Cheeky Cherubs Early Years Schools

We were delighted to be invited up for the launce of 'My Little Library Book Bags' with Bishopstown Library and the Minister of State, Jerry Buttimer. A group of children from Cheeky Cherubs were delighted to get on the bus and travel to the library to get their bags. They also got to listen to some amazing stories being read and partook in some fun sing songs along with it before getting the bus back to Cheeky Cherubs.

My Little Library Bag is a free initiative for every child aged 4–6 across Ireland. Each bag contains books to help children prepare for starting school, along with supporting resources for parents.

We had a fabulous time and want to thank all involved for the invitation. Please see the news article attached for further information.

https://www.facebook.com/share/1UNapUzSKA/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Scheme offering free books to children staring school launched at Bishopstown library Thousands of children have benefitted from The My Little Library Bag initiative since its inception four years ago

In recent weeks the children and team at Bishopstown were very busy working together to prepare our outdoor space for the summer months ahead. The children enthusiastically took part in a variety of gardening and outdoor activities, including planting flowers, watering plants , and tidying different areas of the garden to help create a bright and welcoming environment for everyone to enjoy.

The children worked together to prepare the sand pit, climbing frames, and hammocks, making sure all areas were ready for outdoor play and exploration during the summer months. The children showed great excitement and interest while carrying out different tasks, talking about summer, nature, and all the fun activities they look forward to enjoying outside. We also found some worms while we were preparing the areas and we made sure to return them to a safe place.

This hands-on experience provided many valuable learning opportunities. The gardening activities supported the children’s fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination as they scooped soil, carried watering cans, planted flowers, and carefully cared for the garden areas. The activity also encouraged creativity and imagination as the children explored the outdoor environment and shared ideas with one another as well as everything being super fun :).

The children in the Explorers in Bishopstown thoroughly enjoyed a creative and engaging sensory play activity using toy cars and paint to create colourful tracks and patterns on large sheets of paper 🎨🫟. The children enthusiastically explored how the cars moved through the paint, observing the different marks and lines they could make while pretending they were travelling to a variety of familiar places. During the activity, many conversations took place about visiting the ice cream shop, the shoe shop , and going on exciting journeys with friends and family.

This experience provided valuable opportunities for imaginative and role play, allowing the children to express their ideas, recreate real-life experiences, and develop their creativity in a meaningful way. The activity also strongly supported communication and language development as the children engaged in discussions with one another, shared ideas, described where they were travelling to, and took turns during play.

The use of toy cars encouraged the development of fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination as the children carefully pushed, rolled, and controlled the movement of the vehicles through the paint. They also explored cause and effect by noticing how different speeds and directions created varying patterns and tracks on the paper. Overall, this was a fun, stimulating, and enriching learning experience that promoted creativity, sensory exploration, problem-solving, and collaborative play in an enjoyable and meaningful environment

On Friday we had a fantastic annual training day with our wonderful team 💛

We explored a range of inspiring topics with guest speakers such as Claire O' Neill from UCC who gave us a very informative talk on neurodiversity, Our very own Sarah Elizabeth who gave us a calming and insightful session on mindfulness and how to use mindfulness effectively with the children, and an engaging discussion By our own Sarah O'Leary touching on topics such as Reggio, Aistear and Cheeky Cherub's ethos. We followed on by coming together to reflect, and share our learning stories with one another which the team work so hard on each month to produce a snippet of what each child gets up to while they are here with us.

To top it all off, we finished the day with a fun and creative jewellery-making workshop which created lots of fun, laughter, creativity, and team bonding.

Days like these remind us how important it is to keep learning, growing, and supporting each other so we can provide the very best for the children in our care ✨

A big thanks to everyone for their participation in our annual training day. We had a fabulous day full of learning and connection. We hope all the educators and families have an amazing long weekend .

🌸 Spring & Easter Exploration in The Atelier 🌺

The Atelier in Bishopstown has been busy exploring the theme of Spring and Easter! 🌼🐇🐣 There has been lots of questions lately about how important bunnies, flowers, chicks and of course easter eggs are at easter time! This shows the fantastic observation skills from the children as they are out and about in shops and spotting all of these items that come around every easter.

We began looking at easter in a different way by using colour and sensory exploration to explore it, the children began their journey with a sensory provocation that introduced the theme and sparked lots of curiosity and exploration. We asked the children what reminded them of easter and from that we added coloured rice, pasta, carrots, plastic eggs and flowers to a tuff tray. There was plenty of scooping, digging, shaking, and imaginative play as they discovered and engaged with the materials.

It's been wonderful to see their creativity and excitement come to life through hands-on learning! 💛

Last week we had a delivery of grit and wood chippings in our Bishopstown centre, with the intention of adding them to our mud area. The children's smiles grew wide with excitement when they saw the bags being delivered. There was plenty of questions and good observations on how "That's in Bishopstown playground", "Can we help and make our own playground?".

Getting children involved in age-appropriate “heavy work,” such as carrying, pulling and pushing supports both physical and mental development. These activities build strength, coordination, and body awareness (linked to Proprioception), while also improving focus and emotional regulation.

The children were delighted to grab buckets and pots and lined up ready for them to be filled. They then carried the grit and wood chippings over to the area we were working on and began spreading them out. "Its really looking like a playground now" one child mentioned. The team work was fantastic between the children as they helped each other out. The new name for the mud area now seems to be "Cheeky Cherubs playground" and the children are enjoying running around and exploring the area with even more potential.

One morning, one of the children initiated a game where she set up a train using chairs in the room. She used her leadership skills to guide everyone at play and all friends were excited to join. The children came up with an idea to have tickets based on their age, and made sure every one has one when getting off and on the train.

This experience supported children’s social development as well as team work, language skills, understanding, kindness and respect. Everyone carefully listened to each other and enjoyed sharing different rules of the game.

This was such a great opportunity for children to use their imagination. The children had so much to say such as, “You can get off the train now as you’re not swimming”, “My baby wants to go to the park”, “Guys don’t stop here, if you get in the cave the wolf will wake up ”, “Oh no the train is empty” and “Sit down ding, ding, ding”. This shows the experiences the children were having by using their imagination and bringing it to life.

The Atelier, Bishopstown

**Exciting Opportunity for those qualified in Early Care and Education**

Job Type: Permanent

Cheeky Cherubs has an opportunity for you to join our award-winning team!

At Cheeky Cherubs we provide care and education to children from 1 years of age to school age. We are strengths focused for both our children and our educators and we are committed to continuous professional development, including non-contact teacher research time for all our educators.
We are looking for educators who are qualified in early care and education and who are dynamic, creative and have a passion for educating in the Early Years.

Employee benefits include but are not limited to;
*Annual leave including extra days for longevity
*Competitive salaries depending on qualification and experience
*Access to a pension scheme
*Access to ongoing training and professional development
*Support and mentoring from our existing knowledgeable educators

If you want to make a difference in young children’s lives and would like to join our team, please contact us at [email protected]