​EARLY START 2024

The time has come to say goodbye......
It has been a wonderful year full of learning and fun. The children have made great friendships throughout the year. It has been a pleasure to teach all your children.
​We hope they enjoyed Early Start.
​We wish them all the best starting Junior Infants.

Have a lovely summer to all our families.
​Karla and Karen

Morning children having some fun with water play.....

Slide show below

Puppet show

Diggers and dirt....Every childs dream

Lets cool down with some icecream

​Certificates and medals

​Parachute games

Water play.....

Slideshow

​Afternoon children enjoying the obstacle course

Certs and medals

Sports day was alot of fun. The children enjoyed a running race, egg and spoon, sack race, relay race, bean bag race, water challenge, scoring goals and an obstacle course. They all received a certificate and a medal.

Slideshow of all the action
​

​Following on from our Three little Pigs theme, we enjoyed a sticking activity. The children stuck down, straw, sticks and block papers onto houses.

Slideshow

​Sensory Rice Play

The children are spending time in the builders workshop this week.....

​Guess what happened...

The children had been painting pigs, then sticking on ears and snouts...... This led to playing a trick on teacher Karla.... This led to making houses and role play..... This led to reading the story.... This led to making houses for small pigs in small world play....
This is how play works, follow the interest to see what emerges.
​This was such fun

Whos afraid of the big bad wolf........

Danika played the big bad wolf

3 cute pigs

We made a straw house, a stick house and a brick house

We had fun role playing the 3 little pig story. The children stuck snouts on their noses..... There were giggles and screams as they ran from one house to the next. Each child got a turn to role play

Working hard on peg boards

Busy working on tracing patterns and shapes with a crayon

Butterfly masks

​School trip

​The children enjoyed their trip to Newbridge Farm. The weather could not be helped...but didnt dampen our spirits...
We walked around the farm first, then sheltered from the rain and had our lunch and then enjoyed time in the playground.
​The rain stopped for the playground part. The children were very well behaved and mixed well. The bus journey was very exciting..
They will certaintly sleep well tonight.
​We would like to thank Laura from St. Michaels House who was with us this year and to Noahs mum Barbara who was delighted to join us.
​We also had the great company of Aine Clinton who was on work experience. We hope she enjoyed her time with us.
​

Picnic time.....

Slideshow of photos

​Put 4 eyes on each monster....

Rainbow number 3.

Active Schools Week

​The children enjoyed a few active challenges this week.

Number Games

Sponge painting numbers

Slideshow of some number activities

​Peter and Osaze enjoying the roundabout.

​Yoga.

Slide show

Egg Hunt

​Feed the bunny maths game

​Easter Bingo

EASTER BUNNY VISIT

Slideshow

This race track was a big hit this week.

Sponge painting

Easter Art has begun.....

BUG HUNT

Both groups went on a bug hunt this week. Each child had a shovel and a pot to collect insects. It was great fun.
​We collected lots of different bugs and sat on logs in the fairy garden to talk about what we found. Thanks to Sharon for a great experience.

Afternoon group photos

​Exploring water play

Lots of building going on this week

​Welcome to Osaze who joined our afternoon group

Jumping hoops

Laura and Peter enjoying a walk in the sun

Blowing bubbles

​SPRING IS HERE

We are learning all about Spring.
​This week we looked at the life cycle of a frog. We played some early maths games with a dice where the children used their frog counter to hop the correct number of spaces across the lilly pads. Another dice game they enjoyed was ...feed the frog... They had to throw the dice and feed the frog the correct number of insects. We gave the children simple trails to work on using a wipe off marker.
​The song we are loving at the moment is called....Spring is here.... By the Learning Station

​HAPPY ST PATRICKS DAY to all our families.

Well done to all the classes for their performances at assembly today.
​The children also enjoyed some Irish dancing.

Cutting and sticking activity.
​Making an Irish flag

During our Irish week, we practiced some easy words and phrases with the children. Through out the week they earned green tickets for using these words. Everyone enjoyed some prizes on Thur and Fri. We learned an Irish song to perform for assembly on Friday.

Interactive games are such fun. The children enjoyed popping the leprechaun hats

Our hunt for the leprechauns gold .....

We collected all the gold and Fionn the leprechaun shared it with us. We found the bridge he lives beside in the yard and some magic dust that Karen sprinkled on everyone. It gave us magic FAST feet.

St Patricks Day Art

Painting shamrocks

Finger painting rainbows

MACDONALDS

We set up a MacDonalds restaurant for Aistear play this month.
The children love it and are taking turns to serve or be the customer.
​

Slide show of photos

​Gardening with Sharon

Slideshow below

​World Book Day

Well done to 3rd and 6th class pupils for coming to Early Start today to read with the children. This was beneficial for everyone involved. The older boys worked very well showing great patience, kindness and understanding while working with children so young. Well done.

Slideshow below

​Learning all about rectangles this week

Completing a rectangle worksheet
​Working very hard.....

Pancake Tuesday

The children enjoyed warm pancakes this morning instead of toast.
​The children made pancakes, flipped them and tossed them.....catch them if you can.....
​We sang some pancake songs and a story about a runaway pancake

Making pancakes

Gardening with Sharon. Planting Spinach seeds

Triangle week

Taking turns playing shape monster.

Enjoying turns on the interactive board.... Find the triangles.

Sponge painting triangles

​HAPPY MID TERM EVERYONE.
​HAVE A GREAT BREAK

The children had a fun morning. They had waffles with chocolate sauce and a Valentine disco.

Happy Valentines day ......

Sophie all dressed in pink, ready for the Valentine disco......

The children made cute cards.....

Shape theme... Printing circles

​Noah enjoying one of our new activities

Wet sand for building....

Decorating hearts with stickers and stampers

The children are busy making valentines day cards

Sticking activity

Love is in the air.......

​The children enjoyed this burst the love bubble on the white board.

​Fun with magnets

Water play

Welcome Celine.

MULTI CULTURAL WEEK

The children danced to some Nigerian music. Girls danced with hankerchiefs and boys danced with sticks. We made green necklaces with links and beads and painted green on our face. We danced at assembly in the Hall.

​P.E. We have been using the parachute for games this week.

Sticking coloured paper to decorate our letters

Matching letters

Finger painting

Letters

Using playdough to fill in the circles in our letter. At first we learn our starting letter of our name. Then we get to recognise other letters in it so we can pick it from a group of names. We will do lots of letter recognition games in the coming weeks

We are learning the start letter of our names.

A slideshow of super heroes...... More to be added as some children were absent. They children loved this idea.

Small world city....... A world of imagination

This is our Super Hero City.

Each child will pick a super hero and I will take their photo and cut out their face and make them into their hero.
​Hulk and spiderman are very popular.

Blowing bubbles

We will be doing a super hero theme for aistear. We will keep it for a few weeks. This will build the childrens imaginative play, role play, creative skills, team work, confidence and social play.

Making Hulk Smash

Second super hero den..... There were only 2 children. They had their lunch in the den..... We skipped the jobs and made it a very fun day

Super Hero theme

The children are enjoying dressing up as super heroes. Each hero has a cape, magic bracelet and mask.
We made a hero den and there is a password to get in the door.....
There are coloured lights , a roof and soft mats on the floor.
​We give them missions to complete, such as freeing a barbie who is tied up, find her using hot and cold cues. We are singing super hero songs.
​Below is a slide show of all the fun

​Happy new year to all in Early Start

​MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL THE FAMILIES IN EARLY START. HAVE A GREAT BREAK AND SEE YOU BACK ON MONDAY 6TH JANUARY.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS
​KARLA AND KAREN

The children had a great performance in the church. Everyone sang well and participated. They looked so cute in their costumes. We hope you all enjoyed it and all the other classes who sang.

​We are so excited . Getting ready to go to the church for our first Nativity.

Scratch Art

We were delighted to see Mary Ann dress up as she was reluctant at first. But she joined in over the last few days

Choices choices.... Santa or an elf... Who should I be....

Santa came to visit today. The children sang songs for him , received a present and got a photo taken. Santa says they are all on his good list.....

Santas sleigh

Our santa sleigh is being packed up with presents and ready to go. The children role play santa, elves and rudolph. We are singing lots of Christmas songs. Below is a slideshow of all our fun this week

Painting stockings

Snow trough.....

​Santas Grotto

The christmas grotto is great fun. The children take turns being Santa , the elf and the customer.
​Some children even put on a santa voice.... Great role play. Below is a slideshow of the week

Sponge painting snowmen

Making tree decorations

Decorating our Christmas Tree

Slideshow

Archie is busy reading a story to some of his friends while they are munching on some morning toast... Well done Archie.

Winter hat and mittens sticking activity

Making neck laces from links

WINTER CLOTHES SHOP

Our aistear theme is a clothes shop, selling warm jumpers, trousers, socks, gloves, scarves, shoes, coats, hats, etc
​The children take turns to be the shop keeper and customers. The children have really loved this shop and are learning what language we use when shopping. The customer service in this shop is outstanding.......
​Below is a slide show of our 2 weeks.

Do you like our new hats, shoes and boots.........

Harper Mae is all ready to go to a party... Full outfit

STORY TIME

The children really enjoyed the story
Aliens love underpants.
​They laughed when I wore some pants on my head. So a few children loved this idea and wore some on their heads to the yard. Great fun

Gymnastics

The children are enjoying gymnastics. We are teaching the pencil roll and the egg roll first. We are strengthening our core muscles and practicing balance skills on benches. Below is a slideshow of some rolls and bench work.

​Preparation for our Nativity.

The children are busy learning the Nativity songs. They will be given the words to bring home so you can help them get to know each song. We recorded the children singing the songs so you can hear the tune. Below I will put up videos of each song.
​The children will be given roles and costumes. We will send home any words they need to learn. Some roles dont have any lines to learn so dont worry if you havent been given any lines etc

Here are the morning groups videos......

OUR FIRST NATIVITY

IM A LITTLE ANGEL

TO BETHLEHEM WE GO

DO YOU HAVE A PLACE TO STAY

THREE LITTLE SHEPHERDS

RIDE YOUR CAMEL

Here are the afternoon groups videos

OUR FIRST NATIVITY

IM A LITTLE ANGEL

TO BETHLEHEM WE GO

DO YOU HAVE A PLACE TO STAY

THREE LITTLE SHEPHERDS

RIDE YOUR CAMEL

​SCIENCE WEEK

​As part of floating and sinking, the afternoon group made boats from tinfoil and tested to see if they would float

​Science week

This week was science week. The children enjoyed a science experiment each day. We covered magnets, floating and sinking, colour mixing, magic pictures and skittle experiment. Below is a slideshow of science week

Magnetic or non magnetic

Floating and sinking

Colour mixing.... Blue and yellow make green

Magic pictures. Draw your picture with candle wax...... You cant see it. Watch it appear when you paint the page

Skittle experiment. Rainbow colours

Slideshow of science week

Concentration skills , trying out a new activity

​FEELINGS

This week the theme is emotions and feelings. The children learned about happy, sad, angry, surprised, tired, excited etc. We sang songs about feelings, played feeling bingo and every morning the children placed their photo on the feelings chart. Arts and crafts included making funny faces, and making a little character

How are you feeling today......

The children used all kinds of stickers to decorate their animal.

​HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE
​ENJOY THE BREAK

We dressed up for Halloween.
​Have a look at our costumes below

Guess who.....I am a Mummy.... But who am I

​We sang and watched lots of Halloween songs

Pumpkin carving

The children helped take out all the seeds and flesh from the pumpkin. We cut out the face, turned off the lights and lit a candle. We sang ...The pumpkin man song.... Very scary BOO at the end

Slideshow.... Taking the inside out of the pumpkin is a messy job.....

Halloween week

We played Halloween bingo, cut black paper to make witches hats, played with green goblin guts, made spiders out of playdough, sticks and eyes, completed mazes, played a shadow matching game, and enjoyed spooky things to find in our sand tray
​Photos in a slide show below

Spiders made from hand prints

Goblin guts... Use the tweezers to find the spiders

Making Frankensteins with our painted feet
​

​This week we got a tour of the Glas Garden. We saw a fairy fort and wishing well, a magic bridge, a pond with lily pads, plants, veg and flowers. Sharon showed us some cucumbers and peppers growing in the warm poly tent. We planted onion bulbs in the ground. Some of us picked rasberries and ate them. Here is a slideshow of photos

We shook the poppy pod to get seeds and planted them

We picked apples to eat from the orchard

We got to feel this soft furry leaf called Lambs Ear

​Laura is painting Peters hand green.....I wonder why.... Can you guess what we are making.....

​Job chart.

​Each day the children get jobs such as the weather, calendar, days of the week, turn off and on the lights, pick a song, dress the frog, tell some news, leader of the line, count the kids etc
Each day the jobs rotate.
​Here is Noah. The countdown is on for Halloween

TOAST PARTY

Every morning the children will be offered toast between 8.50 and 9.10
This delicious snack will set them up for the day and warm their tummies on these cold mornings.
​DONT BE LATE..... YUM YUM

Creating spikes for his hedgehog using a fork

The children did finger painting. They painted Autumn leaves.

​They also used a fork and paint to create spikes on their hedgehogs

​Playdough hedgehogs.

Sponge painting a hedgehog. The children had a template of circles to use their sponge to go down and up.

​AUTUMN HAS ARRIVED

We are learning all about Autumn. Our activities, songs, stories and circle time will be based on this theme. The children are enjoying songs called Autumn Leaves and Grey Squirrel.

Noah enjoying sand play.

Peter enjoying some messy tactile play.

​Gardening with Sharon

Every Friday the children enjoy gardening with Sharon. Today they were picking and collecting green tomatoes. Below is a slideshow of photos. Enjoy.

​​PAINTING AND STICKING

Water play....washing the babies

​We practice cutting skills every week.

​Painting 2 little dickie birds.

​Our Blue Den

​We put a light in our blue den. The children use the timer to take turns. 2 kids at a time. Dens are great fun

​Here are some photos of the children enjoying the den they painted.

​This weeks colour is blue. We are making a blue den out of a cardboard box. I cut some windows and a door into it. The children are all helping to paint it.

Welcome to our new friend Archie

Keeping busy.....

Here is a little video of a new song we are learning called... Shake your sillies out

Here are a few photos of this week

RED is our colour of the week.
​We have a red table, red activities, colouring, sticking and songs.

Red crayon rubbing

​Welcome to our new friend Arlo

Action song.... Elmo. If your happy....

Hurray ..... Hands up....

Finger painting.

We are finger painting balloons today. Using our fingers instead of a brush. Tactile activity for the children

Fun in the rainbow playground

Below is a slide show of the children in the rainbow playground. Lots of climbing, running, balancing, reaching. Fingers crossed for more sunny days

Learning to walk in our line out to yard...

Circle Time

The children gather on the mat. They pick a bubble spot to sit in. At the moment we are singing a welcome song to get to know each others names.
​You might hear your child talking about Sooty, he is the teddy dog. He helps us sing our song.

We say hello to Karla
We say hello to Karla
We say hello to Karla,
​ Were glad you came today.

When its time to clean up, we all go over to the door. The children put their hands on their heads and we ring a bell. They are learning very quickly.

​PAINTING ACTIVITY

We are singing Twinkle twinkle little star this week. Here are the children enjoying painting a star. We watched a lovely song on the white board and did the actions.

The children painted their handprint. We will keep it and start a journal of art in a scrapbook for each child.

Slideshow

Here is a slideshow of the fun we had this week

First Day Photos

We would like to welcome all the children and their families to Early Start 2024
Our classroom is all about fun and learning through play. This is where they begin their journey. X
​
Karla and Karen

​Early Start 2024