Smart Squad Blog | Eco-Kids Preschool

Dinosaurs and Fossils



THEME

Dinosaurs & Fossils



COLOUR

Silver & Green



SHAPE

Circle/Sphere & Triangle/Cone



NUMBER

Recap

j

LETTER

Dd – dinosaurs

What we got up to this week:

We started off with listening to each other’s fun weekend news and interacting in a broad discussion of each other’s weekend.

We introduced this week’s theme, Dinosaurs. We discussed the different kinds of Dinosaurs that existed as well as fossils and the different periods which are: Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous. Everyone absolutely loved this theme and had many of their own awesome facts.

Phonics and Writing

We wrote sentences in our books using our sight words and our “cats” (head, tummy, tail) for the correct spacing of letters. The Squad did a worksheet where they had to complete the sentences by filling in the words using our “at” family as well as tracing the word and then rewriting it. We are very impressed by how the Squads’ writing skills have improved, we can only imagine how they will be writing next term, like champs! We also recapped on our sight words and added three new ones, ‘’get’’, ‘’big’’, ‘’but’’.

Maths:

We continued to practice counting from 1-30 as well as count backwards from 30 – 1. This week we completed addition sums using the counting on method up to 20 as well as concrete objects. The Squad did a worksheet where they had to determine if the number is more or less, as well as fill in the missing numbers in worms. Everyone grasped this really well, well done Squad!

Life Skills:

With focusing on our moral conscious theme: Smart is better then strong and working together, we explained to the Squad that if they are in a situation, it is better to be smart and speak up instead of holding things in and trying to be strong and are always here to help no matter what. We also explained that working together is important, many hands make light work and TEAM stands for “Together-Everyone-Achieves-More”.

Art:

For Art the Squad each received a piece of blank paper where they drew a background for their dinosaurs. They then used a stencil to sponge paint their dinosaurs. We also did a fun activity where the Squad each received delicious jelly in a cup with a dinosaur as the surprise in the middle.

Afrikaans:

For Afrikaans we did a recap on everything we have covered so far, such as colours, fruit, numbers, and parts of the body.

We are extremely proud of each Squader’s hard work, we can’t wait to see you grow even more next term. Can we please ask that you go over sight words during the holidays.

Keep safe and have an awesome holiday, we will see you next term!

THE WORST THING ABOUT BEING AN ADULT IS ...

… that no one cares what your favourite dinosaur is. BUT WE DO CARE! Tell us what your favourite dinosaur is!

Dates to Diarise:

Holiday Club: 8 August

Public Holiday: 9 August

Holiday Club: 10 Aug – 2 Sept

Set Up Day: 5 Sept (NO SCHOOL)

Back to School: 6 Sept

Haircut Day: 7 Sept

School Photographs: 12-14 Sept

Hat Parade Day: 23 Sept

Public Holiday: 24 Sept

Lots of love

Teacher Carla, Teacher Hayley and the Smart Squad Assistants

Our Happy Boys and Girls!

Space



THEME

Space



COLOUR

Orange



SHAPE

Diamond



NUMBER

Recap

j

LETTER

Nn – Night

We have had such a fun week learning about Space. We learnt a little rhyme that helps us remember the planets in order from the sun. The poem goes like this:

My (Mercury), Very (Venus), Energetic (Earth), Mother (Mars), Jumped (Jupiter), Straight (Saturn), Under (Uranus), Nine (Neptune), Planets (Pluto).

We also spoke about how Pluto is a dwarf planet and the sizes and colours of all the different planets. Ask your little one which planet is the hottest and which is the coldest?

Writing and Phonics: This week we continued to recap our “a” family words as well as our sight words. We also focused on ‘ap’ words such as cap, nap, tap etc. We had to add our sound buttons and then sound out each letter, we are impressed with their abilities to recognise the letter and their name. We also had a worksheet for the children to complete where they were given a picture and the word, and they had to match them. We continued to write in our thin lined books. We wrote senteces with our sight words and our “ap” family words.

Maths: In Maths we practiced we went over subtraction sums up to 20, for example: 20-1=19. We are pleased to see how much the children have grown and how they are able to work independently. We also recapped counting in 2s,5s and 10s. We ask that you continue this revision at home as this will help them in Grade 1 and going forward.

Life Skills: Keeping promises means being consistent in what we say and do. It helps children feel secure and teaches them the concept of commitment. As teachers, we may promise a favourite activity once the children have completed a less enticing activity, such as tidy up time. We look for opportunities in the classroom to show examples of commitment and the importance of keeping promises.

Art: The children really took to this theme; they always enjoy talking about Space and how vast it is. We created two art pieces this week, one was naming our very own planet and making an alien to go along with it (they were adorable, and we will be keeping it for Art Expo). The next creation was their very own space rocket which they built all on their own. Well done, Squad!

It has been a great week.

See you all next week.

WORLD GRANDPARENTS DAY!

This Sunday, the 24th of July,

we celebrate all of our

wonderful EcoGrandparents out there!

Dates to Diarise:

Pyjama Dress Up & Break Up Day: 5 August

Holiday Club: 8 August

Public Holiday: 9 August

Holiday Club: 10 Aug – 2 Sept

Set Up Day: 5 Sept (NO SCHOOL)

Back to School: 6 Sept

Lots of love

Teacher Carla, Teacher Hayley and the Smart Squad Assistants

Our Squad Are Out Of This World!!

South Africa



THEME

South Africa



COLOUR

Flag Colours



SHAPE

Rectangle



NUMBER

Recap

j

LETTER

Yy – Yellowwood

What we got up to this week:

We started off with listening to each other’s fun weekend news and interacting in a broad discussion of each other’s weekend.

We introduced this week’s theme, South Africa. We discussed our Big 5 Animals as well as our national bird, flower, animal, fish, and tree. We explained to the Squad that these all originated in South Africa which is why they are important to us. We also discussed our currency “Rands” as well as our president of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa. The week was filled with tons of concert practice and fun!

Phonics and Writing

We wrote sentences in our books using our sight words and our “cats” (head, tummy, tail) for the correct spacing of letters. We are very excited and impressed at how the Squaders are improving. We also recapped on our sight words. The children had a lot of fun reading!

Maths:

We continued to practice counting from 1-30 as well as counting backwards from 30 – 1. This week we completed addition sums using the counting on method up to 20 as well as concrete objects.

Life Skills:

With focusing on our moral conscious theme: Patriotism, we discussed how it is important to love and be proud of the country you live in as well as to honor our soldiers and to know our basic freedoms.

Art:

This week everyone received a different “African” animal for Art and decorated and coloured it in. These came out beautifully and will be kept for our end of year “Book of Me”.

Afrikaans:

For Afrikaans we did a worksheet on the parts of our face written in Afrikaans such as “nose-neus”, as well as a worksheet where we had to colour in the animals in the correct colour by reading the Afrikaans words. Everyone really listens so well and is excited to learn all the new Afrikaans words, thank you Squad!

The concert is officially here, we can’t wait for you to see all the practice and hard work your little one has put in! We are extremely excited, bring your snacks and enjoy the show!

See you all on Saturday.

ONE MORE SLEEP!

If we sleep that is … we are SO excited!!

See you all tomorrow!

Dates to Diarise:

Concert: 16 July

Haircut Day: 20 July

Nelson Mandela Day: 18 July (CHOO CHOO CHARITY DRIVE)

Pyjama Dress Up & Break Up Day: 5 August (Holiday Club details to follow)

Lots of love

Teacher Carla, Teacher Hayley and the Smart Squad Assistants

Proudly South African Squad!

Reptiles



THEME

Reptiles



COLOUR

White



SHAPE

Hexagon



NUMBER

Recap

j

LETTER

Ll – Lizard

Welcome back after the mid-term break, the Squad have adjusted into their routine nicely. We are in full swing with concert practice and the children are growing increasingly excited each day. They cannot wait to show you what they have prepared for the special day. Please could we ask that you continue to practice your child’s speech at home with them (we are practicing at school too).

Writing and Phonics: This week we continued to recap our sight words to get the mind rolling and we added a brand-new sight word ‘an’. We completed two worksheets this week which were word family based. The Squad used the sound button concept to sound out their ‘an’ and ‘am’ words. We were so proud of how well they are reading. We also played a letter recognition game to see how many letters we could sound out and how many of their names we could recognise. Our sight words are as follows:

Play, cat, at, dad, am, he, the, look, no, here, come, mom, dog, we, for, it, said, in, on, yes, is, she, this, and, me, an

Math: In Maths we practiced ‘more than’ and ‘less than’. The Squad had to write the number that comes before or after. We were pleased to see how independently they worked. We also completed a shapes worksheet where they coloured in and counted how many squares, triangles, circles, and rectangles there were hidden in the picture. In addition to the worksheets, we recapped counting to 30 and back from 20. Well done children.

Life Skills: We had a lovely discussion with the children about how we are all different. We might be tall or short, we might have blonde hair, and some might have brown hair. We also are different shades of colour. The Squad enjoyed pointing out how we are all different but that we are still a Smart Squad family, and we all love each other equally. This is such an important discussion to have, and we are so glad that the children understood this nicely.

Art: What an exciting week filled with reptiles. We even had a reptile show where the children saw spiders, snakes, frogs, lizards, chameleons, and lots more. We used this as inspiration for our art piece this week. We created our very own tortoises. Using egg cartons, paint, pom-poms and beads. They are adorable! We also drew our holiday news and the Squad told us all about their wonderful adventures!

It has been a great week.

See you all next week.

THE HIGHLIGHT OF THE WEEK ...

… was definitely when we got a visit from the ‘Snake Man!’

We had some very brave kiddies … and some hesitant little ones too!

Dates to Diarise:

Haircut Day: 13 July

Concert: 16 July

Nelson Mandela Day: 18 July (details to be advised)

Pyjama Dress Up & Break Up Day: 5 August (Holiday Club details to follow)

Lots of love

Teacher Carla, Teacher Hayley and the Smart Squad Assistants

What a sssssssuper week!

Caring For Our World: Recycling



THEME

Recycling



COLOUR

Green



SHAPE

Triangle/Pyramid



NUMBER

19

j

LETTER

Rr – Recycling

The concert is around the corner, and we are getting ready to sing and dance. We are so excited for you to see your children in their costumes!

Assessments are being finalised over the next two weeks and reports will be going out on the last day of school before the mid-term break. We are pleased with the Squad’s progress, and we are sure that you will be too!

Writing and Phonics: This week was solely focused on letter formation, we have been practicing using the ‘cat-method’ and explaining to the children that we have short letters (a,c,e, etc.), tall letters (b, d, f, etc.) and we have long letters (y, g, j, etc.). They are grasping this well, even though some letters are being written in reverse – this is still age-appropriate and with practice they will be writing correctly in no time! We introduced three new sight words, ‘and’, ‘dad’, and ‘mom’. Ask your little one over the weekend if they can recognise their sight words. We find that sticking some of them all over the house is a great way to introduce incidental learning.

Maths: We learnt about time this week. Wow, these precious children were so excited to learn how to tell the time! We have only started with telling hours and will slowly introduce minutes. They completed a worksheet where they had to write the type by looking at the clock (example, 12:00) and they also had to draw the hands of the clock facing the correct numbers. They are truly growing up so fast!

Afrikaans: We recapped our numbers, greetings, colours, and then we looked at the different fruits. The Squad really enjoy learning Afrikaans and always try to pronounce the words as best as they can.

Life Skills: This was a lovely moral conscious theme because we touched base on taking responsibility for our belongings and actions. We then discussed consequences and what happens when we don’t act responsibly. We ended off with a chat about caring for our world and how important recycling is for us.

Art: The children thoroughly enjoyed their art pieces. They began by writing a little note for mom and dad. Then they stuck some recycled items onto a board and lastly, they stuck a little picture of themselves onto the board. The Squad are proud of their little keepsake.

It has been a great week!

See you all next week.

Recycling

… turns things into other things. Which is like MAGIC!

Dates to Diarise:

Hearing Tests: 13 June

Bike-a-Thon: 15 June

Public Holiday: 16 June

School Holiday: 17 June

Book Character Dress Up Day & Break Up Day: 24 June

Mid Term Week Break: 27 June (no school, no Holiday Club)

Back to School: 4 July

Lots of love

Teacher Carla, Teacher Hayley and the Smart Sqaud Assistants

Our Eco-Green-Ambassadors!

Land, Air and Sea Transport



THEME

Land, Air & Sea Transport



COLOUR

Blue/Navy



SHAPE

Diamond



NUMBER

18

j

LETTER

Jj – Jet

)We started off this week with listening to each other’s fun weekend news and interacting in a broad discussion of everyone’s news.

We introduced this week’s theme; Land, Air and Sea Transport. We discussed what types of transport there are, i.e. land, air and sea transport and the children then gave examples of each type of transport. We discussed how air and sea transports navigate themselves and what our favourite transport is, which types of transport we have been in and what each transport needs to move. Lastly, we discussed why people use transport.

Phonics and Writing

We started off with introducing our new “ab” family words. The children identified different words that have the “ab” sound in them. They then segmented the words by identifying the letter sounds in those word. We are so impressed at how well the Squad are grasping this concept! Once the children were comfortable with the “ab” family words, they then completed a ‘matching the word to the picture’ worksheet. They did this so well! We also wrote sentences in our books using our sight words and our “cats” (head, tummy, tail) for the correct spacing of letters. We are very impressed at how these clever kiddies completed this activity. We also recapped on our sight words. The children had a lot of fun reading!

Maths:

We continued to practice counting from 1-20 as well as count backwards from 20 – 1. This week we completed addition sums using the counting on method up to 10 as well as subtraction sums using the crossing out method up to 10 as well as using concrete objects. The Squad have impressed their teachers so much! We completed a worksheet where we had cut out pictures of mittens that have the numbers 1-10 on them, we had to place the missing numbers that come before and after up to 10.

Life Skills:

Focusing on our moral conscious theme: We can make a difference, we discussed what it means to make a difference as well as the many ways in which we can make a difference in someone’s life or recycling to make a difference in the world.

Art:

This week we made awesome garbage trucks out of milk cartons. We even placed “rubbish” in the back using recycled materials and pencil sharpening’s. The children also drew a picture of themselves driving the truck. This was an awesome activity that each learner thoroughly enjoyed doing. They couldn’t wait to take them home and show their parents!

Afrikaans:

We have introduced basic Afrikaans words such as colours, numbers, fruits and greetings. Everyone is catching on so nicely, we are very impressed!

Concert practice is taking place in full force! The excitement and tunes are definitely kicking in!

See you all next week.

Sunday is World Environment Day

Teaching our kiddies to be Eco-Green-Ambassadors!

Earth is what we all have in common …

and it’s the only planet that has chocolate!

Let’s always protect it!

Dates to Diarise:

Haircut Day: 8 June

Hearing Tests: 13 June

Bike-a-Thon: 15 June

Public Holiday: 16 June

School Holiday: 17 June

Book Character Dress Up Day & Break Up Day: 24 June

Mid Term Week Break: 27 June (no school, no Holiday Club)

Back to School: 4 July

Lots of love

Teacher Carla, Teacher Hayley and the Smart Squad Assistants

This week has just raced, soared and sailed by!

Wild Animals



THEME

Wild Animals



COLOUR

Black



SHAPE

Square & Cube



NUMBER

17

j

LETTER

Z z- Zebra

Who knows what a group of giraffe is called? Let us know on the class WhatsApp group!

This week was eventful and full of wonderful moments. The Squad even had the chance to go on a tractor ride! They were buzzing with excitement and could not stop talking about how bumpy it was. So much fun! We are busy completing assessments and will be doing so over the next three weeks. Please could we ask that your child is only absent if they are sick because we complete these assessment activities throughout the school day. We thank you in advance. The concert is around the corner, and we have also been practicing so that we are ready to sing our hearts out!

Writing and Phonics: We started simple sentence reading and writing this week. It was unbelievable to see how confident these little Squad members were. We are so proud of how much they have learned and how quickly they are able to recognise the words, and then read them out loud. Great work, everybody! We also completed an ‘ag’ word family worksheet where the children had to match the word with the picture, they are getting good with this!

Maths: In Maths this week, we practiced counting and recapping our addition and subtraction methods. We then took these skills and applied them by completing sums in our workbooks. Well done Smart Squad, you are super stars with this!

Life Skills: What a lovely moral-conscious theme to discuss this week. We introduced this by showing kindness to each other and having manners. We then branched off and said that when we help others, we are showing them love and therefore filling their buckets up with love. They really loved the analogy and then practiced helping each other for the remainder of the week.

Art: The art activity this week is a surprise. We will be revealing these lovely group creations at the Art Expo. A little hint: the creations are simply out of this world and ‘’ROARsome”.

It has been a great week!

See you all next week.

All good things are WILD and FREE!

Dates to Diarise:

Haircut Day: 8 June

Hearing Tests: 13 June

Bike-a-Thon: 15 June

Public Holiday: 16 June

School Holiday: 17 June

Book Character Dress Up Day & Break Up Day: 24 June

Mid Term Week Break: 27 June (no school, no Holiday Club)

Back to School: 4 July

Lots of love

Teacher Carla, Teacher Hayley and the Smart Squad Assistants

Our Young Wild and Free Squaders!

The Farm: Farm Animals



THEME

Farm Animals



COLOUR

Red



SHAPE

Circle & Sphere



NUMBER

16

j

LETTER

Ff – Farm

Wow! What an awesome week we have had of learning and lots of fun. During ring time we enjoyed discussing weekend news, our new theme, colour, letter, number, and shape of the week. We also enjoyed learning why a sphere is a 3D shape and not a 2D shape as well as some of our farm animals.

Writing and Phonics: This week the Squad worked on sight words such as he, she, look, play, on, no, I, here, is, in, the, me, at, it, we, said, yes. We introduced three new sight words “come”, “for” and “this”. We watched a short video on the Hen and then did sequencing on the order that the story went. We introduced syllables, everyone caught on to this quickly and were able to do the syllables of many different words including their names, well done Squad!

Mathematics: This week we recapped our numbers from 1 to 20 as well as counting in 2’s, 5’s, and 10’s. We did subtraction sums by crossing out circles to get our answers. We also did a fun worksheet where we had to determine how many animals were in their herds and which one was “more” or “less”. We did an addition worksheet where we had to count the number of animals and write the answers.

Life Skills: Persevere and do not brag – We discussed the importance of always trying your best no matter what, even when you fail, you must always try again because you never know what might happen, as well as to stay humble and not make others feel like they are less if they do not win.

Creative Art: We enjoyed painting and making our pigs using paper plates, buttons, and googly eyes. We are also making many art pieces for our art expo; we are so excited and can’t wait for you all to see them!

The squad have really impressed us so far!

Thank you and have a great weekend. See you all on Monday.

World BEE Day!

BEE thankful, BEE positive, BEE cool …

But most of all …

BEE kind!

Dates to Diarise:

Haircut Day: 8 June

Hearing Tests: 13 June

Bike-a-Thon: 15 June

Public Holiday: 16 June

School Holiday: 17 June

Book Character Dress Up Day & Break Up Day: 24 June

Mid Term Week Break: 27 June (no school, no Holiday Club)

Back to School: 4 July

Lots of love

Teacher Carla, Teacher Hayley and the Smart Squad Assistants

What a BAAAA – eautiful Week!

The Farm – Fruit and Vegetables



THEME

Fruit & Veggies



COLOUR

Blue



SHAPE

Circle



NUMBER

14

j

LETTER

V v – Vegetables

We kicked the lovely week off by getting the Smart Squad assessments ready! We have no doubt that the Squad are going to do splendidly! We do ask for children to only be absent if really necessary please – we assess the children over a few weeks so that we can get a well-rounded evaluation. Thank you for your understanding!

Writing and Phonics: In Phonics this week we worked through the next word family ‘’am’’. This included recapping the sound button concept which is furthered in primary school. By using sound buttons, the children are getting equipped with the building blocks of the early stages of reading. If you need any further explanation, please feel free to come and ask us. Also, please ask your child to write out some ‘’am’’ words, you will be surprised by how they sound each letter, write it, and accompany the letters with sound buttons. Well done, Squad!

Mathematics: This week’s Maths lesson was based on subtraction. This was a long word to pronounce for the Squad, but they really grasped the concept wonderfully with only a few examples! Ask your Squad member to tell you all about their ‘trip’ to the shop to buy 3 apples and 4 bananas and how their teacher got so hungry that she ate 2 so we were left with …? We are so proud of you all Smart Squad! We also recapped on counting in 2s, 5s and 10s.

Life Skills: We learnt all about not wasting food this week and how there are so many other children who do not have food and how we must be grateful to have these wonderful meals prepared for us each day!

Creative Art: For Art this week, the Squad painted some rather weird rocks which formed their little vegetables and fruits. These will be displayed at the art expo. We cannot wait for you to see them!

We wish you all a lovely weekend and we will see you on Monday!

15 May is Family Day!

Family …

where life begins and love never ends!

Dates to Diarise:

Farm Visit/Show: 20 May (at School)

Haircut Day: 8 June

Hearing Tests: 13 June

Bike-a-Thon: 15 June

Public Holiday: 16 June

School Holiday: 17 June

Book Character Dress Up Day & Break Up Day: 24 June

Mid Term Week Break: 27 June (no school, no Holiday Club)

Back to School: 4 July

Lots of love

Teacher Carla, Teacher Hayley and the Smart Squad Assistants

A Fruity-Tooty Week!

Mothers and Babies



THEME

Mothers & Babies



COLOUR

Pink



SHAPE

Heart



NUMBER

14

j

LETTER

Mm – Mommy

Wow! What an exciting and fun short week we’ve had! During ring time we enjoyed discussing holiday news and awesome experiences of the holidays. We also discussed what Mother’s Day is and the things our mommies do for us.

Writing and Phonics: The Squad worked on sight words such as he, she, look, play, on, no, I, here, is, in, the, me, at, it, we, said, yes. We played a fun game that the Squad really enjoyed. Then we played hang man using their sight words, this was so much fun as everyone was able to identify the words and grasped this quite well. We introduced “sound buttons” where each letter had a dot under it, and when you push the button, you need to say the sound of the letter. We also practiced blending of letters to form words using the “ad family” such as “b-ad”, “s-ad”. Lastly, we completed a worksheet where each learner had to identify what the word is and match it to the picture by drawing a line.

Mathematics: This week we recapped our numbers from 1 to 20 as well as counting in 2’s.

Life Skills: With focusing on our moral conscious theme: Mommy knows best – Respect authority, we spoke about the importance of listening to, not only our moms, but having respect for your parents and that they love and care for you so deeply.

Creative Art: We completed our Mother’s Day art, we made Mother’s Day cards, key rings and beautiful bracelets for our special moms.

We are looking forward to the rest of the term together, we have a busy and eventful one ahead, but we are sure that the Squad are going to continue to blow us away!

Thank you and have a great weekend. See you all at our Sports Day tomorrow. and have a Happy Mother’s Day Smart Squad moms!

To all our AMAZING mommies ...

To the world, you are a mother.

But to your family, you are their WORLD!

Dates to Diarise:

Sports Day: 7 May

Haircut Day: 11 May

Optometrist: 13 May

Lots of love

Teacher Carla, Teacher Hayley and the Smart Squad Assistants

Mommies’ Munchkins!

Autumn, Birds Migration, Easter



THEME

Autumn, Birds Migration, Easter



COLOUR

White



SHAPE

Cross & Oval



NUMBER

13

j

LETTER

Oo – Oval

This has been a short but lovely week. Easter and Autumn go hand in hand, and we love this theme as much as the children do.

We reiterated letters and numbers this week, did a sight word activity, created a basket with bunny’s art piece, made some Easter ‘nests and lots more!

Writing and Phonics: We recapped our alphabet and introduced two new sight words. ‘Yes’ and ‘No’. We sang our vowel song and went over the sounds each letter makes. We continued to go over our sight words; look, at, me, in, here, she, he, the, on, I, is, it, no, yes, we, play and said. The children are remembering and reading them so well. We did a worksheet with sentences made from our sight words. The children had to read the sentences and then look for the sight words in those sentences, cut and stick them in their books to recreate the sentence.

Maths: We recapped simple addition up to 10 and did some concrete examples with blocks to reiterate the concept of addition.

Art & Life Skills: We spoke about Easter and the meaning behind Easter. We spoke about forgiveness and how important it is to ask for forgiveness when you are in the wrong, as well as to forgive others.

This week we did a variety of fun art activities. We made lovely basket that the Squad painted themselves and coloured in some bunnies to fill it. We also made a wonderful Easter card for our families.

The Squad have been practicing their songs for the Sports Day for when we return, and they are ready to cheer their friends on!

It has been a great week. We wish you all a lovely and Easter break. We will see you in the new term!

Happy Holidays!

Wishing our EcoFamily a Happy and Blessed Easter Weekend!

Dates to Diarise:

Break Up Day: 13 April

Holiday Club Starts: 19 April

Holiday Club Ends: 29 April

Term 2 Starts: 4 May

Lots of love

Teacher Carla, Teacher Hayley and the Smart Squad Assistants

Happy, Hoppy Children!

Science and Experiments



THEME

Science & Experiments



COLOUR

Yellow



SHAPE

Rectangle



NUMBER

12

j

LETTER

Ee – Explosion

Wow! What an exciting and fun week we’ve had! We can’t believe it is almost the end of term already! We had a lot of fun doing all kinds of experiments this week as we learnt about Science and Experiments. We spoke about Scientists and who they are and what they do. We spoke about different types of experiments as well as reasons why we do them. The children absolutely loved this theme!

We completed one experiment a day – on Monday we placed one raw egg in a glass filled with water and another raw egg placed in a glass filled with vinegar. On Tuesday, we did a float or sink experiment and tested which balloon would pop … The one with air or the one filled with water? On Wednesday the Smart Squad created a fizzy potion. Thursday was exploding volcano day and today we can’t wait to reveal what happened to the eggs in water and vinegar.

Writing and Phonics: We worked on matching capital letters with lowercase letters. To introduce this, we played a fun game that the Squad really enjoyed. We split the class in half and some children had the uppercase letters and the other half had the lowercase letters. The children had to find their pair and fit the puzzle piece. They grasped this quite well. In addition to this, a worksheet was provided where the children matched the letters. This week we recapped all our phonetical sounds and well as letter formations. We also recapped on all our sight words and added the word ‘said’.

Mathematics: This week we recapped our numbers from 1 to 20 as well as counting in 2’s. The children used their own number line to count in 2’s as well as jumping on a number line while counting in 2’s. The children then completed a counting in 2’s worksheet. We practiced number sequencing by placing numbers muddled up and the children had to place the numbers in the correct order. They had a blast with this!

Life Skills: With focusing on our moral conscious theme: Imagination and Creativity, we spoke about the importance of having both these qualities as well as how we could use our imagination and creativity. We used this concept when asking the children what they thought would happen during each science experiment. They are truly so creative when thinking about different ways the experiment could go.

Creative Art: We completed a lovely ‘states of matter’ art piece, which required the children to learn about the three different states of matter: Solids, liquids, and gases. They then had to place objects (which resembled the particles) on top of the correct picture.

Have a wonderful weekend!

And that's a wrap!

We are so proud of how well the children have been doing this term and look forward to seeing them excel in the second term as we wrap up next week.

Dates to Diarise:

Break Up Day: 13 April

Holiday Club Starts: 19 April

Holiday Club Ends: 29 April

Term 2 Starts: 4 May