Hand-made Recycling Bins

29/04/2008 (Tuesday)

(i) Trees Vocabulary
After running around, they were thirsty. So, they drank more water. This morning, we started the class with a dream. I told them of my imaginary dream……which really attracted them. I was floating in the clouds. I could see the mother and baby Polar Bears. They were crying. They didn’t answer my questions. The blowing wind made me cold. Suddenly, the sun appeared and smiled. Then, a rainbow was formed. I slided along the rainbow to find a mother bird carrying its baby in a bg. The baby couldn’t fly. Again, they were crying. Next, there was an elephant in the hot air ballon. It was also crying. I prayed and a leaf carrying a bean flew to me. The wind whispered to me so that I plant the bean. I arrived home. I planted the bean and watered it every day. It grew and years later, I invited my friends to play under the tree. Next, I drew a big tree. We talked about the different parts included trunk, root, leaves and branch. Then, they took turns to try writing on the whiteboard.
(M/I: Linguistic, Logical-Mathematical, Interpersonal, Naturalist skills)

(ii) Worksheet
Next, the kids took their worksheet which they coloured last week. Today,they learned to label the parts. ZY, SY, SYu, SJ, JN were determined and independent. The other kids needed more individual guidance. Next, they also coloured a picture with 4 different trees. They were a coconut tree, a sad bald tree, an apple tree and a pine tree.
(M/I: Linguistic, Logical-Mathematical, Interpersonal, Naturalist skills)

(iii) Hand-made Recycling Bins
First, we recapped on the 3 different colours for each Rcycling Bin. Then, I took some rough paper to reuse them. I took out 3 boxes. I then poured some glue. I put some glue on a piece of paper and pasted onto a box. I told them not to put too much glue as it would be very messy and sticky. They were divided into 3 groups. I chose ZY, SY and SYu to be the leaders for this round. The kids would choose to go to their favourite group. 6 kids in a group altogether. SY's group did the Plastic Recycling Bin, SYu's group did the Glass Recycling Bin while ZY's group did the Paper Recycling Bin. I valued the group from 3 aspects. 1) Teamwork, 2) Discipline, 3) The Product. Points will be given. Initially, SY's group was noisy as JN and SY tend to argue. Furthermore their loud voice tend to make them the dominators. However, they managed to work well as a group; after reminding them of the points to be collected. In fact, they produced the neatest box! SYu's group was rather noisy at the beginning. Then, I assisted them in the job's segregation. They then became more focused. ZY's group was noisy at the earlier stage but after a while, they were very focused! The box was quite neat. I guided them to cut the extra A4 paper which couldn't cover the whole box. SY and ZY's group scored 23 while SYu's group scored 22. Pheww.....they were excited.
(M/I: Linguistic, Logical-Mathematical, Interpersonal, Body-Kinesthetic, Spatial, Naturalist skills)

(iv) Placement of recycled items
The kids poured the items they brought from home. Then, we segregated them and placed into the relevant boxes. Well, they were so detailed that by the end of the class, you can't even find any bits of paper on the floor........
(M/I: Linguistic, Logical-Mathematical, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, Body Kinesthetic skills)