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!

It’s a week of Christmas fun at The Children’s House this week! So the children will be continuing doing seasonal activities such as Christmas tree beading, Santa nesting dolls, threading baubles, opening & closing Christmas tree pegs etc… Also during the week they will be making Christmas tree art, as well as Christmas cards. At the end of the week the classes will be putting on a show with some songs and poems that we’ve learnt since September, which we are very excited about!!

Friday: 9am & 9.30am classes Christmas songs @ 11am

Friday: 1 pm & 1.15pm classes Christmas songs @ 3pm

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

You better watch out, you better not cry,
You better not pout, I’m telling you why,
Santa Claus is coming to town!

He’s making a list, he’s checking it twice,
He’s gonna find out who’s naughty or nice,
Santa Claus is coming to town!

He sees you when you’re sleeping, he knows when you’re awake,
He knows if you’ve been good or bad –
So be good for goodness sake!!

Oh! You better watch out, you better not cry,
You better not pout, I’m telling you why,
Santa Claus is coming to town!

After having a lovely week celebrating Thanksgiving last week, we’re getting into the swing of Christmas this week at The Children’s House, so the children will be decorating the classrooms & we will be putting seasonal activities out on the shelves to do, such as threading Christmas baubles, hanging little clothes using Christmas pegs, matching, counting & sorting activities etc – reflecting the time of year in the Montessori activities!

As we are starting to talk about Christmas this week, we will be hearing from the children on how they celebrate the occasion at home with their families – to this end, we are asking you to write down briefly how you celebrate Christmas, & maybe your child can draw a picture to go with it, & then we will be talking about all our different celebrations on Friday at circle time! The children will also be doing an art activity making Christmas tree decorations, and we will do Christmas yoga at the end of the week.

Jingle Bells

Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way,
Oh what fun it is to ride on a one horse open sleigh – hey!
Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way,
Oh what fun it is to ride in a one horse open sleigh!

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!)

It’s all about learning & careers this week at The Children’s House!! This is the week that we celebrate life-long learning, as we are lucky enough to be meeting these children at the start of their formal educational journey (although they of course started their learning journey the second they were born!) & we want to show them this week that you never stop learning, whether in a formal or informal way. Because of this, we are asking parents & family members to come in to us & talk to us about their own learning journey or careers – whether it’s to talk about their past or current jobs, their studies whether in secondary school or third level, apprenticeships, work experience…anything at all to show the children how we are always capable of learning in life, no matter what age we are!

The children will be doing their All About Me page on what they want to be/do when they grow up, we will be making a Lifelong Learning Timeline, there will be a dressing up day for different careers, and we will also be making some delicious cookies!

Special Me (tune: Twinkle Twinkle)

Special, special, special me,
How I wonder what I’ll be?
In this big world I can be,
Anything I want to be…
Special, special, special me,
How I wonder what I’ll be?!

This week at The Children’s House we will be talking and learning about personal space, and boundaries – it’s a really important topic for children at this age, as they sometimes have no idea that another child’s idea of personal space could be so different to their own! Some children for example love to hug/ tickle/ stand close to their peers while other children are much less tactile and these sort of things can make them feel very uncomfortable. Therefore this week we will be discussing how we should ask others before coming into their personal space, and it’s completely fine to say ‘no thank you’ to things that make you feel uncomfortable. In this way we help to create an environment that is safe and fun for everyone, from a young age!

The Boundaries Song

Please stop, I don’t like that,
I’m feeling uncomfortable,
I need more space.
Not around me, don’t take it personally,
That’s just a boundary,
That’s a boundary!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSFvJbSQdA4

Welcome back from the Halloween break, we hope you all had a lovely week!! It’s all about road safety this week at The Children’s House, 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 craft, as well as some process art activities like making car tracks using cars, paint & coloured card – lots of fun!! 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.

Twinkle twinkle traffic light

Twinkle, twinkle, traffic light,
On the corner shining bright,
Red means stop, green means go,
Yellow means very, very slow!
Twinkle, twinkle, traffic light,
On the corner shining bright.

We will be closed for mid-term break from Monday 28th October until Friday 1st November,

re-opening Monday 4th November –

Happy Halloween everyone!!

This week we will be getting ready for Halloween by doing lots of arts & crafts, as well as having a Science Week with lots of spooky experiments!! We will be learning about the parts of the pumpkin – before carving it! Then we will be making Witches Cauldron pictures, cooking ghostly apples & bananas, & doing experiments such as dancing raisins, making slime, skittles experiment…and on Friday we will be having a dress up Halloween party, going for a Halloween Walk & 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)

We’re starting to get ready for Hallowe’en this week at The Children’s House! The children will be decorating the classrooms with lots of spooky stuff, & we’ll have Hallowe’en themed activities on the shelves, e.g. spooning spiders, transferring bats with tongs!! During the week there will be plenty of seasonal arts & crafts such as making spider webs using marbles dipped in white paint on black paper, pipe cleaner spiders, pumpkin art & using bat stencils for spray painting!!

I’m A Little Pumpkin (tune: I’m a Little Teapot)

It’s all about emotions this week at The Children’s House, so we will be focussing on our emotional well-being. At the start of the year, we talk about emotions, how they make us feel, and start to use various props in the classroom such as an emotions wheel (children can turn the arrow on the wheel to point to the image of the emotion that they’re feeling). We will be focussing on relaxation techniques like yoga, and deep breathing, and expression of emotions through using puppets. At the pre-school age, children are usually learning a lot about emotional self-regulation, often needing support to handle their emotions; we as adults can help by doing things such as naming their emotions for them e.g. ‘I can see that you’re feeling upset/ angry/ frustrated by what’s happened’, and coming up with possible solutions e.g. ‘maybe taking some deep breaths would help you to feel better’ / ‘do you think you’d like a hug?’; then at a later stage when the child is familiar with using strategies to calm themselves, ask them to choose their own self-regulation strategy, e.g. ‘what do you think would make you feel better?’

To this end, during the week we will be making some tools to help with emotional regulation – an ocean bottle (a mixture of oil, water, food colouring & glitter) which the children shake gently to mix the liquids, then it is very soothing to watch them settling & separating again. We talk about how our insides feel when we feel sad or upset or angry, & how we can help soothe those feelings; we also encourage children to talk to trusted adults when negative feelings. We will also be making a worry box with each of the classes – this is a box that we decorate together, and if any of the children are worried about something, we write it down on a piece of paper and put it into the box until the child decides that they’re not worried about it anymore, whereupon they can tear it up and put it in the recycling bin! This gives a very real representation to the children that worries are temporary things, which come and go, so it can help to put anxieties they may have to rest!

If You’re Happy & You Know It (using LÁMH)

If you’re happy & you know it clap your hands,
If you’re happy & you know it clap your hands,
If you’re happy & you know it & you really want to show it –
If you’re happy & you know it clap your hands!

If you’re sad & you know it wipe your tears…
If you’re angry & you know it stamp your feet…
If you’re scared & you know it say ‘oh no’…
If you’re happy & you know it shout ‘hooray’!!…