Book Sharing – How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin? (Part II)

Date: 25^th August 2014

Day: Monday

Time: 3:00-4:00pm      

Class: Pomegranate      

Theme: Yummy Food

Teacher: Teacher Yeong

Book Sharing – How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin? (Part II)

We continued with the book that we had stopped some time ago. Today, we continued to read about how the children in Mr Tiffin’s class count the pumpkin seeds. The children were amazed when they got to know that Charlie who picked the smallest pumpkin has the most pumpkin seeds. Charlie, who was the shortest in the class, got to queue up as the first person. Charlie was happy.

From the book the children got to know that we needed a few things if we wanted to count the pumpkin seeds. The things that we needed are as followed:

-          a pumpkin

-          some old newspapers

-          a knife

-          some spoons

-          some bowls

We shall carry out this activity tomorrow.

Reading – Keeping Up to Date (1000 sentences of Today’s English) by Scott Ballantyne

-          1. At Home

-          2. Difference Kind of Eating

Plant the chilies seeds (Part II)

Date: 22^nd August 2014

Day: Friday

Time: 3:00-4:00pm      

Class: Pomegranate      

Theme: Yummy Food

Teacher: Teacher Yeong

Plant the chilies seeds (Part II)

Today, we got all the things we needed. We have the pots made from recycle bottles, soil, spade and some chilies seeds. The weather is good as well. After we had revised all the vocabulary that we had learned so far, we set off to the garden.

Some of the children were holding the bottom of the bottle while some were holding the cover part of the bottle. We need to find something for those bottles which can’t stand. We found some egg cartoon from the recycle bin. We tried a few ways and found that we could make a hole for the bottles to stand firm on the ground. 

The children queued up in 2 rows. They took turn to put some soil into the recycle bottle. Then after that, they came to me to ask for at least 2 seeds to be placed in their pots. Then they watered their plant. 

Plant the chilies seeds

Date: 21^st August 2014

Day: Thursday

Time: 3:00-4:00pm      

Class: Pomegranate      

Theme: Yummy Food

Teacher: Teacher Yeong

Plant the chilies seeds

After a few days of observation of how the children interacted during the 5 taste activity, the children needed to learn some phrases or sentences properly. Therefore, I got the children to brainstorm some polite sentences to be used at certain point of time.

Situation #1: When you wish to offer food to another person,

Xin Yee: You can take one.

Chloe: I want to give this to you.

Jing Heng: You can take this.

Derek: Do you want this?

Reply: Yes, thank you. / No, thanks. / No, thank you.

Situation #2: When you wish to have another share of the food,

Harraz: Can I have some more, please?

Chloe: Can I take one, please?

Kern Ee: Can you give me some more, please?

Jing Heng: Can you give me two, please?

Reply: Yes, of course. / No, you can’t.

I have dried the chilies seeds under the sun for two days. I think it’s suitable to plant it now. However, we don’t have so many pots for each child. I have collected some empty plastic bottles. The children had some experience with this since we did the same for our Earth Day in April. Immediately, they suggested to cutting the bottles into 2.

The children grouped themselves into 2 in a group. Then, I drew a line on the middle of the bottle and delegated the task for the children to cut the bottle into half.

Due to insufficient time, we shall continue with this activity tomorrow provided that the weather is good. 

5 Taste Activity – Salty Day

Date: 20^th August 2014

Day: Wednesday

Time: 3:00-4:00pm      

Class: Pomegranate      

Theme: Yummy Food

Teacher: Teacher Yeong

5 Taste Activity – Salty Day

Today would be the last day for our 5 taste activity – Salty Day. The children said they enjoyed this activity very much as they got to eat all sorts of food.

Let’s see what the children had brought for today’s theme:-

Bo En & Harraz: salted egg

Elvina: some fried anchovies

Jing Heng: 2 packets of cheese (with 6 pieces in one packet)

Kwan Ming: mooncake with salted egg

Xin Yee: salted plum

Chloe: a packet of Julie cheese biscuits

Li Chuan: some salt

Derek, Aiden & Kern Ee: some salted seaweed

5 Taste Activity – Bitter Day

Date: 19^th August 2014

Day: Tuesday

Time: 3:00-4:00pm      

Class: Pomegranate      

Theme: Yummy Food

Teacher: Teacher Yeong

5 Taste Activity – Bitter Day

What would the children bring for bitter day? Let’s see what the children brought to share with the class:-

Jing Heng: Ritter Sport dark chocolate (50% cocoa) (I have cut the chocolate into smaller pieces before giving to Jing Heng to share with the class)

Xin Yee: fried bitter gourd. (she said her mum sliced the small green bitter gourd and fried it)

Kern Ee: some bitter tea leaves & chinese tea leaves

Bo En: Chinese tea leaves

Aiden: chocolate powder

I used Kern Ee & Bo En’s tea leaves to make 2 cups of tea and served a little bit for each of them. Some of the children don’t like the bitterness of it while some said it taste nice. Those who like it asked for more.

I thought the children would not favour the bitter gourd. Yet, for those who like it came back for more. 

Xin Yee sharing the bitter gourd. Chloe said she doesn't want it.

Those who like the bitter gourd came back for more.

Bo En helping to serve the chinese tea for his fellow classmates.

The children tried out the bitter tea and chinese tea.

How many seeds in a pumpkin?

Date: 18^th August 2014

Day: Monday

Time: 3:00-4:00pm      

Class: Pomegranate      

Theme: Yummy Food

Teacher: Teacher Yeong

How many seeds in a pumpkin?

I shared a book on pumpkin last Tuesday. Therefore, today, I brought in a small orange pumpkin for the children to observe.

Yee Shuen tried to hold the pumpkin to see how heavy it is.

The children passed the pumpkin around to observe it.

At the same time, I also shared another book – Peas! It’s not easy being Peas-y by Andy Cullen & Simon Rickerty. In this book, it introduces the process of a pea from seeds to our plate. The children could understand the process of the growing of the peas and how it was being processed in the factory.

I also brought in another book related to pumpkin – How many seeds in a pumpkin? By Margaret McNamara & G. Brian Karas. Charlie was one of the children in Mr Tiffin class, yet he doesn’t like lining before going to class as he was the shortest one. Mr Tiffin always asked the children to line up from the tallest to the shortest. One day, Mr Tiffin brought in three pumpkins with different sizes. Mr Tiffin wanted the children to make a guess of how many seeds would it be in the pumpkin. Therefore, Mr Tiffin guided the children in digging the pumpkin seeds. How many seeds would it be in each pumpkin? Will the biggest pumpkin has the most seeds? We shall disclose the answers after our taste activity on Wednesday.

I also asked the children to think of the numbers of seeds in the pumpkin we have in our class. The children gave me all sorts of answers from 2, 10, 20, 50, 100 etc.

The children were reminded that tomorrow would be our “Bitter Day”. I’m curious to know what kind of food that the children will bring. 

5 Taste Activity – Spicy Day

Date: 15^th August 2014

Day: Friday

Time: 3:00-4:00pm      

Class: Pomegranate      

Theme: Yummy Food

Teacher: Teacher Yeong

5 Taste Activity – Spicy Day

Today is spicy day. I wondered what the children will bring for the theme of the day. Let’s look at the food that the children brought:-

Chloe: some spicy mix tidbits

Kern Ee: spicy potato chips

Bo En: spicy corn chips

Aiden & Harraz: spicy tapioca chips

Elvina & Li Chuan: some red chilies

Xin Yee: ginger honey tea (made together with her mom)

Jing Heng & Yee Shuen: spicy seaweed

Besides that, I used the lemons that the children brought on sour day to make some lemonade. I predicted that some of the children would want to look for water after eating the spicy food.

We looked at all the food that the children brought this time, only chilies cannot be eaten. So I asked the class what we shall do with it. Some said to throw it away. Some said to bring it home. Some said to eat it. I suggested that we can plant it and grow it in the school garden, the children agreed. Therefore, I shall prepare the necessary things for the children to do some planting on Monday.

Let’s the feast begin. I didn’t force each of them to try all the spicy food. As long as they are brave enough, they could take a sip or a bite.

5 Taste Activity – Sweet Day

Date: 14^th August 2014

Day: Thursdsay

Time: 3:00-4:00pm      

Class: Pomegranate      

Theme: Yummy Food

Teacher: Teacher Yeong

5 Taste Activity – Sweet Day

The children tasted sour yesterday. Today, they will be tasting food which is sweet. Wow, early in the morning, the children had already showed me all the food that they brought. They were so excited and waiting anxiously for the clock to strike 3pm.

These were the food the children brought for – Sweet Day:-

Yee Shuen: a packet of Oreo biscuits

Derek: a packet of Chipsmore biscuits

Chloe: a packet of chocolate sticks and a packet of chocolate biscuits

Jing Heng: a packet of Sugus sweets

Teng Hong: some nougat

Elvina: variety of chocolates and sweets

Harraz: some jelly and some dodol

Aiden: 2 lollipop

Bo En & Li Chuan: raisins

Xin Yee : some winter melon sticks

Zhi Yi: Vitagen drinks

These were the food that brought by the children. I marinated the sour mango from yesterday that Harraz brought with some sugar and light soya sauce. Besides that, Li Chuan got us some mangosteen last week. So I get it to share it during our "Sweet Day".

"Yummy" Kwan Ming & Teng Hong said.

"Do you want some raisins?"Li Chuan (Deovn) asked.

Bo En giving out the raisins that he brought.

What's the situation here? Why so serious?
Hmm, busy eating. I guess.

"Aah!" Chloe said.

Derek giving out the Chipsmore biscuits that he brought.

"One Oreo biscuits," Shang En said.

Harraz giving out the jelly that he brought.

5 Taste Activity – Sour Day

Date: 13^th August 2014

Day: Wednesday

Time: 3:00-4:00pm      

Class: Pomegranate      

Theme: Yummy Food

Teacher: Teacher Yeong

5 Taste Activity – Sour Day

The children were ready for the theme today. Many of them brought the food accordingly. Let’s see what children had brought:-

Bo En: a packet of sour sweets

Xin Yee: a small bottle of lemon juice (she said she did it together with her mum)

Harraz: green mango

Elvina & Li Chuan: some kasturi lime

Yi Jie: some cherry tomatoes

Aiden: some granny smith (green apples)

Kern Ee: some oranges (he said it’s sour oranges)

Chloe: a green apple and an orange

Yee Shuen & Jing Heng: some lemons

Zhi Yi: plum candy

After introducing all the food that the children had brought, the children started to share the food with their fellow classmates.

There were some other green apples that the children brought for the fruit dipper last week. With this opportunity, I also cut some for the children to share with their fellow classmates. I kept the mango and those lemons for other theme day. The children agreed.