May 25-29, 2015

Ding... Ding... Ding... There are only 9 school days left before Summer break. Fasten your seatbelt and get ready for variety of school events. Character Day, Fun Field Trip to Fun World, Pre-K Field Day, PRIS Factor and Art Auction.

Guess who came to our class last Monday? Zane Coughlan who is a helicopter pilot came to our class to share his expertise on anything helicopters. The kids were amazed by many different types of helicopters. They now know that helicopter does not only transport people, but also other cool stuffs like cars and even tanks. Other helicopters which function as air ambulance and air crane are also cool, but the kids most favorite ones are helicopters with big guns that serve in the war. Thank you Zane and Natasha Coughlan for sharing.

Five... Four... Three... Two... One... Blast off! Inspired by a book titled I want to Be an Astronaut by Byron Barton the kids flew their names to the outer space. Independently, they wrote their names then cut and pasted all the rocket ship parts. It is such a joy looking at the kids are able to write their names independently. 

The mechanics were on duties. Seriously, they matched, fastened and loosened all the nuts to the bolts. These activities are not only training their fine motor skills which has good impact on their pre-writing skills, but also to their creative thinking and problem solving. The kids enjoyed these activities  and requested if these centers can stay for another week.

This week, the kids' sorting and categorizing math skills were challenged by doing two different levels worksheets. They had to identify a picture from each group that does not belong to the group. Level 1 worksheet is easier because the picture that does not belong is clearly different than the other pictures in the group. When they did level 2 worksheet, each kid's critical thinking was also challenged. Most of them could give good reason why the picture does not belong to that group.

Land, water or air transport? The kids almost had no problem sorting all the vehicles into the correct group. Four different activities were provided for the kids to practice their sorting skills. We had a group discussion by completing the land-water-air transportation chart which is followed by individual worksheet. At the sorting centers, the kids had to sort all the vehicle counters into those 3 groups, too. As a review, using Topic app, the kids made a short presentation identifying 3 different types of transportation. (see our previous blog post about Topic app videos)

Thank you for Donovan and his family who generously lent their little bikes for our art project. Divided into 2 groups, the kids worked together to paint the wheels of the bikes. The most fun part was when they could ride the bike on a big sheet of paper and left the bike track there. When the painting was dry, using car and truck templates, they traced the templates and cut around the tracing lines.

Vroom... Vroom... All the dirty cars lined up, ready to be washed. A fun activity which allowed the kids to train their gross motor skills. 

STOP-SLOW-GO! Cutting 3 different color circles, copying STOP-SLOW-GO writing on each circle, adding popsicle sticks and taping them to the circles were three steps that the kids did to make their own STOP-SLOW-GO signs. Such an easy peasy task for them. They did all of those by themselves. All of those steps were done after a group discussion on what each color sign mean.  

We had wafers, colorful candies and chocolate paste and we were discussing about STOP-SLOW-GO signs. The kids then figured out that we were going to make traffic lights wafers. They first sorted all the candies and only picked red, yellow and green colored candies. They then used the chocolate paste to stick the candies to the wafers and before taking some wafers home, they had to test that all those wafers were just as delicious as their look.

It was a sunny Friday morning. The kids were so excited to ride their bikes at the basketball court. Not all the kids brought their bikes to school, but it was definitely not a problem in Pre-K 3 class. They love sharing. Taking turns, each kid became a police who controlled the traffic. Well done kiddos!

Art for a Cause - Art Auction Piece #3 and #4

Having generous hearts, the kids in Pre-K 3 class were so excited to do some more paintings that we can sell at the art auction to earn money for helping Cleo's, our school mascot, family and friends in Wehea Forest and also our friends in Kathmandu, Nepal.

The third auction piece we did was PEACE. Using their tiny fingers, each kid picked a color and started to put at least 40 finger prints each around the bird which is the symbol of peace. There are 10 colors to represent 10 kids in Pre-K 3 class. Hoping that these 10 colors can represent more colors available in the whole world as a symbol of many different cultures which can live harmoniously side by side in peace.

Our fourth auction piece is A Garden in the Rain. Another painting with simple techniques that doable for little kids with some directions and supervisions. As a class, all the kids did different parts of the paintings. Some kids were responsible for the background painting, some were in charge for the red flowers painting, etc. Each flower on the painting doesn't solidly represent a kid in Pre-K 3 class because one flower might have 3 or 4 different kids did parts of the flower. 

Don't miss our 3 beautiful paintings, 10 Little Birds; PEACE; and The Garden in the Rain at our next art auction at PRIS FACTOR, Wednesday, June 10, 2015. Contact Amberley Craig (acraig@prisborneo.org) for detail information about the art auction.

Giving feels so good...

Land, Water and Air Transportation

Land, water or air transportation? Most of the kids in Pre-K 3 class can easily identify which mean of transportation belongs to which group. Using Topic app, we made a short presentation to identify different types of transportation. Enjoy the presentation and click on the links below to watch the other kids' videos.

Adriana

http://s.dmdtopic.com/s/erzXvD 

Arnau

http://s.dmdtopic.com/s/aYbCuq 

Aya

http://s.dmdtopic.com/s/eiyiOp 

Camilla

http://s.dmdtopic.com/s/ehGLSg

Chaise

http://s.dmdtopic.com/s/cAHRmz 

Donovan

http://s.dmdtopic.com/s/dxMUHM 

Junghoon

http://s.dmdtopic.com/s/dONyyf 

Valencia

http://s.dmdtopic.com/s/dKqGQn

Veronika

http://s.dmdtopic.com/s/aTITIx

May 18-22, 2015

The wheels on the bus go round and round... All through the town. In 3 weeks, most of us will use different types of transportations to either go back to our hometowns or just go on holiday with our family and friends. We have just finished our second week of transportation unit. All the kids, not only the boys, really enjoy this unit. Their interest in things that go, has made this unit study fun as well as educative.

Last Monday we started our week by playing transportation memory game. Taking turns, the kids flipped the cards to find a pair of the same pictures. A couple of them understood that this is a strategy game and it will be beneficial to keep some information for themselves, but for some others keeping the spirit of sharing is just more important by telling their friends where the matching cards were. LOL. After that, using their math skills, they counted how many pairs of cards they got.

Sink or float? The kids started out by reviewing the list of things that we are going to use in our experiment. They made some predictions on things that would sink or float when we drop them into the water. In the prediction column, they wrote letter S for objects that would sink into the water and letter F for things that would float. After that, one by one, they picked two things from the basket and dropped them into the water. They got excited when they found out that they made correct prediction. The day after, they practiced their prediction skills again using Sink or Float app. On Thursday, using the objects that they brought from home, the kids took turns doing the experiment.

Look at those road builders. We started by placing the roundabout in the middle of the table. After that, the kids discussed and worked together to put all parts of the roads. Once the roads were ready, this activity center became a hit. A basket of colorful wooden blocks and a basket of toy cars completed this activity center for the kids to play with. Of course all the kids wanted to have turns to play here, but they know that they are allowed to play here if they have finished all of their assigned tasks. This center sill stay in our classroom till the end of the school year.

'Who wants to make paper boat?' All kids raised their hands enthusiastically. Patiently, Ms. Idah taught them how to fold the paper and turn them into paper boats. On Friday, right after lunch time, we went to ECC playground to sail our boats. The kids tried different ways to keep their boats moving. Some of them learned that if they push their boats too hard into the water, the water will go inside the boats and the boats will sink into the water. 

We love cookies, yes we do. We love cooking, yes we do. Working together, the kids went through all the process in making the chocolate cookies. They measured all the dry and wet ingredients, added and mixed them, then finally rolled and cut them using car shaped cookie cutter. When the baking sheets went into the oven, for just a few minutes, the smell of fresh chocolate cookies went around the ECC building. Hmmmm... And the taste was just as good as the smell. There were 10 cookies in each bag that the kids brought home. Hopefully they didn't finish them all on the way home :)

'How do you go to school?' Answering that question, the kids were given 5 choices which were on foot, by bike, by motorbike, by car and by school bus. Taking turns, they wrote their names on the chart. From 12 people in our class, there are 1 person goes to school on foot, nobody goes to school by bike, 2 people go to school by motorbike, 5 people go to school by car and 4 people go to school by school bus. The kids' tenacities were challenged when they had to copy all the names written on the chart to their worksheets. Some of them made it all the way through and some gave up in the middle of their efforts.

Busy... Busy... Busy... Yes, we are always busy. There's nothing more enjoyable than hearing the kids asking what they should do next right after finishing one activity.