Welcome back everyone & hope you had a wonderful St Patrick’s Day and long weekend! We’re back to a packed week, with Mother’s Day coming up as well as starting our group project about the world. With all the negativity that’s going on today in the world at large regarding differences between people, we decided that we’d really like to celebrate with the children all the nationalities and differences that exist in the school – as a microcosm of the world – that make us all so special and unique, and in this way further promote the diversity and inclusion that the children naturally embrace. To this end, we’re starting this week to look at the world and our place in it at the moment, to talk about where some of our families have come from, and the different languages that are used at home. We will be learning how to greet each other in Irish, English, Polish, Nigerian, Chinese, Spanish, Arabic and Bangladeshi languages – to name a few!! As part of this project we will be inviting family members in to talk about where they’re from and show photos if possible, so be prepared!

As well as this we will be making some crafts for Mother’s Day from bread (!), pastry cutters, paint, glitter – always a favourite! – and wool, and later in the week practising more yoga, and using the musical instruments.

Monsieur Pouce (Mister Thumb – French fingerplay)

Toc! Toc! Toc! Monsieur Pouce, es-tu là?      Knock! Knock! Knock! Mr Thumb, are you there?
Sshhh, je dors!                                                     Sshhh, I’m sleeping!

Toc! Toc! Toc! Monsieur Pouce, es-tu là?     Knock! Knock! Knock! Mr Thumb, are you there?
Sshhh, je mange!                                                Sshhh, I’m eating!

Toc! Toc! Toc! Monsieur Pouce, es-tu là?     Knock! Knock! Knock! Mr Thumb, are you there?
Sshhh, je bois!                                                     Sshhh, I’m drinking!

Toc! Toc! Toc! Monsieur Pouce, es-tu là?     Knock! Knock! Knock! Mr Thumb, are you there?
Oui, je sors! Bonjour!!                                       Yes, I’m coming out! Hello!!

Happy St Patrick’s week everyone!! This week will be a short one, and we will be preparing for the national celebrations on Friday for St Patrick’s Day by making flags with the children and having a little parade on Wednesday Have a lovely long weekend everyone!!

The Children’s House will be closing on Wednesday 15th March, re-opening on Monday 20th March

Istigh sa Zú

Istigh sa zú,                               (In the zoo)
Tá an babaí cangarú                (Is the baby kangaroo)
Léim anois, léim anois,           (Jump now, jump now)
Léim anois go luath!                (Jump now quickly!)

Istigh sa zú,                                (In the zoo)
Tá an mamaí cangarú              (Is the mammy kangaroo)
Léim anois, léim anois,           (Jump now, jump now)
Léim anois go luath!                (Jump now quickly!)

Istigh sa zú,                               (In the zoo)
Tá an dadaí cangarú                (Is the daddy kangaroo)
Léim anois, léim anois,           (Jump now, jump now)
Léim anois go luath!                (Jump now quickly!)

It’s all about spiders and insects this week at The Children’s House! The children have been showing a LOT of interest in spiders for the past while, having spotted (the very odd) spiders in the school – and they’re always checking to see if they’re still up on the ceiling, which they generally are, despite enthusisatic brushing of their webs!! We will be learning about the differences between spiders and insects (spiders have 8 legs, insects 6, spiders’s bodies are in 2 segments, insects’s are in 3 etc); it’s a good way to get children used to small creatures and overcome any fears they may have, as well as practising the skills of comparing and classifying within the first studies of entomology! The children will be making their own insect or spider lifecycle, and also making playdough representations…it promises to be a very fun, if slightly scary week!!

Incy Wincy Spider

Incy wincy spider climbed up the water spout,
Down came the rain and washed the spider out.
Out came the sun and dried up all the rain…
And the incy wincy spider climbed up the spout again!

This week is dental health week at The Children’s House! Following on from our look at the food pyramid last week, we are going to learn about the importance of looking after our teeth, tying in to the eating of healthy food – especially crunchy foods like apples and carrots, and calcium-containing foods which strengthen our teeth such as milk, cheese and yoghurts. We will be doing tooth brushing activities, and talking about visiting the dentist, as well as counting our teeth and discussing why we lose teeth! During the week we will be doing a science experiment to show what can happen if we don’t clean our teeth, leaving 1 egg to sit in a glass of vinegar and another in a glass of coke – the vinegar will show how acid can decalcify and damage the tooth enamel, whereas the coke will leave a stain.

As well as this, we will be welcoming in March on Wednesday (a month which has really crept up on us!!!), we will be practising our yoga moves – great for both relaxation as well as gross motor skills – and last but not least we will of course be making delicious pancakes for Pancake Tuesday!!

Lámh, lámh eile

Lámh, lámh eile, a haon, a dó,             (Hand, other hand, one, two)
Cos, cos eile, a haon, a dó.                    (Foot, other foot, one, two)
Ceann, srón, béal, smig,                        (Head, nose, mouth, chin)
Agus fiacla bána i mo bhéal istigh.     (And white teeth inside my mouth.)
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.)

Although it’s going to be a short week in The Children’s House, that doesn’t mean it’s not going to be busy!! Following a couple of the children asking why we should eat fruit at snack, and why we don’t have raisins any more, we are looking at the food pyramid for these few days. We will be discussing what sort of food our bodies need to work properly, and how much quantities we should have of different types of food – lots of fruit, vegetables, meat, milk, bread & breakfast cereals, and the occasional treat! It’s so important to have a healthy attitude to nutrition while also being aware of the amount of fats, sugars and salts that there can be in food. To this end, we will be making a sugar display with the children showing how there can be sugar in food that you might not think. As well as this, we will be talking about using the energy that food gives us to exercise, and how important this also is for our bodies’ growth and development. We will be practising gross motor skills by making obstacle courses indoors and outdoors – should be lots of fun!!

Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes

Head, shoulders, knees and toes,
Knees and toes.
Head, shoulders, knees and toes,
Knees and toes.
And eyes and ears and mouth and nose…
Head, shoulders, knees and toes,
Knees and toes!

It’s the week of love at The Children’s House!! We will be focusing on emotions this week, and talking about what love means to us all – who we love, who loves us, and most importantly, the necessity in life to love our own selves! It’s sometimes hard for young children to recognise and verbalise their emotions, so we use a lot of strategies in the classroom to help them with this – for instance visual aids like emotion wheels, and naming feelings for children when they are upset e.g. ‘I can see you seem upset that it’s not your turn to give out the plates today’, and then giving them tools for improving the situation themselves e.g. ‘what do you think might make you feel better? Is there anything I can do to help?’ This helps children to develop their emotional literacy and well-being, and supports them to learn skills of resilience for later in life.

During the week we will be making Valentine’s crafts, creating a Love Tree, making special Valentine’s playdough, and finally on Friday having a ball!! The children can dress up for this and we will be having lots of dancing and fun!

Five Little Hearts (fingerplay)

Five little hearts all in a row ,
The first one said ‘I love you so’,
The second one said ‘will you be my Valentine?’
The third one said ‘I will, if you’ll be mine’
The fourth one said ‘I’ll always be your friend’
The fifth one said ‘we’ll all be friends until the end!’

After one of the children came into school recently very excited about the planets & telling us all about them, we decided to spend this week examining our solar system! We will start by asking the children why they think the sun is so important to us, & from there discuss the fact that it is a star & our earth is one of the planets which orbit it. Later in the week we will be examining the different planets in our solar system – only 8 of us now that poor Pluto has been demoted! – and learning some facts about them. We will be asking what the children think would happen if we had no sun, & doing some related drama activities. No doubt there will be some talk of aliens at some stage too!!

The Family of the Sun (tune: The Farmer in the Dell)

The family of the Sun, the family of the Sun,
There are 8 planets in the family of the Sun.

Mercury is hot, & Mercury is small,
Mercury has no atmosphere, it’s just a rocky ball.

Venus has thick clouds, that hide what is below,
The air is foul, the ground is hot, it rotates very “slow”.

We love the Earth, our home, its oceans and its trees.
We eat its food, we breathe its air, so no pollution please.

Mars is very red, it’s also dry and cold.
Some day you might visit Mars if you are really bold (we love this verse, the children think it’s hilarious!)

Great Jupiter is big, we’ve studied it a lot.
We found that it has many moons and a big red spot.

Saturn has great rings, we wondered what they were.
Now we know they’re rocks and ice, which we saw as a blur.

With atmosphers that swirl, & wispy white clouds too.
Neptune and Uranus are so cold that you’d turn blue

Pluto’s small and cold, it has an icy face.
We call it a dwarf planet now, but it’s still quite a place!

It’s going to a busy week in The Children’s House, celebrating the arrival of Spring, and looking at electricity as well as gardening and cooking! After the power cut a couple of weeks ago, some of the children were fascinated by the electricity going on and off, and what that meant in the classroom (no lights, the fish tank filter stopped working, no cd player etc) – so we decided we’d learn more about electricity this week. To this end, we will be discussing what we use electricity for in everyday life at home, then we will be doing an experiment to show how we can create static electricity using a balloon and our hair (prepare to see some frizzy hair styles!), looking at electric currents with a plasma ball, creating electronic circuits using circuit board & components, and finally at the end of the week philosophising about what would we do if we had no electricity?

As well as this, we will be making Rice Krispie buns, sowing water cress to celebrate Spring/February arriving and new growth, and dressing up & dancing – a fun week ahead!!

PS a huge thank you to Kayla’s mum Jianhua, as well as Emma, Jasmine and Daragh, who all came in on Friday afternoon to help us celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year in style!!

The World

Great, wide, beautiful, wonderful world,

With the wonderful water around you curled,

And the wonderful grass upon your breast –

World you are beautifully drest.

by William Brighty Rands