Learning over the past two weeks has seen our Mamie girls welcome ‘Sparkles’, our male butterfly (identified by the girls due to his distinctive spots), into the world. This has, for now, concluded a rich learning experience that has enabled the girls to learn scientific terminology related to the most magical life cycle of a butterfly.

The children have explored the concept of symmetry through butterfly art and together they have sorted and classified their drawings of each stage of the life cycle of a butterfly. Our beautiful monarch butterfly did not fly away as expected though, and this required the girls to research and create a sugar solution to help Sparkles to ‘pump up his wings and fly out to find a family’.

The rain was welcomed by our Annie girls last week as they installed their new rain gauge in the garden. Continuing with their exploration of water and its uses in the environment, combined with their daily weather journal recordings, the girls measured the rain together each day. This is certainly an excellent real-life context for measurement in mathematics and for developing an understanding of numbers.

Where does the rain come from?

How do we know it has rained?

What impact does the rain have on our environment?

These were all questions the girls thoughtfully pondered this week. This learning was also enhanced by the reading of The Waterhole by Graeme Base.

Furthermore, the Annie girls continued their learning about sustainability by watching and discussing Molly Steer, a nine-year-old sustainability superhero from Queensland, talk about the impact of plastic straws on the environment. This is vital for the girls to understand, especially now in South Australia, where plastic straws have been banned. Recycling and reusing our rubbish in the Annie house has also seen the girls create many works of art and most notably, design and create a space suit, building on the space exploration started in Week 5.

Finally, as our term and semester draw to close, we would like to take this opportunity to thank you, our families, for your continued support. We appreciate the decision you have made to put your trust in us as a place of early education for your daughters; for it is your daughters who enrich and drive our programs, and there will never be another group of learners exactly like the one we have now. We hope that you have a wonderful holiday, and we look forward to commencing another semester of learning on Wednesday 21 July.