Whale Class · Weekly Circle Time
Landforms
Week of Apr 19–23 · 13 min a day · ages 2.5–6, English learners
Print · laminate · ring-bind — your in-circle guide
Five words they'll own by Friday
Littles (2.5–3)
One word + a gesture is a win: “Mountain!” (both hands make a peak over your head), “River!” (one arm winds along in front of you), “Island!” (one fist is the land, the other hand circles round it).
Bigs (4–6)
Sentence frames: “This is a mountain.” · “The river is long.” · “An island has water all around.” · “The lake is still.”
The one big idea: land and water make shapes. A mountain is land pushed up. A river is water running down. An island is land with water all round it — and a lake is water with land all round it, which is the same idea turned inside out. Every day something real gets built, poured or floated on the mat in front of them; nothing this week is taught from a picture first.
Get the towel down before the children sit down. There is water on the floor on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and a wet mat is the only thing that can spoil this week. 谷雨 falls on Tuesday 20 April — the rain that fills the river — and Earth Day is Thursday 22 April: one sentence each, then straight back to the landforms. Next week is the Earth Day week proper.
Day 1 · Up the Mountain
Today's words: mountain
2 min Magic Box hook
Today the box is heavy. Lift it with two hands, let it sag, and pretend it is nearly going to drop.
Shake it — one deep thud, not a rattle. Sniff it: nothing at all. Peek in for a long moment and let your eyebrows go right up.
The rock goes right round the circle and every child holds it in two hands. Peak hands over heads: “Mountain!”
4 min Teach · Mountain
Everybody stands up. We are the mountain, twice — tiny first, then enormous:
My mountain is small. (crouch right down, hands in a tiny peak)
My mountain is TALL. (grow up onto tiptoe, hands in a big peak)
Up… up… up we climb… (climbing hands, higher and higher)
and I am very small! (arms wide at the top, then shrink right down)
Then the wet sand. Pile it up with both hands, pat it firm, spray it once so it holds, and let one child set the rock on the very top — that is the peak. It stays on the shelf all week and it will still be there on Friday.
Littles do the peak hands and say “Mountain!” Bigs take the frame: “This is a mountain.” “The mountain is tall.”
Teacher fails: build your mountain upside down — dig a deep hole in the sand, step back and admire it. “There. A beautiful mountain.” Hold it. Wait.
Chinese moment: lay the 山 card at the foot of the sand tray. 山 is a mountain — three peaks, one tall one in the middle. Draw it in the wet sand with one finger. Leave the card there; the row grows by one card a day.
3 min Song · Up the Mountain, Down the River — chorus + Monday verse
Up the mountain — climb, climb, climb! (climbing hands, higher and higher)
Down the river — swim in time! (swimming arms, low)
Round the island, round the lake, (draw two circles in the air)
What a lovely world we make! (arms wide)
Monday's verse: A mountain is high, a mountain is tall, (peak hands, small then big)
Up at the top I am very small! (reach right up, then shrink down tiny)
The one song of the week — same chorus at every circle, one new verse each morning, the whole thing on Friday. Chords and the full sheet are on the Song tab. Sing it standing, with the sand mountain in the middle of the circle.
3 min Game · Be a mountain
“One, two, three — eyes on me!” Everybody in a space of their own, standing.
Faster and faster, and get it wrong yourself once or twice. Then the good part: two children make one mountain together, back to back with their hands meeting in a point above them. Then three. Then the whole class, in one enormous mountain range across the room, tall ones and small ones side by side.
End it standing still: “A mountain does not move.” Ten seconds of a completely frozen room is worth having, and they will hold it because they are being a mountain, not being told to sit.
1 min Close
Everybody standing, peak hands ready. Whisper → normal → shout:
Got 3 spare minutes? Mountain Dance (Thomas Locker) — big quiet paintings of mountains and about four words a page. Read it slowly and let them just look.
📲 Share with parents
🐳 Whale Class today — Up the Mountain! We practiced the word “mountain” together in circle time, with songs, games and lots of repetition to help it stick. By the end we were all chanting together: “Up the mountain… down the RIVER!” 🎉 Ask your little one to show you at home! 💜
Tap Copy, then paste into your class WhatsApp / parent group.
Day 2 · Down the River
Today's words: river (mountain comes back every day)
2 min Magic Box hook
Today the box sloshes. Carry it carefully. Chant, then tip it a few centimetres from side to side and let them hear it.
Hold a finger to your lips and listen to it with your ear right against the lid.
One arm winds along in front of them: “River!”
4 min Teach · River
The tray is propped so one end is high — that end is yesterday's mountain. Pour, very slowly, right at the top, and say nothing at all while the water finds its way down.
Everybody follows it with one finger in the air and we all say it together, long and low: “Riverrrrr.” Then the words, twice:
A river runs, (one arm winds along)
it never stops, (keep it winding, don't let the arm rest)
Down the hill… (the arm slopes downhill)
it drips and drops! (fingers raining down onto the floor)
Now take the book away and pour onto the flat tray. Nothing runs; it just sits there in a puddle. Ask them why, and wait for it: a river needs a hill. Prop it up again and let a child do the pouring.
Littles do the winding arm and say “River!” Bigs owe you the sentence: “The river is long.” “The water runs down.”
Teacher fails: try to pour the water up the tray, from the low end, and get crosser and crosser with it. “It will not go up. What is wrong with this river?” Wait.
Chinese moment: the 河 card joins 山. Today is 谷雨 — Grain Rain, the last solar term of spring: 雨生百谷, the rain that makes a hundred grains grow. Say it once, then one line of 杜甫《春夜喜雨》: 好雨知时节，当春乃发生。 One line only, then stop.
3 min Song · Up the Mountain, Down the River — chorus + Tuesday verse
Chorus twice with the actions — on “down the river” everybody's arms go low and swim — then today's new verse:
Tuesday's verse: A river runs and never stops, (winding arm, travelling downhill)
Down the hill it drips and drops! (fingers raining down, right to the floor)
Sing this one travelling: start the verse standing tall with your hands up at the mountain and finish it crouched on the floor with your fingers pattering. The song does the geography for you.
3 min Game · Pass the river
“One, two, three — eyes on me!” One long line, sitting, with a full bowl at one end and an empty bowl at the other. Put a strip of tape on the empty bowl to mark how high we want to get.
Everybody gets a cup, so the water is always moving. Spilling is completely fine and it is meant to be funny — that is why the towel is down. At the end, hold the far bowl up and see how close to the tape the river got. Littles say “River!” as they pass; Bigs say “The water runs down the line.”
Run it twice: once fast and sloppy, once slow and careful. They will notice all by themselves which one filled the bowl higher, and that is the whole lesson in carrying water.
1 min Close
Everybody standing, one arm winding. Whisper → normal → shout:
Got 3 spare minutes? A River (Marc Martin) — one river seen from a window and followed all the way to the sea. Trace it with a finger on every page.
📲 Share with parents
🐳 Whale Class today — Down the River! We practiced the word “river” together in circle time, with songs, games and lots of repetition to help it stick. By the end we were all chanting together: “Up the mountain… down the RIVER!” 🎉 Ask your little one to show you at home! 💜
Tap Copy, then paste into your class WhatsApp / parent group.
Day 3 · Round the Island
Today's words: island (mountain · river come back)
2 min Magic Box hook
Today the box cannot be shaken at all, and that is the hook. Carry it in flat on two hands like a birthday cake.
Start to shake it — tip it about a millimetre — then gasp and hold it dead still.
Set the basin down in the middle. One fist is the land, the other hand circles it: “Island!”
4 min Teach · Island
The basin stays in the middle of the circle where everyone can see the water. Say it twice; the second time they do the hands with you:
An island sits in the sea, (one fist held out in front of you)
with water all around, (the other hand circles round and round the fist)
Hop in my boat and off we go — (rowing arms)
right the way round! (one big circle in the air)
Then the boat. Float it and push it gently all the way round the clay island without ever touching the land. Every child gets one push, and the class counts the laps.
Say the definition once, slowly, with the fist and the circling hand: an island is land with water all round it.
Littles do the two hands and say “Island!” Bigs owe you the sentence: “An island has water all around.” “My boat goes round the island.”
Teacher fails: lift the clay island out of the water and set it on the dry table. “There. My island.” Admire it. Wait for somebody to point at the empty basin.
Chinese moment: the 岛 card joins 山 · 河. Show them what is hiding in it: a 鸟 (bird) sitting on top of a 山 (mountain) that pokes up out of the sea. Once they have seen the bird on the mountain they never forget the character.
3 min Song · Up the Mountain, Down the River — chorus + Wednesday verse
Chorus twice — on “round the island, round the lake” everybody draws two big circles in the air — then:
Wednesday's verse: An island is land with water all round, (fist, and the other hand circling it)
Hop in my boat — look what I found! (rowing, then both hands out in surprise)
Sing the verse sitting in a ring round the basin with the boat actually floating. The song is three minutes; the boat going round is the metronome.
3 min Game · Sail round the island
“One, two, three — eyes on me!” A hoop or a rope circle on the floor is the island. Everybody else is a boat.
Then turn round and sail the other way. Then a storm: big waves, wobbly walking, and STOP. The one rule all the way through is that the island is land and boats do not go on the land.
Last round, put two children on the island and let them wave at the boats going past. Littles just walk and row; Bigs call out “I can sail round the island!” as they go.
If the room is small, make the island out of one child standing still with their arms folded. A landform you can look in the eye is better than a hoop.
1 min Close
Standing round the basin, boats parked. Whisper → normal → shout:
Got 3 spare minutes? The Little Island (Golden MacDonald & Leonard Weisgard) — one small island through a whole year. It is old and quiet and they go completely still for it.
📲 Share with parents
🐳 Whale Class today — Round the Island! We practiced the word “island” together in circle time, with songs, games and lots of repetition to help it stick. By the end we were all chanting together: “Up the mountain… down the RIVER!” 🎉 Ask your little one to show you at home! 💜
Tap Copy, then paste into your class WhatsApp / parent group.
Day 4 · Still as a Lake
Today's words: lake (mountain · river · island come back)
2 min Magic Box hook
Today there are two things in the box and one of them looks like nothing at all.
Lift out the clay mound with the hollow in the top and hold it up. Turn it round. Look disappointed.
Cupped hands held out in front, water sitting in them: “Lake!”
4 min Teach · Lake
Put yesterday's island basin down beside today's lake and do the two of them one after the other, with the hands, twice:
An island — land with water all round. (fist, and the other hand circling it)
A lake — water with land all round. (cupped hands, one finger circling inside them)
Still and quiet… (finger on your lips)
not a sound. (whisper it, hands completely still)
Then the mirror, laid flat on the mat: a still lake is a mirror. Hold the 山 card upside down above it and let them see the mountain standing in the water. Breathe on the water in the clay lake and the picture wobbles away.
Littles do the cupped hands and say “Lake!” Bigs owe you the sentence: “The lake is still.” “A lake has land all around.”
Teacher fails: swap them over. Hold up the island in its basin and announce, very confidently, “and this one is a lake.” Nod. Wait for the roar.
Chinese moment: the 湖 card joins 山 · 河 · 岛. Point at the three little strokes on the left of both 河 and 湖 — that is 水, water, and it is hiding in every water word. Then Earth Day 地球日, in one sentence: every mountain, river, island and lake we have made this week is on one round Earth, and it belongs to all of us to look after. Then straight back to the lake.
3 min Song · Up the Mountain, Down the River — chorus + Thursday verse
Chorus twice — then sing today's verse as quietly as you possibly can, because it is about a lake:
Thursday's verse: A lake is water with land all round, (cupped hands, one finger circling inside)
Still and quiet — not a sound! (finger on lips, everything goes completely still)
Finish the verse on a whisper and hold the silence for three whole seconds before the chorus crashes back in. The contrast is the whole trick, and they will ask for it again.
3 min Game · Don't wake the lake
“One, two, three — eyes on me!” Every child gets a cup filled right up to the top. The class sits in a ring and the room goes silent.
They will walk more slowly and more carefully than you have ever seen them walk. Anybody who spills just fills it up again and goes once more. Littles carry a half-full cup a quarter of the way; Bigs go the whole way round and tell you “My lake is still.”
This is a practical-life exercise dressed up as a game — carrying water is a real Montessori skill and this is the day it gets a name. Tray 3 keeps it available all week.
1 min Close
Standing round the clay lake, cupped hands ready. Whisper → normal → shout:
Got 3 spare minutes? Over and Under the Pond (Kate Messner & Christopher Silas Neal) — everything living above and below still water. Perfect on lake day.
📲 Share with parents
🐳 Whale Class today — Still as a Lake! We practiced the word “lake” together in circle time, with songs, games and lots of repetition to help it stick. By the end we were all chanting together: “Up the mountain… down the RIVER!” 🎉 Ask your little one to show you at home! 💜
Tap Copy, then paste into your class WhatsApp / parent group.
Day 5 · Land & Water + Big Review
Today's words: land — and mountain · river · island · lake, the whole week
2 min Magic Box hook
The box comes out bulging and will not quite shut.
Pull each thing out and hold it up in complete silence. They will supply the word before you can.
The rock → “Mountain!” The jug and the tilted tray → “River!” The clay island in its water → “Island!” The clay lake → “Lake!”
Last of all, one thing left in the bottom: a handful of plain earth. Let it run through your fingers. “LAND!”
4 min Teach · Land, then the whole week
Everybody stands. We tell the whole week with our bodies, twice — slow, then fast:
Mountain, (peak hands over your head) river, (one arm winds along)
island, (fist, other hand circling) lake, (cupped hands, still)
Land and water — (one hand flat and steady, one hand wavy)
that's what we make! (arms thrown wide)
Then the land-form model, and this is the moment of the week: pour the blue water into both trays and say the pair out loud, twice, pointing. Island: land with water all round it. Lake: water with land all round it. Same two things, swapped over.
Then the big sort, right there on the mat: every card from page 14 goes under Land 陆地 or Water 水. The class decides together and nobody is told the answer.
Littles do the five gestures and shout the five words. Bigs owe you a whole sentence each: “An island has water all around.” “A lake has land all around.” “The mountain is tall.”
Teacher fails: pour the blue water carefully onto the floor beside the model, put the jug down and dust off your hands. “Done.” Wait.
Chinese moment: the 地 card joins the row — 山 · 河 · 岛 · 湖 · 地, the whole week laid out on the mat. 大地 is the great wide land, and 地球 is the Earth: the same 地. Read the five characters right along the row, all together, once, loudly.
3 min Song · Up the Mountain, Down the River — Friday verse, then the WHOLE song
Friday's verse: Mountain, river, island, lake, (all four gestures in a row)
Land and water — that's what we make! (flat hand · wavy hand · arms thrown wide)
The finale: chorus → Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday → chorus, standing in a ring round the land-form model with the whole week's props laid out in front of them. They learned it one verse a morning without ever noticing, and this run-through is the review of the whole week.
3 min Game · Landform quick-fire, then outside
“One, two, three — eyes on me!” First the quick-fire, indoors: hold up a card, they shout the word and do the gesture, and you go faster and faster until it falls apart laughing. Mix in the two signs — land or water?
In the sandpit and at the water table: build the mountain, dig the river, make the island in the tray, scoop the hollow and fill it for the lake. Anything they cannot find, they make. Littles name each one as it appears; Bigs tell a friend what they built and how: “I made an island. It has water all around.”
Take four photographs out there — one per landform — and print them for Tray 4 on Monday. The photo of their own sandpit mountain beside the photo of a real one is the best matching material in the room, and it costs nothing.
1 min Close + awards
Every child gets a “You are a STAR!” award to take home with their landform photo. Then, standing round the model, all five gestures:
Got 3 spare minutes? Follow the Water from Brook to Ocean (Arthur Dorros) — the river from a trickle to the sea, which is exactly the week, and it hands you Monday's Earth Day theme on a plate.
📲 Share with parents
🐳 Whale Class today — Land & Water + Big Review! We practiced the words “land”, “mountain”, “river”, “island” and “lake” together in circle time, with songs, games and lots of repetition to help it stick. By the end we were all chanting together: “Up the mountain… down the RIVER!” 🎉 Ask your little one to show you at home! 💜
Tap Copy, then paste into your class WhatsApp / parent group.
Theme Song · “Up the Mountain, Down the River”
The one song of the week — sung at every circle. Same chorus daily, one new verse each morning, full song on Friday.
The four chords
Tempo: a walking pace, like climbing — steady, not fast — and let the “down the river” line fall, a little lower and a little softer than the line above it. Am is one finger, the same finger as F's first shape, so if you can play F you can already play Am: C is one finger, Am is one finger, F is two, G7 is three. Chant the whole thing without the uke first; add the chords once they know the actions.
Chorus — sing it every single day
CUp the mountain — Fclimb, climb, Cclimb! (climbing hands, higher and higher)
AmDown the Criver — G7swim in Ctime! (swimming arms, low)
CRound the Fisland, round the Clake, (draw two circles in the air)
AmWhat a Clovely G7world we Cmake! (arms thrown wide)
Sing the chorus twice each time. The actions are the whole point — a two-year-old who climbs on the first line, swims low on the second and throws their arms wide on the last has understood the week, whether or not a single word comes out.
One verse a day — every verse is just C and G7
Monday · Mountain
CA mountain is high, a mountain is tall, (peak hands, small then big)
G7Up at the top CI am very small! (reach up, then shrink right down)
Tuesday · River
CA river runs and never stops, (winding arm, travelling downhill)
G7Down the hill Cit drips and drops! (fingers raining down to the floor)
Wednesday · Island
CAn island is land with water all round, (fist, other hand circling it)
G7Hop in my boat — Clook what I found! (rowing, then hands out in surprise)
Thursday · Lake
CA lake is water with land all round, (cupped hands, finger circling inside)
G7Still and quiet — Cnot a sound! (finger on lips, everything still)
Friday · Land and water
CMountain, river, island, lake, (all four gestures in a row)
G7Land and water — Cthat's what we make! (flat hand · wavy hand · arms wide)
The build: each day sing chorus → today's verse → chorus. By Friday they know five verses without ever “learning” the song — and Friday's finale, sung standing round the land-form model with the whole week's props in front of them, doubles as the review of the whole week.
If you're brand new to ukulele
Practice this loop for five minutes tonight: C (4 strums) → F (4 strums) → C → Am → C → G7 → C. That is the entire chorus. C is one finger, Am is one finger, F is two, G7 is three; learn them in that order, and note that every one of the five verses is only C and G7 — so if the chorus defeats you on Monday, play the verses and sing the chorus unaccompanied. If your fingers get stuck altogether, put the uke down, put the sand tray in the middle and do the finger-play instead: the class will not notice, and the actions carry the meaning either way.
Print Pack · Wall + Shelf
One click prints the whole week: theme wall posters, the song sheet, and all the shelf material.
In the print dialog: A4, portrait, “Background graphics” ON (for the emoji art), color. Want only some pages? Pick a page range — the order below is the print order. Card sheets print best on thick paper or laminated.
Page 1 · Theme poster
Pages 2–6 · Word posters for the wall
Page 7 · Sentence frames poster
“This is a ___.”
“The river is ___.”
“An island has water all ___.”
“The lake is ___.”
“I can climb the ___!”
Page 8 · Song chorus poster
Down the river — swim in time!
Round the island, round the lake,
What a lovely world we make!
Page 9 · Ukulele song sheet
Whale Class theme song · ukulele · C (0003) · F (2010) · G7 (0212) · Am (2000) · strum: Down, Down, Down-Up
Chorus — every day
CUp the mountain — Fclimb, climb, Cclimb!
AmDown the Criver — G7swim in Ctime!
CRound the Fisland, round the Clake,
AmWhat a Clovely G7world we Cmake!
Monday · Mountain
CA mountain is high, a mountain is tall, G7up at the top CI am very small!
Tuesday · River
CA river runs and never stops, G7down the hill Cit drips and drops!
Wednesday · Island
CAn island is land with water all round, G7hop in my boat — Clook what I found!
Thursday · Lake
CA lake is water with land all round, G7still and quiet — Cnot a sound!
Friday · Land and water
CMountain, river, island, lake, G7land and water — Cthat's what we make!
Each day: chorus → today's verse → chorus. Friday: the whole song, top to bottom, standing round the land-form model with the week's props laid out in front of them.
Page 10 · Landform 3-part cards — control cards (keep whole)
Page 11 · Landform 3-part cards — cut apart (pictures + labels)
Pages 12–13 · Land / Water sorting signs (2 full pages)
Page 14 · Sorting cards — cut apart
The first six are land 陆地 and the last six are water 水 — but never tell them that. The child looks at the card, decides, and lays it under “Land” or “Water”. Control of error: once the class has sorted them together on Friday, draw a small brown dot on the backs of the six land cards and a blue dot on the backs of the six water cards, so they can turn them over and check themselves afterwards. Then they tell you: “A waterfall is water. A cave is land.”
Page 15 · I Can action cards — cut apart
Page 16 · MY ISLAND — worksheet (print one per child)
Colour the water all the way round your island blue. Then go over the dotted mountain, the dotted river and the dotted tree, and add anything else you like — a boat, a bird, a lake. Then tell me what your island is called and I'll write it on!
My name is
My island is called
Page 17 · “You are a star” awards — cut in half, one per child on Friday
This award goes to
This award goes to
Page 18 · Theme shelf guide (for you — tape inside the cupboard)
Four trays, left → right, easiest → hardest. Every tray is a circle-time prop that stayed out — what comes out of the Magic Box in the morning goes on the shelf the same day, already loaded with language.
| Tray 1 · Island & lake land-form model from FRIDAY's Magic Box | The two land-form moulds side by side, a small jug of blue water, a sponge and a drying cloth. Pour slowly into each. Control: the water can only sit where it is able to — round the island, inside the lake — so a child who pours wrongly sees it run out before anybody speaks. Language: “water all around · land all around.” |
| Tray 2 · Landform 3-part cards pages 10–11 | mountain 山 · river 河 · island 岛 · lake 湖 · land 地, Chinese and English. Littles match picture→picture on the whole control card; Bigs lay the labels underneath. Control: the uncut control cards. Beside it the 12 sorting cards (page 14) and the two signs (pages 12–13): land 陆地 or water 水? And the action cards (page 15) face down: draw one, do it, say it — “I can pour!” |
| Tray 3 · Mountain building practical life, from MONDAY | A shallow tray of damp sand, a spray bottle, a small scraper and a stiff card with a mountain outline drawn on it. Pile, pat, spray, scrape it to shape. Control: hold the outline card up behind the sand mountain — when the two edges match, it is done. Monday's real rock lives here as the peak. Beside it, the cup-carrying from Thursday: a small jug, a cup and a line drawn on the tray to fill to. |
| Tray 4 · Landform photo matching from FRIDAY's outdoor hunt | Four photographs of a real mountain, river, island and lake, and four photographs of the ones the children built in the sandpit and the water table on Friday. Match the real one to their own. Control: matching symbols on the backs of each pair. Beside it, crayons and the “Make MY island” sheets (page 16). Sheets go home Friday with the award (page 17). |
Laminate pages 10–15 if you can — there is water on this shelf all week and the cards will get wet. The row of 汉字 cards the class built up (山 · 河 · 岛 · 湖 · 地) stays on the mat all week — that is the display, no extra work needed. Put the towel down under Trays 1 and 3 on Monday and leave it there until Friday afternoon.
End of Week Wrap-Up
Friday recap — read it at the last circle, then print it for the parent wall or WeChat photo.
Apr 19–23 · Theme: Landforms · Dark Phonics: We Know the Alphabet
What we did
Land and water make shapes, and this week we made all of them ourselves. On Monday a heavy rock came out of the Magic Box and went round the circle in two hands, and then we built a mountain of wet sand and put the rock on its peak. On Tuesday — 谷雨, Grain Rain — a jug and a tilted tray came out, and a river ran down it while twenty fingers followed the water; then we laid the tray flat, poured again, and found out that a river needs a hill. On Wednesday a clay island sat in a basin of water and a paper boat sailed all the way round it without touching the land. On Thursday a lump of clay with a hole scooped in it turned into a lake the moment the water went in, and we learned the pair that is the whole week: an island is land with water all around, and a lake is water with land all around. On Friday everything came back out of the box together, we sorted twelve cards into land and water, and then we went outside and built a mountain, a river, an island and a lake in the sandpit and the water table.
Words we learned
Sentences to listen for at home
“This is a mountain.” · “The river is long.” · “An island has water all around.” · “The lake is still.” · “I can climb!”
Our littlest friends say one word with a gesture — “Mountain!” with two hands in a peak over their head, or “River!” with one arm winding along, is a big win at 2 and 3.
Our song · “Up the Mountain, Down the River”
“Up the mountain — climb, climb, climb! Down the river — swim in time! Round the island, round the lake, what a lovely world we make!”
We sang it on the ukulele every day and added a new verse each morning — mountain, river, island, lake, land and water. Ask your child to sing the chorus and watch their hands: they climb up high, swim down low, draw two circles in the air and finish with their arms thrown wide.
Dark Phonics · We Know the Alphabet
This week's Dark Phonics lesson is a review one: we know the alphabet — A to Z. Our line for it is “a to z, easy-peasy!” We sing the whole alphabet end to end, and then we go hunting for the first letter of this week's own words: mountain, river, island, lake. Every sound we have met since September is in that song somewhere, and hearing a familiar word start with a letter they already own is exactly what a review is for.
Try this at home (2 minutes)
1 · Turn on the tap over a sloping baking tray and let them make a river. Then lay the tray flat and let them find out for themselves that the river stops.
2 · Cup one hand and fill it with water — that is a lake. Make a fist and pour water round it — that is an island. Ten seconds, no equipment, and it is the whole week.
3 · Look for land and water out of the bus or car window and name them in English: “mountain · river · lake.”
4 · Sing the alphabet all the way through once, then ask which letter mountain starts with.
谷雨, the last solar term of spring, fell on Tuesday 20 April — 雨生百谷, the rain that makes a hundred grains grow — and Earth Day was on Thursday. Next week we stay on the Earth and give it a whole week of its own: Earth Day.
Have a lovely weekend — from the Whale Class 🐳
Weekly rituals (same every week, only the theme changes)
- Attention grabber: “One, two, three — eyes on me!” → kids: “One, two — eyes on you!”
- The Magic Box: any box with a lid. The chant, the shake, the sniff, the dramatic peek. Whatever the week's theme is, its key prop lives in the box. By week 3 the chant alone will get you silence.
- The two-tier rule: littles succeed with one word + gesture; bigs get a sentence frame. Never make a little produce a sentence — they'll get there by watching.
- Whisper → shout closes: end every day chanting the theme line quiet-to-loud. Calms them, then releases them.
- Teacher fails on purpose: once a day, get something wrong so they can correct you. ESL kids who correct the teacher are producing language without noticing.
Principal coverage map (if she asks)
| Geography: the four basic land forms | Day 1 mountain · Day 2 river · Day 3 island · Day 4 lake · Day 5 land and water together, with the island/lake pair taught as one idea turned inside out — the classic Montessori land-and-water-form sequence |
| Geography: the land-form model | Tray 1 island & lake moulds with a jug of blue water. Control: the water can only sit where it is able to, so a wrong pour corrects itself. Introduced from Friday's Magic Box and left out for the following week |
| Sensorial: weight and texture | Day 1 a real rock passed round the circle in two hands before a single word is taught — heavy, cold, hard, old — and the same rock becomes the peak of the sand mountain and lives on Tray 3 all week |
| Practical life: carrying and pouring water | Day 2 the cup relay · Day 4 “don't wake the lake”, one full cup carried right round the circle in silence · Tray 3 a jug, a cup and a fill line, available all week. Real Montessori pouring, given a name the children will use |
| Practical life: building and shaping | Tray 3 damp sand, a spray bottle, a scraper and a mountain-outline card. Control: hold the card up behind the sand — when the edges match, the mountain is finished |
| Language: 3-part cards, two scripts | Tray 2 mountain 山 · river 河 · island 岛 · lake 湖 · land 地 — Littles match picture→picture on the control card, Bigs lay the English labels underneath |
| Classification: land 陆地 / water 水 | Twelve sorting cards under two signs. Control: brown and blue dots on the backs, added by the class after we sort them together on Friday. It teaches the whole week's category question without a worksheet |
| Science: water runs downhill | Day 2 the tilted tray, then the same tray laid flat — the children are asked why nothing runs and get to the answer themselves: a river needs a hill · Day 4 a still surface is a mirror, and a breath across it takes the picture away |
| Chinese 中文 · 谷雨 | One 汉字 card a day on the mat: 山 · 河 · 岛 · 湖 · 地, read straight along the row on Friday · 岛 unpacked as a 鸟 on a 山 · the 水 radical spotted inside both 河 and 湖 · 谷雨 on Tuesday with 雨生百谷 and one line of 杜甫《春夜喜雨》· 大地 and 地球 on Friday |
| Environment: Earth Day | Day 4, one sentence at the end of the teach block: every mountain, river, island and lake we have built is on one round Earth and it is ours to look after — then straight back to the lake. The full treatment is next week's own theme |
| Key phrases, age 3 | “Mountain!” · “River!” · “Island!” · “Lake!” · “Land!” — each one drilled with its gesture (peak hands · winding arm · fist and circling hand · cupped hands · one flat hand) |
| Key phrases, age 4–5 | “This is a mountain.” · “The river is long.” · “An island has water all around.” · “The lake is still.” · “Land and water — that's what we make.” — one frame introduced per day |
| Movement game | Day 1 be a mountain (big and little, then a whole class mountain range) · Day 2 pass the river, a cup relay down the line · Day 3 sail round the island · Day 4 don't wake the lake, a full cup carried in silence · Day 5 landform quick-fire, then outside to the sandpit and the water table |
| Songs | One song, deliberately: “Up the Mountain, Down the River” at every circle — chorus daily as a finger-play, one new verse per day (mountain · river · island · lake · land and water), full-song finale on Friday round the land-form model. C · F · G7 · Am on the ukulele; every verse is only C and G7 |
| Books | Mountain Dance — Thomas Locker (D1) · A River — Marc Martin (D2) · The Little Island — Golden MacDonald & Leonard Weisgard (D3) · Over and Under the Pond — Kate Messner (D4) · Follow the Water from Brook to Ocean — Arthur Dorros (D5) — optional 3-min read-alouds |
| Phonics (Dark Phonics) | We Know the Alphabet — the third of the three review lessons. Sing A to Z end to end, then hunt this week's own first letters: mountain, river, island, lake. “A to z, easy-peasy!” |
| Assessment: age 3 goal | Name mountain, river and island on sight of a picture card and do the matching gesture — checked in Day 5's quick-fire prop round out of the Magic Box |
| Assessment: age 4 goal | Say which is which, with the reason, when shown the island and the lake side by side: “water all around” versus “land all around” — checked on Day 4 in the circle and again on Day 5 at the land-form model |
Whale Class 🐳 · This page updates each week with the new theme.