Make letters with cones

Look at the children observing what Yvonne is doing. (Sampai Jayden scratched his head :) ).

Yvonne said "Teacher, see this is T."

The other children started to join her to form other letters with the cones.

Isn't that creative? So wonderful to see the children coming out with ideas to work on with available materials.

So creative ler, aren't they?

Creativity is something that most parents would love their children to have. However, many adults overlook our actions that may hamper the children's creativity.

The following message about 'Creative Killers' may interest you for you to help our children's creativity flows freely. This short article is from ChildCareExchange.com

Creativity Killers
In The Creative Spirit (Plume, 1993), a book based on a PBS series on creativity, authors Daniel Goleman, Paul Kaufman, and Michael Ray point out these common ways adults discourage creativity in children:

1. Surveillance — Hovering over kids, making them feel that they're constantly being watched while they are working . . . under constant observation, the risk-taking, creative urge goes underground and hides.

2. Evaluation — When we constantly make kids worry about how they are doing, they ignore satisfaction with their accomplishments.

3. Rewards — The excessive use of prizes . . . deprives a child of the in trinsic pleasure of creative activity.

4. Competition — Putting kids in a win-lose situation, where only one person can come out on top . . . negates the process [that] children progress at their own rates.

5. Over-control — Constantly telling kid how to do things . . . often leaves children feeling like their originality is a mistake and any exploration a waste of time.

6. Restricting choice — Telling children which activities they should engage in instead of letting them follow where their curiosity and passion lead . . . again restricts active exploration and experimentation that might lead to creative discovery and production.

7. Pressure — Establishing grandiose expectations for a child's performance . . . often ends up instilling aversion for a subject or activity. . . . Unreasonably high expectations often pressure children to perform and conform within strictly prescribed guidelines, and, again, deter experimentation, exploration, and innovation. Grandiose expectations are often beyond children's developmental capabilities.

See, I have long hair in the picnic

"Teacher, see ... I have long hair" said Chi Ern.

In a child's play, everything is possible. You can have long hair during a picnic play. I like to play long hair and you like to play picnic but we want to play together. So this is the result...playing together harmoniously. Although both play topics are not the same, but who cares...as long as they enjoyed themselves.

So creative and interesting; isn't it?

Phase 2 - Saloon Project

A visit to the saloon

This is the way you wash the hair, wash the hair, wash the hair
This is the way you perm the hair, perm the hair, perm the hair
Everyday in saloon.











The hairdresser explained "the hair dryer can blow hot air and cool air. The hot air is use to dry the hair faster and the cool air is to cool the hair after drying."

The children feel the hot air and the cool air from the hair dryer.



Data Collection
Jolin drawing a hair curler.


"Why is the boy crying?" they wondered.





"This is a steamer. We put water at the back and let it boil for a while. Then we will get steam coming out" explained the hairdresser. The children feeling the steam with their hands and they also experienced the steamer over their head (see the inset photos).


Finally everyone has a free hair trim to experience hair cut in a saloon.

Link to Phase 1
Link to Phase 3

Sand Play

The benefits of sand play are endless. There are so many different things that can be added to their sand container so that it is a little bit different each time they play.

Children can make roads for their toy cars, add boxes for buildings, make popstick fences for their farm or zoo animals. While they are doing these things they are discovering the properties of sand, developing concepts of volume and learning to handle equipment.

Physical

Like water play, sand play develops children’s large and fine motor skills. In sand children can run, jump, roll, dig, mound... At the beach, help them explore how different it feels to walk in loose, dry sand and wet, firm sand. Let them experiment with different amounts of water in their sand. Dampen sand and let them make footprints – close together, giant steps, jumping feet together. Let them explore whether they can make tunnels in both dry and dampened sand.

Language/Social Development

By burying toys in the sand children develop an understanding that even though we can’t see them, objects are still there. This is a fun way of helping children cope with parent separation, making them feel secure that the parent will return.

By burying toy dinosaurs children can pretend they are archaeologists. Use sieves to help them find buried treasures! Dampen sand and let them roll different items in their sand to see the tracks they make – toy cars with different wheels, pastry cutters, balls, doll prints etc. These things naturally stimulate the development of children’s language, and their make believe play skills.

Mathematical Concepts

• Equivalency
  Children see that containers may hold the same and different amounts of water. They can discover that different shaped containers may hold the same amount of sand by using measuring units like a cup to see how many cups of sand are needed to fill the containers.
• Units of Measurement
  Let children begin learning how to use units of measurements by measuring how many cup fulls, lid fulls, bottle fulls etc. They do not need to use standard measures – litres etc – for their measurement.
• Conservation of Volume
  By experimentation, children come to see that the same amount of sand fills different shaped containers to different levels, even though the amount of sand does not change.
  

The information above is from http://www.itz4kidz.com.au/education/fundamentals-of-play/sand.aspx

Water Play

Besides sand play; the children also enjoyed water play.

The children exploring properties of water.


Getting a cool dip in the water is just perfect for our hot weather.

Lion Dance

Here come the Happy Explorers Lion Dance Troupe practising the Lion Dance to welcome the Chinese New Year.

Phase 1 - Saloon Project

Arrangement of equipment on the table.

"This how you should do it. Wet the hair first before you cut hair" Jolin demonstrated.

There are many customers waiting to have a good hair cut.




Teacher Celine is getting a good hair cut.







Link to Phase 2
Link to Phase 3

Snow White play

Snow White busy vacuuming the floor in the dwarfs' house.


Here come the wicked stepfather with the poisonous apple.








Oh no! Snow White took a bite...."ah! ah!...it's poisonous."


Here come the Prince crawling to the rescue.

Note: The prince is too tired to walk after morning swim.