How did the geologists know……?

15/07/2008 (Tuesday)

a) I learnt to share.
* LX brought a dinosaur book and shared with her friends. Initially, she didn’t want to share with JS and JW. LX said, “I don’t want to share.” I said, “Well, maybe you should keep it at home or pass it to the teacher; so that I can share with everyone. Otherwise, you should share because that makes you a more generous person.” She chose to share. In fact; ZYg, and JS shared her book to draw dinosaurs. They were happier. SJ and ZY also drew pictures.
* Meanwhile, Yz, EG, WY, JH made dinosaurs’ nest. They said they want more dinosaurs in the class…haaaa!
* XR, YP and ZJ helped me with the class decoration. We pasted the letters which the kids cut the other day. They gave me cellophane tape and pasted onto colour papers. Now the class has a big title of “DINOSAUR”.

(b) Poem and English Reciting Program
* We recap on the poem on “The Dinosaur”. They quickly asked that someone be a dinosaur. So,
JH became a dinosaur and stood by the door.
Would you open your door
To a Dinosaur?
Would you open it wide and say, “Hi”?
Would you welcome him in?
Would you say with a smile,
“I’m so very happy you came by".
* Next, we recited the “ABCs”. This time, they focused from letter A to M. Among the words learnt were
A: apple C: cat D: dog F: father, flower
G: garden H: horse M: mother
Then the kids took turns to draw the pictures individually. They enjoyed looking at ZY’s “mother” picture. They said, she looks like a skeleton. YP’s father was also funny and cute.
The storyline: “The father and mother were in the garden of flowers. They had a cat. Suddenly, a horse neighed. Where did the horse come from?” We shall continue the story in the next lesson.

c) A plant-eater’s protections
* After tea break, I asked, “how did a meat-eater dinosaur kill for the meat?” ZYg said, “They had sharp teeth.” M said, “They had sharp claws.” I asked, “How did a plant-eater dinosaur protect itself?” ZY answered, “They used their tails and heads.”
* We read through a storybook entitled, “DINOSAURS’. There were short sentences. The kids learnt sentences like:
“They had plates. Some had spikes. Their tails were very strong. Some had strong jaws.”
* The kids recapped on some dinosaurs’ names included “Sterosaurus, Triceratops, Ankylosaurus, T-Rex and Camarasaurus”.

d) Excuse me, Teacher……..?
* M asked, “How did the geologist know the dinosaurs’ names?”
YZ asked, “Why are the geologist so clever?”
Teacher, “The dinosaurs’ names were given based on their features. Example: triceratops had three horns. So, “Tri” means three. Ankylosaurus looked like an army. So, the name was related to the army. Some dinosaurs names were given based on where their bones were found. They also follow the names of places.”
* M asked, “How did they know that Diplodocus were so tall?”
Teacher, “From the fossils or bone found from the underground. Some were taller than jaya Jusco, Bukit Tinggi. In fact, their eggs were as big as footballs.”
* Most dinosaurs did not take care of their children. Thus, the babies would walked immediately after hatched.

d) Team work: Jurassic Park.
* There were 20 pictures of different dinosaurs. The kids chose their favourite to colour them. After colouring, they had to write their names on a small colour paper. The plant eaters were green paper while the meat eaters were pink paper.
* Objective: i)Kids take the effort to find the dinosaurs’ colour from books.
ii) Kids learnt to look at words “plant-eaters” or “meat-eaters”.
iii) Kids learnt to observe the dinosaurs’ features.
iv) Kids learnt to write the dinosaurs’ names. Those who were unready, they cut the
names and pasted on the dinosaur.
* M was enthusiastic. He kept asking me the pronunciation of “Megalosaurus, Velociraptor”. Zyg, YP, JN, ZY, JS, JW, J, SC, SYu, SJ were among the more independent kids. I was happy to see the improvement in WY and XR. They are now more focused and able to understand instructions more! Good work!
* Then, the kids pasted the dinosaurs on the notice board. If they come early in the morning, They can play with the dinosaurs!