February 2020

Upcoming Dates

March Break Camp will be held from Monday, March 16 to Friday, March 20.

February is the month of loooovvvee!

February is the month of loooove! We kicked off February by learning all about feelings. The children learned to express their feelings, and learned the vocabulary to do so! We used the feelings posters in our classroom to tell stories of when we felt different feelings. Our feelings posters included the words: happy, sad, angry, scared, lonely, surprised, ashamed, guilty, sorry, jealous, embarrassed, shy, excited, thankful, hopeful and proud. The children loved learning about the colour representing the feeling in our heart. Each coloured heart had a feeling attached to it. “Pink is a loving heart and yellow is a happy heart and green is a jealous heart!” We learned how to be “bucket fillers” reading the famous children’s book “Have You Filled a Bucket Today” by Carol McCloud.

Of course, in the middle of February, we had a Valentine’s Day party! The children loved playing musical chairs, the blanket game, handing out their Valentine’s cards and dancing to the disco lights! It was the highlight of the month!

The children loved talking about all the people they love including their families and friends. Many children even drew their friends as part of their family when we did a drawing exercise called “My Family”!

To expand on the children’s Character Education, we began reading a series of Character Education books by Lucia Raatma, which we will continue to work through the rest of the school year. We learned about Honesty and Caring this month.

February is Black History Month! We learned about Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Harriet Tubman and Jackie Robinson. The children learned that “justice” is when we want things to be fair for everyone.

There has been an explosion of writing in our classroom this term. The first year children have been writing their names, and the graduate children have been writing summaries of famous African American people as we learned about Black History Month! It is so rewarding to see how children begin to write in their first year, and how they can’t stop writing by their graduating year! The graduate children have begun to write summaries, journals and creative stories! It has been a joy to see the children’s progress this month!

In the area of arts we learned about the famous artist Kandinsky, and we made our version of his concentric circles using hearts! We also learned about abstract art and the famous artist Piet Mondrian. The children used black tape, red, blue, yellow, and white space to create their abstract art. We also learned a new style of dance this month…Folk Dancing! It was so cute and funny to watch the children learn partner dancing!

We look forward to March, the month where we eagerly wait for Spring!

Languages

CASA

In French this month, the children were introduced to family member vocabulary. The children enjoyed the finger play “Toc, toc. Papa est-tu la?”

The children also enjoyed playing “Un pas avant” where family members raced to the finish line.

For Valentine’s day we played a game “Petite fleur , petite fleur est-tu derrière le coeur...” where we reviewed colour words while searching for the hidden red flower.

The children were also introduced to location prepositions sur (on), sous (under), dans (in), avant (in front), derriere (behind), a cote de (beside), and had fun singing “Sur, sous, dans/sur sous dans/avant, derrière/a cote de/ sur, sous, dans” to the tune of “The farmer in the dell”.

Casa children are very familiar with the “Seven Continents” song in English. However, learning the seven continents’ names in Mandarin seems to be a challenging job. Casa children love challenges! So let’s learn together! From the continent we live in ----“Bei Mei Zhou” (North America) to the continent nobody lives in ----“Nan Ji Zhou” (Antarctica), Casa children enjoy singing this new song in Mandarin words, with the same tune in English. They also learned our country Canada is called “Jia Na Da” in Mandarin.

Another interesting song Casa learned in February is a traditional Chinese children’s song called “Diu Shou Juan”. It is pretty the same like “Duck, Duck, Goose”. All the Casa children love singing it while they can play this game at the same time.

JR CASA

In French, the children had fun learning the French vocabulary for family members. They enjoyed playing “Un pas avant” and raced their family member dolls to the finish line. The children reviewed numbers by rolling a die and counting the number of steps to move their family member.

For Valentine’s Day, colours were reviewed this month with a heart matching game. The children were excited to see all the colourful hearts and to take turns matching them.

Two of the children’s favourite songs are “Brille, brille, petite etoile” (“Twinkle, twinkle little star”) and “Les roues du l’autobus” (“The wheels on the bus”). They are the two most requested songs and they never get tired of hearing them and singing them.

In Mandarin, Junior Casa children have learned a “Xiao Lao Shu” (Little Mouse) song before and they are really interested in the twelve animals representing Chinese zodiac signs. In February they are learning another song about animals---- “Xiao Bai Tu” (Little Bunny). Now the mouse puppet and the bunny puppet become good friends with Junior Casa children. Children know how to greet their “friends” by saying “Ni Hao” (Hello) and “Zai Jian” (Bye bye) every Mandarin circle.

Junior Casa Having Fun in Pink!

In February, we have been learning about how to share and care for our families and friends.

We made a personalized home with our family members and we are proud to share it on our bulletin board. For Valentine’s Day we made marbled painted hearts and used our fine motor skills to crush tissue paper of different colours to place on our heart made of construction paper. The children enjoyed making their “Dino-Mite” hearts and Bingo stamped cards for their parents to spread their Valentines love.

We have been learning about germs! The children have been practicing that when they cough or when they sneeze, to cover their mouths if they please, sung to the song Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. The Junior Casas know that it’s a healthy thing to do!

Sensory during the month of love was a hit in our class! The pink sand, measuring cups of various sizes from small to large and our sandbox filled with heart beads and heart shaped gems were a thrill for our children to explore with. Making Homemade Play-Doh as well for a sensory activity enhanced the children's language vocabulary using words such as “stretchy” and “soft”.

Our circles filled with Valentine’s songs and friendship discussion enhanced the speaking skills of our Junior Casa. Sharing and caring for our peers was practiced in our Practical Life activities when working with our Montessori materials. The children showed their caring through their Valentine’s cards and sharing presents handed to their peers on Valentine’s Day.

Scroll back up to see what Junior Casa has been learning in their French and Mandarin Language classes!

Totally Adorable Toddies

Another month has passed this year and the toddlers have been busy doing many different activities!

They did some Valentine's themed art, where they each glued multi coloured tissue paper onto a heart of their own which said, "I love you to pieces!" How adorable is that?!

The toddlers also did a big group art activity and painted two big pieces of paper all pink and it had "LOVE" written all over it! Love was in the air alright! There was also a Valentine's sensory bin with different red, pink and white coloured materials that the toddlers had fun exploring!

There has also been a shelf dedicated to Valentine's themed Montessori activities! Some of these are putting roses through holes in a sponge textured box, spooning and pouring activities using small hearts and a heart shaped box with smaller heart shaped containers.

There was also a Valentine's party and the children dressed up in red and pink and enjoyed dancing with lights on the ceiling and pizza!

In honour of Family Day, the children washed dolls - scrub a dub a dub! Each of them also put together a family tree and guess what the trees are made of - their handprints! How cute is that?!

Thanks to our two volunteers, Ms. Rene and Ms. Adelya, the toddlers have also been doing many fun activities!

There was a sensory bag, where the children moved pom poms through hair gel!

There were hedgehogs made of play dough and the children had to match coloured sticks to the hedgehogs.

They did an activity called, "matching colours" which involved them matching ice cream sticks to different colours on paper. The shape of the sticks were drawn onto the paper, to help guide the children.

There was a wooden board with different coloured holes and the children put play balls through them. Sounds like fun!

The children did another sensory activity, playing with multi coloured spaghetti - yum yum!

They also explored different materials and stuck them on paper to create a collage and the children had fun doing foil painting using brushes and q-tips! I am starting to feel jealous here!

They did a cute activity gluing hearts onto bookmarks shaped like a caterpillar.

They also did an art activity called "colour mixing" where there was paint in a plastic folder, the little ones put their fingers on top and the paint mixed together without even touching it! Mess free colour mixing - I love the sound of that!

If that wasn't enough, they enjoyed exploring playdough with different shaped cutters as well!

The major theme of the classroom is "shapes" and currently, the children are preparing to put their group art on the wall. They are gluing different coloured tissue paper and pom poms on a big triangle, circle and square.

With all these different activities, it is no wonder these children need their beauty sleep!

Tune in next month to find out what other fun activities the little ones do!