Welcome to the Curious Crew class of 2022! Wow what an awesome first week we have had. We have all made it through the first week, yes even you parents! The first couple of weeks can be so hard and emotional as everyone adjusts to all the changes. The kiddies are such troopers and we are so proud of how they have adapted and taken it in their stride.
We kicked off the week with taking the time to get to know each other in the classroom. We learnt some class and school rules that are there to make school a safe and happy place for us all. The children amazed us with their existing knowledge on the alphabet and counting. We coloured in a picture of ‘the first day of school’ – which they did so beautifully. We made a school bag/briefcase and filled it with the activities that we got up to this week. We did a free drawing, a cover photo of our classroom, and finger dot traced the letter Aa. The Crew practiced their cutting skills by cutting out pictures that took their fancy, and they traced and practiced writing their names, wow we are so impressed with them!
Our days were filled with lots of interactive play, free play and activities, and of course story time which is a firm favourite!
All the children have settled into their new class so well and we look forward to what is to come this year! Let’s have a wonderful year!
Have a great and restful weekend everyone. We look forward to welcoming the Crew on Monday for week two.
A Breath of Fresh Air!
We took the Crew on a nature walk to find bits and bobs for our art project. This was so much fun and the children loved bringing nature back into the classroom.
Dates to Diarise:
Haircut Day – 19 January
Bonfire Picnic – 28 January
(weather permitting)
Lots of love
Teacher Clarissa, Teacher Jules and the Curious Crew Assistants
What an absolutely amazing second last week of school. As things are nearing the end it is a blessing to see how much the Crew have grown since the beginning of the year. There have been so many special memories made this week.
On Monday the Crew made their very own ice lollies, created with yoghurt and fruit bits. They had so much fun making the mixture and pouring it into moulds. We also spent the day working through our shapes (focusing on 3D specifically as next year they will cover this more in detail). On Tuesday we decided to make Principal Anita a lovely birthday card for her birthday. It was so special to see how much they love her and all the wonderful memories they have of her. Later on in the day we enjoyed our frozen ice lollies in the garden – they were delicious!
Cooking week is always fun for the children to be involved in making something and feeling like ‘big kids’! On Thursday we created our very own snack! Nutella and fruit on bread! They were so excited and made wonderful masterpieces! We definitely have some Picassos in the class! We tackled numbers, their formation is very important going to Grade R. The Crew have progressed well with recognising their numerals and we are so proud of them! The weather on Thursday was perfect for movies and popcorn! Yay!
For homework this week, if you could practice letter sounds – ask your child to sing the alphabet song and then go through the letters asking them to sound out the letters. They will surprise you!
Have a lovely weekend and see you all on Monday!
We went on an outing!
Wednesday was our Curious Crew outing day. It was truly a beautiful day, the weather was great and the children had a blast! They were all so well-behaved and listened so well. There were many swings and even a big (fabric sac) swing! The Crew had such a jol! We are so blessed with the children that we had this year! We are going to miss them so much!
Please remember:
Christmas boxes for your child’s art
Flash sticks for reports
Last few items for our 12 Days of Christmas Charity Drive
We had so much fun learning about the different places we can travel to last week. The Crew have such lovely memories and can tell their teachers about their holidays. Thank you for being so enthusiastic guys!
We completed three worksheets this week, two were letter based and the third was number orientated. The Crew had to follow simple and complex instructions (this is an assessment criteria), they all did really well! This week we read three Letter Land books for story time. Namely; the letter of the week ‘h’, the letter ‘i’ and the letter ‘g’. We are introducing the concept of before and after so for example, ‘which letter comes before ‘h’ in the alphabet.’ This also falls under assessment criteria. The Crew have participated so well this week with new terms and concepts. Congratulations boys and girls!
The worksheets included different types of activities, they had to colour, trace, find, circle and match letters. They have all come such a long way! The number worksheet was a counting and matching one – the Crew had to colour the picture, count how many items and then associate it with the correct number. Great work!
For art this week, we made our very own passports! They found it so interesting! We explained that we get boarding passes and we need passports to travel. They also watched a few short clips of people going on planes and how the process works being in an airport.
One of the things we have introduced these past few weeks is Sight Words. at the end of each Letter Land book, there is a sight word such as ‘cat’ or ‘mat’ etc. They have turned this into a little game where they sound out each letter to form the word. Wow, they surprised us with how quickly they get the word right! Have some fun with them and let them try some sight words at home.
Our year-end fun day at Eco Tree Parks is coming up, please could you return the indemnity forms! The Crew are getting so excited and we are going to have an absolutely amazing time.
Have a fabulous week ahead!
I packed my trunk and in it I put ...
This is such a fun game to play with your kiddies during those long hours in the car on the way to your holiday destination!
Plus … it is a great way to boost their memory skills!
There are two things children should get from there parents:
What an exciting week for the Curious Crew class! It was Market Day and Mommy/Daddy and Me Yoga day this Friday! Thank you to the Crew class for participating beautifully and for creating all of your spectacular goodies! We were blown away with how wonderfully the day planned out!
We completed assessments this week, focusing on cutting and pasting, independent name writing and letter formation and recognition. The Crew’s cutting skills have improved immensely since the beginning of the year and they should be proud of themselves. Letter formation is coming along nicely, it will continue to improve with time and practice.
We have been compiling the end of year workbooks so that you can all have a look at how much your child has progressed. The Crew coloured in their front cover this week and even their colouring skills have improved – colouring within the lines and use their wonderful imaginations to create beautiful master pieces!
For art this week we worked hand in hand with some assessment skills. The children had to cut out all of the goodies that they would like to buy from magazines and place them into their little purses. Next, the Crew coloured in their own money, cut it out and placed it in their little purses. Well done for working so hard. It is always wonderful seeing what the children would like and how well they hold the page with one hand and cut with the other. Great stuff boys and girls!
Teacher Hela really worked hard with the children this week by explaining the concept of ‘loss’ and how sometimes all things have to come to an end. The children created their very own candle holders. So beautiful! Fun Fit Sports was also filled with assessments this week and it is always such a thrill for the Crew to go participate and run around outside.
Homework Tip: As we are nearing the end of the year it is important for the children to be Grade R ready. Please could you practice some name writing at home. Write it out for them first and let them trace over it. Alternatively, most of the Crew are able to write their names without any assistance.
The Real Meaning of Christmas!
Please don’t forget that our 12 Days of Christmas initiative starts on Monday. Keep an eye out for the daily reminder messages of what to bring. We never really realize how fortunate we are until we see the needs of others. This initiative is an amazing way to help those who need it the most!
Next Week’s Theme:
Travel and Holidays
Nearly there people….
It is that time of year again, the crazy time where everything just gets busier and chaotic although festive. Let’s stay safe, healthy and push to the end of the year (can’t believe we are nearly there!) Have a wonderful weekend everyone!
Only 3 short weeks of school left! Don’t forget to look out for the Holiday Club Registration Form coming your way soon!
Holiday Club will run from the 8th till the 17th of December.
Space is one of our most anticipated themes of the year! We had so much fun this week and there have been endless discussions about how vast space is. We were pleased to hear how many planets the Crew knew. Well done to Miguel for knowing the most planets – without any assistance.
We started the week off with an introduction on Space, the children looked at different pictures and then we watched a YouTube clip. During story time this week many different facts were discovered about Space and then they were asked questions the following day yo see if they could remember which planet is the hottest and which planet is the largest. They did so well!
We completed a few worksheets this week that focused on the shape of the week which is the Rhombus or Diamond. We also coloured in and traveled to space when the children had to draw their very own face inside of an astronaut helmet. They were so creative and we love it when they get so enthusiastic about their work!
Art this week was such a blast because there were so many ideas and so many different things that the Crew wanted to do. We decided to complete star constellations which the children traced on top of a light table and then stuck stars to complete the star patterns. A very well done to Ethan R for correctly telling the class what a constellation is. We were so pleased! For our next art work the Crew completed a three-part piece.
For the very first part the children had to paint their cardboard black to form their background. They then used a toothbrush and flicked white paint to form their stars. The last part was the moon. The Crew used scrambled foil as their paintbrushes to gently dab the paint to form their moon. They really loved this and thought it was such a cool idea.
Teacher Clarissa brought some space food for us to taste this week. It was so tasty and listening to all of the Crews’ opinions was so much fun. They were interested to see how they freeze dry it and how the food tastes the same but the texture is different. The children got to taste blueberries, strawberries and apple pieces. To end off the lovely week the children visited the ‘planetarium’ in the Library where they had the chance to look up at the different planets in a dark room.
Wishing you all a lovely long weekend! Please could we ask that you catch up any leftover worksheets from the letter challenge books. We will only be sending out one page this Friday and will continue next week.
Moral Conscious: Smart is better than strong (The Lion and the Rabbit)
These past two weeks were filled with such joy as more and more Crew members started coming back to school! We cannot wait to have everyone back. The theme Dinosaurs excites the children so much and they had so many stories to tell.
The children worked on their cutting and pasting skills. They initially coloured in their dinosaurs and then cut the pieces and finally built their dinosaur. Most of the Crew placed the pieces in the correct places – well done! We also introduced all of the different dinosaurs and their extra-long names, we were so surprised with how many names they already knew!
Abacus Maths was also so much fun these past two weeks and the children were so thrilled to talk about what they had learnt.
We worked on our Reggio Emilia art pieces where the children could build their very own dinosaur park. They did so well and we were so impressed with their attention to detail. The Crew, also worked on their fine motor skills by tracing around dinosaur moulds and they then drew their own adventure on a page. We have such creative Crew! Two worksheets were also completed which were Dino Graphing and most of the children really understood the concept of counting and colouring in the correct amount of bars to make their graph. The next worksheet was filling in missing numbers and wow – the Curious Crew shocked us with this one with most of them not even needing assistance! They remembered what number came next and also how to write the number completely independently. This makes us so proud!
We started our art work and began with painting the toilet roll, they coloured their dinosaurs in and then waited for the paint to dry. We also watched a video on dinosaur facts and they concentrated so well. We also started our very own fossil art piece where the children copied a model of a Pterodactyl fossil made from pasta – they did so well.
During Heart Matters they continued learning about being bucket fillers and emptiers – they also got to shake their sillies out and wiggle and waggle. We were so thrilled to receive our hearts this week when the children put in so much effort to be ‘givers’. The Crew love Heart Matters!
The Crew helped stick their dinosaurs together and they were amazed with how they turned their simple toilet roll into a dinosaur. They also finished their Reggio Emilia art pieces. Finally, they completed a trace the lines worksheet which focuses on their pencil grip. They have all improved impressively since the beginning of the year. It was a cold day so the Crew watched a movie during outside play time and we had some popcorn – yum! We also built our very own cone by colouring, cutting and pasting!
Show and tell has been so interesting these past two weeks with the children all bringing their bits and bobs of dinosaurs from home. We even had some amazing fossils! We had some extra fun by incorporating musical chairs and we had a lovely nature walk outside while the children made up their very own dinosaur names. Great work Crew! Treeosaurus, Barkosaurus, Skyosaurus – to name a few!
Home Tip: Please work on cutting skills, holding the paper with the one hand and cutting with the dominant hand. We know that this can be tricky but we are also so chuffed with how much they have improved thus far!
Next week’s theme: Space
Have a wonderful weekend!
Love Teacher Clarissa, Teacher Carla and Teacher Emma.
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