More Road Signs.

Wednesday (27/06/2012)

a)      Songs: Twinkle Twinkle Traffic Lights.

l       This song is following the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Stars. The kids find it easy and nice.

b)      Road Signs.

l       We continued with some signs. They were:

-T-junction, Y-junction. Kids compared them to Crossroads.

- Roundabouts. – Speed Limit and the meaning.

- No overtaking.    –Narrow road in front.          - No waiting.

- No entry.             - No Bus Parking.                -No Car Parking.

- No Motorbikes Parking.

* Kids related the signs to their experience. Yi Han said she would pass by the sign “No Entry” on the way back home. Some kids said their parents would speed at yellow light which is very dangerous.

* Kids also learnt about GPS. Yee Xuan said even handphones have got GPS.

c)       Road Construction.

l       Ever since the Role-Play on Road that day, kids have been asking if they could play it again.

l       Of course but only with proper Road Signs and road borders.

l       First, we sketched the road town again. Then, the buildings around it such as Car Workshop, Police Station, Banks, school etc. Today, we added Road Signs such as Zebra Crossing.

l       Kids chose their tasks. Some prepared Road Signs, some made traffic lights, some build road borders, some set up places such as Playground, restaurants and Jaya Jusco.

l       Rei suggested that we use string for road borders. It’s a good idea because they can be kept easily and not that messy! Tomorrow, we shall play with full momentum! It’s really fun! 

Traffic Light Song

Twinkle, twinkle traffic light
Shining on the corner bright.
When it's green it's time to go;
When it's red it's STOP! you know.
Twinkle, twinkle traffic light
Shining on the corner bright. 
"Stop!" says the Red light,
"Go!" says the Green.
"Wait!" says the Yellow,
Till the light is Green.

Tow Car

Tuesday (26/06/2012)

a)     
A Guest.

l       We were lucky to have Kuang Cheng’s father to show and tell us about his Tow Truck. Kuang Cheng is a 5-year old kid.

l       The Tow Truck has got 5 gears externally. The gear is to control the steel to tow cars. It also controls the chain to pull vehicles which had fallen into drains and etc. It has a tool box externally to keep important tools such as longer and bigger chains and jumpers. The kids tried pressing the jumper…but…woh….it was so hard!

l       Our class were very interested with the number of tyres on it. There were 8 tyres altogether with 2 spare tyres. The kids said the parts below the truck was big as they peeped under the truck. The engine is 4.3 while a normal MyVi is 1.3. The truck could even tow a gas lorry with the change of truck’s chain.

l       Mr. Lim is a mechanic but had been driving Tow Truck as his part-time as he thinks it’s a way to do business.

b)     
Towing MyVi.

l       Mr. Lim showed the kids how to tow my car. First I drove my car near the truck. Mr. Lim adjusted the truck steel so that I could drive my wheels onto them. Then, he adjusted pulled his gear as to lift my car. Kids were excited and asked if her really wanted to tow my car. Luckily, it was just a demonstration.

c)       Discussion.

l       In the afternoon, we had a discussion. A Tow Car is to tow vehicles which are broken down or spoilt. Banks also towed cars which were not paid by buyers.

l       There are a few types of Trucks. They are: Pick-up truck, Monster truck and Delivery truck. Bigger Tow Trucks are used to tow bigger vehicles.

d)      Speed Boat Balloon.

l       Kids continued with the Dragon Boat craft. Today, kids practiced blowing the balloons from a straw. Most kids already mastered the method. Yi Han, Yu Xi, Jia Jia, Jun Qian and Wei Lok found it difficult. However, they kept trying. Finally, Yi Han and Jun Qian managed to do it. They wee so happy!

l      
We pasted the straw balloon to the paper boat. We had pair competition. The simifinalsit were Rei, Si Suen, Xing En and Shang Hong. The finalist were Rei and Xing En. Xing En won and was crowned the champion! Hooray!

e)       Cartoon Movie: Cars 2.

l       Many car were excited to participate in Grand Prix Racing in Japan. Lightning McQueen was one of them. We watched their travelling adventures in Japan. They were groomed or painted and polished. They used eco-petrol which could is friendly to the Earth. Many other normal cars went to support them. 

Qu Yuan, the great poet.

Thursday (21/06/2012)

a)      Story-telling.

l       Kids gathered in a group to tell fellow friends the Legend of Dragon Boat Festival or “Duan Wu Festival” or “Rice Dumpling Festival”.

l       Every kid was encouraged to tell parts of the story. Each kid must try speaking fluently in English. Marks were given as encouragement. Ying Qiao was a great example because she spoke fluently in English. For vocabulary that she didn’t know of, she spoke in Mandarin. I helped her with those phrases.

l       The kids’ version was almost perfect except that they mixed up some facts.

b)      Qu Yuan, the great poet.

l       Qu Yuan was born in the Chu Dynasty. He was a great poet, a kind man and a great teacher. He helped his people a lot. Everyone loved him including the King. Jealousy aroused and they betrayed Qu Yuan. The King believed the traitors and expelled Qu Yuan out of Chu Kingdom. He had to lived in other states. He continued to write poems and became a famous poet. However, a few years later when Chu Dynasty was conquered by Qi Dynasty; Qu Yuan felt that he was useless at defending his country. He felt depressed and jumped into “Miluo River”. Some villagers saw him and quickly rowed boats to save him. They threw rice in to the river to avoid fish from feeding on Qu Yuan’s body. However, they failed at finding Qu Yuan. That night, a friend of Qu Yuan dreamt of him. Qu Yuan asked for triangle or pyramid shaped dumplings to scare away a dragon in the river; which was dangerous to Qu Yuan. The next day, the villagers threw dumplings as instructed. Thus, people celebrate Dragon Festival or Duan Wu Festival on the 5^th. day of the Chinese calendar 5^th. month.This year is 23/06/2012 on Saturday.

c)       The Poisonous Animals.

l       On this day, legend said that 5 poisonous animals would be out and threaten people. They were snakes, toads, scorpions, centipede and lizards. The reason is because the Earth is the neaerest to the Sun on this day. Thus, these animals are everywhere. To defend oneself, Chinese people do praying rituals to scare them away. They believed dragons are the most powerful animal as it brings rain to the hot day.

l       On this day, the gravity is the strongest. Thus, eggs can stand easily on the floor. It is believed 2 days before Duan Wu Festival already shows good signs of strong gravity. Thus, kids and I went experimenting the egg on the floor. I did it! Alisa got it too! Very few kids got it because the gravity is still not that strong. So, everyone; let’s experiment on Saturday noon!

d)      Video Clip: Dragon Boat.

l       We watched a clip to have a better idea about Dragon Boat.

Role Play: A Town Map.

Wednesday (20/06/2012)

a)      Street Routes.

l       We compared the meaning of alley, road, highway, flyover, overhead bridge.

l       Kids and I brainstormed a street map that similar to our town. As we were doing that, more associated vocabulary appeared.

b)      A Town map.

l       We sketched on the board. There was a T-junction. Hiro suggested traffic lights. Alisa said there is number on the traffic light top. “Stop at red, Go at green”! We thought of buildings at each corner. There was a petrol station, school, restaurant, car workshop and also Jaya Jusco.

l       Further up, there’s a roundabout. We chose not to have traffic lights at this roundabout. There’s a big park and police station near here.

c)       Role-Play.

l       We transformed the classroom into a big town following the sketch on the whiteboard.

l       We arranged chairs as street borders. 4 kids volunteered as traffic light. 1 kid as traffic police, 5 kids as cars while the other kids acted as Jaya Jusco, police station, school, etc.

l       The kids changed roles after 15 minutes. We changed roles for 3 times. They really had a great time.

l       The kids implemented their rules as they play along. Shang Hong, Si Suen and Hiro started doing countdown in order to change the traffic light colour. They even notified Xiang Wei the traffic police when someone goes against the traffic rules. The driver became very careful. However, Rei was a very careless driver who kept driving against the red lights. She was brought to the police station to pay so many summonses. The police officer asked for her driving license.

l       At some point, the traffic lights were faulty and immediately the technician came to repair. Traffic police came to ease the situation.

l       When cars broke down, mechanics came by to repair them.

l       When the cars needed petrol, they went to pump at petrol station. It was so fun!

Streets

Monday（18/06/2012）

a)      How was your Father’s Day?

Kids: Good!    Jun Qian: We bought a strawberry cake for father.

Kai Song: We also ate a delicious cake.

Rei: I gave dad the salad on Friday and the Car Card on Saturday.

Yi Han: My father said the perfume smelled bad.               Si Suen: My father said it smelt good!

Class: Laughed! J

b)      Picture Cards.

l       We recalled the car wash last Friday. We recapped vocabulary learnt.

Internal car parts: steering, gear dashboard, aircond (air-conditioner), window, car lock, signal, door lock, brake.

External car part: car remote system, windscreen, wipers, headlight, boot, hood, engine, wheels, tyre, petrol cover.

c)       More about cars.

*Steering adjusts the wheels. Turn the steering to right and the wheels will turn right and vice versa.

*Car lock: Protects the car from being stolen.

*Xiang Wei described about the car remote alarm. Wei Lok and Hiro added on.

d)      Road or Street and Highway.

l       I asked the kids to brainstorm streets that they know of. These included Highway, flyover, steep street like slide and also tunnels.

l       Rei suggested that we used boxes to make roads. I brought in cardboards but kids said that they were too soft for cars. We followed Rei’s idea and wow….it worked well! The kids immediately took some blocks to make into a cube telling me that that’s the parking lot! J

l       I let the kids experiment with transportation toys. They made roads for all sort of cars. They also assembled train railway! It was fun!

Car Wash

Friday (15/06/2012)

a)          Engine parts.

·             The kids observed 2 cars. My car; MYvi and Teacher Pik Xia’s; Proton Wira.

·             I introduced the external parts included: car hood, boot, windscreen, wipers, headlights, plate number, signal lights, wheels, tyres, rims and the petrol cover area.

·            
We opened both car hoods to compare the engines. Mine was smaller engine of 1.0 while Teacher Pik Xia’s was of 1.6. Her car could speed faster and more powerful compared to mine. We also learnt about the air-cond compartment, its fan, the wipers’ water among others. Kids were excited; some started talking about their parents’ car.

b)          Car Wash.

·             We voted and the boys washed my Myvi while the girls washed Teacher Pik Xia’s Wira.

·             First round, the car has to be wet. Thus, kids fill up the pail with water. I used to hose to wet both cars. They thought that it looked like waterfall.

·            
Second round, a little car shampoo was poured into second pail of water. We shouldn’t use detergent or dishes soap to wash the car as it harms the paint. Kids used a cloth to soak into the pail and washed the car. They were so serious at cleaning the car. As washing, they started talking about their experience on car washing.

·             Third round, another pail of clean water. Kids had to wash and rinse their cloth clean so that there’s no more soap. They soak in the third pail and rinse the cloth. They washed the car.

·             Fourth round, they rinsed their wet cloth as dry as possible. Then, they wiped the wet car to dry. Overall, both cars were very clean! The kids were proud of themselves!

c)           Video Clip.

·             We watched clips on car wash. Petrol Station machine car wash. In Klang, the price is about RM4. We washed another clip on manual car wash by hands. A normal wash is about RM8.00. With polishing, it costs more.  

The “Pop-Up” Car Card.

Thursday (14/06/2012)

a)      Better strategy.

l       When I entered the classroom, I saw kids playing with the toy cars; so excitedly as if they were having a race! It was rather noisy and messy.

T: Do you think it’s a good idea to play this way?

l       Firstly, the cars didn’t race in proper road lanes. Secondly, the ending line is not the same (due to bookshelves, boxes, tables and chairs in the classroom). Thirdly, it would be more challenging if kids could build a roller coaster lane just like the marble roller-coaster toy. I asked the kids to think about the idea and share with the class. Meanwhile, we continue with Father Day’s pop up card gift.

b)      The pop-up card.

l       Kids observed and listened to step-by-step instructions. Fold a colour paper into half. Now, we have the open ends and closed ends. Fold the closed ends about 2cm width. Creased it to get a line. Cut 2 vertical 2cm lines in the middle. This will be area to paste the pop up picture.

l       To make the pop up picture, kids take a small piece of cardboard and draw pictures of their choice. It could be their father, a house or anything that their father love. Then, they paste it with double sided tape.

c)       Decorating the card.

l       Kids drew more pictures.

Yi Han: I don’t know what my father likes except the computer. So, she drew a computer. Kai Song did the same too. Hiro said his father loves cars!

l       Kids pasted the lyrics of “Father’s Day” and also a felt cloth of a heart shape. Then, we dropped 1 to 2 drops of fragrance on the felt heart. Lastly, I punched the card at the middle top. Then, the kids inserted a ribbon through the hole and tried tying it.

l       Thus, the gift could be a fragrance card to be hung in the car or anywhere around the home. “Happy Father’s Day”!

My father’s the BEST!

Thursday (14/06/2012)

a)      My father.

TJ: Whose father is the BEST?

Kids: Mine! (Everyone raised their hands).

TJ: Why do we need to celebrate Father’s Day?

Ying Qiao: He feeds us to grow big!           

Rei: He takes good care of us since a baby in mother’s womb.

Wei Lok: He brings go camping!

Alisa: He buys us things!

Yi Han: He makes sure we are healthy!

Hiro: He is funny and makes me happy!

b)      Wei Lok’s car collection!

l       Wei Lok stood in front of the classroom sharing his car collection. “This is a sports car! ….”Among: racing car, van, mini cooper, 4-door car, 2-door car and sports car.

c)       A gift.

l       Earlier, we have discussed to give our father a picture card which could be hung at home or in his car. It will take 2 days to complete.

l       I sketched 4 types of car and kids can choose to a car of their favourite. I sketched a Beetle car, a 4-door car, a racing car and a mini-cooper!

l       Kids really enjoyed drawing and colouring. Yi Han needed some encouragement to start while some needed prompting at colouring nicely. We shall continue tomorrow for the pop-up card!

d)      Notice: Car Wash.

l       We are having car wash activity on Friday. Objective: To learn more about car parts and ways to take car of family’s car.

 

Henry Ford

Tuesday (12/06/2012)

a)      Animal Carts.

·         Animal carts and wagons were invented to transport goods from a place to another; crossing the mountains, rivers and fields. Kai Song: horses! Alisa: cows! Jia Xun: donkeys! Hiro: Monkeys….the class laughed but it was a good try as kids rationalized that monkeys are not strong enough. Yee Xuan: Orang Utan. Well, Orang Utan can be rather dangerous animals as they are aggressive if threatened.

b)      Horses everywhere!

* Horse carts were everywhere on streets. Policemen rode on horses too. Thus, it was very noisy and streets were dirty. Positively, they were still very important to people.

c)       Henry Ford.

·         He was the Father of Automobiles….He loved doing experiments with machines and invented “engine” which was used in his invention of “Quadricycle” which had 4 wheels, an engine and a comfortable seat. Animals were not required! It immediately attracted peoples’ attention because the streets were quieter with less horses’ sounds and cleaner  with no feces discharge or poo. Henry kept improving his cras and produced the famous Model T. He had introduced the systematic installation that influenced the industrialization world. In fact, some information said that he had so many happy workers that they produced a car in less than a minute…….unbelievable! Even today’s market can’t do that.

·         Henry was the sixth in the family of a rich farmer. He preferred being a mechanic than a farmer. As he grew up, Henry worked as a part-time mechanic learning about machines.  He did lots of experiments and invented Model T car which was very popular. He passed away at the age 84 but his knowledge had been passed to enable production of better and improved cars!

d)      Video Clips.

l       It was so nice to see the evolution of cars from 1900 till today. Lots of beautiful and trendy cars!

l       We also watched clip on Henry Ford and heard a song of Transportation.

Wheels Invention.

Monday (11/06/2012)

a)      Pre-Transportation Period.

·         People as early as the Cavemen just lived in caves and hunt animals for food and their basic wear. They also eat plants and fruits and drink water. As they lived, they discovered many new things which had improved humans’ lives. Discoveries such as fire (by Jia Xun) and knife (Alisa).

·         People started living in village exchanging goods they want with neighbours.

·        


Peoples’ needs grew and it was very difficult to carry those goods.

Teacher: So, how can they carry those heavy goods?

b)      Wheels.

·         The class was divided into boys and girls groups. 2 tables were stack together. Kids had to think of ideas to move them from the front right to the end of classroom.

Way 1: Obviously, kids pushed together and thought it was easy.

Way 2: A kid had to lie in between the 2 tables. Now, the kids had a harder time to push. They said pushing in a team makes the task easy.

TJ: Are you going to push those fruits on the ground and dirty road all the way across mountains and rivers, seas etc?

Way 3: Wheels were introduced. Earlier wheels were made of wood. We placed some “mushroom cans” as wheels. Why are the shapes; cylinder or round? (Kids: Because they are round? Because cans last a long time?)

Finally, they got the answer….wheels can be pushed and they can transport goods! So, kids took turns to push the heavy tables. 6 cans were placed underneath. Kids worked in team. As the table moved, the cans would be left behind. To continue the movement like a car, the kids quickly took the cans at behind row and placed them in front again! The process goes on.

TJ: Are these good wheels?           Kids: No! Because real tyres are attached to vehicles!

c)       Father’s Day gift discussion.

Kids: Can we give our father a card? We can draw car pictures!

·         Thus, kids would have to learn practising drawing cars the better way! Vroom…vroom..kids! 

The “Thank You” Gift.

Tuesday (05/06/2012)

a)      The Gift.

l  We have yet to present our Magical Castle builders with a present. We really appreciate their help. Kids and I discussed the gift for both Mr. Hoo and Teacher Pik Xia. They suggested that we made a card which can be hung on the wall. They chose heart shape for Teacher Pik Xia and star shape for Mr. Hoo. Each kid drew pictures on small pieces of paper and ensured that they labeled their names on them. They hoped that these guests could recognize their drawings. J

b)      Video Clips.

l  Kids kept asking me to show them clips on Tornado. Then, we compared between Hurricane and Tornado. We saw how the wind changes colour and blew the plants. A cow was lucky to miss the Tornado. We also watch the Earthquake situation in Italy. Finally, we watched the famous Olympics Opening Ceremony in China of year 2008. As we learnt about China earlier on, China is famous for its culture such as Kung Fu, drums, operas and many more. We saw their culture in the Opening Ceremony. However, as this year’s Olympics is in London, we would see a different culture. 

Monday (04/06/2012)

a)      Flashcards vocab.

l  We recapped words that we learnt throughout the lessons. Kids were more confident at recognizing and reading them.

b)      Worksheet: Animals Around The World.

l  As some kids were on holidays, thus; I thought it would be better if we do some worksheets and organized our files. We are ending our thematic lessons but I hope all the kids could be around to vote their choices!

l  This worksheet has got a few animals and kids were to label them. American Ox, Arctic Fox, Kangaroo, Orang Utan, Penguin. Finally, kids had to draw a Panda which originates from China. They had fun drawing the Panda!

c)       Autumn Maze.

l  As we already learnt, most farmers would convert their corn fileds and etc. into a maze after harvest. The maze could be so big and taller than us! Thus, people sometimes find it challenging to walk through the maze.

d)      Organising the worksheets.

l  Kids were given their worksheets and they must ensure that they had labeled their names on each paper. We compiled them into a book. J