Art & Craft - Butterfly (part II)

Date: 30^th August 2013

Day: Friday

Time: 3:30-4:30pm

Class: Pomegranate

Theme: Colours

Teacher: Teacher Yeong

Art and Craft – Butterfly (part II)

We had the National Day celebration together with other class children in the morning. It was a very merry celebration with song singing and the parade around the area of the school.

This afternoon, we continued with our colour theme activities. I got the children to trace the butterfly shape around the art they did the other day. Then they have to cut it out accordingly. I prepared a short purple pipe cleaner for the children to paste it on their butterfly as its antenna. Some of the children managed to curl the antenna like the sample that I showed them while some need helps. This time round, those children who managed to do it voluntarily help out those in need. It somehow, lightened my burden quite a bit as I don’t need to guide such a big group of children.  

The children were thrilled to see that their messy art had turned out to be quite a presentable butterfly and they wanted to decorate it on their classrooms wall. We shall do this on Monday.

Kwan Ming kept reminding me about his mangosteens. So after everyone had completed the art, we all moved to the kitchen to enjoy the mangosteens. Before we cut the mangosteens, the children wanted to count the pattern at the bottom of the fruit. The children were excited to find out that there’s seven and six. I asked them children to sum up these 2 numbers and they got even excited to know there’s thirteen pieces of fruits in it. I think they were happy that finally they got a share each.

The purple fruit that I brought was a dragon fruit. The flesh was purple in colour. I cut it and shared it with the children.

The mangosteen and dragon fruit ends our colour theme. Hopefully the children enjoy learning the colours around them. 

National Day Theme Activities

Date: 29^th August 2013

Day: Thursday

Time: 3:30-4:30pm

Class: Pomegranate

Theme: Colours

Teacher: Teacher Yeong

National Day Theme Activities

Today, we hold on with our colour theme activities and move in to the National Day Theme. This coming Saturday is our National Day, therefore, I would like to take this opportunity for the children to complete their National flag making and also brief them a little about the history of Malaysia.

Sometime ago during our blue colour theme activities, the children had already coloured the Malaysia flag accordingly. So today, I gave each of them a straw to paste their flag onto it. It looks easy but somehow, the children had some difficulty to glue the straw firmly.

I had a brief explanation about the history of Malaysia. The date of our independent day was on 31^st of August, 1957. The children didn’t seem to understand about the year, then I had to use their birth year to explain it. Still it took them a while to understand this. I guess it’s too abstract for them to imagine it.

Kwan Ming brought 2 mangosteens and he would like to share with his fellow classmates. However, due to the insufficient time, we postponed such activities till tomorrow. Besides, I also brought a purple fruit to share with them but I kept it as a surprise for the children.

Tomorrow we shall have a parade around the school area together with other class. So everyone was encouraged to show up in neat and nice clothes or traditional clothes if they have. 

Art and Craft - Butterfly

Date: 28^th August 2013

Day: Wednesday

Time: 3:30-4:30pm

Class: Pomegranate

Theme: Colours

Teacher: Teacher Yeong

Art and Craft – Butterfly

Today, I wanted the children to try out this lovely art. It’s like drawing mirror image by using water paint. I prepared a piece of white paper for each child. Then I got 3 primary colours for them to use, red, yellow and blue. My intention is for the children to mix red and blue to form purple colour. At the same time, I can imagine the picture will be quite dark so I add in a yellow colour for them to mix around.

Before they start, everyone folded their paper into half. Each child was given a short yarn to dip into the water colour they had chosen. Then they placed the coloured yarn on one side of the paper and covered it. After that, they will pull the yarn out to make the pattern.

Some of the children managed to design their pattern while some just did it randomly. With such steps, the children could actually get a mirror image of the pattern on both side of the paper. We shall continue with the butterfly art on Friday. 

More things in Purple

Date: 27^th August 2013

Day: Tuesday

Time: 3:30-4:30pm

Class: Pomegranate

Theme: Colours

Teacher: Teacher Yeong

More Purple Things

As some of the children hadn’t completed in writing the sentences on their paper, therefore, I got them to complete it before we moved on to another activities.

Jun Qian brought some grapes and Zhen Yuan brought a mangosteen. Both of them wanted to share with their friends.  Since Jun Qian’s grapes were in the refrigerator, we observed the mangosteen instead.

Teacher: What’s the colour of the mangosteen?

Children: It’s purple.

Teacher: Look, there’s some petals shape at the bottom of the mangosteen. What do you think this is?

Kern Ee: Flower all is the grass there. (I’m not very sure what does he means.)

Bee Chien: Maybe it grow from the flower or tree.

Yi Han: Because it just a bottom.

Jia Jia: It’s just a pattern.

Yu Xi: Because the flower is a pattern.

Jun Qian: To keep the water in the fruit.

Bee Chien: Maybe to make the mangosteen beautiful.

Wei Lok: The mangosteen won’t fall out.

Bee Chien: Oh, I know. It got five fruits in it.

The children had a very good imagination about the pattern at the bottom of the mangosteen. However, Bee Chien had a good guess. In order to show it to the children what does it means, we all moved to the kitchen to have a look at it. The children were thrilled to find out that there were actually five pieces of the fruits in it. They all enjoy the fruit at the same time.

Jun Qian also brought out the grapes and shared it with his fellow classmates. Everyone is enjoying it though most of them said the mangosteen tasted sour and not as sweet as the grapes. 

Purple Colour

Date: 26^th August 2013

Day: Monday

Time: 3:30-4:30pm

Class: Pomegranate

Theme: Colours

Teacher: Teacher Yeong

New Chapter of Colour – Purple

Today, we started with purple colour. We revised all the purple colour things that we went through last Friday.

Then I introduced a nursery poem to the children, it’s “Little Jack Horner”. The words are as followed:

Little Jack Horner

Sat in the corner

Eating a Christmas pie

He put in his thumb

And pulled out a plum

And said “What a good boy am I!”

I got the children to change the word “plum” into other purple fruits or food that could appear in a pie. The children happily changed it to “grapes, eggplant, mangosteen, dragon fruit” etc.

We saw some purple bougainvillea outside of the classroom. So I got the children to pick those bougainvilleas that had dropped on the ground to paste it on the paper that I gave each of them. After that, the children try their best to make sentences by using “purple flower” in their sentences.

These are the sentences that the children had made:

1)      The purple flower is beautiful.

2)      The purple flower looks like a butterfly.

3)      This is a purple flower.

4)      I love the purple flower.

5)      I can make bookmark with the purple flower.

The children chose 2 sentences and write it on the paper together with their flower. 

Pasting the bougainvilleas onto the paper

Bee Chien: Mine is a lily.

Kwan Ming patiently pasting his flower onto the paper.

Summary for Orange....New chapter for Purple

Date: 23^rd August 2013

Day: Friday

Time: 3:30-4:30pm

Class: Pomegranate

Theme: Colours

Teacher: Teacher Yeong

Summary for Orange and New Chapter for Purple

Today, we went through all the items about orange colour and then we end the colour theme. The next colour that we shall move on is purple. This is the last colour that we shall focus next week and the colour theme will come to an end.

The children seems a little disappointed to know that we are ending the colour theme so soon as they still wanted to do some other colours as well. I told the children we shall see if we could cover any other colour besides purple next week. We shall see how the progress of the class schedule.

So we had a brainstorming session today about things in purple. This time round, the children were more alert about what I’m looking for. They start to think hard for things in purple instead of telling me about purple chair, table or T-shirt.

Teacher: Can you tell me things in purple that you know?

Children: Grape….grape fruit (the flesh)….

The children were thinking hard but couldn’t continue from here. I hinted them with pictures yet they still can’t get it. So I listed some items out for them.

Teacher: Plum….prunes….egg plant or brinjal….

I suggested that next Monday would be our purple day where children could wear some purple on. However, some of the children claimed that they don’t have any purple clothing. As a result, I told the children to try their best to bring something in purple to share for next week, not necessary to be on Monday itself.

It's play dough time (part II)

Date: 22^nd August 2013

Day: Thursday

Time: 3:30-4:30pm

Class: Pomegranate

Theme: Colours

Teacher: Teacher Yeong

It’s Play Dough Time (Part II)

As I observed yesterday that the children seems not satisfied with the duration given to play with the play dough. Further more the children had already took their portion of play dough back home. So today, I found some other colours play dough that the school has for the children to continue with the interest with it.

The day before I was too busy guiding and handling those children’s sticky play dough and I didn’t actually participate together with them. Therefore, today I choose to play with them. I sat down at one of the group to observe and play with them. I find that through this way, the children will be more motivated into making model of things out from the play dough especially for those children who are shy or has no idea at all.

With my participation, I find that those children who were just staring at first, started to come out with ideas of things to make. I guess that the reason why most of the expert said that parents have to be with their children when they play. Not just to accompany them but to guide them and motivate them in every way.

All the children had a good time kneading, rolling, making models out of the play dough. We shall move on to our last colour – purple by next week and that shall end our colour theme. 

Homemade Play Dough - It's playtime

Date: 21^st August 2013

Day: Wednesday

Time: 3:30-4:30pm

Class: Pomegranate

Theme: Colours

Teacher: Teacher Yeong

Homemade Play Dough – It’s playtime

Is our homemade play dough ready? The children are very excited and looking forward to our activity today. The play dough that I placed in the refrigerator were quite wet, so I took it out a little earlier and prepared some extra flour in case we need to make the dough dryer.

There were about 4 children whose dough was not successful yesterday. Therefore, I make some dough in front of the children and divide among the four of them.

Then all the children started to play with it. Some of them took a while to figure out what to do with their dough, while some had a lot of idea about it.

The children enjoy their play dough time today! 

Yi Han's creation

Homemade Play Dough

Date: 20^th August 2013

Day: Tuesday

Time: 3:30-4:30pm

Class: Pomegranate

Theme: Colours

Teacher: Teacher Yeong

Homemade Play Dough

Today, we wanted to try and see if we could make the homemade play dough by ourselves. Before we start, I played a video for the children about how to make homemade play dough.

From the video we knew that the basic ingredients we needed were as followed:

1)      flour

2)      warm water

3)      salt

4)      cooking oil

5)      food colouring of desired colours

I don’t have sufficient ingredients for each child. Therefore I roughly estimate the amount of flour, water, salt and cooking oil for each child to begin with. Due to estimation, some of the dough came out to be too dry while some too wet. As a result, some of them I have to add in a little bit of water or flour. 

Yi Han: Why so wet?
Wei Ni: Why so dry?

Jia Hoong: I stir. 

The children tried their best to stir the flour mixture evenly. Then, they also tried to knead it on the table. When one got it correctly, the children started to get excited that they were hoping theirs will be successful too. Unfortunately, there was still some unsuccessful one. For those who managed to get their dough done well, they went around to help others by either adding flour or water. I’m glad to see such helpful spirit among the children and also their will to get the dough done well.

Jia Jia: It's so sticky!

Bee Chien: Do like this. 

Wei Lok: My play dough!

I put the successful dough in the fridge and with the hope that the children could play with it the next day. 

Orange is the Colour

Date: 19^th August 2013

Day: Monday

Time: 3:30-4:30pm

Class: Pomegranate

Theme: Colours

Teacher: Teacher Yeong

Orange is the colour

I found a nice song online that I wanted to share with the children. The lyrics are as followed:

Song: Orange is the colour (Tune: Yankee Doodle)

Orange is the colour of

So many things we see.

Would you like to sing a little

Orange song with me?

Orange juice and orange cheese,

Orange carrots, if you please.

Orange pumpkins, orange leaves,

Let’s sing a song of Orange.

I always wanted to try to make some homemade play dough for the kids to play with. At the same time, I also wish that the children could lay their hand in by doing it themselves. So today, we had a short discussion about the ingredients that we need to use to make homemade play dough.

Teacher: Do you know what play dough is?

Children: No.

Teacher: Just like clay that you play or that colourful play dough that your parents might have brought from the shop.

Children: Oh, yes. I have play dough at home.

Teacher: We can actually make it by ourselves. Do you know what ingredients we need?

(The children were quiet for a while, thinking very hard.)

Jun Qian: Soil…..maybe water…..

Teacher: Yes, water. Maybe we can use something else besides soil.

Bee Chien: Flour?

Teacher: Yes, flour. We can use flour. By adding water in we can make it into dough.

Jun Qian: I got one guess right.

We shall try to make some homemade play dough tomorrow and see if it’s successful. 

Orange or Grapefruit

Date: 16^th August 2013

Day: Friday

Time: 3:30-4:30pm

Class: Pomegranate

Theme: Colours

Teacher: Teacher Yeong

Orange or Grapefruit

After the orange treat I gave yesterday, some of the children brought some oranges today. Yu Xi brought a grapefruit, Yu Xin and Phoeon brought an orange each. The fruit that Yu Xi was talking about yesterday was actually grapefruit, not persimmon.

The size of the grapefruit is quite big, while Phoeon’s orange is smaller than the grapefruit. Yu Xin’s orange is the smallest. I put the three fruits together and we learned about the comparison of the size.

Wei Lok brought a carrot. The children started to chat about the carrot.

Children: My mother cut the carrot into flower.

Children: Can cook soup.

Children: The rabbit like to eat carrot.

Children: Can eat like this.

Then the children were very excited that they would like to taste the oranges that their friend brought. So I cut the 2 oranges that Yu Xin and Phoeon brought. Jun Qian still insisted not to taste any of it even though I kept encouraging him.

After the children had tasted the oranges, they were eyeing on the grapefruit. Surprisingly, 8 out of 11 of them wanted to taste the grapefruit. Therefore, I cut the grapefruit and the children’s eye went big to know that the colour of the flesh is very different from the oranges. 

Once I served, the children quickly grabbed one and tried it. I thought all of them would not like the taste of the sour grapefruit but somehow, Wei Ni and Derek enjoyed it very much. Jun Qian surprisingly also grabbed a piece of it and tasted it.

Jun Qian: My brother said it's nice, why it taste like this?

Wei Lok: Hmm...I think I can't eat it anymore!

Wei Ni: It's yummy!

Derek: Taste nice. Can I have one more?

Most of them commented that the grapefruit taste very sour and bitter. They even said they want to vomit after eating it. 

Orange Colour

Date: 15^th August 2013

Day: Thursday

Time: 3:30-4:30pm

Class: Pomegranate

Theme: Colours

Teacher: Teacher Yeong

Orange Colour

Today, we started with our “orange” theme. Before we go in to any activities, we had a brainstorming session. I wanted to children to tell me things that they know which are orange in colour.

Teacher: When I mentioned about orange colour, what comes to your mind? What can you think of?

Children: Orange….carrot….tiger….snake….

Then Yu Xi was trying to describe an item but she also couldn’t really tell exactly what it is. I think she wanted to tell about the persimmon fruit. Then I added on grapefruit and pumpkin.

I brought 3 small oranges to show the children, we had a brief discussion about what people do with orange.

Children: To eat.

Teacher: Right, to eat. What else?

Children: Orange juice….bake cake…to make enzyme (the orange skin)….

Then we had an orange item search. I divided the children into 3 groups with about 4 in a group but one of the groups only has 3. I also gave each group a piece of paper. The children needed to jot down the orange item they found in words or if they really can’t, they can draw it out.

Let the hunt begin. 

After 15 minutes of searching around, the children had their list ready.

Group 1

Group member: Wei Lok, Derek, Kwan Ming and Kern Ee

Item found:

toy tiger, orange see-saw, orange kite, orange fish, orange store room, orange watch.

Group 2

Group member: Jia Hoong, Yu Xin and Zhen Yuan

Item found:

Orange doll, orange toy, toy pumpkin, toy tiger

Group 3

Group member: Yu Xi, Phoeon, Jun Qian, Wei Ni

Item found:

Orange paper, orange book, orange fag (flag), orange kite, orange carrot (soft toy), orange ox (toy), orange watch, orange see-saw, orange slippr (slipper), orange ball, orange wall, orange tree, orange fish, orange toy, orange glue, orange butterly

Most of the children used drawing to record down their findings except for group 3 which most of the items were written down. Through this activity, the children learned how the names of items and also learned to ask and observe around their surroundings.

Treats Time

The children worked so hard to get their list done. Therefore as a treat, I treated them the 3 oranges that I brought. The children had a good time. Even though the oranges were a little sour, the children still enjoy eating it. 

Fish, fish, fish...in the blue sea (part V)

Date: 14^th August 2013

Day: Wednesday

Time: 3:30-4:30pm

Class: Pomegranate

Theme: Colours

Teacher: Teacher Yeong

Fish, fish, fish….in the blue sea (part V)

Yesterday only Yu Xi didn’t share her picture. So today, I got her to share her picture with her fellow classmate.

Yu Xi: This is father fish. This is mother fish. This is small fish. Small fish is me. This is baby fish. 

It’s been quite a while we didn’t play any game for colours. So today, I let the children choose 2 games to play.

The first one they had chosen was “Who has gone with the wind?” Then the second game they chose “Colours game” where one will go around calling out the colours and if the mentioned colour of the day were called, the child who were being touched will have to stand up and chase the person.

Fish, fish, fish...in the blue sea (part IV)

Date: 13^th August 2013

Day: Tuesday

Time: 3:30-4:30pm

Class: Pomegranate

Theme: Colours

Teacher: Teacher Yeong

Fish, fish, fish….in the blue sea (part IV)

Surprisingly that the children’s interest in folding the origami fish didn’t decrease. The children asked for more paper to fold all sizes of fish for their deep blue sea. So today, before I get the children to continue with their folding, I got them to think of what to share about their picture.

These were the sharing done by the children.

Wei Lok: This is the father fish. This is the mother fish. This is the brother fish. This is the baby fish. (What are they doing?) They want to swimming.

Yu Xin: This is my father fish. This is the mother fish. This is a fish.

Jun Qian: This is a father fish. This is seaweed. This is the mother fish. This is the baby. They are swimming.

Phoeon: This is my seaweed. The big blue fish wants to eat the two small fish.

Zhen Yuan: This is the baby fish. It is swimming together. This is a big fish.

Jia Jia: This is a coral. This is the mommy fish and this is the father fish. I am in mother’s stomach.

Kern Ee: This one is my baby! (Then he corrected himself: This is me!) The one is the mother fish. This one is my father fish. This is the seaweed. (I added: They are swimming in the deep blue sea.)

Kwan Ming: This is the father fish. This is my mother. This is a green fish. This is a blue sea.

Derek: This is a baby fish. This is a mother fish. This is a father fish. This is a blue sea. This is a sea grass. (Do you mean seaweed? He nodded. )

Jia Hoong: This is mother fish. This yellow fish is me. This baby one is my sister. Teacher, I want to do a big fish for father fish.

** Yu Xi’s art was not ready. She chose not to share it with her classmate today.

Obviously the children love to portrait their family members into their artwork.

The children continued with the fish origami. This time round, Jun Qian, Phoeon, Yu Xi and Yu Xin could actually fold in independently and they were also helping and guiding other classmates when they need assistance. 

Fish, fish, fish....in the blue sea (part III)

Date: 12^th August 2013

Day: Monday

Time: 3:30-4:30pm

Class: Pomegranate

Theme: Colours

Teacher: Teacher Yeong

Fish, fish, fish….in the blue sea (part III)

Today, we continued further about the fish origami art. Only that today, I encouraged the children to recall back how the steps of the folding of the origami fish and tried their best to complete it without their friend’s help.

Surprisingly, most of them could actually recall back the steps and finally complete it by themselves without much help. The children were happy with their own achievement and at the same time, they also happily decorate their “deep blue sea” picture with some green papers as the seaweeds.

There’s only one or two children still need help with the folding of the origami fish. But from their folding steps somehow I still could see that they have some impression about it.

Most of them had completed their pictures. Hopefully tomorrow the children could do some sharing about their pictures.