Teachable Moments...

This morning the children were riding their little cars and motorcycles in the front yard, when they all suddenly stopped. For a while there was quiet. Hmm… what could the children be up to? It turned out to be a 5 cm colorful caterpillar crawling on the cemented lawn. Teacher took this wonderful opportunity to get the kids to discuss about caterpillars.

Teacher: kira-kira mau kemana ya ulatnya? (where do you think the caterpillar is going?)

Zara : mau cari makan (looking for food)

Candra: mau makan daun (its going to eat the leaf – referring to the dried leaves scattered on the lawn

Apta: Ngga, dia ga bisa makan daun kering. Dia cari daun yang lembut. (No, it can’t eat dried leaves. It’s looking for fresh soft leaf)

Teacher: Coba lihat ada warna apa saja? (What colors do you see on its body?)

Children: Red, yellow, black, green

Teacher: Yes, lots of pretty colors. It’s going to be a beautiful butterfly!

Zara: Lihat! ulatnya ke rumput.. (Look, it’s crawling away to the grass)

All the children watched the caterpillar crawl away to the grass. Just then, the children’s attention drifted to Rayn who had just arrived. They called out to him excitedly and asked him to come quick to see the caterpillar. Suddenly, they couldn’t find it anymore! The children looked but it was gone!

Apta: Nanti kita cari lagi ya pasti dia sudah jadi kepompong! (We’ll find it later, it must have become a cocoon)

Teacher: Besok kita baca mengenai ulat, mau? (Well, do you all want to read more about caterpillars in class?). It was a unanimous 'Yes' from the children. 

Open Registration

open registration,

 get special discount 20% 

(12 Maret 2014-20 Maret 2014)

All about Papua

This February we geared the class unit theme from Australia to Papua.. Back to our home country, Yay!
We talked about the people of Papua and their homes and festivities, we collected pictures of the Papuan people, the animals, and the forests of Papua and we also downloaded their music and dance. The children were delighted to know that many of the animals of Australia are similar to those in Papua. And to top it all, the children visited the Papuan Village in Taman Mini Indonesia Indah (TMII).

'Orang Papua hitam. Aku kulitnya hitam jadi aku orang Papua ya?' tanya Zahra (The Papuans have dark skin. I have dark skin, am I Papuan?' Zahra asked)
'Ooo..dia pakai apa di hidungnya?' ('what's he wearing in his nose?' Jaffan wanted to know when he saw a Papuan man statue with a wild pig canine protruding from his nose)
'Koq kerangnya bisa bunyi?' ('How come the shell can make a noise?'  'Yes, the Papuans blow this shell when they want to gather the people of the village', a Papuan official explained)

'Lihat, aku bisa keluar dari sini, lho!' (Look, I can go in and come out on the other end of this honai house.'The children were excited to enter the Papuan Honai house.  'but this house's not nice!' Al commented.)

While at TMII, the teachers took the opportunity to take the children to the fresh water aquarium, the insect museum and the bird park.
'ikannya gede seperti papaku!'


 
('This's fish is as big as my dad', Al said. The children were amused to see the fish play ball - fish food was attached to a ball.

At the insect museum, Apta was excited to find a cocoon. Nayla saw a butterfly sitting on a leaf and said, 'itu kupu-kupu lagi bertelur!' 'Look, that butterfly's laying eggs.'
The children finally found the 'cendrawasih' bird at the bird park.
 'Ooo...look at its loooong tail.' 'Isn't it pretty?'
And the cassowary bird, too! On hearing its gurgling song, Jaffan exclaimed, 'burung kasuarinya mau muntah!' 'It's going to vomit!'
Shirin referred to discussion in class about the cassowary bird feet being so sharp that the Asmat people make knives out of them 'Itu kan burung kasuari, kakinya diambil untuk dijadiin pisau.' 

A very fruitful trip indeed! Next unit theme is Kalimantan island.   

 

Grass flower art

The children had a chance to play outdoor sometime last week. It had been raining all month, right up to the Chinese New Year, so when the sun peeked out for a while, the children could not wait to spend sometime outside. The teachers had set up the Art table out on the backyard porch so that the children could do some finger painting while enjoying the nice weather.  Some of the children immediately set out to work with the finger paint. Not Darren though! He preferred to walk around the yard. The grass had overgrown a bit with all that rain, and grass flowers sprouted here and there. Darren picked a few of the grass flowers and brought them over to the Art table. Then he took one blade of grass and started painting with it. The effect was lovely. Soon, all the children wanted to paint with the grass flowers. Young children are so amazingly creative...!

 

  

January Activities

The children were excited to be back to school after the year end holidays. The Class topic continued with 'Australia', but this time we talked about the animals in the Great Barrier Reefs. They finger painted a whale, a starfish, and a turtle. The children specially enjoyed the free finger painting. What joy to explore with the different colors and spread it all over the paper, no boundaries to worry about!

It was science exploration at the water table.' Look! the plate can float like a boat but see what happens when the stones are put on it...one, two, three stones...the plate's sinkiiiing!..' and the exploration continued with the children putting other objects on the plate.

We added some flannel shapes for the children to work with..Ata specially loved it and created a rocket, then 'papa'. The homemade play dough is an all time favorite. We did not provide any tools to encourage the children to do some free sculpting with their hands.


The children have been practicing the "Ant Dance' last semester. So, when we got invited to a dance and costume competition, we participated. Take a look at our dazzling beautiful ants! Al and Queen stole the show with their amazing traditional costume and was awarded third place! Congratulations Children! The children also participated in a coloring competition conducted by IGTK Jakarta Barat.

Notice the display board?..  The
children's finger painting of the
animals in the barrier reef 

It has been raining heavily and many of the children stayed home last week due to the floods. But, we are looking forward to a nice sunny week ahead! Next, for our unit topic, we will be moving from 'Australia' to the Indonesian island of Papua..



Parents, please don't forget to have the children bring in images of Papua on Monday...welcoming any volunteers to share a Papuan folk tale with the children..

Ho ho ho! Making rumballs with Santa...

The children were really excited when teacher told them that we were going to make chocolate rumballs (with no rum, of course), that too with Ms. Santa!

The children squealed with laughter when teacher came out in her Santa suit.

‘Ha, ha, Kak Nila pakai apa?’ Rayn was laughing.

‘Yuk semuanya ke snack room, kita mau buat rumballs.’

‘rumball apa?’ Apta asked. Teacher explained that it’s something like chocolate cake in the shape of a ball’. 

Yay! Chocolate cake! Yummy’, the children said

First, crush and crush the Marie biscuits, crush some more!’ - a good exercise for fine motoric skills and concentration.

  

‘Who wants some more Marie to crush?’ ‘Me, me, me’, the children cried.

Then, we are going to add in some chocolate condensed milk and Mix, Mix, Mix.

 

‘Wait, stop eating your mix or you won’t have enough to make your rumballs.’, teacher reminded the children.

‘Next, let’s put some mix in our hand and roll it into a ball….like making balls from playdough!’

 

For the next half an hour, the children focused on making their chocolate balls. Finally, roll the balls in this plate of chocolate sprinkles…Yay! Done!

‘Masukkin ke oven, kak?’ asked Zahra. Teacher explained that it didn’t have to go into the oven but it would be good to refrigerate before eating. And amazingly, the children complied even though earlier they just couldn’t wait and were licking away the chocolate mix.

Ah! It sure was an all-in-one package. The children exercised their fine motor skills, concentration, and eye-hand coordination. They learned to follow step-by-step instructions. They also learn restraint as they controlled themselves from eating the chocolate mix. Finally, they got a good boost to their self esteem, “Yes, we made delicious rumballs!” and all of it was so much fun.

Merry Christmas to our Christian parents and friends. Happy Holidays to everyone! We will be back on Jan 6^th, 2014.  

Merry December

The 14^th was a beautiful sunny day, just perfect for our garage sale. Customers showed even before we opened. Parents and teachers put out their best sales pitch and people were pou ring in even when it started to drizzle. Thanks to our dear parents and friends for making it a successful event. It turned out quite well and proceeds will go into a social event, to be determined soon.

Highlight event this December is ‘making rumballs with Santa’. It is our policy to expose children to the diversity in our culture, so during the Moslem Idul Fitri, we made ‘ketupats’ with the children. Early this week, teacher dressed as Santa and we made rumballs. Mmm…what will we make for Imlek and Nyepi..Anyone has an easy recipe for making mooncakes?  (scroll up to read about our post 'making rumballs with Santa)