Photos from The Children's House Montessori Pre-school's post

It's been a spider and insect frenzy this week at The Children's House!! We studied the difference between spiders & insects, and the children made their own bugs with playdough & pipe cleaners and lifecycles of spiders or ladybugs while the part time class made spider pictures, and finally today we turned the outdoors into a giant spider web, which was the best fun ever - all you need is a ball of wool and the ability to pretend to be a spider crawling around!! Apart from this there was a lot of sensorial and constructive work going on too, so hopefully everyone has a restful weekend after their busy week in school :)

Photos from The Children's House Montessori Pre-school's post

Dental health week was a great success this week - between looking at the tooth model, doing tooth brushing exercises, making healthy pancakes (well, healthy-ish!), our science experiment leaving eggs in vinegar and coke (the vinegar decalcfied the shell making it soft & rubbery to feel, & the coke stained the egg shell brown) and making healthy food/teeth pictures, we gained a lot of new knowledge about the importance of looking after our teeth! And at the suggestion of the children, we've now added carrots to our fruit & veg selection at snack time :)

Photos from The Children's House Montessori Pre-school's post

That was a 'short but sweet' week :) - with our focus of looking at the food pyramid ending today with us making a sugar display board with the children...it was quite shocking to visually see the actual amount of sugar contained in common foods, raisins being one of the worst offenders - almost 70% sugar!!! But everything in moderation was the message of the week, we all need a treat sometimes O:) Happy midterm break everyone, see you all next Wednesday!

Photos from The Children's House Montessori Pre-school's post

We had a wonderful time celebrating a week of love at The Children's House - talking about the people who love us, who we love, and the huge importance of loving our own selves! Among other things the children made heart owls, a love tree, and we finished the week with a Valentine's Ball, complete with candles, music and red carpet!! <3 <3 <3

Photos from The Children's House Montessori Pre-school's post

Just a few photos from our week studying the solar system - painting 3D impressions of the planets using shaving foam, glue & paint (really sensorial & enjoyable!), philosophising about what would happen if we had no sun, & matching models of the planets to our solar system jigsaw :)

Photos from The Children's House Montessori Pre-school's post

What a great week we're having this week - we celebrated the arrival of February & Spring (well, here's hoping!!) by planting some quick growing water cress, & spent the week looking at electricity after the interest from our recent power cut! The children were fascinated with all aspects of electricity - from discussing what we use it for in our lives, to doing experiments with balloons to create static electricity from our hair (also creating some interesting hairstyles :) ), to opening & closing plugs, to finally creating their own electronic circuits which powered lights & fans....these children have amazing brains!!!

Photos from The Children's House Montessori Pre-school's post

Gong Xi Fa Cai!! Happy Chinese Lunar New Year everyone - here's some photos of some activities we were doing last week to celebrate the Year of the Rooster - the full time classes made rooster puppets then put on a shadow puppet show (using the trusty sheet & torch combination!!), & the part time class created firework pictures. There were many other activities going on including science experiments, building combinations of cylinders to build towers, beautiful art creations, the decoration of tree stumps with chalk & water, & finally great use of our outdoor table to host first a cafe, then a train track & town which was sadly attacked by dinosaurs.... :o :)

Photos from The Children's House Montessori Pre-school's post

Well it's been all about nature this week at The Children's House - making weather wheels, building tents outside...1 child poured water into a hula hoop on the outdoors table saying 'it's a swimming pool', then when the water ran off the side of the table announced happily 'now it's a waterfall!' <3 Have a wonderful weekend everyone, see you all on Monday :)

Photos from The Children's House Montessori Pre-school's post

What a great first week back to school we had at The Children's House!! Everyone was delighted to be back and see all their friends, we had a whole new part time afternoon class starting as well as some new members in the existing classes, so it was all go!! The children experimented with painting using paper plates, and continued to be introduced to new activities such as the land forms (island/lake), parts of the snail jigsaw, spindle box (counting quantities 1-9), sandpaper sounds etc...and we also observed our teeny tiny snow fall melting into water!!!

Merry Christmas everyone!! The Children's House is closed until 9th January - thank you for a fantastic year, and wishing you all a wonderful, peaceful time over the holidays (maybe after the frenzy of Christmas day has passed!) with your families and friends, and a happy and healthy 2017 - we look forward to seeing you all in the New Year!! <3

Photos from The Children's House Montessori Pre-school's post

It's been a busy couple of weeks at The Children's House doing lots of seasonal activities - making playdough snowmen, doily angels, embossed Christmas cards, banana & cinnamon muffins, painting & decorating a hand-made pallet Christmas tree - thanks again Graham! - as well as many other Christmassy activities...only a few days of fun left until the holidays, & we're looking forward to the Christmas shows & parties before then!! 🎄

Timeline Photos

We had such a lovely time this morning celebrating one of the children's 4th birthdays in the traditional Montessori way - the Birthday Walk - where the child holds a globe & walks around a circle of their friends with a lit candle in the middle representing the sun, 1 lap for each year on earth, & we look at photos from each year & talk about the changes they've undergone since birth...really a wonderful celebration of life and growth!! :) :)