2020 Newsletter Term 01 | Issue 03

In Elouera, our worm farm is an important part of our daily routine. The children bring in vegetable scraps to cut up and feed to the worms, we crush up the eggshells from our eggs, and sometimes we recycle newspaper into the worm farm. The children understand very quickly which foods are good for the worms and which are not, and why we have to chop the food so small (because worms have no teeth!). We have started having conversations about how the worm farm provides us with worm juice which helps our plants and veggies grow and the children are always eager to help tend to the gardens. Supporting children to become environmentally responsible cannot be passive, it requires action and engagement with authentic experiences. It requires educators to mindfully encourage children to be active participants in their learning.

– Corinne, Debbie & Sarah

The Burbangana class have been looking at the art of Wassily Kandinsky. We have looked at a number of his paintings that incorporate simple shapes, including his famous ‘Colour study: Squares with concentric circles’. Our journey started with our own interpretation of this piece in our own paintings. Over the course of the term we will use this artwork as a base for a variety of different techniques, including a collaborative piece.

The continent puzzles have been of interest to a number of children over the past few weeks. We have been learning the names of the seven continents of the world and began our study of Oceania this week. The children enjoy sharing stories of their holidays and over the next few weeks we will be looking at a variety of landmarks in Australia and the countries that make up Oceania. Children are welcome to bring in photos or souvenirs of their visits to places within Australia (or Oceania) to share with the class. We look forward to hearing about your adventures outside of the Farmhouse.

– Amanda & Teresa

During the last couple of weeks the children have noticed changes in their environment. Montessori children spend so much time investigating their outdoor space that it came as no surprise when they started to notice less native bees around their hive and the changing leaves around the garden. This led to a deeper conversation into the purpose of bees, what do bees produce and how we can use the products for lots of different materials? The parts of a bee cards were introduced and the older children were very excited to make bee books. The changing leaves led to a discussion about seasons and how the earth moves around the sun. We roll played this event for deeper understanding. We also brainstormed our understanding of what we thought Autumn was and what it meant for us. Lots of hypothesising, collaborative learning and respectful interaction with others allows these opportunities to be a collective learning experience.

– Jenny, Jo & Angela

We have been very lucky recently with lots of wonderful creatures visiting us giving us an opportunity to observe them up close which has lead to lots of investigations.  We made an ant farm so we could observe the ants working together and then children collaborated to draw a picture complete with tunnels, rooms for eggs, lavae and of course the queen ant.  We’ve also had visits from amazing spiders and a Praying Mantis!  Again children curiously asked questions and sought answers cementing their learning through writing and drawing.

We have also been preparing for our upcoming Open Day by planting seeds, bottling worm juice and wrapping books.  The children are very excited and loving taking ownership of their Eco Stall.

– Dawn

We supported Clean Up Australia Day, by taking a short walk to Woolgoolga Reserve. Here we put on gloves and collected any rubbish we found. We spoke about appropriate rubbish to pick up. The children were discussing why it is important to look after special places to keep our environments clean.

This led onto conversations about protecting parks, forests and beautiful natural environments. We read ‘The Last Tree’ written by Emily Haworth-Booth. The children acted out being a seed that grows slowly over time, through being watered and cared for. We are starting to appreciate how long it takes for trees to grow and how quickly they can be chopped down.

In Literacy, we have been learning about nouns and adjectives. Some children made noun books and found items around the garden and their classroom. Then we added adjectives to describe the nouns.

– Elizabeth

This week the children in Aikya have been quite focused on Cosmic Education and research, learning about different aspects of animals and plants as well as science and geography. After having listened to The Beginning of the Universe and The Beginning of Life, children were interested in knowing more about our planet.

Different experiments presented set in the environment. Some of the children took part on How Plants Absorb Water, where they learnt that plants have tiny tubes throughout their body that help carry water up through the stem, and to the leaves. We were able to see these pathways with out experiment! Other children studied The Work of Winds through three different experiments, getting to the conclusion that: air takes up space, hot air rises and when hot air rises it a void is created and other air will be drawn in to fill that void.

In Music, both classes came together to rehearse the songs that they have been learning; it was great to see them work together! With a few rainy days, students had inside play, which gave them the opportunity to play with lego and interact with each other using different board games.

– Laura, Philippa, Toby & Harshitha

Some students in our class have pen pals with American students and have been writing to them lately. The school is called Montessori Country Day School, in Plainsboro New Jersey.  It is a 6 to 9 class. We have told them about some of our big cities in Australia and all about our Australian animals.

Some of the year 4 have been working on a Photosynthesis lesson and have been making glucose models and sewing models. We all enjoyed making our models, they look great.

The class have been using the microscope to compare lots of different things. Milly, Claudia and Mena compared a strand of hair, an eyebrow and an eyelash and saw the difference of colours and thickness. We also have different slides to look at, some have swabs of human organs like brain, stomach and blood. 

Over the last few weeks in art, we have drawn a picture of recycled household products from our own perspective from the angle of where we sat and then have printed it as a stencil and painted our masterpiece. 

By Travis and Sam

– Claire, Jessica & Philippa 

Dear Parents and Carers,

We are excited to announce our upcoming vacation care program is now open for bookings! Some of our upcoming themes include detailed face painting, hair chalk, glitter spray plus the works! As well as a magic show followed by a balloon twisting and so much more!  

Bookings can now be created through your account on Kid soft, if you do not yet have an account set up you can create one through logging on to our website primaryoshcare.com.au and following the enrolment process. We now have a customer service team you can contact on 1300 832 695 or customerservice@primaryoshcare.com.au if you encounter any issues whilst enrolling. 

View the full program here

Highlights over the last fortnight 

Over the last fortnight the children have enjoyed various craft activities. A big hit would be building bird houses and pinecone hedgehogs. The children constructed their own bird houses together following set instructions and decorated their birdhouses with paint and glitter. Another activity that the children are continuing to enjoy thoroughly is the continuation of origami club. Each week the children are learning how to create a different origami and adding their works to our origami wall! 

This week the children were introduced to our Peter Rabbit competition in attempt to win free Peter Rabbit 2 movie tickets. Over the next two weeks the children are to design either a movie poster or a new character for the movie to enter the draw. The winner will be selected and announced on the week of the 23^rd. The children were very excited about this competition and are all working hard to create a colourful and detailed poster. The children were also very excited about the fact that one of their classmates is in the movie!

Next weeks Events:
Brain awareness week 16^th-22^nd
Nt’l Day of Action Against Bullying and Violence 20^th March
Nt’l Day of Happiness 20^th March

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 Sarah, Ella and all the OSHC staff at Farmhouse Montessori OSHC Centre