We’re going to have a week full of science experiments, as well as celebrating St Brigid’s Day, the start of February (here’s to January being eventually over!!!) & the traditional beginning of spring this week at The Children’s House! We will be learning about why objects sink & float by dropping them in a bowl of water, & then extending this experiment by later in the week dropping different objects in a container with 3 liquids of different densities (water, oil, golden syrup) & seeing which are heavy/light & at which level they stay at – this experiment shows how liquids can have different densities, i.e. seem to be thicker.

Another experiment we will do about density is dropping raisins into a glass of 7up – the raisin will sink at first as it has greater density than the liquid, but as the bubbles gather on the ridges they lift the raisin to the top of the glass, then the bubbles burst & it sinks again, & then it happens all over again – this makes the raisin seem to dance!

I Can Sing a Rainbow

Red & yellow & pink & green,
Purple & orange & blue,
I can sing a rainbow, sing a rainbow,
Sing a rainbow too.

This week we’ll be learning all about Road Safety at The Children’s House, a hugely important topic, & quite timely as we seem to have a couple of storms in the country creating dangerous road situations this week!! So we will be doing many safety activities during the week, such as practising crossing the road safely (stop look & listen), doing a traffic light game, reading road safety social stories & discussing how we can keep ourselves safe, as well as various associated arts & crafts activities.

Teaching children about road safety from a young age is very important – especially living in places with lots of commuting traffic such as Sallins or Naas – so developing habits such as wearing high vis jackets, holding hands crossing the road, and remembering to stop look & listen when crossing are something we can help to reinforce from preschool age. At the end of the week we will be putting our safety strategies into practice while we go on a walk to the GAA pitch!

Road Safety Song (tune: If You’re Happy & You Know It)

When you want to cross the road
You stop and look,
When you want to cross the road
You stop and look.

If you’re clever and you know it,
And you really want to show it,
When you want to cross the road
You stop and look.

It’s all about our teeth this week at The Children’s House! The children will be learning all about dental health & the importance of looking after our teeth & developing good hygiene habits from an early age. We will be talking about the different types of teeth we have – incisors, canines, premolars & molars – & the different jobs that they do (biting food, tearing food, chewing & grinding food), as well as the number of teeth that we have – children have 20 baby teeth, adults get a total of 32, usually by the age of 21.

We will be doing activities to illustrate what makes teeth happy e.g. healthy food vs unhealthy, good brushing habits, dental hygiene art, & a science experiment to show if sugary or acidic drinks can damage our tooth enamel using using hard-boiled eggs immersed in coke & vinegar – the shell of the eggs are full of calcium as is tooth enamel so we use them as a comparison.

This is the Way we Take Care of our Teeth

This is the way we brush our teeth,
Brush our teeth, brush our teeth,
This is the way we brush our teeth,
At least twice a day.

This is the way we floss our teeth,
Floss our teeth, floss our teeth,
This is the way we floss our teeth,
Every single day.

This is the way we rinse our mouths,
Rinse our mouths, rinse our mouths,
This is the way we rinse our mouths,
To wash the germs away.

A very Happy New Year to you all, & welcome back!! Hopefully all the families had a lovely break & stayed healthy, & the children are ready to get back to their routine, I think the adults are! We’ve got a lovely relaxing week planned, with activities such as the sensory tray, new year’s resolution craft, yoga, & new year art – so it’s going to be a great start to 2024 in The Children’s House!

Just to let you know that from the collection for Barnardos that we held before Christmas, we raised & sent €235.50 to them, which will have really made a difference to some children who needed it – thanks so much for your generosity, as always.

Ring the Bells (tune: Row Your Boat)

Ring, ring, ring the bells,
Ring them loud and clear.
Let’s tell everyone around,
That the New Year is here!

It’s a week of Christmas arts & crafts at The Children’s House this week! So the children will be continuing doing seasonal activities such as Christmas stencils, painting & glueing, Santa nesting dolls, threading baubles, opening & closing Christmas tree pegs etc… As well as this, during the week they will be making candy cane pipe cleaners, glitter star decorations, love heart penguins, & peg & bobble paintings. The children will also be practising singing their songs & poems for their concerts on Friday & next Monday – as we hope you all are!!!

Friday 15th December: 9am class Christmas songs @ 11am

Friday 15th December: 1pm & 1.15pm classes Christmas songs @ 3.15pm

Monday 18th December: 9.30am class Christmas songs @ 11.30am

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

Rudolph the red nosed reindeer had a very shiny nose,
And if you ever saw it you would even say it glows,
All of the other reindeer used to laugh & call him names,
They never let poor Rudolph join in any reindeer games.

Then one foggy Christmas eve Santa came to say,
‘Rudolph with your nose so bright, won’t you guide my sleigh tonight?’
Then all the reindeer loved him, and they shouted out with glee,
‘Rudolph the red nosed reindeer, you’ll go down in history!’

We’re well and truly in the run up to Christmas now, so this week at The Children’s House we will be talking about how we celebrate Christmas, and how important it is to show people that we care not just through presents, but by how we act towards them and how we show love and respect to each other. We will be doing lots of fun stuff like making Christmas cards, doing Christmas cooking & crafts, mindfulness & doing winter puffy art!!

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!)

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

Rudolph the red nosed reindeer had a very shiny nose,
And if you ever saw it you would even say it glows,
All of the other reindeer used to laugh & call him names,
They never let poor Rudolph join in any reindeer games.

Then one foggy Christmas eve Santa came to say,
‘Rudolph with your nose so bright, won’t you guide my sleigh tonight?’
Then all the reindeer loved him, and they shouted out with glee,
‘Rudolph the red nosed reindeer, you’ll go down in history!’

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 practicing mindfulness, making Christmas ornaments from clay & starting to decorate the classrooms as well as making a Gratitude Wall!

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 everyone!! We will be learning all about this lovely North American celebration in The Children’s House this week, as it falls on this Thursday. It is a wonderful opportunity to focus on things that we are thankful for in our lives, and to gently remind 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; it is a really positive celebration!

It’s also College Awareness Week, so will be talking to the children about their journey of learning – which starts as soon as they are born – with their parents/guardians at home, with us in preschool, then primary,secondary, third-level….To link into their home environment, we are asking that family members also give us information about where they went on their journeys of learning, and if they have photos from graduations to please send us in copies to display on our Timeline of Lifelong Learning!

Let’s Be Thankful (tune of Twinkle Twinkle)

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!

This week we’ll be planting bulbs for the spring time, talking about the change of season from Autumn to Winter, doing yoga, and learning all about Diwali, the festival of lights which originated in India, which starts this year on Sunday 12th November. This is a wonderful occasion 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.

During the week the children will be colouring in 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), and also making their own lanterns and decorating them – some lovely art, gardening and culture this week!

My Garden

This is my garden, I’ll plant it with care,
Here are the seeds I’ll plant in there.
The sun will shine, the rain will fall,
The seeds will sprout and grow up tall!

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!!!