WEEK ONE - 20 JULY 2016

A dramatic photograph, but not from this morning's storm. Khongkit Wiriyachan /Shutterstock.com

What happened today?

Quite a storm last night, wasn’t it?  Phew!  Now that’s an interesting topic, as it includes sound, light and, of course, action!  Soon…at our Summer Slam 2016!

We awaited Suhairi with much anticipation, as it was to be a ‘cha cha’ morning!  Prior to introducing the dance steps, we had planned to screen some clips of this evergreen Latin dance that was to have been preceded by a narration, about sharing (Grace and Courtesy), but our internet connection went south, and that was it!  So we made do with some action songs: ‘Down by the Ocean’, and in Mandarin: ‘Sea Animals’, which the children enjoyed very much.

Then came the introduction to 1, 2, cha cha cha!  First, the steps, then re-learning them in small groups and finally doing it to the classic - 'I wanna dance with you - cha, cha, cha, cha'.  So take a few minutes this evening to ‘cha cha’ with your child.  Who knows, you may be training the next contestant to ‘Dancing with the Stars’!  Well, in our books, everyone was a star today;  although some with waning enthusiasm, here and there.  Quite natural.

We still welcome contributions to our dress up corner!  Old dresses, costumes, curtains, sashes, wigs, costume jewellery and anything that can be used for dressing up with imagination, will be appreciated.  We plan to give ‘role playing’ a turn tomorrow with multiple actors, who will hopefully put together an unscripted performance of imaginary roles.  Cops on the moon with an astronaut, now what say you, to that? A case of missing the cheese?

Rumeshi reported success, in preparing the 'Salt Dough'.  She had made a batch at home, last evening.  It had set!  Yay!  So once Yan Mei works out the possible decorative materials, the sculpting can begin next week!  Have you signed up your child for Week Two?  Please call us to arrange it.

Meanwhile, the decorative T-shirts get even closer to being worn.  Not all were too keen on continuing with it, so we will find a way to spark the enthusiasm tomorrow.  Would any of you care to model? No catwalk provided but music, yes!  Let us know!

Mid-morning, we went MIT – that is marching into technology!  Sathish, our ITG (IT Guy) had researched iPad apps that had association to what we introduce sensorially, in geometry, for example, ‘tanagrams’.  The children liked the apps chosen and, not only had fun but learnt much by using applications that had them practise making and performing; 'tanagrams', (geometry), addition and subtraction (math), categorising numbers (math).  Super fun with academic value.

Lunch was a social experience again and almost everyone, eating with a hearty appetite.  Please try to serve your child’s food is in bite-sized pieces.  Thank you.

Post-lunch

Our administrative head of school, Mrs. May Chan, determined to be part of Summer Slam 2016 barged in soon after lunch!  Well more like Cha-cha’d’ in.  She had a book – ‘People in History’ and chose to read all about the famed Scotsman, Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone, among other things.  Children saw pictures that told the story of this indispensable communication device.  We think they had a hard time imagining the ‘rotary dial phones’ and old-school telephone exchanges!  Johan, though, seemed to know about the older type of phones and the extreme – satellite communication! Bravo!  We will pick a famed character from history and regale the children further with their contributions to humanity.

A short nap for some..shhh

We ran out time for the planned Bingo session!  Just as well, we suppose, as that allows you more time to prepare yourselves with the access code – the song B-I-N-G-O!

Bowling Practice

Cricket – as we promised, we took the introduction of the game a notch up.  Serious stuff!  The children were divided into three groups, each being presented with batting, bowling and fielding.  The batting group learnt to play the ‘forward defensive’ and to ‘drive’ the ball. The bowlers learnt to aim, rotate the arms and deliver the ball overarm, to the batter.  The fielding group practised catching the ball, thrown to them at differing heights. The children rotated after a turn at each drill.  Hopefully, we can see these newly learnt skills come into play, at a planned game, this Friday.

Fielding Practice

The link again to our gallery of today’s activities.  Do enjoy them (we know that some of you have appreciated this) and feel free to download and share, what you like! 

Trivia - Did you know that our ITG (Sathish) played cricket for his state in his home country, India?  Albeit with a little less pace now, as a father of two, he remains an effective pace bowler!  You've probably seen some of his actions directing traffic down Broadrick Road!!

Rumeshi and Yan Mei together with May, Sathish and Dennis

Batting Practice