It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas at The Children’s House!! We started last week by making imitation stained glass trees, and then made salt dough decorations, and to top it off a kind parent made us our own large Christmas tree from a pallet, which the children all helped to paint! This week we will be doing some Christmas cooking – delicious cinnamon banana bread muffins! – as well as doing yoga to help us remember how to relax at this busy and sometimes over-stimulating time of year, and finally making Christmas cards, and focussing on what we have to be thankful for at Christmas time. To this end, we are asking everyone if they can bring in €1, which we will put together to make a donation to Barnardos Children’s Charity to support vulnerable children in Ireland this Christmas.

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!)

5 Little Christmas Trees

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!!

What a wonderful week we had last week partaking in College Awareness Week; thank you so much to everyone who sent in photos and graduation certificates to show the children – we’re taking copies and adding them all to our timeline of lifelong learning!! This week we’re getting psyched up for Christmas…! It’s hard to believe that December is upon us this week, and Christmas will be here before we know it! So we’re starting to decorate the school this week, and talk about what the children would like to do for a Christmas show for their parents, as well as doing some Christmas crafts and making our own decorations – busy times ahead…..

I’m a Little Christmas Tree (tune of 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!

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!!!

This week at The Children’s House we’re partaking in College Awareness Week as well as celebrating Thanksgiving – another busy week after all the excitement of Science Week last week!! For College Awareness Week, we’re aiming to develop the children’s understanding of their own learning, and to recognise that learning is limitless and lifelong. To illustrate this, we will be starting the week by asking the children what they would like to be when they grow up, and how they might achieve that. Then the staff will talk about what they wanted to be when they were a similar age, and how their journey of education has taken them on different paths. We will be bringing in photos of graduations and the certificates/diplomas/degrees/higher diplomas etc we have attained over the years, and also ask family members to send in theirs in order to relate all our learning to the children’s environments. In addition to this, we are asking if parents can give children photos of siblings/relations who have graduated from school/college/training to add to a timeline of education that we are making together as a group project which will visually illustrate the journey of education from preschool to third level settings, and the fact that it is a never ending journey!! We are very lucky to be having a visit from some representatives from Maynooth University on Thursday morning to present all the children with certificates of completion of College Awareness Week; it should be a lovely occasion.

As it is Thanksgiving on Thursday, we will be linking in to this by talking about all the things we have that we can be grateful for – family, homes, food, friends – and of course education!

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!

Happy Science Week everyone!! This week at The Children’s House we’ll be doing a lot of experiments throughout the week – from using a handboiler to show how liquids turn into gas with heat; to 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; demonstrating how different liquids have different densities using honey, water, oil, which will sit in layers; using a weighing scales to illustrate heavy vs light; making ‘explosions’ using vinegar & baking soda….all this and many other activities such as using magnification aids (magnifying glasses, microscopes, telescopes), and going for a discovery walk outdoors with notebooks for any note-taking! 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!!

Frere Jacques

Frère Jacques, Frère Jacques,
Dormez vous? Dormez vous?
Sonnez les matines, sonnez les matines,
Ding dang dong, ding dang dong!

Are you sleeping? Are you sleeping?

Brother John, Brother John.

Morning bells are ringing, morning bells are ringing,

Ding dang dong, ding dang dong!

Welcome to winter…!!! The weather has definitely changed from autumnal to wintry over the last week, so we will be continuning our theme of migration, and linking in to geography by looking at the path that swallows take from Ireland to Africa to winter there, and the children will be making their own maps depicting this. We will also be making bird feeders to cater for the birds that stay here during the cold weather!

Continents Song

Here we go round the world,
Round the world we go:
North America, South America,
Europe and Asia,
Africa, Antartica –
And don’t forget Australasia!

Welcome back after the mid-term break, hope you all had a wonderful long weekend! This week in The Children’s House we will be learning all about the new month November, and the new season winter, as well as talking about the changes that this will bring – the much shorter days & longer nights & the colder weather – and the effects that this has on animals, like hibernation and specifically migrationg. We will be discovering what the swallow does during the winter months, and also looking at the life cycle of the swallow as well as creating some bird crafts!

Feed the Birds (tune of Row Your Boat)

Feed, feed, feed the birds,
In the wintertime,
When the days are dark and cold,
Food is hard to find.

Feed, feed, feed the birds,
Til the spring has come,
Scatter birdseed on the snow,
Feeding birds is fun!

Last week in The Children’s House we learnt a lot about bats & their sense of smell while getting ready for Halloween, & this week we’ll be continuing on our Halloween theme, with pumpkin carving, Halloween cooking & a fancy dress party on Friday! Apart from this we will be having our monthly fire drill, and starting the topic of migration!

We will be closed for mid-term break Monday 31st October & Tuesday 1st November, re-opening Wednesday 2nd November –

Happy Halloween everyone!!

Jack O Happy

This is Jack O Happy,
This is Jack O Sad,
This is Jack O Spooky,
This is Jack O Mad,
This is Jack in pieces small,
But in a pie he’s best of all!