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
Wattle Room
The Preschool children have had a very busy week. They have been exploring the grounds of the Blue Mountains Steiner School as we begin preparations for Bush Kindy. The children explored the Gaga Ball pit, the school garden, and our very own vegetable patch at the back of the preschool. The children are responsible for tending to the vegetables and herbs growing there, with the support of Annie, our incredible school gardener. We are looking forward to making tisanes, herbal teas and harvesting vegetables for delicious soup. How wonderful it is to be able to see the progression of our food, from garden plot to table.
Boronia Room
Welcome Ronan to the Boronia’s Room. Over the past week, we have been exploring the school and walking to the Mini Oval for a bushwalk experience. The children have been noticing changes in the playground and the colours of the leaves as we head into Autumn. They have also been making wondrous creations with beeswax, using their fingers and their imagination.
The Preschool team
Kindergarten/Boronia Room
Kindergarten’s Autumn Festival is set for the 9th April at 10am to 11.30am. Everyone is welcome to join us in our Harvest Celebrations. Children come to school with their parents at the later time of 10am, after our shared Harvest Circle, all the families are invited to bring a plate to share for morning tea. Children may go home with their parents or continue their day at school as normal. This celebration will conclude our very first term together for 2025.
This week we have been hosting Natalie Choo, a student from the Rudolf Steiner Early Childhood Education Course. Natalie will be with us in the Kindergarten for Weeks 6 and 7. During this time, Natalie is required to complete a number of different activities and tasks, some of which involve leading practical activities with the children under my supervision. We welcome Natalie to our beautiful school and hope she enjoys her time sharing in our Kindergarten adventures.
I am sharing some images of our planting activities with Annie. Some of the beautiful flowers are blooming in the garden with the encouragement of the recent rains. It is proving to be a joy to walk the grounds and discover the hidden delights of our gardening efforts over the last few years.
This week we have been extending our regeneration work outside of the Kindergarten. We planted 5 new native shrubs in the rocky earth below the Tea Tree Room. It took some perseverance and determination to dig the holes for these plants and the Kindy children showed their grit and staying power by planting these five new little trees. Well done, it will be so exciting to watch them grow.
That is enough from us for now. We look forward to more adventures in the week ahead.
Cheers,
Francine
Class 1/2
Class 1/2 worked together with Annie to clear weeds in the garden this week, and as a result the chickens had a feast! It is so rewarding to work together and use our harvested vegetables to make something delicious. Grating, measuring and finally enjoying our savoury zucchini slice was a nourishing treat for the children.
Play rehearsals for our Autumn St Michael play are underway! The celebration will be on Thursday 20th March at 5.30 pm. Our hardworking Class 1 gnomes and soaring Class 2 meteors have been exploring their character traits and lines. It is such a pleasure to watch the rite of passage and older children supporting the younger ones with their role.
Costumes will be provided for the play but kindly begin gathering clothes for children to wear underneath:
Class 1 will require block colours: red, brown, green, orange, pink long pants, long or short sleeved tops.
Class 2 will require yellow or white pants or shorts and tops.
Warm wishes,
Kath & Class 1/2 Assistants
Class 3/4
Class 3/4 continue to enjoy netball on a Friday. Last week we had Year 4 and Year 3 work in 2 groups, which worked really well for the children.
It was unfortunate that our excursion to the lake had to be postponed. It has been rescheduled for after NAPLAN and the Harvest Festival and a new note will come out soon.
In Maths we have looked at 3D shapes and made the one piece of beeswax into a sphere, then cube, then square pyramid, then cones, then cylinder. We also sketched 3D shapes focusing on shading. We also looked into length, looking at the historical and current use of hands, feet, cubits, fathoms, and yards before measuring cm with rulers.
Afternoon “meditation choices” have been extended from drawing in journals, reading and “having another little nibble” (which is exactly how the kids say it) to using beeswax, kinetic sand, and thera-putty.
We are frequently having class extra snacks of sliced apple, and cruskets with vegemite. The emotional support cracker is a powerful settling agent. It also helps the class to feel connected, share, take turns as well as learning how to use a butter knife to spread butter and vegemite differently to how we dig with a spade in the garden 😉.
There have been many practices for the Harvest Festival play. Class 3 need to learn to coordinate their feet to move in unison like one dragon, which is tricky, and learn to roar loudly, which comes much more naturally! Class 4 are villagers and grouped with Class 5 and 6, so they get to feel very much more part of the grown-up end of the school.
In Permaculture, Annie talked about the principle of Observe and Connect, and having a sit spot where you pause and watch for a time and return to that spot. So, before gardening, we found spots and sat and watched for 5 minutes. It was a challenge for the children and at the end of the time they hit the garden with a movement frenzy of watering cans and weeding buckets and buzzing chat like little bees.
I have compiled the language I have been using for social, emotional, and behavioural goals into a list of “wise choices,” which the children should have brought home. If you have any questions about any of these things, please ask the children to explain and if that does not add clarity then check in.
Warm regards,
Jeneva and Meredith
Class 5/6
I hope your weekend was a relaxing and fun one!
The weeks are whizzing by. NAPLAN practices for Class 5 happened last week and the tests begin this Wednesday.
Notes have been sent home about costumes for the Autumn St Michael play. Anyone interested in playing music in the parent ‘band’ for the play please contact me ASAP.
We began our Fractions, Decimals and Percentages Main Lesson, though we are still continuing to hear stories from Ancient India and Persia. We have practiced adding, subtracting (with different denominators), and multiplying fractions and the class seem to be getting it!
Geometry is fun and the children are loving the meditative nature of it.
Please be aware that we are practicing for the play every morning, so being on time is very helpful for everyone as we are all working together!
Have a good week,
Julie and Lee
