Apples and Bananas
18 May, 2015
Our babies love the Barney song 'Apples and Bananas' which has inspired healthy food tasting in the baby room recently which of course included apples and bananas but also other types of fruit and vegetables. We used two big bowls one for the fruit and the other for the vegetables for the babies to share. We washed and chopped up a variety of fruit and vegetables and placed them in separate bowls. It was a nice day so we set up the fruit and vegetables on our outdoor mat for the babies to sit around and share the fruit and vegetables picnic style. The babies…
Teaching children about hand washing is not just important to keep them healthier in childhood... but all through life. Hand washing really is our best defence against many kinds of bacteria and viruses that cause infection. Children typically don’t like to take the time to wash their hands therefore it is very important that they are shown the correct techniques to do so and be guided to when they should wash their hands. Children learn best through their senses, and benefit from doing and seeing as well as hearing. A good idea is to let them see you washing your hands throughout the day and…
The babies got a little bit closer to nature in Crawford Childcare recently as they explored our garden looking for bugs and different types of insects. Ryan and Eilish were really keen on hunting for creepy little critters using equipment from an insect exploring kit brought in by Charlene. The kit came with a collecting jar and pooter. The babies were very clever at using these and soon became insect investigation experts. The equipment allowed the babies to explore, catch and see bugs and insects up close. Ryan loves ladybirds and spends a lot of time looking for them since he found one playing in…
The toddlers have been talking about cats and often crawl around pretending to be cats. So following this interest the toddlers have set about learning more about them. We have flash cards showing the toddlers what the cats use as furniture such as their beds, bowls and scratching posts. We are discussing what food cats like to eat. Beatriz told us cats like to drink milk. We spoke to some toddlers explaining that cats like to use scratching posts. Seamus kept asking “why” curious to find out more information. Some ideas we came up with included “It feels good” and “Cos they itchy” and “It…
At Crawford Childcare, Co. Cork we are currently working towards becoming an accredited Health Promoting Service. One of the areas we have been working on for this is well-being/ emotional literacy. To support this we have recently introduced the idea of a friendship stop to the children. The idea is that if anyone feels a bit down or just wants someone to play with them they can visit the friendship stop and a buddy will join them to help them feel better. This has benefits for both children. The child looking for a buddy feels supported without having to talk about their feelings and without…
Recently we have been exploring potato stamping with the children in the baby room. This is a new experience for many of the children in this room. We decided to introduce this as some of our babies have shown a sensitivity to using their hands and feet directly. Although interested in the process of watching others doing this there are one or two who just haven’t liked the feel of the paint being directly on their hands and feet. As the babies seem interested in the activity we decided to give using different tools a try and so in came the potatoes!! The baby team…
As part of my College Course Early Childhood Care and Education FETAC Level 5 I am completing 120 hours work experience here in Crawford Childcare, Glanmire. It was my whole life passion and fascination to work with children. Children show us a world that we may have forgotten how to imagine and it is a world full of wonder. Small experiences are major events to children. When raindrops fall on their hands they might tell you it feels tingling or they can look at a moving worm for a long time out of pure fascination. They trust you without any doubt. It is so important…
The toddlers had a very busy month learning all about the butterfly life cycle in Crawford Childcare in Glanmire. We spent a week learning all about caterpillars. The toddlers talked about the colours of the different circles as they enthusiastically glued them together in chains to make their caterpillars. They also enjoyed listening to the story of the hungry caterpillar that Janine read to them. Everyone was very interested and listened carefully to the story. Afterwards the toddlers hoped they would find caterpillars in the garden and so a bug hunt developed. We didn’t find any caterpillars but we did find a few worms! The…
On Monday 16th March the Montessori class explored everything to do with St. Patricks Day in preparation for the real thing the next day. We coloured some flags that we thought would be brilliant to use for our St. Patricks day parade in Our childcare setting in Glanmire. We wanted to include different flags in our parade so some of the children could show what country they came from or maybe where their mommy’s and daddy’s are from. We were all excited to include countries like Spain, Poland, Latvia, Saudi Arabia, Norway, France and India, and the children in the creche were delighted to show…
Pyjama Day is something that we love to do here at Crawford Childcare, Glanmire! We do this to help raise funds for worthy causes. This year at Crawford Childcare we held our National Pyjama Day on the 6th of March in aid of Irish Autism Action and it was a great success as together as we raised a whopping 553.01 euro. We would like to say a Big Thank You to everyone that helped support us on National Pyjama Day and that it was great to see so many people pull together and help support this fundraiser. Pyjama Day is a great day when all…
