What a great few days we had last week after our Christmas break – the children were all full of energy and ready to get back into learning mode! This week at The Children’s House we will be starting to learn about the beginning of the universe with the morning classes, and doing an experiment to demonstrate the Big Bang almost 14 million years ago, and we will be talking about how we are all made of stardust! Later in the week the children will be making their own pictures of the Big Bang, we will do some philosophising and have a discussion about what everyone imagines the world might have been like in the very beginning….then we will also be doing some yoga, and finally some drama – moving to music with different coloured ribbons to represent all the particles swirling about after the Big Bang. The afternoon classes will be learning about winter – the cold weather, short days and long nights, clothes we wear in the winter – and making snowy pictures!

93 Percent Stardust

We have calcium in our bones, iron in our veins,
Carbon in our souls, and nitrogen in our brains,
93 percent stardust, with souls made of flames,
We are all just stars that have people names.

Happy new year everybody and welcome back – we hope you and your children had a wonderful break! This week we’ll be talking about the New Year 2016, and the morning classes will be making calendars to bring home so they can mark off the days themselves, while the afternoon classes will be making a fireworks picture, and doing an experiment using oil, food colouring and water to make fireworks in a jar! We’re so excited to be back at school after the Christmas holidays, and to be heading into another wonderful year at The Children’s House!!

Roille Roille Ráinne (Ring a Rosie in Irish)

Roille, roille, ráinne,
Timpeall linn an bhfáinne,
Ríleo ró! Ríleo ró!
Suas san aer le mo choisín ó!

Woah ho ho!!! The weeks have been flying past, and suddenly we’re into our last week at The Children’s House before our Christmas holidays! This week we’ll mostly be making Christmas decorations, having lots of Christmas fun and being very hyper – in between the usual learning, exploring and experimenting! The classes’ Christmas plays/songs are as follows:

9am class Christmas play & songs @ 11am on Tuesday 15th December

9.30am class Christmas play & songs @ 11.30am on Wednesday 16th December

12.45pm class Christmas songs @ 2.15pm on Thursday 17th December

We will be closing for Christmas holidays on Friday 18th December, and re-opening on Wednesday 6th January; we would like to wish you all a wonderful Christmas, and every happiness for 2016 – we’re looking forward to seeing you all in the New Year and having a fantastic 6 months with your beautiful children!!

***Please note that we’re asking the children to bring in €1 each if possible, as we’re making a donation to Barnardos Children’s Charity this Christmas***

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!!

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas in The Children’s House! We decorated the classrooms last week, but it’s a work in process – there can never be too much decorations or tinsel!! This week we’re going to be putting up & decorating our own Christmas tree in the lobby, making more Christmas crafts – either Santas or reindeers depending on the children’s interests, making Christmas playdough, doing some drama games, and practising our Christmas songs for next week’s extravaganzas….!!

***Please note that we’re asking the children to bring in €1 each if possible, as we’re making a donation to Barnardos Children’s Charity this Christmas***

Bualadh Bos (Jingle Bells in Irish)

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

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 decorating the classrooms, making our own wrapping paper, and making reindeer food!

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!!

Happy Thanksgiving!! We will be learning all about Thanksgiving in The Children’s House this week, as it falls this coming Thursday. It is a wonderful opportunity to focus on things that we are thankful for in our lives, and to encourage 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 – without getting too bleak about it!! It is a really positive celebration and we will be talking about the story of the first Thanksgiving, and do some related art and mindfulness activities, then some thinking time on why it is important to be thankful for what we have, and finally we will be doing some music and movement at the end of the week.

Thanksgiving Song (sung to Twinkle, twinkle little star)

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.

Following on from celebrating the beautiful festival of lights, Divali, last week in The Children’s House, this week we will be starting to talk about Christmas! We will be learning about why we celebrate this date, the story behind Christmas, and most of all the important message of showing kindness, respect and love to everyone on this planet of ours.

Way up High on the Christmas Tree

Way up high on the Christmas tree (point up)
Two little candy canes winked at me (wink)
So I shook that tree as hard as I could (pretend to shake tree)
And down dropped those candy canes (squat down)
Mmm they tasted good!! (rub tummy)

What a fantastic week we had last week in The Children’s House! We learned all about the water cycle which the children LOVED, then we had a visit from a librarian from Naas library on Wednesday, and finally at the end of the week the morning classes did a wonderful lesson in window cleaning!!

We have another busy week ahead now, as we will be learning about Diwali, the festival of lights which originated in India, which falls this year on Wednesday 11th November. This is a wonderful happy event 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. The children will then be making and decorating little candle holders that they can put night lights in and bring home.

Little Lamps (to tune of London Bridge)

Little lamps are burning bright,
Burning bright, burning bright.
Little lamps are burning bright,
It’s Diwali.

See them lighting up the night,
Up the night, up the night.
See them lighting up the night,
It’s Diwali.