2020 Newsletter Term 02 | Issue 02

Each day in the Elouera class we bake bread. This work is as much about supporting the child’s physical and cognitive development as it is about supporting their social and emotional development. Each time we make the bread we are practising lots of new language; whisk, yeast, dough. We are working with a longer process, learning to remember lots of steps. We are manipulating our hands to pour, mix and knead. We are practising turn-taking, teamwork and are building our self-confidence. We make sure to thank the children who made the bread when we sit down to share it at afternoon tea time. The sense of achievement as each loaf is taken out of the oven and the pride as they share it with their friends is something really special.

– Corinne, Debbie & Sarah

The Burbangana classroom have been recognising the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples throughout Reconciliation Week. We have been studying Aboriginal art and the different symbols used in their pictures that tell the story. A popular material has been the story stones where the children are able to create their own story before painting it. We continue to perform the Acknowledgement of Country at the beginning of every group time and are keen to hear the stories and language from the ABC’s Little Yarns podcasts.

Interest in all things maths has increased over the past few weeks with the children very keen to work with numbers, beads, and the bead chains to practice their counting skills. A small group activity they enjoy at the moment is rolling 2 die and then adding the two numbers together. The older children are great mentors to their younger peers by guiding them to the answer.

– Amanda & Teresa

With winter now truly here the children have been brainstorming what different things we do in winter. One of the things we talked about was looking at books. Reading stories to children is the important not only for learning how to read but for building of relationships. Mem Fox, in her book Reading Magic, says “ when we take time to read aloud to the children in our lives,we bond closely with them in a secret society associated with the books we share. The fire of literacy is created by the emotional sparks that fly when a child,a book and the person make contact.” This can also be seen when children together interact with the books they are reading. Of course our environment is always teaching the children about how the world changes with different seasons. All our trees have lost their leaves and it is a perfect time for sweeping up the leaves with friends. This is the child’s work and is valuable to the child.

– Jenny, Jo & Angela

It’s difficult for children to understand how anyone would be unkind as they are inherently caring so as we talk about Reconciliation Week we focus on how they want to make the world a better place.  Looking at what they can do and understanding the history and culture of the country they live in is one approach.  Children wrote stories using symbols and we discussed Dreamtime storytelling to pass on history.  We sang songs about bush tucker and discussed how the Aboriginal people are the original eco warriors of this beautiful country.  Making damper with wattle seeds, drawing and writing recipes was a big hit. Some children have also been keen to focus on numbers, playing games and practising writing as well as counting at every opportunity.

Hope you’re enjoying this cooler weather and our new freedoms, take care.

– Dawn

The Kindergarten children have been reflecting about the history and culture of Australia. During NAIDOC week, we have been acknowledging the past and present Gamaragal people of this Balgowlah area. We read dream time stories and spoke about current Aboriginal musicians. Some of the children helped to make damper outside and we spoke traditional bush tucker and how the food is connected in aboriginal stories.

This led onto making our own stories, using indigenous symbols. We spoke about making a story just using symbols and pictures. We also looked at a beautiful book called ‘Patterns of Australia’ and spoke about symbols and patterns within stories and artwork. We are working on making our own pattern work.

In maths, the fraction circles have been popular and we looked at each fraction and made a fraction book. We will learn about dividing amounts and make bread to divide between us. We spoke about real examples of fractions. For example, half an apple or a quarter of a pizza.

– Elizabeth

It has been lovely to have everybody back in the classroom. The children missed their friends dearly and they were very excited to see each other again. We have been getting back into our routine in the classroom, writing diaries in the morning and using the Montessori materials.

We have been having a lot of presentations. Some of the topics we have studied have been addition and subtraction of fractions, addition with the Small Bead Frame, onomatopoeias in poetry and writing a persuasive text amongst others.

Some of the children worked extremely hard researching different features of South America. They learnt about different human and natural landmarks (they were all impressed with the Amazon Rainforest!), flora and fauna and the different countries and cultural aspects such as clothing, food and festivities.

We would like to thank the Yani students for coming over to our classroom and read with us this week. It has been wonderful and we are looking forward to doing it every week for the rest of the term. Finally, we would like to congratulate Camden Smith, the author of the book “Baba the Unicorn Goes to Space”, who shared his book with the Yani students as well.

– Laura, Toby, Harshitha & Philippa

Leo is our first Year 6 student to turn 12 because this is our first year at school to have Year 6 students. We celebrated his birthday and listened to stories from when he was a baby all the way up to his 12^th birthday. His pictures were funny.

Athletics is back and we have been doing running races, backward running, side steps, high knees, the game ship shore beach, vortex, javelin and relays. It was so much fun.

Ethics was back on Friday and our topic was about human rights and arranged marriages. It was interesting listening to the different cultures and the traditions of others and what happens when they get married.

French was also back, and it was great to see our French teacher Delphine. We practiced songs we have not sang in a while, sometimes it was tricky because it has been awhile since we had French but eventually, we all remembered the lyrics. We also looked at the difference between sugary foods and salty foods and had to match the cards into the two columns.

By Sam, Travis and Maya

– Claire, Jessica & Philippa 

Dear Families,

This fortnight the children continue to research and share information about dinosaurs. We have had suggestions to create a “Dino Wall of Fame”. This wall will consist of fun dinosaur facts and hand drawn dinosaur drawings, stay tuned to see if it will be as extravagant and colourful as our Origami Wall of Fame!

We were also lucky for some warm weather in Week 4 to allow us to venture out for Walking and Exploring Club. We took our afternoon tea with us and had a harbour view picnic! After afternoon tea we then enjoyed some group games such as bull rush, 44 homes and kick and catch. If you would like to join in on the fun look out for emails for when we will next be going!

As a part of ‘Reconciliation Week’ the children have enjoyed partaking in discussions on Indigenous Australians. The children shared information they have been learning at school as well as learnt new from one another. Some activities we have done in relation to reconciliation week were aboriginal dot paintings and leaf printing.

Since this past week has been inside weather, we have decided to not yet start our recycled milk gardens and still collect milk bottles. With our recycled gardens we plan on planting flowers as well as herbs that can be cooked into our afternoon. If you have any recycled cartons, please bring them in!

Nutrition and Wellbeing

The past fortnight we have enjoyed some delicious and tasty afternoon teas! Some examples of what has been included in our menu are teriyaki chicken stir fry, a platter of salami, cheese and crackers and pancakes!

As the weather is starting to get colder, we would love to include more warm cooked dishes. Some examples form the children have been, chicken noodle soup and mini hamburgers. If you have any suggestions that are both warm and delicious, please send them through!

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