Canada Water School Westminster School Highlights - August 16, 2024

What we did this week

This week the children continued to explore the Indigenous Australian art - Aboriginal Art, specifically focused on its use in storytelling.

We explored some traditional stories as we were re-telling Aboriginal Myths.

We also focused on the culture and traditions in Australasia. The children discovered The Great Barrier Reef - one of the wonders of the natural World.

The Amazing History of Rotherhithe

Russia Dock Woodland

This week we decided to explore Rotherhithe’s history, Russia Dock Woodland, in the heart of Rotherhithe, an Ecological Park with rich history.

The Children could see still surviving dock features, such as capstones and mooring chains.

Stave Hill

We climbed up to Stave Hill, a man-made hill created of waste and rubble, where we enjoyed a beautiful view over our neighbourhood, where we could see a bronze relief map of former docks that used to cover the whole Canada Water area.

Children enjoyed learning about the history of docklands, used for timber transport from Russia, Norway and Sweden.

Children also enjoyed walking  through the woodland and by the pond, spotting a variety of animals, such as ducks, a fox and a heron!

The Brunel Museum

On Friday, Children had a trip to Brunel Museum, located in picturesque Rotherhithe Village.

In the museum we explored the rich history of Rotherhithe Tunnel and learned about how they built the Thames tunnel and even saw pictures when the engineer and architect of the Tunnel held a banquet inside the tunnel.

Children really enjoyed playing in the herbal garden located on the rooftop of the famous shaft, the grade II listed structure.

When we were very quiet for the moment we even could feel the vibrations and hear the train going through the tunnel.

Aboriginal Myths and The Great Barrier Reef

The children continued learning about Aboriginal Ancient legends, one of the oldest myths in the world, such as the story how The Great Mother Snake created all the natural world, animals and people - The Rainbow Serpent.

These stories were told by campfires and by waterholes of the Australian desert.

Children continued to explore the aboriginal symbols used in artworks to narrate the stories, we used chalks, fingers in the sand and paint, to work on our collaborative art project- creating the Rainbow Serpent.

This week children learned about the Great Barrier Reef, exploring  the most wonderful colours and the diverse lives of millions of creatures and the life at the Great Barrier Reef.

The preschoolers held a mini exhibition of their impressive sculptures of the coral reefs and our toddlers and babies used water colours to blow the beautiful and colourful coral reef shapes.

Languages

Children enjoyed mark making and writing of Chinese characters, focusing on character - ‘water’ and mathematical language such as directions, forming characters for numbers and prepositions.

Toddlers continued with their routine learning of french vocabulary, focusing on body parts, for children to help them understand their bodies and develop self awareness.

For this month they also have a new addition to their vocabulary - the weather, as the summer is coming to an end, the children start to observe changes in weather conditions and how it makes us feel.

What we're doing next week

Next week the children are going to move deeper into pacific ocean, specifically explore New Zealand and the culture, art, body painting, music and dance rituals of Maori people.

Our toddlers will also continue to learn about the animals of Australasia in their natural habitat.

Here's a timetable of the places we're visiting in the following weeks:

Want to be part of our next amazing excursions? Increase your hours now!