Patterns everywhere!

First I would like to give a warm welcome to our new friends who joined our class. Aura and Spandan, we are very happy to have you here in Lower Pre-Primary. I am already so proud of you both - you settled in quickly and are having so much fun at school.

Happy birthday to Anan, who turned 3 years old in October. Anan was so proud of his birthday crown and showed it to everyone at school! We had a wonderful birthday party with lots of singing, counting and jumping 3 times. Thank you for the yummy birthday cake!

The last weeks we have been busy learning about PATTERNS. It was a very exciting IPC unit. For our ‘entry point’ we had a fun pattern day where we came to school wearing clothes full of patterns.

During the unit we learnt about different types of patterns and what they look like.

We explored the patterns in our surroundings and went on a pattern exploration walk in and around our school. It was amazing how many different patterns we found together: the bricks of the wall, the pattern of a wheel, the pattern of the ground, the pattern of the trees and lots more. To remember our beautiful pattern walk we made a ‘pattern book’ with photographs we took on our walk. The children loved looking at it in our little classroom library!

We also designed our own patterns with lots of different colours and made a very special pattern frame. The children also had the opportunity to paint patterns on the easel, two children together, super teamwork! We also clapped patterns with our hands and made musical patterns using the instruments.

In our classroom we played various pattern games such as pattern memory and designing patterns.

We read the beautiful story about the wonderful, patchwork elephant ELMER. The kids loved the story, so we read the book several times! We discussed how we are all different, unique and wonderful, just like Elmer and all his friends. We made a beautiful Elmer artwork designing our very own Elmer with his colourful patterns. Each elephant is unique, different and beautiful just like all the children in our classroom! We also learnt the song “Elmer the patchwork elephant”. The children loved singing this song while moving like elephants and shouting ‘booooooo’, just like Elmer and his friends! For our Elmer artwork we made funny elephant photos using our arm as an elephant trunk, and in our role play area we could even dress up like an elephant. It was lots of fun and we laughed a lot. At the end of the unit each child got a special Elmer medal during our Elmer theatre ‘exit point’. 

We have also been visiting our school library. We returned the books from our classroom and borrowed new ones. The children loved looking at the new books.

Another very exciting event in December was when Sinterklaas came to visit! We learnt a song for Sinterklaas (Hello good morning Sinterklaas, hello good morning Sinterklaas) and dressed up like little Sinterklaas with our beautiful Sinterklaas hat. The children were very excited and some of the children were even speechless!

And then, our Christmas show: The children loved our “Jingle bells” song, especially playing with the instruments and dancing around. We had lots of fun practicing for the show and performing. I hope you also enjoyed our Christmas show!

The children loved singing the song “We wish you a merry Christmas, we wish you a merry Christmas, we wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new Year”. On this note I will end this blog article. I wish you all a wonderful Christmas and a great 2018!

See you in January!

Miss Riccarda