Week 28 and 29

Dear Parents, 

As the semester progresses, we continue to enjoy meaningful learning experiences across all areas of the classroom.

The Nursery children were introduced to the Montessori Culture by exploring the globe and the world map. They were able to visually observe that the world is made up of land and water. They also learned that there are seven continents, each represented by a different colour.

The Reception children, who are already familiar with this work, progressed to using the continent puzzle maps. They explored maps ranging from South America to Africa, with Africa presenting the greatest challenge due to the larger number of pieces representing its countries. As part of developing their self-help and problem solving skills, they used the control paper maps to support them in completing the puzzles independently.

As always, the whole class continues to work across the different areas of learning at their own pace, building confidence, concentration, and independence each day.

Units

We continued our Idul Fitri (Eid) celebrations, where the children explored date fruit by observing their appearance, tasting them, and learning about how they are grown.

This week our focus was on our Easter celebrations. The children discussed the meaning of Easter, fostering an understanding and respect for different cultures, while identifying key Easter symbols. They engaged in a range of creative activities, including painting Easter pebbles, creating watercolour cards, and making Easter bunny baskets in preparation for the Easter egg hunt. The children thoroughly enjoyed the hunt at the playground, excitedly discovering their Easter eggs and the special surprises inside.

Year 1 additional learning covered – Week 2 and 2

Phonics   

To identify sounds represented by more than one letter, for example /ch/, /th/, /qu/, /ng/, /ay/

Some children are beginning to learn 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.

Language – Letters 

As the children are familiar with the sounds of the letters of the alphabet, we played some fun games which helped them to learn and reinforce the names of the letters. 

Language – Writing

Using vocabulary associated with the unit on Easter, the children wrote some sentences following some pictures. They were encouraged to use new words and make sure that they used the correct punctuation. 

Maths –

Position and Direction

A fun time was had as the children got to learn how 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. 

We also discussed the use of Algorithms and how it is a set of instructions used to tell a computer programme what to do.

Ordinal Numbers

The children learned to recognise and use Ordinal numbers , 1st to 10th.

 

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

13 Apr – School Photos

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