SES Blog

Dear Parents,

Every Monday, we sing the national anthem, Indonesia Raya, as a way of showing respect for Indonesia and celebrating the diverse backgrounds of our community. We are happy to observe that many of the children are becoming increasingly confident and familiar with the song.

We also continue our parent lunch visits, warmly welcoming families to join us. It is wonderful to see how proud the children feel when their parents come to school to share and experience this special moment together.

For Indonesian Studies, the full day students learned about a traditional dance from East Java called ‘Jaranan’. Using flat toy horses made from woven bamboo, they danced to lively and dynamic traditional music.

As part of our current unit, the children, including those in Nursery and Reception, have been keen to explore grinding coriander using a mortar and pestle. Alongside this, they continue to engage in a wide range of activities across all areas of learning, supporting a balanced development.

World Book Day (Thursday, 23 April)
We are looking forward to celebrating World Book Day. To mark the occasion, children are invited to come to school dressed as a character from a favourite book.

To encourage the children to explore a wide range of genres, engage with different stories, and to make this day distinct from Halloween or other general dress-up days, we kindly ask that children not come dressed as princesses or superheroes. If they have the book their character is from, they are very welcome to bring it to school to share with their class.

Please note that there will be no PE on this day. Kindly drop your child off at the classroom by 7:55 a.m. at the latest.

To showcase their creativity, the children will take part in a fun costume parade. Parents are warmly invited to join us in supporting the children at this event, which will be held in the sports hall at 8:00 a.m.

As part of the celebration, we are pleased to invite two parents to read to the children during our circle time. You are welcome to bring your own book, or we can select one for you if you prefer. Please sign up on the sign-up sheet below and join us at 10:30 a.m.

We look forward to seeing you there and celebrating a love of reading together!

Units
Africa is a vast and diverse continent, full of fascinating facts and discoveries. We began by locating it on the world map, helping the children understand its size and the many countries it encompasses. We explored the different national flags and learned about the continent’s varied topography. To build an awareness of landscapes, the children embraced the challenge of painting their own African sunsets using warm colours, finishing their artwork with silhouettes of trees and African animals. They followed the teacher’s guidance with great care and enthusiasm.

The story Handa’s Surprise was shared with the children, offering a wonderful introduction to the variety of fruits and trees found across the continent. Inspired by the story, the children took part in preparing a fruit salad by cutting up different fruits, which they then enjoyed tasting together.

Year 1 additional learning covered – Week 30 and 31

Phonics   
To identify sounds represented by more than one letter, for example /ch/, /th/, /qu/, /ng/, /ay/
Some children are learning about alternative sounds such as /ee/ can also be written with ‘ea’, ‘e-e’, ‘y’.
To use phonic knowledge to read decodable words. Reading and writing CVC words,words with adjacent vowel / consonants using sounds covered, words with double consonants such as bell, mess, mitt, back.

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

Language – Story telling
We embarked on reading the story of Handa’s Surprise. By acting out, sequencing pictures and completing a story map, the children were able to understand the events of the story, name the characters and know where the story is set.

Language – Writing
With the knowledge  and understanding of the story Handa’s Surprise, the children have started to write captions to pictures by developing a short written retelling of the story.

Maths –
Position and Direction
We have reviewed the concepts associated with learning about the position of an object and the vocabulary used as well as learning to move the battery operated digital robot – Bee Bot. They learned how to direct Bee Bot using words such as forward, backwards, left and right.

Complements of 10
The children have learned which two numbers add up to 10. 1+9, 2+8 etc..

Important dates for Semester 2

Further information will be shared closer to each date. Please note that unless otherwise stated or indicated as ‘parents are invited,’ these events are for children only

23 Apr – World Book Day (parents are invited)
22 May – Fun day
2 Jun – First dress rehearsal for the End of Year Performance
3 Jun – Second dress rehearsal for the End of Year Performance
4 Jun – End of Year Performance (parents are invited)

Kind regards,
Montessori Team