A journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step
Each and every piece of material in the Montessori environment is handpicked with the aim to help develop natural curiosity of the child. Bearing in mind that each and every child is different and their pace in learning will differ. So as a person responsible for the child’s development it is therefore very stressful when you do not have all the material you need to help this process.
Everything in the Montessori curriculum has a purpose to help the children gain skill and prepares them for future with the continuous learning process even outside the class room, for an example recognising and tracing the geometric shapes of the geometric cabinets prepares the mind and hand for reading and writing.
Before the children can start to hold number concept in their mind they need to have a chance to build the pink tower, the knobbed cylinder, brown stirs and red rod. These activities encourage children to use their own thinking to compare, analyse, and judge things, developing their power of observation and reasoning. All these materials will help order the mathematical mind. Numbers give a child physical understanding of working with the quantities of numbers in a series.
South African Montessori Association (SAMA) together with Children’s House were kind enough to donate to us Montessori material, some of these are the materials we had on our wish list, so we now have an exciting job to do – tick some stuff off our wish list.
Our school now have a mini library loaded with a variety of interesting story books thanks to Nal’ibali team, we now have more books to read during story time. Which has always been most exciting time for our little people at the school, and it’s even more so with the new books on our shelves.
Theme for the term
The theme for this term was trees, their uses, the importance and how their leaves change with different seasons. Children were first taught about different types of seeds, now they have an understanding that trees come from a seeds, and that in order for the tree to grow big and produce fruit it needs water.
We had a lesson about how people and animals benefit from trees e.g. people can use trees for shade, eat fruits and the wood to make fire. Insects, birds and small mammals live in trees, build their shelters and eat the leaves and fruits in order to survive, and most of all Oxygen for all living things. The older children helped to dig up a plant which was used as a model so they can get a visual idea of the lesson. We used this tree model to teach the children about different parts of tree and their functions i.e. roots to carry water from the soil underground up the stem, to the branches and into the leaves where they produce fruits. Younger children traced, painted and cut out leaf shapes to paste on our autumn tree.
Other news
Our current teachers are undergoing a Continued Professional Development course. We caught up with their training provider to find out more about their progress, this is what she had to say,
” The five mentor teachers, three who work at Ikhaya Labantwana Montessori are all doing well with their professional development course. It has been a long road, but they have continued to attend with dedication and good humor. This term they have completed their last module and have handed it in for the assessment to be done in Cape Town ”
Meet the team SCB/ILM – Tommy
Q. What are your duties at Sustainable Coffee Bay (SCB) and Ikhaya Labantwana Montessori (ILM)?
A. I’m responsible for SCB’s Finance and Administration.
Q. How long have you been working at SCB/ILM?
A. I have been working here for 11 months now
Q. What do you enjoy most about your job?
A. I enjoy working with figures
Q. Do you have a hobby?
A. Yes, I enjoy fishing when I have time
Q. How long have you lived in Coffee Bay?
A. I have been living in Coffee Bay since 2016.
Our wish list
If you, or someone you know might be able to help, please get in touch! If you are planning on visiting Coffee Bay, let us know so you can also be #morethanavisitor !
- 18 sponsors for our pre-school children at Ikhaya Labantwana Montessori
- 2 sponsors for our High School Scholarship program to St Johns College in 2020
- Colour printer for making our own pre-school material
- Audio books for 0-3 years and 3-6 years in English and Xhosa