OneWorld Preschool

In preparation for welcoming our real chick eggs on Monday this week we learned all about the life cycle of chickens.
We made chicks and hens in art and played some fun games in circle time. We also had some great sensory tuff tray activities.
Some of the children decided to make chicks and nests with playdough too.
We are really looking forward to seeing the process in real life next week 🐣

✨ Keeping Our Teeth Healthy in Preschool! ✨🦷

This week our preschool class had so much fun learning all about keeping our teeth clean and healthy!

During circle time, we had wonderful discussions about visiting the dentist, why brushing our teeth is important, and the different types of teeth we have (incisors, canines and molars!). We also chatted about the tooth fairy and sorted foods and drinks into “good for our teeth” and “not so good for our teeth,” helping the children to understand how sugar can affect our smiles.

Our tuff tray activities gave everyone lots of hands-on learning opportunities. The children:
🪥 Threaded laces through tooth shapes to strengthen fine motor skills
🪥 Practised “flossing” playdough out of bricks
🪥 Washed the “germs” off model teeth using brushes and water

These playful experiences supported sensory exploration while reinforcing important self-care skills.

We also enjoyed lots of creative art and craft activities, including:
Painting giant teeth with toothbrushes and puffy paint
Designing big mouths full of teeth
Creating cotton ball tooth displays
Making our own little toothbrushes, practising our cutting and fine motor skills

Through these activities, the children developed their fine motor control, hand–eye coordination, language skills, and understanding of personal care routines.

Keep those shiny smiles by brushing at home at least 2 times a day!

As we are closed next week for mid-term we had a busy week celebrating the events we will miss next week. We celebrated Pancake Tuesday, the start of Ramadan and Chinese new year as well as Valentine’s Day with fun and tasty activities. Enjoy the break and see you all on the 23rd.

This week, we blasted off on a space adventure! 🧑‍🚀. We learned about planets, stars, the moon, and astronauts through stories, songs, art, and hands-on activities.

The children are using their imaginations to zoom through the galaxy, count planets, and discover how big and amazing space can be! 🌍

This week at preschool we have been busy exploring numbers 1–5 through lots of hands-on, playful activities! Learning through play is such an important part of early years development, and the children had a wonderful time building their early numeracy skills in fun and meaningful ways.

Art Activities 🎨
We got creative while developing number recognition and fine motor skills:
• We made number pizzas, carefully matching the correct number of “pepperoni” to each pizza
• Created colourful jellyfish, using cue tips to paint the correct number of dots
• Enjoyed gluing collages to show the number of years old we are
• Explored finger painting, tracing and forming different numbers with paint

Tuff Tray Activities
Our tuff trays encouraged problem-solving, counting, and number matching:
• Matching cut-up paper plates to their corresponding dot patterns
• Rolling playdough balls and finding numbers on the number mat
• Creating cute number caterpillars
• Building numbers using number blocks

Circle Time & Music
We brought numbers to life through listening, movement, and rhythm:
• Playing number-listening games like Cookie Jar and Rainbow Numbers, where children found the number they heard
• Clapping the number we heard and using rhythm sticks to count and keep a steady beat
• Singing favourite number songs such as Hickory Dickory Dock, Five Little Monkeys, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Once I Caught a Fish Alive, and lots of fun finger games

✨ Why This Matters
Learning to recognise numbers through play helps children develop strong early numeracy skills, supports language development, and builds confidence. By making learning fun and interactive, children are more engaged and eager to explore new concepts—setting a strong foundation for future learning.

What a fantastic week of counting, creating, and having fun with numbers! 💛

One of our favourite days of the year! Our international day with our families. We would like to say a huge thank you to all our families that got involved again this year. The children were dressed beautifully and they brought some really lovely food for us all to share from around the world. 🌍 it was a wonderful day and we couldn’t do it without you. ❤️

Exploring Our Wonderful World! 🌎

This month we have been on an amazing journey around the world! We've been learning about planet Earth, the land and water, and exploring the 7 continents.

- We discovered globes and maps, and learned a fun song to remember the continents, and another song saying hello in different languages
- We talked about how our families come from different places, and located them on the map
- We created flags of our family home countries, designed passports, and decorated suitcases for travel ✈️
- Our sensory tuff trays were a hit exploring different continents and countries

We also started to explore certain continents in more detail:

- Australia: We made kangaroos and boomerangs 🐨
- Europe: We paint-stamped shamrocks for Ireland 🇮🇪 and decorated eagles to represent Poland 🇵🇱
- South America: We made shakers from Brazil 🇧🇷 and set up a football tuff tray ⚽️

Next week, we'll be exploring Africa and Asia, and we're excited to welcome our parents to join us for some fun activities!

Aistear themes:

- Exploring and Thinking: Children explored the world and its diversity.
- Well-being: Children developed a sense of belonging and connection to their families and cultures.
- Identity and Belonging: Children celebrated their own heritage and learned about others.
- Communicating: Children used language to describe their experiences and express their thoughts.

What a fun week! We had a visit from Santa, made gingerbread men, played with sensory tuff trays, made hot chocolate with halal marshmallows, decorated cookies and finished off today with a party!

Happy Christmas to all those celebrating.

It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year! 🎄❤️

Our preschoolers have been spreading Christmas cheer this week! The children have been busy with festive fun, from art and crafts to sensory play and circle time delights.

- Art & Craft: We made sparkly pipe cleaner Christmas trees, magical wands, fork-painted Santas, and candy cane finger paintings. We even worked together on a giant Christmas tree collage!
- Sensory Tuff Trays: We built snowmen with loose parts, threaded candy canes with beads, fed the reindeer, and decorated the tree with festive trims.
- Circle Time: We learned Christmas songs for our concert next week, read stories, and played games like "Match the Item to its Shadow" and "Guess Who's Saying Ho Ho Ho!" while blindfolded.

We are looking forward to next week when the celebrations continue with more Christmas fun and games and even a visit from the Big Man himself!

Winter is in full swing in our preschool as well as outside! ❄️
This week’s activities included:
⛄ Making snowmen while practicing name recognition and fine-motor skills and penguins in a bottle which was trickier than it looked.
🧤 Designing mittens to explore colors and patterns and keep us warm !
☕ Pretend hot-chocolate play to encourage social skills and language and fun!
❄️ Making snowflakes with sticks to learn about shapes and symmetry.

Exploring the World Through Our Senses!

This week, we explored the world of the 5 senses! Each day, we focused on a different sense, engaging in fun and sensory activities.

- Monday: SmellWe matched scents to pictures (apple, lemon, cinnamon, curry, and coffee) and even painted with coffee for a "smelly" portrait!
- Tuesday: Sound🎶 We played a blindfolded "Guess Who" game, made music with instruments, and identified animal noises.
- Wednesday: Touch🤚 We explored mystery objects in a bag, created textured collages, and enjoyed messy play.
- Thursday: Sight🌈 We sorted animals by colour in the water tray and crafted Mr. Potato Head, labelling the 5 senses.
- Friday: Taste🍎 We chatted about different tastes, discovered what we like (and don't like), and had fun with blind taste tests!

A fun-filled week of sensory exploration!