.

Bugs Garden Party

2011-03-26T22:02:00.007+08:00

Well, as you are already know, here at LittleLand we always keep our children busy learning while having fun.

First we brought our children on a field trip to Penang Butterfly Farm. Our trip was a great success and the children had a wonderful time walking around the farm full of beautiful butterflies.

With the excitement from the Butterfly Farm still in the air, we had the children spent their times outdoors for our Bugs Garden Party. They marched themselves from one station to another and completed all activities with great energy. We made hand print caterpillar, hunting for bugs hidden in the sandpit, scooping ice cube bugs from cold icy water, planting pots of sunflower seeds and snacking different types of fruit The Very Hungry Caterpillar was hungry for.

Enjoy the clip as much as I enjoyed chasing after the children taking all these photos..

Christmas Party

2010-12-17T18:19:00.005+08:00

Halloween Party

2010-11-26T19:56:00.004+08:00

The children had fun in our Halloween Pyjamas Party. The children performed their Halloween chants, making jellies, art & crafts and learning to trick or treat!played games and had fun trick or treating.

Toddlers Picnic Day

2010-08-07T00:58:00.003+08:00

The month of Aug was dedicated to learning about Food. We started off talking about different types of Malaysian food, food pyramid, reading food labels, how to eat healthily, different types of food served in each meal, how to set table for lunch, napkin folding and table manners.

Our toddlers had a picnic at our school garden. They learned about sharing, taking turns, how to eat properly and how not to waste food.

Wild Animals

2010-07-31T13:22:00.006+08:00

The theme of the Wild Animals let us re-visit Zoology unit we learned earlier this year in March. We have created many types of animals at the art corner, walked like an elephant, slithered like a snake, hopped like a kangaroo. For Sensorial activity, we shown the children different types of habitat that these wild animals are living. The children have really liked exploring many jungle animals. The toddlers always surprise us with the different sounds that these wild animals make by listening to the story of Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What do you hear? by Eric Carle.

July News

2010-07-24T11:08:00.003+08:00

Our theme in July is Wild Animals. Through our study of wild animals, the children will become familiar with the names and homes of the many zoo animals and we will be talking about endangered animals and at the same time we will create awareness to children on how to preserve their habitats. Younger children will be read a book by Eric Carle, Polar Bear, Polar Bear, what do you hear? They will learn the different sounds these animals in the book are making.

Some of the experiences planned for this theme :
o Sensorial activity – touch different types of fabric materials such as wool from hair/fur and leather from skin.
o Science Culture table – children will be working with toy animals and place them in each habitat that these animals live, some prefer icy cold land, muddy places, some animals prefer grassy land or water.

June Holiday Workshops

2010-06-18T13:02:00.011+08:00

We're very happy to announce our first batch of June Holidays Crafty Time sessions, led by scrap expert Joyce ended with a blast! The children learned new skills and produced loads of fun and creative art projects and their felt sewing projects, including cute stuffed donuts, cool book cover and bags for all stuff.

I loved sewing myself as a child and it is a wonderful thing to pass on to the kids. I have been very keen in making sewing available to children and hope to break down some of the barriers associated sewing with it being a girl thing. My intention is only to make sewing fun for children and for them to pick this as a new hobby...who knows one day they will become one of the world's top fashion designers?

The children learned to sew using needle and thread and two basic stiches. Backstitch is the strongest hand stitch and is used to imitate machine stitches and herringbone stitch and it is used to hold down a hem. This is a decorative stitch and could be used on the outside of a piece of clothing.

Parents' Day

2010-06-06T23:27:00.002+08:00

What a great Parents Day! Today, the weather was so kind to us and our parents and children thoroughly enjoyed our first ever Parents Day. Huge thanks to all of you who came and cheerfully participated in all activities with your child. Thank you, parents, for sharing your precious children with us. Thank you for the privilege of allowing us to take part in their early years. Thanks go out to our teachers and helpers for making this event a success.

June News

2010-06-01T23:44:00.004+08:00

Last month have seemed to pass us by very quickly! Teachers have been busy for the coming up Parents’ Day and our Parent Teacher Meeting. We would like to thank all parents for taking the time to come and discuss with us about your child. A gentle reminder, kindly sign and return the progress reports by this week.

We have had such wonderful changes in the Toddlers class. We have the classroom walls newly painted. Last month our focus was Colours and Shapes. We sang the classical song I Can Sing A Rainbow in order to help the children learn the colours of the rainbow. They learned about primary and secondary colours. The children also created many beautiful artworks from this unit. The children will continue to be able to use many different materials and techniques to create their art for the rest of the year. We will be increasing the amount of free art projects to allow their creativity to flourish.

We are pleased that Ms. Joyce a local artist is willing to spare her busy time to organise holiday art workshops for our children during this coming 2 weeks school holidays. These programmes stressed on child’s creativity and encourage the child to think out of the box. We will be using a vast variety of art tools, recyclable materials, lolly sticks, egg cartons, paper plates, dollies, old magazines, fabrics, buttons, etc.

This month we will be learning all about Nursery Rhymes. Nursery rhymes stimulate memory, improve language skills, develop appreciation for music, enrich vocabulary, develop phonemic awareness, encourage thinking skill and they are fun!

Some of the activities that we will do :
- Sing along with the nursery rhymes and learn rhyming words
- Learn prepositions on, in, above, under, behind, in front with Humpty Dumpty
- Experiment with sink and float using Jack and Jill’s pail
- Learn time with Hickory Dickory Dock
- Learn pairing and matching with Hey Diddle Diddle
- Learn tonque twister with Peter Piper

Teachers' Day

2010-05-19T18:26:00.003+08:00

On 16th May was Teacher’s Day. We had a week long Teacher Appreciation Week from 10th – 14th May. Children were invited to send their appreciation to their teachers on these days.

Thank you children and parents for showering us with lots of gifts and flowers. You really lighted up our lives!

Happy Teacher's Day

2010-05-11T21:00:00.004+08:00

Teachers are generous people. Throughout the school year, they spend countless hours preparing teaching materials, decorating classrooms and volunteering their personal time to attend parent-teacher meetings and special events - not to mention digging into their own pockets for special stationeries, stickers and goodies for children. Does this sound like you ? If yes, give yourself a big clap and that of all the things that you do...you deserve a day specially dedicated to you!!

Parents, sending your appreciation shows that you and your child appreciate the little things she does to make school enjoyable. Here’s a shout out to teachers everywhere including my terrific teachers ! You are the best and enjoy the week. HAPPY TEACHER'S DAY!!

I know Mother's Day is around the corner but I'm just getting a little bit over too excited over here that really makes me want to post this banner up for you to see....

Happy Mother's Day

2010-05-07T17:29:00.009+08:00

Mums, watch this video on breast crawl and its amazing seeing a newborn baby's reflexes help him or her find and latch on to the mother’s breast.

I especially would like to wish all mums Happy Mother's Day and hope you find this video informative.

May News

2010-05-06T19:42:00.006+08:00

The Early Years and Preschoolers children had great fun when they visited Paya Terubong Fire Station on 28th Apr. The firefighters showed them what they have always wanted to see, how they slide down the pole, the fire engines and all the equipment that they use. The children held the long hose and pretended to put out a fire. What a fantastic experience when all children and teachers had a chance to ride on a fire engine. The children sang a song as an appreciation to the firefighters. Going on a field trip also taught the children how to behave on outings, care for themselves and friends.

Learning about other jobs was fun too! Not to forget our recycling bins, we managed to collect three bags full of trash for recycle. The children were shown how much of trash we have collected and that we care for the earth.

We have children previously from Toddlers Group (2-3 year olds) promoted to Early Years Group (3-4 year olds) that are developing well into reading and writing. They work on letter recognition, initial sounds and sight words. They are developing their pencil grips steadily and they are doing their handwriting without ‘tears’ and with more confidence now.

In May, we will be teaching Colours and Shapes. We will be telling the story of Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Eric Carle. The toddlers will be learning about colours of the rainbow, sorting out shapes, sequencing patterns. The Early Years will be learning Primary and Secondary colours, reinforce comparative language for dark and light, working on Geometric Solids and lastly the Preschoolers will be working on Colour Box III to create colour wheel and observing architectures of famous buildings. With the help of Montessori materials, the children find abstract concepts and language skills easy to understand and remember.

On 19th May (Wed), we would like to invite children to wear anything colourful to school or they can come in polka-dots, stripes, checked, etc for show and tell.

This month, we will also be talking about a very important person in children’s lives that is mum. Besides that, 16th May is Teacher’s Day. We will be having a week long Teacher Appreciation Week from 10th – 14th May. Children are invited to send their appreciation to their teachers on these days.

Field Trip - Fire Station, Paya Terubong, Penang

2010-05-02T18:57:00.012+08:00

The Early Years and Preschoolers were able to visit the fire station on 28Apr for our Community Helpers theme. They had a fun bus ride there and when we reached there, we were greeted by the Fire Station chief. He assigned one of the firefighters on duty to tour us around. The children listened very carefully to the talk about the station, fire work and most of all safety. The Firefighters reminded us all how to call in case of Emergencies only. They showed us how to do that. They talked about how to stay low in a fire.and they took us all around the fire engine.

The ketua balai bomba gave cakes and drinks and we thank them with a Firefighter's song. That was the highlight for the firefighers. The chief was so great with these children and all of our children behaved excellently, it was a wonderful trip. Thank you Fire Station for having us, thank you Firemen for the tour and thank you teachers for taking good care of the children.

The kids Go Green

2010-04-25T15:04:00.006+08:00

Earth Day is celebrated on April 22 of every year. It is our children who will someday be responsible for taking care of our planet. We have to start educating them from young!

Here was one activity we did in class to help them love the earth and get involved in making it a better place.

Do you know the pastry man ?

2010-04-21T19:50:00.006+08:00

There's nothing quite like the smell of freshly baked pastries in the morning..now, where's my tea ?

Our little chef brought some puff pastries to share with the teachers and friends. Mind you, this was not any ordinary puff pastry, this was homemade puff pastry by this cute little chef and his lovely mum. We love how the mum brought him into the process of learning. He could actually tell you how this was made, what ingredients he used and bla bla bla...After the show and tell, our little chef cut the pastry and served to his friends..lovely!

Great blogs

2010-04-14T20:00:00.007+08:00

While I was searching for some printables sheets for our theme next month, I found these blogs :

A great place to get more ideas on extension for Montessori materials. I especially love her creativeness on EPL.
http://mymontessorijourney.typepad.com/

A blog by a mum sharing her fabulous ideas about homeschool and crafts
http://mama-jenn.blogspot.com/

April News

2010-04-01T23:09:00.005+08:00

We had a great time learning all about dinosaurs during the past two weeks. The children have learned about the different kinds of dinosaurs, what they ate and how big they were. They can easily name dinosaurs in our classroom collection as well as in the numerous classroom books and know exactly what their names are. Pretending to be Paleontologists has been a lot of fun too. The children especially enjoyed looking for fossils in our garden.

Our fun and fantastic theme for April is about Community Helpers. The children will be learning a wide variety of job. Ask questions like “What does he do?” “Where does he work?” Name all the tools a community helper needs to complete the job. Talking about what your children want to be when they grow up. Play dress up as Doctor and Firefighter.

Some of the activities that we have planned for the children :
o In conjunction with Earth Day on 22nd Apr, we will teach the children what we can do as part of the community and what we can do to take care of the Earth. Children are invited to bring trash from home daily to throw away into the correct recycling bin that we prepared.
o We would like to extend our understanding on jobs by taking a further look at the job that you do. Children are invited to bring a photo or two on Wed, 14th Mar for show and tell to the class of their parents at work.
o As we close our unit on Community Helpers, we will have our field trip to the Fire Station onWed, 28th April. Info and permission slip will be sent out soon.

Paleontologists at work

2010-03-24T19:10:00.001+08:00

On 24th Mar, we brought the children out to our backyard on a fossil hunting.

Mar News

2010-03-18T23:08:00.007+08:00

I hope everyone enjoyed the festivities of Chinese New Year. Thank you for your lovely comments on the teachers’ Chinese New Year window decorations. We talked about the meaning of the celebration and twelve animals in the Chinese Zodiac, We also talked about Friendship and Valentines.

We have been practicing being nice to our friends by saying please and thank you, waiting for our turn and using a soft indoor voice. For art, we did activities related to our themes: making art using sunflower seeds, Chinese fans, dragons, paintings in the lucky colours and made heart shaped cards. We then wrapped up our celebration by having a Chinese New year snack.

In Feb the children learned about Garden and our children were involved with gardening and it was rewarding to watch their interest and self-esteem grow as their gardening efforts yielded good results. Some children insisted their mums to cook the onions that they brought home.

Our exciting theme in Mar will be Dinasours which is sure going to spark children’s interest in these fascinating prehistoric creatures. We will be teaching some of the different features of dinosaurs.
o Some had bony plates on their backs or heads.
o Some dinosaurs had spikes or horns.
o Some had very long necks and tails.
o Some dinosaurs had big teeth and claws.
o Some walked on two legs, while others walked on four legs.
0 Some ate meat; others ate plants.

We will have children create their own dinosaurs using paints. When the artwork is complete, we will encourage children to name their dinosaurs after themselves (such as Gabrielosaurus or Megan rex) and introduce their creations. We will cut out paper dinosaur footprints of various sizes and let the children put them in order from smallest to largest.

We will also be going on a dinasour hunt. We are going to have a special Paleontologist Day on Wed, March 24th. Your child may dress up as Paleontologist to school that day as well as bring in other tools that a Paleontologist needs such as binoculars, hat or toy camera. On this day, we will dig up dinasour fossils from the ground and fit them together to make dinasour skeletons.

Feb News

2010-02-15T17:58:00.005+08:00

We had a great first month of school! Our focus for the first month was for the children to become familiar with school, including meeting new friends, learning routines and transitioning. They did a really nice job.

We also introduce some basic rules to the children. In Montessori environment, there are some basic expectations we have for the children such as we tell the children “walking feet” means walk safely and calmly in the environment, “indoor voices” means use gentle voices, no yelling across the environment. We constantly remind the children not to disturb others who are working and return materials in good order to shelves. In Feb, we will continue to focus on children’s care of environment and self like rolling mat, rolling socks, put shoes/bags on the correct places and grace and courtesy.

We will start our second theme with the study of Botany by introducing the topic about Garden. Some of the learning experiences planned for the children related to gardens include :
o acting out the story of The Enormous Turnip
o preparing a section of our play yard for a garden.
o planting onions and carrots
o smelling activity of different types of herbs that could be grown in the garden
o learning that worms in soil will make it better for plants

The week of Feb 8-Feb12, we will be talking about Valentine’s Day and Chinese New Year. We will also have a Chinese New Year celebration on Feb 22 when the children come back to school after the Chinese New Year break. Children are invited to wear their Chinese costumes or wear something red. Children are invited to bring in food to share too.

Jan News

2010-01-06T01:18:00.003+08:00

Happy New Year everyone! Welcome back to school! Some children are keen to be back and to catch up with their friends and teachers. It was lovely to receive your phone calls during school holidays. We missed you too! We have 6 new children start this month. They are Careen, Kien Ting, Tiffany, Maverick, Persia and Karen. We hope you enjoy your time with us. We will be spending most of our time getting the children know each other, daily routines and exploring the environment.

Our first theme is My School. We will be discussing about what we learn at school, people that help us at school, ourselves and friends and also Chinese New Year festival that we will be celebrating next month. Some fun activities we have already planned for children include sharing information about their family as well as themselves, counting how many boys and girls friends they have, create giant puzzle together and culture table of Chinese New Year.

Reminders :
o Please be informed that our school gate will be locked at 9.10am. If you’re late, pls ring the bell and wait. Try to be punctual so as not to cause disturbance to other children and teachers. Please send your child in promptly so your child does not lose any valuable learning time at the beginning of the session.
o Please label your child’s clothing and water tumbler as they always get mixed up and go home with the wrong child.
o If your child has been sick or had diarrhoea they should not attend school for 48 hours. This is to protect everyone in the school.

Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year

2009-12-24T14:46:00.006+08:00

I hope everyone is enjoying the holidays....On behalf of LittleLand and all the teachers of LittleLand including me, would like to take this opportunity to wish all parents, children, families and friends a very Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year.

See you back to school on 4th Jan 2010!! We can't wait to be back in full force as we have many exciting activities planned for the children.

Christmas moments

2009-12-18T22:23:00.014+08:00

We had a wonderful time during the past two weeks, with lots of stories, songs and laughs. The children are great!!

Dec News

2009-12-05T19:59:00.007+08:00

Can you believe that the holidays are almost here already! We would like to start by saying thank you to all the parents who attended our Assembly, it was a very successful afternoon. We also want to thank all the parents who were able to attend our Parent-Teacher Meeting. It was great sharing our information with you about your child and also learning more about each child from your point of view.

We would like to welcome 2 new children to LittleLand. It has been a pleasure to know them and we look forward to working with them. As this is the end of the school year it is an ideal opportunity to recognize the teachers for their tremendous work and dedication towards the children. We watched our toddlers from saying very very little to talking non-stop, we went through with children from not able to hold pencil to writing confidently and so much more.

This past month the children have been very busy exploring many levels of their development. We had a fabulous trip to the Penang Aquarium and were very proud of the children as they were well behaved during the outing.

This month we’ll be talking about Christmas. We are really excited about what we have planned for the children in this holiday season. They have been making Christmas crafts, making Christmas hats and also learning some Christmas songs. As usual they will be performing for the other groups. I think my favourite activities are when we do Christmas themed art and crafts. Pls take note that the last day of school will be 11th Dec and we’ll see you again on 4th Jan 2010. Christmas party will be on last day of school and children are invited to dress up on this day.

Under The Sea Assembly

2009-11-28T00:00:00.007+08:00

Vacancy for 2010 - Preschool Teacher

2009-11-21T22:10:00.003+08:00

The successful candidate will be required to start work on 4th Jan 2010.

Candidates must be able to work as part of a team, implement the Montessori syllabus set by the Principal, as well as other programmes and interact with children of all ages.
Candidates wishing to apply must hold either a Montessori Diploma, Child Education Diploma or currently taking Child Education course.

Candidates should be keen to continue their individual professional development and will be offered further training and development.

If you think you have the above qualities, do apply.

For more information and to apply please contact Estee Khoo on 012-4070156
Closing Date: 11th Dec 2009

Sun and Rain Assembly

2009-11-21T21:28:00.005+08:00

Well done !! Today our Early Years Group performed very well in their Sun and Rain Assembly considering the size of the audience. They had been singing along very well during rehearsals, but stage fright seemed to take over!! However everyone seemed to enjoy the performance and parents gave us lovely comments before they left. I'm very proud of them!!

2009 Holiday Programmes

2009-11-19T08:27:00.007+08:00

Our Cooking Party was so popular last year and we decided to have it again for the children this year. It's an enjoyable way to introduce boys and girls aged 3-12 years to cooking. Cooking is fulfilling, cooking is fun, cooking is an art and of course it involves a lot of techniques. They learn pounding the chicken softly, smashing the tuna into bits, peeling the potatoes skin, kneading dough and wait till you see children's faces when they wait eagerly for the food to cook! That's the interesting part of it!

If you are interested, do sign up early as we only have few places left! Come on, come and cook up a storm and have loads of fun!

2009 Cooking Party

Little Scholar Mandarin

2009-11-10T13:15:00.007+08:00

Our very own Mandarin class in the afternoon is conducted based on fun learning. The curriculum is centered on relevant thematic activities through story telling, singing, word games, role-play and art-crafts. This enable children learn Mandarin in a fun way and unlike traditional chinese kindergarten where children are required to sit throughout the lesson by learning to write Chinese words pages after pages.

Through fun-filled, task based physical activities children learn quicker. Our daily lesson includes focus as follows :

Reading : Teacher will read your child a story and he/she will have chance to read aloud for friends and teacher. Different word games will be played every week.

Listening : Your child will enhance his/her listening through games session, art & crafts these are all equally important in training the children to be attentive in the class.

Speaking : Classroom interaction is highly encouraged through Show and Tell, dialogues, role-play, talkabout the day session. Your child will gain confidence and enjoy speaking and communicating in Mandarin throughout the lesson.

Writing : Beginning with an introduction of simple Chinese characters, we learn to read, write, and create short phrases. We get your child to get in touch with the fun found in Chinese characters.

Nov News

2009-11-04T22:15:00.003+08:00

It’s hard to believe that the year is almost over. We have lots of activities planned for the children in this month. In our Botany subject last month, we talked about fruits and vegetables and which they like and which one they don’t like. The children really enjoyed the Deepavali and Halloween activities that we have planned for them. They enjoyed sprinkling coloured rice onto the Rangoli art designs, henna art Ms. Jenny did for them, chocolates from friends visiting their classroom, cupcakes decorations and performing for their friends.

This month, our theme will be Ocean. The children will be singing songs about the ocean and fish and we will be reading “Clumsy Crab” and “Sea, Sand, Me”. Art activities include making ocean in a bottle, adding sand to finger paint for texture and seashell rubbings. We will also do gross motor activities including shark chasing through wiggly tunnel and crab walking. The bigger children all continue to work hard participating in daily individual guided reading. We are sending some books or word cards back with the children. Please spend some time listen to your child read. Feel free to return the book to school in exchange for another book. The word cards are for children to keep at home.

Please keep in mind a few important dates this month:

Toddlers’ Hat Day – On 10th Nov, the Toddlers are invited to bring a hat to school - any types of hat, could be silly hats, cowboy hats, party hats, helmets or caps. They are going to have lots of fun pretending to be Harry Hat Man, show and tell their hats.

Field Trip - On 12th Nov, our Early Years and Preschoolers will be visiting the The Penang Aquarium Batu Maung, Penang in relation to their current topic work. More information will be provided soon.

Class Assemby - On 21st Nov and 28th Nov the Early Years and Preschoolers Group will perform for their class assembly respectively. The children are excited to show their parents how much they have learned during the school year.

Parent-Teacher Meeting - We would like to invite all parents to come to school for our second Parent-Teacher Meeting. The meeting will be held for two days on 23rd and 24th November between 2pm-6pm. Your child’s work folder and progress report will be presented to you. More details will be sent out later.

STAYING HEALTHY
When your child is sick, please have plans for back up child care. We have to turn away child who is unwell to school. We really need your cooperation and understanding on this matter.

East and West Celebrations

2009-10-28T10:02:00.004+08:00

Oct News

2009-10-02T16:17:00.007+08:00

Our Early Years and Preschoolers Group children took part in our Sports morning activities with great enthusiasm. We thought we would go ahead with the Sports morning for the bigger children after the rain has stopped. They walked along the balancing beam, jumped into hula hoops, kicked ball into the goal and threw bean bags into the basket. It was fun and helpful for the children to build their gross motor skills. This Wed 7th Oct will be Sport morning for our Toddlers Group. Parents, pls send your child in wearing our school t-shirt.

We hope that everyone in your family is healthy and happy. Speaking of health, we just finished learning about My Healthy Body. The children learned about healthy habits for the body, eating good foods, brushing your teeth, and exercising. We also taught the children about respect for others and how to care for their friends.

This month, we are starting our Botany theme on Fruits and Vegetables. Some of the many fun-filled learning activities scheduled for this theme include:
o Planting beans to sprout
o Playing the role of a gardener – we will be planting carrots, lettuces, teaching the children how to plant the seeds, water the plants and how to take care of the plants.
o Matching pictures of vegetables to where they are grown (trees, vines, underground, etc)
o Having a fruit and vegetable tasting activity during snack, cutting bananas and serve to friends

We would like to thank to our parents who introduce friends and relatives to our school. We will always continue to give the best of education to your child.

Dates to remember
Halloween Day on 30th Oct - Come to school dressed in black and orange or costumes! We will be singing Halloween songs, making Halloween cupcakes, art & crafts and learning to trick or treat!
Please be reminded that the school will be CLOSED for year-end break from 12th Dec – 3rd Jan 2010.
Deepavali celebration on 16th Oct - Henna art for the girls, demonstration on wearing Sari and children will have their own Rangoli art pieces to bring home.

Sept news

2009-09-28T20:30:00.004+08:00

Welcome back !! We hope new children settling in well. The National Day party on the last day of school was enjoyed by everyone. The children had a great time making Malaysia flags and performed It’s A Small World song in front of their school mates. They learned about other cultures and the different types of traditional clothes as well.

We are already starting a theme on Health this month. This theme will include many aspects of health such as how to keep us healthy. We will be discussing foods that are good for us, important personal habits and exercise. Time will be spent practicing for our Physical Play Day on 30th Sept. The physical activities that we planned for the children include gross motor skills such as balancing, throwing, running and leaping. It’s important for children to learn how their bodies move and work.

Some of the learning experiences planned for the children include :

o Tracing our bodies at the art corner
o Weighing and measuring ourselves
o Preparing healthy snacks
o People around us that keep us healthy – doctors and nurses

Physical Play Day on 30th Sept for all year groups - the children will be playing in their own group, watched by the other groups and rotate around 3 activities. The children won’t be competing each other. The emphasis is on having fun outdoors while instilling a sense accomplishment.

Announcement

2009-09-09T09:24:00.007+08:00

Hello everyone...First, I want to thank everyone for your participation in our 1st Anniversary! We have three winners for our Socatots giveaways. Congratulations!! The lucky winners are :

Nathaniel Tay Kai Van DOB : 08 Sept 2007
Tan Ming Hann DOB : 20 Dec 2005
Finlay Gray DOB : 28 Mar 2006

We will call you to redeem your kit when I received the kits from the UK.

Introducing SOCATOTS®

2009-08-24T10:07:00.009+08:00

I hope you all are having a great week! Lots of things going on here and i'm just ready to reveal to you about my venture into physical play programme for young children. I'm bringing SOCATOTS® The World's first and no 1 soccer play programme from England, UK to Penang now and Kuala Lumpur soon..

It's a unique programme where we use football as a medium to develop essential skills such as numerary, literacy, colour recognition and motor. It's my aim to see children to be more active and get involve physical play activities rather than spend their time going for tuition after tuition and complete tons of worksheets.

I thought it would be fun to do a giveaway for our readers, since we are all about honoring our first year anniversary!! Simply comment or email me why you want your child to join SOCATOTS® with your child's name and DOB, I will pick 3 winners with the most convincing answer and these lucky winners will receive a fun SOCATOTS® kit (shirt, shorts, socks and a little bag) worth RM120 and 12 free sessions worth RM348.00.

Good luck! Stay tuned!

Aug News

2009-08-22T14:56:00.005+08:00

The theme of the Farm Animals let us re-visit Zoology unit we learned earlier this year in March. We sang one of our favorite songs from Music Circle CD, We Went to Visit the Farm while pretending to be a variety of different farm animals using our bodies and voices. Another fun activity that our toddlers enjoyed was This Little Pig toes counting rhyme, where our teachers ran their fingers up the children's tummy and give them a tickle. Let’s not forget our group project which was making farmhouse out of cardboard box.

During story-time, the children listened to a very nice story about all the different animals that live on a farm in a book called Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown. For the Early Years children, they learned colour mixing for their art projects. They have started building 3 letter words using Large Moveable Alphabet. Parents, you may notice that your child is bringing home some words to work on.

The month of Aug we dedicated to learning about Weather. We started off talking about different types of weather, for Sensorial activities, children learned about rainbow colours, identifying loud and soft sounds, then later in the month, we also talked about how different weather can help us and plants. Our garden is looking beautiful, by the way! We’re getting a lot of spinach and lady’s fingers. It’s a great time the children learn everywhere around us there are signs of growth and changes.

The year is racing by and it is glorious to watch your children grow. Now most of them are ready for more challenging work and we have moved them to another level higher. The children really enjoy being in the new environment and meeting new friends.

Here are our classes in the AM Session

Toddlers Group ages 2 to 3 with 16 children
Early Years Group ages 3-4 with 9 children
Preschoolers Group ages 5-6 with 9 children

Besides our regular kindergarten classes in the morning, we also offer enrichment programmes in the afternoon. Little Scholar Mandarin available for children ages 3-12 and Ready Reader Early Learning Program (USA) for children ages 2½-4 works to improve the reading readiness of children.

Talking about growth, Malaysia is going to celebrate it’s 52nd National Day on 31st Aug. So I got the children dressed for their nationality at school. The kids paraded around the school and then we all headed into the middle area for a song performance. Then we went to the snacks area to sample the foods of many lands. And of course I didn't miss the chance to take photos!

What a nice cake...from this cute little boy's mum...gotta love his mum for having such a great Merdeka spirit for baking us this cake came with a recipe for us to try too! Another chance to teach the children to spot for our Malaysia flag!

Look how cute they are. We were really into Merdeka spirit! Took a chance to have a group photo for the very first time. But the pictures! As usual, they are cruddy. Some children just refused to stay still for a second....never mind we'll try again next time...

Need I introduce our Malaysia national costumes? From left is girl in cheongsam with a not so suitable pose, Malay baju kurung and an Indian costume.

One in red Samfoo with direct translation from Cantonese means Blouse and Pants and another in Indian costume.

Our Extended Day

2009-08-14T21:37:00.010+08:00

I have been meaning to post this up regarding our afternoon programme. In the extended day program, our teachers guide child in creative and playful endeavors. Children will enjoy a social and relaxing afternoon with free play as well as songs, stories, outdoor play and special activities. The school provides two extended day options: pick-up by 3:30 pm and pick-up by 5:30 pm

The afternoon schedule are as follows :

12:00 pm - 12:30 pm • Lunch & Cleanup
12:30 pm - 1:00 pm • Shower
1:00 pm - 3:30 pm • Rest Time (quiet time followed by optional lessons and activities)
3:30 pm - 3:45 pm • Character Building Session
3:45 pm - 4:30 pm • Tea Time & Cleanup
4:30 pm - 5:00 pm • Outdoor Play
5:00pm - 5.30 pm • Focus activity - Story telling, singing, art & crafts, cooking, playdough and Montessori Practical Activity

Toddlers Group Music and Movement time

2009-08-01T16:51:00.001+08:00

July News

2009-08-01T14:07:00.014+08:00

Hello again! Can’t believe that July has just gone... We have had a very busy two weeks in June and a whole month of July. A warm welcome to 5 new students and 2 members of staff who have joined us this term. We hope they enjoy their time with us as they experience new things each day. We would also like to mention that it was a pleasure meeting with you last week for our Parent Teacher Meeting. We appreciated your praises and feedback.

We have spent the last month learning about Dairy Food. The children sequenced pictures to show the day in the life of a dairy farmer and the process of milk from a cow to the table. At snack time the children were offered milk and ice-cream for tasting and smelling activity.

Our theme in July was Farm Animals. Since beginning of July we have been teaching the children the different sounds that the farm animals make by singing Old MacDonald Had a Farm. The children loved This Little Pig toes counting rhyme very much...They laughed out loud each time the teachers said "This little pig cried Wee Wee Wee all the way home!!" What the children loved best was when the teachers run their fingers up to the children's tummy and give them a tickle. We then looked at textured animals books and completed many fun crafts dealing with a variety of animals. There is a farm house with animals and tractor in the block center too.

We learned about baby farm animals such as chicks, ducklings, piglets, calves and lambs and we played the mummy and me matching farm animal game. We listened to the The Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown.
After reading this story, we list what we might see on a farm. Our Early Years Group children completed a barn scene using paints, manila cards and lots of art materials. They also learned colour mixing for example red and white makes pink. Yes, pink for our cute curly pig...

Painting and mixing colours activity

Ducky craft using toilet rolls

Little Bo Peep has lost her sheep called Woolly. Don't worry we will just leave him alone and he will come home...

Cute Curly pig

Children learned body parts of a cow

Concepts the children learned on Farm unit were :
o A farm animal lives on a farm
o Barns, stables and sheds are homes for farm animals
o Horses are farm animals that can be used for transportation
o Cows, chickens, pigs, sheep and goats are farm animals that can be used for food, Some supply us milk and eggs
o Farm animals eat corn, hay, oats and grass
o We can recognise some farm animals by their sounds

The children will continue to be taught the importance of washing hands after each activity. We will teach the children about proper use of the playground equipment, outdoor safety such as walking on the sidewalk, not running in the parking lot, and holding hands with an adult when crossing the street.

Don't you think that children nowadays just refuse to let you hold their hands when they are on the road ? Read a news recently that a mum reversed her car and ran over toddler. This news has freaking me out!! That's why we think it's our responsibility to remind children about raod safety.

Happy 1st Birthday

2009-07-24T15:09:00.010+08:00

Here we are celebrating our first year!!! It feels like yesterday that I started this school and had my first student..which was on June6 2008 to be exact. I call this school my pride and joy..I am still enjoying every moment of it..watching the children coming to school happily everyday..

I have always tried my best to bring out the best of Montessori method of teaching to the children here...Montessori is my heart and soul..it's my aim to go beyond the kingdom of writing and paper. My job is very rewarding and I feel that I benefit by contributing to the society and a good educational program for our new generation of children. I believe the education that we provide makes a big difference in the lives of these children.

I want to thank all my staff all the hard work, passion, vision and love shown to the children. You really do deserve much praise and thanks! From an empty hall to a provision for over thirty children...now we have four classes in the morning and we have our very own Little Scholar Mandarin class in the afternoon that I created for children using the approach of learning Mandarin in a fun way. Now we have another surprise for you coming up in Jan 2010..we are going to be starting our English Early Learning Program for children ages 2-4.

I have to say that I am very very thankful to all the parents..it is because of you...our loyal parents and children that we are here. I want to thank all of you from the bottom of my heart for always having faith in me to deliver to you the absolute best education to your child.

Early Years Group storytime

2009-07-04T18:54:00.004+08:00

June News

2009-06-20T21:46:00.009+08:00

We hope you had a great time with your child during the school holidays. The school was opened for Daycare children and they had great fun having longer outdoor play and the activities our teachers have planned for them like making Father’s Day card, clay painting and photo frame. You can see how much everyone in the school is enjoying the water table that we have put up in our garden too!.

Last month the children learned about Homes and Families and had a great time build three houses using different materials after listened to the story The Three Little Pigs. The Toddlers Group children also had fun making pig headband and they looked so cute wearing them. The Early Years Group children started to count by 2’s and 5’s and doing some addition with numbers. Since last month, we have started showing Toddlers Group children their names. As the teacher called out their names, they are able to tell very confidently.

Illness Reminder - This time of year can be overwhelming due to the Swine Flu attack. Pls read through the following and thank you for your co-operation.
1) Children with flu-like symptoms include: fever, cough, sore throat, runny nose, or stuffy nose. must be kept at home for at least 7 days. Additional symptoms may be experienced with swine flu, including muscle pain, fatigue, and sometimes vomiting or diarrhea.
2) Children with flu-like symptoms must remain at home and not coming to school. For example, if a child becomes ill the night before school they must stay home.
3) If a child appears to develop symptoms of illness during school hours, the parents will be contacted and asked to pick-up their child immediately.
4) If a child contacts a communicable disease, the school must be notified immediately, as a notice is required for other parents to be made aware and keep a watch for signs of illness in their children.

We will be learning about Dairy Food in our classrooms this month. The children will learn sources of dairy products, types of dairy products while enjoying them, milk can be used to make butter, cheese, ice-cream and yoghurt, cows, goats and sheep provide milk. On a hot day nothing is better than an ice-cream treat! The children get to scoop their favourite ice-cream and sprinkle lots of toppings.

Preschool Group children are required to complete occasional homework activities based on the Letterland Blends and Diagraphs sessions they have in school. They are also expected to bring a booklet with spellings to learn at home. We expect the children to practise these every day and they will be tested on their spellings every week. Homework should never be a burden to parents and child. Ideally homework will give parents and children a pleasant opportunity to work together on topics they have learned that week in school.

Parent-Teacher Meeting - We would like to invite the parents to come to school for a Parent-Teacher Meeting. The meeting will be held for two days 6th and 7th July between 2pm-6pm. Your child’s work folder and progress report when we meet you. More details will be sent out next week.

May News

2009-05-27T15:18:00.005+08:00

The Teddy Bear picnic on 22nd April was enjoyed by everyone. We ate Teddy Bear biscuits and sang Teddy Bear song. Besides enjoying themselves, they also learned how to wait for others before start eating.

Families and Homes will be the focus of this month’s theme. We will be telling children stories of The Three Bears and The Three Little Pigs. Through this theme, the children will learn the members in a family, family members care for and protect us, discover activitites that families can participate in together, a home is a place to live, home workers, rooms in a home, kinds of houses and materials for building a house.

Some of our activities at school will include :
o Find a room for the furniture – The children can place the furnishings in the proper room.
o Group project – Building house made from different materials.
o Acting out the story of The Three Little Pigs.
o Culture Table : Science – Children may observe and examine building materials such as wood, brick, sand paper and tiles.

This month, we will also be talking about a very important person in children’s lives that is mums. For Mother’s Day, the children will be painting picture portraits of their mummy and these masterpieces will be displayed for you all to see! All the children will also have the opportunity to create an individually decorated card.

Montessori Exercise of Practical Life

2009-05-10T10:53:00.003+08:00

Pouring activity by a toddler who is not even 2 yet. Look at the skill that he has mastered. Oh we are so proud of him!

Maria Montessori

2009-04-09T20:14:00.004+08:00

April News

2009-04-05T23:45:00.002+08:00

As we are entering the second term, a lot of new work is being introduced to both classrooms. Water works and care of the environment activities have become very popular, such as water the plants in the Toddlers class and table cleaning, arranging tables and chairs after meals for the Early Years class.

In the Early Years class, the children are still trying to aim for academic excellence, with work on letter recognition, initial sounds, phonograms and sight words. They are developing their pencil grips steadily and they are doing their handwriting without ‘tears’ and with more confidence now. We also talk about the calendar during circle time every morning. With the help of Montessori materials, the children find abstract concepts and language skills easy to understand and remember. They are also learning to control their movements by walking instead of running in the classroom.

In the Toddlers class, there are several activities in the areas of colours, shapes, art. They have been busy learning about what are primary colours. They will be learning what colours they can get when they mix and play with the primary colours. We have also started to encourage the children to be independent to come up with their own art pieces using materials such as coloured papers, egg shells, fish scales, feathers, etc.

Since we started “Show and Tell” last month on Pets, the sessions have been very successful. We have seen a variety of objects and heard interesting stories about them. Through this process, the children are learning important communication skills such as speaking clearly, introducing themselves, offering descriptive details, preparing the information they wish to share, answering questions which are directed to them about the information they have shared, etc. Importantly, children are learning to speak in front of their classmates, which help to build their self-confidence. Please continue to support your child towards selecting objects and pictures of nature and culture to bring to school for “Show and Tell” on every Friday.

Our fun and fantastic theme for April is on Toys. Toys are more than for amusement as they profoundly influence many aspects of children’s lives. We will be looking into the origin of toys, types of toys even gran’s toys in comparison to present days. We will also learn about Malaysia traditional toys and be playing some Malaysian favourites such as seven stones, kites and spinning tops at school. We would like to inform you of one special day whereby the children will have a Teddy Bear picnic. Info will be sent out soon.

Mar News

2009-03-17T11:26:00.005+08:00

Wow! With everyone settled in, we are looking forward to a wonderful peaceful March. Feb culminated with an enlightening tour to Tropical Spice Garden, to round up our theme on Plants. The children had a terrific time. It was so interesting to see a group of young children asking questions and learning the many new types of plants. Going on a field trip also taught the children how to behave on outings, care for themselves and friends.

We have been practicing handshakes. The children are learning how to shake hands, which hand is the right hand, and to make eye contact and smile when they greet someone. They are also learning one another’s names. We’ve been practicing our fine motor skills by cutting with scissors, stringing beads to make necklaces and bracelets. Our gross motor activities included tossing beanbags, throwing and catching balls, marching with musical percussions, doing the "Clap with Me", and of course, lots of music and movements. This month we will focus on children’s social skills such as sharing and taking turns.

We started to talk more about how and why we use calendars. On 13 Mar, we will be sending the calendars home for the Early Years children to finish as “homework” over the holiday. The calendars run from Jan – Dec of 2009. The children should finish writing the numbers and days. When they have finished, please help them to label dates they think are important throughout the year, like birthdays, holidays and special events. Please return the calendars to school on Monday after school break. We will be asking the children to share their calendars during our morning circle.

Our exciting theme in Mar will be Pets and we will be learning animal sounds, care of pets, body coverings and movements of animals. We will also be learning about occupation of people who work with animals.

At school
Some of the learning experiences during our Pets theme are :
· Creating a doghouse out of an old box for Floppy

· Show & Tell – The children can bring their stuffed animals to talk about them. If you are willing to bring your family pet to school to show the children, please let us know and we can arrange a time convenient for you and your pet.
· Listening to stories like Oxford Reading Tree - The Pet Shop, Me & My Dog, Tails are not for Pulling and Footprints.
· Pet Store – The children will be learning about counting and making choices.

At home
To develop fine motor skills, pls provide magazine for your child to cut or tear pictures of animals. These can be used to create an animal collage to hang in your child’s bedroom. Have fun with your child!

Dec Holiday Camp - Cooking Party

2009-02-09T13:48:00.015+08:00

Does your child want to be Chef of the day? In Dec, we had a really fun cooking party for our school children as well as outside children for a week.

Who's the instructor? I'm proud to say that it's me. Yes! Another hidden talent that I have which is baking. The children, all between the ages of 5-12, grouped into two, have a great time creating and baking, as well as playing fun games, watching pastry and bakery videos and taking home some nifty treats!

We did a lot of prep work buying all the ingredients, cooking utensils, aprons sewn and pre-making our adequate mix of recipes - banana muffins, easy cheesy chicken dippers, cupcakes, cookies, crepes, pizzas, etc to ensure that everything will turn out well on the actual lesson. On the actual day, everything that the children do started from scratch. They weight, measured their ingredients, they made the dough and broke the egg all by themselves with little help from adults. It's time to get messy !

We had the children assembling their own individual pizzas - bowls of sauce, cheese and toppings were passed around the table and yes, I think some of the children weren’t really thinking that they’d be eating these as they piled on loads and loads of tomatoe.

They were so creative with their cookies and seemed to have a great time making little treats that then went into the oven marked with their name, and into goodie bags to take home after the party. We ended our cooking party with lots of party treats eg strawbery ice-cream crepes, melon skewers and jellies.

Feb News

2009-02-01T16:30:00.004+08:00

What a great first month of school. We have been transitioning into new routines at school, learning everyone’s names, making new friends and getting to know each other. Currently there are 13 children in Toddlers Group ages 2-3 and 13 children in Early Years Group ages 4-6. The Early Years Group is under the guidance of Ms. Ng and I. She graduated with a Business Degree and has a passion in teaching. We look forward to an exciting year ahead with the children. You may have noticed there are 4 children attending our Junior Educare as well. One of them is Ms. Sri’s son. We are very delighted about this new addition to the school as we are providing this service to children whose primary schools are around the neighbourhood.

Our first theme was All About Myself. We discussed about our senses, how to take care of our teeth, how many fingers we have on our hands, where we are from and how old we are. In Montessori environment, there are some basic expectations we have for the children such as we tell the children “walking feet” means walk safely and calmly in the environment, “indoor voices” means use gentle voices, no yelling across the environment. We constantly remind the children not to disturb others who are working and return materials in good order to shelves.

We will start our second theme with the study of Botany by introducing Plants & Flowers. We use the book The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle. It is a wonderful book to use especially for the younger children. Some of the activities planned for the children are, we will examine seeds, plant and compare different types of seeds, learn how seeds travel, learn how the stem carries water, learn the needs of plants, parts of plants and lots of art and crafts will be made with this theme. We encourage parents to participate with children by collecting different types of leaves and bring to school that we will press into a book.

To enhance our learning, the Early Years children will be going on a field trip to Tropical Spice Garden, Teluk Bahang Penang on Feb 25. The school does not have mass transportation so we rely on parent volunteers or teachers to transport our students to and from field trips. Further details will be sent out later on.

Birthday the Montessori Way

2009-02-01T10:38:00.005+08:00

On 23rd Jan we celebrated Qian’s 2nd birthday. Glad that his busy parents were able to spend time organising a party for him. From the feedback from Qian's dad, he looked very excited and happy and this time he's aware that it's his birthday. I saw that too when I made a quick move downstairs to wish Qian Happy Birthday. No photos of Qian though, as I was upstairs teaching the Early Years. Ms. Sri was very happy with the children as they were able to follow the activity and the whole situation was very calm during the birthday. Hmm....that shows that our toddlers are growing up!!

Another birthday we celebrated was for Aden which was on 30th Jan. He is 2 years old too. We managed to do a Birthday Walk for Aden. A timeline of photos were shown to his friends and based on that we told stories to his friends. What sort of thing could he do when he was one? Sit up?.. Eat?.. Walk?.. Could he talk? We can see that this made the child feel so special.

Field Trip - Botanical Garden, Penang

2009-01-18T22:16:00.010+08:00

Our school took a first ever field trip to Botanical Garden after learning about Insects. The children were transported by two cars. We departed from school at 9am. Here we all are...very hard to get the little ones to focus though, they were too excited to explore the plance. So Gabriel was left out in this photo... Gabriel Gabriel where are you ?...

We began with a walk from the entrance and helped our selves out at one of the shady spots near the river. While we were walking, I posed a few questions for the children to keep observing things around them. Can you spot a monkey ? Can you see a butterfly? What type of plant is this ? They had a blast with this!

A picnic mat provided a nice sit down moment for the children. We had sandwiches, children's fav drinks and fruit.
Do you want to play with me ? Let's go and catch some butterflies. I heard Ms. Estee said there are some dragonflies over there. Come on, let's go!

How many butterflies you caught ? Well...fun time has to end. It's time to go. The children helped packed the things and put in the picnic basket. They helped each other fold the mat.

This activity was a favourite for them. We truly experiencing fun time with each other and the children have chance get in touch with nature.

The day ended with a smile. We had a great day and perfect weather. We're already planning our next trip in Feb.

Jan News

2009-01-05T21:01:00.011+08:00

Welcome back everyone to the start of the new term. We have certainly had a very busy month in Dec with holiday camp, cooking party and Christmas party too! We had lots of fun during the Christmas party. The children enjoyed decorating cookies and made party necklaces.

We are pleased to say that we have a total of 12 new children joining us this term. We hope that the children will settle in well soon and are looking forward to an exciting time with them. We will be spending most of our time getting the children know each other, daily routines and exploring the environment.

Our first theme is All About Me. We will be discussing about ourselves, our bodies and senses, favourite things, friends, families and also Chinese New Year festival that we will be celebrating end of this month. Some fun activities we have already planned for children include sharing information about their family as well as themselves. birthdays, making prints of body parts, culture table of Chinese New Year and lots of paint exploration.

We have a few children whose birthdays are around the corner and yes we encourage birthday celebration in our school. It’s a tradition in Montessori environment to celebrate children’s birthday by having a birthday walk. Here is how it goes..The birthday child will hold a globe and walk around a circle line. A candle will be lighted up and place on a model sun in the center of the circle. While the child is carrying the globe and walking on the circle line, his/her story (based on info given by parents) will be told. Every one complete walk around the sun represents the earth orbit around the sun one round and means one year is past. If the child is three years old, he will walk for three rounds. The child gets to blow the candle in the center at the end of his/her story. Then the birthday cake will be brought out and we’ll sing the birthday song together.

To let the children know more of the birthday child, photographs of the birthday child from each year of his/her life, a basket of his/her favourite book, toys or things will be shown to the class. These things will be displayed in the environment for a week and will be returned home after that. Parents are encouraged to inform the school early before the event.

Happy New Year

2009-01-03T23:09:00.006+08:00

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and are enjoying the new year! I apologize that I have been absent from blogging as compared to my past presence. I have to get use to update my blog often as I know some of you out there are waiting for me to upload the photos that I've promised. Yes...i still remember and will do it soon... do appreciate your patience. I hope that I'll be here more in the near future as I've made some adjustments to the demands on my time at school because I have a bunch of dedicated teachers who help me a lot with school work and share their love of teaching with me. I really appreciate their hardwork.

Chinese Camp

2008-12-05T22:02:00.002+08:00

The theme in Nov was Insects. I will post up our activities soon but I couldn't resist putting up two video clips from our Chinese Camp.

Christmas is coming to town

2008-12-03T20:19:00.011+08:00

I can’t believe that it’s Dec already. We would like to welcome Niveyda, Gabriel, Shi Yang, Hannah, Amos, Aden, Madison, Zhi Ping and Nathaniel to LittleLand.

It has been a pleasure to know all of them and we look forward to working with them. I’m sure most of you have met Ms. Sri, our Toddlers Group teacher, pls give her your best support. We will continue to work together to give the best to your child.

We had a fabulous trip to the Botanical Garden and were very proud of the children as they were well behaved during the outing. Thanks to the many times of rehearsals before the picnic day. The weather was just a perfect day for taking a nature walk and picnic, playing with friends, finding bugs, chasing after the butterflies and dragonflies.

During our month of Insects, the children were busy learning about the life cycle of a butterfly, The children love the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar and they could easily relate it when we shown them the real caterpillars that we got from the Butterfly Farm. In class, we guided the children through The Very Hungry Caterpillar book page by page, showing them how to turn pages carefully using the corner of the page and handle the book with care. We invited them to keep the book after reading it. We noticed that the children shown extra care for books now.

This month we’ll be talking about Christmas. We are really excited about what we have planned for the children in this holiday season. I think my favourite activities are when we do Christmas themed art and crafts. Pls take note that the last day of school will be 12th Dec and we’ll see you again on 2nd Jan 2009. Christmas party will be on last day of school and your child is invited to dress up on this day.

Language : Christmas related vocabulary – fetching objects
Math : Matching stockings, counting ornaments on Christmas tree, make and count the traditional red and green paper chains.

Science : Eating Healthy – which food are healthy, which food are bad.
Sensorial : Stuff Christmas stockings with objects for the children to guess what’s inside.
Snack : Rudolph sandwiches
Arts and Crafts : Hands and footprint Reindeer, Lolly stick snowman, Santa Claus collage, Christmas quilt.
Dramatic Play : Gift wrapping, Decorating Christmas tree and Christmas Party on last day of school 12th Dec.
Songs : Where Is Santa, You Are My Snowman and Santa Verse and of course

Our theme in Nov

2008-11-28T22:26:00.005+08:00

Do you want to know what we have been learning in Nov? We learned that it has six legs, wings, antennaes, head, thorax and abdomen? Yes! Insects! There are millions of insects in this earth but we chose butterfly as our topic. Children love them because they are colourful. We began our butterfly topic by reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle which the children love very much. It illustrates the life cycle of a butterfly.

We prepared a butterfly nursery and raised the caterpillars. Children observed and noted the progress from caterpillar to butterfly every day. Unfortunately only 1 out 3 formed into a butterfly. Today we set the butterfly free. The children kept asking why we let the butterfly go. We explained to them that the butterfly needs to continue its life cycle from egg to adult buttefly again. We had fun as we learned other insects too. This is such a fun theme, as there is a lot of exploring and discussing.

Activities done -

Language – The Very Hungry Caterpillar story sequencing cards, learned the name of body parts – head, thorax and abdomen.
Math – We used different colours of craft pom poms (our pretend fuzzy bugs) and sorted them into different sized containers.
Science – Observed the life cycle of a butterfly - You could easily get these caterpillars from Penang Butterfly Farm.
Snack – We ate caterpillars!! We used bananas for the caterpillar body.
Arts and Crafts – We made caterpillars from egg cartons. We add wiggle eyes and pipe cleaner pieces for the antennae and legs.
Dramatic Play – We went to Botanical Garden on 14th Nov for a picnic.
Songs – The Fuzzy Caterpillar and I’m a Butterfly

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

2008-11-25T22:45:00.009+08:00

Hi I really didn't think posting up photos would take this much time to finish. I kept telling to myself that the photos must be up before this year. Don't forget almost everyday we do happily snapping photos of our children in action. So they do add up to the album.

This morning when we reached school, first thing we noticed was a black beautiful creature flying in our butterfly nursery. When we looked closer, it was a butterfly. We couldn't be any happier. It's like we watch the butterfly slowly changing from caterpillar and now to a beautiful butterfly. It's like raising your own child. It's totally amazing.

The children were all very excited. Not only the children, I was excited too as this was the first time I have seen real life cycle of a butterfly. One of our children invited her dad to come inside and take a look at our pride of joy. It was really great to see that the children have a love for living things. Another parent even told me that she'll try to raise her own caterpillar this way too!

Yeah! Finally, our hungry caterpillar has changed to a butterfly!

School Holiday Pirate Camp. We had treasure hunt in the garden on that day.

We were revising the sound of Bouncy Ben. We also made butterfly to go with the sound of b.

Well, that's all I have to share for right now.

More photos

2008-11-24T22:51:00.004+08:00

As promised, i am posting some photos again today. Wish I had chance to sit down and do it all in one go.

We build a maze using Long Rods on green mat. We concentrated very hard and did a very good job. We walked in and out again and again.

We learned the sound of the letter d. We started by singing the Dippy Duck song, made a door knob hanger craft and finished off with a worksheet.

To go along with the sound of Dippy Duck, we learned the difference between salted duck's egg and a chicken's egg. We experimenting with the eggs and had fun cracking them. We were amazed that the duck's egg was actually white after we washed off the damp black charcoal.

Photos taken in July

2008-11-23T22:22:00.012+08:00

Can't believe that Dec is coming up so fast. There are tons of photos waiting for me to post them up here. I better do so before year 2008 is gone as I'm really really late in posting these photos. It's going to take days or even weeks to post them up so pls bear with me. Hmm...now..where do I start with??

She enjoyed blowing and chasing after the bubbles. She was excited to see all the bubbles around her. I asked her to pop all the big bubbles. Since then, she has been asking for bubbles everytime we go out to the garden.

They were asking me how deep was the sandbox. I told them that they could try to bury their feet in there and they will find out the answer.

What was happening in Oct...

2008-11-19T21:40:00.000+08:00

In Oct, we were busy working on our miniature little town, we have cars ready, painted houses and buildings. The children had lots of fun learning when should cars stop and go at traffic lights. They also learned things they need to fly in an aeroplane. Children took turns to be pilot, flight attendant and passengers. We had our Halloween party with costumes, cookies decorating, treats, jack-o-lantern toss the bean bags and parading around the environment. What children most excited about was the trick or treating part.

Reminder to parents: Please say a sweet but short goodbye to your child before you leave in the morning. It may seem easier for you to “sneak” away, but it can be very confusing for your child. Separation has been harder for some, but children are settling in to the routines and the environment comfortably once they are engage in activities.

In a Montessori environment, children are given freedom to work with any materials and to move around. If they stray from expectations, they are quickly and firmly redirected. It’s not advisable for two or more children to work with the same material together. One thing that children need practice right now is “order”. To work with a piece of material, first, they need to lay out a mat on the floor/ table, choose a material, work with the chosen material and return it to its place. I’m very proud that my two year-olds can follow this practice.

Can toddlers below age 2.5 follow a lesson ?

2008-11-15T08:53:00.009+08:00

Currently we have 3 children fall under this age group. If you are working with toddlers of this age group, you know that you should hold on to giving those three period lessons until age 2.5, and put out activities the toddler needs no help with.

Why are younger toddlers so hard to sit down and give a lesson to (Montessori 3 period lesson)?

1) They do not have the attention span because one day they do, one day they don't. We let the child move freely and explore in the environment.

2) They are still in a large motor movement stage of development, so they will not sit for long.

We always introduce toddlers to Montessori materials from Practical Life shelves. Always remember that your toddlers need to master their skills based on 4 areas of Exercises of Practical Life

AREA 1 - Elementary Movements and Preliminary Activities
Classroom Conduct for Directress and Child
Development of Fine Motor Skills - Pouring
Transferring
Opening & Closing
Threading, Cutting, Sewing, Folding
Walking on a line
The Silence Game

AREA 2 - Montessori Exercises for the Care of Self
Changing Shoes
Dressing frames; Zip, Velcro, Buttons, Press Studs, Hook & Eye, Buckling, Bow Tying, Lacing
Polishing Shoes & Folding Clothes
Blowing Nose & Coughing
Care of Teeth, Nails, & Hair

AREA 3 - Montessori Exercises for the Care of the Environment
Dusting, Sweeping, Polishing
Use of Clothes Peg, Washing up
Scrubbing of Tables, Floor..etc
Care of Garden, Indoor Plants, Flowers
Planting Seeds
Care of Pets
Classroom Skills
Cooking Skills
Fire Drill

AREA 4 - Montessori Exercises for the Development of Social Skills, Grace & Courtesy
Greeting People,
Interrupting with Excuse Me
Coping with an offence
Conduct with a visitor
Speaking to a Group
Behavior on Outings,
Special Occassions
Helping Out
Table Manners and Use of Eating Utensils
Serving and Sharing Foods
Individual Snack

Our role as a Montessori teacher is to observe toddlers and have activities that do not require a lesson. Observing toddlers in the environment for their interests likes and dislikes; and their skill level eg. can they put in a piece of puzzle, can they recognise objects around them, can they build blocks, hold crayon, brushes or pour water yet?

And by observing them, we can add and change activities based on our observations.

Take a look at our Halloween photos

2008-11-14T23:02:00.003+08:00

We came to school dressed in our Halloween costumes. Can you spot a bee, ladybird, butterfly, princess, lilo & stich or even a scary ghost? We had fun gathered inside our environment and paraded around the environment. We sang our Five Little Pumpkins and Knock Knock Trick or Treat songs, created arts and shared treats.

Our Halloween Party so far...

2008-11-14T16:40:00.003+08:00

Sorry everyone....school work has taken over. We have been very busy this month planning for our Holiday Camps in Dec and taking registrations for next year. I'm glad that the response turned out good. Here are a few photos from our Halloween Party!

We were waiting patiently for the party to start!!

We counted until 10 but the party hasn't started. Probably our friends were not here yet.

spoilt with choices

2008-11-14T16:37:00.004+08:00

I spent a good portion of the day researching for wooden furniture and equipment for my school. It's simple, they must be the right size for children, environment safe, accident free, have curved edges and done over with non-toxic surfaces. I tried to search for ready-made furniture if there's none that satisfies me, I will opt for custom-made. To make things worse, I am an extremely fussy lady but that's because I wanted the best for my school and children. I have catogorised them as follows :

Storage unitsBook displays

Seating units
Kitchen units

Sand and water units

Easel and Art equipment

Housekeeping units
Tables and Chairs

Role play units
Montessori materials shelves

Wall displays

Wooden play equipment

Most of my teaching aids come from the UK and USA. I sourced them overseas because they have a good range of educational toys, art and craft, furnishings. Those are very valuable items like Montessori materials, I can't start the school without these classroom essentials. In my list, there's also quality learning materials from Oxford Reading Tree and Letterland just to name a few, art and craft materials and educational toys from Plan Toys, Selecta Spielzeug and Orchard Toys.

My general idea was to create an ideal environment for the children. I really love the above ideas but I had a hard time source for these locally. If I can find the right supplier or carpenter.

talking about education

2008-11-14T16:29:00.004+08:00

When I was in secondary school, on nice days, my friends and I will walk from our school SGGS to Pulau Tikus for snacks. As we walked up the road, we will pass St. Christopher's school. The sight of children with blue eyes and blonde hair caught our eyes. Leaning against one of the trees, we'd sit and watch the children leaping high and playing with joy...In my head, although I was only 17, I was hoping to own a school that the children enjoy coming to.

I focus on the kind of education the school could offer. I don’t talk as much about the beauty of the school, but the quality of the education. I know that children learn best when they’re actively engaged. They are naturally curious. I know they learn science, math, reading and writing concepts through hands-on, sensory-oriented activities. I believe that all children are talented, capable and special, whether they enjoy music or math. That's why eventhough at home, I give them lots of activities based on Montessori teaching. Just a simple activity like having a meal. You could incorporate Montessori teaching into your daily life. Practical Life is one of the subjects in Montessori teaching that i love the most. By providing plenty of space and time for them to explore, along with lots of support and love, you and your child sure will have fun.

how I got to know about Montessori

2008-11-12T21:20:00.006+08:00

I'd never heard of the word Montessori before and it was 10 years ago when i was introduced to the word Montessori. This is still fresh in my thought though. My friend, Caryn told me - at that time I was already doing research for a good quality preschool. Caryn told me about Montessori. What is so special of Montessori school? Ohhh...it's a very fun school...the children get to play and learn in a fun way. I was so so excited!!! Cool...tell me where is it in Penang that i could find this school.

After several days of exhaustic research on the web, let me tell you, Montessori schools look like heaven. You will wish that u were a child again and you would beg your mum to send you to Montessori school. They look too lovely to miss....

"Our aim is not merely to make the child understand, and still less to force him to memorize, but so to touch his imagination as to enthuse him to his inmost core." -Dr. Maria Montessori
So......for the first-timers whom never heard what is Montessori.

I'm blessed to have a chance to practice what is Montessori all about.......

Happy Halloween

2008-10-31T21:42:00.000+08:00

Make a Smilebox scrap pages