Space

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!!

Space

Space

THEME

Space

COLOUR

Orange

SHAPE

Diamond

NUMBER

Recap

j

LETTER

Nn – Night

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. We have been practicing all the names of our planets and the Crew are doing well to remember all of the names. We just have to prompt them with the first letter sound of the planet so that they can remember. Test them at home and see how many they can recall!

We started the week off with an introduction on Space, the children looked at different pictures and then we watched a YouTube clip. During ring time this week many different facts were discovered about Space and then they were asked questions the following day 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 did a colouring, cutting and pasting worksheet that challenged their puzzle and perceptual skills. They had to cut up the space scene and put it back together in the right place. This is tricky – but they did very well, only requiring a little help!

Playdough was a hit this whole week! The Crew made all sorts of things throughout the week and some things relating to space such as planets and star constellations. We printed out pictures of constellations that the children had to try and recreate with their playdough.

For art we made our own little telescopes with a different star constellation to look at through each one. See if you can find this in the night sky with your child, that would be amazing!

We practcsed writing our names again this week. We are noticing some Crew are using capital letters throughout their name instead of just the first letter. Please discouraged this as it leads to confusion at this stage. Next year they learn capital letters. We did some fun letter recognition activities this week as well, one being covering each letter in pebbles. The Crew just love exploring the pebbles and getting creative with them.

Wishing you all a lovely weekend. Please could we ask that you catch up any leftover worksheets from the letter challenge books, the Crew are improving but need the practice to each week to keep them remembering their letters 😊

Our Theme Next Week Is: Dinosaurs

 

 

 

 

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 Clarissa, Teacher Jules and the Curious Crew Assistants

Our Crew Are Out Of This World!!

Space

Space

THEME

Space

COLOUR

Orange

SHAPE

Diamond

NUMBER

Recap

j

LETTER

Nn – Night

 We had a lot of fun with this theme and really tapped into our imagination, coming up with our own planets we would like to visit in our rockets as astronauts.

 Our Hoppers love dancing to songs and loved learning the words to the planet song. After we listened to the planet song the children were all hyped up and excited to start their Solar System artworks!

 On Monday they coloured in the sun and planets so beautifully.

We used a poster of the Solar System to see the colours of the planets, but of course, there were no colour scheme rules, their artistic flair took over in the best way! On Tuesday, we were ready to work on our cutting skills and the Hoppers cut out their sun, they all did an awesome job! Later on, in the week the Hoppers worked on their pasting skills by glueing the sun and planets onto black cardboard. 

 On Wednesday we focused on our letter of the week. We read all about Noisy Nick and all the noise he likes to make. After learning about the “N” sound we did our artwork “N” is for night. The children painted the letter “n” in black and later we decorated it with a sponge-painted moon and stuck stars all over. They look so beautiful.

 The rest of the week we finished off our art and watched some space videos and some astronauts in space, and even a space rocket launch. This was so exciting to watch, and our Hoppers loved it.

 Have a safe and lovely weekend!

Next week’s theme: Dinosaurs

 

 

 

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 Kate-Lynn, Teacher Katy and the Happy Hoppers Assistants

Our Hoppers Are Out Of This World!!

Space

Space

THEME

Space

COLOUR

Orange

SHAPE

Diamond

NUMBER

Recap

j

LETTER

Nn – Night

Twinkle-twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are… This was one of the many space themed songs that were sung this week and boy did we have fun singing them!

Our Busy Bugs absolutely loved learning about Space and all of the aspects involved. We spoke about the planets, meteors, stars, the milky way, astronauts and rockets. We watched lots of videos teaching us about all of these things and looked at loads of awesome pictures taken by satellites. We learned that we live on planet Earth, and this is the only planet that is known to have enough surface water to be inhabited by humans. We learned that Saturn has a giant ring of floating ice and rock chunks and that Jupiter is the biggest planet in our solar system.

We spoke about astronauts and their space gear. They have to wear special suits and helmets while up in space because humans cannot breathe that far up. We spoke about gravity and how it makes objects, including people, float. We also spoke about the special food that astronauts have to eat.

For art this week, we made beautiful 3D planet models. The Bugs got to water colour paint however they wanted onto 2 pieces of paper, we cut circles from these panted pieces, and then used the off-cuts to “sandwich” inside the 2 circles stuck together.

Our other piece of art is absolutely stunning! We used white paint flecked with a toothbrush onto black paper to make a starry background, and watered down black paint in a spray bottle to make moons. We used our fine motor skills to stick star stickers onto our paper and use glue and glitter to turn one of our stars into a shooting star.

We hope that all of our Bugs feel better soon, that you all have a lovely weekend and we will see you next week for another exciting theme!

 

 

 

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 Gemma. Teacher Monette and the Busy Bugs Assistants

Our Bugs Are Out Of This World!!

Space

Space

THEME

Space

COLOUR

Orange

SHAPE

Diamond

NUMBER

Recap

j

LETTER

Nn – Night

This is one of the SCHOOL’S favorite themes! We love how much room for exploration and learning there is with this theme. With that being said, Space is a pretty difficult concept to explain to a 2-year-old! It is difficult to get them to understand that they live in a country called South Africa, never mind a planet called Earth, in a galaxy that is bigger than they could ever understand! So, we spent a lot of time talking about things that they do understand because they can SEE them, such as stars, rockets, the moon and astronauts! We spoke about the planets and the solar system, and we feel that they really did understand the concepts we were trying to get across!

We tried something a bit different with our art this week. Instead of sending home another picture of a star or the moon, we experimented with loose parts. The teachers went to the art studio and gathered anything that looked “spacey” and invited the children to make a galaxy, or the night sky. We watched how differently the children approached this task and it was fascinating. Some picked up everything they could find and just placed it all together on the felt. Others picked items very deliberately and placed them with such purpose, only focusing on one or two of the parts provided. When it was time to clear away, some stayed behind to sort the parts back into their containers while others ran off! It was so interesting and a fantastic fine motor activity. We are sure this sparked so much interest and creativity in them and we encourage you to do similar activities at home. Added bonus: no mess!

We also used a toilet paper roll to make an alien … they look so cool!

Have a lovely, relaxed weekend.

See you on Monday!

 Next week’s theme: Dinosaurs

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 Cecelia and the Playful Pups Assistants

Our Pups Are Out Of This World!!