They absolutely love this song! Have the students come up with their own weird combination and sing it!
Another song they loved! Let the students dance like these potatoes – it will be a perfect brain break exercise!
They wanted to sing this song before lunch time 🙂 It’s good because these songs all keep the students thinking about food and what we talked about!
Another good song to teach students about fruits and vegetables! Do the hokey pokey with them 🙂
Let’s learn about eating healthy – FOOD PYRAMID!
This is such a fun topic to discuss with children. It is really interesting to hear their developing perspective on food.
“Eating too much sweet things is not good because you get ouchy/tummy ache/cavity.” (parents doing their job.)
“Lettuce is good for caterpillars but I’m not caterpillars so I don’t like it.” (cuteness overload seriously lol)
In my class we went broad on the topic first – healthy and unhealthy things. After that I started introducing different food groups and easing them into the food pyramid. They were really good at identifying the groups but seemed to struggle a little with the idea of grains.
We played various games and listened to fun food songs.
After spending a week or so exploring different kinds of food, we decided to make our classroom food pyramid – a BIG one! Children were super excited about this idea 🙂
We decided to divide the class into 6 groups and each group was responsible for each food group. We made as many things as we can think of within the food group. For example, Team Vegetables was responsible for drawing and cutting out various vegetables like tomatoes, cucumber, pumpkin, etc. Team Grains was in charge of drawing and cutting out bread, pasta, cereal, etc.
After we finished making tons of these food items, we mixed it all up in a box. During circle time the next morning, we made a big pyramid out of craft paper roll and used tape to indicate the borders of different group.
I then presented the box full of food items and asked the children to glue each item into the correct area of the pyramid. They were having so much fun during this activity 🙂
We decided to invite autumn into our classroom our way 🙂
1. Paint two pieces of long craft paper brown. Dry them.
2. Crumple up newspapers and scrap papers and have a paper ball fight!!!! (WARNING: psychologically prepare yourself for an out-of-control scream and laughter for about 5,10min)
3. While the paper ball fight is going on, quickly prepare the tree trunk as you keep an eye on the students. If you crumple the painted paper first, it will add texture to the tree and make it easier to form the trunk.
4. Trunk doesn’t have to be perfect yet. Once you sort of have it, let the students throw the paper balls into the hollow trunk. When the trunk is filled, it will look perfect!!!! 🙂
We cut out a little hole in the tree and made a squirrel sit in it. We also made autumn coloured leaves and put them on our tree. The students were very proud of their tree!!
Studying about seasons <Autumn>
Let’s go on a walk! I took my students out for a mini walk around the neighbourhood one afternoon. We stopped at a park and I let them run around.
“Look at the leaves! They are really pretty now.”
“Maybe you can collect all these leaves on the ground and dive into it!”
“It’s getting a little cold isn’t it?”
While I was there, I dropped these comments casually to direct the students’ attention to the changes that were happening in their environment.
After the stroll, I put up a couple of summer pictures and asked my students: Who likes summer? Most of my students raised their hand and excitedly started sharing why they like summer – we can eat ice cream and we can go to pool and dad and mom takes me to the beach, etc. We then discussed things we saw during our walk that were different from summer. The trees are pretty! The leaves have different colour! We can get acorns! etc. were some of the things they mentioned.
Going on a walk and dropping topic-related comments prior to introducing the topic seemed to have work very well with these students.
During our Autumn topic we explored the nature a lot. We collected leaves of all sizes and colour, acorns, pine cones, seeds, etc. We then used these for various crafts. The students were always very excited to make crafts out of things they themselves collected!
Then one day a student came up to me and asked me “Yuka, can we bring all the leaves inside?” I asked her why. She told me it was because she liked autumn and she wanted autumn to come to our classroom. Of course I couldn’t let my students bring in piles and piles of leaves to the classroom. But I thought bringing autumn in our classroom was a brilliant idea. So together we made it happen: Autumn Tree.
Vancouver… I fell in love with the city. I didn’t want to but some times we all have to do things we don’t necessarily want to do. So, I left. I’m not going to lie. I was really sad to leave the city. All the people I met, all the memories I made, the lifestyle… everything… I loved everything about it.
But a new chapter has to begin sometimes, and now was the time.
JAPAN.
Life works in a mysterious way. Two days after my return, I got hired as a full-time teacher and I started working at a bilingual school in Japan. I now have a kindergarten class and the students are absolutely adorable!
My school is an inquiry based kindergarten. We have monthly themes but that’s about it. No structured curriculum or goals regarding these themes. The kids were working on solar system when I started my job. The students learned about solar system through songs, crafts, videos, and books.
Here are some solar system songs they absolutely loved 🙂 During circle time, the students request these songs. Sometimes I wonder if they ever get sick of hearing these songs but… I guess not!!
Here are some crafts they’ve done. First we made a coffee filter art. Then we cut holes on a construction paper and pasted the coffee filter art to represent their own planet. Glitters and stickers were a great hit!!
When I started working with these students, we decided to start a banner project. Every time we have a new theme or some events, we will be creating a big banner for the class! This is a fun, interesting, and crafty activity but can be very educational. Timing will be the key for this activity. Making a banner at the beginning of the theme can become a tool to know how much the students already know. Any time after the introduction of some main factors of the theme would be a great way to check for their understanding. It can also simply be a tool to introduce new ideas! Here is a picture of the banner.
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