Using sand to learn how to write chinese character (玩沙)

Posted on November 6, 2011 by Angie Chan

自從沙士一役及手足口病後，本地大部分的幼兒學校都不能玩沙，實在非常可惜。在玩的過程中，幼兒可以獲得很多知識。興幸現在工作的學校有沙這物料可讓我使用……

我一直很煩腦怎樣教小朋友(母語不是中文)寫中文，今次就嘗試用沙(10年前讀書有學過用這方法但一直也沒有機會用>.<)

我先準備一個比較深色的tray(因為想寫出來後同沙的對比色大一點，容易看出文字), 再將沙子倒進。沙的分量只要剛好蓋著盤子就可以。

這個活動前我以先介紹沙紙字(一(yī)橫(héng)和(hé)一(yī)豎(shù))讓小朋對這個筆劃(stroke)有初步的概念，然後再在Mandarin Circle Time再把沙子拿出來介紹給小朋友及請他們續一出來嘗試，因為我班已經有24個小孩，最初很擔心他們沒有這個耐性等…..誰知道個個孩子坐定等，小女孩已經試完了，還在坐著問 “Can I have another turns?”。

看著孩子享受學習是我樂趣之一，要不然每天便會變得枯橾。

當日下課時清潔姐姐問我點解膽大讓他們玩沙，我回答他因為我相信我的小朋友會好好地使用他不會弄得很messy，如果真的話我會讓小朋友tidy up……

有時家長為了方便自己，可能想家裡保持整潔而沒有安排這類活動給孩子，其實只要安排妥當，給孩子作好準備的話應該是好好玩的活動。

 

Prepare a tray of sand. Better use darker color’s tray to make the outcome more contrast.

Start to write a stroke (一(yī)橫(héng))

Then the other strokes 一(yī)豎(shù)

Then ten (十(shí)) is written.  You and your child will have a great fun to do the writing task.

 

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Posted in 24 mths above activities 2歲以上活動, Montessori 蒙特梭利 | Leave a comment

Sandpaper Letters (How to make and the presenting order)

Posted on November 4, 2011 by Angie Chan

How to make sandpaper letters?

Material:

  1. Cardboard (Blue & Pink)
  2. Sandpaper

Steps:

  • Prepare 26 tablets (20cm) high by (15cm)wide.
  • Some letters, such as m, w, may need a wider tablet.
  • Use blue paint for the tablets for vowels, /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/
  • Pink tablets for the consonantus.
  • Cut the letters from fine sandpaper.
  • Paste each letter onto a tablet.

Done!!

Presenting letters

There are many ways to presenting letters, you can by songs or just introduce directly.

The sequence of introducing the letter sounds not base on the alphabet order. Since some sounds are hard to pronounce for young kids such as /q/, /x/, /v/. And  some of them are easily confuse the children such as /b/, /d/. /p/ and /q/.

So here are the suggestion you may consider when you are going to introduce the letter sound to your child.

  • c,m,a,t
  • s,r,i,p
  • b,f,o,g
  • h,j,u,l
  • d,w,e,n
  • k,q,v,x,y,z

Or you may choose the way as Jolly Phonics, which the sounds are taugth in specific order to enable the children to begin building phonetic words as soon as they can.

  •  s, a, t, i, p, n
  • ck, e, h, r, m, d
  • g, o, u, l, f,b
  • ai, j, oa, ie, ee, or
  • z, w, ng, v, oo (boot), oo (foot)
  • y, x, ch, sh ,th (voiced),th (unvoiced)
  • qu, ou, oi, ue, er, ar

 

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Posted in 24 mths above activities 2歲以上活動, Montessori 蒙特梭利, Phonics Teaching 英語拼音教學 | Leave a comment

Weekly Letter Sound c for cat, clock, crab, catus, cow, car…… (Part 1)

Posted on November 2, 2011 by Angie Chan

Featuring the letter & objects – Learning through repetition by sound out the letter C

I introduced ‘c‘ to Abbie this week. I collected some objects which start with ‘c‘ sound such as cat, cow, car, catus, crab, ……

Tips

  • There are many things start with the /c/ sound. However try to introduce less that 3 objects to the young kid each time, it is easier for them to learn.
  • Also please note that there are hard and soft sounds of C.  I always introduce the hard sound first. When you look up the dictionary you will find the different between cat DJ [kæt] & circle  DJ [ˋsə:kl

I let her to explore the objects and the sandpaper letter in the way she likes after the introduction. 

(Remark: Young children like to put things into their mouth, so if you are going to use the same way to introduce objects, you must keep an eye on your chlidren. Don’t let them swallow the tiny objects!)

 

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Posted in 24 mths above activities 2歲以上活動, Montessori 蒙特梭利, Phonics Teaching 英語拼音教學 | Leave a comment

On the beach, feeling the sand and water

Posted on November 1, 2011 by Angie Chan

As the what Montessori said “Children learn through five senses” and my friend suggested me let the children feel different kind of textures as soon as they can.

So I brought Abbie to the beach yesterday. I haven’t been to the beach since I was 7 becasue I don’t like the texture of the sand and water. But I don’t want my daughter don’t like them either. So I ……

家長們常常煩腦或疲於帶著孩子穿梭不同的Playgroups，有否想過孩子學習的方法可以這樣簡單，大自然就是最好的環境、教材，媽媽是最好的老師而爸爸是最好的teching assistant.

如果真的要量化bb學了什麼，可以作參考以下

1. 語言(聆聽)：沙/水/海

2. 可以眼看、耳聽、皮膚感受什麼是 沙/水/海 (不要從圖畫學)，這樣獲得的知識比起從圖畫或電視鞏固得多！

What  Abbie can learn/ feel/ explore: Sand, Water, Beach Side, Waves come for and back……

I let her walk on the sand so that she can feel the texture.

 

At the beginning, she was scared the waves (cry a little bit) then I encourage her to step forward to feel the wave come to her feet. Finally, she is OK.

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Posted in 6-9mths activities 6-9個月活動, Montessori 蒙特梭利 | Leave a comment

Abbie’s 1st Halloween Party + Games @ home

Posted on November 1, 2011 by Angie Chan

本來打算參加朋友所安排的Halloween Party結果人數不夠但我們依舊進行活動。
坦白說，因為只有兩個BB氣氛真是差一點，我這個careless 的媽媽之忘了替女兒帶costume……

內容除了”Trick or Treat”外還有讓孩子接觸一些在Halloween 見到的東西(bat, spider, pumpkin……)感覺正面沒有什麼鬼鬼怪怪……

因為大家實在太高興，最後我竟上了朋友的家，大家交流交流。

自己太鐘情於Montessori及Phonics，所以對於其他育兒方法很少再深究。然外地朋友對於(感統 Sensory Integration)非常熟悉，還即場示範如何在家中跟BB玩，Abbie過了一個很開心的Halloween!!!!

Abbie is playing with Nelson.

We are working with color sorting. (朋友跟我一樣喜歡收集教材，原來她也是幼稚園老師，年資比我還要高，她的兒子social skill 十分OK，一點也不像15個月的BB)

My friend teaches me how to put Abbie on the ball and move forward & backward!

Abbie enjoys all the games, especially playing with the ball.

 

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Posted in 6-9mths activities 6-9個月活動 | Leave a comment

Tearing off paper 撕紙

Posted on October 31, 2011 by Angie Chan

For eye hand co-ordianation and fine motor skill development. Tearing paper is a very good and economic activity.

Put the magazine in front of the child.

 

Then your magazine will be KOed. (如果你的BB未懂或未能撕開，你可把紙其中一角摺起/撕開一部分，BB一拉開角位便能把其餘部分撕開，多試幾次便可以)

 

點解都要睇緊以防哽咽？因為BB 的口水會把雜誌弄濕，然後一口都是雜雜。

家長們如果你認為不衛生那不要試！我都有點擔心，把雜誌續頁用清水布抺過才比BB玩！

 

*Remark: To avoid any choking hazard, adult supervision is highly recommended for children under 3.
 

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Abbie @ The Little gym (2)

Posted on October 31, 2011 by Angie Chan

We had the 2nd lesson in The Little Gym yesterday. It was very crowd and we had to waited a little bit long to our turn (such as playing with the big “dougnut”).

As same as the last time. We had some warm up exercise, then the teacher introduced two
new equipment bouncy air mat and the big dougnut (but the aim of using this equimpment is  simply “roll” and of course they said that it is for inner ear devlopment, help balancing, ……etc.). Never mind I still love it.

I carried Abbie walked in the bouncy air mat and then jumped. She seemed don’t know what’s going on >.<

Then we had the “big dougnut”, the equipment looked great. The teachers put Abbie on it and rolled it then reached the “cheese” and have her to roll.

We are walking and jumping on the bouncy air mat.

Then I help Abbie roll over on the mat.

Wow, Abbie is on the big dougnut now.

Mommy is catching her. Well done! darling.

$2XX for each lesson, this is what Abbie likes “She is enjoying the bells!! >.<“

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Montessori Practical Life – Transfer objects with chopsticks

Posted on October 28, 2011 by Angie Chan

The child in the picture is working transfer objects with chopsticks.

Some young kids love putting things into their mouth (especially under 2) so if parents want to introduce this activity who is under 2, I suggest that you can choose something that is OK to put into mouth (e.g. rasin)

or

Transfer bigger objects that cannot put into mouth with spoon would be age appropriate. 

Material: 2 Containers, a pair of Chopsticks + 10 little spiders + Mat

Development of Motor Skills are one of the area in Montessori Practical Life. One of the sector is transferring.

I designed this activity for matching the theme “Halloween”.This is a fun transfer activity. You can buy the little spiders from toy shops. The chopsticks are perfect for the little child to hold and grab the spider’s legs! My students love working with it very much.

Point to note:

  1. Have your child/children to transfer the objects from L to R.
  2. Don’t put too many objects for the young child to transfer in the first time coz they don’t have very long attention span to complete the task.
  3. If the child cannot hold the chopsticks correctly you may consdier choose another transferring tool which is easier to hold.

Extended Activity

  • You may ask your child/children to transfer certain number of objects that you’ve named or written.

 

Introduce the activity and the name of the material to the child.

Show the child how to hold the chopsticks.

Transfer the little spider from left to righ until the left container no more spiders left. Then transfer back.

*Remark: To avoid any choking hazard, adult supervision is highly recommended for children under 3.

 

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Posted in 24 mths above activities 2歲以上活動, Montessori 蒙特梭利 | Leave a comment

教育的反思

Posted on October 25, 2011 by Angie Chan

昨天收看Money Café教育自助餐讓孩子決定選擇 (一)及(二)

http://cablenews.i-cable.com/webapps/program_video/index.php?video_id=1000800

http://cablenews.i-cable.com/webapps/program_video/index.php?video_id=1000799

有提及過蒙氏教育，其中一住家賓所打的比喻我認為頗到肉「小孩從小到大給人餵食，不斷地被塞而導致長大後『厭食，知識/思考厭食』…….而蒙氏的教育就像給小孩食自助餐一樣，他們可選擇自己喜歡吃的東西，而他們搶住食……」

另一位嘉賓也提過蒙氏也導出在香港接受蒙氐教育的問題，因為蒙氏教育是讓學生自住學習，他想學甚麼就學什麼而老師只可以從旁協助/引導……到了升小/升中的話香港有沒有學校合適他們升學？

The International Montessori School (http://www.montessori.com.hk/)也只能夠讀到小學，那中學怎麼辦？再講這間學校的學費都頗昂貴，也非一般中產家庭可負擔。

李先生也提到香港的教育問題，就是大家都是沒有選擇只可以食政府的大獲飯好運的話去到好的校網若不走運的話就要焗住食餿……

但主持也提出我心裡一直想的問題，如果不入讀主流的學校跟別人不一樣，作為家長是否有膽量去嘗試？

我想如果有錢的話及懂得去花便能為子女提供優質的教育，最後的總結套用一位做教育的朋友金句「有錢有選擇」。雖然很殘酷但這也是香港的現實寫照，我希望不需要花費太多的大前題下為女兒作好準備，將來的事讓女兒自行解決好了，因為我跟我先生會盡我們所能培育她讓她將來可獨立地解決所有的問題及有積極的人生觀。

補充：

  1. 嘉賓主持提及蒙氏的師生比例是1:2其實應該是2:25，香港不能實行蒙氐的教育最主要的問題是其教育不能量化也不能給學生打分數，因為Montessori不認同競爭(學前)
  2. 另外，也提及到學生想學什麼就學什麼，而教師會為他們準備教料這方法應該是IB學校用的而不是蒙氏學校(Please prove me if I wrong)
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One Little Finger

Posted on October 25, 2011 by Angie Chan

Material: Mirror, Song(one little finger) sing it with your own voice or play the mp3

  1. Find a comfortable place, put your baby on your laps and your baby faces to the mirror.
  2. Shake the mirror in front of the baby to ensure your baby aware the mirror.
  3. You can hold your baby hand and point to the mirror and say the baby’s name. e.g “This is abbie .”
  4. You can also introduce the name of the body parts before you sing the song.
  5. Then enjoy singing with your baby^^

Remark:

  • Make sure your baby is looking at the mirror.
  • Try to take turn to hold both hands.
  • If your baby don’t look at the mirror, remove the mirror and let the baby facing you instead then keep singing the song.

 

 

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Posted in Song & Nursery Rhyme兒歌 | Leave a comment