St. Patrick’s Day Celebrations 2018

Spring is here!

We are often asked by parents when is it appropriate for their children to return to creche after an illness.

Christmas is a fun time of year for children and their families.

It is that wonderful time of year again where the witches and goblins are out on show and there are magnificent displays of pumpkins everywhere.  

We love Halloween in Giraffe! The children and staff alike love decorating the centres and dressing up and really getting into the spirit of the spooky season! Each centre held a Halloween party and the children were delighted to dress up and see their carers dress up! For some of the younger children,  it was […]

Wobbler care Seminar – Giraffe Training Academy   Giraffe Childcare’s Training Academy hosted a training day in May 2018 for 60 of our childcare practitioners with a focus on interactions with children in the Wobbler age group –  1 to 2 year olds. It was very educational day,  and we all enjoyed sharing ideas on curriculum […]

All of our centres were full of creativity and inspiration last week leading up to the festivities of Easter. The centres took part in our annual Easter project where they were all provided with an Easter pack of art supplies to allow the children explore and express their own creativity. As part of our Reach […]

Mindfulness for children is about awareness of their thoughts, well-being and feelings.

While the seasons are slowly changing from winter to spring, and the days continue to get a little bit brighter, the children in Giraffe have enjoyed a wide range of spring time activities. Below are just some of the wonderful events that have taken place over the last few weeks in our centres: Pyjama Day […]

February has been an exciting month in Giraffe! With so many wonderful ‘early spring’ activities taking place over the past few weeks, we want to share some of the magical photos with you here. Fun in the Snow! Some of our centres enjoyed playing outside in the snow on a couple of occasions this month. The […]

Learning to Learn Every Day All of our centres are currently hosting parent developmental evenings. The parent evenings are an excellent opportunity for parents to discuss these records with their child’s key carers, and to look at their child’s holistic development linked to the Aistear curriculum themes : ·         Exploring and Thinking ·         Well Being ·        […]

Halloween is the time when scary skeletons, spooky ghosts and wicked witches roam the world. All of the Giraffe centres enjoyed the build up to Halloween last week, and the children and staff certainly got into the spirit of the festivities! The children were delighted to dress up for the whole day for their Halloween parties. For […]

A team Workshop focusing on the Preschool learning environment.

Keeping calm…

Starting way back in the 8th century, dressing up and playing tricks is a Halloween tradition!

Halloween is just around the corner and it’s time to prepare! Whether you’re invited to a party, you’re planning on going trick or treating, or whether you’ll just be hanging out at home, kids just love to dress up for this special occasion. Here are some ideas for easy homemade costumes that won’t break the […]

Here are the highlights from our Summer Festivals in 2017!

Congratulations to the 2017 Preschool Graduates! Here are some photos that capture the excitement of the most recent celebrations.

Learning through play

Peter’s story-time tradition started after our Leopardstown centre held their annual Grandparents Day in September & invited the children’s grannies and granddads to join them for games and activities.

Dig in! Gardening with your child is fun and rewarding

The children were all very egg-cited when a special Easter visitor hopped into our creches last week!

Celebrating our national day makes us all feel proud to be Irish, and it allows the children to gain a better understanding of Irish culture and traditions ( Aistear themes, Identity & Belonging).

Every year in the month of March, Giraffe children and staff spend an entire day in their comfy pyjamas!

Staying fit as a Family

Giraffe Training Academy  – Toddler Staff Workshop Last Saturday, Giraffe Childcare’s Training Academy hosted a training day for 63 practitioners with Lillian and Carol from Early Childhood Ireland, delivering workshops on Facilitating Play Based Learning. Our senior crèche managers acted as our In-House workshop facilitators on the day, and covered a wide range of topics on Managing Children’s […]

Halloween is the time when scary skeletons, spooky ghosts and wicked witches roam the world. All of the Giraffe centres enjoyed the build up to Halloween last week, and the children and staff certainly got into the spirit of the festivities! The children were delighted to dress up for the whole day for their Halloween parties. For […]

Tips for Toilet Training

The Affordable Childcare Scheme is currently available for ‘FIS’,  Medical Card holders and One-Parent families. It is also available to Adult Learners enrolled in VTOS or ETB courses.

Tips for preventing cold and flus this winter

We recently held a special informational evening with our Parent Coach, Aoife Lee of Parent Support. The topic of the parent discussion was “Managing Change Together -Settling into Crèche, Moving Rooms and Preparation for School”. Our parents had provided feedback over the last few months on what they found were some of the more challenging aspects of parenting. […]

Summer is festival time in Giraffe! The children look forward to the Summer Festivals every year, and every Giraffe Centre hosts different events through the summer months. This year, we saw Teddy Bear Picnics, Jungle Days, Magic Shows & Magicians, Beach days, Family BBQs and much much more! We have as many fun outdoor activities […]

Staff from each of our centres get together once a year to do a 10km mini marathon. This year a record number of our staff – 102 (!) signed up to take part in one of the biggest women’s sporting events of the year in Ireland – the VHI Dublin Women’s Mini Marathon. Our staff […]

We had a great time celebrating Easter in Giraffe. The centres did fabulous artwork to decorate their centres for Easter, they made wonderful Easter bonnets for an inter-centre competition, the children had Easter egg hunts and a special visitor turned up to make their hunt even more egg-citing! Easter Arts and Crafts In Park West […]

If you really want to break the cycle of rivalry and children clashing with one another, allow them to pick activities that they can do together.

The children and staff at Giraffe Leopardstown host a rugby day in honour and support of the Irish Rugby team. Our Giraffe Leopardstown pre-schoolers had so much fun showing their support by preparing rugby related artwork and learning ‘Irelands Call’ assisted by their teachers, Ciara O’Reilly and Ivonne Gonzalez. Our deputy manager, Roisin Byrne, accompanied […]

There’s great news for parents of pre-school children with the announcement of the extension of the free pre-school year in the budget yesterday. From September 2016, every child will be eligible at the age of three until they start primary school which has greatly increased access; and pre-school aged children will be able to enrol […]

Father’s Day is a great chance to celebrate the Daddies and it is a lovely family day. We brought a real sense of that into the centres with many activities leading up to the day.The boys and girls in our crèches had a busy week leading up to Father’s Day preparing gifts and cards for their […]

Planning for the potty is all about timing… it’s when your child is ready! You will know when the time is right when your child has developed enough physical skills to be able to walk and climb the stairs, to wash their own hands, and are showing an interest in what is happening in the […]