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.

You can really start to feel the chill in the air….so it’s all about Autumn and the Autumn weather this week at The Children’s House! We will be asking the children to bring in leaves that they can find out & about of all different shapes, sizes & colours which we will be examining & then making collages with; we will be putting together weather trays (the nature table of 2020!!) as well as doing Autumn & weather related yoga poses (https://www.pinterest.ie/pin/513269688778606657/; https://www.kidsyogastories.com/weather-activities-for-kids-yoga/); finally at the end of the week we will be doing a little experiment using water & a layer of shaving foam in a clear glass & dropping food colouring in to illustrate how when water droplets become too heavy, they fall through the clouds as rain!

The Leaves of the Trees (tune of wheels on the bus)

The leaves of the trees turn orange and red,
orange and red, orange and red;
The leaves of the trees turn orange and red,
All through the town.

The leaves of the trees come tumbling down,
Tumbling down, tumbling down;
The leaves of the trees come tumbling down,
All through the town.

The leaves of the trees go swish, swish, swish,
Swish, swish, swish, swish, swish, swish;
The leaves of the trees go swish, swish, swish,
All through the town.

The Weather Song

What’s the weather?
What’s the weather?
What’s the weather like today?
is it sunny?
is it cloudy?
is it raining out today?

What’s the weather?
What’s the weather?
What the weather like today tell us (childs name)?
What’s the weather?
What the weather like today?

This week at The Children’s House we will be doing all about our families! It’s important for the children that we establish the link between their home/family & school from the beginning, so they see that their families are valued, & a consistency is built for them between the 2 places. The children love to see photos of themselves & their families in school, so we’re asking all children to bring in a family photo this week which we’ll put up on the wall to make a family display. During the week we will then be talking about our families, discussing the similarities & differences, naming all the people in our families who love us, and talking about what makes our own family so special. Verbalising and naming these things aloud can help reinforce the children’s feelings of security and reassure them of all the love surrounding them – a lovely thing to do at any age! Then at the end of the week we’ll be doing some yoga and relaxing exercises with the children.

Poem: Families

Some families are big                    (arms out wide)
Some families are small                (arms in close)
But I love my family                       (point at self)
Best of all!!                                       (throw arms up in air!)

We’re so excited to have the children back for a full week at The Children’s House, for the first time in a loooong time!! We spent the few days last week just getting to know the children and introducing them to each other & the new class routines, so this week is more about getting to know each other better. We will be doing paintings for our birthday walls and making friendship wreaths with the children, as well as doing mindfulness at the end of the week. As part of the Practical Life area of Montessori activities, we will also be practising carrying trays with objects, and putting on our coats – this helps the children to gain independence, while also refining their gross motor skills; we spend a lot of time in September concentrating on developing the children’s gross & fine motor skills & refining their spatial awareness.

Song: Do You See? (tune: Do you know the Muffin Man?)

Do you see our friend (name), friend (name), friend (name)?
Do you see our friend (name), somewhere in our room?
Yes I see our friend (name), friend (name), friend (name),
Yes I see our friend (name), somewhere in our room!

Please be aware that we will be asking you 3 questions each morning about your children:

1. Does your child have a temperature?
2. Is your child on any medication?
3. Has your child been unwell over the last 48 hours?

If the answer to these 3 questions is no, then we are delighted to welcome your child into class – if any of the answers are yes, then your child will need to stay at home until they have been well & healthy for at least 48 hours.

This is in order to protect the health & safety of your child, all the other children & their families, & our staff.

Thank you for helping to keep us all safe & well!!

We are holding our open day on Monday 31st August, from 9.30 until 1.30 – by appointment only!

Please confirm your appointment, come in, view the school with your children and meet the teachers!

Classes will be resuming on Wednesday 2nd September,

with staggered drop off & collection times for the first week or so to settle in the children.

Please bring in a change of clothes in clearly labelled ziplock bag for your child,

& ensure they are wearing weather appropriate clothes as we will be spending half the class time outdoors!!

Can’t wait to see you all!!

Here at The Children’s House we’re getting ready for reopening in September (yay!!) – & although we know that it will be quite different from previous years, we are just as excited about the new term starting  – if not more so, as a return to some sort of normality is much needed by us all at this stage! We can’t wait to meet the new & returning children, & for those who are moving on to primary school, we hope to see them before the end of the summer for a farewell gathering & wish them all the best in starting ‘Big School’ – we know they’ll get on *so* well, make lots of new friends & learn loads of new things!!

This is a post about transitions, in case any of you are wondering how you can support your child whether in starting or returning to preschool, or transitioning to primary school.

There are a ton of great resources from Autism Little Learners which are visual stories relating to COVID 19; we especially like the one about separation anxiety which might especially apply to children starting or returning to preschool

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mfBxk19ns8L4CdqbFXDo7-7-3aCezDXF/view

and another about going back to school which might be a good visual for older children who will be returning to a different type of primary schooling https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cFYEsI1oBS1gO5G7IM7rljTYDMEQfMOy/view

Usually from May onwards we would have liaised with the local school in Sallins & brought the children up to have a look around it – some of them may not have been going to this particular school but it gives the idea of the much bigger scale of primary school as opposed to preschool, as we normally get to see the classrooms, the children out at playtime (it’s like a jungle!!!, the library etc. It would be a good idea if possible for you to take your child to the primary school they will be attending & familiarise them with the place, maybe point out e.g. this is where you’ll stand in line in  the morning time; this is where I’ll collect you; this is where you’ll have your outdoors play etc. The same can be done for the Montessori – show your child the building & the outdoors area, talk to them about how things will be in September & especially the changes due to COVID e.g. ‘Mammies & daddies won’t be coming into the school for the moment, it’s only for the children & the teachers’ while always reassuring them that you/another caregiver will be there to collect them in a little while, after they’ve played with their friends & had snack etc in order to lessen separation anxiety. Try getting your child’s uniform & books for primary school well enough in advance for them to be familiar with them, & talk about their timetable of the day & what they’ll be doing & learning in a positive way – it might be a daunting time ahead but it’s also an exciting time!

The main things that we would focus on for school readiness with the children aren’t the academic skills (apart from recognising & maybe writing their own name), but rather self-care skills, communication skills, social & emotional skills, & fostering their love of learning – which doesn’t usually prove too difficult! Self-care would involve taking off & putting on coat & shoes, using the toilet, wiping nose, opening lunch box etc – you can practice all these skills at home. Communication skills would focus on things such as the child being able to communicate their needs, as well as being able to listen to others & follow instructions from their teacher. Social & emotional skills important for school would be ones such as sharing, turn-taking, independence & confidence (for instance encourage your child to make decisions for themselves at home, then notice & praise them for making good decisions), emotional regulation – e.g. if something unfair happens, how does the child deal with it, encourage them to use their words to sort out a situation & stand up for themselves in an appropriate way.

I probably talked about emotional regulation before but it’s hugely important at this age & especially during this time of disruption to routines, & something that we support the development of throughout the year in The Children’s House. Always keep reminding your child how good they are at regulating their emotions by praising when they use strategies to calm themselves down like deep breathing, or when they resolve conflict through using their words rather than crying or hitting out. If they are upset try to support them by acknowledging & naming their feelings & why they might be feeling that way, & asking them for a way to help themselves feel better e.g. ‘I know you’re upset because …. but what might make you feel better?’ You might have to give suggestions in the beginning e.g. ‘a hug? Your teddy? Going for a walk?’ & then encourage them to come up with their own suggestions themselves, in this way reinforcing their own emotional resilience in the future; they get the idea that they can make themselves feel better & don’t have to depend on others to make them feel better, which is very liberating & confidence building!

There are a lot of visual aids you can use, some of which I have attached pictures of from our school such as the feelings wheel you can print out & laminate, & make an arrow for it so the child just moves it around depending on how they feel – it’s a lovely visual & also indirectly reinforces the idea that feelings are transient & temporary (which is nice for you when they’re in the middle of a minor meltdown!!) The emotion faces are very simple & straight forward to make – just cut out some circles from coloured card & draw faces showing different emotions on them e.g. happy, sad, angry, tired etc – & encourage your child to use them to show how they’re feeling.

A really nice activity to do is to get your child to do a self portrait – sit them in front of a mirror with paper & pencils or crayons & ask them to really look at their own faces, talk about what colour their eyes are, what type of hair they have etc & then get them to draw themselves. You can then look at the picture with them & ask them how they were feeling when they drew themselves. (This can be extended into doing a body portrait on long sheets of butcher paper; just get your child to lie down, draw around their outline & ask them to fill in the body using paint, crayons, materials, glitter…whatever you have to hand – but again, encourage them to focus on whichever part of the body they’re doing e.g. ‘look at how long your legs are, you’re really growing! Your arms are so strong aren’t they?’ & name body parts for them e.g. ankles, elbows, shins, collarbone etc.)

As a family you can create a ‘Compliments Tree’; this is to encourage children to think positively of others of themselves & of others, & all you need is a branch stuck in a vase (alternatively use an empty jar & have a Compliments Jar) & some pieces of paper or card. Pick a member of the family & ask everyone else in the family to say their favourite thing about that person, then write all the compliments down & hang them on the tree. Take turns going around the family & you’ll have a lovely collection of compliments to read any time someone needs a bit of morale boosting! And whenever someone gives a compliment just add it to the collection.

Back to transitions!! The National Parents Council have produced an online video about supporting your child in the transition from preschool to primary school:

http://www.npc.ie/news-events/early-years-video?fbclid=IwAR19610mdj9arOCJ63v0kmYeEHaYfsJBKDYg6vORVBD28Nm47Uz6NYGt-ZA

And finally here’s a couple of links from the government which give some useful information about your child returning to preschool:

https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/e18e6-ready-to-reopen/

https://www.gov.ie/en/campaigns/1e8a3-lets-get-ready/?referrer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gov.ie%2Fletsgetready%2F&fbclid=IwAR27FyeLXPw4X3v1QPc-uUP6BfC-hBAI5TNGNAQKSCrIg_TMrCl3ds9SxqA

As with all school settings this coming September, things will be done differently in The Children’s House to ensure the health, safety & comfort of children, staff & families alike, but it will still be a happy, caring & stimulating environment full of supportive and positive interactions, & we cannot wait to get back to it!!! In the meantime, we hope that you’re all keeping safe & well, & we know that you as parents are doing the most amazing job at looking after, & out for, your little ones – just don’t forget to take care of yourselves too!

Love from all at The Children’s House xx

Hi everyone, just to let you know that as things stand at the moment we will be re-opening as planned on Wed 2nd September.

Classes will stay as they are size-wise, & each class will have 2 teachers.

Things happily won’t be changing very much for your children, but we as the adults will be adapting how we operate to ensure maximum health & safety is achieved for everyone…. we will be updating with any relevant details during the summer!