2019 Newsletter Term 04 | Issue 02

This week Elouera had fun exploring pumpkins. We lifted it, touched it and smelt it before we cut it open and scooped the seeds out, which required a lot of concentration and fine motor skills. Then we washed the seeds, dried them, added oil and salt and roasted them in the oven. Everyone had a taste and we all agreed they were delicious. The next day we used the flesh of the pumpkin and made pumpkin bread, and fed the leftovers and the pumpkin skin to the worms in the worm farm.

This was a great experience to share with the children in using the whole vegetable – roasting the pumpkin seeds was super easy and the children kept requesting more and our worms are very happy too!

– Corinne, Debbie & Sarah

We celebrated our Grandparents and Special Friends with a delightful morning tea along with tours of our school and some material presentations by the children. Being able to share their learning environment provides the children with a great sense of pride. We prepared some delicious mini quiches using produce from our garden and eggs from our chickens. Cooking experiences get all the children involved and provides them the opportunity to try different foods and even learn how to crack an egg.

In the classroom we have been looking at different types of insects and their life cycles. Our silkworms are growing bigger and eating a lot of leaves.We explored symmetry in art by painting a beautiful butterfly and celebrated Diwali by creating some colourful rangoli. The remainder of the term will see us learning about Christmas around the world.

– Amanda & Teresa

The last two weeks have been so wonderfully busy with Grandparents’ and special visitors’ day, parent and teacher conferences and now the Christmas tree has gone up in the foyer. We all had such a wonderful time welcoming the children’s special visitors and becoming part of your extended family. Children at this age are learning about themselves and constructing their identity through relationships with community, school, family and social groups. This allows children to develop a sense of belonging. 

The children have continued their interest in different fruits and vegetables. This interest has continued over two terms and has resulted in the children starting to grow different vegetables at home. This week two students brought in their huge zucchini. We used the thinking tool “see, think and wonder” to brainstorm what we thought it was. The children are now able to offer some abstract thinking s they use the concept of ‘wonder.’

Today the children erected the Christmas tree. Celebrating different festivals from around the world allows children to expand their community and connect with their world. We will be talking about sharing and giving with the children as we encourage them to bring in a gift for a child who may not get a present this Christmas. 

– Jenny, Jo & Angela

One of the most amazing aspects of the Montessori environment is the philosophy of following the child, this makes the environment spontaneous, interesting and exciting for the children.  The few photos chosen are just examples of such situations.  Jack brought in photos of a fishing trip with his cousin. Together with his friends we looked at different fresh water and salt water fish.  Jack chose to trace a fish puzzle, colour it in, paint a background and cut out his fish to ‘swim in his lake’.  His enthusiasm inspired others to draw and research other fish.  

Rasmus told us about his encounter with a green tree snake, everyone was so impressed with this there was much discussion and then we opened a delivery box and discovered a long piece of brown paper….that could be a big snake.  We decided to make a life cycle of the snake and from there came discussions of the names of other baby animals.  We had so much fun discovering the names using a lovely new book and Siri for the tricky ones.  Did you know a baby Orangutan is called an infant or baby just like a human?  The children thought this was lovely.  Speaking of lovely Matthieu brought in a little Ladybug and we have found lots in the garden so we used another book to discover a group of ladybugs are called ‘a loveliness of ladybugs’ isn’t that just gorgeous! Researching and learning as we go is such a pleasure and an adventure.

– Dawn

It has been busy few weeks for the Kindergarten children. This has involved many maths activities from learning about money, continuing with time and an introduction to data collection. Discussions about money and how we spend it led to a trip to the local bakery. We spoke about how to make the amount 70c to buy bread roll. We found out this could be a 50c and a 20c, 3 x 20c and a 10c or various other ways. We asked for a bread roll in the bakery and the baker said what lovely manners everyone had! On the walk we discussed the butcher, the green grocers, the general store, café and estate agents. There was also in interest in what people have in their garden, the colours of front doors and different cars. 

We have been making tally charts to record data. After a discussion, we collected data to find out the most popular animal to have as a pet. This led onto the most popular farm animal. Eddie asked what we can do with the data, so we discussed making graphs, pictograms and charts. The children then counted the toothbrushes that have come in to be recycled. We organised them and collected data. 

In continuation from ways to make 10, we have looked at ways to make larger numbers. This led onto discussions about multiplications. We have been recording this in our maths books and working on number formation. 

– Elizabeth

It’s been a busy two weeks and there is a lot of learning taking place in the Aikya classroom. The children have been introduced to Powerpoint, where they learned to identify the names and functions of the PowerPoint interface. They also learned to add the graphic to a presentation, create and manipulate simple slide shows. To create outlines, notes, edit, save and print presentations. They had a great lesson and were proud of what they presented to the classroom.  

The children had an experiment on crystals as part of chemical processes. In this activity, they observed various substances and determined whether these crystals are based on their physical properties. The children also learned the procedures for crystal formation and how these crystals are created by cooling a supersaturated solution. They then have to recount the experiment and write step-by-step in their presentation. Besides, children enjoyed writing the ad on persuasive lessons with the adults. In this lesson, children learnt compelling writing ideas, including persuasive language poster, planning templates and argument writing frames. You will be surprised how imaginative they can be when asked to create an ad to persuade others to buy their products. 

 We want to say a big thank you to all the grandparents and special friends who made it to the Grandparents morning tea. It’s lovely to see both the children and the grandparents spending some quantity time working together and having the children showcase their beautiful work to their grandparents. Thank you for the donation of books for our library. 

– Samantha and Laura

In week three we had Grandparents and Special Friends Day where we gave them a tour of the classroom and showed them our books and some of our follow up work and we prepared some morning tea of scones. We also had the option to buy and donate books to the school, we got three books; Artemis Fowl, The World’s Worst Teachers, Boy Giant and Malory Towers. 

– Claire, Jessica & Philippa 

On Friday week three, the Yani class visited The International German School for the day. We were split into two groups and were shown around by the year fours and year fives. We played a variety of different games with all the students, learnt some German words and had German sausages for lunch. The school is amazing, and we all loved it and had a fun day.

We are holding an Art Exhibition later in the term which we have been working hard on. We are drawing optical illusions; some students are doing black and white designs and others are doing coloured. We have been doing it for a little while now, they will look great when they are finished. 

This Christmas we are giving presents to children that are disadvantaged and donating them to Barnardos Australia. We are making a giving tree which will have all the presents underneath for the children. Hopefully the presents we donate will make the children happy!

– by Claudia and Maya

Dear Families,

As of next week, we will have no bookings either permanent or casual on both Friday sessions, the Centre will not be staffed on these sessions moving forward. If you would like a casual place, for Friday sessions for either before or after school, please book using the APP prior to Wednesday 3.00pm or contact the Centre for assistance. This will ensure that we are responsive to parent care needs and provides ample time for addressing the need for staffing. An email will be sent 2 days prior to the session confirming whether the Centre is open or closed. Please also check your inbox!  A survey for Quality Area 4 and extended closure date for Vacation Care and Christmas Closure surveys. These will be open until 8th November.

This week we had our second week of our Health & Well-being program. The children all eagerly participated in Oz-tag, learning key skills and rules. If you would like to join in on the fun and learn how to play Oz-tag you can contact the Centre to book as a casual. This experience is of no additional cost to families and facilitated by a professional coach. The children have also been working on and creating their own story books, as well as continuing to build their cubby houses up at the oval with new modifications being added daily! 

Next Week Events:

5th November – Melbourne Cup
9th-14th November – Int’l Week of Science
9th-16th November – Australian Food Safety Week

If you would like more information about Primary OSH Care or our centre and how to enrol, please visit our website www.primaryoshcare.com.au

From Amanda, Sarah and all the OSHC staff at Farmhouse Montessori OSHC Centre