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Second Great Story Inspiration

 This week we started to tell the Second Great Story (Coming of Life). The children were enthralled as the Timeline of Life was slowly unrolled. Afterwards the children were inspired to take their learning further. Here are some of their
projects:

Inspired to draw his own timeline

Clay model of a prehistoric scorpion

Making a model of a starfish after learning about its parts

Examining an actual turtle shell after exploring its life cycle

Back to Business as Usual

 One advantage of an established Montessori classroom is that usually a large percentage of the students return to the community. Whilst other classrooms, with large numbers of new students, spend time on getting-to-know-you games and building community, Montessori classrooms can virtually pick up from where they left off. Our classroom has welcomed new students into our environment and we are amazed at how quickly the children have settled as a community. 

Another busy term!

We have had a busy term with learning in all areas of the curriculum. Here are some photos of our learning in the past few weeks:

Exploring what shapes we can make with right angled triangles

Beach clean up

Planting herbs

Tree art

Doing triple digit division

Finding the relationship between diameter and circumference

Cooperation and Collaboration

Recently we had a maths professional in to observe our children solving mathematical problems. Our students love solving these challenges and will either do so independently or in self-formed groups. It was wonderful to see the students work together to find the solution to this particular problem. The maths professional commented on the respectful, collaborative way the students talked to each other. How they used questioning skills and reasoned with each other in a harmonious way. The delight on their faces when they solved the problem after wrestling with it for some time was plain to see.

Cracking the Code

Solved!

Tuakana-teina

 Tuakana-teina is part of traditional Māori society where older experts help those who are younger or less experienced. Montessori classrooms with mixed age levels allow for such interactions spontaneously. Our classroom is no exception and as the year has progressed, it has been great to see the nurturing relationships between older and younger students. Here are some pictures of tuakana-teina in action. 

I had planned to give a decimal lesson to a couple of students, however, two other students offered to do the lesson for me. I looked on in amazement at how engaged all the students were and how the child who was being given the lesson exclaimed: "I finally get decimals!"

Students also have the opportunity to eat and do fitness activities together. It is heartwarming to see older and younger students enjoying their time in the sunshine together. 

Learning square roots has been a favourite in the classroom recently. It all started with an older student asking for a review lesson. Before long, the younger students were intrigued. Even though these younger ones may not fully understand the concept they do enjoy the experience of patterning and the tactile experience of the small pegs. One young child looked on and then proceeded to tackle the square root material with a little guidance from me. You can see the look of engagement and concentration on his face as he completes the square to find the square root.

Movement and Light

 Over the past couple of months, we have been exploring the concept of Movement in our classroom. Our focus was on the movement of the Earth around the Sun and how this is connected to life on our planet. 

Younger children enjoyed learning about our calendar - where the names for the days of the week and the months of the year originated. During our weekly French lessons, they also learned the connection between French calendar names and our Anglo-Saxon calendar names. 

Making a shadow clock

We also explored day and night as well as phases of the moon. The children made shadow clocks and we connected this with learning to tell time in the classroom. It was fun going across to the school hall to explore the aspects of light on a darkened stage. 

Demonstrating phases of the moon

Older students were fascinated by how the human eye works and they embarked on a self-directed project to explore this further. 

A spontaneous project on how the human eye works

Presenting the eye project to the class

As a class, we discussed topics such as light and shadow, reflection, refraction as well as the opacity of various objects. 

Making shadow drawings

Exploring opaque, transparent and translucent objects