Excuse me!

Routine: calendar

We read a book called "I'm Sorry" today. I borrowed the book from the library for yesterday's lesson, but I forgot to bring it! It's about two friends who really like each other and play with each other all the time, but they had an argument one day, and they stopped talking to each other. The students seemed to connect with the characters in the story, and really empathized with how they feel.

Then we talked about sneezing and coughing, that we have to cover our mouth and say excuse me. I found this cute little craft on the internet~

I'm Sorry

Routines: calendar, hi and bye

We started our lesson with a circle game called "Go In and Out the Window". I asked the kids to make a circle, hold hands, and make an arch with their hands. Then I taught them this song:

Go In and Out the Window

Go in and out the window,
Go in and out the window,
Go in and out the window,
Just like we've done before.

I showed them how to play the game by being the first person to weave in and out of the their arches while we sang the song. Then I asked another student to join me. The next student picked another student to join him, etc. It was energy consuming but they had so much fun~ I was sweating by the end of it!

We talked about saying sorry today. We brainstormed some situations when we have to say sorry, and also to forgive when somebody apologizes to us sincerely. I emphasized that when we did something unacceptable and say sorry, but then we repeat the same behaviour again and again, that means our apology isn't really sincere. We have to remember why we say sorry, and to learn from it.

I told them that when we made someone feel sad, it's always nice to make that person a sorry card to show that we know he's hurt and we care about him. We made this card by putting beads on a string with the words "I'm Sorry!" hanging on it. Then we taped the beaded string to the back of a construction paper, and then decorated it with stamps. I remember that when I was little, I loved to make cards in different ways. I want to let my students know that cards can come in many different forms, and it's always nice to be creative and use different materials to make them~

Thank you collage

Routines: calendar, hi and bye activity

When we were practicing saying hi and bye today, Cooper had to leave early, and the kids all turned around to wave to his mom and said bye! I was so impressed by how they're learning their manners! They said it with soooo much enthusiasm too!

We did some role playing again today with the "Bad Manners" book~ Some of the situations that we acted out are how to drink soup, what to do if somebody falls down and cries, what we have to say after we sneeze, etc. The kids found it very funny. =P

We talked about situations when we have to say please and thank you. Then I taught them how to say thank you in different languages, including French, Chinese, Indian, Russian, Spanish, and Japanese. They repeated the pronunciation after me, and they seemed to be excited in speaking in foreign languages! Then I asked them to go to the table and gave them some pencil crayons. They had to colour the different shapes containing the thank you words, then cut the shapes out, and glue them onto the construction paper to make a collage. After they're done with gluing the words, I gave them some stars to decorate their page. =)

Flowers of Friendship

Routines: calendar, songs, circle sharing [who are your friends?]

Friends

We say, "Thank you. We say, "Please."
We don't interrupt, We don't tease.
We don't argue. We don't fuss.
We listen when teachers talk to us.
We share our toys, we take our turn
Good manners are easy for us to learn.

We used the craft that we made yesterday to practice greeting. I asked them to hold the "hand" so that "Hi!" is facing away from them. Then I asked, "When ______'s mommy comes to pick him up, what do we have to say to her?" And they all waved their "hands" and said "Hi!!!!!" We did that until I mentioned all the children's names. And then we turned the "hand" around and practiced saying "Bye!" to teachers when the kids go home. It was funny to see how excited they were! Afterwards, I collected the crafts and told them that we'll practice again tomorrow. At the end of school, when their parents pick them up, most of them greeted their parents so enthusiastically! I'm so pleased! =)



After "waving", I read-aloud a few pages of < Book of Bad Manners >. It shows rhymes and pictures of bad manners in a funny way~ As I read, I picked students to tell me why the behaviours are bad, and asked them to act out how to change those into good manners. They had a lot of fun with that!

After our role-playing activity, I gave each of them a piece of paper and a paint brush. I put paint in the middle of the table, and asked them to use the brush to paint on one of their palms. I told them that we're going to make "flowers of friendship", meaning that each handprint is going to become a flower (I'll add stems and leaves for them), and we're going to put handprints on our own paper as well as on our friends' papers~ This way, we'll have a garden full of different handprints, because all handprints are different and unique.

Hi and Bye!

Routines: stand up and turn around song, calendar, pop the balloons (when we go back to the tables)

Kindness pledge

Today I pledge to be kind,
to use the nicest words I can find.
Today I pledge to try to share,
to wait my turn and to be fair.

After singing some old songs together and learning a new rhyme, I told the kids that we're going to do some acting/role-playing today! I read a few pages of the book < Perfect Pigs > to them. It has a lot of pictures that show how the little pigs behave. I asked the kids to volunteer to show me some situations of nice sharing. They're so honest though! When I asked Cooper to hold a toy, and Giada to ask him, "Can I play with the toy please?", Cooper said, "No. I want to play with it." A lot of times, kids don't intend to be mean, but what they want comes straight from their heart and out from their mouth. So it really takes practice and reinforcement to develop their sense of sharing and playing nicely with each other. So I said to them, "Well, if we really want to play with that toy at the moment, we can say to our friend, 'Yes, but you have to wait for 5 minutes because I'm playing with it now.'" I've been reminding them about this during their playing time, and I know that they know this makes everybody happier and more friendly, but they just forget sometimes. =P

We made waving hands today! I asked each kid to pick a colour of construction paper, and place their hand on it. Then I went around to trace their hands. I let them cut out the shape at first, but it didn't work because it was too hard for them, and they tried very hard to follow the finger lines. So I ended up cutting for them. Some of them had to have their hands traced again because they cut their "hand" into too many small pieces. After that, I gave each of them the word "Hi!" and "Bye!" I asked them to glue one on each side of their hand. The last step was to glue a stick onto the bottom of the hand, and then we're done! This craft will be used for practicing greeting, because I noticed that many kids who've grown comfortable to our school aren't greeting their parents right away when they come to pick them up. I want them to practice being polite to their parents, and as well as saying bye to the teachers when they leave. =)

Colour Mixing

Routine: calendar

After doing our routine today, I assigned a colour to each student and asked them to go to the play area to find something that is in that colour. After each of them came back with a different piece of toy, they took turns to tell me something that has the same colour as the toy that they were holding. I designed this activity because kids love to move, and they learn by making connections. By letting them explore on their own and come back to discuss their findings, they'll have the opportunity to make sense of their own learning.

Then I read them a book called "Little Blue and Little Yellow". It's a story about little blue and little yellow (they're 2 blots of paint) who are best friends with each other. But after they hugged each other, they became green! And their parents didn't recognize them. So they cried and cried yellow and blue tears until they became blue and yellow separately again. It's a sweet little story about colour mixing. =)

After the read-aloud, I sent them to the table to paint. I put blue paint on a plate and asked them to paint the first circle. Then I poured some yellow on another plate, and asked them to paint the second circle. I showed them how to dip the brush in the yellow, and bring the yellow to the blue plate. Then I mixed the two colours together, and they were amazed that we made green! So everybody painted the snowman green~ We did the same thing for red and yellow. Most of them were painting nicely inside the lines, and they were careful not to make themselves dirty. By observing these little things, I really see that these children are growing. I know that they could feel how proud I am of them when I told them my observations. Sometimes they just need to be reminded of their little achievements, because no little thing is little. =)

Colours collage

Routine: stand up and turn around song, calendar, sharing circle (favourite drink)

After reviewing our two new songs, I showed the kids the book < I Like Colours >. I think it's a good book to talk about colours as well as opposites, because it has very colourful illustrations, comparing two different animals (e.g. frogs are quick and turtles are slow) on each page. It's fun just to look at the beautiful pictures too!

We made a colours collage today~ I gave each student a piece of white paper that is divided into 8 rectangles. Then I gave each of them a small piece of construction paper. I asked them to rip it into small pieces, and then I put glue on one of the rectangles for every student, and told them to put all the ripped pieces onto the rectangle. After making sure that everybody had one box full of colour, I told them to choose another colour, rip the construction paper, and glue the pieces onto another box. I helped them apply glue on the first box because I wanted to make sure that they're on the right track. I was expecting them to mix up the colours after I let go and let them do it themselves, but they were very clear with what they were doing! Shriyans and Phillip had some trouble ripping the papers, so I helped them a little bit. But other than that, they were very focused today~ When our lesson time was almost over, most of them had 4 or 6 boxes filled with different colours. So I decided to modify it and cut the last 2 boxes out so their work could be completed~