Farewell and Malay Culture

29/08/2008 (Friday)

a) Farewell girls!
* Before Corner Playing, the kids were reminded that SYu and YP would go to Year 6 starting from next Tuesday. They were kind of puzzled…….how would the class be without them?....
YP : Aiyoh, Teacher Jenny. We will still see you all……we are just next door…….haaaa!
* The kids read through some words to be assessed later: dinosaurs, river, volcano, plant-eater, meat-eater, Stegosaurus, Triceratops, T-Rex, Liopleurodon, Pteranodon, long, tall.
* The kids chose their play. Some kids preferred to draw and colour including SJ, JN, LX and ZY.

b) Eating with fingers.
* MERDEKA is this Sunday. We have talked about the 3 main races.
* Today, we talked about Malay cultures.
* Traditionally, in villages; Malays sit on mats to eat their meals.
EG : They use hands to eat.
ZY : We must wash our hands cleanly.
* Thus, Chinese and Indians would respect the Malays and usually eat with their hands when dine at the Malays homes. Similarly, The Malays and Indians also learnt to eat with chopsticks. Thuis, when loving and working together, MERDEKA has a greater meaning!
* The children sat in a circle on the mat. They wash their hands cleanly and each given a bowl with some Nsi Lmak. ZY and M actually asked for chili……haaaa!
* Initially, they felt awkward but then were happy seeing their friends’ gestures of eating with hands.

c) A small farewell party.
* We celebrated “Farewell” to Yee Ping and Shi Yun They were amazed to see the delicious chocolate cake with grapes and strawberries. We sang “I Love You” and “31 Ogos”. They were very excited and blew the candles together.
* They distributed the cakes to teachers and enjoyed the balance by themselves.

d) Fasting month
T : 2 important things would happen this weekend and next week.
ZY : Merdeka!
YP : Also Mooncake.
T : Mooncake is 2 weeks time. It’s the Malays fasting month. What is fasting month?
Class: We don’t know.
* They learnt that Malays do not eat and drink for about 14 hours. I used the clock to demo the length of time. They were very puzzled.
SYu : Why teacher?
* I asked them to find out the answer from their family.
T : So, you will be seeing many Malay people selling all types of “kuihs”.
One month later, they will celebate this occasion. Look at these cards.
* those were “Hari Raya” cards. They could see fireworks, kuihs, many happy people and ketupats.
ZY : It’s like New Year.
T : Yes, it’s Selamat Hari Raya.