Dear parents, due to the red alert weather warning in Kildare, and in the interest of safety to yourselves, children and staff, The Children’s House will be closed until further notice. We will keep you updated with any developments, in the meantime keep safe and warm!! Kind regards, Siobhan.
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26th February – 2nd March
This week at The Children’s House we will be practising yoga, making bunny puppets & then using them in our puppet theatre, and also asking the children what their favourite song is and encouraging them to perform it for us! Later in the week we will be discussing the new month March, and the changes that spring is bringing – the days are definitely getting longer & the nights shorter; unfortunately the weather isn’t getting warmer just yet though!! Here’s hoping the Siberian weather doesn’t bring too much disruption with it!
Sleeping Bunnies
See the little bunnies sleeping til noon
Shall we go and wake them with a merry tune?
They’re so still, are they ill?
Wake up bunnies, hop, hop, hop,
Hop little bunnies, hop, hop, hop,
Hop little bunnies, hop, hop, hop,
Hop little bunnies, hop and stop !
This is the Way (using Lámh signs)
This is the way we wash our face,
Wash our face, wash our face,
This is the way we wash our face,
On a cold & frosty morning.
This is the way we brush our teeth…
This is the way we comb our hair…
This is the way we put on our clothes…
This is the way we sweep the floor…
19th – 23rd February
Welcome back after the midterm break everyone! This week we will be celebrating Chinese New Year with the children; it is the year of the Dog, and we will be talking about some of the traditions associated with the Chinese New Year – cleaning the house and decorating it (mainly in red the lucky colour), the red packets of money given to children, the New Year’s Eve family dinner, and the fireworks to drive away evil to name some! We will be doing process art making dogs, and also creating dragons in the classroom!
Later in the week we will ‘wake up’ our hibernating animals who have been sleeping since October, and talk about the changes that are happening for them in spring time and how it’s getting easier for them to obtain food and energy now.
Chinese New Year Poem
Dragons, lions,
Red and gold,
In with the New Year,
Out with the old.
Banners flying,
Bands playing,
Lions prancing,
Dragons swaying.
Fireworks crackling,
Lanterns swinging,
People laughing,
Dancing, singing.
12th – 16th February
***** The Children’s House will be closed for Midterm Break from Wednesday 14th – Friday 16th February inclusive, re-opening Monday 19th February *****
It’s going to be a very short week at The Children’s House, so we’re going to make the most of the 2 days we have!! On Monday we will be discussing Valentine’s Day and how we can show love to family and friends, following on from last week’s focus on wellbeing, and then the children will be making Valentine’s cards. Then on Tuesday we will be making pancakes, and having our annual Valentine’s Ball!!! We literally cannot wait for this!!!! (Black tie optional!!) Have a lovely mid-term break everyone, and see you next week!
Love Your Friends (Tune of: Row Your Boat)
Love, love, love your friends,
Love them all year long,
Especially on Valentine’s day,
As we sing this song!
5th – 9th February
It’s all about wellbeing and Spring this week at The Children’s House! We will be beginning the week talking about the signs of Spring – flowers blooming, weather warming up, days getting longer, baby animals being born….then we will be doing some Spring crafts, and talking about how all the children are growing into their own different selves. This will naturally link to our discussion on wellbeing, and our focus this week on celebrating the children’s uniqueness; we are linking in with the National Children’s Network and the UK Children’s Mental Health Week to promote wellbeing by carrying out activities around the theme of ‘Being Ourselves’.
We always encourage children to celebrate their uniqueness and feel comfortable with who they are, as having a positive view of ourselves can help us long-term in dealing with life’s challenges, so as part of this week we will be supporting the children to express the most positive things they feel about themselves, and to celebrate their differences! Therefore at the start of the week we are sending home with the children a template which we would like you to fill out with them – firstly to discuss together with them what they think their family love about them (and to add what you think!) and what they love about their community where they live, and then write down the answers so the children can bring it back into school where we will share it with the class.
Later in the week we will be talking about what makes us different and our unique strengths, and then making a ‘compliments tree’ where the children give compliments to their friends. Throughout the year we will continue to compliment the children whenever appropriate e.g. ‘I really like how you were kind to your friend’, ‘that was great sharing’, ‘well done on sorting out that disagreement’ etc. in order to focus on and promote these positive dispositions. If there are any other activities along these lines that you would like to suggest/carry out with us at any stage, please let us know!
All Of Me
My hands are for clapping,
My arms can hug tight,
My fingers can snap or turn our the light.
My legs are for jumping,
My eyes help me see,
This is my body and I love all of me!!
29th January – 2nd February
This week we are starting music appreciation in The Children’s House! We will be starting by learning about some of the different dynamics in music – this is the variation of loudness of the piece of music – the 2 basic dynamics are piano (soft) and forte (loud). Then during the week we will be doing some breathing exercises using our diaphragms while sitting/standing up straight, looking at what music notes look like when written down, learning how to use the Montessori bells to play melodies, listening to different composers’ works and exploring the families of the orchestra!! We would like to invite any family member who is free, to come in and play some music with us during the week as part of our music appreciation activities.
Elsie The Elephant
Elsie is an elephant who wants to play,
She is musical and big and grey,
She is good at singing mi, re, do,
That’s why the little children love her so!
22nd – 26th January
After the great success of science week last week, we will be continuing on to do a healthy eating theme this week at The Children’s House – we will start off the week with a discussion with the children on why they might think it’s important to eat healthily, and continuing 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, art activities, and sugar experiments, as well as doing some healthy cooking of soup!
Happily We Eat Our Food
Happily we eat our food,
Eat our food, eat our food,
Happily we eat our food,
To grow up big and strong!
Happily we drink our milk…
Happily we eat our fruit…
Happily we eat our vegetables…
Happily we eat our meat…
Happily we eat our beans…
Happily we eat our bread…
Happily we eat our cereal…
15th – 19th January
This week at The Children’s House we will be doing a LOT of science!! We’ll be carrying out experiments throughout the week – from using a weighing scales to illustrate heavy vs light; to making ‘explosions’ using vinegar & baking soda; demonstrating how different liquids have different densities using honey, water, oil, which will sit in layers; making ‘goop’ – mixing cornstarch with water to show how a mixture can have the properties of a solid or a liquid depending on the pressure exerted on it; using a handboiler to show how liquids turn into gas with heat….it’s going to be a lot of fun!! We will also be discussing the importance of ‘observations’ i.e. what actually happens during an experiment as opposed to what we think will happen. Children are born with a natural curiousity about how things work in their world and they love to experiment and discover in their environment – their questions should be encouraged as their potential as scientists is unlimited!!
We are continuing to learn Lámh sign language after the huge success we’ve had since before Christmas, so this week your children are learnnig how to sign the song ‘5 Little Monkeys’!
5 Little Monkeys
5 little monkeys jumping on the bed,
1 fell off & bumped his head!
Mammy rang the doctor and the doctor said –
‘No more monkeys jumping on the bed!!’
4 little monkeys…
3 little monkeys…
2 little monkeys…
1 little monkey…