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Explore the Outdoors with Excellent Educational Resources!

Explore the outdoors with your classroom in the final term of the year! With May upon us and the weather becoming warmer it is the ideal time to get outside with your class. The outdoors presents many learning opportunities for young children – both mentally and physically. Children will have exposure to Vitamin D and the opportunity for movement to improve gross motor skills.

Being outdoors can help children mentally as it can improve mood and regulate emotions. Simply being in the outdoors can relax children and give them a break from the everyday routine. They also have the opportunity to improve self esteem and confidence as they move around exploring and learning as they go.

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Ensure You Have Enough Time To Raise Butterflies!

Ensure you have enough time to raise Butterflies next term! If you are looking to do a Life Cycle Project with the children in your class after Easter here are some great tips to get you started! Firstly, you will need to order your Butterfly Garden that includes all you require to carry out the process!

Inside the Butterfly Garden box you will receive a Butterfly habitat, feeding pipette and a voucher to redeem your cup of live caterpillars. With your voucher you can go online to www.insectlore.co.uk and order your live caterpillars. Caterpillars take approx 7-10 days to ship from the dispatch date stated on the Insect Lore website.

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Have You Ordered Your Caterpillars Yet?

Have you ordered your caterpillars yet? If you would like your class to experience first hand the wonder of caterpillars transforming into beautiful Painted Lady butterflies then now is the time. Between March and September every year you can order live caterpillars and watch them grow until they emerge as butterflies!

If you have previously carried out the process then the only thing you will require this year is a Voucher for a Refill Cup of Caterpillars. With this voucher you can order 3-5 caterpillars that will be delivered within 7-10 days of the stated dispatch date.

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Exploring the Life Cycle Theme with a Giant Butterfly Garden!

Exploring a Life Cycle theme is a great way for children to learn about the different stages of life for plants, bugs, insects or flowers. It also teaches them about change. Children are curious by nature and they like to know how things work and how things happen.

Responding to a child’s questions in greater detail can help them to understand how a seed grows into a plant, how a tadpole turns into a frog or how a caterpillar grows into a butterfly. If you are planning a Life Cycle theme in your classroom this Spring or Summer you will love these great resources from Insect Lore!

The Giant Butterfly Garden includes all that you need to explore a Caterpillar to Butterfly Life Cycle theme. Included is a 45 cm butterfly habitat clear mesh (pop up), feeding pipette, painted Lady butterfly life cycle stages figurines and full instructions. In also includes a voucher to redeem your batch of 6-10 caterpillars online.

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Butterfly Season – Only One More Day To Go!

Butterfly Season – only one day to go! We are very excited over here at the Primary School Shop with Butterfly season upon us! From tomorrow, 1st March until early September Primary schools can redeem Caterpillar Vouchers online to start the journey of raising caterpillars until they emerge into beautiful butterflies!

If you are looking to do a Life Cycle or Metamorphosis theme in your classroom then now is the time to get organised! The Insect Lore Butterfly Gardens are a low-cost educational resource and include all you require to raise your very own caterpillars. This gives children first hand experience as they watch and observe the caterpillars until they transform into lovely Painted Lady butterflies!

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Insect Lore Butterfly Gardens – A great way to connect with nature this Spring!

Insect Lore Butterfly Gardens are a low-cost educational kit for raising butterflies from caterpillars. If you are looking to explore the theme of Metamorphosis this Spring in your classroom, this product is a brilliant addition to your learning material.

Children will get the opportunity to observe and think about change (metamorphosis) as well as getting real life connection with a caterpillar’s journey to becoming a butterfly!

Caterpillars are available to order between March and September every year. Outside of this time it is too cold for them. The whole process takes approximately 4 weeks. Over a period of 2-3 weeks the children can watch their caterpillars eat and grow. There is no need to feed them at this point as all the food they need is contained inside the tub you will receive.

The children will notice them getting bigger and bigger until they go into chrysalides. They will stay there for a number of days before emerging into beautiful Painted Lady butterflies. Once the butterflies emerge they can be fed with the sugar water provided. Additionally, they can be fed with some freshly cut fruit such as oranges. After 2-3 days the whole class can bring the butterfly habitat outside to release the butterflies to make their own way in nature!

Insect Lore Butterfly Gardens – All You Need to Raise Your Caterpillars!

The Insect Lore Butterfly Garden includes everything you and the children need to raise your very own butterflies. The kit includes a butterfly habitat with clear mesh (pop up), feeding pipette and full instructions. In addition, a voucher to redeem your first group of caterpillars (online) is included. You will receive between 3-5 caterpillars with this voucher.

If you would like a larger version – we have the The Giant Butterfly Garden. This kit has a 45 cm butterfly habitat clear mesh (pop up), feeding pipette, painted Lady butterfly life cycle stages figurines and full instructions. It includes a voucher to redeem the caterpillars online for a larger amount of between 6-10 caterpillars. Once your order for the caterpillars is placed they will arrive approximately one week from the stated dispatch date. 

If you have purchased a Butterfly Garden previously but would like to do the process again this year, you can simply buy a Voucher for Refill Cup of Caterpillars. With this voucher you can then go online to the Insect Lore website to redeem your voucher. To get started see below short animated video that shows how the life cycle process works with the Butterfly Garden!

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Thrive Spring Available Now on The Primary School Shop!

Thrive Spring is the fourth book in the Thrive series of books from Irish Author Gillian Powell M.Ed. This book aims to guide Primary School teachers and children to engage with nature and the outdoors in Spring.

With over 50 pages of activity ideas including activities that engage with the senses, teach maths, science, language and mindfulness. The book is suitable for children in the younger classes from Junior Infants up to second class.

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Use Dew Sanitise and Disinfect to Destroy Norovirus!

Dew Sanitise and Disinfect are proven to destroy the common Winter vomiting bug – Norovirus! As we head towards the Winter months different viruses and bugs may arise in schools across the country. Norovirus is one of the most common ones – a stomach bug, also known as the Winter vomiting bug. It is called this as it is more common in Winter but it can be caught at any time of the year. This bug spreads very easily in places such as schools. Therefore, it is important to be vigilant against the spread of Norovirus at this time of year.

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Personalised Face Masks with School Name or Logo!

Personalised Face Masks are available to order for Primary Schools! Are you looking to personalise face masks for the staff at your school? At the Primary School Shop you can purchase reusable masks and have your school logo or name printed onto them.

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Music Inspiration for Primary School Classes

Are you looking for some music inspiration and education aids for your Primary School Class? Music is part of the Arts Education Curriculum for primary schools and includes three strands; Listening & Responding, Performing and Composing. According to the Primary School Curriculum Listening & Responding ‘emphasises the importance of purposeful, active listening in order to elicit physical, verbal, emotional and cognitive responses’.

Performing concentrates on the voice and how children can use it as their own instrument when starting off on their music learning journey. Learning simple rhymes and songs will give children the confidence to learn songs with more notes and from different styles, cultures and traditions. Finally, composing focuses on growing individual children’s creativity and uniqueness. This can be done by providing opportunities for the children to express themselves.

Music Inspiration Products at The Primary School Shop

At the Primary School Shop we have some wonderful music products suitable for use in primary school classes such as Funky Feet Music and Ceol Ireland Music Education. Funky Feet Music is a set of award winning CDs with teacher guides that will encourage children to learn through play and movement. The award-winning Ceol Music Education system focuses on musical fluency and teaching children the language of music.

Funky Feet Music: There are 5 albums in the Funky Feet range and each set comes with 20 songs on a CD and a guide showing the words and suggested actions for each song. This guide will help teachers encourage children’s creativity and active participation in music and movement.

All five albums contain a variety of music from around the world that include a toe tapping, foot stomping, thigh slapping, tummy tickling, hand clapping, instrument playing, parachute waving, fun filled learning experience for both teacher and children alike. Funky Feet Music is most suitable for the younger classes in Primary School.

Ceol Ireland Music Education: The award-winning Ceol music education system extends from pre-school through primary school. The programme focuses on musical fluency and teaching children the language of music: listening, reading and writing musically. It following the National Curriculum as each stage covers the three curriculum strands and units appropriate to each age level. This includes Listening & Responding, Performing and Composing.

There are eight stages for 8 different ages ranges between 5 and 12 years old. Each stage includes age-specific materials, lesson plans for a full school year, accompanying resource materials and musical tracks for listening & movement and songs & rhymes. Every 6 weeks the teacher watches a training DVD to prepare for each module.