Acorns Montessori Rush

My Dads a Film Star!

Jake is our very own David Attenborough! He knows more about marine life than any teacher in here and we love to learn from him. Today he brought us in a DVD of his Dad diving in the Great Barrier reef and honestly he knew every living creature in that film!! The interest these kids show in the world around them gives me renewed hope for the future. We owe it to them to nurture their interest in their planet.

My clown fish

Mia, inspired by Jakes DVD, paints a beautiful Clown fish. Super little artist!

Rocket man!

Jake made a magnet rocket and then decided he was going to launch dolly off into space! Super creative imagination Jake.

Creative Montessori!

Sophie built her tower with the blocks on their sides so she could hide little presents inside for Megan! So sweet and lovely imagination at work.

At the Men's shed

We loved the whole buildup with painting the bird boxes, learning our song and chatting about what goes on in the men'sshed. The visit was so exciting. Thanks so much to Siobhan for facilitating our excursion!

Happy Valentines.

The children always love working together on mini projects and here they are making the big love heart each contributing their own messages of love for their parents.

Muinteoir Molly.

Molly's turn to be teacher and read our book for us at the end of the morning to a very engaged little audience. This really builds up their confidence for going into big school.

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.

Tricky tweezers.

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

Captain Howley's Mandolin

Jake was super happy playing the mandolin for our "in-house" talent show!

More Number balance

This number balance is super for children as it allows them to explore numbers and weight. They learn about balancing, addition and subraction.

Add the lemons!

Molly is looking dubious about the idea of lemons on her pancakes!

More water fun!

Pancake Tuesday

Molly's getting stuck into spreading the maple syrup on her pancake..yum yum yum

Bird feeders.

The children loved making the bird feeders for the garden to get the birds through the Winter months.

A star for Mammy

Natalia like all children love playdough. They love to chat about what they're making as they go and here Natalia made a lovely star for her Mammy.

Measuring a piece of paper

Jake is interested in how much the extra piece of paper weighs on the scales.

Gone Fishing

Molly and her friends are really enjoying themselves playing our magnet number fishing game with her friends!

Me and my Buddy!

Taking it easy!

"I'm just taking a break from running around Val!"

Super painting Soph!

Junior Picassos!

The children love to stand up at the easel to paint as it gives them that extra freedom of movement with big brush strokes. Its a great way to express emotions and to chat about whats going on in their pictures.

A heart for Mammy.

Smelly Jars!

This activity is great for developing sorting and matching skills in a fun way as Alisha 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.

The Map to the Men's shed!

Killian was our contact man in here for the men's shed and he drew us a map to help us find its location!

Jungle gym!

The kids love this activity. Its a really fun way to develop gross motor skills and to give the children a much needed big movement break during the morning.

The Cinema!

Killian and Samuel created their own cinema for their friends. They handed out "tickets and popcorn" and were then treated to 2 films- Mary Poppins and Frozen. So funny watching them play out the films with puppets and songs! Super imaginations.

Valentines love.

Sophie loves art and crafts and will always finish a craft to completion. she's pouring all her love in to this Valentines card for Mammy.

Hoovering up!

Killian and Mia are unstoppable when they get together. The creativity and the giggles are flowing! Today they made a hoover each out of their stickle bricks and proceeded to hoover up the classroom with totally contagious laughter.

Housing Construction

The kids had great fun when they decided they wanted to build a 3 story house. Great team work between design and construction workers!

Muinteoir Killian

Killian's turn to read the book! It was so funny, usually the children describe the pictures they see on every page but Killian actually remembered the whole book almost word for word!

Tricky tweezers.

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

Molly's numbers.

Molly enjoys this maths activity which involves taking objects out of different number boxes and matching them up to her sandpaper numbers. Great feeling of satisfaction when she gets them all right!

Train journey.

Jake made a train track and then decided to drive his trains to lots of different stops including the library, the zoo and here to the "block factory"! Great imagination Jake.

Water play

Alisha loves water play. Its a great sensory activity which has loads of learning opportunities built in such as volumes, measuring and development of coordination.

"One more piece"

Tile Laying

Jake is taking on the role of the tiler to lay the letter tiles for Jack before he comes in on Thursday. I love the hammer and goggles Jake! Great man.

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.

Our own beanstalk!

Following on from our beanstalk building in the classroom we planted a real one in the garden.

Plant some tiny seeds.

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

Painting shells.

Spring has Sprung!

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

Now I know my ABC..

Taking the learning outdoors...

More seed planting

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.

Wheel Rolling.

An open ended play thing! This electrical wire spool provides so many opportunities from making it into a Christmas tree in the Winter to rolling and using as an outdoor painting table in the Spring!

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!