Aurora School - Summer Book 2021/2022 by auroraschoolvn

The

Art of Play

Summer Villa

2021/2022

Aurora Ecosystem

At the core of the Reggio Emilia philosophy and our own, is the emphasis on building and sustaining relationships. We believe that strong communities are built on relationships.

Therefore, on returning to school after such a long closure due to COVID, we wondered how we could develop a sense of belonging? What were the signs of a community of learners connecting and how could we strengthen this? Through the hundred languages we have explored the very broad concepts of connec tion and belonging in meaningful, age appropriate ways.

It has been a journey of discovering and strengthening the wonderful dispositions of learning we have noticed. The resilience, the courage, the curiosity, the persistence and the determination found in our children, alongside the kindness and playfulness they have displayed on their return to school.

We know that it is through responsive and reciprocal relationships with people, places and things that children have opportunities to try out their ideas and to refine their working theories, hence our mission was to empower children to learn and grow as they connected and formed relationships.

A truly remarkable year, made more so by truly remarkable children.

Ms. Penny Pedagogista

Summer Villa Journey

Our journey this year might have been shorter than usual, but we still managed to use the time we had to create meaningful experiences, collaborate, and connect with each other.

The joy of returning to school was a special time as our children could reconnect with friends and teachers as well as rediscover their sense of belonging at Aurora.

Although, at the beginning, there were mixed feelings about returning to school. On one hand, there was a lot of excitement, some shy faces, and even a few tears when mom or dad waved goodbye, which was absolutely normal after all those months away. Little by little, we focused on building a collaborative and inclusive community within our classrooms and this was only possible through connection and play.

After some time, we could begin to observe and feel a growing sense of belonging in the classroom. A feeling of belonging not only by children’s building connections among each other and with teachers but also in our Aurora community.

Within Summer Villa we observed some overlaps in interests between the Agapantha and Frangipani children. Our children shared their ideas with each other and managed to inspire each other to explore certain interests further and extend on these in our individual classrooms.

Welcome Freesia!

We were so pleased to welcome Freesia into the Aurora family.

Although only having joined us recently, in the time they have spent together they have explored so much. From discovering our natural world, explorations through sensory materials, storytelling, mark making and expressing joy through movement and connection.

Hai Anh, My An, Dan, Nayu, Paris, Sa Sa, Travis and Son Choi, we cannot wait to see where your Aurora journey will take you next.

Art by Freesia

From the very beginning, we have noticed that many of the children asked to use paint as soon they arrived in the morning. Painting is an integral part of self-expression and color exploration started to be a common interest for the Agapantha children. Following this interest, we set up a variety of brushes, pieces of wood, pine cones, wooden shapes and boxes to explore painting. It fills our hearts to see you connecting to each other, discovering and building a sense of belonging while playing after so many months.

"I want to make a rainbow" - Sua

"Me too. But we need ... 1, 2, 3 , 4 , 5 ,6, right? red, yellow, blue, pink, orange, white" - Skye

Collaborative Painting

Working on a vertical surface brings the task closer to the child’s eyes. This helps children who have difficulty maintaining visual attention and can help to encourage hand-eye coordination, as the child has a better view of what they are doing! When working on a vertical surface, a child is likely standing, kneeling, or slightly leaning forward, which requires them to activate their trunk for the duration of the task. The longer the tasks, the more strength and endurance they can build. The Agapantha children were delighted to find the boxes hanging from the trees and swinging back and forth.

"Dancing, dancing!" – Roy and Dana exclaimed "I sew a rose dress" - Nhi "I drew the tree as Malecent"- Dana "Look at it" - Kha Di

Skye, Yumi, and Ramen worked together to find out how to reach a box that was quite high.

After a while, the children started to mix up colors in delight,

“I need water” - Emily

“This is so green… The box is so fun. I made brown. Orange and another color can make brown”- Nhi

“We painted our fire truck with every color, which we can’t count" - Skye

The children painted both inside and outside the boxes.

Emily Emma

Skye 'Brown Bear'

Emily

The Language of Food

Food transmits culture and captures memories. It even spreads a little bit of love.

The children of Agapantha class showed great enthusiasm and curiosity in all of our cooking invitations.

"What is it?" - Ms. Roma

"Ball" - Macca

"Lime" - Yumi

"Lemon" - Kha Di

What can we do with Kumquats and lime?

"Cut, cut, cut" - Kha Di

"Make juice" - Nhi

"Peel out the skin. It's like a baby lemon" - Nhi

"Where do they grow?" - Ms.Roma

"They grow from plants, trees..." - Nhi

"Do you know what the taste is?" - Ms.Roma

"Sour" - Mhairi "

"We need some lemon to make lemonades" - Nhi

"We need a machine, cut it and the machine squeezes it" - Mhairi

Nhi 'Pizza'

They love to touch and feel the lime and smell its fresh scent.

A few other friends started squeezing limes. Then we stirred the lemon with sugar. And Yumi helped us pour lemonade on ice

“This is water carrot.” - Emily

“Sinh to” (smoothie) - Dana

“I’m cutting orange.” – Ramen

“Chocolate!” - exclaimed Roy

Mizuki carefully touched and observed the orange skin.

Art by Shinosukke

Hands by Skye

The World of Puppets

After being invited by Frangipani to a puppet show, and inspired by the story “Brown, Bear Brown Bear, what do you see”, our Agapantha children engaged in the magical world of puppet making and using puppets to tell stories. We offered different opportunities for them to explore and create their own ones. Everybody chose their favorite pictures from old books to cut out. We noticed such deep engagement as they carefully cut the chosen images. Puppets are magical and it was wonderful to observe how enthusiastic you all were about this project. The children loved to create their own ones and play with them in different settings of the classroom.

After they pieced together their puppets and set up the storyboard - it was time to take the stage! It was their first time performing for an audiencehow cool! The children had a wonderful time re-enacting the story they chose or invented! Amazingly, puppets allowed them to grow their confidence and we noticed how happy they felt to entertain friends and teachers during Assembly.

Roy, 'Monster Truck, Lamborghini'

Roy, sock puppet

Kha Di, sock puppet

Mete, sock puppet

Mete, 'Yellow Submarine'

Mizuki, paper puppet

Skye, paper puppet

Ramen, 'the tank'

Some of the children also chose to experience light and shadow through puppets based on characters from the books we have been reading. Using our shadow puppets definitely added to the magic of storytelling. Behind the scenes, our lovely art performers had a very good time.

We discussed emotions and how our puppets could describe their own feelings during play as well.

"I want to make sad face” - Kha Di

“Sick face” - Shinnosuke

“Angry face rainbow” - Dana

“Sad face” - Anna

“I want make mommy. My mommy is so happy” - Mizuki

“Happy face” - Macca

“Con muốn mặt angry” - Kiwi

“Con muốn con ma màu đen” - Liam

“I make angry face” - Ramen

“Sleepy face” - whispered Tom

“A dress puppet” - Skye

“Happy face” - Yumi

We created a puppet show to retell the stories of Eric Carle during Assembly. It was special to see the children's performances becoming richer and more creative, as they confidently performed with a louder volume day by day.

Udon, 'T-Rex'

We loved playing in our home corner. One moment we were cats, the next we were moms or babies. We were cooking many different foods. We realized we needed a menu to help our customers order food more easily.

“I like this food.” - Mip

“Here is the place for us to lie down and read the book. This one is the Sun and we have a food here.” - Mai

We remembered we could use the magazines in our recycled paper box. We gathered them and put them on the table. We started by finding the good photos of the food we would want and then cut them out and stuck them to the paper.

In assembly, we wanted to keep talking about our restaurant. What shall we call it?

“Bella.” - Mai

“Row.” - Mip

“Restaurant.” - Dau

Salt dough food, Frangipani

Pizza, Pizza, We Love Pizza!

You can't imagine what a great Friday we had making pizza together. We asked Mr. Sang, our head chef, to help us learn more about how our beloved pizza is made.

First, he took us through the ingredients used in the dough. The children were familiar with most of them, but yeast and flour improver were new for some of you.

We got to smell and taste them. "Salt is a little yummy " - Yuto Nobody liked the smell of yeast . "Eewww" - Dau

The next stage was a fun one. Mr. Sang turned on the mixer and we saw the dough taking shape. Then, it was time to get your hands messy as you each took a segment of dough and then made any shape you like.

"It's sticky " - Mai

"I'll make a heart " - James "It's warm " - Mip

With our bases formed, it was time to top them with sauce, chicken, and cheese. "I like cheese! " - Julia "I like chicken! " - Udon

Then, the only thing left to do was wait for them to cook. We also would like to say thank you to Mr. Sang. We are very grateful for your inspiring lesson. It was lovely to observe your excitement and pride as you enjoyed them together at lunch time and how nice to hear Jessica say:

"I made Pizza for the teacher. I made pizza for you.

Collaborative canvas, Frangipani

Welcome to Frangipani's puppet show!

We explored a new way to use paper: making puppets!

Our friends suggested using recycled paper because,

“Don’t waste paper.” - Mai

“It’s a waste” - Mip

“We can’t breathe if there are no trees.” - Dau

“We use old paper so that we don’t cut down trees.” - Julia

We headed to our art corner and let our imaginations fly.

We created so many interesting characters that promised some really intriguing stories.

“I’m going to draw all the teachers.” - Mai

“It’s a flying dinosaur and a shark.” - Udon

“I draw a kitten, a mushroom, a rose.” - Dau

We also had a special visit from Agapantha. All of our Agapantha friends were excited to watch our special puppet show. Mai, you were such an incredible storyteller. We all loved hearing about your characters and their magical adventures.