Anaconda Craft

27/03/2008 (Thursday)

(i) Corner Playing and One-to-one
I allowed them to choose any games and toys for their play. JH, JS and ZYg started with trains and the railways. Then, ZY started playing his hand-made toy lion. EG joined along. ZY asked my permission to play with the big hand-made toy lion. Eg asked to play with the bells. I allowed and they pretended to be lion dance! They had fun!Meanwhile, the girls including SYu, SJ, LX and JN chose to draw and colour pictures. SYu drew her friends playing with the lion dance as she was not yet with us during the Chinese New Year thematic months. JB drew cats and balls. Meanwhile, I guided LX who forgot to do her “Numbers” homework. At the same time, I called them individually to complete their Eagle’s eyes. It involved squashing the sugar paper and then pasting. (M/I: Body-Kinesthetic, Interpersonal, Spatial, Logical-Mathematical skills) (ii) Kookaburra song and movement We sang Kookaburra song again to do reinforcement. This time, it involved games. I used the three hoops to form a big circle. They flew creatively around them. They did the actions individually. They flew very fast as they had to fly individually and were quite shy. They were very interactive at the second round.
(M/I: Body-Kinesthetic, Interpersonal, Linguistic, Musical skills)

(iii) Thread or straw?
Next, we discussed to either use a thread or a straw to hold the Eagle craft. We tried punching a hole at the top portion. Then, a thread was inserted. However, it was difficult to control as the Eagle craft was not balanced. The same result was seen on the other birds. So, we decided using the straw to hold the Eagle puppet. Thus, they pasted a straw at the bottom-middle portion of the craft. They were independent.
(M/I: Body-Kinesthetic, Interpersonal, Spatial, Logical-Mathematical skills)

(iv) Tea break
What impressed me was when the kids shared among their friends. SY was feeling sad as she had little honey for tea break. I asked if anyone could give her some of their drink. Immediately, JH, LX, JN, ZY and EG stood to give her. They also gave some to JS who did not have enough drink.
(M/I: Interpersonal, Logical-Mathematical skills)

(v) Anaconda Craft
Next, we did Anaconda craft. 2 pieces of cardboards were rolled and combined together. It was long. As the cardboard was too soft to be made into an Anaconda; I asked for their suggestions to make it firmer. ZYg suggested to put stones into the cardboard roller but I said it would be too heavy to handle as a puppet. M suggested small stones while ZY advised to put in toys. Finally, I gave them a clue. “What do your parents read everyday?” ZYg said “newspaper”. So, we started crumpling newspaper into small balls to put into the roller. They were very excited when they felt that the roller was much firmer than the previous.
(M/I: Body-Kinesthetic, Interpersonal, Spatial, Logical-Mathematical skills)

(vi) Anaconda’s skin
We used small pieces of brown colour paper and also green wrapping paper to paste around the Anaconda. They used brushes, palate and glue for this activity. Thus, they learnt new vocabulary. They were very thrilled with the brushing and gluing.
(M/I: Body-Kinesthetic, Interpersonal, Spatial skills)

(vii) Ideas: Anaconda’s tail
I asked the kid’s opininion of the tail. EG and SY said we could cut a cardboard to paste to the Anaconda’s body. Then, I told them of a hawker who sells peanuts in newspaper cone. I rolled the A4 colour paper into a cone. To make the tail firmer, they suggested adding some newspaper ball into the tail. As time was insufficient, we would continue the craft tomorrow.
(M/I: Interpersonal, Linguistic, Logical-Mathematical skills)