Welcome to our very own, Nursery Blog 2011!
Have you ever wondered how has your child progressed so far?
Let me bring you through the learning journey of the children for the month of January.
January was the month where the children were set to go to school. In this month too, the children got to meet new teachers in a new classroom environment and meeting new friends in school. It was also a transition for the children from playgroup to be promoted to Nursery. At this time, they were adapting to new routines, rules and regulations of a classroom and it also means that they were slowly becoming independent children.
In term 1, the children were learning on the theme “Myself” which focuses on themselves. In the lesson ‘My name and your name’, the children were asked to say their names clearly and their friends have to remember and say their friends' names confidently. After they have managed to remember their friends' names, they were taught on the song: My name.
This is how the song goes:
Hi! My name is Peter Lim, Peter Lim, Peter Lim.
Hi! My name is Peter Lim, What is your name?
The children should say their name first in this song followed by their friend’s name when the ball was passed on to the friend. They were then asked to create their own name tag by doing simple colouring using crayons on a coloured vanguard sheet and then, they pasted stickers on to their name tags. I will not show the picture here as you will get to see it in their portfolio.
In this month too, the children were learning about uppercase ‘I’ and lowercase ‘i’. A story called “Big I and little I” was read to them where they get to identify uppercase ‘I’ as big I and little I as lowercase ‘i’. Slowly, the children got to differentiate between uppercase and lowercase ‘I’. You can help to facilitate the children by teaching the children using their pointer finger to trace the letter ‘I’. Some of the children were then asked to do an artwork on the uppercase ‘I’ and lowercase ‘i’. Their artworks were then displayed at the bulletin board.
This is how their artworks were being displayed in the classroom.
Children’s artwork of uppercase ‘I’.
Materials used: Macaroni, feathers, straws and glitters.
Children’s artwork of lowercase ‘i’.
Children used crayons and additional words associated with ‘I’ were displayed at the board.
On the lesson ‘Let’s dance’, the children were asked to do some action movements where they need to listen to a song called “I can”. After this lesson, the children were asked to make their own self portrait.
Let’s find out how they did their own self portrait…
Firstly, the children have to draw and colour their own self portrait using the crayons.
After they had drawn their self portrait, they had to paint the drawing paper with black paint.
This is the Star group…
This is the Moon group…
Look at how they were engaged doing the painting of their own self portrait.
Next, they were taught on the gender ‘boy’ and ‘girl’. They were taught on how should a boy or girl dress themselves up and the importance of knowing about the private part. They learnt how to respect one another and learnt about the ‘Do’s’ and ‘Don’ts.
Example: they should know that they cannot touch their own or others' private part.
Besides knowing the letter ‘I’, they were also taught on recognizing the uppercase ‘B’ and lowercase ‘b’. In this lesson, they also learnt about matching a boy to a girl where they could do it on their own at the Math learning centre.
This is the second song that were taught to them: I am a boy and you are a girl
I am a boy and you are a girl
I am a boy and you are a girl
I am a boy and you are a girl
Would you want to be my friend?
I am a girl and you are a boy
I am a girl and you are a boy
I am a girl and you are a boy
Yes, I want to be your friend.
In the month of January, our children celebrated Ethan’s birthday.
Let’s look at the photos that were captured on that day!
Our birthday boy, Ethan! :)
THANK YOU ETHAN FOR THE LOVELY CAKE!
Celebrating their own birthday with their classmates in school can be fun and joyful for the children. In this month, a book called “Happy Birthday, Sam” were read to them where they learnt the concept of matching 1 to 1 correspondence using the birthday candles.
In this lesson too, the children were asked to make their own birthday cake that were displayed in the classroom. They were given plastic bowls, plasticines, cookie cutters, decoration balls and felt texture shapes for them to decorate their cake.
Welcoming you to our cake decorators…
Children were busy moulding the plasticine. Some of them are pressing the plasticine while some are taking bit by bit to put at the plastic bowl.
After they had completed moulding the plasticine and put it at the plastic bowl, they were then need to decorate their cake. They need to use the rolling pin to flatten the plasticine and used the cookie cutter to get the shape that they want for their cake.
This is where their lovely cakes were being displayed at the classroom. Well done, my children! Great job!
In addition to this lesson, they have learnt a song called “Cut the cake”.
Clap your hands together
Give yourself a shake, shake, shake
Make a happy circle
Then you cut the cake, cake, cake.
After the making of the birthday cake, they were taught on a rhyme - ‘I can’. As they were reciting the rhyme, they then had to do the actions.
This is how the rhyme goes:
I can run,
I can hop,
I can jump up high.
I can dance,
I can march,
But I cannot fly.
Next, the children learnt the action song - ‘I can walk’. The children loved to sing and do the actions as this song has different tempo of the actions.
First action song is ‘I can walk”. Next is ‘I can run’. The song is sang the same way except that you need to change the word to 'run'.
I can walk.
I can walk very fast.
I can walk.
I can walk very slow.
I can walk .
I can walk very fast.
I can walk,
Either fast of slow.
Walking fast, walking slow,
Walking fast,
Fast or slow, here I go.
Lastly is ‘ I can jump’
I can jump.
I can jump very high.
I can jump.
I can jump very low.
I can jump.
I can jump very high.
I can jump,
Either high or low.
Jumping high, jumping low,
Jumping high.
High or low, here I go.
Well, you can do this song together with your child at home! It is so simple to do
and your child will definitely love to do the actions.
Exploring the texture of paints can be fun for the children.
In the activity of ‘My hands can’, the children need to observe how their hand movements leave prints on their paper. Movements were taught to them like hands jump high, hands crawl slowly, hands stamp real hard, hands rest and glide, hands make waves up and down, down and up and finally the two hands join together to make butterfly-like print.
As they were doing these movements, they could see the element of arts such as lines, shapes and colours appearing on their paper. They also get to feel the texture of the paints when they dipped their hands into the paints.
Here are the pictures of the children when they were doing this activity:
After they had completed, their artwork would then be displayed at the boxes. This is how it looks liked:
Apart from doing their work on drawing paper, they were taught on how to turn scrap materials into other objects. In this way, the children would not only learn about art and craft but they would also learn about recycling and ways they can help to save the earth.
Materials used for this activity were different sizes of boxes, egg carton, food styrofoam, tissue roll and newspaper. Before they began to do the activity, the children were paired up in pairs to do their creation. After they had completed, they gave a name to their creation.
I shall now show case to you what they had created from the scrap materials.
The first item is : The robot called “Bumble Bee”.
Bumble bee was created using two different sizes of boxes with two styrofoam cups.
The second item is : The crab called “Moon crab”.
Moon crab was created using food styrofoam. The food styrofoam was painted with orange paint and then tore newspaper was pasted onto it. Finally, wriggly eyes were pasted.
The third item is : The ants called “Tom and Jerry”.
As they had created only two ants, they decided to name it ‘Tom and Jerry’. They have used egg carton, plasticine and pipe cleaner.
The fourth item is : The microphone.
Microphone was created as they loved to sing in the classroom. They used toilet roll and newspaper wrapped with aluminum foil.
Lastly, the children learnt to recognize the letter ‘C’ and ‘G’. The word ‘can’ ang ‘girl’ were introduced to them in this lesson. As a tie in to this lesson, they were asked to make a plasticine action figures.
Here are the steps on how they do the plasticine action figures:
Firstly, children have to pick one colour of the plasticines available at the table. Then, they were given baking tray and rolling pin for them to create their movement figurines.
While they were exploring the texture of the plasticine, Lu Young said to Yu Le, “Look! I make circle”. Yu Le looked as she molded the pink plasticine.
Next, they took the rolling pin and started to flatten the plasticine. Both were engrossed in rolling the plasticine that they wanted to see that both have the same shape.
After they had managed to make their faces, they were asked to make the body and the eyes. Lu Young has chosen black for the body and green plasticine for the eyes. Look at how he was making the eyes!
After they had made their body and eyes, they continued to make their hands. They can choose different colour of plasticines to make the hands and legs. Yu Le wanted to roll the plasticine first.
The children were taught on how to roll the plasticine and twisting it to make the hands. Yu Le tried to figure out on how her hands should look like.
After a few tries, Yu Le managed to make the hands. She was able to roll and twist the hands as she wanted to show that she was dancing.
This is the how their action figures look liked:
The documentation of the process of making the plasticine action figures were displayed on the black board. :)
