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Wow what a super quick week that was! And with a public holiday on Monday I’m sure the next will go equally fast. I guess that is a sign that everyone is having so much fun.
Friday is generally a quieter day and that is great for the teachers to be able to connect more closely to the children. Mr Andrew joined Ellie, Eva and Mariah at the dolls houses and observed as they acted out a story where a big storm had made the power go out. Mace had found some interesting books about nature and a great counting book where we traced the big numbers with our fingers.
With such a small group we decided to do some more free play and relaxing activities that are harder to do with a big group. We brought a big tub of sand indoors and played some I spy games trying to find the small creatures that Mr Andrew had hidden throughout the tub. We also got some water play our with lots of different pouring tools like cups, sieves, spoons and bowls. Activities like these ones allow children to safely explore being creative and messy and provides opportunities to practice cleaning when the outcome doesn’t really matter. The activities are open ended which means the children can direct them how they like which gives them a sense of independence and can reveal to the teachers what their interests are.
The newly organised home corner has been an absolute hit with the children. Tidying out some of the junk has allowed the children to easily find what they need to make some creative and delicious meals. Mariah has been learning how to categorise the different objects by what they are made of e.g. metal, wood or plastic. It is best for children to have exposure to as many different materials as possible so they can explore their characteristics. For example children should be able to learn that glass is fragile or metal can be sharp. It helps them understand the world they live in and helps to keep them safe. It also allows them to learn the purpose of objects based on what they are made of. We have been able to introduce some more mathematics into the home corner as well by creating “shopping lists” and using the play money to buy food.
Mr Andrew went digging in the resource room and found an amazing game to extend our focus on sequencing and categorising. The game is literally called “Sea-quence”. A game where the children have to place the cards in the right order. It explores colours of the rainbow, time of day, letter of the alphabet, size of objects and numbers which have been a lot of our class topics in the past so it is great to reinforce these concepts. According to the great educator from Italy Maria Montessori, repetition is key for children’s learning: “It is exactly in the repetition of the exercises that the education of the senses exists; not that the child shall know colours, forms or qualities, but that he refine his senses through an exercise of attention, comparison and judgment.”
That’s all for today, thank you for your attendance and attention this week. See you all on Tuesday refreshed after a long weekend!!!