white teeth inside my mouth).

Welcome back everyone, hope you all had a great Halloween break! We were back last Wednesday for a few days of activities and drama, celebrating Divali as well as another Halloween party for those who could be there! This week we will be learning all about migration – what animals migrate, where to, and why? Following on from this the children will be learning about the parts of a bird, the lifecycle of the butterfly and doing lots of art.

Two Little Dicky Birds

Two little dicky birds sitting on a wall,
One named Peter, one named Paul,
Fly away Peter, fly away Paul,
Come back Peter, come back Paul.

It’s all getting a bit spooky at The Children’s House this week! The children will be decorating the classrooms, carving pumpkins, making Halloween arts & crafts, doing science experiments – creating a bubbling witches brew with bread soda, vinegar & food colouring, and making dancing worms with sparkling water & jelly worms – and at the end of the week we’ll be having a Halloween party!

Flutter Flutter (tune of Twinkle Twinkle)

Flutter flutter little bat,
How I wonder what you’re at –
Swooping through the darkest night,
You find your way without a light.
Flutter flutter little bat,
How I wonder what you’re at!

Three Black Cats (tune of Three Blind Mice)

Three black cats, three black cats,
In black hats, in black hats.
They all jumped into the witches brew,
They teased the ghost and the goblins too.
Did you ever see such a hullabaloo?
On Halloween, on Halloween!!

Following on from many children’s current interests in farm animals and playing with the farm, we have a week full of animal related activities this week at The Children’s House. We will be learning how to do animal names in Lámh (Irish sign language), making handprint animals, building our own farm yards, as well as talking about where milk comes from and doing a milking activity!!

Many thanks to all the grandparents who came in last week to visit us, we really enjoyed having your company, and please make sure to visit any time at all throughout the year; you’re such an important part of your grandchildren’s lives and we would love you to be a big part of their preschool lives too!

Old MacDonald