Into the EY 3&4 Classroom

Current Happenings

These past days were full of scientific exploration. Children explored capacity, map designing and house building. They asked curious questions and shared their findings with their peers cheerfully.

Intentional teaching and new learning

Whose water bottle can hold more water?

Last week the children experimented with making artisan bread from a recipe. They found that each ingredient in the recipe had a fixed proportion or amount and, having built on their previous exploration of distance and height, the children were more confident and enthusiastic in their exploration of capacity. They compared their own cups with the teacher's cups and with a strong desire to "I want to know", the children explored and their perception of capacity became more profound and tangible.

 The three little pigs – House exploration

This week we extended our exploration of the Three Little Pigs tale by investigating houses and their structures. We started by analysing a couple of house floorplans and discussing how to transfer the true size room and furniture into a 2D drawing. "Look, this is the kitchen because I can see the stove", the children shared in Chinese and English while practising the name of the rooms in a home. Then it was time to put our recent skills to practice by drawing a "map" of our classroom, checking the details from each corner. "I need to count how many sinks we have in the bathroom", some children shared. 

 

 

After the discussions, wondering, and practise sessions, it was time to put it together by building many strong houses. Some children built tall towers, while others improved their previous brick homes. Some in the group decided to make a house using real rocks and pipes. It is impressive to see how all the projects have improved and are full of intricate details. So naturally, all children were excited to share these details with their friends and teachers.

 

 

This week we started a new phase for our Phonics sessions. Some of our students, feeling confident, are ready to move on to the next group of sounds - the special friends (diagraphs, such as /sh/, /th/, and /ch/), while other students are working on building their confidence in the sounds previously taught. 

 

 

For our Phonics Skills session, children tried their best to write words and sentences describing the famous Little Red Hen tale. They were impressed to learn that the hen made bread literally from scratch - first planted the wheat, then ground the grains into flour, to finally bake the bread.  In our sessions, we always work with the children to teach them the correct letter formation, pencil grasp, and letter placement. It is crucial to have a strong letter formation foundation that will continue with the children throughout their life.

Last week, while we baked the most fantastic bread, the children started to wonder about the different containers we used to measure the ingredients. So, as a result, this week, we worked together to check different capacities in various containers - bowls, cups, measuring spoons, buckets, etc. All the exploration and experiments made the class so proud of their cooking skills that we decided to bake our delicious bread again. This time we invited our friends from EY2 to cook with us. Throughout the process, we reviewed the name of all ingredients and how to check the different sizes of measuring spoons and cups.But the best part was to be able to share our yummy bread with parents and caregivers. Warm bread with strawberry jam! Yummy!

 

 

Last semester we ended our story about the Dark Forest and the little monsters. So, it was time to start a new exciting one! Ms. Judy led the children to create a new drama story. Ms. Judy shared pieces of a new mysterious puzzle. With each piece, questions with essential information were answered. Together the children uncovered the mystery: it will be a story of a lion! 

To create the story's background, the teachers guided the children's questioning: "Have you ever seen a lion? What does it look like? Do they live alone or in groups? Where do the lions live?" Then, using their previous experience, the children shared the lions they had seen and drew a picture of the grassland where they could be found.

The big grey carpet becomes the children's imaginary prairie in the Drama in Education classroom. One, two, three! The children followed Ms. Judy into the grassland and into the place where the lions live. The children became little lions, fully displaying the expressions and actions of the animals. Some were asleep; some were playing with friends; some were rolling freely on the grass; others were roaring loudly. These little lions sure had a lot to say!

Another thing about the prairie is that there is a cliff nearby, which is the highest point. It is said that only the lion with the loudest roar can stand on that cliff, so the little cubs practised roaring loudly to be able to stand there! Meanwhile, on the cliff, there was a large design representing the lion's totem. What is a totem? What will happen next? The children are already looking forward to the next session!

Environmental talk

The wood planks and hillsides in our outdoor environment inspire children's creativity. The children used the sloping grass to make a unique slide. However, when they happily tried to slide down using a longboard or a basket, they realised they could not slide smoothly. The children wondered, "how can I slide down the board?" One of the children suggested using water to wet the board, making it slippery. The children lined up with buckets of water and took turns wetting the boards. The results were not satisfactory. Next, the children tried again with sand. They spread it all over the board, and this time, it seemed even slower. Although the two explorations of different materials brought the children an outcome beyond their imagination, they did not get discouraged. On the contrary, in this negotiation process, teamwork and various tries, the children learned the fabulous fun of the collaborative creation of games!

 

 

 

Not every attempt and effort can reach the desired results, but the joy of exploring the process and the burst of new direction can be another kind of harvest!