Réaltini (Little Stars)

From 2yrs 9mths (min) to National School age (approx. 5yrs)

Pre-school starts at the age of 2 years 9 months and children must be toilet trained before starting. Our fully qualified childcare workers are committed to developing a curriculum that creates a child cantered play based environment. In the pre-school our aim is to bridge the gap from home to school and aid that transition.

The pre-school setting provides a setting which is stimulating and appropriate to the childs' age and the following activities are available;

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  Water play which encourages sense of fun and sharing and eye hand co-ordination and concepts of float and sink, ect, etc....
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  A kitchen and shop corner where the childs' imagination is encouraged and developed.
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  A dress up corner with costumes, hand bags and scarves, ect.
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  A loft corner where a child can look at books, of which there is a large range of stimulating material.
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  Block corner which stimulates the childs' imagination and manipulative skills.
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  A range of puzzles and smaller constructive toys to enhance the linguistic and reasoning powers of the children.

• Outdoor play area which consist of slide, balancing frame, sand area, large constructive toys which encourage their physical motor co-ordination skills.

Other daily activities would be arts and crafts, play dough, cutting, gluing and sticking and painting. Music and dance, free movement, news time; this is a time where social and language skills are developed.

There is an activity sheet drawn up every week which includes a different theme, this follows the seasons and the year i.e. Halloween, Christmas, Valentines’ Day, St. Patricks Day, Easter, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day.

We also have a key worker system in place where one staff will aim to meet your child needs through the day and meet with parents as required. There is no formal teaching in the classroom, but there is a routine where the child can learn in a holistic way through play and other key experiences.

Education is a natural process carried out by the human individual and is acquired not by llistening to words but by experiences in the environment.