Ship Art - Part III

Date: 30^th April 2013

Day: Tuesday

Time: 4:30 – 5:30pm

Class: Pomegranate

Teacher: Teacher Yeong

Happy, happy transportation – Ship Art (Part III)

We continued with the ship art yesterday. Before we proceed with the decoration of the sail, we had a brief discussion of how does the sail looks like. Some said it looks like a square, some said it should look like a triangle. So I let the children decide how the sail will should look like when they got their colour paper.

Story Sharing - Find the treasure

This is a short story about a rabbit and a cat looking for the treasure box together. They used compass to help them to avoid dangerous things such as the hungry crocodile or using the compass to show which way should they followed to locate the treasure.

Compass is also used for ships to move around the sea. So we went through all the name of the direction such as north (N), south (S), east (E), west (W), north east (NE), north west (NW), south east (SE) and south west (SW). 

This is the complete ship art that the children did. 

Ship Art - Part II

Date: 29^th April 2013

Day: Monday

Time: 4:30 – 5:30pm

Class: Pomegranate

Teacher: Teacher Yeong

Happy, happy transportation – Ship Art (Part II)

We continued with the ship art from last Friday. Today, the children need to colour the waves by using light blue. 

As the art is wet, so tomorrow they shall decorate the sail on the ship and the art will be completed.

Before we call it a day, I shared a story from Phoeon’s story book – Tom Thumb. I tried to follow the lines from the story to tell it. However, some of the children don’t really understand the story. I think Tom Thumb is not very well-known among some of them. So I re-tell the story in my own words with actions. Hopefully the children could get the story line much better that way. 

World Book Day - Part III & Ship Art

Date: 26^th April 2013

Day: Friday

Time: 4:30 – 5:30pm

Class: Pomegranate

Teacher: Teacher Yeong

World Book Day – Part III & Ship Art

Phoeon and Yu Xi’s book not shared with the fellow classmates. Yu Xi brought “Beauty and the Beast” and Phoeon’s book is “Best Loved – Fairy Tales”. As Phoeon’s story also have “Beauty and the Beast”, therefore, today we shared only Yu Xi’s book.

Some of the children had watched the movie before. As a result, I guided the children to retell back the story. Derek can tell the most. I think he can remember quite well of the story line. I only read some parts of the conversation in the storybook so that the children understand the story. Storybook is still the children’s favourite, they can sit quietly and enjoy the whole session.

Then we had a review of all the vocabulary.

After that we went through the parts of the boats again. I get the children to recall back the names of the parts. Some can do it while some needs help.

There’s still got 20 minutes left, so I used it to do the ship art. It’s a palm printing as the body of the ship. We do it one by one. No pictures were taken due to the art work is not completed. We shall continue with this art on Monday. 

World Book Day - Part II

Date: 25^th April 2013

Day: Thursday

Time: 4:30 – 5:30pm

Class: Pomegranate

Teacher: Teacher Yeong

World Book Day – Part II

There were too many of them wanted to share their books with their fellow classmates on Monday, therefore, I promised them we shall continue this activity when we returned from the field trip.

Today, we have about 5 children who wish to share their books with their friends. This is the list of the books that the children shared today:

Jun Qian – The Ugly Duckling (At first, he refused to share it with us. He gave excuses that he didn’t want to read it. So I decided that the whole class read the pages together. However, after 2 pages, Jun Qian started to read all the pages on his own. The children listen quietly.)

Jia Jia – The Three Little Pigs (Jia Jia came out to read it by herself. Unfortunately, she read it too softly and the children kept complaining that they couldn’t hear her. So I took over half way and read the story to the children.)

Yu Xi – Beauty and the Beast (The children said they already knew about the story as they watched the cartoon before. So I leave that a side first for today)

Phoeon – Best Loved – Fairytales (This book contains 4 stories – Beauty and the Beast, Tom Thumb, The Musician of the Bremen and Snow White and the Seven Drawfs. The first and the fourth stories are better known to the children. However, the story is too long to read and the Phoeon doesn’t know how to re-tell the story. Therefore, she couldn’t do the sharing today)

Yu Xin – Hen’s Cake (I read this story to the children. I think it’s a brand new story to the children; they could quietly and concentrate on the story line. )

I thought the children could share about their trip to Kidzania today. I guess I have to postpone it till tomorrow. 

Earth Day & Introductory to Kidzania

Date: 23^rd April 2013

Day: Tuesday

Time: 4:30 – 5:30pm

Class: Pomegranate

Teacher: Teacher Yeong

Earth Day & Introductory of Kidzania

Earth Day was supposed to be on 22^nd April 2013. However, due to the school arrangement we celebrated the Earth Day today. In the morning, the children had a very simple lunch similar to sushi making. They had rice with raisin, carrots, corns, alfalfa spouts and tomatoes. The children just need to wrap all the ingredients with the seaweed and eat it.

We had a short discussion about why protecting the earth is important. I drew a simple diagram about plants giving out oxygen and maintain the balance of the nature. Then we watched a video about the Children’s Earth Anthem. From the video, the children can see the beautiful earth and the damage earth. So I asked the children which one do they preferred. All of them preferred the beautiful earth. From here, I emphasized the message that we have to love earth and keep the balance of the nature.

Tomorrow is the field trip going to Kidzania, Kuala Lumpur. We showed the children a introductory video of Kidzania for them to know what to expect. Therefore there will be no blog updates for tomorrow. Sorry for any inconvenienced.

World Book Day

Date: 22^nd April 2013

Day: Monday

Time: 4:30 – 5:30pm

Class: Pomegranate

Teacher: Teacher Yeong

World Book Day

Actually the International World Book Day is tomorrow, 23^rd April 2013. Today is supposed to be Earth Day. However, due to some arrangement, the school decided to exchange these two activities. Therefore, today, we started off with the World Book Day.

There were few of the children who brought their English book where they would like to share with their fellow friends. They took turn to come out to share the stories in their book.

This is the list of books that the children had shared today:

-          Yi Han – The Red Puppy (she read all the lines in the story)

-          Yi Jie – Kitty Cat & Fat Cat (he got all his classmates to read the story instead)

-          Zhen Yuan – Dinosaur (He brought an interesting encyclopedia that he shared. However, the children were a little scared when they saw the pictures of those fierce dinosaurs that Zhen Yuan showed. Therefore, we cut short his sharing session.)

-          Bee Chien – Packer and the difficult Day (he chose to answer questions given by me)

-          Wei Lok – Let’s go to the Fire House – by Barney and BJ (he was quite shy and not know how to start, I hinted the children to look for things in the pictures and get Wei Lok to tell a little bit about the story)

-          Wei Ni – Imogene’s Antlers (She chose to read all the lines in the story. It was an interesting story about Imogene who woke up on Thursday to found that she got an antlers on her head and after that on Friday, she got a peacock tail which scared her family out)

The rest of the children will have their book sharing session tomorrow together with the Earth Day activities.

Hopefully all children enjoy the story sharing session and continue the passion of reading throughout their life!  

Parts of the boat

Date: 19^th April 2013

Day: Friday

Time: 4:30 – 5:30pm

Class: Pomegranate

Teacher: Teacher Yeong

Happy, Happy Transportation – Parts of a boat

I found a tall ship model from home, so I brought it to school to let the children explore it. At the same time, we also went through the parts of the boats by looking at the model of the tall ship.

The vocabulary that I introduced today is as followed:

mast	rudder	propeller	keel
bow	stern	deck	port

Next week is World Reading Day. We encouraged the children to bring one English story book or any English book that they would like to share with their fellow friends. Please bring a book on Monday. The participation from the children are highly appreciated. Thank you. 

Tall Ship, Motorboat, Yacht, Houseboat

Date: 18^th April 2013

Day: Thursday

Time: 4:30 – 5:30pm

Class: Pomegranate

Teacher: Teacher Yeong

Happy, Happy Transportation –Tall Ship, motorboat, yacht, houseboat

Jun Qian brought back the paper boats that he made yesterday. His mother helped him to add on a sail to make the rowboat into a sailboat. By looking at the model of both boats, we did a verbal revision of what we learned about the rowboat and sailboat. We also went through racing shell and canoe.

Then today, we went through another 4 types of boats.

The facts about tall ship:

-          it’s also wind driven

-          sail in the ocean

-          can carry many people compared to sailboat

The facts about motorboat:

-          moves by engine and not by paddles, oars or the wind

-          The engine turns a propeller, which pushes the boat through the water

-          Can go very fast, up to 90 miles per hour

-          Built especially for racing, but it also used as for fun such as fishing, water skiing or relaxing

The facts about yacht:

-          boats used for pleasure

-          come in all sizes

-          There are motor yachts and sailing yachts and some have both engines and sails

The facts about houseboat:

-          boats people live in, like mobile home

-          usually kept tied up at a dock, if owners wanted to move, they simply cast off the ropes and float away

Paper boat demonstration by Yi Han

Yi Han wanted to be the teacher today to teach the children about her way of folding the paper boat. The beginning steps are much easier for the children to follow if compared to mine. However, our fellow classmates still need more practice in folding the boat. I believe practice makes perfect. 

Canoe, Rowboat, Racing Shell, Sailboat

Date: 17^th April 2013

Day: Wednesday

Time: 4:30 – 5:30pm

Class: Pomegranate

Teacher: Teacher Yeong

Happy, Happy Transportation –Canoe, Rowboat, Racing Shell, Sailboat

We had a round of vocabulary revision before we start the class. I also asked some questions about canoe to refresh the children’s memory of how many they remember about canoe. Then we read through the lyrics of Row, row, row your boat before we sing it. 

The lyrics are as followed;

Row, row, row your boat,

Gently down the stream

Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,

Life is but a dream

After that we went through rowboat, racing shell, sailboat and touch a little on tall ship.

The facts about rowboat:

-          It’s another small boat

-          Rowers sit facing backwards and pull on a set of oars to make the boat go forward

-          Used for fishing or travel short distances

The facts about racing shell:

-          a kind of rowboat built for speed

-          shape: long, light and narrow

-          rowed with special oars that are curved at the bottom, called sculls

-          some people used it for exercise, some used it for racing

The facts about sailboat

-          come in many sizes and shapes

-          rely on the power of the wind

-          have a mast to hold the sails and a rudder, like a movable fin, that helps steer the boat

I only got the children to compare the picture of a sailboat and the tall ship. Tomorrow we shall continue with it.

Before we end the day, we had a short session on how to fold a paper boat. Most of the children had a hard time in getting all the steps correct. We shall practise more this week and decorate the paper boat. 

Introduction to Boats

Date: 16^th April 2013

Day: Tuesday

Time: 4:30 – 5:30pm

Class: Pomegranate

Teacher: Teacher Yeong

Happy, Happy Transportation –Introduction to Water Transportation

Before I started any introduction, I let the children had a brainstorming of the names of water transportation that they know.

Wei Lok: ship

Phoeon: motorboat

Wei Ni: boat

Jun Qian: water rafting (I told water rafting is a game, not a transportation)

Yi Han: submarine

Kwan Ming: rowboat

Jia Jia: yacht

Yu Xi: ferry

Bee Chien: sailboat

Derek: speedboat

We also had a brainstorming session of why people created water transportation in the olden time. The explanation I gave was that in the olden time, people stayed near to the river and when they need to travel, they can either walk or make use of the river by inventing boat to move from place to another place.

Introduction to Canoe

The facts about canoe:

-          first type of boats ever built

-          looks like the ones American Indians built long ago out of wood and bark

-          shape: long and narrow

-          can only hold a few people and light things

-          only moves on calm water

-          used paddles to glide quietly through the water

Mode of Transport Worksheet

Date: 15^th April 2013

Day: Monday

Time: 4:30 – 5:30pm

Class: Pomegranate

Teacher: Teacher Yeong

Happy, Happy Transportation –Mode of Transportation Worksheet

Hereby I apologized that there was an emergency that I left the class early on 12^th April 2013 so there’s no blog update for that day.

Today, I distributed a worksheet about the mode of transportation to the children. We all went through all the names of the vehicles in that page and verbally categorized them accordingly. Most of the children managed to name the vehicles. Then, they have to cut and paste the pictures accordingly. Now, everyone is quite master with their scissors and they could also individually complete the task without much help. 

Categorize the Mode of Transport & Worksheet

Date: 11^th April 2013

Day: Thursday

Time: 4:30 – 5:30pm

Class: Pomegranate

Teacher: Teacher Yeong

Happy, Happy Transportation –Mode of Transportation & Worksheet

We went through all the background for the 3 modes of transportation that the children had painted. The children somehow were very satisfied with their painting and they said it looks real. How imaginative they are!

The only place that I can find to paste these paintings were under the white board. We started with the land transportation background at the bottom and the air transportation painting on the top. Then when the children look at the water transportation painting, they decided to switch it with the land transportation painting. So now the water transportation painting is at the bottom and the land transportation painting is in the middle.

Once the background painting was up, I started to delegate the picture and name of the transportation to the children. They have to categorize it accordingly. There’s quite a number of picture of transportation for the land, so the children had some argument of how to paste it all in within the background. Eventually, they manage to put all in at last.

We did a worksheet on the name of water transportation and identify the mode of transportation.

Mode of transportation - Water Paint - Part II

Date: 10^th April 2013

Day: Wednesday

Time: 4:30 – 5:30pm

Class: Pomegranate

Teacher: Teacher Yeong

Happy, Happy Transportation – Water Painting of the Mode of Transportation (part II)

We continued with the water painting we started yesterday. The previous 2 groups who had already done most of their painting, they just touch up the white colour for their road and the clouds. While the other group who were supposed to colour the background for the water transportation continued their drawings for another 10 minutes before they moved in to the water painting session.

Jun Qian’s group started with a short discussion of what colour to use and delegate the colours to each of their group member. However, due to the clumsiness of the children, one of the group members accidentally colour the wrong part and the argument started. The whole group of children was actually completed their painting work in argument, discussion and forgiveness.

Tomorrow we shall complete the categorization of all the mode of transportation and we shall move in towards water transportation. Hopefully children will bring materials such as toys or books about water transportation to share with their fellow classmates.  

Modes of Transportation - Water Paint

Date: 9^th April 2013

Day: Tuesday

Time: 4:30 – 5:30pm

Class: Pomegranate

Teacher: Teacher Yeong

Happy, Happy Transportation – Water Painting of the Mode of Transportation

After the round of revision yesterday, we continued with the mode of transportation today. As for the art and craft part, I divided the class into 3 categories, land transportation, water transportation and air transportation. The purpose of the water painting today is to paint the background of all those modes.

The children were divided as followed:

land transportation	Kern Ee, Yu Xin, Yi Jie, Wei Lok
water transportation	Yu Xi, Jia Jia, Phoeon, Jun Qian, Jiun Jie
air transportation	Kwan Ming, Wei Ni, Bee Chien, Yi Han, Derek

Each group will have to discuss of what to have in their mode of transportation. They were given about few minutes to do group discussion.

Wei Lok’s group was going to colour the background for land transportation. They decided to draw road and grass. They also managed to get to do the water paint today.

Kwan Ming’s group was discussing about the background for the sky. At first, they could work together to draw the sky. Somehow later, Yi Han started to dominate the drawing and all of the group members left her drawing alone. However, when they come to the water painting part, all of them work together again. They chose blue and yellow for the sky and the sun. Unfortunately, due to the clumsiness of the children, they accidentally mixed the colour of blue and yellow and it turned out to be green. Even though they were unhappy with the outcome of it yet, they learned the mixture of colours. I believe they will be more careful in the future.

Yu Xi’s group had the biggest argument of what to draw. I hinted to them that the whole paper is water. They are allowed to add in creatures in the sea. However, it took them quite long to decide what to draw and the argument continues. I strongly believe that children learn a lot from disagreement and managed to find a way to solve it. Unfortunately, they took up too much time today and couldn’t start with the water painting today. They shall do it tomorrow.