Country Project - Vietnam

We had a special Vietnamese guest, Ms. Hang, who visited our school on 1st Oct 2014. It was a planned visit -  we invited her to come to Clover during the country project of Vietnam week. It was such an honour to have Ms. Hang doing the Vietnam week for us. She brought in all the things that we requested her to in order to conduct our Montessori country project lesson.

She got the child-size Vietnamese costumes for a boy and a girl for us. We dressed two students up. They looked Vietnamese! ;) So adorable.

As Ms. Hang wasn't used to conducting a lesson with children, she conveyed the knowledge to our Montessori educator, Ms. Latifah, who helped to do the explanation to the children at Clovers.

Firstly, the Vietnam flag was shown - "a red flag with a gold star". 

This is a traditional Vietnamese Coconut Bowl...authentic stuff...all the way from Vietnam! 

Children were passing the bowl around to have a closer look. The outer part of this bowl was made of coconut shell. 



 Now, showing the currency of a country is important, and Ms. Latifah explained the difference between the Vietnamese Dong from the Ringgit Malaysia.

We passed the Vietnamese notes around for children to have a closer look. They were told the man on the notes is Ho Chi Minh, who was the Father of the country, as he fought for independence.

Children were looking at more Vietnamese Dong notes, comparing the notes with one another.

 

Ms. Joanne assisted in the explanation of how the Vietnamese Coffee is to be brewed. The children were intrigued!

Our special Vietnamese guests, Ms. Hang, demonstrated the coffee-brewing process. 

All children waited patiently for the coffee to drip slowly into the glass jar below. 

While waiting for the coffee to be ready, we passed around the spring-roll wrapper, which was made of rice. This was to show children what was "before" the end-product of the yummy spring-rolls that they were going to pop into their mouth later. 

Ms. Hang brought in her home-made spring rolls and sweet-and-sour fish sauce. 



Yum yum...we always love food tasting.

These 3 year-olds Nursery children asked for more!

Our K1 and K2 children were enjoying it too! 

 Ms. Soraya was showing the children the hand-stitched bag. A very typical Vietnamese craft bag. So beautiful.

Children were having a closer look at the hand-stitched bags.

A. Chaz Yee presented a small gift to Ms. Hang, showing Clover's appreciation to her effort and presence in helping us make the lesson about Vietnam more lively and interesting. 

We hereby extend our heart-felt thanks to Ms. Joanne as well, who brought Ms. Hang to our school. Thanks Joanne!

 To view more photos, CLICK HERE.

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=107432699050433675884&target=ALBUM&id=6066626862939407089&authkey=Gv1sRgCLXs1tbjgfGdigE&feat=email

Excursion to Malaysia Cultural Village

The day started with a bit a thunder and drizzle, but it didn't dampen the mood of the children, Teachers and parents who had already signed up for this excursion more than a month ago. I brought Clovers students to this village four years ago, and this re-visit is a brand new experience for the current batch of students. The village also varied their activities, presenting some new activities that were not done before here. It was a full 3-hour non-stop trip and we were glad our children did not complain at all in view of the humid weather.

Every year, we try our best to tie the theme of our excursion to the cultural theme that we teach the children during that year. This extension of learning beyond classroom usually helps children to understand and remember their learning well. This year, our cultural theme focused much on the Malaysia culture. It is high time for the children to understand more about their country in the midst of all the Americanized animation or children series.

 The guide explained the making of batik to the children and adults.

 This pot was used to melt the chanting.

The artist demonstrated the drawing of the floral pattern on the cloth using chanting.

 Youngest artists at work (they were only 3 years old)!

Our Clover ex-students returned to join in the fun with us!



 Our 4-year-old artists at work. Concentration was observed. Shh...don't disturb.

 Ta-da! Done!

Tea-time after all the hardwork of painting the batik! Nice fruit tea and coco biscuits. All were natural. 

While the children were enjoying their tea-break, parents had a chance to engrave their names on the pewter key-chains. They hammered the alphabets on the key-chains.

 

Pak-cik demonstrated how to catch a fish using various traditional equipment.

Pak-cik demonstrated how to weave the strings to make them into a fishing net. Cool.

 Yummy mummies!

Children were playing kompang for their "friends' wedding".

Two girls were dressed up as "bride" and "bridesmaid", while two boys were dressed up as "bridegroom" and "Best man", to depict the Malay wedding.  

 

Children were exploring Malay traditional instruments such as kompang and angklung.

Last but not least, the guide brought us to the coco tree and we saw the coco fruit on the tree.



The guide passed the coco fruit to the students and it smelled like mango.

 After getting to know more about the coco fruit, everyone had a coco drink made from the natural coco from the tree. Hmm....slurp...some children even asked for more.

 We came to the end of the excursion, the children brought back their batik painting to show their family.

We were proud and lucky to have Ken Neoh, who is a multiple award-winner, as our professional photographer on the excursion day! 

 

For more photos of this excursion, please CLICK HERE to go to our Web Album.