We went to Little Jupiter!

09/06/2008 (Monday)

a) Everyone is back!
In the morning, the kids were so happy to see all their friends back to school. Hmm...honestly, it had been 2 weeks since I had full attendance....it's real nice to have all of them back! They played with the spacecraft, toys and blocks. YP and ZY are now getting along very well. They just teased one another to get my attention. JS, SYu and SJ are now getting along rather well with all the friends. As usual, Syu, SJ, SY, LX and XR after playing for a while, they prefer drawing and colouring. EG, ZYg, WY and M seems to get along as good friends. JN is getting more patient......I just love that.
Meanwhile, I called the kids for individual assessment. Among them were ZY, SY, XR and ZJ.

b) Rhythmic Movement of “The Space”.
After clearing the toys, we played their favourite game, “Simon says do this...........do that!” ZY, XR and SY were observing the game as they were not with us last week. Today I chose 5 well-behaved kids to be “Simon”. They were YP, JW, JN, Zyg and YP. They were very funny. They were able to take instructions well. Next, we did the Rhythmic Movement of “The Space”. This time, we did with some music background. However, before that; I wrote the key words or instructions on the white board. They were
1. Wake up time.
2. Brushing teeth.
3. Changing into the astronaut uniform.
4. Getting into the rocket.
5. Countdown and zooming.
6. On the moon.
7. Rocks and a friendly alien.
8. Zooming back to Earth.

c) Which is the biggest planet?
After tea break, we gathered together. We sang the song “Planets”. The reason was for the kids to remember the Solar System especially after the weekends. Then, I had a riddle with them. “We are now on one of the planets. I am the biggest planet in the Solar System? Which planet am I?” Immediately, YP called out, “Jupiter”.
I asked them to guess how many moons a Jupiter has. Jupiter has 16 moons, 3 fine rings. Jupiter is the biggest planet that it can contain the other 7 planets of Solar System. Its surface is covered with gas. Thus, no spacecraft can land there as it will sink. It has thick clouds of red, white, pink and yellow colour. I told them that I am going to bring them to Jupiter. They didn't believe me. I told them, it is going to be a small Jupiter. They still didn't believe me.

d) Experiment on Jupiter
Thus, we gathered to have an experiment. Its objective is to find out the colours of Jupiter's surface. Firstly, I introduced some vocabulary. They included: i) milk, ii) red and yellow colouring, iii) a container, iv) some detergent.
The kids said the instructions after me:
1. Take a container.
2. Pour some vanilla milk.
3. Add two drops of red and yellow colouring each.
4. Add a drop of detergent onto each dropping.
RESULT:
Immediately, the colours dispersed. Then, I shaked the mixture. I asked the kids for the colours changes. There were red, white yellow and pink......so that is the colour of Jupiter's surface! They enjoyed it that I did the experiment 3 times, using different brands of detergent. The stronger detergent will cause greater dispersion of colours.

e) Worksheet reinforcement
Next, I reinforced the colours with a worksheet. I coloured the “Jupiter” planet. I also introduced “The Great Spot”. It was a great whirlwind storm that lasted for 300 years. We will colour it tomorrow as we didn't have sufficient time.