Flowerhill September Newsletter 2011

Mother Hubbards Newsletter

September 2011

Welcome to our first newsletter of the new school year.  This month we would like to welcome all of the new children who started with us at the beginning of September and their parents.  We hope you are all very happy here at Mother Hubbards.

Look who has a birthday this month…

Emma in afterschool was 9 years old

Aleksis in Montessori was 4 years old

Mia in Montessori will be 4 years old

Reminders

Change of Clothes

Also we would like to remind parents that if you have not brought in a spare set of clothes for your child could you do so as soon as possible. It is very important that we have them in case of emergency. The following clothes should be provided a t-shirt, sweater, underpants, trousers, socks and a vest. After school children are encouraged to bring in a change of clothes so they can change out of their uniforms.  Please remember to label all of your child’s belongings!

Scrap Book for Montessori children

Could all parents of children in the Montessori room please send in a scrap book for their child if they have not already done so by Monday 3^rd October.  This is to keep a copy of your child’s work from throughout the year.

Healthy Eating

We would like to ask all parents to try send in a healthy lunch for your child for snack time.  Mother Hubbard’s Childcare promotes a Healthy Eating Policy. This is based on the Department of Health and Children, Health Promotion Units publication ‘Food and Nutrition Guidelines for Pre-School Services.  No chocolate, crisps, fizzy drinks etc.  Children are only given these foods on special occasions such as birthday parties, Halloween, Christmas etc.

ECCE Children

All sessional EECE children, our Montessori session starts at 9am.  We cannot take children in before this time as we do not have staff to supervise the children before this time as we need to keep to the adult:child ratio at all times.

If you are running late to collect your child, please phone the centre on 046-9070558 to let a member of staff know.

Sessional Montessori Year Calendar

All parents received a school calendar with their information packs but this is a reminder of the mid terms etc;

Halloween Mid-Term:       Closed Monday 31^st October – Friday 4^th November 2011 (inclusive)

Christmas Break:              Closing Friday 23^rd December 2011 and reopening 9^th January 2012

February Mid-Term:        Closed Tuesday 14^th – Friday 17^th February 2012 (inclusive)

St. Patrick’s Day:   Monday 19^th March- closed Bank Holiday

Easter Holidays:              Closing March 30^th and reopening 16^th April 2012

May Bank Holiday:           Monday 7^th May 2012

June Bank Holiday:          Monday 4^th June 2012

Summer Holidays:            Closing Friday 29^th June 2012

-these dates may be subject to change, you will receive adequate notice of any changes made.

Welcome

We would like to welcome Rachel Hogge to Mother Hubbards.  Rachel has Fetac Level 5 and will be working between here and our Slane rd. centre.  We hope Rachel is very happy here with us at Mother Hubbards ☺

What have we been doing in our rooms…

Montessori Room

The children have all settled in very well here with us.  This month they have been learning “All about me”, making books about themselves and singing songs.  They have also been busy learning about Autumn, doing their Autumn Tree, squirrel paintings and hedgehog collages.  They have begun on the practical life exercises in the Montessori area which teach the children every day skills which they need to learn to gain independence and confidence in the world around them.

Afterschool Room

This month the children have been busy playing outdoors, painting and making crafts with paper plates and paper.  They enjoyed making paper hats and boats and other origami crafts.

Note for parents of Afterschool Children

Can all after school parents please provide us with a copy of their child’s school calendar. Also can you ensure you let a member of staff know when your child needs to be collected early or doesn’t need collection on a particular day. Thank You!

Note for parents of Montessori children:

Display Table

Each fortnight there will be a topic posted up on the door.  This topic will run for two weeks, we encourage all children to bring in items relating to the topic for the display table i.e. books, posters, jigsaws, pictures etc. We ask for all the children’s participation as much as possible. The more participation your child has the more interest s/he will have in the topic being discussed.

Book of the Week

Each fortnight there will be a ‘book of the week’ posted up on the door. When your child’s name is on the notice board for the ‘book of the week’, please encourage your child to bring in their favourite book for one day for us to read to the class (please ensure that the book is child friendly and a reasonable length). This gives your child a great sense of importance within the group.

Sound of the week

Every week from October the children will do a “sound of the week” and will be covering the phonetic element of a letter.  For example the letter “S” makes the sound “sssss”.  We will ask the children to bring in one item each week for the sound box if possible.  Please check the notice board just inside the room on the right for our sound of the week. 

October Mid-term Break

We will be having a fun camp running for the week of the Halloween mid-term break from 9-12 daily for children age 3 years +.  During this week we will have plenty of arts and crafts, fancy dress, face-painting, cooking and lots more.  The cost for the week will be €45 per child.  If you or anyone you know of may be interested in this please tell them to contact the centre and speak to a member of staff.

Something for the weekend…  ☺

Freddy Fyffes Fun this Weekend to Celebrate the Gorilla Rainforest at Dublin Zoo

Make sure to get down to Dublin Zoo this weekend (1st and 2nd October) to celebrate the opening of the brand new Gorilla Rainforest proudly sponsored by Freddy Fyffes.

Freddy Fyffes will be ape-ing around on Saturday and Sunday to help the gorillas settle into their new home. There will be fun for all the family with face painting, giant games, music workshops and much more. Freddy Fyffes will be giving out plenty of yummy bananas and activity booklets for all the kids and don't forget to bring your camera to get your pic taken with Freddy Fyffes.

For more information please go to www.dublinzoo.ie or www.facebook.com/dublinzoo

Topic of the month – Getting your child to eat lunch!!

(www.rollercoaster.ie)

Fact; children who eat their lunch at school find it easier to concentrate and behave better than those who don’t!!

10 tips for getting your child to eat their lunch

1. Try making their lunch colorful and interesting. Cut foods into different shapes and into small portions e.g. triangles of sandwiches, chunks of cheese, chopped mixed fruit. 

2. Vary the food from day to day, e.g. whole meal and white bread (or half and half), rolls, pitta, crackers. You can fill these with a choice from the meat, fish or alternative (protein) group or with cheese. 

3. Something tasty like a favorite yogurt or fromage frais can be included.

4. A piece of fruit or diced fruit is a quick snack for little break. 

5. A carton of milk is an excellent choice of drink and is available in many schools. Otherwise a carton of unsweetened fruit juice or a flask of warm soup or hot chocolate are good alternatives.

6. Try alternatives to bread and rolls with pitta or scones. Encourage your child to have whole meal varieties. 

7. Use salads like lettuce, tomato, and cucumber also in sandwiches/rolls to brighten them up and to help ensure your child gets a good balance of nutrients.

8. Make sure the lunch you prepare is child friendly eg peeled oranges, chopped meat, etc 

9. Get your child involved in planning their own lunch as they are then much more likely to eat it.

10. Ensure that you haven't packed a forbidden food: some schools have a ban on certain foods such as chewing gum or crisps

151 Blackcastle Lodge                          Phone: 046-9070558

Flowerhill                                           Fax:  046-9070670

Navan                             E-Mail:  flowerhill@motherhubbardschildcare.ie

Nephin road September newsletter 2011

September Newsletter 2011

Motherhubbards would like to take this opportunity to welcome our sessional children in Montessori. 

      Donagh and his parents Fionula and Colm

      Annie and her parents Tracy and Sean

      Matthew and his parents Anita and Paul

      Darragh Kearns and his parents Alison and Adrian

      Glen and his parents Sheila and Sean

      Adam and his parents Caroline and Johnny

      Camilla and her parents Renata and Jakab

      Darragh Stenson his parents Teresa and Noel

      Caoimhe and her parents Deirdre and Brian

      Sophie and her parents Karen and Luke

We would like to say a big welcome to:

Babyroom

Julia and her parents Catherine and Nathy

Katie and her parents Karrie and Darragh

Toddler Room

Leo who sister Clodagh is already in Montessori and his parents Margaret and Mark

George and his parents Nicoleta and George Valentin

Caylan and his parents Anna and Eric

A big welcome to our new staff member, Shauna who is working in the babyroom.

Welcome all…

Birthday Corner

Farewell

We would like to wish farewell to Conor, Senan, Aoife, Sean, and Ciara and the very best in their new schools.  Some will still be here for Afterschool.

Parents Evening

We will be holding our Parents’ Evening on the 19^th of October from 6.15- 7.45 pm.  This is a social event and it gives you the opportunity to meet other parents and to meet the staff and have a chat with them about your child or any issues that you wish to discuss.  Unfortunately children cannot attend due to health and safety as staff will be socialising with parents.  Tea and coffee will be served on the night.  We hope to see you there…

Shoe Box Appeal

We are taking part in the Christmas Shoebox Appeal. This is a Charity initiative run by Team Hope where you are asked to fill a shoebox with different gifts for Christmas for a child in some of the world’s poorest countries.  Parents have all received letters and leaflets.  If you have not received, please ask a member staff to provide with one. Boxes have to be returned by the latest 31^st of October

Toddle Waddle

Montessori class will be participating in the Toddle waddle walk which will raise money for the Meningitis Trust in October.  Parents will be informed about the exact date and permission forms will be given in due course.

Reminders

Warm clothes

As we are getting closer to winter, we would like to remind parents to put on warm clothes on your children, so they are able to play freely outside.

Spare clothes

We would be grateful if you could check with your child’s teacher if they need spare clothes for the baskets or check if there are any old clothes still fit.  If you are bringing in spare clothes, please label all of them so they do not get misplaced.

	Email If you would like to receive our newsletter through email, please give your email address to any member staff.

 

Toys

We would like to remind all parents to encourage their children not to bring in their own toys to crèche.  As you can understand, we do not want children’s toys to go home damaged in any way and bringing them can cause great confusion to other children who think they belong to the crèche.  This can cause unwanted bickering and unease amongst the children.

Thank you

Thank you for all the staff members for their determination and hard work on helping the new children to settle in the centre.

Toilet Training tactics

v     Point out how nice it feels to be dry rather than wet so the child is motivated to keep clean

v     Plan ahead. Take your child to the toilet before you leave the house, before a movie, or before anytime in which a sudden announcement of a full diaper would be inconvenient. Simply announce to the child, "Do you have to go?" before you leave.

v     Don't be too quick to announce "no more diapers," since some children protest the sudden change so vehemently that they hold onto their bowel movements, become constipated, and you end up with a problem worse than a child in diapers.

v     Set a timer to go off every two to three hours throughout the day as a reminder for your child to go potty. This way the timer becomes the cue instead of the parent.

v     Some children go more easily with their feet planted firmly on the floor in a sort of semi-squat position, as if they need some "pushing power" from their legs.

v     Some children need privacy and will not go if anyone is looking or is in the bathroom with them. Respect this.

v     To entice the busy toddler to sit still and become one with the toilet or potty chair, put his favorite toys in the bathroom and encourage him to sit and "read" awhile.

v     Think of weaning from diaper dependency like weaning from the breast: timely and gradually.

v     Praise productions. "Yeah! You did it!" Some children temporarily need a cheerleader.

v     When a child is old enough to understand what's going on in his body, he's old enough to do it.

v     To avoid getting caught in the "big girl" trap, reserve these terms for a phase your child is going through when he or she wants to be big. Some children are ambivalent about becoming "big" because they see little ones get more attention.

In training twins, don't compare their progress. Train the more ready and willing twin first as a role model. Splurge on two potty-chair

Ongar September & October Newsletter 2011

Mother Hubbards Newsletter

September and October 2011

Welcome to our first newsletter of the new school year. This term we would like to welcome all of the new children who started with us at the beginning of September and their parents. We hope you are all very happy here at Mother Hubbards.

Happy Birthday

·         This month we would like to wish the following children a very big Happy Birthday:

September

·         Lara from Montessori who turned 4 yrs old 

·         Krishna from Afterschool who turned 7 yrs old 

·         Leia in the Montessori who turned 3 yrs old 

·         Loiza in the Playschool room who is 2 

October

·         Basil in the Montessori room who turned 3 yrs 

·         Patrick in the Montessori room who is 3 yrs

·         Ben in Junior Afterschool Room who was 5 yrs 

·         Adina in the Playschool Room who is 2 yrs 

·         Sean  in the Pre-Montessori room who is 3 yrs 

·         Osita  in the Play school room who is 2 yrs on the 

Welcome

Welcome to two new staff members. Ildke has joined Swapna in the Pre-Montessori room. She has brought so much colour and fun to the children already and we wish her the happiest of times here at Mother Hubbards.

We would like to give a big warm welcome to Dima who will be covering Swapna’s maternity leave. We wish you all the best here at Mother Hubbards.

Reminders

·         The cold weather is starting to come upon us so can all parents please ensure their child has a suitable coat to wear while playing outside.

·         Can parents please make sure your child has spare clothes in the crèche and also make sure they are labelled.

·         After school children are encouraged to bring in a change of clothes so they can change out of their uniforms. Please remember to label all of your child’s belongings!

·         We would like to stress that we close at 6.30pm sharp and that parents must be here to collect their children no later than this. Late collection has a knock on affect to staff members who have commitments outside the working hours.

Fundraiser

A big thank you to everybody who took part in our Cheerio’s Child line Breakfast morning. Cheerios Childline Breakfast together was held on 7^th October. We all had lots of fun eating our yummy Cheerios with our friends.

Last year, hundreds of people held breakfasts with their friends, families and colleagues raising over €220,000 for Childline – ensuring that we were able to train more volunteers to deal with the surge in calls in the past three years.

We ask that all parents make a donation for this worthy cause if you can.

We would sincerely like to thank all the parents and children who made such a warm and heartfelt effort to help raise funds for the I.C.S. This charity has special meaning for a lot of staff members as it has for a lot of people. Your generous donations helped to raise an amazing €704.83. Well done and thank you!

What's going on In Mother Hubbard’s this term.

·         Baby Room

Ronke and the babies are extremely busy this month putting together their Autumn tree and are painting wonderful pictures.

·         Wobblers.

The Wobblers are giving Picasso a run for his money with their art work. Keep and eye out for their Autumn themed crafts. They are getting very creative making scarecrows, hedgehogs, squirrels and acorns.

·         Play-school.

Play-school is putting together a picturesque Autumn wall. They are busy making scarecrows hedgehogs and Autumn leaves. Beware of the Halloween crafts maybe very spooky.

·         Pre-Montessori

Idike and Swapna and the class are very busy learning their days of the week, months of the year and numbers. They are getting creative with their Autumn theme and having fun making their Halloween crafts.

·         Montessori

Montessori is very busy this September and October. Themes include; months and seasons, life cycle of the frog, introduction to the continents and oceans, Africa, Animals and their babies and Halloween They are very busy with their Montessori work and are enjoying learning lots of new exciting things. They have started pencil work for numbers and sounds also and are exceeding tremendously. Well done to all the students for all the hard work creativity and fun along the way.

·         Junior After-school

Well done to all the girls and boys in Junior After-School who started their first days of school. It was amazing to see how grown up they all are and how well they have settled in! Annette and the Junior After school have been working on their individual profiles and telling all their friends about their families and friends and what they like to do.

·         After-school

Well done to all the boys and girls who returned back to school this September! We hope you are all settling in and are having fun learning! Gintare is busy in the afternoons helping everyone with their homework. They are also planning Halloween theme, We look forward to seeing the Hair raising Halloween crafts!

Halloween (Taken from www.kids-fun-and-games.com)
Guess The Ghost
Start by having the kids sitting/standing in a circle.
Have one child leave the room and take a large sheet and have another child stand and hide under the sheet. Mix up the remaining children in the room and then allow the child who left the room to come back inside. That child has to guess who's the ghost, by process of elimination they need to figure out which child is hiding under the sheet. Then that "Ghost" goes out of the room and a different child becomes the new ghost, mix up the remaining children and repeat until all of the children have had a turn being the ghost.

Marshmallow Bobbing
Young children mostly hate getting their faces wet so this game is a variation on Apple Bobbing.
Take a large tub with ice water in it and float full size marshmallows in it.
Each child is given a straw cut in half. (Shorter straws are easier to suck and hold the marshmallow) They then have to race to see who can suck up a marshmallow the fastest. Once a child scores a marshmallow they can eat it, and sit out to let another child have a turn if they cannot all fit around the basin at one time. Keep rotating until all the kids have had one or two marshmallows.

Monster Freeze Dance
One of those Halloween games for kids that can last as long as you want it to providing you have plenty of Monstery music!
Play Halloween music and have the kids dance around like monsters! The Monster Mash is a great song for this game.
When the music stops the kids freeze in their monster positions.
The first kid to move is out, and the game continues until only one child is left. Trick For a Treat
Make up a bag with candy and a bag with slips of paper in it. The bag with slips of paper will have all 'trick' apart from one which will have 'treat'. The number of slips of paper should equal the number of children.
All the kids who draw a 'trick' will have a specified trick that they will need to perform to get a piece of candy. One lucky child just wins a special 'treat'. The tricks can be singing a song, doing jumping jacks while turning around, other fun things that are fairly easy for little ones.

Have a Happy Hallloween!!!!

No 6 The Avenue

Ongar Village D.15                                          Phone: 01 8260055                            

Dublin 15                                E-Mail:  ongar@motherhubbardschildcare.ie