Week 3 and 4

 

Dear Parents,

As we step into the third week, the children have become more receptive to classroom routines and are engaging more deeply in their learning. 

Practical Life activities, an essential area in Montessori classrooms, provide the foundation for children’s independence and confidence. As preliminary exercises, the children have been practising spooning and pouring. They are learning to hold a spoon correctly, an important step toward self reliance when eating snacks and lunch. Dry and wet pouring activities help them develop the skill of holding and stabilising a jug, preparing them for tasks such as pouring milk on Friday. Each activity in Practical Life is intentionally designed with a specific purpose as part of the Montessori prepared environment. Building on these foundations, the Reception children have also been further exposed to sounds and letters. They have been working diligently to practise writing their names using correct letter formation.

In their studies of Indonesia, the full day students explored the country’s rich cultural diversity. They observed a variety of traditional dances and created their own maps to identify the main islands.

Earlier this week, we experienced two days of online learning. It was a big change for everyone, but the children adapted well. Many activities were carried out with great enthusiasm. We are grateful to the parents for their support in ensuring that learning continued smoothly at home.

We continued with engaging activities connected to our unit of inquiry, All About Me. Through observing and learning about ourselves, the children discovered that everyone is unique, with both similarities and differences that make each person special. One enjoyable challenge was creating a symmetrical self-portrait.

This week, we also explored how our bodies work with the help of our organs. Each organ has an important role, and together they help us stay healthy. The children learned how the heart, lungs, and digestive system function and work in harmony. A highlight was the “jelly brain” activity, where they discovered that the brain acts as the body’s control centre, sending messages to the rest of the body. The children also enjoyed a balloon experiment that helped them understand how the lungs work.

A gentle reminder that tomorrow is a public holiday. We will see you on Monday. 

Year 1 additional learning covered – Week 3 and 4

Phonics   

To identify sounds represented by more than one letter, for example /ch/, /sh/

To use phonic knowledge to read decodable words. Reading CVC words and adjacent vowel / consonants using sounds covered. 

Language / Literacy – Reading. Guided Reading groups – Practising fluency of reading and gaining the confidence to recognise sounds and blend them to read words.  Reading comprehension, to be able to answer direct questions about the book.

Language / Literacy – Parts of a book

What do you know about a book? We explored the different parts of a book: Front cover, back cover, title, title page, author, illustrator, pictures. 

Language / Literacy– Weekend news

We reinforced the steps to follow when writing a sentence:  Capital letter, finger space, punctuation.

The children have used their phonic knowledge to write simple sentences. They all shared something special that they did during their weekends. 

Maths 

The children have learned new names and revised the names of 2D shapes. We explored the names of polygons as an extension: pentagon, hexagon, heptagon, octagon, nonagon, decagon.

Odd and even numbers 

The children are beginning to understand even and odd numbers as ‘every other number’ when counting from 0 to 20.

We looked at  the relative size of quantities to compare and order numbers from 0 to 20.The children were invited to put objects in the correct place showing their understanding of ‘greater than, less than’.

 

Kind regards,

Montessori Team