This week in The Children’s House we will be learning all about the Autumn and harvest time! The children will be doing lots of  arts & crafts activities such as making corn on the cob, designing their own farm yard and scarecrows, as well as learning about the parts of the apple, and talking about different types of tractors!

Autumn Days

Swirling, twirling autumn leaves,
Whooshing, whirling, from the trees.

Snapping, cracking, conkers fall,
Dropping, popping near the wall.

Grouping, swooping, birds up high,
Crying, flying round the sky.

Curling, furling, smokey fires,
Flowing, blowing, higher, higher.

After settling back in over the last week & a half, & getting used to their new class routine, this week the children will be learning about the season of Autumn. We will be asking them what they notice about the weather these days & discussing things such as the shortening days & lenghening nights, as well as making a handprint tree, painting hedgehogs, and making lollipop leaf puppets! We will also be doing leaf rubbings, and looking at the nature table, so we will be encouraging the children to bring in items to add to this, for example leaves or conkers.

As it is the start of the year, we are focussing on the Practical Life area of the classroom, as it is an area which underpins the entire Montessori curriculum. While using the Practical Life exercises, children learn about care of themselves & their environment; they grow to realise the importance of the work cycle – returning an activity to where they got it from, & in the same state as when they got it; they develop their hand-eye coordination, gross & fine motor skills, concentration & independence. It is a wonderful area for new & returning students alike as we can extend the exercises as a child needs to stimulate their interests & learning (e.g. going from opening & closing pegs to hanging up clothes with pegs), and we also support & encourage the ‘vertical learning’ which Maria Montessori was such a huge advocate of – this is where younger children actively learn from older ones, & the older children gain more confidence in themselves as they can see they are competent & capable within their school environment – we always find there are wonderful interactions within the mixed age groups!

Autumn Winds

Autumn winds begin to blow,
Coloured leaves fall fast and slow.
Whirling, twirling all around,
Til at last they touch the ground.

Welcome to the first full week of school at The Children’s House!! This week we will be having a Friendship Week, where we will focus on supporting the children to get to know each other, and to feel comfortable in their classes, so we will be making a friendship tree from their handprints, friendship bracelets, and also making a friendship poster after having a discussion with the children on their views of what types of things that good friends do for each other.

The More We Get Together

The more we get together, together, together,
The more we get together, the happier we’ll be.
Cause your friends are my friends,
And my friends are your friends,
The more we get together, the happier we’ll be!

We will be holding our open day on Monday 3rd September from 10am – 12pm & 7 – 8pm

All welcome to come in, view the school with your children, meet the teachers….

Looking forward to the start of another fantastic year at The Children’s House –

classes will be resuming on Wednesday 5th September – we can’t wait!!!

The Children’s House is closed for summer holidays until Open Day on Mon 3rd September,

re-opening on Wednesday 5th September for classes –

have a fantastic summer everyone!!

It’s the last few days of the school year at The Children’s House, and we’ve got mixed emotions about it!!! We’re going to miss those children who are heading on to ‘big school’, but at the same time are so excited for them and also very proud of them and all the growing they’ve done in their time with us – their new teachers are going to love them, and are very lucky to be getting them in their classes – and we’re delighted that so many children will be returning to us in September for another year, and look forward to it already!

This short week will be spent doing activities that the children have chosen themselves; after some discussion last week it was decided that they would like to set up the classrooms for next year (!) as well as doing cooking, so they will be making buns on Wednesday, and will also be doing some drama – the big bad wolf poem as below.

We would like to thank you all for helping us and your children throughout the year  – whether by coming in to do activities, or coming on nature walks/ sports day/ school tour etc, or coming into school with your child to celebrate their birthday with us, or in general just by being such a supportive positive part of your child’s preschool experience! It’s been a privelege to teach these children throughout the year – thank you for trusting your precious little people to our care.

The Big Bad Wolf

I’m a big bad wolf and I look for things to eat –
I don’t like leaves and berries; I only like meat!
I see those little piggies – am I dreaming, or awake?
Those chubby little creatures…
What a dinner they will make!!

Welcome to the last full week of the year in The Children’s House!! The year has gone by so fast it’s hard to believe we’re at the end of the school year already, but we’re going to make the most of it and have a wonderful week – to start with, the Garda mounted unit are going to be at the GAA pitch on Monday so please make sure to come down if you can and see the beautiful, amazingly trained horses that are used by the Gardai, then we will be finishing off the children’s All About Me books during the week as well as finishing the music project, revising dynamics, and at the end of the week doing music exercises and games such as musical statues – it’s going to be a lot of fun!

This week at The Children’s House we will be having an awful lot of excitement as on Tuesday it’s Pyjama Day!! We will be raising money for Down Syndrome Ireland, which is a great cause and close to our heart. We will also be making crafts for Fathers Day, philosophising with the children about the importance of change – whether it’s changing classrooms for next year or transitioning to primary school – and then at the end of the week we will be making pizzas and having a teddy bears’ picnic!! It’s all go!!!

Teddy Bears’ Picnic

If you go down to the woods today,
You’re sure of a big surprise…
If you go down to the woods today,
You’d better go in disguise!

For all the bears that ever there was,
Will gather there for certain,
Because today’s the day the
Teddy bears have their picnic!

It’s all about language this week at The Children’s House; the children will be making nursery rhyme books, and we will be promoting language through songs, rhymes and stories – one of these stories will be about the worry dolls, which the children will then make. These are a traditional Guatemalan peg doll that the children can confide their worries in and the dolls are meant to take the worries away. We always reiterate to the children that they should always tell their parents/guardians/teachers about their worries, but if for instance they are awake in the middle of the night and need a bit of comfort, the worry dolls are a lovely support.

Sometimes at this time of year, some children might feel a bit worried or stressed about the imminent change on their horizon of transitioning to primary school, and this is a good way to bring up the topic of how we deal with stress and worries. All year long we have been promoting the idea of emotional self-regulation, for example by asking the children when upset ‘what might help you feel better?’, to encourage them to look for solutions themselves when they find themselves in emotionally stressful situations, and give them the confidence to know they can help themselves.

ABC Song

A, b, c, d, e, f, g…
H, i, j, k , l, m, n, o, p…
Q, r, s… t, u, v…w, x, y and z…
Now I know my a, b, c…
Next time won’t you sing with me?!