Activities

Månen and Solen

We work with language, movement, music, drama and sensorial awareness at Månen. Children play and learn through many practical exercises such as dressing and undressing, carrying a tray, pouring, washing hands, cleaning mirrors, setting tables etc. At Månen the care is of the utmost importance. At Månen nursing and bonding is very important, and we work consciously to strengthen the child’s identity and for her/him to become confident in it.

During the morning’s activities at Solen the children work with the five traditional disciplines of Montessori: practical life, sensory exercises, language, mathematics and culture. Practical life exercises can be to learn how to carry a tray or to pour, cut with scissors, buttoning clothes, setting tables, wipe tables, sorting beads, opening and closing bottles and jars, washing hands and to wait for one’s turn.

In our language room the children can listen for sounds in simple words, build words with movable letters, read and write simple sentences, rhyming and playing language games. There are many different exercises with numbers and counting, both concrete and abstract. One example of mathematics is to build the number rods, the shortest rod (1dm) is named one and the longest (1m) is named ten, which is a concrete material where the muscle sense is activated. Eventually children learn to name the different figures and the step is short to begin doing simple addition using beads, buttons, shells and similar materials. Examples of sensorial exercises are to learn colours with light and dark shades, feel and name different surfaces like rough and smooth, matching and pairing different weights or sounds, create patterns with mosaic and more.

Within the subject culture the children get to know about plants, man, animals and parts of the world in different ways. They will hear about evolution of Earth, learn how to tell time and study botany through microscope along with observations made by the children themselves during the excursions to Fågelsångsdalen (Birdsong valley), which you can read about further down in this text.

In our studio, the children get to practice expression, creativity and collaboration, and develop their imagination for experience. We work with different materials and forms of expression such as paint, clay, paper, plaster, fabric and natural materials.

During morning’s activities four teachers work. Each teacher is in charge of her subjects and materials, and the children choose what they want to work and how long they want to work with each exercise (“freedom of choice”). We have daily circle-time where we sing, play games, read stories and picture books among other things. The children also get to practice to speak in front of the group, and learn to massage each other, which has been proven to have give a positive feeling for comrades.

One day a week the group at Solen is divided. One half stays at Tellus for drama exercises, and the other half goes to Fågelsångsdalen in Södra Sandby (Birdsong Valley).

Every Friday morning Solen and Månen get together to sing and have fun together.

Opening hours

Tellus opening hours are between 7:30 and 17:00. 7:30 to 8:15 all drop off is done at Solen, and around 8.15 children from Månen go with their teachers to Månen.

Celebrations

Every year in June we have a summer party for all children and their families. We have a Luciafest around Dec 13 during the day for the children of Månen and Solen where the children from Solen join in the Lucia procession. We ”lussar” for all children and teachers, and afterwards we have a nice “fika”.

Just before the Christmas holidays our chef prepares a wonderful smorgasbord with Swedish Christmas dishes that we all enjoy seated all together at one long table at Solen.