This term we got to know each other through our learning topic “All about me.” We got to showcase many important aspects of ourselves, such as our physical features, our family, our school, our community, our interests, and our style. We had the opportunity express ourselves in different ways and explore our differences and similarities.
All about me project
We created a portrait of oursleves by first drawing an outline of our body and decorating it with paint, Monet cut outs, and making prints of our hands and feet. During the following weeks we added images relevant to the theme of the week.
We got to show our class lots of photos of our family members during circle time. Each students had a turn to show their peers their family members and talk about their families. We also discussed what a family tree was and each student worked with the teacher to complete their own family tree.
One of the standout moments from our term was our fashion show day. The Chestnuts class had a chance to showcase their unique styles by wearing their favourite outfits and accessories. This not only allowed them to express themselves but also offered the Maple class an opportunity to get to know them better. The Chestnuts shared the reasons behind their preferences and for these items, which also helped their older classmates to also learn more about them.
During the last week of the term we reviewed everything we discussed regarding our topic and we completed some paper puzzles using our photos.
Here is the final result of our personal portrait project!
Exploring colour in different ways
We started our colour unit by defusing painted circles using water and a thin paint brush. It was great to practice our fine motor skills as we enriched our vocabulary and sensory perception.
We also created two colourful art pieces using different materials and techniques. One of our pieces included colour matching, attempting to colouring inside the lines and neatly placing the colour pencils back in their respective places . The other art piece included being messy and mixing paints, sparkles, glue and gems with full agency and self-expression.
Ms. Marie worked on colour mixing during one of her French activities too.
Montessori inspired classroom activities
Many of the classroom daily activities are inspired by the Montessori approach. This helps our young students to build many of their skills in an independent way: The students are shown how to work with the various activities presented on the classroom shelves and then they are encouraged to choose what they want to practice during the morning activity times.
The students are encouraged to playfully take responsibility and care for their classroom environment by tidying after they are finished using the activities, having snack, or working on an art and crafts project.
Wednesday Art Workshops
The school participated in an arts project on Wednesdays in which we explored three famous painters: Claude Monet, Vincent Van Gogh, and Pablo Picasso. We hosted the older kids in our classroom to create our own posters inspired by these artists. We worked in a team with students from Maple, Birch, and Walnut students which gave us an opportunity to interact with our older friends and collaborate with them. During our first workshop we created a mixed collage using images of Monet and Van Gogh’s works as well as paper, paint, glue, and other materials. During our second workshop the teams were assigned a specific era from Picasso’s extensive career and they got to create a poster based on the pictures and materials provided.
Wednesday Water experiments
During our Wednesday projects we got to see how jelly beads expand as they absorb water, we played with water pumps such as water bottles and syringes, and we made water balloons that we got to take home!
We also experimented with mixing water with different colours and textures using sparkles and food colouring. We used our pinching skills to carefully place gems inside our bottles and also used our fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination to pour sparkles from a small container into the mouth of our bottles.
We enjoyed playing with our water bottle shakers when we were all finished and we had a nice new sensory toy to take home!
We also got together with the older students to learn all about the exciting experiments they had been working on with Mr. Kralka.
Learning and playing in the forest
We are so lucky to be able to explore our forest everyday and this term we had the perfect weather to participate in some organised activities that targeted our gross motor skills and sensory perceptions. We also worked some of our art projects and we played Math and Language games.
Swimming class
We practiced many of our swimming skills this term and we made great progress. We began this school year with a very shy group but every week we built confidence and by the end of the term we were able to practice many skills such as floating and swimming on our backs, moving forward using floaties, getting in and out of the water, blowing bubbles under water, and rolling down the slide and into the water.
More outdoor activities gallery
Working together with the Maples gallery
