1/18/2015

1/17 WINTER STORY TIME: ARCTIC AND ANTARCTIC ANIMALS


I haven't tried an animal theme with penguin, polar bear, and walrus yet. As I browse through the library collections, I found these two picturebooks very special respectively.

Picturebooks:
1. Where's Walrus?
This is a wordless picturebook. At the beginning, the walrus was in the zoo. Later on, he escaped from the zoo and went to all different kinds of places and disguised himself as part of the environment. The zookeeper looked for him all over the place and finally found him in a diving contest. The walrus was found and he was taken back to the zoo with a new identity--diving performer.a

2. Penguin and the Cupcake
This humorous book really got me and the mothers, but I'm not sure if the kids got it...The penguin wanted to find cupcakes in the north pole. He traveled all the way up to north pole and met two animal, a walrus and a polar bear. Throughout the book, the walrus and polar bear came out and spoke a few lines to complain and argue with the penguin, which I thought was really funny (but the kids were like...oh, what, huh). Anyways, the penguin found no cupcakes until he disappointedly got on the plane and a kind old granny handed him a box of cupcakes. The ending was funny too! As the penguin ate the cupcakes, he saw a flyer of pizza...on search for PIZZA for the next time!

Warm-up activities:
Who Lives in the Arctic?
I printed this out and introduced to the kids along with real animal pictures. A lot of animals are new to the kids, even to me as well. It was a special learning experience.


Arts and Crafts:
At first I wanted to do this 3D penguin (SO CUTE!!!), but I gave up because it would be too hard for preschoolers. I ended up preparing different color papers and they could cut out one shape eg. triangle. Cut a bigger and a smaller one to layer. It's easy, creative, and fun!
Check this out: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/480266747737236317/

Draw the background of the card first.

Give out color papers for the penguin bodies.


 

 

1/13/2015

2014 MEMORIES




















1/10 STORYTELLING: SOLVING CASES/ DOGS



The very first storytelling in 2015 started with two interesting books. Both are about solving cases. It's a good way to build up kids' curiosity throughout the read-aloud and probably a good way to introduce mystery fiction.
Picturebooks:
1. The Strange Case of the Missing Sheep 
2. The Case of the Missing Donut 

Today's topic is about solving cases and dogs. This combination sounds a bit weird but I explained to the kids that there was one animal that appeared in both stories. And they got it immediately: it's the DOG! So...be creative, right?

The first 20min were spent on a little warm-up activity, "I Spy with My Little Eye" with this amazingly beautiful pdf file. At the beginning, I asked the kids to look for different items in the picture, and they had to circle them out. For example, "I spy with my little eye...a cat!" When they got used to it, I let them give instruction by themselves in turns. Sometimes there were more than one of the same item, so they could compare what they found with others. At last, I wrapped up the game by asking them to locate a sheep. 2015 is sheep year (my year!) and sheep is also the main character in the first book: The Strange Case of the Missing Sheep. What a wonderful connection :P

The second picturebook made everyone crave for donuts...



For arts and crafts, I picked this cute puppy card. The template has all components for the card but I chose only the tongue and the ears. By doing so, the kids could decide how they want their dogs' faces look like and not restricted to the colors and shapes. The results came out fantastic and artistic!

Cutting the tongues (red) and ears (yellow).



Parents' DIY or the Kids'?

He's so ready.

Some kids were too shy...

How cute is that!


8/29/2014

2014 JULY teaching in Kinmen and Beijing


今年夏天烈日下,參加了師大的孔子行腳支教,來到金門和北京的學校教學。


今年飛機失事的消息特別多,我們從松山機場搭小飛機平安抵達金門機場,特別迅速的在飛機前拍了一張。


八個女生擠在特教老師的午休房間裡,男生路過說:天啊!好亂!


教學經驗裡最充滿挑戰的一次:
滑不停的手機、被滅火器擋住的門、尖叫的學生、遊蕩的學生、被霸凌的學生...


不過除此之外,金門也是很好玩很好吃!永遠忘不了第一次環島是在小金門,吃了一餐最棒的芋頭大餐!


讓人懷念的廣東粥、炒泡麵、蛋狗、雙胞胎口感的油條。


抵達北京,是黃沙還是黃昏?


北京師範大學的熱情款待,一個人的舒服房間!


北京的口味對我來說又鹹又辣。真不知道其他城市是怎麼樣的?


支教的地區:老泉口村的口味卻是特別好吃!
吃得到新鮮,吃得到滿桌的豐盛和最喜歡的麵粉食物!


適合養老的四合院。


混齡教學,程度落差很大。一樣喜歡玩手機和遊戲。


隨處可見的作物。圓形的茄子好好吃!


當個觀光客:故宮、圓明園。到處都是人群,國內觀光的民眾很多。


爬長城最困難的地方是...如何在人群之中緩步半走半擠得走到北四樓。


觀光客想做的事:后海、南鑼鼓巷、寄張明信片回家。


北京奧運水利方和鳥巢已經變成地鐵裡的一站景點。沿路的風箏串兜售、攝影、奧運紀念品...玉兔又叫兔爺,是北京的吉祥物。


原本在心中定位這一趟旅程,是要給自己一個偏鄉服務的機會和經驗,再一次檢視自己對教學的可能性。但是旅行中發現更多的是領導、策畫、挫敗、克服、溝通、入境隨俗的學習。至於偏鄉服務,要做得徹底一些,短期的志工是沒有辦法達成的,更容易偏離初衷。時間過於短暫、和學生認識不夠深入,匆匆得來又匆匆得離開,我們究竟是自私的為了自己的一個月經驗或是因為看見需要而選擇付出?