Something about calories

Date: 29th March 2016
Day: Tuesday
Time: 4:00-5:30 pm
(Wushu Class: 4:00-5:00 pm)
Class: Pomegranate
Theme: I Love Food
Teacher: Ms Yeong

Something about calories

The children learned to test their stamina during the Wushu class. The teacher get them to carry a small chair each to lift it up or to do some exercise with it. According to the teacher, this will train their hand's muscle and they might be able to perform the dragon dance in the future.

After the Wushu class, the children took some rest while we briefly went through the last part of the food pyramid. Those are food that contains fat, sweets and oil. I also read them a short introduction about calories and emphasize the important of doing exercise everyday.

Besides that, we had a short discussion on the next food to explore. The children decided to learn about yogurt. I shall read up some information about yogurt and hopefully to share with them for the next few days.

Movie - Ratatouille (Part II)

Date: 28th March 2016
Day: Monday
Time: 4:00-5:30 pm
Class: Pomegranate
Theme: I Love Food
Teacher: Ms Yeong

Movie - Ratatouille (Part II)

Today, we continued with the rest of the movie. It ended around 5pm. Looking at the clock, we still have some time before we called it a day, I get the children to share their thoughts for the 2 questions that I listed on the board.

#Q1: Who is your favourite character in the movie?
Zi Yue: I like the short hair girl.
Sueanne: The short hair girl.
Rachel: I like the rat.
Deshayne: I like the girl.
Suzanne: I like the short hair girl.
Lik Shin: The rat.
Jia Mao: The rat.
Lucas: The rat.
Yong Jun: The rat.
Yee Ern: The rat.
Cheng Kai: The rat.
Zun Yu: The rat.
Mei Jia: The rat.

#Q2: Which part of the movie you like best?
Zi Yue: I like when all the rats help in the kitchen.
Rachel: I like that too.
Sueanne: When the man think about when he's a boy. (I think she meant that the food critic recalled the memory of his childhood)
Lik Shin: The rat cooking.
Suzanne: Yes, the rat cooking.
Mei Jia: Rat is cooking.
Zun Yu: cooking...(I think he meant to say the same thing as Mei Jia and the rest.)
Yee Ern: Rat cooking.

I shared my favourite part of the movie with the children too. There's a scene when the old lady was shooting the rat around her house. After she had shot some holes on the ceiling and it collapsed. All the rats that stayed up at the ceiling fell down and had to run for their life. I find that scene pretty shocking and hilarious too! Then the children were looking up at the ceiling of the classroom and started to talk if there's any rat staying up there as well. I hope not.

Movie Time - Ratatouille

Date: 25th March 2016
Day: Friday
Time: 4:00-5:30 pm
Class: Pomegranate
Theme: I Love Food
Teacher: Ms Yeong

Movie Time - Ratatouille (Part I)

Sueanne brought a VCD of a movie - Ratatouille. After considering that other teacher would be using the computer during our class time and unfortunately, there's no VCD player in the school. Therefore, I get the school assistance to search for a version that the children could watch it by connecting to a  TV through a laptop. As a result, the VCD was returned to Sueanne.

We only have about 55 minutes to watch the movie today. We shall continue with the movie on Monday if the times permit then.

Introduction quoted from online:

Remy, a resident of Paris, appreciates good food and has quite a sophisticated palate. He would love to become a chef so he can create and enjoy culinary masterpieces to his hearts's delight. The only problem is, Remy is a rat. When he winds up in the sewer beneath one of Paris' finest restaurants, the rodent gourmet finds himself ideally placed to realize his dream. 

Games - Food Pyramid (part II)

Date: 24th March 2016
Day: Thursday
Time: 4:00-5:30 pm
Class: Pomegranate
Theme: I Love Food
Teacher: Ms Yeong

Games - Food Pyramid (part II)

The children were quite interested with the food pyramid game that we played yesterday. However, I upgraded the version today. The children learned the food chant some time ago, I wanted the children to try to make sentences as they mentioned the name of the food.

Before we start the game, I get the children to try to make some simple sentences:

The rhythm would be like this "Chicken, chicken, I like chicken."

Leow Xun: Chicken can walk.
Mei Jia: I like chicken.
Zi Yue: I eat chicken.
Rachel: I love chicken.
Mei Jia: I want chicken.
Rachel: Give me a chicken.
Leow Xun: I cook chicken.

Then, we tried "Cheese, cheese, I like cheese."

Leow Xun: Cheese are yellow
Sueanne: Cheese can eat.
Mei Jia: I want cheese.
Leow Xun: I eat cheese.
Rachel: I love cheese.
Sueanne: More cheese, please.
Leow Xun: Little cheese.
Leow Xun: Cheese are salty. (this was guided)
Rachel: Give me cheese.
Sueanne: Cheese are yummy.

So when we moved to our food pyramid block, the children needed to think of a food and then, they needed to sing out the chant such as "apple, apple, apple is red" before they jump to the respective space just like they did yesterday. We had this for 2 rounds before I played them the food chant again as I realized the children were out of words to make any creative sentences. Anyhow, I'm glad that some of them tried their best even though they made the same sentences as others.

Protein & Games

Date: 23rd March 2016
Day: Wednesday
Time: 4:00-5:30 pm
Class: Pomegranate
Theme: I Love Food
Teacher: Ms Yeong

Protein & Games

Today, we briefly went through those food that contains protein, such as meat, dairy products, legumes and others.

Then, I set up the classroom for the children to play a game on food pyramid. I used some colourful block to make a huge triangle like shape on the floor.

The rules of the games are as followed:
1) First round: the teacher will name a food and the children needed to jump or move to the respective space on the food pyramid.

2) Second round: the children needed to call out a name of food and jump to the respective space on the food pyramid.

This is to get the children to familiarize themselves with the food available on the food pyramid.

Wushu class & snack time

Date: 22nd March 2016
Day: Tuesday
Time: 4:00-5:30 pm
(Wushu Class: 4:00-5:00 pm)
Class: Pomegranate
Theme: I Love Food
Teacher: Ms Yeong

Wushu class & snack time

Today, the children went out to watch a movie - Zootopia which is related to their Mandarin thematic class in the morning session. The children only got back to school around 2 pm. Therefore, the teacher quickly put them for lunch and nap time as they will be having their Wushu class in the afternoon later.

I managed to take some pictures of their wushu class today. The teacher taught them to react to things falling from top and to move backward when needed.

After the Wushu class, the children were hungry. Therefore, I served them snack time and we called it day.

Book Sharing & Food Puzzle

Date: 21st March 2016
Day: Monday
Time: 4:00-5:30 pm
Class: Pomegranate
Theme: I Love Food
Teacher: Ms Yeong

Book Sharing & Food Puzzle

Today, I found another book that is similar to "Oodles, Noodles" that I have read to the children earlier. It is "Strega Nona", an original tale written and illustrated by Tomie de Paola.

As I was half way reading the book, the children suddenly related it to the story of "Oodles Noodles". The children enjoyed reading along when Strega Nona or even when Big Anthony reads out the magic spells to the magic pasta pot.

After the story, I distributed out some food puzzle for the children to play. They divided themselves into 3 or 4 in a group and they have to work together to get the puzzle solved. Some of the group could do it quite fast and they managed to complete 3 puzzles. Yet, some of them took longer and they only managed to complete one. One of the groups even got themselves into arguments and I have to step in to help them to solve the matters as well as guiding them to solve the puzzle.

Here were some pictures taken during the puzzle activity:

Taste the Mulberry Tea with cake

Date: 18th March 2016
Day: Friday
Time: 4:00-5:30 pm
Class: Pomegranate
Theme: I Love Food
Teacher: Ms Yeong

Taste the Mulberry Tea with cake

Today, the children will get to taste the mulberry tea during their class. Leow Xun's mum got to know that we are going to have tea party today, she made us a homemade cake.

As the children just had their snack time around 3:30 pm, I gave them a worksheet to work on before we start our tea party. The worksheet was related to the steps that the children learned about the process of making the mulberry tea leaves. The children needed to choose and colour the correct answers accordingly.

The worksheet is as followed:

After the children had done their worksheet, I quickly cook some hot water for making tea. The children were excited and arranged the classroom in order to sit down and have tea and cake. The tea leaves are not sufficient for everyone to bring home, therefore, we just had it here in the school.

Here were some pictures taken during the tea party:

Mulberry Tea Leaves Project (Part II)

Date: 17th March 2016
Day: Thursday
Time: 4:00-5:30 pm
Class: Pomegranate
Theme: I Love Food
Teacher: Ms Yeong

Mulberry Tea Leaves Project (Part II)

After the explanation that I gave yesterday, the children had some idea about the steps in making the mulberry tea leaves.

First, I brought the children into the garden to pick the leaves. I told them to pick those dark green leaves instead of the lighter green. Each of them could pick around 2 leaves. Looking at those amounts, I added in a few more leaves.

Then, we moved back indoor to wash the leaves. The children were divided into girls and boys. Each of them take turns and wash at least 2 pieces of leaf.

For those who had done the washing, they will help to cut the leaves into long shape. They needed to cut as thin as possible. However, some still needed some guidance and advise.

Once the children had done the washing and cutting, I prepared the water for steaming the leaves. We needed someone to count the time. Therefore, 10 children were volunteered to count 1-10 in English so that every round will equal to 100. As the fire on the stove was pretty low, the children counted for 3 rounds.

After that, I removed the leaves from the stove and demonstrated to the children how they could roll the leaves. This process is to help to dry the moisture on the leaves and also to let me form a lengthy long shape.

After about 10 minutes, the children said they were done with the rolling. At that moment, I prepare the wok for frying. Those who dare to walk near to the hot wok only I allowed them to fry while those who were not dare will just watch from far.

It took us more than 15 minutes to fry those leaves until it is dry and crispy. However, after I have checked it, some of the leaves were still pretty moist. Therefore, after the children had left, I fry those leaves again for another 10 minutes before it was considered done.

This is was done earlier :

This is was done an extra 10 minutes of frying:

We shall have a tea party tomorrow.