The King of the Jungle

12/03/08 (Wednesday)

(i) Writing
After the playground, the kids marched into the classroom and drank their water. Today, we did writing on “c, o, a” which is a reinforcement of what they had done since last week. LX volunteered to write “o” on the board but it was anti-clockwise. Thus, I reminded everyone.
The exercise instructed the kids to colour differently for different lettered picture. ZY, SYu, JN, JW were independent. I am proud to see JW’s improvement. ZJ, ZY, JH required more attention. When it comes to writing, I would spend more time with LX, JH, ZJ, JS and ZY so as to try persistently.
(MI: Body-Kinesthetic, Intrapersonal and Spatial skills)

(ii) Story-telling: The Cuddly Friends
As JW’s mother bought him a book last week, I shared with the class because every animal picture enabled the child to touch its fur. They were excited to feel the different fur type of a cat, rabbit, hamster, dog and a bird.
Then, I asked them to recall a mammal’s features. ZY and JN talked about fur. I highlighted about hair too. I asked them, “Do rabbits lay eggs or give birth?” A few said they lay eggs. The others objected! Another feature was warm-blooded animals. So, they recalled some of the animals which included monkeys, tigers, hippopotamuses and cats.
(MI: Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, Linguistic, Body-Kinesthetic, Naturalist skills)

(iii) The Lion
Next, I gave them a riddle:
“I am strong and fast, I use my sharp claws to kill animals,
I have thick mane, I am the King Of The Jungle, Who am I?”
They had to answer, “Are you a…….?”
JN and ZY got the correct answer. Some asked if it was a snake or hippopotamus. Haaa……of course, I waited for them to ask me questions about “mane” and “claws”. So, the answer was “lion”.
Then, we learnt its features including “tail, claws, legs, paws, whiskers and mane”. Some said misai instead of whiskers and they laughed, realizing it was Bahasa Malaysia. ZY automatically mentioned that a monkey too has got a tail. JS said a cat too while ZY said a gorilla does not have a tail. The others were unsure. So, we thought of asking the zookeeper when visiting the zoo or safari.
(MI: Linguistic, Intrapersonal, Interpersonal, Naturalist skills)



(iv) Craft: The lion puppet
After tea-break, I showed the kids my lion puppet. They were very happy. ZY said that we could use it and hide under the table. JN said that we could have a background so the audience can't see us.
Thus, I showed them the steps to make the lion craft. They required a long rectangle colour paper which is to be folded into half. Then, cut along the folded line. Next, a lion's face is to be drawn on one of the pieces. A pair of scissors is used to cut the mane. The other piece is to be rolled to form the lion's body. Next, paste the two parts. A tail and some whiskers are also to be added using colour paper.
Today's activity only witnessed LX, JH, ZJ, JS and ZY asking for guidance. The others were quite independent. In fact, M, ZY, YZ, SYu and YW made two.
(MI: Linguistic, Intrapersonal, Intrapersonal, Body-Kinesthetic, Spatial skills)