Dolphins Class

Welcome back to term 3!

This term, we have a lot in store for our Dolphin class and our main focus is going to be Physics!

We have already done several experiments involving Newton’s first Law of Inertia and the Force of Gravity and pressure.

Our experiments included

• Finding out how many students can stand on an upside-down table under balloons before they pop
• Dropping 1 full and 1 half-full water bottle from the C3 playground to see which one hits the ground first
• Watching liquid rise inside a glass which is flipped upside down on a plate.  A lighted candle (inside the glass) which is then blown out causes the liquid to rise.

However, we are also doing lots of art and settling back into our usual routine after 3 long weeks of holidays.

But more on our Physics studies!

The experiment that our students were most surprised about was the balloons and the table! We blew-up 20 balloons, laid them on the ground between 2 brooms.  We flipped one of our tables upside-down so the children could lay on top of it. The students were then asked: ‘how many of you could stand on the table before the balloons pop?’

We all sat in a circle to discuss and predict what might happen. Some said 1 person would make them all pop’, others said ‘no more than 6’ and one student said ‘THE WHOLE CLASS!”

We only had a little table and one by one, the brave students slowly moved onto the table. We managed to fit 12 on the table before running out of room! No balloons popped due to the weight of all the kids being distributed over the entirety of the balloons.

And who thinks Science isn’t fun!

Welcome back Dolphin families! We hope you had a fun and safe break away from school and feel rested and ready to go again!

In term 2, we are learning about the Third Great Story “Coming of Human Beings”- it celebrates the unique gifts that define humanity. To start we need to travel back 4.6 billion years ago when Earth is thought to be created.  To demonstrate this, the students took a trip to the Hard Court to see the ‘long black strip’.  They were shocked when they saw how little time humans have really been on Earth in the grand scheme of life on Planet Earth.  We discussed BCE (Before Common Era) and CE (Common Era) and what this meant. Then, we jumped to about 2.6 million years ago into the Stone Age!

The Stone Age was a fascinating time where we couldn’t go to the grocery shop to buy food, instead they had to hunt for it, and there was never any guarantee they would find anything to eat. We set the kids with a task! They had to design a tool they could use to hunt or gather food in the Stone Age. We set out on our journey to find the perfect sticks and rocks that could make their designs come to life. There was one condition, they could only use rope to attach everything together! With great amounts of perseverance and team-work,  many of the Dolphin  students were able to create their own Stone Age tool!

Term 1  has come to an end which also concludes the Dolphins learning around the body and the different senses. The last update to the webpage was about Sight and this one is about Taste. Firstly, the Dolphin students learned about all the different areas of the tongue and which area is responsible for each taste. We learned that the back area of the tongue is responsible for bitterness, the sides detect sourness, the tip of the touch is responsive to saltiness, the front half of the middle tell us when we taste sweetness and the back half of the middle section is Umami. Sue gathered different foods that fit into these categories ranging from chocolate to olives. We chose 9 students at random to blindly taste test these foods, then had to describe what they could taste to the class and decide if it was sweet, sour, salty or bitter. It’s safe to say, that Eva (who had chocolate) LOVED this experiment!  Well done Dolphins!

Although, we are approaching the end of Term 1 we are still learning lots of fun facts in the Dolphins class.  Currently we are learning all about our bodies.  During Week 7, our learning was  focused on the Brain and the Nervous system. Here are some of the cool facts that we learned:

Harper and Ruby– the left side of your brain controls the right side of your body!

Xavier- Your brain controls your smell!

Sofia- Your brain sends messages around your body telling you to touch, walk or talk

Ashton- The Cerebrum is the largest part of your brain!

Jack– The brain is made up of so many different parts that control different things.

We also leaned that that we cannot control our reflexes.  To prove this,  the Dolphin students took part in an experiment.  Each student held a clear clipboard to their faces and Sue threw a Styrofoam ball towards them. They tried their best not to blink when they noticed something was coming towards their faces. By taking part in this experiment, the students learned that their brains are more powerful than they think as they could not help but to blink.

Well done Dolphins!

(We’d like to clarify that no children were injured during this experiment!)

Saturday the 10^th of February kicked off the Lunar New Year celebration for 2024, the year of the Dragon! Last week we learnt all about how people celebrate the Lunar New Year and what the cultural significance of it is. We discussed all of the different animals that make up the Chinese Zodiac and which ones the kids are according to their year of birth. We have Goats, Monkeys, Roosters, dogs and one Pig in the Dolphins classroom.

In addition to learning about the New Year and the customs that are associated with it, we had a feast of fried rice and dumplings which the kids made in the classroom. This was integrated as part of the Practical Life lessons. It was safe to say it was a hit! We had the base of the fried rice with vegetables which the kids cut up in the morning, then they could choose to add extras of egg and bacon with the addition of vegetable dumplings and pork dumplings.

Have a safe and happy Lunar New Year!

During the first few weeks of term 1, we welcomed our new Dolphin students into the class.

This term, we are learning all about the body and how it works. So far, we have covered appreciating ourselves including similarities and differences and looking various ways that we can be smart. Then we learnt that our skin is our body’s largest organ. We have also learnt how germs spread and how important it is to cover our mouths and nose when we cough and to wash our hands.

During week 3,  we started learning about the skeletal system and all the different names for our bones.

These photos show the Dolphin students settling back into school life and finding their feet after their long Summer holidays!

This term, our Dolphin Students had lots of fun during Sports Day 2023!

This week,  our Dolphins painted, coloured and drew some Koi Fish in our Thursday Art lessons! As we were learning about Asia in our ‘Trip around the World’, we decided Koi fish would be an easy and fun project to complete in class. Our Dolphins used a variety of different art mediums to colour-in their fish! These consisted of oil pastels, water colour, texters, coloured pencils and water-colour pencils. The kids loved this activity creating their own Koi Fish in all different colours and textures, some realistic – relating back to the traditional symbols of what the colours of the Kois brought to the owner,  and some from their own imagination. Either way they are beautiful and we loved watching the students really become immersed in the activity!

Another activity in term 2 included the Dolphins learning about all the different continents of the world! Each week Sue has taken a different year level into the kitchen to make a different food from each from each different continent. While this week was a little different to the others, we are saying farewell to Anna and decided to throw her a farewell party! As the kids have been learning about Europe this week, it was only fitting to make mini pizzas to add to the party-food.  Good luck, Anna, don’t forget to visit!

Within our Montessori philosophy, the environment is very important and we encourage our students to always take care of it.  This is one of the reasons when Clean Up Australia Day came around, the Dolphins were keen to get involved. On Friday March 3rd, the class challenged themselves to find 25 pieces of rubbish  keeping in mind 25 is a special number for CMS this year. As our school is so clean, the students estimated they might perhaps find two pieces of rubbish. However, when they started their ‘Emu Parade’ around the ground, they were surprised to collect 5 lots of 25 pieces of rubbish.  In addition they found an extra 9 pieces, totalling 134 pieces of rubbish, mostly tiny pieces of plastic and paper.

Well done Dolphins!

To further their studies on ancient Egypt in Term 3, the Dolphins took an excursion to the Abbey Museum to participate in a day full of Egyptian activities. The day started by walking through the museum and looking at artefacts from many different eras in history. Then the children all put on Egyptian costumes and helped to mummify the pharaoh! Each student had a job from the mummy to the priest overseeing the ceremony, to the people wrapping the mummy or carrying the canopic jars, to weighing the heart and sweeping the tomb; and everyone did a great job showing their despair as “professional mourners.” After some lunch the children had an archery lesson, followed by a very cool archaeological dig in a big pit. The children unearthed pottery, bones, amulets and other artefacts, and then had to look at their discoveries to try to tell the story of what had happened in history. We are so thankful to the Abbey Museum for having us and for putting together such an awesome program for our budding Egyptologists!

In Term 3 the Dolphins have been learning about Ancient Egypt. They looked at what the Egyptian people ate and how the Ancient Egyptians would have prepared their food. The Dolphins learned about the Nile River and how it impacted the crops and available resources in the region. The children created menus of examples of food that could have been eaten for breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert. Then the Dolphins had a busy day preparing an Egyptian feast! They made a stew from lots of vegetables, red lentils, flatbread, roasted chickpeas, veggies and dates. The Dolphins all helped to peel and cut ingredients, add seasoning, and helped plate the food. They had a wonderful time serving the food and enjoying it together. Most of the children tasted everything that was made and quite a few of them were surprised by how much they enjoyed things that they hadn’t tried before.

To start our term in 2022, we have some “out of this world” news from the Dolphins class.  To support our study of astronomy, we were lucky enough to have an incursion from Starlab Education, a local organisation providing earth science and astronomy based programs in Queensland.  Starlab was invited to come and teach the students more about the solar system. The children enjoyed a projected presentation inside a huge dome followed by an opportunity to look at the moon and sky through telescopes!

Good work, Dolphins!

Carrying on from last term when we learned about the Timeline of Life, the Dolphins are studying the Timeline of Humans this term.

We have started this unit by learning about early humans. The Dolphins have been particularly interested in learning about stone tools and cave art. After we talked about different types of stone tools, how they were made, and what they were used for, the Dolphins tried making their own tools using flint knapping on pieces of soap! Our classroom was smelling lovely!

We also looked at cave art, including the colours and symbols used. Then everyone was able to try their hand at making their own “cave art” by drawing upside down and sideways, like the early humans would have had to do in their caves!

Good work, Dolphins!

The Dolphins are so happy to be back at school for term 3!

One of the topics we are studying this term is physics. We have started learning about forces and the different types of forces that surround us. Today, the Dolphins conducted an experiment to answer the question of how much force it would take to burst 20 balloons. More specifically, how many of the Dolphins could stand atop 20 balloons before they popped?

So, what do you think? Do you think it would take just one child to pop 20 balloons?

Maybe three…?

What about six students?

Wow! Do you think that TEN Dolphins popped the balloons?

In the end, 14 Dolphins were able to stand on top of the balloons – and they still didn’t pop! We just had to finish the experiment because we ran out of room!

The children were thrilled to participate in the experiment and anxious to know how it worked! We discussed that when the balloons flatten out enough, the pressure of the air inside the balloon equals the pressure of the desk on the balloons, which allows the balloons to support the weight of the desk (and 14 excited students on top of it!).

Well done to the Dolphin ‘Scientists’!

This week, the Dolphins class discussed Reconciliation week and what it means. We watched videos, read books, listened to music, and looked at indigenous art.  The students were inspired to to create their own art piece. This one is from Imogen, 8 years old.

‘The big figures represent the Aboriginals who lost their children, they are looking into a lake. Instead of seeing their reflections, they see their childrens’ reflections. The different colours in the lake represent all different types of people coming together, and the brown in between the children and adults represents a gate in between them. There are 20 crosses in the sky full of stars; the stars represent time and the crosses show that it has only been 20 since we apologised to the Aboriginal people.’

How amazing are our #montessoristudents!?

Term 1 is flying by and the Dolphins have been so busy! Everyone has settled into routine and is working hard on operations, language, grammar, handwriting and reading. This term we have been doing lots of interesting work relating to the body and history. So far, we have learned about skin, looked at our fingerprints and the unique patterns in fingerprints.  We have discussed muscles and tried exercises and movements to work different muscles.  We have studied the skeletal system and learned the names of many of the bones in our body. The children also made timelines to show their age and the ages of everyone in their family. During the next few weeks, we will continue learning about different systems of the body and making personal timelines with photos for each child. Everyone seems to be really enjoying their work and soaking in heaps of new information and fun facts! Way to go, Dolphins!

After a crazy 2020 we are so excited to welcome all the Dolphins back to school for 2021! The juniors have adjusted very well to their new classroom environment. They are getting the hang of working from their checklist and have been working on golden beads, number and letter formation, geometry and addition. The middles and seniors are settling back in and doing a great job helping the juniors in the room.

This term we are studying the human body and so far we have learned all about our skin and looked at similarities and differences between us. This week we talked about how skin helps us to feel and we have been looking for and feeling things that are rough, smooth, hard and soft!

Last week we celebrated Maria Montessori’s 150^th Birthday and Multicultural day at school. All term, the Dolphins have been learning about Mexico. It has been so interesting learning about Mexican food, dress, animals, geography, history, language, holidays, traditions and more! In preparation for multicultural day, the children each chose an aspect of Mexican culture and did a project that they could display to teach the other students at school about Mexico.They also made Mexican flags and Ojos De Dios (God’s eyes) and Calaveras (skulls) to decorate our classroom. Everyone also got to help prepare paletas (fresh fruit icies) and guacamole. We loved seeing everyone dressed up in their finest Mexican outfits on multicultural day, and everybody enjoyed eating and dancing in the Dolphins class before going on our adventure to visit Japan, Samoa, India, native tribes in Northern Victoria and the very interesting land of Moonya. The children learned so much about Mexico during the term and it was great to see them all so excited about embracing another culture, and our trip “around the world” was an amazing glimpse into so many different countries and communities!

The Dolphins class continued their botany studies this week by looking at leaves. The children looked at different types of leaves and then split into groups and walked all over the school looking at leaves and taking cuttings of some of their favourite leaves. Everybody helped to classify the leaves and share their favourites with the class. The dolphins loved this activity and many students decided to continue looking at and classifying leaves at home! We also had a surprise chicken visitor for show and share this week – she was a cheeky hen and we loved having her in the classroom!

The Dolphins have been enjoying botany studies this term. So far the class has learned about the types of plants and learned more about herbaceous plants, woody plants, roots and stems. In week 2 the Dolphins looked at fungi and cooked up some mushrooms for everyone to try, and also looked at the seeds in tomatoes, passionfruit and capsicum. Many children tried new foods and some were surprised at the foods they liked which they hadn’t had before!

The children have also been studying colour theory this term. So far there have been lessons on primary colours, secondary and tertiary colours, complimentary colours, warm and cool colours. There have been lots of activities and art options surrounding these concepts which have been enjoyed by everyone!

After a lot of changes to our routine and learning in terms 1 and 2, everyone seems to be settled in to the classroom this term. It has been great to see the children progress with their work. This week we saw some middles and seniors tackle 4-digit test tube – Wow!

We’re so thrilled that everyone is back in the classroom this term and we have lots of exciting lessons and activities coming up. This term we are going to be learning about botany, and we had our first lesson looking at the differences between plants and animals. The chook made lots of noise to tell us that she did not want to be part of our lesson so after everyone got to see her and talk about her, we let her go back to her friends in the community garden. We are also doing colour studies this term and everyone has had the chance to investigate primary and secondary colours and make colour wheels to see how these colours are made and how they complement each other. Sue and Anna are happy to welcome all of the Dolphins back to school and looking forward to a wonderful term 3!

We are so happy that all of the Dolphins are back in the classroom this week! The classroom has been buzzing with everyone being back together and catching up after so much time apart. This week we have been learning how to read a calendar and looking at seasons. We watched some videos and did an activity relating to Aboriginal seasons – Did you know that many Aboriginal people recognise six seasons instead of just four!?

We are also learning how to make graphs. The whole class made a big graph looking at everyone’s birthdays, and then each student designed their own survey and surveyed everyone in the room. Next week everyone will make their own graph to show their survey answers!

This week saw the return of many of the Dolphins students to the classroom! We have continued our work on time and weather this week and learnt about the origins of the days of the week and the months of the year. Some children have been really engaged with this work, creating books about the days and months. Juniors are doing lots of work with ending sounds and sight words and middles/seniors are looking at plurals – we are stumped by words ending in O; is it tornadOS or tornadOES!? We also had a sweet little tree frog try to hop into our classroom on Monday so Hudson put him in one of our pot plants where he spent the day.

We are continuing to do video calls and virtual lessons with the students at home and look forward to everyone’s return over the coming weeks!

It has been another great week in the Dolphins class. We are really getting good at connecting with the students who are at home, doing daily video chats to check in and catch up, finally sorting out live and recorded video lessons with groups of students and using Teams to chat throughout the day. Everyone is getting pretty good at communicating and doing lessons through a screen and it’s becoming the new normal. Even though we’re all apart we feel very connected! This week the Dolphins have been learning more about weather and working on learning to tell time. We also learned about pointillism – a type of art using only dots to make pictures, and everyone made their own paintings using this technique. On Friday a surprise visitor flew into the classroom and checked out some of the language work before making his way out the door!

We are so looking forward to some more of the children returning to school next week and can’t wait until we can see everybody in the classroom again!

The numbers of children are dwindling in the Dolphins class as everyone with parents at home has been asked to stay at home too. We have had a quiet week with the children who are at school enjoying some games, crafts and lots of LEGO. We’ve also been playing lots of soccer and spent an afternoon at the dam on Tuesday. Sue taught everyone how to make coil pots and today we found Easter eggs in our coil pots!

Sue and Anna would both like to say thank you to all of the Dolphins children and families for a great term, and that we have missed everyone over the past couple weeks while we all adjust to the new normal. We’re looking forward to seeing everyone next term – whether that’s face-to-face or through a screen! We have done a ton of preparation and promise to offer our best efforts next term, whatever that looks like. Hope everyone has a restful, safe and healthy holidays!

What an interesting week it has been! The Dolphins have been doing a lot of hand washing, disinfecting our classroom and thinking of ways to show kindness during this time of change and uncertainty. There are a lot of children choosing to stay home and we are missing our friends, but we are still busy as ever in the classroom. This week, Anna organised for our class to write letters to the residents at a local aged care facility who are all in isolation right now. The students learned how to write a letter and thought of things that they could share with the residents to brighten their day. We told them about our class, asked them questions about themselves and shared interesting things we have learned this term! The letters will be dropped off before the end of the week and we are hoping that some of the residents will write back to us!

This term, the dolphins have been learning about living things. We started learning about the five kingdoms and expanded our knowledge of the Monera Kingdom by growing our own bacteria. The children took swabs from pieces of work in the room, the door handle, toilets and even Lachlan’s toes! After the bacteria started to grow, Yvonne came to visit and got to see and hear all about our experiment. The most bacteria came from the golden bead work (which is used every day, and has been thoroughly cleaned now!) and the children were surprised that the least amount of bacteria grew from the toilets! We have also learned about all of the classes of invertebrates and done sketching of some interesting and colourful creatures. Sue even caught a huge spider which allowed the children to see an arthropod up close!

The dolphins have had a lovely start to 2020. The new children have all settled in and become comfortable in their new environment, finding lots of work to do and having many lessons to learn new things. The middles and seniors in the class have been great leaders, examples to the juniors and new students, and helpers to Sue and Anna. Lots of new work is being discovered and new friends are being made and we are having a great year so far.