Maria Montessori

April News

As we are entering the second term, a lot of new work is being introduced to both classrooms. Water works and care of the environment activities have become very popular, such as water the plants in the Toddlers class and table cleaning, arranging tables and chairs after meals for the Early Years class.

In the Early Years class, the children are still trying to aim for academic excellence, with work on letter recognition, initial sounds, phonograms and sight words. They are developing their pencil grips steadily and they are doing their handwriting without ‘tears’ and with more confidence now. We also talk about the calendar during circle time every morning. With the help of Montessori materials, the children find abstract concepts and language skills easy to understand and remember. They are also learning to control their movements by walking instead of running in the classroom.

In the Toddlers class, there are several activities in the areas of colours, shapes, art. They have been busy learning about what are primary colours. They will be learning what colours they can get when they mix and play with the primary colours. We have also started to encourage the children to be independent to come up with their own art pieces using materials such as coloured papers, egg shells, fish scales, feathers, etc.

Since we started “Show and Tell” last month on Pets, the sessions have been very successful. We have seen a variety of objects and heard interesting stories about them. Through this process, the children are learning important communication skills such as speaking clearly, introducing themselves, offering descriptive details, preparing the information they wish to share, answering questions which are directed to them about the information they have shared, etc. Importantly, children are learning to speak in front of their classmates, which help to build their self-confidence. Please continue to support your child towards selecting objects and pictures of nature and culture to bring to school for “Show and Tell” on every Friday.

Our fun and fantastic theme for April is on Toys. Toys are more than for amusement as they profoundly influence many aspects of children’s lives. We will be looking into the origin of toys, types of toys even gran’s toys in comparison to present days. We will also learn about Malaysia traditional toys and be playing some Malaysian favourites such as seven stones, kites and spinning tops at school. We would like to inform you of one special day whereby the children will have a Teddy Bear picnic. Info will be sent out soon.