Keep up-to-date with your child’s learning with these short weekly updates from their teachers. Click on the buttons below to go straight to your child’s class, or find out what others are up to!
Preschool
In the Preschool this week the children have been involved in preparing simple meals and snacks. Throughout their day, the children have been busy squeezing fresh oranges to make orange juice and drinking it for afternoon tea out of special orange cups!
Also, this week, they made healthy pizzas with a variety of fresh herbs and vegetable toppings. The process of cooking with children can be somewhat time-consuming (and messy!), but in Steiner preschools, time slows down, and we allow the children to really sink deeply into what they are doing and become immersed in the joy of creating. Through repetition and love for the task at hand, the children learn to imitate the educators in the room and thoroughly enjoy exploring with their senses. It is a rich learning experience that also provides children with a connection to their friends and teachers. Often making the meal or snack is just as enjoyable as eating it!
Lesley and the Preschool team
Kindergarten/Boronia Room
On Thursday evening Kindergarten held their Parent/Teacher gathering. Parents were invited to experience some of the children’s verses and songs, share in a morning circle and try out a wet-on-wet painting. Thank you to those parents who were able to attend, hopefully you gained some additional insight and understanding of your child’s day in our beautiful Kindergarten program.
Thank you to Rika Kaula for offering childcare to the families, so that their parents could attend the evening gathering. Your kind support is greatly appreciated.
This week saw all the Turtles come to completion. The children are very proud of their efforts and what they have been able to achieve in such a short period of time. The turtles are very loved, and I know they will be treasured.
We heard the story of the “Goose Who Wanted to Keep the Summer” this week. A great transition story for us as we start to move into the Autumn. The children have picked the Autumn colours for their finger knitting, that will be used to create their Harvest baskets for the end of term Harvest Festival.
The children worked with Annie to plant a Flowering Gum Tree in the bush area across from the library. We are expanding our gardening activities with some regeneration work in some of the bush areas beyond the Kindergarten. I am very proud of what these young people are learning and experiencing with the support and direction of Annie.
Best wishes to all,
Francine
Class 1/2
What a wonderful week it’s been in Class 1/2! We began the week gardening with Annie, weeding, planting and nurturing our school garden. The children collected some delicious herbs and made refreshing fruit ice blocks to cool down as the last of the Summer sun shone down upon us.
Our fairy tale and animal fable Main Lesson has been a joy as we follow characters both cheeky and brave. Class One continue to consolidate their letters and sounds while Class Two are practicing their punctuation, incorporating sight words and word banks working towards writing independently.
Swimming Fun Day at Lawson pool was a big success! Playing with our friends and practicing our swimming skills. We were so grateful for the warm weather and thank you to the families who helped out on the day.
Netball continues to be a highlight of our week; Amy is introducing netball skills to the children using fun and exciting games. The children’s enormous growth in ball skills has made my hair curl!
Warm wishes,
Kath and Class 1/2 Assistants
Class 3/4
We had a great Swimming Fun Day. Lawson pool is a lovely pool to have so close by. I was so impressed with the swimming skills in our class and across the school. The children are unusually confident swimmers, and the non-competitive races really gave kids a chance to have a go and enjoy showing their skills with less pressure.
We started a new Main Lesson on Stories from the North American First Nations People. Linked to this we have been making dream catchers. In all creative tasks we try to encourage children to develop their own artistic eye by making choices. In this instance, what size dream catcher were they making, what colours were they using, what design would they weave, did they want it simple or complex, when was it time to stop, did it feel complete or is it a case of pause for the day and bring more energy back to it another time.
We use the terms creative license, and creative process with the children for them to develop an understanding of being active in this and it isn’t just about the teacher or others being happy with your work. We want to feel relaxed and calm and alive in creating times. To do so we sometimes need to slow ourselves down and “think without thinking”, to be able to feel and be in the moment and not be too self-critical or frustrated with our work and learning curves.
The children have been much more settled at play and learning without home toys coming to school. Thank you so much for your support in this.
In Maths we have done some work on rounding numbers to the nearest 10, nearest 100, nearest 1000. To do this we drew hills plotting the midpoint at the top of the hill and then placing the number we were rounding on the hill. If it was before the midpoint, it rolled back down the hill and if it got to the top of the hill or after that it rolled down the other side. We had children rounding numbers from a year 3 to year 5 level during this task. Most could do it by mentally picturing the hills by the end of the lesson, e.g. 257 – is it closer to 200 or 300? Maybe have a chat and a play with this at home and ask me for a demo of the hill if they have forgotten!
Have a great weekend
Jeneva and Meredith
Class 5/6
A fun day was had by all at our Swimming Fun Day! We were fortunate with the weather. Lawson Pool is great place to go when the sun is shining. The children raced in a few events and the non-competitive competition motivated them to swim their best strokes!
This week we have been working on a drawing of the Taj Mahal, using our keen eyes to draw the image with perspective. We experimented with the ‘vanishing point’ and tested if we were left or right eye dominant. For some, this is still to be confirmed!
We painted a Lotus Flower, and the class burst into a Lotus Flower song whilst painting (which was a lovely moment).
We have been working on all the mathematical operations in our quick 30-question daily morning Maths routine. In English, we have been using descriptive language within a set poetic structure to try and bring images such as the Taj Mahal to life. In Morning Circle our rhythm skills are being challenged as well as continuing with opening our vocal cords each morning with breathing and singing exercises.
In Italian, Jess told me that many of the children are beginning to be able to translate more complicated sentences from Italian to English and vice versa.
We wish you a lovely weekend,
Julie and Lee
