A tree for our Camarasaurus

11/07/2208 (Friday)

a) We learnt to play together.
* Before 8.30a.m. today, the kids played sand at the sand pit. They were very happy.
* Kids went into the classroom. Played hide and seek; pretending to be “Camarasaurus” dinosaur.
* Everyone played with dinosaurs. Again, J, XR, SYu and SJ preferred cooking for everyone. In fact, I overheard that SC, SJ and YW called SYu “mama”. Haaa….!
* Less complaints of “not sharing”. JW and ZJ snatched JN’s dinosaurs. She was having so many and didn’t want to share. I told her to involve the JW and ZJ in her play. She was okay after that. Some pretended to be plant-eaters. Some as meat-eaters.
* I checked their homework. M and ZJ didn’t bring back to school. YP brought but forgot to do. LX didn’t do the second page. So, I guided LX. YP had to do her work rather than playing. Both ZJ and M were forfeited to arrange the tables, chairs and sweep the floor. They learnt the word, “responsible” today.

b) Poem: A Dinosaur At The Door
* We did a short poem. First, they listened to me. Then, they read along. The third time, they read independently without my guidance. Along the way, they asked me questions about the words.
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”?
* All the kids sad they would welcome the dinosaur except LX…ha! YZ said, “How can a tall dinosaur come into the house?” Teacher said, “Maybe, it’s a small dinosaur.” Zyg, “What f it eats people?” Teacher, “It’s a Camarasaurus, a plant eater.” They laughed.
* I invited a 6-year old boy to be the dinosaur. He knocked the door. We opened the door ajar. We recited the poem with actions while looking at the dinosaur at the door.

c) Our Jurassic Park
* ZJ was the only kid who brought leaves today. The kids were divided into groups to do different tasks.
* YZ, M, JS, ZYg coloured the tree trunk. SC, SYu, JW cut the letters of “D I N O S A U R” to decorate the class. YP, JN and ZY drew leaves as we didn’t have enough leaves. The others cut the leaves.
* Then, they assisted me to put on cellophane tape. I pasted it on the high wall. The kids queued uo to put on cellophanetape onto the green leaves while I pasted them onto the tree branches. JH said, “Wow, it’s so beautiful”. I also pasted ZJ’s real leaves onto the wall. It looked like the “Camarasaurus” is really eating the leaves…..wow!

d) A special leaf.
* I introduced a type of leaf. It grows roots by its side when kept within pages of a book. I am still searching for its English name. I couldn’t find it on the website. Anyway, the kids were excited. ZY quickly put into his Dinosaur Encyclopedia which he lent to me. The others kept in their bags. They would observe the leaves in ten days time.

e) Stickers and awards.
* As we had insufficient time, we didn’t continue watching the “Dinosaur” movie. So, we talked a little about our Jurassic Park. We would add some mountains and volcanoes onto the park. We would also place the meat and plant - eaters’ dinosaurs.
* Next, I awarded the kids with dinosaurs’ stickers. They were responsive with their chairs after tea-break. More responsible. They were very excited. However, I would only give the stckers to M, YW, JW and JH at 5.30 p.m. as they were quite playful in the class.