2021 Newsletter Term 02 | Issue 02

Some new friends have started  in Elouera this Term. The children have introduced them to the Daily making of our Bread. We start with labelling our utensils then begin the process .They are learning skills that will assist their independence, ability to follow a complex process and work as part of a team.

– Corinne, Debbie & Sarah

For the children, the marking of the seasons is a time of observation and a natural opportunity to learn about nature and animals.

In the playground, we have been watching as the leaves slowly change colour and fall to the ground. Leaves have been a topic of both conversation, art and science in the classroom. We have turned leaves into puppets, painted Autumn pictures, studied their veins and used them as stamps to create pieces of art.

We have also talked about changes in the weather and with it becoming colder, how plants and animals get ready for the winter. The children have also observed the changes in the clothes they wear, jumpers and coats, to keep warm.

Following the children’s natural curiosity about seasons, nature, and animals can help foster their love for the environment and their place and time in our world.

– Amanda & Teresa

The Practical life curriculum in a Montessori environment is an area that looks like it is filled with simple activities. However, these materials have many complex aims.

The Practical Life area of a Montessori classroom covers two main areas of development: care of self, and care of the environment. In each of these areas there instils in a child a sense of order and independence. Children work with materials that allow them to take responsibility for their own well -being and the environment around them.

Although the child learns how to care for themselves with activities such as buttons, zippers and bow tying there are also other skills being refined such as sequencing, concentration, fine motor co ordination and an introduction to materials that reflect cultural diversity.

Care of the environment curriculum also allows the child to take responsibility of their environment. Maria Montessori describes this classroom as the child’s house and showing children how to care for this environment allows them to take ownership of their school.

– Jenny, Jo & Angela

Autumn is such a beautiful time of year to be outdoors.  We have been loving the colours of the trees and all the learning opportunities this provides.  Looking at parts of trees, why they are important to us, how we can look after them and even giving them a hug.  Children have also been very helpful raking leaves into piles so that everyone can have fun jumping in them.  We have examined the shapes of different leaves and created pictures with the sticks, leaves and seeds we have found on the floor.

– Dawn

In the Montessori curriculum, Geography helps children to gain a sense of where they belong on Earth and fosters a love of oceans, people, animals and many beautiful environments. The Kindergarten children have been learning about and exploring our place in the world.  We have been discussing where we live,  what makes a place special and how we can look after places.  We have been looking at our local area on walks, states of Australia and where Australia is in the world. Our learning has been through exploring globes, maps and a compass.  By looking at google maps, we started to understand how to see places from above and the bird’s eye view. This led to making maps of the classrooms and garden and to understand how to read simple maps.

– Elizabeth

Nature provides one of the most significant driving forces of curiosity and exploration while offering rich experiences for children. For this reason, nature has always been an integral part of the Montessori learning process. Children appreciate nature and all that it has to offer as it contributes to their perseverance, problem-solving, critical thinking, leadership, teamwork, and resilience.

Dr Maria Montessori considered the outdoor environment an extension of the indoor classroom. According to her philosophy, the natural world provided endless possibilities for experiential learning. “Only through freedom and environmental experience is it practically possible for human development to occur,” she wrote in The Absorbent Mind.

At North Head, we are lucky enough to be surrounded by a national park and engage with our surroundings at Aikya through regular bushwalks and some outdoor lessons this term. As the children have become more accustomed to our routines, class community and culture, it is a welcomed time to incorporate the surroundings with our learnings from class.

We welcome all our families to term 2 at Aikya as we continue our learning journeys.

– Harshitha, Toby, Thomas and Hannah.

It was Havana’s birthday last so we got to have mango sorbet for dessert so we had a bit of a sugar rush from the natural sugars and because it was raining we couldn’t go outside to play to use up our energy. We decided to take advantage of the rainy weather and have a dance party for inside play. We danced and sang to ‘let it go’ and ‘astronomia’. Every student got involved and we are already looking forward to our next rainy day so we can do this again, it was so much fun.

We’ve been working on the great wave picture and working as a team to help other students with their wave drawings, it has been a lot of fun learning all the teaching ideas and seeing everyone’s own perspective on the great wave.

We started Ethics with Renee last week and the topic was about our childhood. We discussed what was the best part of their childhood, we heard amazing and interesting stories. Everyone was laughing and had a lot of fun by the looks of it, it was an amazing experience of what everyone does with their families and what their hobbies are.

Today we saw a big echidna walking around school. There have been many around lately and we love to watch them. Sometimes we find holes in our playground from echidnas digging for ants. Our teacher heard something rustling in the leaves and freaked out because she thought it might have been a snake, it was so funny. They are fascinating animals and it was so cute.

By Havana and Darcy

– Laura & Jessica

Inspired by Paul Klee’s quote, “a drawing is simply a line going for a walk”, we took our pens on a little journey with a Single Line Drawing activity.

For our Food Safari meets Cooking Club we made West African Tsire Koftas and Flat Bread from scratch! Minced lamb, onion, yoghurt, plus fragrant fresh mint, ground ginger, nutmeg and cloves was the flavour profile for the day. With clean wet hands, the children worked their koftas on to skewers and before long, we had a platter full of interesting looking koftas!

As we ate, we participated in an Africa Fun Facts & Trivia session – this group of animal-loving children were especially excited to learn about the Big 5!

On the STEM front, the children engineered their own Parachutes using materials of their choice, built mini-Catapults out of paddle pop sticks and rubber bands, and they produced a chemical reaction out of vinegar + bicarb to make a Hot Ice Tower.

If you were one of the lucky mums that received a lovingly handmade book of vouchers for Happy Mother’s Day we hope you are enjoying your vouchers!