On Thursday 27th March starting at 5.30pm the Festival of Arts will be held at Yultiwirra. This is a biennial school event and has been a much loved event in our school calendar over the years.  After a pause due to COVID, the Festival of Arts returned in 2023, and we are excited to host it again this year.

On the night, classrooms will be open for viewing the visual art work that students have been working on this term.  Throughout the evening, classes, individuals and small groups of students will demonstrate their artistic skills through the entertainment program and by “busking” around the school.  We are currently working on the program. There will also be an art activities "passport" for children to complete encompassing fun activities at each cycle. Finally, the evening will culminate with an art auction, auctioning off the whole class canvases that classes are currently working on.

We would love to have any school adults/parents who are interested in busking/performing on the night or demonstrating their artistic skills by sketching or painting. Please come and see us in the office if you are willing and able to add to the ‘artistic flavour’ of the evening.                   

Back in 2016 at the Festival of Arts a parent at the time, Scott Butcher (pictured) volunteered to draw with charcoal and demonstrate his skills during the Festival of Arts evening. You may have seen the beautiful and very large framed charcoal drawing that is hanging on the wall of the office which was the work that he started on the night.  It is an amazing drawing of Maria Montessori and a child (see picture below).  

Scott took the drawing away and completed it after the Festival of Arts night and generously gave his beautiful work of art to the school.  It was a remarkable gift to give which is favourably commented on frequently by visitors. We are still in awe of Scott’s amazing skills and talent and deeply grateful for his stunning bequest. I encourage you to come into the office and view this superb and significant piece of work.

Cathy France

Principal

Last week three brave Cycle 3 students attended the Adelaide Hills Courier Cup swimming carnival. Their readiness to participate in the carnival and represent our School was outstanding. Mae, Jack and Noah were brave and enthusiastic. Good on them!

We’ve had a wonderful start to the year in the Infant Program, with everyone settling in beautifully. Each week, we’ve been exploring different colours and painting techniques in preparation for the Festival of Arts. The children have been working collaboratively on a group artwork for our room, adding a new colour each week.

Sensory painting has also been a highlight, with all the children thoroughly enjoying the experience. Meanwhile, the warm weather has provided plenty of opportunities for outdoor play, with lots of water play on hot days and time spent caring for our garden.

This term, our preschoolers have been engaging in a range of visual arts experiences. We began by exploring the three primary colours, then experimented with mixing coloured water and paints to create secondary colours.

The children have also drawn self-portraits using pastel crayons and watercolours, developing their observational and fine motor skills. We have been learning about the artistic styles of American artist Alma Thomas and Australian artist Anna Blatman, using paint and paper to explore their techniques.

Recently, we introduced wool as a new medium, and we are looking forward to a preschool parent demonstrating how to use wool for felting. In the coming weeks, we will continue our artistic exploration with clay.

The Cycle 1 community has been busy in art lessons, learning about Australian artist Ken Done and using his Reef series as inspiration for their own mixed-media projects. Students have experimented with oil pastels and watercolour paints, exploring colour, organic shapes, and patterns to create two different scenes that capture the feeling of being underwater. While working on his reef project, Otto commented, “I just made my coral head get taller on this side!”

Students are now creating clay pinch pot jellyfish sculptures. During the morning work cycle, many have enjoyed freely accessing a range of art materials in a peaceful space, allowing them to create uninterrupted when inspiration strikes.

We look forward to sharing our artwork with you later in the term at the Festival of Arts!

The Montessori Great Stories spark curiosity and imagination, and Cycle 2 students have thoroughly enjoyed engaging with the next two Great Stories—The Coming of Life and The Coming of Humans—over the past few weeks.

These stories have inspired exploration into biological science, history, mathematics, and language. We revisited the much-loved Timeline of Life to learn about classification, the different Eras, micro-organisms, plants, and some fascinating life forms. Students had the opportunity to create their own timelines, charting the Eras and various life forms, and extended their knowledge through independent research.

Our exploration of human evolution took us down into the bushland, where we reflected on the fundamental needs of humans and how our incredible thinking brains and useful hands set us apart from other animals.

Students collected rocks that could be used as tools and even created simple tools using natural materials. Following discussions about the discovery of seeds and the grinding of grains for trade and food, a community project emerged—collecting acacia pods. Students worked together to find the best seed pods, shared tips on identifying and collecting them, and learned how to extract seeds and grind them into flour. We hope to collect enough flour to make damper!

We wrapped up by rolling out The Long Black Strip, a Montessori material used to illustrate the vast history of the Earth and the relative shortness of human existence. This sparked many wonderings about future humans, including the exciting idea of creating a time capsule for future Hills Montessori students to discover in 50 years!

"We are still in the Cenozoic Era. I wonder what the next Era will be." – Eleanor

"Trilobites were alive in the Palaeozoic Era. I have a trilobite in a rock at home!" – Eloise

"We got to make tools! I made hot stones that are like portable heaters." – Luca

"I loved making my own timeline. It helped me learn a lot!" – Vivienne

"The Palaeozoic Era had early animals, the Mesozoic Era had dinosaurs, and the Cenozoic Era had the early ancestors of modern animals, like the first horses." – Walter

"My favourite animal from the Mesozoic Era is the Spinosaurus, and my favourite from the Cenozoic Era is the sabre-tooth tiger." – Angus

Recently, our Year 6 students participated in their Year 6 Leadership Day. This special day is designed to provide opportunities to practise virtues such as teamwork, cooperation, resilience, and leadership.

The morning began with a team-building session led by Adam Saffin, where students worked in small groups and as a whole team on tasks focused on communication and support. Activities included using a rope to form a square while blindfolded and lining up from oldest to youngest without speaking.

After the session, the group travelled to Rundle Mall, where they enjoyed lunch together in the food court before heading to the Hijinks Hotel. Students, working in small groups, tackled 10 challenge rooms, spending four minutes in each. The rooms required them to apply skills from their morning session, with tasks ranging from shooting a basketball through a hoop to solving word scrambles and remembering sound patterns to press the correct buttons.

Each group worked exceptionally well together, and the day was a resounding success! A huge thank you to Adam, Corinna, Melissa, and Suzie for joining us as parent volunteers and sharing this special experience with the Year 6 leaders.

Student Reflections:

“I liked going into all the different rooms. My favourite was the ball pit, where we had to throw the ball into donuts.” – Elise

“My favourite part of the day was the Hijinks Hotel. I loved the room where you had to press buttons next to pictures based on the sounds coming from the speakers.” – Dani

“I enjoyed getting food in the mall with everyone. I got cold rolls, while others had sushi, Boost Juice, and Chinese food.” – Chloe

“We broke the school record for the whole-group standing rope task with Adam!” – Phoebe

Last week, the Cycle 4 community ventured to Woodhouse Adventure Park for their annual orientation camp. Once all the gear was packed, two groups took different routes to reach our final destination—one trekking via Mount George and the other through the Mount Lofty Botanical Gardens.

A key goal of this camp each year is to strengthen our community and welcome new students. This was certainly the case, with new friendships forming and many moments of kindness, inclusion, and genuine interest in getting to know classmates better.

There were plenty of highlights, particularly when we tackled Challenge Hill. The camaraderie and encouragement from peers were incredible to witness, spurring many on to conquer obstacles that initially seemed daunting.

The tradition of the late-night Labyrinth run continued, with some lightning-fast times recorded—Maddie impressively completed the maze in under a minute! Each team pushed themselves to achieve their best times, making multiple attempts to go even faster. The cheers from onlookers, regardless of the time recorded, were always filled with support.

The final big activity of camp was the High Ropes—a series of physically demanding challenges requiring climbing, balancing, and swinging, all at heights well beyond what we were used to. Many conquered their fears, while others took on the course with adrenaline-fuelled determination. Once again, the encouragement from peers was fantastic.

Unscheduled time led to spontaneous whole-group games, which often only paused for meals or scheduled activities. And eat we did—our new kitchen specialist; Nikkita, prepared delicious food that kept us full and energised.

A huge thank you to all the students and adults who helped make this camp such a memorable experience!

Throughout Semester 1, each Cycle is dedicating part of their weekly music lesson to exploring and practising the written language of music. However, if we were to compare the language of music to the standard English language framework, we’d be short-changing ourselves. Music incorporates Italian, French, Spanish, and German, interwoven with English, frequently diverging from our mother tongue.

Music is not just a word-based language—it is highly symbolic, using geometric shapes placed onto a specially designed framework: the musical staff. These shapes, including notes and other symbols, carry specific numerical values, depending on their form, and fit within an overall numerical system. While this system can change, at the junior level, it remains static. Phew!

Yet, music is not just visual—its notation exists to be heard, transforming into sound that can be communicated to an audience.

Music is a multi-faceted language—mathematical, geometric, multi-linguistic, aural, and visual. From this complex integration of disciplines comes the performer’s translation to the audience, where meaning is poetically and expressively transferred.

Each music lesson brings us closer to a deeper comprehension and, ultimately, to performance—the natural outcome of all music learning. Research into the neurological impact of music shows its profound effect on the developing minds of children.

But this learning isn’t just about creating musicians—it’s about enhancing comprehension across multiple disciplines, fostering teamwork, appreciation, and beauty, all packaged into the single form we know as Music!

Our Festival of Arts evening is Thursday 27th March.  This is a fantastic school event that brings together students, staff and parents from across our community. Artwork will be on display, arts and crafts activities will be on offer, performances and entertainment from busking students, as well as pre-ordered meals, desserts and bar facilities. There will be more information to follow shortly via Audiri.

On Thursday 10th April we will hold our annual Community Breakfast in the school courtyard at Yultiwirra commencing at 8.15am.  Keep your eye out for the pre-order form via Audiri.  It is a wonderful way to come together as a school community to end the term.  We hope to see you there!

Have you visited our Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn pages? Social media is another way we communicate with parents.  Follow us to keep up to date with school community news, events and activities. We also aim to use our social media to help develop your understanding of the Montessori Philosophy. You might also like to let grandparents and friends know so they can also enjoy the news, photos and updates!

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thehillsmontessorischool.sa/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thehillsmontessorischool.sa/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-hills-montessori-school-sa