2022 Newsletter Term 02 | Issue 04 – Farmhouse Montessori School

JUNE

Fri 24th – Fees Due
Mon 27th – End of Term Parent Class Visit – Primary – Yani 2.30pm
Tues 28th – Cosmic Education – Montessori’s Great Lessons: 6.30–8pm
Wed 29th – Preschool tour – Adult only 4.30pm

Click HERE to see further calendar dates.

Dear Farmhouse Montessori Families,

Welcome and a wonderful good afternoon to you all. I trust you had a lovely weekend and are looking ahead to some family activities for the upcoming school break. This is the last issue of the newsletter for this term.

Term 3 will resume on 19^th of July.

Should you have the need for some ideas, below is some info for performances at the Riverside Theatre.

As Term 2 comes to a close, the Riverside team is getting ready to help Terry Tibblestick from the ancient guild of Taletenders and his assistant Brenda Bogg to save Roald Dahl’s books in ROALD DAHL AND THE IMAGINATION SEEKERS.

Along with, an adventure taking a pea green boat across the sea with an owl and a pussycat to fair Bong-tree Bay in THE OWL AND THE PUSSYCAT.

More details and bookings here: https://riversideparramatta.com.au/category/education/school-holidays

Montessori Sport Carnival

Thank you to the many parents, volunteers, staff, and children who participated at the recent Sports Carnival. This yearly event is a joint initiative of Montessori Schools north of the bridge and to engage in some friendly sport activities with likeminded students and adults. Everyone had great fun and the warm weather made the occasion particularly enjoyable. We are looking forward to this event again next year.

Classroom Observations Term 3

I highly recommend to parents to observe their child once a year in their Montessori classroom. For this purpose, we will open up classrooms for parent observations in the primary from Term 3. Observations will be offered on specific days teachers will nominate to ensure this works well with the routines of our environments and to avoid disruption to children’s learning. We will send out more information at the beginning of Term 3 to explain the process and how to book in.

What are the benefits of Observations?

Observation helps the parent or teacher understand their child/children better in a classroom setting. Montessori educators observe regularly and is a highly important pillar of the Montessori Method. When they observe the child in an uninterrupted setting, they learn about their child’s capability and skill set. Parents and teachers also discover things they would have been unable to identify if they were directly involved with the child.

Observing children also helps the parents and teachers identify the development and achievement that the child has made, any specific interests, work patterns and interactions with others. For example, they can note that a child is holding their pencil differently than they were before. They can note whether or not the child is interacting with different materials at a higher level.

Observation also helps teachers and parents observe their children as they are, not just how they expect to behave. Instead of the parents or teachers telling the child what they should be learning, their child can show their interests and work habits. When the child expresses interest, the teachers note it to utilise that interest in setting up the environment or planning lessons.

What do the Invictus Games represent?

It embodies the fighting spirit of wounded, injured and sick Service personnel and personifies what these tenacious men and women can achieve post injury. The Games harness the power of sport to inspire recovery, support rehabilitation and generate a wider understanding and respect for those who serve their country.

One of our parents, Scott Reynolds, has participated in this year’s Invictus Games and provided us with the below pictures. The whole family went to the Netherlands, and they all had a terrific time making long lasting memories.

The Farmhouse Team and I are wishing you a wonderful holiday break and are looking forward to having you back at the beginning of Term 3.

“During May, I feel so lucky to have shared my competing at the Invictus Games with Kaya & Jen. Like many things it had been long delayed due to covid. I appreciate their support and sacrifices toward both my military service and journey into sport & rehabilitation. The games were exciting, I feel like I exceeded my personal goals I set for the Invictus Games. Some where performance based for the swimming & cycling as I trained extremely hard towards these events. What meant more however was a goal to be able to run with my daughter Kaya.

The other really special moment was casually catching up with The Duke of Sussex/Prince Harry again. It was special watching him kneel down and talk with Kaya eye-to-eye, asking her all the most important questions about her time at the Invictus Games.

This little youtube clip that shares about my journey in sport and how it has helped my recovery post injury”

https://youtu.be/JcwX384uSnQ

Regards, Scott Reynolds

Through the Montessori Curriculum areas of Practical Life, Sensorial and Mathematics, children experience the concepts of order, measurement, calculations, numeric symbol recognition, counting, and exactness. The maths materials available in the classroom allow the child to practice each concept in isolation before extending their skills and knowledge. Numerals are introduced after the child has an understanding of quantity (with the golden beads) and working with the hundreds board highlights the pattern of counting which is reinforced by the short bead chains, counting by 2’s, 3’s etc.

— Amanda, Teresa and Claire

We have recently celebrated world ocean day which commemorates the importance of the oceans and the major role they play in everyday life.

The children enjoyed discovering facts about ocean animal families such as mammals, reptiles, fishes and molluscs. We all enjoyed looking at reference books and learning facts about jellyfishes, whales and sea turtles. It was a great opportunity for the children to share their knowledge and their ideas which contributes to enrich their vocabulary and practice how to speak to a group of people.

— Jenny, Angela, Claire & Catalina.

We all want to raise thoughtful, grateful children and a way to encourage this is for them to participate in charitable work. During this year we have raised money for a school affected by floods in Lismore, we have collected shoes for a local charity that clean and distribute them to people in need and more recently we have focused on ‘One Meal’ a local charity. Children have brought in food stuff and last week we had a Teddy Bears picnic and children brought in a fiver for their friends in need.

To see the children begin to learn the value of generosity, to know they are making a difference to their community and experience the joy of giving we realise there is as much benefit to the children as there is to the charities they are supporting. Thank you to all our families for your continued kindness and generosity.

– Dawn

The early years lay the foundation for learning mathematics, at this age children can access powerful mathematical ideas relevant to their current lives and learn the language of mathematics, which is vital to future progression.

In kindergarten this term, the children have been learning about the decimal system. Once an understanding and knowledge of numbers to ten (units) is consolidated, the whole decimal system can be presented. The decimal system helps children to understand the concept of units, tens, hundreds and thousands. Once this concept is grasped, the children can begin to make and read composite numbers using the golden bead materials and number cards.

— Helen

This fortnight Aikya has been in full swing, with some beautiful “big work” being prepared by the students and our trip to participate in the annual interschool sports carnival. That’s not to mention the ongoing independent work that the students plan and execute throughout each day.

Some topics of note this fortnight include ongoing studies of Indigenous Australian studies through the historical analysis of the fundamental needs of ancient civilisations. Language studies have seen students publishing their creative narratives into illustrated books. Furthermore, geometry has seen students bring their focus to the study of angles, while numeracy continues to feature each day through the use of our classroom material and abstract arithmetic.

Thank you to our wonderful families for your help during the athletics carnival. We are all still talking about how much fun it was. Some formed new interests, some made a few new friendships, and all had a great time.

—Toby, Harshitha and Alison.

We had the opportunity to attend the Montessori Sports Carnival and the children had the best time. It was a great opportunity to get to know children from different schools and to learn new skills and sports. It was wonderful to see everybody having fun and making new friendships and we are looking forward to next year’s event.

Some of the students had the opportunity to build an outdoor bench with Nick last week. They were encouraged to use their own building skills and to work collaboratively as a team to finish the product while reading and interpreting the instructions booklet.

We would like to wish everybody a lovely school break. Enjoy the sun and see you soon back at school.

— Laura.

PRE-SCHOOL CAMPUS
In music, the kindies have continued working on a song of their own about some animals and the community they live in. We have worked on our song using the glockenspiels, body percussion, splitting into teams with different parts and adding in some dynamics. I think we have concluded that if you ever come across a pig that cuts hair, you should just keep on walking.

The younger groups have loved learning our musical words for fast and slow (presto and largo) and take great pleasure in proving me wrong when I challenge them to tell me if the animals on our flash cards are presto or largo!

We have been practicing breathing techniques and vocal warm ups at the beginning of each session and had a lot of fun singing a bubblegum song and making pizza!

NORTH HEAD CLASSROOM MUSIC
This term Akiya and Yani have been learning all about the sounds and style of Surf Rock Music. They have turned into a surf rock choir and are sounding wonderful on Surfer Girl by The Beach Boys. They have also been playing and singing a modern surf rock song by The Drums called Lets go Surfing. Akiya has been playing it on Xylophone and Yani have been playing it on the Ukulele.

MONTESSORI BAND
This term the band has been working on two songs Cloudy Day by Tones and I and Minds Eye by Wolfmother. Rehearsals have been coming along very nicely and they are really starting to gel together as an ensemble.

It’s been great to continue a relatively un-interrupted term of music and watch all of the children develop their musical skills, and also their love of music.

Learn to PLAY Music
Learn to LOVE Music
…Be a Musician for LIFE!

James, Angie, Ben & Deb
(The Evergreen Music Team)

Farmhouse News

2022 Newsletter Term 02 | Issue 04

Upcoming events & Important Dates

Principals Message

Principals Message Continued…

Invictus Games 2022

ELOUERA | Stage 1 Infant Community

BURBANGANA | Stage 1

COOINDA | Stage 1

AMAROO | OUTDOOR CLASSROOM

KINDERGARTEN

AIKYA | Stage 2

YANI | Stage 3

MUSIC

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