Manners and Riddles

10/04/08 (Thursday)

(i) Playground
These days, the kids would ask for 3 rounds of running whenever they see me. However, I told them to go for fewer rounds if they were tired. Then, they fed the fish and played with the other playground equipment. I was very happy to see M came early. In fact, he joined us for the run and was enjoying himself.
(M/I: Body-Kinesthetic, Interpersonal and Logical-Mathematical skills)

(ii) The Blindfolded Game
They drank their water after hiding under the table. Then, they asked to play with toys I checked their homework. After 15 minutes, I introduced the “blindfold” game. I first chose JN and blindfolded her. She turned 5 rounds The other kids scattered around quietly. Once JN grabbed a friend, she had to guess what his or her name is. JN would ask, “Who are you?” and she will listen carefully.. If she guesses correctly, she will pass the blindfolded cloth to that particular friend. Otherwise, she has to play another round until she guesses correctly. They enjoyed the game.
(M/I: Body-Kinesthetic, Interpersonal and Logical-Mathematical skills)

(iii) Poem: “A Good Word”
We recited a poem on “A Good Word”. Let’s take a look:

When we say a good word,
The flower will bloom,
When we say a bad word,
The snake’s tongue will hiss out,
How horrible is that!

A few of my kids like saying some unpleasant words including: “Mine is nicer” and “stupid”. Luckily, those words are rarely spoken. But if ignored, I fear that it will worsen! In fact, I had a role-play; whereby I asked JH to perform. I pretended to scold him “stupid” and he was very angry. He scolded me back and the quarrel never ended. In fact, in most cases, they would end up hitting or crying.
The objective was to let them know that it’s hurtful to be scolded. So, when we say good words; people will not scold us. In fact, they love us more.
M/I: Linguistic, Body-Kinesthetic, , Intrpaersonal. Interpersonal and Logical-Mathematical skills)

(iv) Riddles
We had the last part of riddles. They listened to me and then read together with me. I underlined the key words so that they could understand the riddles even better.
The two riddles were:
“I am small and cute,
I have brownish fur,
I eat grains and worms, I will bite when I am scared,
What am I?”

“I can run fast,
I roar and have sharp claws,
I am a good hunter,
I have orange and black stripes,
What am I?”

In the first riddle, they thought of cute animals. JN said “rabbit”, EG said “hamster”and XR said “cat”. I said it looks like a mouse but doesn’t like cheese. Most of them got the answer, “hamster”.
In the second riddle, they learnt words including roar, hunter and stripes. ZYg said a cheetah cannot roar but ZY and M said they can roar. I explained that cheetahs can roar and in fact are faster runner than tigers. The phrase “orange and black stripes” was a good clue. Immediately, they said “tiger”.
Then, I gave them their worksheets and they cut and pasted the pictures.
(M/I: Linguistic, Interpersonal, Naturalist and Logical-Mathematical skills)