WEEK THREE - 1 AUGUST 2016

Welcome and Welcome Back!  It’s Week Three of Summer Slam, and we continue with more
creativity and fun.

Our four new friends who joined us this week were given a tour of the different rooms whilst Yan Mei Lao Shi read a Chinese story to the children about the different uses of a lotus leaf – as a cradle for a water droplet, as a take-off and landing ramp for a dragonfly, as a performance stage by a frog and as a summer hat for a child.  Can you think of more?

The children then went off for some cardiovascular activity with Suhairi, our ‘dancercise’ master.  With his usual bounce, Suhairi came in for some disco fun with a single side step to left and a double side step to the right, tap to the front and tap to the back, hands on the hip and the other in the air (ala John Travolta) and the children were soon dancing (and posing) to ‘Night Fever’ by the Bee Gees.

After a short interval to refuel (snack and water), the children were brought into the world of artists and art forms, with Henri Matisse and Claude Monet taking centre stage, in our discussions.

We read a story about Monet (with a child – Ishan, likening that acquaintance to that, with his father!) and used the Puzzle Map (a Montessori geography material) to identify the places of birth of both artists.  We discussed the different kinds of colouring materials (oil paints, watercolours, markers, crayons, colour pencils and chalk) and the applicators (brushes and, surprisingly from our recent art activities, the children recollected straws, forks, cotton buds, fingers, also threads, balloons, bubbles and the list goes on).  The children felt canvases made from cotton and of linen as we introduced them  (a sensorial experience for them).

Taking off on another tangent of creativity (with scientific applications) – we presented a magic trick, with a cup, sponge, water and a piece of ice.  We revealed the secret of the trick to the children and asked that they tried it on their families when they got home.  Shhhh … it stays a secret until they’ve had a chance to practise it!

Lunch followed, and it was Aunty May’s time.  Carrying through with the theme of artists, she read a story about Pierre Auguste Renoir (another impressionist and a friend of Claude Monet).

Time for siesta and then it was off to the activity of actually applying paint to canvas.  Two children gave us their interpretations of Monet’s Sunflowers and Matisse’s Snail, while another two painted their art pieces (one with a nail brush).  Another group of children was making a birthday card with Lao Shi Yan Mei.

Sports - It is basketball this week, and we presented it as follows:

1.       The founder, James Naismith (source: Wikipedia) was a Canadian sports educator (Canada was pointed out on the Puzzle Map) and in 1891 he invented the basketball game (using the decimal system – subtraction as a guide we presented the number in a way the children can understand)

2.       The objective of the game

3.       The ball - we showed the geometrical solid for it (sphere)

4.       Shape of the court (the geometrical shape of a rectangle)

5.       Number of team members

       We will cover the following tomorrow:

1.       Special names assigned to each player

2.       The equipment used

Then the children practised the chest passing drill.  We look forward to some more from this exciting session tomorrow.

For those who have been reading our blog over the last two weeks, you would have noticed a difference in the style of writing.  That is because our resident blog writer is currently on vacation and we wish him a well-earned rest.  We hope you will find our blog just as informative.

Here is the link to our gallery of photographs.

Rumeshi and Yan Mei

With May and Dennis