Buying the bus ticket (part I)

Date: 27^th February 2013

Day: Wednesday

Time: 4:30 – 5:30pm

Class: Pomegranate

Teacher: Teacher Yeong

Happy, Happy Transportation – Buying the bus ticket (part I)

We sang the song, “Down by the station” again during circle time. This time round, the children can somehow follow the lyrics much better. We learn another transportation song today: I’m driving in my CAR.

The lyrics are as followed:

Look at me, oh can’t you see,

I’m driving in my CAR

C-A-R (beep, beep)

C-A-R (beep, beep)

C-A-R (beep, beep)

I’m driving in my car.

(sing in the tune of “Bingo”)

I changed the word “car” in the song to “van” & “bus”. Many of the children wanted to change the words to fire engine, ambulance or even police car but can’t. This is because we need to find either a 3 letters word or 5 letters word. Wei Lok suggested we changed it to “truck” then we sang with it. It sounds good even though we can’t put in the “beep beep”. Then Derek suggested we changed to “train”, Bee Chien suggested “crane” and Yi Han suggested “buggy”. We all sang it with all the words given. It became a very creative song.

Then we started our bus ticket game. After the children had placed their chair according to the setting of a bus, I explained to them that we need to buy a bus ticket to get up a bus. I became the bus ticket seller to demonstrate to them how to buy a ticket. Each of them queue up patiently to wait for their turn. 

Teacher: Can I help you?

Children: I want to buy a bus ticket.

Teacher: Where do you want to go?

Children: I want to go to Legoland.

Teacher: The bus is at 8 o’clock. Is that alright with you?

The children nod their head and I handed them a ticket. Then they sat down accordingly to the shape attached on the seat.

The activities will be continued on Friday. The children will take turns to become the bus ticket seller and a customer.

Kindly be informed that there will be no update of blog tomorrow as the children will be visiting to the zoo.

Bus Ticket Making

Date: 26^th February 2013

Day: Tuesday

Time: 4:30 – 5:30pm

Class: Pomegranate

Teacher: Teacher Yeong

Happy, Happy Transportation – Bus Ticket Making

We sang a song “Down by the Station” during circle time. 

The lyrics are as followed:

Down by the station

Early in the morning

See the little puffer bellies, All in a row

See the engine driver

Pull the little handle

Chug, chug, toot, toot, off we go

Then, we continued with our bus ticket designing from yesterday. I returned back all the shapes that the children had drawn on the colour paper. They have to cut the shapes out. Most of them can do it except for some who need help in cutting the shape accordingly. Then the children pasted the shapes in pattern on a piece of black colour paper. Each child was given 2 pieces of black paper. One would be the bus ticket and one would be the seat number. Once the children were done with the pasting, we sat down and discuss how the seats of the bus would look like. I drew the picture of the bus seat on the board for the children to follow.

Then I get all the children to take a chair and place it according to the picture. Then the children pasted one of their seat number on the chair and gave me the other copy of it. Due to lack of time, the children only managed to paste all the seat numbers and unable to play it today.

So our activities tomorrow would be a role play of getting on the bus. I believe it would be fun for them.

Show and Tell (part IV) & The bus

Date: 25^th February 2013

Day: Monday

Time: 4:30pm- 5:30pm

Class: Pomegranate

Teacher: Teacher Yeong

Happy, Happy Transportation – Show and Tell (part IV) & The Bus

Today, Wei Ni, Yu Xi and Yu Xin were present in class. So I requested them to choose a toy either from the classrooms or from their friends to present for the Show and Tell session. Wei Ni chose a train toy from the classroom and gave a short presentation on it. Then it’s Yu Xi’s turn who had chosen a green train from Bee Chien’s toys and lastly it’s Yu Xin’s turn to give a short presentation on a police car. Three of them were given some sentences on how to talk about their transportation.

This week, we shall concentrate on bus. We had a short discussion about the bus. I drew a simple picture about the inner structure of the bus with seats and a bus driver.

Teacher: Let say, I wanted to go down to town but I don’t have a car or no one can drive me to town. What transportation I can take? (I pointed to the picture on the board)

Children: A bus.

Teacher: Where can I wait for a bus?

Children: Bus station.

Teacher: Bus station is for all the bus to stop and wait for passengers. Where can we wait for bus at the roadside?

Bee Chien: Bus stop.

Teacher: Yes, a bus stop. How can we tell the bus to stop?

(All children wave their hand to themselves and they shouted, ”Bus, bus, stop, stop.”)

I demonstrated by putting out my hand and wave slightly up and down by facing the direction of the bus. So I got all the children to do the same. Now, they know how to stop a bus.

Teacher: After we got on the bus, we have to tell the driver where to go and pay the bus fare. This is a public bus, so there’s no number given on the ticket. We just sit wherever there’s an empty seat. But if we are going to Singapore, we have to buy a bus fare with seat numbers. We don’t want to stand all the way to Singapore.

So I got some colour papers and some blocks with different shapes. The children trace the shape onto the colour paper. We shall cut out the shape and make it into a pair for our bus ticket and seat number tomorrow.

  

Show and Tell (part III)

Date: 22^nd February 2013

Day: Friday

Time: 4:30pm- 5:30pm

Class: Pomegranate

Teacher: Teacher Yeong

Happy, Happy Transportation – Show and Tell (part III)

Today was the last for the show and tell session. The children were still very enthusiastic to introduce their toys. Some of them who had already shared earlier, yet they still bring some different toy vehicles and wish to continue with the sharing session. Due to some of them still didn’t bring any toy vehicles from home, so I got the permission from those children who brought their toys here to lend it to their friends for sharing. As I wish that all the children who were present in the class today can actually come out to share.

After a few session of sharing, today, I restructured the sharing session. I gave guidelines for them to follow and there’s no more question and answer session.

The sentences that I had constructed for them were as followed:

1.       This is a ________________.

2.       This is a land/water/sky transportation.

3.       We use this transportation for _____________.

4.       It can go fast/slow.

We started off with Jun Qian who wished to share about the tank. Then I asked Jia Jia to choose one toy among Jun Qian’s toy vehicle to share. She had chosen a motorcycle. Then it followed by Ivy who had chosen a jet. After that it’s Yi Han’s turn. She chose a oil tanker among Bee Chien’s toy vehicles. Lastly, it’s Yi Jie who chose a racing car from Derek.

After a short break, I read a short story about “The Trip”. It’s a short story about children going to the school on a bus. Then I made up a bus trip story which it can go along with the song “The wheels on the bus”.

The lyrics are as followed:

The wheels on the bus go round and round,

Round and round, round and round,

The wheels on the bus go round and round, over the city street.

(substitute the action with bell on the bus, children go up and down and the wiper go swish swish swish) 

Show and Tell (part II)

Date: 21^st February 2013

Day: Thursday

Time: 4:30 – 5:30pm

Class: Pomegranate

Teacher: Teacher Yeong

Happy, Happy Transportation – Show and Tell (part II)

Today, we continued with our Show and Tell session for another 4 children who brought their toy vehicles to share. They were Derek, Phoeon, Wei Lok and Kern Ee.

From our experience yesterday, just right before we start our show and tell session today, I structured some questions for the children to try out when it comes to the question and answer session. The questions that the children can try were as followed:

1.      What does it do?

2.      Can it moves fast?

3.      Does it moves slowly?

4.      Does it moves on land? Or in the water? Or in the sky?

We started off with Phoeon sharing about her train. Children were very excited wanted to ask her about it and they did try to use the questions given as a guide.

Then it followed by Derek who shared about his car transporter. Kern Ee shared about his blue racing car. Lastly, it’s Wei Lok who shared about his blue long trailer.

The show and tell session went on more smoothly today with those guided questions and those who were sharing can answer them much better.

Phoeon brought some flashcards. Just right before we end our class today, we went through the flashcards and surprisingly that many of the children can name most of the vehicles by looking at the pictures. This is a good start.

For those children who wanted to share some other vehicles that had not mentioned these two days, they are welcomed to bring it to share it with his/her classmates. Tomorrow would be the last day for “Show and Tell”. Kindly encourage your children not to miss it.

Happy Happy Transportation - Show and Tell

Date: 20^th February 2013

Day: Wednesday

Time: 4:30 – 5:30pm

Class: Pomegranate

Teacher: Teacher Yeong

Happy, Happy Transportation – Show and Tell

Show and Tell session is to encourage the children to share about the toy vehicles that they brought. However, only 4 children brought their toys. They are Jun Qian, Kwan Ming, Bee Chien and Zhen Yuan.

So we started off with Jun Qian. He brought a motorcycle. He talked briefly about his motorcycle.

Then Bee Chien was the next to share about his toys. He brought 3 toy vehicles here which is a fighting jet, a jeep and a helicopter.

Then it’s should be Kwan Ming’s turn. He is quite shy and refused to come out to talk about his toy vehicles. After a some encouragements from the children and I, he braved himself to stand in front of the class to talk about it. He talked about his favourite green racing car, a truck and a long trailer. He interacted quite well with his classmates. This is a good start for him.

Then the last one was Zhen Yuan. He shared about his purple racing car. I guess racing cars are popular toy vehicles among the boys.  

The rest of the class said they will try to bring their toy vehicles to share with their classmates this week. So we shall have the show and tell session until this Friday. 

Happy, Happy Transportation - Where did I go during Chinese New Year

Date: 19^th February 2013

Day: Tuesday

Time: 4:30 – 5:30pm

Class: Pomegranate

Teacher: Teacher Yeong

Happy, Happy Transportation – Where did I go during Chinese New Year

Just right before the Chinese New Year holiday, I got the children to vote for a new theme title to start off with. After a round of discussion and voting, finally most of them agreed to “Transportation” and they named it “Happy, Happy Transportation”. I believe that transportation has been part of their life and they can feel the happy feeling when they travelled in it.

Today, all the children returned from their Chinese New Year holiday. So we had a warm up session before going into the transportation theme. We sat around in a circle to talk about their Chinese New Year holiday. I posted a question to them: “What did you do during Chinese New Year” & “Where did you go during Chinese New Year?” All the children waited for their turns to tell us their trip.

Teacher: Ivy, what did you do during Chinese New Year?

Ivy: “Bai Bai” (in Mandarin)

Teacher: You mean praying. (I looked at her hand gesture.) Did you go anywhere? (she shook her head)

Teacher: How about you Wei Lok? Did you do anywhere?

Wei Lok: Grandpa’s house. Got lion dance.

Teacher: Jia Jia, what did you do during Chinese New Year?

Jia Jia: I go to PD hotel. (I corrected as “I went…”)

Teacher: What did you do there? Did you go to the beach?

Jia Jia: Yes, yes, the beach. I swim in the swimming pool also. (I corrected her as “swam”)

Teacher: How about you Yi Jie and Yi Han? (I asked Yi Jie earlier but he couldn’t answer me anything. Yi Han answer on behalf)

Yi Han: We go to grandpa’s house in Ipoh to have reunion dinner.

Teacher: How about you Kern Ee? Did you go anywhere?

Kern Ee: Genting. Play toys at home. (I corrected him as “I went to Genting.”)

Teacher: Bee Chien, what did you do during Chinese New Year?

Bee Chien: Oh, I went to Johor. It’s my grandma’s house. For 3 days. I went to Legoland also.

Teacher: How about you, Zhen Yuan, did you go anywhere?

Zhen Yuan: Granduncle’s house. 2 days in Johor. I went shopping.

Teacher: It’s Kwan Ming’s turn. Did you go anywhere?

Kwan Ming. I go to Cameron Highland. (I corrected him as “I went to…”).

Teacher: Did you enjoy going to Cameron Highland?

Kwan Ming: Yes. We sit in a car and climb hills.

Teacher: Jun Qian, did you do anything?

Jun Qian: Yes, I went to Setia City Mall and played at the playground there. I also go to Ninja Joe and eat star nugget. (it took me a while to guess the name of the restaurant that Jun Qian said)

Teacher: How about you Phoeon? Did you go anywhere during Chinese New Year?

Phoeon: Yes, Morib. (I corrected her as :I went to….) I like the beach. I sat on a motor. But Oscar (her brother) was sad because he can’t swim in the swimming pool, mommy said one.

Teacher: Alright, Derek, you are the last one. Did you do anything during Chinese New Year?

Derek: I go to grandma’s house.

Teacher: Is it very near or far?

Derek: Very far. In Seremban.

Note: During the sharing time, some children started to lose their concentration especially when their turn was over. So after one of their friend had shared, I asked the group to recap what their friend had shared. This way is to draw back their attention and show their respect to their friends while they were sharing.

From this point, I also bring in the transportation theme. I asked the children besides going to their grandpa or grandma’s house by car, what other transportation can they used? Most of them said airplane, bus, train, motorcycle etc.

We went through some flashcards on transportation. All are land transportation such as bus, taxi, lorry, train, etc and also some vehicles with special function such as ambulance, fire engine, police car etc.

Children are encouraged to bring a toy vehicle such as car, lorry, ship or even an aeroplane to share with their friends in the class for the rest of the week.

Chinese New Year is just around the corner

Date: 6^th February 2013

Day: Wednesday

Time: 4:30 - 5:30pm

Teacher: Teacher Yeong

Class: Pomegranate

Chinese New Year is just around the corner

Today we reviewed all the vocabulary about Chinese New Year and mentioned that we are going to have a reunion feast on Thursday in the school. I explained why it is called reunion feast so to let the children understand why we need to wait for all the family members to come home for it.

We also sang the “Happy Happy CNY” song today. This time, I let the children read the lyrics and designed the action. They were quite creative about it. Then we follow the video clip and sang the song. They did it quite well.

Just right before we called it a day, I reminded them to dress up themselves and to bring some biscuits, sweets or snack for the party tomorrow.

We wish all parents and children Happy Chinese New Year. Gong Xi Fa Cai.  

Review of the Charity Bazaar

Date: 5^th February 2013

Day: Tuesday

Time: 4:30-5:30pm

Class: Pomegranate

Teacher: Teacher Yeong

Review of the Charity Bazaar

Today, it’s the Charity Bazaar organized by the Pomegranate and Yellow Bean class. Both classes’ children had been busy selling their items since early in the morning to other classes’ children and parents. Today, we only have about 30 minutes for our class. 

Just right before the 2^nd round of selling begins, we used the 30 minutes to go through some review about the charity bazaar.

Teacher: What did you buy?

Children: I bought….

The children have to answer me in full sentences about the things that they had bought from the charity bazaar. Most of the children could answer accordingly.

The Chinese New Year theme is coming to an end. The children needed to vote for a new topic to learn when they come back from Chinese New Year holiday later. So I told them to think about it and we shall discuss it the next day.

There will be a Chinese New Year party on this coming Thursday, 7^th February 2013. Hopefully all the children will bring some Chinese New Year food and items to have a good party here in the school. 

Preparation for the Charity Bazaar - Part II

Date: 4^th February 2013

Day: Monday

Time: 4:30 - 5:30pm

Teacher: Teacher Yeong

Class: Pomegranate

Preparation for Charity Bazaar – Part II

Today we have to prepare all the items for the charity bazaar tomorrow. The last item that we needed to do today was to pack all the egg rolls into the plastic bag and sealed it.

Each time, there will be three children who will help out to count the numbers of egg rolls to be packed and sealed it. Each of them will wait for their turn. We packed five in a packet. The children will have to count correctly before using the impulse sealer to seal it. This is to train their counting and co-operation skills.

We managed to pack all the egg rolls within one hour. Hopefully the charity bazaar goes well tomorrow. 

Chinese New Year Card making - part II

Date: 1^st February 2013

Day: Friday

Time: 4:30 - 5:30pm

Teacher: Teacher Yeong

Class: Pomegranate

Chinese New Year Card making – part II

Today, we continued with the Chinese New Year card making. Previously, the children had already coloured the “Happy Chinese New Year” wordings together with a picture of a lantern. Today, I brought some supermarket flyers for the children to cut and design their card. This is done according to their creativity.