OUR ROOMS | stickyfingersclane

Lilies Tiny Tots

Our youngest room is Lilies Tiny Tots. This room is designed for children of our youngest age group, beginning at 1 years of age. This room is designed to provide a warm, cosy and stimulating environment for young children. It is suitably equipped with a variety of age appropriate toys designed for sensory stimulation.

Our programme incorporates developing communication skills, gross and fine motor movements plus music, song, stories and fun. We keep a daily record so parents see what their child's needs were each day and the progress they make. As well as our plug in baby monitors, staff check and record in writing, their observations of the tiny tots, every ten minutes while they are sleeping.

At this stage of development, as they become more aware of their surroundings, children need to be given the opportunity to explore and interact with their environment, while still receiving the personal care and attention they enjoyed as a baby. We have developed a room routine that balances the particular needs of this very special age group. The staff have created a curriculum with designated times for activities, free play and rest, each child is given the freedom to discover the world around them in a safe and secure way, while still receiving nurturing care from our attentive staff. We keep records of each child’s development that are updated on a weekly basis, and our open-door policy allows parents to talk directly to their child’s key worker regarding any questions, suggestions or concerns that may arise.

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Bluebells Playschool

Our playroom provides a happy and caring environment, which encourages children to learn social and development skills, through activities and play. At this stage of development children are introduced to feeding themselves, as well as free play with a range of activities and challenges including music, sand, water, arts and crafts, gardening etc. Comfortable sleeping arrangements are available during the day.

Our playschool room combines the best aspects from a younger age-appropriate curriculum with those of the great structured elements of the older ECCE rooms and creates a great stepping stones for the children to prepare them for the more focused preschool routine.

The curriculum the staff have designed allow for children to communicate, explore & think, play, enhances their wellbeing and gives them a sense of identity and belonging within their class group and community.

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Daisies Afterschool

At our After School we offer fun-filled activities such as cooking, arts and crafts, and homework support

Homework Policy

It is the policy of the Sticky Fingers to provide a period of time each day for homework. This session will be scheduled to take place directly after children have had their snack/meal.

Snack/Meal time is relaxed and leisurely to enable children to unwind, socialise and discuss daily events.

Each child will get sufficient time to do their homework.

Staff will contribute to a quiet relaxed atmosphere during homework sessions and encourage children to do the same and will be there to help children with their homework. However staff will not be responsible for signing children’s homework as it is very important that parents check each child’s homework.

The After School Service recognises the importance of the parent's role in homework support and encourages them to check work completed, hear reading again etc. and play an active role in the homework supervision and support of their child.

Summer Camp

Our annual summer camp in July and August is full of fun fully supervised activities.

The following is a sample of some of the things the children will partake in during the afterschool programme

• Group Project Work

The children will be involved as much as possible in the planning, researching, carrying out and documenting of each stage (Use of ICT and Camera)

• Lego Club

This is designed to challenge and inspire each child's creativity by exploring plans and building cool creations such as ships, helicopters and submarines or whatever their imagination leads them to.

• Mad Scientist

Here we spark imaginative learning and try and encourage the children to ask questions, probe for answers, conduct investigations and experiments and collect data

• Baking

Children learn to appreciate a wider variety of food when they participate in preparation. Baking also lends itself to teaching children a number of skills such as weighing, grating, squeezing etc

• Arts/Crafts

Children love doing a variety of arts and crafts as an outlet to be creative and have some fun! Little do they know that it is so good for their development as well!

• Fun Bingo / Card Games / Charades

• Messy Stuff... for example

◦ Slime

◦ Bubble Wrap painting

◦ Painting with apples

◦ Rainbow Foam play

◦ Straw Paining

◦ Milk Art

• Music

• Gardening

• Drama

• Engineering

'Constructionism means learning by making something'

Model building, geting the children to develop their engineering, design and imaginative skills

• Fashion Club 'one for the girls'

The children get to design their own clothes on paper using glue, glitter, ribbon etc.

• Visit to the local library

Book review

Group poetry writing

Teaching children to read early has multiple benefits and is the key to childrens academic future.

• Adventure Playground

Children will brought at least once a month to the local park which is also strictly supervised by a Sticky Fingers member of staff

• Extra Cool Activities

From time to time Sticky Fingers will organise and invite the children to take part in activities such as Stretch n Grow (childrens fitness programme) and other extra cool activites that make learning fun

• Indoor/Outdoor Physical Activities

◦ INDOOR

◦ Yoga (breathing techniques)

◦ Zumba (dancing to music)

◦ Stretching 'light exercises'

◦ OUTDOOR

◦ Obstacle Course

◦ Hula Hoop

◦ Pathway Chalk

◦ Nature Walk

◦ Soccer

◦ Treasure Hunt

◦ Mini Golf

◦ Kite Flying

◦ Tag Rugby

◦ Wellie Boot Throwing

Daffodils, Poppies & Sunflowers ECCE

These three rooms are our ECCE rooms which provide children with 1 or 2 free preschool years before they attend Junior Infants depending on the child's age on entry to the ECCE programme. Children are entitled to the free ECCE year from three years of age.

Sticky Fingers combines a variety of educational approaches to curriculum. Preschool children also receive the value of participating in a Montessori Programme.

Every Friday a learning story will be created to display snapshots of our work completed during the week; the learning story book will be available at any time in our classroom for each of you to read when you are dropping off or collecting your children, this will include a weekly group observation of how our activities and work have linked back to Aistear and our curriculum plan.

Aistear: Aistear is the new curriculum framework for children from birth to six years in Ireland.

It gives information to help plan for and provide enjoyable and challenging learning experiences so that all children can grow and develop as competent and confident learners. Aistear describes the types of learning that are important for children in their early years, and offers ideas and suggestions for how this learning might be nurtured. The Framework also provides guidelines on aspects of early childhood practice. Aistear is based on 12 broad principles. Many of these are similar to the principles in the Primary School Curriculum (1999) with some additional ones, for example, a principle on learning through play and one on children as citizens.

Each principle is presented using a short theoretical statement which is then explained from the child’s perspective. Many of Aistear’s principles are also similar to those in Síolta, The National Quality Framework for Early Childhood Education (2006).

Aistear uses four themes to outline children’s learning and development. These themes connect and overlap with each other:

Well-being
Identity and Belonging
Communicating
Exploring and Thinking

In our classroom there will be one hour of structured preschool work each day. During this hour, the teacher will bring children up individually and focus on learning experiences at the child’s own pace. The child will progress through the different activities under no pressure and will move on at their own pace, when both themselves and the teacher feel that they are ready. Each child will come up every second day for individual preschool work. While children come up to do their structured work individually, the rest of the class will engage in other table-top activities work that they have been shown previously or table top activities.

The aim of Montessori Education is to prepare the child for life. The teacher introduces to each child the skills and qualities necessary to live life to the full in an independent, safe and happy way. It also develops the child to their full potential. In the Montessori classroom, the children explore the world through their senses and their own activity. They develop a love of learning and enjoy working, which hopefully will stay with them throughout life. Montessori is an education for life, a learning process environment. Montessori is about learning to balance responsibility with freedom of choice. It offers children the opportunity to realize their potential, in a non-competitive environment and seeks to promote in them: