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!

Welcome back to everyone – it’s great to get back to school after being snowbound last week! This week in The Children’s House we will be celebrating Seachtain na Gaeilge as well as talking about the new month, and making a craft for Mother’s Day. We will be learning an Irish poem about our body parts, and also learning Irish names of farm animals, as well as practising our Irish dancing at the end of the week which should be lots of fun!!

Within the classroom we use Irish phrases such as ‘faigh do chóta’ (get your coat), ‘dún an doras’ (close the door), ‘cé leis é?’ (whose is this), ‘anseo’ (here) etc on a daily basis, so this week we will be expanding our Irish vocabularies greatly!

Lámh, lámh eile

Lámh, lámh eile, a haon, a dó,           (Hand, other hand, one, two)
Cos, cos eile, a haon, a dó.                  (Leg, other leg, one, two)
Súil, súil eile, a haon, a dó,                 (Eye, other eye, one, two,)
Cluas, cluas eile, a haon, a dó,           (Ear, other ear, one, two,)
Ceann, srón, béal, smig,                      (Head, nose, mouth, chin,)
Agus fiacla bána i mo bhéal istigh.   (And white teeth inside my mouth.