Quarter 2 Newsletter 2020

The Tiggers and Honey Bees especially enjoyed the variety of science experiments that we did together. We loved watching their faces as they “oohed” and “aahed” in amazement. Teacher Lauren and Teacher Candice used various platforms to teach valuable skills. We used the whiteboard feature on Zoom to revise shapes, we shared photos on Zoom to discuss themes and we even completed cutting exercises together with the help from Mom or Dad. Each day ended with an online story, just as we do in our physical classes every day. Storytime is such a special time, it’s a time to relax, listen and enjoy, albeit online or physically in a classroom. Our highlight of the online teaching period was definitely our Kahoot Quiz. Through a fun and exciting quiz, the Tiggers and Honey Bees revised and consolidated all they had learned over the past few weeks. Some children even said, “This was the best day ever!” The 6th of July 2020, marked a joyous occasion at Christopher Robin Pre-Primary, when the little one’s re-joined school after an absence of almost 4 months! We can all be immensely proud of ourselves for successfully completing online education and successfully transitioned the little ones into the new school routines.. Well done to all the Tiggers and Honey Bees! You were all such superstars! We are so proud of you. We would also like to thank all the Moms and Dads for their constant support and enthusiastic attitude. Candice Kemp and Lauren Medcalf have started crawling and have become more mobile, and first steps have also taken place! The Butterflies were very excited to go out for early morning exercises, some went for walks with their families while others learnt to ride bicycles! They have been watching the weather changing and during our theme on birds they excitedly told their teacher about the birds they saw and heard on their morning adventures. The Crickets have also enjoyed individual video calls from their teacher with daily stories and poems. Some of the little ones have started feeding themselves with finger foods, and attempted eating with a spoon. The Crickets enjoyed sensory activities at home, where they explored with salt dough and edible baby sand. During this quarter, the Caterpillars attended online sessions and quickly adjusted to their new e-learning routine. We are so proud of our little ones. April marked the celebration of World Book Day, with our own Teacher Daniella who read her soon to be published book online. The daily individual video calls to each little one in Butterflies has been very special indeed. Their excitement was tangible when the class joined the Zoom sessions in June. The Caterpillars and Butterflies often had various activities during their calls where they eagerly showed off their favourite toys, and brought theme related items to the sessions. As little as they are, the willingness to participate was keen, even when participating in a Pajama Day! We rejoiced when early July, the honourable Judge Fabricius from the Gauteng High Court ruled in favour of re-opening of all Early Childhood Centres and Pre-Schools. He emphasised the importance of early childhood education as children learn and develop holistically when socialising with their peers, they learn emotional skills and develop core developmental areas for future academic learning. It has been such a joy to have our precious little people returning to school! We hope that the Caterpillars and Butterflies will have a lovely midtermbreak, and we are looking forward to welcoming everybody back for more fun and exciting learning! Thea van Zyl, Chanay De Klerk, Ingrid Lubbe GRADE 000 On the 6th April 2020 marked a time that will be remembered in history and at Christopher Robin Pre-Primary, when the little one’s joined their first ever Online Home Teaching Programme. Weekly home activities were designed for parents to guide their children and daily Zoom meetings with their class teachers were set. Monday 6th April arrived, and Teacher Lauren and Teacher Candice saw the eager and happy faces of their children on their screens and knew instantly that this new way of learning and teaching was going to be an exciting adventure. Over the next few weeks, the Tiggers and Honey Bees learned about various themes such as pets, farm animals, wild animals and the all-time favourite theme, dinosaurs. We received such gorgeous photographs of the children’s art and their various activities they completed during the weeks. Many thanks to the Moms and Dads for providing the space and time for these little ones to enjoy their activities. During our morning ring Zoom sessions, the Tiggers and Honey Bees joined in all the usual activities we would normally do during a morning ring such as singing a greeting song, counting, discussing the weather and days of the week, as well as theme discussions. The Grade 000 also actively participated in various colour and shape games. These were such fun.