Friday, September 30, 2016

WEEK'S UP FOR WEEKENDING 30 SEPTEMBER 2016


FROM THE ADMINISTRATION


THE 'MFC TRAFFIC CO-ORDINATORS’ SAY ...
We are happy to report that the dismissal systems are almost in place on all fronts, except one: For the ‘Pick and Go’ option, it would be helpful if you could arrive not earlier 11:20a.m. if possible.  We do appreciate your support and cooperation.  We now have a secured, safe dismissal system in place, which is largely thanks to you.

VOLUNTEERS’ MEETING UPDATE
Thank you to the parents who came for the volunteers’ meeting.  You may continue to sign up to help us at the various events, the checklists are located in the Administrator’s Office on the first level.  We will be thankful for all the help that we can get.

ALUMNI NEWS - We welcome news about achievements of our alumni which we would like to publish in our weekly updates.

FROM THE CLASSES ...
MONTESSORI

Describing the pictures above...
Exercises of Practical Life: Cutting Vegetables: this activity introduces the child to the culinary art. They get to cut vegetables in this activity an initiation to the preparation of food and simple household chores.

Sensorial: Geometric Cabinet – Polygons: A polygon is a plane shape bound only by straight lines. We begin with general polygons (pentagon to decagon) and go on to examine specific polygons starting with the triangle, the polygon with the least number of sides.


Mathematics: Tens Board: To teach the names twenty, thirty, forty, etc.…and to show the child that twenty is two tens and so until ninety.

Language: Preposition: Learning about the Parts of Speech with the Montessori apparatus. 

A preposition is a word that indicates the relationship between a noun or pronoun and other words in a sentence.

Topic: Great Migrations
The seasonal movement of a complete population of animals from one area to another. Migration is usually a response to changes in temperature, food supply, or the amount of daylight, and is often undertaken for the purpose of breeding. Mammals, insects, fish, and birds migrate.  Our topics are generally introduced through multi media and the screening of this topic was well-received by the children.

MANDARIN

Topics: 
Learnt names of some modes of transportation
Learnt the terminology for migration of: birds, fish, insects and mammals.

Songs: Autumn Baby Wrote Letters (the children learnt about the changes in weather and the migration of birds.

Poem: jing ye si 床前明月光,疑是地上霜。举头望明月,低头思故乡
Through this poem the children learnt the words for frost, full moon and hometown

EXTENDED-DAY


Describing the pictures above ...

Exercise of Practical Life - Grating - The children grated carrots which helps to develop their large and small motor movements. This also serves as a preparation for writing and develops concentration.  The grated carrots have been frozen to be used for a cookery project in the future.

Language - Introduced the upper case letters and punctuation marks, which would help the children construct a sentence by using punctuation appropriately.

Mathematics -  On a sensory level, the children performed addition using two materials - the Decimal System and the Stamp Game: association of place values within a thousand.

Outdoor activity - Relay - running in a figure of eight, passing through obstacles.

Songs - We practiced the Diwali song - "It's Diwali That We're Celebrating".  We invite you access our pre-recorded songs and we hope you will learn the lyrics and sing along with us at our Diwali celebration.  The link is: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B1-1aIZ8u93tTldNalBDcHg3RFU?usp=sharing 

You may also accessed our pre-recorded Autumn songs by following this link: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B1-1aIZ8u93tOWFOaGVYbnQ4aDg 


BIAN DANG BAN


Describing the pictures above ...

Topic:
Continued talking about China - learning more about the country, colouring the flag, etc.
Talked about migration in detail: Why and how migration happens
Rhyme: The Autumn leaf
Cookery: Chinese food - steamed buns with chocolate chips

HINDI


Group Time:  नवरात्रि / दशहरा - Presentation on Navratri, a detailed description of the celebration in India.

Story time:
   गानेवाला गधा
     शिक्षा - अपने शुभचिंतको की सलाह को नजरांदाज नहीं करना चाहिए।

  महिषासुर का वध।
     शिक्षा - वरदान का दुरुपयोग हानिकारक हैं।

Word Study: 
 तरबूज़, सियार, खुश, घूमते, भोजन, धोबी, गाँव, गधा, गानेवाला, खेत

Shlokas
 श्री वक्रतुण्ड महाकाय सूर्य कोटी समप्रभा निर्विघ्नं कुरु मे देव
 सर्व-कार्येशु सर्वदा॥

गुरु ब्रम्हा गुरु विष्णू
गुरुः देवो महेश्वरा
गुरु शाक्षात परब्रम्हा
तस्मै श्री गुरुवे नमः


INFANT COMMUNITY



1. Dressing Frames - Velcro Frame:
    (a) Cultivate children's self-care ability
    (b) Promote the development of fine motor skills

2. Objects and Pictures - Learning Names of Insects
    The bee, ant, spider and ladybug

3. Songs: The Leaves are Falling Down, (树叶掉 下来 shu ye diao xia lai), Little Bees (小蜜
蜂)

4. Story: Little Gingerbread Man







Saturday, September 24, 2016

WEEK'S UP FOR THE WEEKENDING 23 SEPTEMBER 2016


   

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY!

Volunteer’s Meeting:
Tuesday, 27 September 2016 between 2:30 p.m. to 3:15 p.m.
Ruby Room (Ms Kamakshi’s and Laoshi Xiao Rong’s class) - please come, we need you!

Mid-term Break:
10th to 14th October 2016

Diwali Celebration:
21 October 2016

Quiet Reading Time:
We are proud that our 'lunch bunch' has acquired the routine of reading quietly in our 'library' after lunch.  They enjoy this restful time, with the older children taking turns to be 'librarians', collecting books that are read and inspecting these for damage and restoration.


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Lost and Found:
These are the items that are found within the school premises and we would like to restore these to their rightful owner.  Please contact the school office if you have lost any item from the photograph.







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Birthdays:

We encourage parents to celebrate their children's birthday in school.  Kindly refer to our handbook for more information.  While we discourage sugary and salty treats, the occasional birthday cake is acceptable; however do be mindful of our 'no-nut' and the 'no nut by-product' policies, in consideration of children who have nut allergies. As regards to the size of drinks offered at parties, please bring along a beverage of the smallest possible to avoid wastage.  If you are unable to provide one, we are quite happy to assist with potable water.  Do let us know in advance.  For further information, please call or email us.

Here are recent birthdays celebrated in school:



Grace Isaac (Missy Grace to some!), daughter of Ms Preeti Ephrem from our staff, celebrated her sixth birthday on Thursday,
22 September 2016.  Here is a photograph of her taken at school on ‘Her Day’, striking a ballet curtsey!  Please feel free to share your child's birthday photos with us if you would like for them to be posted on our WUp!



Following closely, is the birthday of our very own, Dennis dela Cruz. He said that he feels like he is two, so we honoured that!
  






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FROM THE CLASSES ...


As depicted in the gallery above, here are some highlights from the work done in the classes:

MONTESSORI EDUCATION

Exercises of Practical Life: Arranging flowers, which involves the small and large motor skills and guides the child to appreciate the aesthetic aspect of the work done.  This is an activity that we invite you to do at home and any of our Montessori teachers will be happy to provide you with the steps in carrying out this exercise.

Sensorial:  Activities involving the Coloured Cylinders and Cylinder Blocks.  These activities help develop the child’s visual discrimination of graduations of size in a series, as well as helping to strengthen fine muscle coordination and extending concentration through comparisons of a series of graded cylinders. 

Mathematics: Short Bead Chain. This activity helps to present the order of numbers.  As the child progresses, the material aids with skip counting.

Language: Article Game - Learning grammar in a sustainable way, through various games, such as this.

Songs: Seasonal songs: *Autumn Leaves are Falling, *Autumn is the Season. These song describes autumn and the changes that happen during this time of the year.  *We go to School in September which is about children going back to school in autumn, and the Mid-Autumn Festival songs.

Note to parents:  We are building a library of pre-recorded songs.  We are quite willing to share them with you, so you may sing along with your child.  Please contact us for a link to the folder, that the files are stored.

Topics:
  • Ozone Layer - We discussed the layer that surrounds the Earth that is known as the Ozone Layer. 
  • Northern and Southern Hemispheres - Spoke about the Equator and the northern and the southern parts of Earth.
  • Climatic Zones through multimedia - temperate (cold winters and mild summers), arid (dry, hot all year), tropical (hot and wet all year) and mediterranean (mild winters, dry hot summers).
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MANDARIN

Topics: The children learnt the words for the Northern, Southern Hemispheres and Equator. The older children drew a picture of the Map of the World, naming the Northern, Southern Hemispheres and the Equator, while the younger children repeated the names after the teacher.  They also learnt the names of farm animals.

Songs: Autumn (the children learnt about the changes in the weather and the falling leaves) and Autumn Leaves (about colours of Autumn)

Poem: jing ye si 床前明月光,疑是地上霜。举头望明月,低头思故乡
Through this poem the children learnt the words for frost, full moon and hometown


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THE EXTENDED-DAY



Exercises of Practical Life: Braiding - We invite you to practice braiding at home with your children. This involves concentration and helps refine the small motor skills. Above all, it is an activity that the children enjoy!
   
Language: Referring to a Dictionary – The activity helps the child look up meanings of new words, and by doing so, he/she gets a sense of independence. Their writing skills and spelling ability also improve.


Mathematics: Subtraction using the Decimal System - The child performs this mathematical operation on a sensory level.  The Decimal System also presents units, tens, hundreds, thousands, sensorially. 


Sensorial: Botany Cabinet with Cards - Learning about the shapes of leaves.

Experiment: Magnetism - The children worked with various materials to see what is attracted to a magnet.


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BIAN DANG BAN
During group, the children were introduced to China and learnt the to say the names for national flag, the capital city (北京), the names of the different ethnic groups (广州人, 福建人, 客人, etc), the national flower (牡丹) and well-known cuisines (著名美食).

Writing: The children practised counting strokes in a character and learnt the rules of writing a Chinese character.

Songs: Autumn, Autumn leaves, Autumn Baby Writing Letters (the children learnt about the changes in the weather, the migration of birds during Autumn)

Craft: Autumn Tree - with an arm and hand print.

HINDI
  • Story: Natkhat Bandar - The story was about not touching possessions that belong to others or one can get hurt.  The children were asked for responses to questions based on the story (listening comprehension)
  • Continued to work with Matra Ki Peti, forming words learnt from the story, using the Matra Ki Peti (reading words)
  • Tracing Hindi letters
  • Children read with a volunteer reading parent
  • Songs and Poems:
          १. दीपों का त्योहार दीवाली।
              खुशियों का त्योहार दीवाली॥

              वनवास पूरा कर आये श्रीराम।
              अयोध्या के मन भाये श्रीराम।।

              घर-घर सजे , सजे हैं आँगन।
              जलते पटाखे, फ़ुलझड़ियाँ  बम।।

               लक्ष्मी गणेश का पूजन करें लोग।
               लड्डुओं का लगता है भोग॥

               पहनें नये कपड़े, खिलाते है मिठाई
               देखो देखो दीपावली आई॥

           २. ॐकारं बिंदुसंयुक्तं नित्यं ध्यायंति योगिनः

                 कामदं मोक्षदं चैव ॐकाराय नमो नमः ॥१॥
  • Discussion about the characters in the Ramayan in preparation for the Diwali performance
  • Diwali performance practices
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INFANT COMMUNITY


Presentations: *Sorting, *Action words cards - singing, drinking, eating, drawing, laughing and crying, *Arranging flowers
Songs: *Little Tigers, *Row, Row, Row, Your Boat, *Finger Family
Class Routines: Carrying with two hands



Sunday, September 18, 2016

WEEK'S UP FOR THE WEEKENDING 16 SEPTEMBER 2016




MID-AUTUMN FESTIVAL 2016

The children were brilliant on Friday, don't you think?  On behalf of the staff of Montessori For Children, Broadrick Road, I would like to thank everyone who came, and lent us support towards this cultural performance.  We hope you had as much fun as the children and we had in organizing and presenting the event to you.  When ‘Chang-er’ visited that evening, even the moon came out to play! Poetic in every sense.
Appended, are some pictures of the performances.  You may view more, through the following link:
You may also view our video of the event at www.facebook.com/mfcsin

Enjoy the rest of the weekend and we look forward to seeing everyone again at our Diwali celebration.
- May


MONTESSORI EDUCATION
Exercises of Practical Life: Washing Hands
Sensorial Activities: Exercises with Brown Stairs and Pink Tower
Language: Non-phonetic action words
Topic:
· World First Aid Day
· Safety and First Aid PP
Songs - Continued to sing seasonal and Mid Autumn Festival Songs:
· Autumn leaves are falling, Autumn is the season, We go to School in September
· It’s a party, In the 8th month, Lady of the Moon, Lanterns Hanging in a Line
Craft: Making mooncakes



MANDARIN EDUCATION
Topics of discussion: Autumn, colours and shapes
Song: Autumn
Rhyme: Carrying a Lantern
Conversation: Happy Mid-Autumn Festival


EXTENDED-DAY
Language - Crossword Puzzles
Sensorial Activities - Continued with Name Lessons on the Constructive Triangles
Experiment - Do trees need water to survive?
Songs - Mid Autumn Festival Songs




BIAN DANG BAN
Topics: Autumn, Names of Fruits, Colours of Autumn
Songs: Autumn, Autumn Leaves
Preparation for Mid-Autumn Festival celebration


HINDI MILAP
Group time - योगासन - सूर्य नमस्कार 
Story Time - रत्नाकर और नारद की कहानी।
Songs -       कबीरदास के दोहे 
                      दिवाली के गीत 
Word study - कछुआ, कोशिश, गलती, सावधान, अचानक



INFANT COMMUNITY
Presentations: *Washing hands, *Picture cards with objects: Fruits
Songs: *Rain, Rain Go Away, Moon Festival songs: wan wan de yue liang, *Making Mooncakes
Topics: Lanterns and the Moon Festival
Craft: Making mooncakes