The Sick Bear

Monday (29/06/2009)

a) Storybook: The Sick Bear
l A wonderful story about a sick bear. It felt tired, very warm and kept groaning. This could due to the strong wind that kept blowing in the season of Autumn. The bear’s friends included hare, mouse, owls, crows, moles were very concerned. They covered him with a blanket, took turns to put a wet towel on its forehead, boiled warm water for it and also sang lullabies for the bear. After a few days, the bear was still groaning and sick (the kids said it was the moment white blood cells attacked the bacteria)。 Using their intelligence skill, the birds searched for herbs and boiled for the bear. The friends didn’t sleep well because taking good care of the bear.
l The next day, the bear healed but the flu bacteria already infected its friends. Thus, they started coughing and sneezing. The bear remembering how wonderful his friends were; now in turn took good care of its friends.
l Along the story, the kids connected themselves that when they were sick, sometimes they mumbled and groaned. Now, they could relate better to the immune system they learnt last week.

b) Encyclopedia: Our Brain
* Our brain weighs about 1.4 kg yet it is the most important organ in our body. It consists
of 2 hemispheres and controls so many of our activities.
l Vocabulary: Cerebrum, Cerebellum, Brainstem and Hypothalamus. They have their own functions.
l Among the cortex brain’s functions: to govern sight, muscle movement, touch and taste, eye movement, smell, hearing and also speech.

c) Video Clip
l We watched clips on the Nervous System that includes spinal cord, nerves and the brain.
l Kids learnt that nerves are like small roads linked to the spinal cord such as highway. When we faced different situations, our reflexes will send messages to the nerves and flow through spinal cords which then trigger the neurons of the brain. The brain will then send messages through neurons to the nerves which affect our muscles to respond.
l Then, we listened and watched a music clip of Discovery Channel, “I Love The World”. It was an exciting song with wonderful pictures. After watching, I asked if the kids could recall the pictures they saw. Wow…they were quite good! Eugene: I can see an astronaut. Justin: I can see the giant squid. Jen Ning: I can see some people dancing around the fire. Jien Wei: I can see the aranichd. The list goes on!

d) Blindfold and Balancing
· The kids learnt that “cerebellum” controls our balancing.
· Each kid finds a partner. One of them is blindfolded. The other friend guided them to the staircase. They climbed excitedly and carefully. Then, they walked down again.
· Part of our brain monitors our sight and plus the cerebellum, that explains why it was quite challenging to climb without seeing with our eyes.