The Elephant Song and Numbers

21/03/08 (Friday)

(i) Corner Playing and Individual session
This morning, SJie was crying and mother resisted to pamper her. So, initially, I persuaded her. It didn't work and the loud cry signalled me to be more stern. As she did not want to be left behind, she held to my hand and followed me up. The other kids hid under the table, eagerly waiting for me. After drinking their water, they chose their play. JH, ZYg, JS and played with the toy animals and trains. SYu, SY, SJ, LX, EG and ZY preferred drawing and colouring. Meanwhile, I checked their previous phonics homework. I guided ZJ and WY on writing their names. Meanwhile, JW arrived with tears and his mum had to stay there with him for a while. Later, he was just independent and comfortable with toy animals.(M/I: Logical-Mathematical, Body-Kinesthetic, Spatial skills) (ii) Short riddles Before tea-break, I did a few short riddles with them. They were:

(a) I swing through trees. What am I? (YZ, ZY, YW could answer promptly. The others were unsure of the word, "swing". )
(b) I swim across the ocean. What am I? (JN said ducks while JH said octopuses. I said it was a good answer but they have tails and are smaller. EG and SY answered fish.)
(c) I scratch at fleas, sniff at trees and bark at the mailman. What am I?(They learnt that "kutu" is "flea" in Bahasa Malaysia an dthat a mailman sends letters to homes. Upon learning the word, "bark"; immediately they said it is a "dog".
(d) I curl up on the window sill purring and chasing mice. What am I? (M and WY said cat because it chases mice. They also learnt the word "purr".)
(e) I like saying, Cock-a-doodle-doo! What am I? (SY, YZ and JN said it is a rooster.)
(f) I reach into beehives for the honey. What am I? (The word honey stimulated most students with the answer, 'bear".)
(g) I jump up high to catch a fly and sit on a lilypad. What am I? (I explained "lilypad" and related it to lotus. Immediately, EG and YW said frogs. They were so excited because one of our tadpoles had grown legs.
(M/I: Logical-Mathematical, Linguistic, Interpersonal skills)

(iii) The Elephant Song and documentary
After tea-break, we gathered at the hall to watch a video clip on "The Elephant Song". They loved it so much that I repeated 3 times. The song involved Uncle Eric's singing and a little girl. Uncle Eric described the animals wrongly and my kids just laughed at them! This showed that they understood the song! Glance at the lyrics:

"Elephants. I like elephants.Elephants. I like elephants.I like how they swing through trees
Monkeys. I like monkeys.I like how they swim in the ocean
Fish. I like fish. (low)I like how they scratch at fleas and sniff at trees and bark at the mailman
Gotta like dogs.(high)Curled up on the windowsill purring, and chasing mice
Cats. I like cats. (equal)I like how they say, Cock-a-doodle-doo!
Roosters. I like roosters.I like how they reach into beehives for the honey
Bears. I like bears.I like how they jump up high to catch a fly and sit on a lilypad
Gotta like frogs. (hi)Running through a maze for some cheese
Mice. I like mice.I like how they say, hee-haw, hee-haw
Donkeys, I like donkeys,I like how they stomp through the jungle with their big gray trunks
Elephants. I like elephants.You know nothing about animals......I do so..."

Then, we spent another 10 minutes watching animal documentary. As we made crocodile puppets, so they watched crocodiles to get better picture. ZYg said, "It's very fierce." YZ said, "It's fast". So, we recapped on the word, "scales" for its skin. LX said it looked like many round bulges. It killed the "yak" and antelopes and were very quiet when hunting. The baby crocodiles feed on fish and frogs.
(M/I: Linguistic, Interpersonal, Naturalist, Musical skills)

(iii) Numbers and Marbles
Then, we went up to the classroom. We recapped "The Elephant song" and more kids sang this round. I figured that the other kids were still trying to understand the song. Then, we did revision on number 1 until 10. I took a bottle of marbles and invited every kid to place them in a container according to my chosen number. They were independent at counting but not at writing yet. So, I wrote on the board and they followed my strokes. Then, I called everyone individually to write on the board. SR, ZJ, JH, LX, SJ and WY needed some guidance. ZY wrote wrong strokes for "8" while ZJ for "4". Then, I handed them a number worksheet of "1" until "10".
(M/I: Logical-Mathematical, Body-Kinesthetic, Spatial skills)