This week we are starting music appreciation in The Children’s House! We will be starting by learning about some of the different dynamics in music – this is the variation of loudness of the piece of music – the 2 basic dynamics are piano (soft) and forte (loud). Then during the week we will be doing some breathing exercises using our diaphragms while sitting/standing up straight, looking at what music notes look like when written down, learning how to use the Montessori bells to play melodies, listening to different composers’ works and exploring the families of the orchestra!! We would like to invite any family member who is free, to come in and play some music with us during the week as part of our music appreciation activities.

Elsie The Elephant

Elsie is an elephant who wants to play,
She is musical and big and grey,
She is good at singing mi, re, do,
That’s why the little children love her so!

After the great success of science week last week, we will be continuing on to do a healthy eating theme this week at The Children’s House – we will start off the week with a discussion with the children on why they might think it’s important to eat healthily, and continuing from there to look at the food pyramid. After this we will introduce practical activities such as matching sample jars of food to the food pyramid, art activities, and sugar experiments, as well as doing some healthy cooking of soup!

Happily We Eat Our Food

Happily we eat our food,
Eat our food, eat our food,
Happily we eat our food,
To grow up big and strong!

Happily we drink our milk…

Happily we eat our fruit…

Happily we eat our vegetables…

Happily we eat our meat…

Happily we eat our beans…

Happily we eat our bread…

Happily we eat our cereal…

This week at The Children’s House we will be doing a LOT of science!! We’ll be carrying out experiments throughout the week – from using a weighing scales to illustrate heavy vs light; to making ‘explosions’ using vinegar & baking soda; demonstrating how different liquids have different densities using honey, water, oil, which will sit in layers; making ‘goop’ – mixing cornstarch with water to show how a mixture can have the properties of a solid or a liquid depending on the pressure exerted on it; using a handboiler to show how liquids turn into gas with heat….it’s going to be a lot of fun!! We will also be discussing the importance of ‘observations’ i.e. what actually happens during an experiment as opposed to what we think will happen. 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!!

We are continuing to learn Lámh sign language after the huge success we’ve had since before Christmas, so this week your children are learnnig how to sign the song ‘5 Little Monkeys’!

5 Little Monkeys

5 little monkeys jumping on the bed,
1 fell off & bumped his head!
Mammy rang the doctor and the doctor said –
‘No more monkeys jumping on the bed!!’

4 little monkeys…

3 little monkeys…

2 little monkeys…

1 little monkey…

Welcome back everyone and a very happy new year to you all!! We hope you had a wonderful time over the last couple of weeks; we’re really happy to see you all again and be back in Montessori! This week we will be talking about how we celebrated Christmas and our favourite things that we did over the break, as well as discussing the new year of 2018 and month of January. It is a good time to revisit and assess gross motor skills and independence skills with the children, and encourage them to do as much as possible for themselves e.g. button their own coats, pour their own water at snack time – things that can all be reinforced at home, and which will develop hand-eye coordination as well as confidence in their ability to be independent.

Happy New Year Chant

Happy new year – hop, hop, hop,
Happy new year – stop, stop, stop,
Happy new year – jump, jump, jump,
Happy new year – stomp, stomp, stomp.
Happy new year – touch your nose,
Happy new year – touch your toes,
Happy new year – turn around,
Happy new year – now sit down!

The Children’s House will close for Christmas holidays on Friday 22nd December, reopening Monday 8th January

The weeks have been flying past, and suddenly we’re into our last week at The Children’s House before our Christmas holidays! Early in the week each class will be putting on a little show with some songs and poems that we’ve learnt since September, on Thursday we’ll be having a visit from a very special jolly person…and then on Friday we’ll be finishing with a party!! Have a wonderful break everyone and we look forward to seeing you all again in January!

The classes’ Christmas plays/songs are as follows:

Monday: 9.30am class Christmas songs @ 11.30am

Monday: 1pm class Christmas songs @ 3pm

Tuesday: 9am class Christmas songs @ 11am

Tuesday: 1.15pm class Christmas songs @ 3.15pm

We Wish You a Merry Christmas

We wish you a merry Christmas, we wish you a merry Christmas,
We wish you a merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year.
Good tidings we bring, to you and your kin –
We wish you a merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!!

We will be continuing our theme of ‘Christmas Around the World’ this week, so remember to send us in/text us about your family’s customs at Christmas time, and we can share it with your child at circle time! We will be listening to how to say ‘Merry Christmas’ in all the different  languages that are represented in the classes (Arabic, Mandarin, German, Greek, Hindi, Irish, Polish, Romanian, Scottish, Spanish, Afrikaans, English – depending on the class!!), doing Christmas yoga, making Christmas stars & a Christmas tree cutting activity, and at the end of the week we will be having a fun time doing reindeer themed gross motor activities – it’s safe to say we’ve fully embraced the Christmas spirit!

We would like to ask if you could give your child €1 to bring into school, as every year we talk about how much we have to be thankful for and then give a gift to charity, and this year we will again be making a donation to Barnardos Children’s Charity to support vulnerable children in Ireland this Christmas.

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!!

We Wish You a Merry Christmas

We wish you a merry Christmas, we wish you a merry Christmas,
We wish you a merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year.
Good tidings we bring, to you and your kin –
We wish you a merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!!

This week at The Children’s House we will be continuing our theme of ‘Christmas Around the World’, and talking to children about how they will be celebrating Christmas at their homes, taking into account any customs from different countries that may be practised at this time of year. Please be sure to let us know if you would be interested in coming in and telling us about your own Christmas celebrations! We will be making flags to denote different nationalities in the classrooms, and later in the week will be doing some seasonal crafts.

In addition, we will be decorating the classrooms this week and doing some seasonal Montessori activities such as putting cloves into oranges, the life cycle of the Christmas tree, etc – and generally getting into the festive spirit!

Jingle Bells

Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way,
Oh what fun it is to ride on a one horse open sleigh – hey!
Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way,
Oh what fun it is to ride in a one horse open sleigh!

Dashing through the snow, in a one horse open sleigh,
O’er the fields we go, laughing all the way – ha ha ha,
Bells on bobtail ring, making spirits bright,
Oh what fun it is to sing a sleighing song tonight!

Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way,
Oh what fun it is to ride on a one horse open sleigh – hey!
Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way,
Oh what fun it is to ride in a one horse open sleigh!

5 Yummy Gingerbread

Five yummy gingerbread sitting on a plate,
The 1^st one said “Boy, we smell so great!”
The 2^nd one said “There’s a chill in the air,”
The 3^rd one said “I see hungry children everywhere!”
The 4^th one said “I think we’d better run!”
The 5^th one said “Here the children come!”
Then the children each grabbed one and with a MUNCH CRUNCH MUNCH,
The five yummmy gingerbread rolled all turned into lunch!

Well, we’re cautiusly moving into Christmas territory this week….!! We will be doing some seasonal crafts such as printing wrapping paper and making wreaths, and introducing the story of why we celebrate Christmas. As we have many family members who come from different parts of the world, we will be starting to look at how Christmas is celebrated in various parts of the world, and will be asking you to come in and help us with this! At the end of the week we will be discussing the change of month and welcoming in December – we will also be dressing up this week, and practising some mindfulness.

5 Little Christmas Trees (poem)

5 little Christmas trees were standing all alone,
Their hearts were very sad, cos they hadn’t found a home…
Then CHOP went the axe, and down fell a tree,
And off it went with a happy family!

4…3…2…1…No little Christmas trees were standing all alone,
Their hearts were very happy cos they all had found a home!!

Santa Claus is Coming to Town (with Lámh signs)

You’d better not shout, you’d better not cry,
You’d 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 know if you’ve been bad or good so be good for goodness sake!

You’d better not shout, you’d better not cry,
You’d better not pout, I’m telling you why –
Santa Claus is coming to town!