Wednesday 23^rd November 2011

In the moon classroom this morning the children were practicing counting from one to twenty and also making bubbles with a whisk.  Playdough and puzzles were also out.

In the sun group, the children were doing a puzzle map of the United States, making the Russian church, which is a wooden building puzzle and counting.  In the practical life area, the children were using their pouring skills to do the island and lake game.

The sun group had music today and everybody had a turn to play twinkle twinkle on the glockenspiel.

We will be celebrating Thanksgiving tomorrow.

Today many friends practiced a Montessori activity called ‘Walking on the line’, which involves balance and concentration.

In the classroom, there were new puzzles – an Autumn scene, a long number snake (1-20) and a multi-layer popcorn puzzle.

We started talking about the American festival Thanksgiving at circle time and also had a lesson on tidying folders.

While they were out, the sun group had a long work cycle in the classroom.  Practical life work, including sweeping, pouring and colour mixing were really popular.  Some friends continued with maths work, others made calendars for November. The Montessori bells were in use and attracted lots of positive attention.

We had lots of lovely Montessori lessons this morning, including number rods and cards, the memory game of numbers and making November calendars.

There was also word building and work on space book projects.  Some friends worked on continent maps and in practical life, friends enjoyed sweeping and table cleaning.  In the moon classroom there was bubble making, stamping and the digger puzzle was out.

The sun group had a music lesson with a focus on the Montessori bells. We put the bells in chromatic order from lowest to highest.

Tuesday 1^st
November 2011

Friends were busy in the classroom today counting golden beads up to 100, reading books and
reading blue level words, such as jump, slide and swing.

We acknowledged that it is now November, so some friends started making
calendars.  Others continued with their
space project books, writing the names of the planets in the solar system and
writing facts about each one.

We had a singalong music session and learnt a new song, Raindrops keep falling on my
head.

Wednesday 19^th October

In the under 3 department, the focus was on counting and colours.  The stories read were 8 silly monkeys, Can’t you sleep little bear and The tiger who came to tea.

During circle time we talked about Divali and watched some short clips on the computer.

In the 3-6 department, the practical life area was busy – especially with sinking and floating experiments.

One friend counted all the way from 1 to 9000 using beads and number cards, one friend was reading pink level books, others enjoyed making parts of a leaf books and making tens with coloured beads.

We had some beautiful art projects underway as well as part of our preparation for Divali.  Children decorated their dias and started making flower garlands.

The 3-6 year olds also had their music session. We sang songs about space and also played our names on the xylophone.

Tuesday 18^th October

In the classroom today there was reading, looking through the objects in the continent boxes, counting, some sensorial materials and in circle time the children practiced their walking feet.

Today was also the final trip to nature school for the year.  We started the session by playing a pine cone relay race.  The children had to take turns to pick up a pine cone and run across the forest, put it down and run back again.  It really warmed us up!

We then scrambled up the big hill to the clearing at the top where there were two bonfires burning, ready for grilling our hotdogs on long sticks and our sandwiches.  We sat around the fire on log benches grilling our food with the Granåsen barnehage children.  Our forest teacher Anne had also brought along a frying pan and some pancake mix and proceeded to make real pancakes on the open fire! They were delicious!  We also attempted making pinnebrød – which is dough baked on a long stick – a real Norwegian treat! Anne had also brought some delicious apples which were dipped in sugar and cinnamon and grilled in foil on the fire.  It was a really ‘koselig’ meal!  We gave Anne her thank you book that all the children had participated in making.  She seemed very touched.

When everyone had finished their lunch, we hiked over to the obstacle course and got started on the ropes!  Everyone joined in and had a great time, showing lots of bravery and perseverance.

The morning finished with finding and digging up the treasure that we had buried the first week at nature school. It had ‘magically’ turned into a little treasure chest containing raisins and chocolate gold coins!

Getting back on the bus, the children all agreed it had been a brilliant day!  We are looking forward to returning to the forest in May for Spring nature school!

We are also enjoying the change in season, looking at parts of a leaf and parts of a mushroom in detail, noting the change in weather and the length of the days and nights.

Our afternoon class will be learning about our solar system.

Our poems this month are ‘Jack Frost’ and ’5 Little Pumpkins’.