This week in The Children’s House we will be marking Shrove Tuesday by making pancakes (yum!!), celebrating World Book Day on Thursday by asking the children to bring in their favourite books to read with us – & if any family member is free to come in to read with us, all the better!!

We will also be progressing with our group project – the world map – and learning about North America this week! The children will be tracing their own continents & painting them, & then we are going to do some really creative art inspired by the North American artist Jackson Pollock; he was an innovative painter who introduced the idea of “action painting” by putting his canvases on the floor or leaning against a wall, & used a “drip technique” letting paint drip onto the canvas from the can, he also used knives trowels & sticks instead of a paintbrush. The children are going to make a joint group art creation together on Thursday, & then their own individual works of art on Friday – it will be wonderful process art!!

5 Little Ducks (using Lámh to sign)

5 little ducks went swimming one day,
Over the hills & far away,
Mama duck said ‘quack, quack, quack’,
And only 4 little ducks came back!

4 little ducks….3….2….

1 little duck went swimming one day,
Over the hills & far away,
Mama duck said went ‘quack, quack, quack’,
And all her 5 little ducks came back!

Welcome back everyone after our midterm break last week, we hope you had a lovely time despite the unpredictable weather! This week in The Children’s House we will be continuing our group project about the world and learning all about South America – the children will be tracing & painting their own continents to add to their map, making paper plate carnival masks, learning about the Amazon rainforest & the animals who live there, and then at the end of the week doing carnival dancing wearing their masks!!

The Noisy Animals in the Jungle (tune of The Wheels on the Bus)

The birds in the jungle go “Squawk, squawk, squawk”,
“Squawk, squawk, squawk, squawk, squawk, squawk”,
The birds in the jungle go “Squawk, squawk, squawk”,
All day long!

The cute jungle monkeys go “Oo, oo, oo”…
The fierce jungle tigers go “Grr, grr, grr”…
The crocs in the jungle go “Snap, snap, snap”…
The sloths in the jungle go “Snore, snore, snore”…
The bugs in the jungle go “Click, click, click”…
The snakes in the jungle go “Sss, sss, sss”…
The frogs in the jungle go “Ribbit, ribbit, ribbit”…

It’s the week of love at The Children’s House!! We will be focusing on emotions this week, and talking about what love means to us all – who we love, who loves us, and most importantly, what we love about our own selves! It’s sometimes hard for young children to recognise and verbalise their emotions, so we use a lot of strategies in the classroom to help them with this – for instance visual aids like emotion wheels, and naming feelings for children when they are upset e.g. ‘I can see you seem upset that it’s not your turn to give out the plates today’, and then giving them tools for improving the situation themselves e.g. ‘what do you think might make you feel better? Is there anything I can do to help?’ This helps children to develop their emotional literacy and well-being, and supports them to learn skills of resilience for later in life.

During the week we will be making Valentine’s crafts, creating a Love Tree, doing “The Best Thing About Me” page in the children’s All About Me books, and finally on Friday literally having a ball!! The children can dress up for our annual Valentine’s Ball and we will be having lots of dancing and fun!

Five Little Hearts (fingerplay)

Five little hearts all in a row ,
The first one said ‘I love you so’,
The second one said ‘will you be my Valentine?’
The third one said ‘I will, if you’ll be mine’
The fourth one said ‘I’ll always be your friend’
The fifth one said ‘we’ll all be friends until the end!’

Happy Spring everyone!! This week, as well as discussing the change of month & season, we are going to learn about dental health & the importance of looking after our teeth, tying in to the eating of healthy food – especially 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 discussing why we lose teeth! During the week we will be doing a science experiment to show what can happen if we don’t clean our teeth, leaving 1 egg to sit in a glass of vinegar and another in a glass of coke – the vinegar will show how acid can decalcify and damage the tooth enamel, whereas the coke will leave a stain on the egg shell.

Following this, we will then be looking at the food pyramid & doing a lot of activities about healthy eating along with it – we will start off with a discussion with the children on why they might think it’s important to eat healthily, talk about what our bodies need from food and which foods are best for us, and continue 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, and we will be making super smoothies! We emphasise the importance of having a good balanced diet and a healthy relationship with food – to know which foods are healthy and which are not, but to stress that having a treat is not a bad thing either! As well as this, we will be talking about using the energy that food gives us to exercise, and how important this also is for our bodies’ growth and development. We will be practising gross motor skills by making obstacle courses indoors and outdoors – should be lots of fun!!

Staying Healthy (tune: If you’re happy & you know it)

To stay healthy, you should always eat good food,
To stay healthy, you should always eat good food,
Eat some apples, eat some peas,
Eat bananas & green beans –
To stay healthy, you should always eat good food!

We’re back to a full week of school, & the last week of January – hopefully February brings better weather & less school closures!!! This week we will be learning about 2 important festivals – the Chinese New Year, & St Brigid’s Day! The Chinese Lunar New Year is on Wednesday 29th January, so this week we will be learning a bit about China – looking at where it is in Asia, learning about some customs & superstitions, and looking at some photos and objects from China. It’s the Year of the Snake, and the children will be making paper plate snakes during the week, as well as learning about the animal from the year that they were born!

We will then be celebrating St Brigid’s Day (which is on 1st February) by learning about the story of St Brigid , the patroness saint of Ireland, who was from Kildare, so especially important to us in Sallins! The children will then make St Brigid’s crosses.

Chinese New Year Song

Gung hay fat choy,
Gung hay fat choy,
Sing happy new year,
Gung hay fat choy!

The Children’s House will be closed tomorrow Friday 24th January due to the red wind warning which will be in place in Co Kildare – stay safe and take care during the storm 

This week at The Children’s House we will be continuing our world map project by starting to add our first continent – Asia! We currently have families who were originally from Japan, the Philippines and India, so we will be learning how to say “hello” & “goodbye” in their languages, and learning how to sing “Head shoulders knees & toes” in the different languages too! The children will be painting their continent of Asia and glueing it to their world map this week, learning about different animals that live in Asia & decorating their continent with some, and listening to Asian music.

Atama Kata Hiza Ashi (Japanese head shoulders knees & toes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aJ7dzeB3Ro

Head
あたま atama

Shoulders
かた kata

Knees
ひざ hiza

Toes
つまさき tsumasaki

Eyes
め me

Ears
みみ mimi

Mouth
くち kuchi

Nose
はな hana

This week at The Children’s House we are starting our group project all about our world – we are so lucky this year to have children with family members from all over the globe, so we will be taking advantage of this & inviting family members in to talk to the children about customs or traditions that you might practice at certain times of the year, to show us dress or foods that might be a bit more unusual, or to teach us words or songs in different languages, alongside learning about traditional Irish customs & celebrations!

The children will be starting to make their world map this week, sponge painting the oceans! We will be looking at the globe & continents & learning our continents song, as well as learning how to sign in Lámh the signs for “hello” & “gooodbye”. We would love if families who use other languages other than English at home would let us know how they greet each other in these languages, so please text us the words for “hello” & “goodbye” and we can all learn together!

Here We Go Round The World

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

Happy New Year everyone, we hope you had a wonderful couple of weeks & here’s wishing you all a happy & healthy 2025!

This week at The Children’s House we will be talking about the change of year and month, doing New Year art, snow & ice art (considering the weather at the moment!) and also mindfulness at the end of the week. We will also be doing a show and tell where the children can bring in something that they got over Christmas that they would like to show their friends & teachers.

Next week we will be starting our group project which will be all about looking at the world that we live in – we will be looking at the people, animals, culture, music, food, language all around the globe…so we will be asking for a lot of help from you the families!! Watch this space…

New Year Song (tune: The Muffin Man)

Now we have a brand new year,
Brand new year, brand new year,
Now we have a brand new year,
It’s 2025!

The Children’s House will close for Christmas holidays on Friday 20th December, reopening Monday 6th January

Welcome to the last week of 2024 at The Children’s House – it’s hard to believe Christmas is almost here!!! We’re going to enjoy our week with the children, making Christmas photo frames, reindeer food, having a party & disco,& of course a visit from our very special guest Santa Claus himself!!!

Thanks so much to everyone who’s given in their donations – we will be making a donation at the end of the week on the children’s behalf to Barnardos Children’s Charity to support vulnerable children in Ireland this Christmas.

We’d like to wish you all a wonderful Christmas, and every happiness for 2024 – we’re looking forward to seeing you all in the New Year!

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!