As we enter December – where did November go???!! – the theme this week in The Children’s House is Winter & Christmas Art, so it’s going to be a busy, fun, art-filled week! To start the week we will be talking to the children about doing an outdoors Christmas concert with them, & choosing which songs we might do – we always involve the children in their learning & activities as much as possible, as it gives them a sense of involvement & motivation, & it is more appropriate than an adult choosing things for them to do without any input from the child.

We will be doing an Arctic snow hunt with Arctic animals on a tray covered in flour & a paint brush to help unearth them, making hand print winter trees using arms & hands for the tree & finger prints for the snow, & dressing snowmen in winter clothes & talking about winter clothes that we need to wear in the colder weather.

A Wintry Night (poem)

The sky is dark & the ground is white,
The world is peaceful on this wintry night.
No one around, not a sound to be heard,
Not a laugh, not a car, not even a bird.
For a moment, it’s just the snow and me.
I smile inside.
I feel so free.

by Lyndsey Kuster.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!! We will be learning all about this lovely North American celebration 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, reflecting on all the things we have & why it is important to be thankful for them, and finally we will be making a thankful tree with leaves full of things that we’re thankful for on it – things we often take for granted but which are so important, and worth celebrating!

I’m a Little Turkey (tune of I’m a Little Teapot)

I’m a little turkey, my name is Ted,
Here are my feathers, here’s my head.
Gobble gobble gobble is what I say,
Run run run because it’s Thanksgiving day!!

The focus this week in The Children’s House is all about Grace & Courtesy! This is one of the foundations of Montessori – to have respect for yourself, your classmates peers & elders, & your environment – it underpins everything we do in the school. To show young children how to do this, as well as role modeling for them, we teach lessons throughout the year on things such as greeting others, welcoming a visitor, how to walk in the classroom, how to apologise how to talk in a quiet voice, how to use activities appropriately, how to hang up coats etc…this year unfortunately we won’t be doing the lesson on shaking hands so much – we’ll be focusing on how to cough & sneeze into elbows & tissues instead!

This week we’ll be starting off by learning how to introduce ourselves, greeting someone else, coughing & sneezing, then moving onto using ‘please’ & ‘thank you’ & ‘excuse me’, turn taking, and then practising using soft voices indoors – by the end of the week we should have model citizens!!!

Manners (tune of: Twinkle Twinkle)

We say ‘thank you’, we say ‘please’,
We don’t interrupt or tease.

We don’t argue, we don’t fuss –
We listen when people talk to us.

We share our things & take our turn,
Manners are so easy to learn!

This week at The Children’s House we will be learning about Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights which originated in India, which falls this year on Saturday 14th November. This is a wonderful occasion which celebrates the victory of light over dark, and good over evil; we will be learning about all the different preparations and rituals that are practised at this time such as the lighting of lamps, the cleaning of houses to let go of unnecessary things and worries, and the wearing of new clothes to mark the beginning of a new journey by forgetting all the troubles of the past and stepping into the light.

During the week the children will make a version of rangoli (an Indian art form in which patterns are created on the floor or the ground using materials such as colored rice, dry flour, colored sand or flower petals, usually done during Hindu festivals), do yoga, and also make firework glitter art, at the end of this lovely week of art, craft and culture!

This Diwali (poem)

Let the firecrackers burn your sorrows
Candles light up your life
Colours make your life bright
With flowers filling in the fragrance
All day and night.

Welcome back everyone, we hope you had a lovely Halloween break!! It’s a busy week ahead in The Children’s House – we will be learning all about teeth as our topic is dental hygiene, so we will be talking about the importance of dental hygiene and why we look after our teeth and discussing what might happen if we didn’t do so. We will then be learning about the parts of the tooth and talking about healthy food that we can eat, like crunchy foods like apples and carrots, and calcium-containing foods which strengthen our teeth such as milk, cheese and yoghurts. We will be doing tooth brushing activities and talking about visiting the dentist, as well as counting our teeth and doing arts & crafts; at the end of the week we will be doing noodle dancing!!!

Here We Go Round the Apple Tree (tune of: Here we go round the Mulberry Bush)

This is the way we brush our teeth,
Brush our teeth, brush our teeth.
This is the way we brush our teeth,
On a cold and frosty morning.

We will be closed for mid-term break from Monday 26th until Friday 30th October,

re-opening Monday 2nd November –

Happy Halloween everyone!!

This week we will be getting ready for Halloween by decorating the classrooms and doing lots of Halloween arts & crafts! We will be doing some pumpkin art & learning about the parts of the pumpkin – before we carve it!! Then we will be making ghost footprint art & spider crafts, as well as practising some mindfulness, and at the end of the week we will be having a dress up Halloween party, & playing lots of games – it’s going to be a great week!!!

5 Little Pumpkins

Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate,                                       (hold up 5 fingers)
The 1^st one said “Oh my, it’s getting late!”                               (put hands to cheeks)
The 2^nd one said “There are witches in the air,”                     (flutter fingers above head)
The 3^rd one said “but we don’t care!”                                        (shake head)
The 4^th one said “Let’s run and run and run.”                         (mime running with arms)

The 5^th one said “I’m ready for some fun!”                               (thumbs up)
Then ‘Oooo’ went the wind, and out went the lights…           (clap hands)
And the five little pumpkins rolled out of sight!                      (roll arms)

It’s Music Week this week at The Children’s House!! We will begin the week doing some breathing exercises using our diaphragms while sitting/standing up straight, and following this we will be 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 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 will be talking about the children’s favourite music, & looking at which countries different instruments come from –  if anyone wants to send us a message/text with the names of different or traditional songs you might listen to at home please do so, we’d love to have a variation of music to share with the children this week! Then at the end of the week we’ll be painting while listening to classical music, be prepared for some masterpieces!!!

Name Beat Song
Keep the beat while tapping your knees, sitting in circle with class
Say a child’s name twice, then go on to next child
e.g. Mary, Mary…..Tom, Tom…..

Warm Up
HEHEHEHEHEEEee
HAHAHAHAHAAAaa
HOHOHOHOHOOOoo

This week in The Children’s House we are continuing on with our Autumnal themes and learning all about hibernation! We will be discussing which animals sleep through the winter in Ireland, why they do so (colder weather so it’s harder to find food), where they sleep, and the preparation they make for hibernation (increasing body fat, gathering food stores). In particular we will be looking at the mouse, squirrel, frog, ladybird, bat and hedgehog – the last 2 being the only Irish mammals that truly hibernate, meaning they drop their temperature and heart rate, their breathing slows & they go into a type of coma for a few months to conserve energy – sounds like something we might all like to do this winter!!

We will also be talking about the change in weather & the shortening of days/ lengthening of nigths, doing a hibernation craft, & drama at the end of the week: We’re Going on a Bear Hunt!

Are You Sleeping Brother Bear
(Sung to: Frere Jacques)

Are you sleeping? Are you sleeping?
Brother bear, brother bear?
Through the cold cold winter, through the cold cold winter,
Brother bear, brother bear.

We’re learning all about the harvest this week, following on our Autumn theme from last week! We will be discussing what happens at harvest time, looking at different types of grains such as wheat, barley & oats & talking about what we can make from them, e.g. flour, from which we can make all sorts of delicious things like bread, & scones – which we will actually be baking in school this week, mmmmm!!! Also we will talk about different foods that are harvested at this time of year like carrots, apples, cabbage, leeks, & then look at the lifecycle of the apple, & do apple printing – if anyone has food growing in their gardens please send a sample in with your children for everyone to look at, or if your child can bring in any autumn items they may find on a walk, that would also be great. Then to end the week we will be doing some fun music & movement!

Here We Go Round the Apple Tree
(Sung to: Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush)
Here we go ’round the apple tree,
The apple tree, the apple tree.
Here we go ’round the apple tree
On a cold and frosty morning.

This is the way we climb the ladder,
Climb the ladder, climb the ladder.
This is the way we climb the ladder,
On a cold and frosty morning.

This is the way we pick the apples,
Pick the apples, pick the apples.
This is the way we pick the apples
On a cold and frosty morning.

This is the way we eat the apples,
Eat the apples, eat the apples.
This is the way we eat the apples
On a cold and frosty morning.