Making an Erupting Volcano - Azoic Era

Our children continued their learnig of the "History of the Earth" after doing the ribbon timeline of Earth History.

After Big Bang, the temperature dropped a lot, however, it was still very hot as compared to now. The Earth entered the Dark era -- AZOIC ERA. The ground, especially, was very hot, fire erupted from the ground, burst through the crust and formed Volcanoes.

Auntie Latifah made a model of Volcano so to do an Erupting Volcano experiment with children. It was a masterpiece!

First, we needed some vinegar, bicarbonate soda, red food colouring (for the lava), and water. Children saw how Aunties put these "ingredients" into the conduit of the volcano, and they were all amazed by the "eruption"!








OK, next it was the children's turn to make their own volcanoes! Auntie Latifah took the trouble to go to the hardware shop, requesting for the pipes to be sawed into about 4 inches each, to make the conduit of the volcano. Stick the pipe in the centre of the plate by using plasticine. Then, crush some newspaper around the conduit, fasten them with masking tape.


Once the general shape of the volcano is formed, the children sticked the soggy paper around the "volcano". We let the volcanoes dry over a few days before the children painted their volacano. They all did well!

They brought home their volcanoes and their mummies and daddies extended the learning by making the volcano erupt at home!

Eggstravaganza!

Happy Easter 2011

Clover children were very busy for the past two weeks as they were busy doing egg-related activities for Easter. Some of them made the Easter Eggs, all of them made the bunny ears and tails and did an Egg Race on the Good Friday. (Go to our Photo Gallery for more pictures).

Making of the Easter Eggs

Auntie Shirin planned for the KidsArtFun children to make an Easter Egg from scratch. Yes, from SCRATCH.

The children needed to empty an egg before starting their art work on the egg. In order to empty an egg yet not destroying the ovoid structure, poke both ends of an egg, shake it to break the yolk inside the egg, then blow out the content.

1. Poke both ends of an egg. 2. Shake it. 3. Blow out the content.

Now, don't waste it. Cook it and eat it!!

(Children love cooking, but without much experience, some of them put too much salt. It was very nice of Gabriel to offer Auntie Chaz Yee his egg, so Auntie Chaz Yee had to force herself to eat the ultra salty scrambled egg ... but couldn't swallow it all and had to throw away half of it. Yikes!)

Tristan has his dad's gene ... great chef! Uma is grinning from ear to ear...happily cooking her egg.

Alright, now the children are done with their cooking. Next is the beginning of the real work of painting the Easter Egg. See the little artists at work!

What do you think of the Eater Eggs painted by our children? Professional huh.


Making of the Little Bunny Ears & Tails

First, the children coloured the front of the bunny ears cut out from manila cards by the Teachers. Then they rolled and pasted the cotton onto the front and back of the ears. Then attach them to the hair band, wear it on the head and that's it, the bunny ears. Next, glue the cotton onto the round card which makes the tail. Attach the tailto the back of the pants, tada!

Little children (2 - 4 years old) making the bunny ears and tails.


All the cute little bunnies and their lil' fluffy tails.


The Egg RACE


On the Good Friday, which was also our P.E. day, children did an egg race --- balancing an egg in a spoon and walked quickly to the bowl, placed it in the bowl and hop back to their team. They were all very cute... focusing and walking with extra care which we seldom see in the active children.

Kindermusik Young Child (5 to 8 yrs old) Increases a Child's IQ!

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Mrs De Silva awarded Life Member of Royal Academy of Dance (England)

Congratulations to our beloved Mrs De Silva for being awarded the Life Membership of the Royal Academy of Dance (RAD), England. RAD is one of the world's most influential dance education and training organisations. Its classical ballet examintion syllabus is regarded as the best.

We are always proud of her being a dedicated and honourable Teacher for more than half of her life. As we all know, it is a big honour to pass the examinations of the Royal Academy of Dance (England). She did it decades ago and had also become a Teaching Member of the RAD more than 20 years!

Being a talented lady since young, she excels in ballet, creative Modern Dance, European Folk Dancing and Artistic & Rhythmic Gymnastics. She is also a Physical Education specialist who specialises in Labau Movement Training and Coaching Swimming and Life Saving skills.

Her vast talents and teaching experience have brought her students to different heights during their training with her.

She is now teaching at our Clover Learning Centre, focusing in teaching Ballet (4 years old to adults) during weekends, training the students to qualify for cerification in the Royal Academy of Dance (England). She is also teaching Fun Dancing to boys and girls of age 3.5 to 6 years old on every Monday.

Ballet at Clover

Happy Chinese New Year!

As an annual lesson plan, we told the story about the origin of Chinese New Year (CNY). It all began with the Monster "Nian" (年). It seemed that the children are never tired of this story even though we tell it every year.

We had very busy weeks before the CNY this year. We did the History of the Earth, and we also needed to cover the story and talkabouts of CNY. The Aunties were exhausted but as excited as ever.

Story-telling about the Origin of the Chinese New Year.

We did Food Tasting as usual. The children were all eager to try the various types of food. Some even attempted the spicy crackers.

We also borrowed the mini Lion Dance prop and drum from Zhi Hui and Zhi Jean. Auntie Margaret did a very fun demonstration on how to dance the Lion (we now see her talent in Kung Fu). Auntie Liew played the Chinese Drum. The children then had their turn to dance the Lion. Everyone had a good laugh. They were so funny and cute!

The History of the Earth (Part 1) - The Big Bang Theory & Black Timeline

The Big Bang Theory

"It all started as small as a pin-head and it expanded --- getting bigger, bigger, bigger, and...pop! Then the stars started to appear and wind came about."

The children listened and watched the balloon which Auntie Latifah blew up, while enduring the darkness and heat in the room. We tried to simulate the condition before the Big Bang, only switching on the fan when it started to have wind after the Big Bang (well, after the Balloon burst), which was the start of the Universe. Meanwhile, Auntie Shirin also played the mp3 sound of what was supposed to be heard right after the Big Bang.

Wow, what a great effort all Aunties had put in, ensuring the kids get all the right stimulation to learn about the Big Bang Theory (Visual, Auditory, Thermic senses are all covered here).

We did the Big Bang craft the following week (see collage below), didn't expect the children found it hard to break an egg.

Picture below: Children throwing eggshells filled with various colours on black paper to create a burst effect (The Big Bang theory)

The Black Timeline

Well, lots of things happened after the Big Bang. To give the children an overview, we used the Black ribbon to represent the Eras before human appeared on Earth. With the short little red ribbon at the end of the timeline (represents the time Human Beings exist) as compared to the long black ribbon -- It was a very good visual representation of how little time we as Human Beings have existed.

In order to let the children get the idea of the various Eras (from the Azoic "Black" era, to the Mesozoic "Dinosaurs" era, to the Cenozoic "Ice Age" era), the story needed to be told well. The narrator role fell on Auntie Chaz Yee, the Drama Queen. The children listened so attentively that, one of the 4-year-olds (Bong Yi) even shivered when A. Chaz Yee talked about the Ice Age. He looked cold despite us not even switching on the air-conditioner!

Pictures below: Children holding the black ribbon, which represents the Black Timeline after Big Bang and before the Human Beings exist. The Black ribbon was unrolled as the story was told.



We repeated this exercise the next day, and to our surprise a 2.5-year-old (Ze Ming) responded with the most accurate answer "Jellyfish started to appear" for the era when ocean was formed!



WOW, this is so amazing. Once again, we take our hats off Dr. Maria Montessori. She really knows the children so well that the children still benefit greatly from her learning plan after more than 100 years!