Welcome back everyone and a very happy new year to you all!! We hope you had a wonderful time over the last couple of weeks; we’re really happy to see you all again and be back in Montessori! This week we will be talking about how we celebrated Christmas and our favourite things that we did over the break, as well as discussing the new year of 2018 and month of January. It is a good time to revisit and assess gross motor skills and independence skills with the children, and encourage them to do as much as possible for themselves e.g. button their own coats, pour their own water at snack time – things that can all be reinforced at home, and which will develop hand-eye coordination as well as confidence in their ability to be independent.

Happy New Year Chant

Happy new year – hop, hop, hop,
Happy new year – stop, stop, stop,
Happy new year – jump, jump, jump,
Happy new year – stomp, stomp, stomp.
Happy new year – touch your nose,
Happy new year – touch your toes,
Happy new year – turn around,
Happy new year – now sit down!

The Children’s House will close for Christmas holidays on Friday 22nd December, reopening Monday 8th January

The weeks have been flying past, and suddenly we’re into our last week at The Children’s House before our Christmas holidays! Early in the week each class will be putting on a little show with some songs and poems that we’ve learnt since September, on Thursday we’ll be having a visit from a very special jolly person…and then on Friday we’ll be finishing with a party!! Have a wonderful break everyone and we look forward to seeing you all again in January!

The classes’ Christmas plays/songs are as follows:

Monday: 9.30am class Christmas songs @ 11.30am

Monday: 1pm class Christmas songs @ 3pm

Tuesday: 9am class Christmas songs @ 11am

Tuesday: 1.15pm class Christmas songs @ 3.15pm

We Wish You a Merry Christmas

We wish you a merry Christmas, we wish you a merry Christmas,
We wish you a merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year.
Good tidings we bring, to you and your kin –
We wish you a merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!!

We will be continuing our theme of ‘Christmas Around the World’ this week, so remember to send us in/text us about your family’s customs at Christmas time, and we can share it with your child at circle time! We will be listening to how to say ‘Merry Christmas’ in all the different  languages that are represented in the classes (Arabic, Mandarin, German, Greek, Hindi, Irish, Polish, Romanian, Scottish, Spanish, Afrikaans, English – depending on the class!!), doing Christmas yoga, making Christmas stars & a Christmas tree cutting activity, and at the end of the week we will be having a fun time doing reindeer themed gross motor activities – it’s safe to say we’ve fully embraced the Christmas spirit!

We would like to ask if you could give your child €1 to bring into school, as every year we talk about how much we have to be thankful for and then give a gift to charity, and this year we will again be making a donation to Barnardos Children’s Charity to support vulnerable children in Ireland this Christmas.

When Santa got stuck in the Chimney

When Santa got stuck in the chimney,
He began to shout:
‘You girls & boys won’t get any toys,
If you don’t pull me out –
There’s soot on my back, my beard is black,
My nose is tickly too!’
When Santa got stuck in the chimney,
ACHOO, ACHOO, ACHOO!!

We Wish You a Merry Christmas

We wish you a merry Christmas, we wish you a merry Christmas,
We wish you a merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year.
Good tidings we bring, to you and your kin –
We wish you a merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!!

This week at The Children’s House we will be continuing our theme of ‘Christmas Around the World’, and talking to children about how they will be celebrating Christmas at their homes, taking into account any customs from different countries that may be practised at this time of year. Please be sure to let us know if you would be interested in coming in and telling us about your own Christmas celebrations! We will be making flags to denote different nationalities in the classrooms, and later in the week will be doing some seasonal crafts.

In addition, we will be decorating the classrooms this week and doing some seasonal Montessori activities such as putting cloves into oranges, the life cycle of the Christmas tree, etc – and generally getting into the festive spirit!

Jingle Bells

Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way,
Oh what fun it is to ride on a one horse open sleigh – hey!
Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way,
Oh what fun it is to ride in a one horse open sleigh!

Dashing through the snow, in a one horse open sleigh,
O’er the fields we go, laughing all the way – ha ha ha,
Bells on bobtail ring, making spirits bright,
Oh what fun it is to sing a sleighing song tonight!

Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way,
Oh what fun it is to ride on a one horse open sleigh – hey!
Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way,
Oh what fun it is to ride in a one horse open sleigh!

5 Yummy Gingerbread

Five yummy gingerbread sitting on a plate,
The 1^st one said “Boy, we smell so great!”
The 2^nd one said “There’s a chill in the air,”
The 3^rd one said “I see hungry children everywhere!”
The 4^th one said “I think we’d better run!”
The 5^th one said “Here the children come!”
Then the children each grabbed one and with a MUNCH CRUNCH MUNCH,
The five yummmy gingerbread rolled all turned into lunch!

Well, we’re cautiusly moving into Christmas territory this week….!! We will be doing some seasonal crafts such as printing wrapping paper and making wreaths, and introducing the story of why we celebrate Christmas. As we have many family members who come from different parts of the world, we will be starting to look at how Christmas is celebrated in various parts of the world, and will be asking you to come in and help us with this! At the end of the week we will be discussing the change of month and welcoming in December – we will also be dressing up this week, and practising some mindfulness.

5 Little Christmas Trees (poem)

5 little Christmas trees were standing all alone,
Their hearts were very sad, cos they hadn’t found a home…
Then CHOP went the axe, and down fell a tree,
And off it went with a happy family!

4…3…2…1…No little Christmas trees were standing all alone,
Their hearts were very happy cos they all had found a home!!

Santa Claus is Coming to Town (with Lámh signs)

You’d better not shout, you’d better not cry,
You’d better not pout, I’m telling you why –
Santa Claus is coming to town!

He’s making a list, he’s checking it twice,
He’s gonna find out who’s naughty or nice –
Santa Claus is coming to town!

He sees you when you’re sleeping, he knows when you’re awake,
He know if you’ve been bad or good so be good for goodness sake!

You’d better not shout, you’d better not cry,
You’d better not pout, I’m telling you why –
Santa Claus is coming to town!

This week we are celebrating College Awareness Week as well as Thanksgiving! As part of this, we will be celebrating lifelong learning by making a visual display of the journey of learning that the children are beginning when they join us at preschool, so we would like to invite families to send in/email photos of siblings, parents & family members from primary, secondary & tertiary levels of education. It doesn’t matter from how long ago or how recently, how many or how few – we will then make a road map of education using photos of the children, their family members & staff to show how learning is a lifelong process! Also, we will be talking about possible future careers with the children (to which there will doubtless be no limits, and rightfully so!!) and giving thanks on Thursday that we live in part of the world where we have wide accessibility to education.

https://www.collegeaware.ie/events/celebrating-lifelong-learning-2

Thanksgiving Song (tune of Twinkle Twinkle)

Let’s be thankful for this day,
For our friends and for our play,
Let’s be thankful, let’s be glad,
For the food and things we have,
Let’s give thanks for you and me,
And our home and family!

If You’re Happy & You Know It (with Lámh signs)

If you’re happy & you know it clap your hands,
If you’re happy & you know it clap your hands,
If you’re happy & you know it,
And you really want to show it –
If you’re happy & you know it clap your hands,

If you’re sad / angry….

After last week’s enjoyment of learning about the water cycle and making our own rain clouds, this week we will be doing all about road safety! We will be practising how to cross the road – stop, look and listen, then walk across while still paying attention to look and listen for approaching traffic – and doing some road safety art, as well as designing our own road safety certs! We have high visibility jackets which the children will learn about the importance of wearing when going on walks – even in daylight, as it can be very dull and dark these days. We will also be learning the Safe Cross Code song, a real earworm of a song which might transport some of you back to the 70s if you remember it from the television ad….!!

Safe Cross Code

Remember – 1 – look for a safe place,
2 – don’t hurry, stop and wait,
3 – look all around you, before you cross the road –
Remember – 4 – let all the traffic pass you,
5 – then walking straight across you –
6 – keep watching,
That’s the safe cross code!

Welcome back to the first full week after Hallowe’en break – for those who weren’t in last week we hope you had a great mid-term! This week we will be learning all about the water cycle – how the earth recycles water by heating water in oceans, lakes etc so it evaporates as water vapour up into the sky, then it cools down in clouds during condensation, and eventually falls in the form of rain, hail, sleet or snow during precipitation – then the whole process starts again.

The Water Cycle (to tune of She’ll be Coming Round the Mountain)

Water travels in a cycle yes it does!
Water travels in a cycle yes it does!
It goes up as evaporation,
Forms clouds as condensation,
Comes back down as precipitation –
Yes it does!!