It’s lifecycle week in The Children’s House this week – chickens, owls, butterflies, swallows, apples….we’re doing them all!! The children will be looking at the stages of different plants and animals, and examining how life begins and ends in the world around them, as well as doing some associated arts and crafts related to the lifecycles. For added excitement, we have some live additions to the classrooms this week – a ‘butterfly garden’!! This is an educational kit containing live caterpillars in a clear plastic cup which contains all of the nutritious food they need – the cup is placed safely away from direct sunlight, and the caterpillars will remain in the cup and will eat, spin silk and grow to TEN times their original size….After seven to ten days they will hang upside down and harden into chrysalides (chrysalides are also known as pupae). Once the chrysalides have hardened, we will move them to the pop-up butterfly habitat which is a cylindrical mesh container perfect for up close butterfly viewing! It will take about seven to ten more days for them to complete the transformation to adult butterflies, and will be a wonderful process for the children to observe!!

The White Birds (by W B Yeats)

I would that we were, my beloved, white birds on the foam of the sea!
We tire of the flame of the meteor, before it can fade and flee;
And the flame of the blue star of twilight, hung low on the rim of the sky,
Has awakened in our hearts, my beloved, a sadness that may not die.

This week in The Children’s House we’re doing a lot of different activities – we’ll be celebrating May Day & the start of summer on Tuesday using a home-made Maypole, then during the week we’ll be doing some yoga, and talking about at the importance of the sun (a really lovely Montessori lesson which continues on from our experiment last week examining why plants need water); on Thursday the children will make healthy smoothies using fruit and vegetables, and at the end of the week they will be doing some planting – a very productive week ahead!!

The Sun

The sun makes the world a warm place to play,
It makes the flowers grow each day,
The sun hides its face away during the night,
But during the daytime it shines oh so bright!

It’s all about looking after our earth this week in The Children’s House!! After a great week last week learning all about the farm, this week we will be focusing on care of the environment and our earth, through educating ourselves on the importance of using less plastic, recycling and reusing, and not littering. We will be looking at familiar objects that the children might see in their own homes and discussing how they can recycle or reuse them, e.g. a shoebox could store small toys, or be made into a puppet theatre, and later in the week we will be doing a geography lesson on land, air & water, as well as doing recycling arts & crafts!

Finally, we will also carry out an experiment using celery in jars of coloured water, which demonstrates how plants absorb water through osmosis up through their stems and leaves; just like people have veins which makes our blood flow through our bodies, plants have veins (tubes called xylems) that water flows through. This water travels to all parts of the plant and is used during photosynthesis to make food for the plant, which is why it is so important to remember to water our plants!!

Reduce, reuse, recycle (tune of The More We Get Together)

Reduce, reuse, recycle, recycle, recycle,
Reduce, reuse, recycle,
It’s easy to do.
For your world is my world,
And my world is your world,
Reduce, reuse, recycle,
It’s easy to do!

This week is farm week at The Children’s House!! During the week the children will be doing activities such as looking at the parts of the cow & then milking a cow (a disposable glove with a pin prick in the fingers acting as an udder filled with milk, under a picture of a cow, over a bucket!), pinning the tail on the pig (colour sort game), playing with the farm on a painted table, finding the hen’s eggs (number game) in the garden, and discussing things like which animals live on the farm, which animals have horns/hooves etc…there will be lots of opportunities for children to give their input this week, so if anybody lives on/has access to a farm, please ensure to come in & share your knowledge together with your child!

Welcome back everyone after the Easter holidays, hope you had a wonderful break!! It’s great to be back, and this week as well as talking about the new month of April, we will be continuing on with our music project by doing more music appreciation. We will be learning about the terms ‘Crescendo’ (when music gradually increases in volume) and ‘Diminuendo’ (when music gradually decreases in volume) and then using these terms with musical instruments as well as our voices – which promises to be fun!! Then at the end of the week we will be looking at music & instruments from around the world, so if any of you would like to bring in/play some music for us we’ll be delighted to facilitate this!

Jelly on a Plate (using Lámh to sign)

Jelly on a plate, jelly on a plate,
Wibbley wobbley, wibbley wobbley, jelly on a plate!

Biscuits in the bowl, biscuits in the bowl,
Yummy yummy, yummy yummy, biscuits in the bowl!

Apples on the tree, apples on the tree,
Red and green, red and gree, apples on the tree!

Juice in a cup, juice in a cup,
Drink it up, drink it up, juice in a cup!

The Children’s House will be closed for Easter holidays from Friday 23rd March, reopening Monday 9th April –

Have a wonderful Easter break everyone!!

The last week before Easter holidays, hard to believe!! We hope you all had a wonderful long St Patrick’s weekend, and we’ve lots of fun activities ahead for this week before we break up for 2 weeks. We will be doing lots of Easter themed activities within the Montessori work cycle, e.g. matching eggs & chicks, counting rabbits, colour coding parent & baby animals, transferring Spring animals with tongs…!!! As well as this, we will be doing an Easter egg roll with boiled eggs, egg decorating crafts, Easter cooking, an Easter hunt, and a puppet show as well as practising mindfulness – important in the middle of all the excitement & possible mayhem!!

5 Little Ducks (using Lámh to sign)

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

This week in The Children’s House we will be continuing to celebrate Seachtain na Gaeilge, ending up with having St Patrick’s Day festivities at the end of the week! We will be decorating the classroom, doing lots of fun games, making green playdough, and dressing up in green on Friday for our St Patrick’s Day party!!

5 Little Leprechauns

5 little leprechauns standing in a row,
1 fell down and hurt his toe.
4 little leprechauns climbing up a tree,
1 slipped down while spying on me.
3 little leprechauns dancing in the sun,
1 sat down and spoiled all the fun.
2 little leprechauns sang an Irish song,
1 quit singing and said they sang too long.
1 little leprechaun guarding all the gold,
He fell asleep, so I was told.
I crept to his cave as he began to snore,
I snatched up the gold and ran out the door!