Into the EY 3&4 Classroom

We started the week with a couple of rainy days, but finally, the sun decided to come out and shine on us! The children were surprised to find a lot of interesting activities outside the classroom, suchas electronic microscopes, a small world of clothing design, and a warm little tent at the end of thecorridor. The footprints of children's independent exploration are everywhere, and we also harvestmore curious voices.

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教学关注与启发

Intentional teaching and new learning

After observing some students building houses using different materials, we decided it would be a good idea to link and deeper their exploration with a famous tale, The Three Little Pigs. We started this exploration by reading the story in English and then in Chinese. The children were curious how the same book could have different versions, and we had a bilingual discussion about the two stories.Working in smaller groups, children had to work together to create a story map of the book paying attention to the story sequence. For example, did the pigs build all three houses, and then the wolfcame, or did the wolf appear after the first pig built the straw house? We ended the week by making lolly stick puppets of the characters, practising the famous lines, like "little pig, little pig, let me in!" and presenting a puppet show to our friends. It was so much fun to explore this book; we decided to continue the exploration next week. We can hardly wait for it.

After the children introduced their family's New Year's Eve dinner and traditional food last week, theybegan to pay attention to the famous food of different countries. This time, when they were served fusilli with tomato sauce in the canteen, they began to wonder: How does it make such delicious pasta? Why are there so many exciting shapes? Are they made of flour, too? What is flour made of? With this series of questions, the children began exploring the flour-making process.

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Understanding the difference between old and new things and why people's lives were different in the past is a way for children to understand the history and cultivate an awareness of scientific inquiry. Forexample, when the children understand that flour is made from wheat, they feel the hardness of dried wheat by pinching and biting it. How do you turn the hard wheat into flour that is as soft as snowflakes? Some children shared - "we can use the blender!"

The children learn that electricity has made modern life much easier by generating many electrical appliances and devices. But what wisdom did their ancestors have when it came to processed food in the traditional farming era, when they worked at sunrise, rested at sunset, and relied on kerosene for lighting? Understanding and applying basic food processing methods to process and handle food has also become essential to children's scientific inquiry.

In this week's phonics session, we learned three new sounds, /v/ as in van, /y/ as in yak, and /w/ as in worm. Through a fun game, children had to quickly recognize the sounds the teacher said out loud and using a fun fluffy pipe cleaner made it extra fun! During our sessions, we also practised blending sounds into CVC words. First, the teacher says a word, and then the children must pay attention to naming each sound; to finalize it, they write it on the whiteboard. Some children were ready for an extra challenge and wrote short sentences using the CVC words. It's fantastic to see the individual progress of each pupil.

One thing we know the students in EY 3&4 really love is PASTA! Yummy, yummy, in my tummy. But before we continued exploring Italian cuisine's yumminess, we decided to check out where Italy is. So, the first step was to find out where we are in the world.

In the group, we observed pictures of the Earth and different types of world maps, but then the children raised questions, in both Chinese and English, about how can we turn the Earth into a globeand then into a map?! Wow, those are very thoughtful questions.

Well, the best way to understand how the world map is made is to make one ourselves. After all, hands-on activities are always a fun and fantastic way of learning something new. To make our world map, we must make a globe first. So, the children helped make many different colour playdough to represent the continents and water. We used an actual globe as a model to create our playdough globe, and when it was ready, it was time to make a map! Together we compared the two globes to ensure we remembered all continents; then it was time to cut it in half and squish it on the board, and tada, we made a world map!

 

 

环境说

Environmental talk

After our English session and deciding to make our very own world map, we had to make a lot of playdough. So, throughout the week, we prepared several recipes, as we needed to create many different colours.

The first step was to read the recipe and ensure we had all the ingredients. Then, working together, the children took turns adding each ingredient inside the big basin. The most exciting part was when it was time to mix it all up with our hands. This recipe is easy to follow and fun to make. We hope you will enjoy it at home as well.

2 cups Flour

1/2 up Salt

1 cup Hot water ((possibly an extra 1/2 cup))

 2 tbsp Cooking Oil

 2 tbsp Cream of Tartar

 Food coloring

Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl and form a well in the centre

Add the cooking oil and food coloring to the dry ingredients.

Add water and stir!

If you notice that the playdough looks a little runny, you might be tempted to add more flour. Before you do this, allow the mixture to rest for a few moments! That will give the salt a chance to absorbthe extra moisture. Feel your playdough before you add any additional flour! You likely won’t need any but if your dough is sticky, add an additional 1/4 cup of flour at a time.

The children showed strong interest in the stone mill, wheat kernel and hand grinder that appeared in the classroom. How do you turn hard wheat into powder? The children remembered the last time they had experienced a soymilk mill at our Temple Fair: a heavy object made of stone. The kernel is slowly ground by adding wheat to the hole and turning the mill. The children shared happily in Chinese with their friends: "The wheat is getting smaller and smaller!", "I see flour in the basin!". There is a process of sifting and separating the wheat kernel from the flour: the children find that the fine flour can be filtered out by crushing it with a hand grinder and covering the cup with a cloth or gauze. The flour falls like snow, and the children shout: "I am a snow doll!". The children experience the traditional way food is processed, from grinding to sifting. They also share the change in the physical shape of the ingredients.

Building an outdoor fire is a unique experience. The kids had some challenges with the first outdoor fire last week, and instead of giving up, they learned a lesson: Maybe we need to try on a sunny day?Do we need more dry paper? 

This week the sun shone brightly, and the children rekindled their enthusiasm for the fire. With the teacher's help, the children cleaned up the "stove", carefully lit thepaper, put it into the "stove", and slowly added corn husks; the fire was successfully lit! The children enjoyed the outstanding achievement of making fire! Then the children set up a grill on the "stove" and placed bread wrapped in tinfoil. The wood-fired bread tasted so sweet! After that, the childrenate happily and said with their companions: "We want to put more paper in the fire!" In the process, the children explored the conditions and safety of working with fire; they were courageous and patient and also experienced grilling as one of the ways of cooking food.