World Book Day

23/04/2008 (Wednesday)

(i) I have books!
Today, everyone was showing off their books. As I entered the kindergarten, “Teacher Jen, look…my book, my book!” Anyhow, I got them to the playground to play first. Then, we marched to the classroom with most of them holding 2 books each. Haa……just like bookworms!
(M/I: Linguistic, Interpersonal skills)

(ii) Does a tree have a mouth?
We kicked off the day with trees’ vocabulary. I drew a big tree. I got them to talk about the different parts. Most importantly, they realized that plants drink through their roots as they do not have any mouth. They learnt that dead leaves are yellow in colour. The trees need water, good air and sunlight to grow, The vocabulary learnt included trunk, root, branch and leaves. Then, we talked about their little tree that they brought home. Some planted in a big pot while the others planted in the soil. Then, I gave each of them a worksheet about a tree. They coloured the tree and learnt to recognize the vocabulary.
(M/I: Linguistic, Naturalist, Interpersonal skills)

(iii) Continued: Recycled Newspaper.
Meanwhile, I called the kids individually to continue with the making of recycled newspaper. WY was the only kid who resisted to make it as he said it was disgusting. I had to persuade him a lot. Finally, he did it! The other kids called included ZY, JS, JN, SYu, SJ, XR, SC, M and YP. Then, they used some glue to decorate their paper. I reminded them to make it as thin as possible so that it looks more like a paper.
(M/I: Linguistic, Intrapersonal, Body Kinesthetic, Naturalist skills)

(iv) World Book Day
After tea break, the kids gathered in a circle and listened to a story in conjunction with World’s Books Day. They were very attentive especially with a knight's face on the whiteboard, wearing an armour and carrying a shield and a sword. He fought the dragon which haunted the City of Calisto in Spain. People were fearful until the knight killed the dragon successfully. The Princess then rewarded the knight hero a book which symbolized POWER and KNOWLEDGE. From this story, the children learnt that people who read are knowledgeable and clever.
(M/I: Linguistic, Intrapersonal, Logical Mathematical skills)

(v) Exchanging Books
Then, they formed a circle. Each kid introduced their books. They could say the title or why they loved that book. Otherwise they could say about their favourite page. Most kids were shy to even speak up and needed lots of encouragement. I would post them questions so they try to speak up. The more independent kids were JS, YZ, ZY, M, J, SYu, JW, JN and YP. During this process, the kids used these sentences: Kid A: Can we exchange book?Kid B: No, thank you.Kid A: It's okay.Kid A: Can we exchange book?Kid C: Okay.Kid A: Here you are.Kid C: Here you are.Kid A and Kid C: Thank you. During the exchange, J decided not to participate as he was so obsessed with his favourite book. I respected his choice. It was about how a shark saved the dying small fishes from pollution. The others were attracted to his book too. JN and YW were very picky and couldn't decide which book to choose. I had to convince them persistently. Eventually, they made their choices.
(M/I: Linguistic, Intrapersonal, Interpersonal, Body Kinesthetic, Naturalist skills)