30th June to 4th July – Life In Action Week
This week we are hoping to transport our imaginary play into real life activities, such as bringing the children to a supermarket to do the shopping for the week, we are also going to visit the butchers, the fish shop, the post office and the bank.
We are hoping to open the children’s eyes to their local community, with a site seeing walking tour showing them the local hospital, churches, their new Primary schools(for some of the children)and we are hoping to gain access to Drogheda United football grounds also.
As part of “life in action” week, we are hoping to further promote independence in the children; they will assist us with preparing and cooking the meals which they have bought, and also with cleaning up after meals!!!!!
We have spent so much time implementing Aistear as part of our curriculum throughout the year involving imaginary play, so we look forward to bringing it all to life.
7th July to 11th July - History and Literature Week
This week we are hoping to instil a new found appreciation of books and reading into all of the children.
We will be taking the children to Drogheda Library to pick plenty of new and interesting books for the week. We are hoping that some of the parents might volunteer to come into our Summer Camp and hold a story session with the children, perhaps reading your child’s favourite book to all of his/her friends.
We will aim this week to write a story book with the children, using their thoughts, ideas, words and illustrations and once completed we will send a copy home for each child.
This week we are also hoping to teach the children a little about the history of Drogheda, and their local community, which will involve a trip to Old bridge house and a teddy bears picnic.
14th July to 18th July – Art And Messy Play Week
This week is all about colour, textures, creativity and experimenting.
Throughout the week we are hoping to make our own piñatas using paper mache,
We also hope to make collages, mobiles, masks, friendship bracelets, clay pottery, t-shirt decorating, puppet making, tie dye pillow cases, make dream catchers and much more.
This week we are hoping that the children will be able to decorate the outside wall for us, as we are hoping to construct a Handprint rainbow, and whatever other creative ideas the children think off.
21st July to 25th July – We Are Family Week
This week is all about family and friends. We will discuss the importance of family, immediate and extended. We are hoping to compile a small family tree with each child with the assistance of parents.
This week we will also focus on friends and the importance of friendships. We will discuss playing fair, treating each other with respect, taking care of each other especially during periods of change such as going to “big school” etc.
We will be playing lots of games and having fun with our friends, and involving family members where possible.
We will be having a friendship trip to New bridge house and farm this week, where the children will be partnered with their friends in groups for fun time in the farm and the play park.
We will hold our annual cake sale this week, every year we ask families to bake or donate goods to sell and also to come into our cake sale and buy some baked goods. All money raised from our cake sale goes to the 5th floor (the children’s ward) in our lady of Lourdes hospital.
Following our cake sale, on the same day we will invite all Grandparents into the crèche for a tea party with their grandchildren. Last year was our first Grandparents tea party and it was a huge success, what better way to spend an afternoon making memories your child and parents will have for life.
28th July to 1st August – Sports And Activity Week
This week we will introduce a number of different sports to the children in order to give the children the opportunity to try out sports and activities which they may be interested in pursuing in the future.
We will introduce tennis, Karate, Gaelic, Football, Basketball, Hip hop dancing, drama, golf and more activities that the children may be interested in.
We will have a sports day with medals and prizes to be won on the day, we will also have obstacle courses and fitness classes throughout the week.
We are hoping to have a fitness expert come in to visit the children; we will also have a hip hop instructor come in to conduct a class with the children.
We will discuss fitness, exercise and nutrition with the children and we will introduce and learn about the food pyramid.
4th August to 8th August – Occupation Week
This week we are hoping to have visitors from the fire station, the Gardai, A builder, A nurse or doctor, a primary school teacher and more people from various professions.
We would ask any parents willing to come in to speak to the children about their profession, to volunteer to do so as the children always really enjoy hearing about different jobs.
Occupation week is always very popular with the children as many professions bring vehicles, and interesting items from their profession.
11th August to 15th August – Adventure And Explorers Week
This week we will be setting up camp in the back garden, we will be cooking out doors, and we will go back in time.
We will teach the children about basic life, before electricity, television, etc, they will have a new found appreciation for all things modern by the weekend, or perhaps we will have introduced some forgotten games that the children will revive.
We also hope to explore in Townley hall woods this week, we will take a trip to the woods and look for insects, bugs, plants and trees etc.
18th August to 22nd August – Around The World In 5 Days
This week we will teach the children about the world in which we live. We will touch on many different countries and cultures.
We will cook fine cuisine from France, Spain, Italy, India, China and much more.
We will make musical instruments relating to specific countries, we will make masks, dragons etc.
25th August to 29th August – Greetings Week
This week it will be fun and games as usual however we will be saying “see you soon” to our children starting primary school and we will also be welcoming and introducing our new children to our setting, the staff and their new friends. Don’t forget the tissues this week!!!