Welcome to the November edition of our newsletter from Links Childcare Seabrook Manor.
November has been a busy month in all our rooms, as we prepare for our Christmas concert and our festive winter celebrations. We have been concentrating very hard on learning all the lines to our Christmas songs and we cannot wait to give you all a festive performance to remember. We hope you like our Christmas decorations! Our children and our afterschool children worked very hard to help us decorate it.
We had a month of learning all about the winter season and the changing of the weather. Our Educarers taught us all about winter hibernation and the different types of animals who hibernate in the winter in order to keep themselves and their little ones safe during the cold months.
Our STEM learning was a great way for our children to learn about this important topic. It opened up conversations about counting, coding, science and more.
And thank you to all our parents who voted in the Links Childcare Employee of the Year for 2019. Your voice and your vote matters. Thank you for your time in doing this. Our winner in Seabrook Manor is Lisa Field and I am sure you all agree, she is a worthy winner!
Last but not least, we would like to send you all a massive THANK YOU for all your gorgeous shoe boxes for the Team Hope Shoe Box Appeal. Collectively you helped Links Childcare collect almost 300 shoe boxes. These will all be going to a great home this Christmas and will make a child very happy.
We hope you enjoy our newsletter and we look forward to lots more fun & festive learning next month.
Kind regards,
Jolita
Jolita Vascenkatie —Crèche Manager
Baby Room News
It’s lovely to welcome our new babies Frankie and Darragh!
We have celebrated different events this month, we make lot of activities in relation with the winter, because our babies were coming in the morning wearing hats, scarfs and gloves, so we decided to work around that topic.
We made a winter mural, in a black paper, we put blue and white paint and we gave them a brush to let them express their sensations. It was a funny moment, because some of them tried to eat the brush, and others decided to paint with their foots or hands. You can imagine how they finish…like a picture! They enjoyed a lot!
We decide to made lots of sensorial materials to discover the winter: we made bottles to explore the cold, and hot water, and also, we made “snow”, putting lot of water in one nappy, and broken it … so we made messy play with that “snow” to let them try it.
We decided to made a cloud to decorate our door, our babies glue the cotton on it, they were broken it first to can glued it, some of them want to tried that cotton….their faces after tasting it were not so good, they looked like if they were eaten a lemon.
Otherwise, we created a new mural to put family photos, simulating a tree, they love to go to that corner and have a look to the photos!
Also, we’re very surprised to see how some of the babies are improving their motor skills very fast. We made lot of activities to motivate them more to improve that developing, they look so excited to try their balance and see how each they are getting better movements! 
Wobbler Room 1 News
Our wobbler Educarers have been keeping a lovely diary in the daily activities in our Wobbler 1 Room. Here is a snap shot for you to view:
WEEK 1: From 4th to 8th November PEOPLE I OFTEN MEET
Monday 4th: We have started a new month! So today we have painted our folders to keep our new art works!
Tuesday 5th: Today we went to the hairdresser’s. Our teachers prepared the classroom so that it looked as a hairdresser’s. We enjoyed pretending to have our hair cut.
Wednesday 6th: Today we pretended to be hairdresser’s with some toys. We also made shiny play dough, so we could make different shapes.
Thursday 7th: As we learnt about the hairdresser’s, we have painted a hairdresser’s face and our teachers have made different hair for each of them.
Friday 8th: It’s Friday! We had a good time in the garden, we showed our teachers how we learnt to colour with crayons and we played with our shiny play dough.
WEEK 2: From 11th to 15th November PEOPLE I OFTEN MEET
Monday 11th: Today we learnt about doctors. We made a role play with a thermometer, a stethoscope, a tongue depressor and some medicine so that we could heal our favourite soft toys.
Tuesday 12th: We showed how we painted with crayons and we painted a doctor.
Wednesday 13th: Today we were waiters and waitresses! We set the table and served some food.
Thursday 14th: We learnt about the postman and we made our postcards with crayons and our handprints.
Friday 15th: To send our postcards we need a post box, so our teachers made one with a box and we painted it with paintbrushes.
WEEK 3: From 18th to 22nd November WINTER
Monday 18th: We have enjoyed messy play with porridge – it looked like snow!
Tuesday 19th: Today we have played with some sensorial bags that seemed to contain snow of different colours!
Wednesday 20th: We have been playing with white play dough and we have created our own snowmen.
Thursday 21st: Today our teachers have painted a big snowman and we have decorated it by sticking some cotton balls. It was so much fun!
Friday 22nd: Our play dough snowmen were dry, so we painted them using paintbrushes and white paint.
WEEK 4: From 25th to 29th November WINTER
Monday 25th: It is very cold! We have decorated some paper gloves with our handprints. Winter is coming!
Tuesday 26th: Today we have used our hands to paint some sticks with white paint and glitter. Later our teachers have made some snowflakes with them to decorate our classroom.
Wednesday 27th: It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas! So today we have made some handprint in red and green and our teachers have made a beautiful wreath to decorate our door.
Thursday 28th: Today we have been playing with ice and cold water! Then we have compared it to some warm water. We have had a good time!
Friday 29th: We have painted some sticks in green and glitter, and later we have stuck some pompons to create Christmas trees.
Wobbler Room 2 News
Arabella and Lucas turned 2! Happy birthday to you both!
This month in wobbler 2 the children have had great fun learning all about farm animals/pets winter and a favourite has been learning about being sick. We have lots of fun doing different sensory play such as painting with our hands, playing with sand, play dough and crushing rice crispies with our fingers.
The children have painted hats that keep us warm in the winter, penguins and crated snowmen as we have a song to sing about a little snowman.
We have learned to take the temperature of our teddies in class as it has been a month of doing so, so the children have showed a particular interest in it. They also have helped bath and change our teddy and dolls nappies as they have such a huge interest in it the last few weeks. We have had great fun with our winter flash cards and singing all different Christmas songs which the children seem to love joining in on. Our favourite song of the month has to be “where of where is (insert name)” as all the children love to participate in it and get excited when there name is called upon.
Toddler Room News
Zoe turned two in our Toddler Room and we had a lovely and busy month jam packed with lots of activities.
For our winter theme, we made polar bears and painted snowmen with paintbrushes. We also learned all about our artic animal friends.
For our community theme, we learned all about the people who help us and we spoke about various professions such as doctors, nurses, vets and dentists. We role played The Shop and The Café too, which was fun and we took turns sharing the different roles.
We have had lots of fun with our Pets theme and we have enjoyed story books about our furry friends. We used glitter to put on our fishes during art and we painted colour birds and stuck them on our wall.
Preschool Room 1 & 2 News
Some events we enjoyed in Preschool included:
– National STEM day
– Hibernation Day
– Welcoming Winter
– Thanksgiving
Preschool 1: Luke turned 3 in Preschool 1 and we had fun singing him lots of birthday songs. We had lots of themed events and activities. Here is a snapshot:
Our Community
– We had a group discussion to talk about how different people in our community help us
– We coloured people working in different jobs related to the topic
– We created the map of our community by gluing different shapes and drawing roads around them
– We did different role-playing activities (hospital, police station)
– Related to the topic of doctors and nurses, we made a craft of an X-ray of our hands, using white paint and cotton sticks
– Related to the topic of policemen, we discovered what are our fingerprints and how policemen use them. We also painted our fingertips to check our fingerprints on a white page
Night and Day
– We talked about the changes we have seen in the weather, like cold temperatures and how the day is shorter and the night is longer
– We made a moon using stamps with foil paper
– We made a sun using cling film and different warm colours
– We baked cupcakes
– In Spanish, we learned different vocabulary related to the topic (sun, moon, stars…)
– We stamped stars using cookie cutters shaped like stars
– We decorated our door with stars and glitter
It’s winter time
– We made a snowman by sticking different coloured paper and shapes
– We made snowflakes painting with pompons to practice fine motor skills
– We started practicing for our Christmas concert
– We made our invitations for the Christmas concert, painting with brushed and sticking glitter
– We coloured different pictures related to the topic
Animals in winter
– We made a polar bear by painting our hand with white paint and drawing eyes and ears
– We baked cupcakes
– We talked about hibernation and we made a nest for the squirrel we drew back in October for the autumn topic, sticking leaves, brown paper and sticks around it
– We had a sensory play activity by using bubble wrapping
– We coloured different arctic animals
– In Spanish, we learned vocabulary related to the weather (hot/cold) and the colours
– We painted a snowman with brushes as part of the decoration for our Christmas concert
Preschool 2: Happy birthday Finn and James!
Our Community and people who help us & Science:
This week we learnt what is the importance of different jobs in the community. How science work? Is there any magic behind the science?
We set up different role plays: doctors, beauty salon where the children get the chance to play hairdressers, beauticians, how to paint nails, etc.
We also coloured in different pictures of different jobs.
For Science Day we all dress up as scientists and we set up a science laboratory and make simple science experiments which fuel their curiosity. We did the “walking water experiment ” where with the help of a paper kitchen towel we make different coloured water to transfer from a cup to another. Also, we did the “lava lamp experiment and dancing rice experiment”.
Music and musical instruments & Arctic animals:
This week we learned about different musical instruments and their names. For our arts and crafts we make our own instruments like: guitars ,paper plates shakers and colour in lots of different musical instrument .
On Thursday Sam B’s daddy came in to visit us and brought in his guitar and sang them a lot of songs e.g. baby shark, the wheels on the bus and many more. The children really enjoyed and joined in and sang along and in the end they all had a go to sing with the guitar.
For arctic animals we had lot of chats with open ended questions about how life on the arctic circle is. We made different arts and crafts like polar bears, penguins ,walrus and many more.
As an extension of the arctic animals theme we looked at Eskimos, their life style and we learned about the water, and the importance of it.
Winter and healthy food:
For Healthy food learning, we did a collage of healthy and non-healthy food. We learned the names of different foods, fruits and vegetable. We cut food out from magazines and stuck it on paper plates (to present our favourite dinners).
For winter, we started learning about winter and its celebrations. We created our own snow man and did snowflakes stamping and we did a skiing picture.
We practice a lot for our Christmas concert, and we made costumes for the big day.
Naíscoil Room News
Happy Birthday Isabelle who turned three!
Our community – we discussed people who help us, we role played and acted out scenarios of people who work in a hospital, in the garda station and in the restaurant.
Night and Day – We discussed things we do in the day and things we do in the night. What is our favourite time of day?
It’s winter time – we created Christmas trees, learnt about artic animals and discussed the cold weather and freezing temperatures.
Animals in winter – We spent some time tracing pictures of the artic animals and learning the names of Artic animals.
This month in Naiscoil, we learnt lots about Artic animals, and we practiced our cutting and sticking skills by creating Penguins. We talked about winter clothes and the importance of wearing coats and hats. We created sensorial experiences by making ice and slush and carried out a STEM project by using salt to melt the frozen ice!
We carried through our winter theme into preparations for Christmas by beginning to prepare our classroom for our Christmas Play. The children have been amazing learning their lines and their songs. In preparations for this we got really creative making a Christmas tree out of cardboard boxes, stockings to hang and invitations to send home inviting our families to join us.
Afterschool Room News
Happy Birthday Ellie & Sean!
The afterschool children were busy this month. They have been doing a Christmas performance called a Gingerbread Christmas. They love the new songs and have made ‘Christmas cookies’ to coincide with the play. They have been getting stuck into lots of Christmas decorations such as making elves, Christmas trees, polar bears etc. We had a colouring competition and the children really getting creative. They are really interested in gluing and sticking at the minute and we have been getting into performing meditation and mindfulness on a regular basis.
