27 Feb
Kia ora whānau,
We are having an exciting start to the year with so much enthusiasm towards the learning which is happening in the class.
Writing
The older students have been working on adding more detail to their writing. For example – instead of, “there are clouds in the sky”, “there are puffy, white clouds moving swiftly across the sky.”
The younger students have been focusing on their handwriting and simple sentences using a capital letter and full stop.
Weaving
Through the subject of handwork, children perfect movement of the hands, experience the joy of creating and are stimulated intellectually by the knowledge of important crafts and their use in many parts of the world.
Some tamariki have been interested in weaving. Adeline wrote a letter to the Kauri kaiako Helen to ask for the karakia to respectfully harvest harakeke with the correct tikanga. Addison and her whānau kindly used the karakia to harvest some flax from their place for us to use.
Look at some of our amazing handwork!
The Montessori Great Stories
The Great Stories, also known as the Five Great Lessons, are a distinctive part of the Montessori curriculum for children aged 6-12. These narratives aim to instill a sense of wonder about the universe and to provide a broad context to stimulate exploration and learning.
Tania told us one of the Montessori great stories which included many experiments investigating the types of matter we have on our earth and how these interact with each other.
We have continued this learning with further experiments on how matter interacts. Such as, mixing solids with liquids to see which ones dissolve and become one state of matter and which ones stay separate. We are also investigating how temperature affects this.
Geometry
The word geometry is derived from the Greek words for earth and measurement. The word geometry literally means ‘measuring the earth’. The Montessori approach to teaching geometry involves the use of concrete materials, which engage with the children’s sense of wonder and which encourage children to measure for themselves the world they live in.
Some ākonga have been working on congruency, similarity and equivalency. If you have a year 4 child ask them which concept means what!
We have been investigating parts of a circle. Diameter, circumference, surface, radius, chord, minor arc, major arc. I wonder if any year 3’s can show their whānau these concepts.
We hope you enjoyed seeing some of the learning going on in the classroom recently!
Tania, Robyn and Aimee.