This week at The Children’s House we will be having a fun week celebrating summer, as well as having our Sports Day on Thursday!! The children will be doing sea shell painting, dressing up, & a lovely exercise of positive affirmations -it’s so important to get into the habit of being positive about yourself (something as adults we’re not always so good at!!), so we’ll be getting the children to listen to affirmations such as ‘I can do hard things’, ‘I am loved’, ‘I am kind to myself & others’, ‘I am beautiful inside & out’, ‘I am a problem solver’, ‘I love myself as I am’ – and choosing one to say about themselves, or to think of a different positive statement about themselves.

Five Little Flowers

Well it’s an exciting week ahead, as on Tuesday we’re going on our school tour to the Playbarn in Johnstown!! For the first time EVER, the 4 classes (the 2 morning sessions plus the 2 afternoon sessions) are going to be going at the same time – hope the teachers all get a good night’s sleep on Monday!!! So on Monday we will be pairing the children up into partners, revising our safety rules e.g. lining up, road safety, listening to instructions & safety on the bus, & also telling them which adult will be in charge of them; we are very grateful to all the parents who have volunteered to come with us, as without their help we wouldn’t be able to go on this sort of an adventure!!

As well as this, the children will be doing cooking & making delicious pizzas (yum!!), and on Friday they will be having a Teddy Bear’s Picnic, so don’t forget to let them bring in their favourite teddy/toy to have their picnic with at the end of the week!

Welcome back after last week’s break! We will be doing a lovely end of year project with the children this week, making Worry Dolls with them – this is a tradition that we do every year with the children; these are a traditional Guatemalan peg doll that the children can confide their worries in and the dolls are meant to take the worries away. We tell the children that they should always tell their parents/guardians/teachers about their worries, but if for instance they are awake in the middle of the night and need a bit of comfort, the worry dolls are a lovely support ❤️❤️

As well as this, we will be looking at the primary colours & colour mixing – making orange from red & yellow, green from yellow & blue, & purple from blue & red. Then at the end of the week on Friday we will be holding a Pyjamas Day, where the children can come into school in their pyjamas, which will be great fun – it’s always a favourite activity towards the end of the year! The children are welcome to bring in their favourite book with them on the day.

May Poem

May is the month of sunshine & flowers,
Birds in their nests, & one or two flowers,
Games to play & kites to fly, or just looking at the sky,
We could spend a year this way, if the year was made of May!

This week at The Children’s House we will be having a fun week of different activities relating to the start of Summer!! We will be dancing around a May Pole on Wednesday for Mayday, doing sunflower art and making lemonade also! As well as this, the children will be finishing their All About Me books, which they have been working on since September

You Are My Sunshine

You are my sunshine, bright yellow sunshine,
You bring me sunlight all through the days,
You help the seasons go, you make the plants grow,
Please be my sunshine always!

It’s the week of the frog this week, as at The Children’s House we will be learning all about the lifecycle of the frog 🐸, doing art relating to it & playing Frogs & Toads games, as well as yoga! As well as this, we are having a week of board games – to encourage turn taking, sharing & social skills while having lots of fun! – so we are asking children to bring in their favourite board games to play with us, & if any family members are free to come in & play a game with us we would love to have you!

Five Little Speckled Frogs

5 little speckled frogs, sat on a speckled log,
Eating some most delicious bugs – yum yum!
1 jumped into the pool, where it was nice and cool,
Then there were 4 green speckled frogs – glub glub!

4 little speckled frogs…
3 little speckled frogs…
2 little speckled frogs…
1 little speckled frog…now there are no more speckled frogs – glub glub!!

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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!