How We Digest and How We Breathe!

Digestive System

My two intestines keep digesting,

One is small and one is large.

My liver cleans blood and fights infection,

So many functions it's in charge!

Our clover children learned about the small and large intestines and their functions in Term 2 this year. It was not an easy topic to teach, hence we used a model as shown in the picture below and did a simple experiment to show how water entered our digestive system. It was a fun experiment.

(It is a shame that I only have the older children photos here. I forgot to pass the camera to the Teachers in school when the younger children did this experiment! Yikes!)

Auntie Latifah demonstrating how the consumption of water gets into the digestive system.



The children taking turn to label the digestive system.



 

Our Lungs

Breathe in... Breathe out...

Aunties, "Can you feel your chest becoming bigger as you breathe in the air? It becomes smaller as you breathe out?"

Children, "Yes!"

The children were explained that the air entered their lungs, which we also call this air oxygen as we breathe in. They were also told that they breathe out carbon dioxide which the trees and plants need. The younger ones were listening attentively and recited after the Aunties when we did this lesson. The older children were explained in more details on the wind-pipe and other parts of the lungs.

Thanks to Auntie Latifah, who brought in a cow's lung for show-and-tell. Children were in awe when they were given a chance to stick their little finger into the wind-pipe. Cool! 



I just came back from my long medical leave, but could not wait to start teaching the children. I was explaining to the children on how the air goes into our lungs through the wind pipe.

All the children had a chance to get "up close and personal" with a real lung.

 



Shake them Skeleton Bones!

It is exciting to start the cultural theme this year as we are working on a familiar yet complicated topic – The Human Body.

The Aunties first gave the children an overview of the human body and their five senses. Children love singing the song “Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes” with the omission of different body parts. They often laugh hysterically if someone in the group makes an error to sing out the missing part of the body.

Children learn about the human body parts through songs. They love it!

Auntie Latifah used "Life Models" to teach the children different body parts.

Auntie Margaret was preparing the materials to stimulate the children's senses.

Each child from the Nursery group had a chance to isolate his/her sense so to refine his/her senses. To refine the gustatory sense, the child was blindfolded and nostrils were "closed" so to isolate the taste sense (Picture on top). To refine the tactile sense, the child was blindfolded and felt the item naming it rough or smooth (Picture at the bottom).

Then, with the courtesy of Dr. Theva and Dr. Mun, who are parents from our graduate student Kareena, we managed to borrow a REAL human body skeleton to school! This skeleton was even taller than any of the Aunties! The children and teachers were in awe when they touched and felt the REAL bones of a human body. This concrete experience was indeed inspiring.

The Human-size skeleton and its skull gave the children a very good concrete experience.

The children also worked on skeleton puzzle and some work that reinforce and extend the learning of bones. The younger ones learn about bones in their various names, such as head bone, neck bone, back bone, finger bones, thigh bone, foot bone and toe bones. The older ones were introduced to more advanced terms like the skull, ribcage and spine. Everyone enjoys learning about bones, and they love singing the song of bones too.

The older children were good at fixing the huge skeleton puzzle and labelling each bone.

The younger children were good at fixing the skeleton puzzle too under the guidance of Aunties. They were very excited especially moving from the concrete experience of Human-size skeleton to a huge 2-D puzzle.

Aunties will continue to teach other extensions of bones to the children doing craft and experiment in the next few weeks. The children are all looking forward to the activities!

Young Musicians Emerge!

Our 5 to 8 year-olds completed their Kindermusik Young Child semester 2 last December. It had been a great semester as children started to play melodies on their glockenspiels. Some of them told me that they even tried it on their piano, which made them excited. I could see the children were enjoying their fruit of labour – having to learn all the theories and took some time to build up their musical foundation in Semester 1. They are now more confident to play on melodic barred instrument and also with the strong foundation in music, they seem to be able to make music everywhere they go! (To see more of this blog, click here)

Children's and Teachers' Day 2011

What a WET fun-filled day!
It was the first time we had so much Water Play in school. The children came into the school with swimsuits. Angels’ grandparents also came in early to help setting up the swimming pools.
At 9.30 a.m., we started our warm up. The children were grouped into two groups and Aunties demonstrated how the telematch was to be played.

First, the children had to soak up water from a pail and squeeze out the water into another pail. Second, they had to scoop a coloured ball from the first swimming pool and sort it according to its colour in the 4 pails (practical life skill!). Then, they slid down the slide and splashed into the 2nd pool, quickly pick up a water shooting tube to aim and shoot at the bottles.

There were one or two children who were not used to water play and were afraid to get wet despite wearing very nice swimsuits. To get them “going”, Auntie Chaz Yee started pouring pails of water at those children. It was not long after, the Aunties and Angel’s Grandma were having fun pouring big pails of water at the children. Some children started to get back at the Aunties (e.g., Zhi Jean picked up the water shooting tube and started shooting at Auntie Latifah! Haha!).

At about 10.15 a.m., the children went into the building and changed. They were all very helpful and practical-life-skilled children, helping Aunties to set up the dining tables. We had guests children like Jael, Alfred (Angel’s brother), Anastasia (Angel’s cousin), Mita (Auntie Margaret’s daughter) and Trevor (Tristan’s brother). They enjoyed the company of their new friends. While the Aunties were busy setting up the dining area, Angel’s Grandparents volunteered to clean up all the outdoor equipment for us, so kind of them!

Finally, we had the Teachers’ Day presentation session. The children presented their little cards and gifts to the Aunties to show their appreciation for their Teachers. This was a chance that Zhi Hui took to show off her photography skill (her father trained her well!). Although she hadn’t gotten anything for the Teachers, she assisted Du Ee & Ze Ming to make their Teachers’ Day cards at home, good effort! Umasivu also stood up to say her gratitude to Auntie Latifah & Auntie Chazyee. “Auntie Latifah, I Love You!” Gabriel Wong said it loud and clear enough that almost made Auntie Latifah tear.