We’re all about fruit & vegetables this week at The Children’s House!! The children will be introduced to the theme at the beginning of the week, & we will be discussing different fruit & vegetables that we eat and grow, then we will be tasting different & new types during the week. The children will be doing process art & painting with citrus fruit, as well as doing a science experiment with lemons, & finally planting apple seeds at the end of the week, to show how we can start growing our own foods from what we already have.

Strawberries, Oranges, Watermelon Too (tune: Twinkle Twinkle)

Strawberries, oranges, watermelon too,
Some for me & some for you,
They are tasty, they are sweet,
They are such a lovely treat.
Strawberries, oranges, watermelon too,
Some for me & some for you!

Well it’s a short but sweet week here at The Children’s House! We will be celebrating Pancake Tuesday, making art for Valentine’s Day & having our annual Valentine’s ball on Wednesday!!!  We will be focusing on emotions 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! ❤️❤️

We will then be closed on Thursday 15th & Friday 16th, back to school next Monday 19th February – have a great mid term break everyone!!

Lots of People in my Family (tune: Baa Baa Black Sheep)

Lots of people in my family,
Special people, dear to me,
Some who are near me, some far away,
These are special people that I love every day.
Lots of people in my family,
Special people, dear to me!

Gong Xi Fa Cai!! It’s the Chinese Lunar New Year on Saturday 10th February, so this week we will be learning a bit about China – looking at where it is in Asia, learning about some customs & superstitions, and looking at some photos and objects from China. It’s the Year of the Dragon, and the children will be making Chinese New Year craft and learning about the lucky Red Packets/Envelopes, and at the end of the week we will be dancing with streamers in the garden to a special Dragon dance!!

Dragon Dance (tune: London Bridge)

See the dragons dance & prance,
Dance & prance, dance & prance,
See the dragons dance & prance,
On Chinese New Year’s Day!

See the dragons shake their tails,
Shake their tails, shake their tails,
See the dragons shake their tails,
On Chinese New Year’s Day!

See the dragons turn around,
Turn around, turn around,
See the dragons turn around,
On Chinese New Year’s Day!

See the dragons go to sleep,
Go to sleep, go to sleep,
See the dragons go to sleep,
On Chinese New Year’s Day!

We’re going to have a week full of science experiments, as well as celebrating St Brigid’s Day, the start of February (here’s to January being eventually over!!!) & the traditional beginning of spring this week at The Children’s House! We will be learning about why objects sink & float by dropping them in a bowl of water, & then extending this experiment by later in the week dropping different objects in a container with 3 liquids of different densities (water, oil, golden syrup) & seeing which are heavy/light & at which level they stay at – this experiment shows how liquids can have different densities, i.e. seem to be thicker.

Another experiment we will do about density is dropping raisins into a glass of 7up – the raisin will sink at first as it has greater density than the liquid, but as the bubbles gather on the ridges they lift the raisin to the top of the glass, then the bubbles burst & it sinks again, & then it happens all over again – this makes the raisin seem to dance!

I Can Sing a Rainbow

Red & yellow & pink & green,
Purple & orange & blue,
I can sing a rainbow, sing a rainbow,
Sing a rainbow too.

This week we’ll be learning all about Road Safety at The Children’s House, a hugely important topic, & quite timely as we seem to have a couple of storms in the country creating dangerous road situations this week!! So we will be doing many safety activities during the week, such as practising crossing the road safely (stop look & listen), doing a traffic light game, reading road safety social stories & discussing how we can keep ourselves safe, as well as various associated arts & crafts activities.

Teaching children about road safety from a young age is very important – especially living in places with lots of commuting traffic such as Sallins or Naas – so developing habits such as wearing high vis jackets, holding hands crossing the road, and remembering to stop look & listen when crossing are something we can help to reinforce from preschool age. At the end of the week we will be putting our safety strategies into practice while we go on a walk to the GAA pitch!

Road Safety Song (tune: If You’re Happy & You Know It)

When you want to cross the road
You stop and look,
When you want to cross the road
You stop and look.

If you’re clever and you know it,
And you really want to show it,
When you want to cross the road
You stop and look.

It’s all about our teeth this week at The Children’s House! The children will be learning all about dental health & the importance of looking after our teeth & developing good hygiene habits from an early age. We will be talking about the different types of teeth we have – incisors, canines, premolars & molars – & the different jobs that they do (biting food, tearing food, chewing & grinding food), as well as the number of teeth that we have – children have 20 baby teeth, adults get a total of 32, usually by the age of 21.

We will be doing activities to illustrate what makes teeth happy e.g. healthy food vs unhealthy, good brushing habits, dental hygiene art, & a science experiment to show if sugary or acidic drinks can damage our tooth enamel using using hard-boiled eggs immersed in coke & vinegar – the shell of the eggs are full of calcium as is tooth enamel so we use them as a comparison.

This is the Way we Take Care of our Teeth

This is the way we brush our teeth,
Brush our teeth, brush our teeth,
This is the way we brush our teeth,
At least twice a day.

This is the way we floss our teeth,
Floss our teeth, floss our teeth,
This is the way we floss our teeth,
Every single day.

This is the way we rinse our mouths,
Rinse our mouths, rinse our mouths,
This is the way we rinse our mouths,
To wash the germs away.

A very Happy New Year to you all, & welcome back!! Hopefully all the families had a lovely break & stayed healthy, & the children are ready to get back to their routine, I think the adults are! We’ve got a lovely relaxing week planned, with activities such as the sensory tray, new year’s resolution craft, yoga, & new year art – so it’s going to be a great start to 2024 in The Children’s House!

Just to let you know that from the collection for Barnardos that we held before Christmas, we raised & sent €235.50 to them, which will have really made a difference to some children who needed it – thanks so much for your generosity, as always.

Ring the Bells (tune: Row Your Boat)

Ring, ring, ring the bells,
Ring them loud and clear.
Let’s tell everyone around,
That the New Year is here!

It’s a week of Christmas arts & crafts at The Children’s House this week! So the children will be continuing doing seasonal activities such as Christmas stencils, painting & glueing, Santa nesting dolls, threading baubles, opening & closing Christmas tree pegs etc… As well as this, during the week they will be making candy cane pipe cleaners, glitter star decorations, love heart penguins, & peg & bobble paintings. The children will also be practising singing their songs & poems for their concerts on Friday & next Monday – as we hope you all are!!!

Friday 15th December: 9am class Christmas songs @ 11am

Friday 15th December: 1pm & 1.15pm classes Christmas songs @ 3.15pm

Monday 18th December: 9.30am class Christmas songs @ 11.30am

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

Rudolph the red nosed reindeer had a very shiny nose,
And if you ever saw it you would even say it glows,
All of the other reindeer used to laugh & call him names,
They never let poor Rudolph join in any reindeer games.

Then one foggy Christmas eve Santa came to say,
‘Rudolph with your nose so bright, won’t you guide my sleigh tonight?’
Then all the reindeer loved him, and they shouted out with glee,
‘Rudolph the red nosed reindeer, you’ll go down in history!’

We’re well and truly in the run up to Christmas now, so this week at The Children’s House we will be talking about how we celebrate Christmas, and how important it is to show people that we care not just through presents, but by how we act towards them and how we show love and respect to each other. We will be doing lots of fun stuff like making Christmas cards, doing Christmas cooking & crafts, mindfulness & doing winter puffy art!!

Bualadh Bos (Jingle Bells in Irish)

Bualadh bos, bualadh bos,            (clap hands, clap hands)
Bualadh bos go léir,                        (everyone clap hands)
Tá San Nioclás ag teacht anois,    (Santa Claus is coming now)
Anuas an simléar;                             (down the chimney)
Bualadh bos, bualadh bos,            (clap hands, clap hands)
Bualadh bos go léir,                        (everyone clap hands)
Tá San Nioclás ag teacht anois,    (Santa Claus is coming now)
Anuas an simléar!                             (down the chimney!)

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

Rudolph the red nosed reindeer had a very shiny nose,
And if you ever saw it you would even say it glows,
All of the other reindeer used to laugh & call him names,
They never let poor Rudolph join in any reindeer games.

Then one foggy Christmas eve Santa came to say,
‘Rudolph with your nose so bright, won’t you guide my sleigh tonight?’
Then all the reindeer loved him, and they shouted out with glee,
‘Rudolph the red nosed reindeer, you’ll go down in history!’