Happy new year to all our parents and children and welcome to our first newsletter of 2020.
It was lovely to see all the children coming back after their Christmas break all refreshed and happy. Our older children were very excited to tell us all about their lovely festive holiday break with their family and friends, and all the lovely gifts they received.
Our new year has started with a jam packed curriculum, full of learning and fun. We enjoyed lots of activities exploring our five senses, and learned about the impacts of pollution and the importance of recycling.
We also celebrated Chinese New Year too and made some lovely arts and crafts for this festive event.
Here is a breakdown of what we got up it, and some photos too.
As of February, our newsletters will be available and distributed to parents every two months. So the next newsletter for Balbriggan will be the March edition, then May, and so on. Thank you and we look forward to continuing to share all our news and stories with you through our newsletters.
In the meantime, we hope you enjoy this read, and don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Instagram, (links below).
Many thanks,
Lisa
Lisa McCabe —Crèche Manager
Baby Room News
The babies had lots of fun playing with fingers and toes where they could appreciate the features that make them special, we had a lot of fingers and toes painting. We also learned new songs about our fingers.
We have a visitor to our room, A Big Teddy Bear. All the babies enjoyed cuddling him and waving hello.
To develop a sense of touch, especially “It fells soft” we explored lots of sensory experiences like sensory baskets, blowing feathers, a soft box and the hand and foot soft touch.
Wobbler & Toddler Room News
What a month of sensory fun in January with our wobblers and toddlers. We played with shaving foam, jelly, water and bubbles with our hands. We had a foot and sensory play with rice and lentils. We made a robot for Inventors Day and a photo TV Box so we can take photos of our outfits for Movie Character Day.
We also had lots of stop and Ready, Steady go play learning about traffic lights and colours (red and green).
Preschool Room 1 & 2
Some events we enjoyed in Preschool included:
* Inventors Day
* Roaring on Twenties
* Movie Character day
* Backwards Day
January has been a month super busy.
Preschool 1
The New year 2020 is bringing us a lot of exciting topics.
5 senses:
We discovered our 5 senses through different textures, sounds, scents, pictures and tastes. We did some activities representing the senses. We had so much fun!
Airplanes:
The pre-schoolers designed their own airplanes and improved their fine motor skills by building them.
Numbers:
We also explore counting. We introduce some simple math games and activities and this way we learn the number 1 and 2. We even help counting our friends in the train to go outside.
Nursery:
We open a nursery for our baby dolls. The children loved dressing, feeding and changing their nappies. For those magical moments, they became Educarers themselves.
Chinese New Year:
The children got a chance to create their own Chinese lanterns and learn how to say “hello” in Chinese.
Hospital:
We set up a hospital following the children interests. Everyone got a chance to put on doctors or nurses costume and engage in role-play with their friends.
Preschool 2
The five senses:
We learned the five senses and we used a sensory box with different materials for touch and, we drew with smell markers.
Reading Encouragement & Hairdresser:
We used books about reading to learn more about the library and about what it is exactly a book. We are practising for the future reading, telling stories to her/his to their friends using books that they already know. We also open a hairdresser when everyone gets a chance to do their hair, but don’t forget to bring dollars, because it’s the only thing that they accept.
Length and height/ Months of the year:
We learn about length (shorter and longer) and about height (short and tall). We did arts and crafts and we used the blocks and the clips for compare different objects. We listen the song “calendar” for learn all the moths and also in which one is our birthday, stand up when they hear his/her month.
Dinosaur & Skeletons:
We learned the name of some dinosaurs and we did a sensory box with dinosaurs’ toys, sand and stones so we can lay in our interest centre. We also learn some bones of the skeleton.
Afterschool Room
Our after school children settled in well after the festive break. They enjoyed seeing their friends again in crèche. The routine of getting back into the swing of things really suit some children, with some even enjoying getting homework again!
After homework club, they also enjoyed lots of fun learning too through play. They also talked about their wishes for 2020 and enjoyed learning all about their five senses. They were also very excited to discover the planets we are making arts and crafts to make an exhibition.
For recycling and pollution, they made their own recycling bins and talked about the correct items to put into which bins. We hope they have been practicing a lot at home too.
