Acorns Montessori Rush

Planting our tiny seeds..

All children love planting. Here we are planting sunflowers, sweetpea and lettuce and hopefully we'll see the rewards in May.

Circle times greatest hits!

All the children love to come together after a mornings Montessori and sit in circle to sing their hearts out to our greatest hits including "Incy Wincy Spider", "Old McDonald" and many of the Lamha songs that teach us how to sign. Just like Jack, its my favourite part of the morning!

We made a Den!

The children decided to make a den one day in the garden. They had so much fun gathering the sticks and wood to make their den and then used it for a game of hide and go seek!

See the little Bunnies..

"The Bunny song" is a favourite of all the kids. For the first half of the song they lie down sleeping....

Hop little Bunnies!!

...Then they jump up as we sing hop little bunnies, hop, hop ,hop....so much fun!!

More circle time fun.

Obstacle Course Fun

All the children love an obstacle course and its great when we have nice weather so we can do it outside. Nice crawling Fiadh!

Animal sounds

Jack and Amelia really enjoyed doing this activity together. When you put the piece back in it makes a farm animal sound. Lovely way to develop coordination and the pincer grip and of course singing about the farm animals together.

Budding Picassos

Jack had so much fun painting up a storm with his friends. Painting at this age is a super sensory activity, children love exploring vibrant colours and the feel of painting with their hands. Great job Jack!

Colouring together.

Colouring in our poster for a talent show, we sellotape a big piece of paper to the table which the kids find so exciting. They happily come up with their own creations or do a bit of colouring in. Working on the same piece of paper really promotes language and social development as they chat to each other about what they're drawing, what colours they want to use and taking turns with those colours!

Santa's show and tell

Look what Santa brought the children for Christmas! The kids love any form of show and tell but this one caused great excitement.

All by myself!

Amelia was looking for help with her straw at lunch time. With a bit up encouragement she realised she could do it all by herself and she was so delighted and proud when she did! These individual little achievements is really what preschool is all about.

Chasing bubbles!

Fun in the garden chasing bubbles...never fails to entertain!

Penguins keeping warm

Jake came up with the idea of all the kids huddling together like penguins to keep warm! I love it! They had so much fun with this.

Peek a boo!

Madison and Jake peeking through the fence!

Super rolling Megan!

Fireman Sam

The kids had great fun when they decided they wanted to build a 3 story house out of the interlocking stick and ball geometry activity. Great team work between design and construction workers! Then who pops up only our king of imagination Samuel, dressed as a fireman to "put the fire out"!!!. I love it!

Spring has sprung.

Today was the first warm day of Spring and we decide to have our whole morning outdoors.

Catch Fiadh!

This is a nice game to play in circle time where the child says the name of a friend they are going to pass the balloon to and then launches it. Great for teaching turn taking and following basic rules in activities as well as coordination.

A little maths fun

Fiadh is enjoying playing with a maths activity where the numbers go up as she adds the counters to make the little man taller!

Magnet Man

Jack loves playing with the magnets.Again they are a great sensory activity that while encouraging exploration also develops hand movements and coordination as children build up their magnets and pull them apart again.

Goodbye Song

Every day all the children get a different job. Today Madison's job is to sing the Goodbye song for all her classmates. Its lovely simple way to build up their confidence. At the end they take a bow and we all clap. Madison loves to sing!

Making shapes.

Megan's using Montessori's shapes to make her picture. Its a lovely way to learn the names of the different shapes and to build up coordination as she holds the shape down with one hand and colours in with the other.

Gone fishing.

Samuel and his friends are really enjoying themselves playing our magnet number fishing game together!

Kinetic Sand.

Again Fiadh loves this sensory activity that combines sand with a feeling of putty and is a super open ended activity where the children can just get creative on their own terms and enjoy the social interactions with their friends.

Budding artists.

All the children love to paint and they especially love to paint up at the easel in the art room. They love the big brush and getting stuck in with sponges and their hands!

Me and my Bro..

This picture speaks for itself..

Play dough Fun

The children love play dough time, especially with the play dough they make here in the classroom! Its a super social and creative activity and is great for building up those muscles in the hand and arm.

Spring Painting.

More from our Spring day outdoors. The children love the freedom of painting outdoors. They're mixing their colours and painting shells at the table and painting masterpieces over at the fence. I love to see them so happy outdoors.

Cleanup after the storm!

Madison is helping to rake up all the bark back in to place after a stormy night. Great job Madison!

Unifix cubes.

These unfix cubes are a good fun way for this age group to explore pushing and pulling and help strengthen the muscles in their hands.

Chillin with my buddies!

Taking a break after a hard mornings work with Killian, Jake and Natalia.

Good man Samuel!

More obstacle course fun, this time Samuel skipping through the rope ladder.

Great jumping Amelia!

Garden Music

The children love to bring the instruments outside where they have the freedom to be as loud as they want to be! Fiadh loves the xylophone!

Madison in the Winter sun

The wheels on the bus.

The children love dressup! Here they all made their bus and Killian was the bus driver. They sing the "wheels on the bus" song and Killian lets all the different characters off at different stops. So funny. Cool dance move Killian!

Rockin it out!

Samuel is practising for our talent show with the drum-kit he made from stuff we recycled here in the classroom. He is just totally in his element when he is performing and I definitely see him on the world stage whether acting, singing or drumming!!

Tricky tweezers...

Megan is transferring little beads with our big tweezers. Its trickier than it looks so is great for developing her concentration and fine motor skill.

The Montessori Cylinders.

Megan is having good fun with the cylinders here. Its a great activity to help develop concentration and also an understanding of dimensions. Good girl Megan!

Book Buddies

I just love this picture. Amelia and Megan reading together for about half an hour, going over and back for different books. I love it!

Hop Little Bunny!

Fiadh decided she wanted to make a bunny mask instead of a card for her Mam and Dad for Easter. She designed it, cut it and coloured it all by herself and we were so impressed!

Giddy Up!

Jack is having fun on our Teeter Popper which is like a balance seat with suckers on the bottom. the children enjoy open ended play on it as they have fun sitting, kneeling, spinning and balancing. Its supports physical development of core and leg strength, balance and coordination. Its great fun altogether.

Ring a ring a Rosy!

The children love to dance and one of their favourite things to do is to just hold hands and dance to their favourite hits in our disco.

Watching Lamha song

Lamha song is a dvd with some great animated songs that help us all learn to sign in Lamh. All of the children love this and we try to in corporate the signs and songs into our every day. Jack is a major fan!

Favourite job on the board.

Every day the children have a different job which they find by looking for their picture on the jobs board. Great for building independence. This is definitely the most wanted job, giving out the lunches! Madison always does her jobs with a big smile.

Muinteoir Karen!!

Fiadh was delighted altogether when her Mam came into read the book for the children's story time. Karen was a big hit with all the kids and I would encourage any Mammy to come for any activity they might like to do with the children because it makes that important special connection between preschool and home for the children.

Peg Weaves.

These peg boards are great for developing children's fine motor skills and coordination as they are trickier than peg boards. Madison is really getting the hang it.

Here Amelia is making her fish wooden jigsaw. She is super fast and its a lovely time to sit with Amelia and initiate conversation and chat about the different animal parts.

Bestest friends.

Jake and Jake just hit it off from day one. Jake loves when its Thursdays and Fridays because they're the days his buddy will be coming in to see him!

Happy Valentines Day.

The children are making their Valentine poster for the window to send a message of love to their parents and Grandparents when they come to collect. They just love working together on a mini project and it inspires lots of chat and camaraderie.

Kinetic Sand

All the kids love kinetic sand.Its like a lovely sensory combination of sand and putty and its a super open ended activity where the children can just get creative on their own terms and enjoy the social interactions with their friends.

The Zoo.

Creating a zoo is another great child led activity where the kids are directing their own play. Super for developing speech and social skills.

mixing moisturisers!

This activity is great for developing sorting and matching skills in a fun way as Fiadh takes the lids off and tries to match them up again. Its also good for developing her hand muscles to get ready for writing in big school.

Goldilocks and the 3 Bears

This is an interactive story of "Goldilocks and the 3 bears". It comes with the cottage, forest, all the furniture and of course Goldilocks and the bears. So each of the children get to act out the scene with the props. Super for this age in particular.

Muinteoir Megan!

Today Megan is reading our book. She holds open the pages and describes what she sees in the pictures. All the children really enjoy this and its super for boosting confidence.