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Questions for Reflection

1. Share the topic and activity description (Include pictures)

2.What opportunities did you provide for the children to discuss issues concerning the world around them?

2. What Scientific Process Skills were used?

3. Share the voices of children.

4. What was a challenge you faced and how will you carry out this activity differently?

(One class to document outdoor learning)

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1. Activity Description:

The children were given several objects (i.e., stainless steel spoon, pebble, bottle cap, etc) and encouraged to predict which objects would sink or float in a tub of water.

2. Opportunities to discuss issues:

When facilitating, I asked open-ended questions for the children to think more about each object. For example,

Teacher Jean: "Does the bottle cap feel heavy or light?"

Kiean: "Light!"

Teacher Jean: "Why do you think the bottle cap must be light?"

Kiean: "I think so we can open the bottle properly."

Teacher Jean: "Since the cap is light, do you think it will sink or float?"

Kiean: "Float!"

3. Scientific Process Skills:

Predicting, Observing, Communicating

4. Children's Voices:

Kiean: "The bottle cap floats but the pebble sinks. They are different."

Rayden: "The spoon is so heavy. I think it will sink."

5. Challenges faced:

Some children do not understand what is 'sink' and 'float' even at the end of the lesson. Thus, in the future, I can read them a book on sink and float / conduct Picture Talk.

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1. Activity Description:

They were introduced to 'water' through a book - where can we find water, how does the water change form and what we can do with water.

2. Issues concerning the world:

The "walking water" experiment helps kids understand how water moves in real life, from how plants drink water to how we clean and save water for people, animals, and the environment.

3. Scientific process skills: observing, predicting, recording

The children added food colouring into the water. They placed the paper towels into the water and observed the paper towels changing colours.

4. Voices of children:

Micah: "The water became darker with the colours."

Sumayyah: "The paper towel became very soft because it was wet."

Immanuelle: "I like the blue water because I can see the colour go up the paper towel quickly."

Kaiser: "I think that we should take out the paper towel soon because it will get very wet then it will drop into the water."

5. The waiting time for the color to spread into the tissue may feel long for impatient children. To keep them engaged, have them draw their predictions while they wait.

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Description: In this activity, the children learnt what living things needs water such as plants and humans. They learnt that plants need water to grow. They also learnt that too much and less water may cause damage to the plants.

Week before, the children observed a plant with water and without water. They shared their observations on how these two plants are different. Alpha shared "This plant, the leaves are turning yellow." Aleia shared "This plant, the leaves are green" We then walked outdoors to identify some plants that are drying up. Teacher Kriz then asked why they think the leaves are drying. Desirae replied "Because no water." Teacher Kriz explained that plants do need water to grow."

After that, the children were brought outdoors to do some planting and watering of plants.

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1. Activity Description:

This activity allowed children to experiment with adding water to different jars and tapping them with a mallet to produce various sounds. The children were encouraged them to observe the difference in pitch as the water levels change. The teacher guided children in discovering that jars with more water produce lower-pitched sounds, while jars with less water produce higher-pitched sounds.

2. Opportunities for discussion:

As children explored the water-filled jars, teachers prompted discussions on how water is used in our daily lives and its importance. The teacher asked, 'How do we use water in our daily lives?'. These are some responses of the children.

Leia answered: We drink water.

Elios answered: We used water to shower.

3. Scientific Process Skills: observing, predicting, communicating

4. Children's Voices:

Elizabeth: It looks like a rainbow! So colourful.

Jovene: Remember to tap gently because the glass will break.

Inas: It can make sound.

Elios: I can hear the sound!

5. Challenges faced:

Some children had difficulty understanding the concept of sound pitch, especially how water levels affect the tone. I encouraged the children to compare the sounds and say which one is 'higher' or 'lower', to reinforce the learning with vocabulary. In future, I will also try to use visual aids showing high and low pitch.

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During our STEAM lesson, we introduced children to loose parts play, whereby they interacted with various materials that were collected, such as bread tags, bottles, shells, pebbles, bottle caps, and shared about how they feel while they played with these materials.

The children said they all had fun and with this, and I shared with them that we need not always have new toys/materials to play with. And when we keep these materials, instead of throwing away, we can have a lot of fun with them too.

Jun song: I will tell my mummy and aunty to start collecting the bottles because it’s fun.

Jie rui: I will ask my mummy not to buy me new toys anymore. I will also teach my mummy how to play with bread tags.

I probably will give them the materials and let them think of what to do with them and then give them the autonomy to go ahead. Some suggested to create artwork but I turned it down as I wasn’t prepared to use these materials for it. However, this can be an extension of the lesson.

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1. The children were introduced to the different instruments and its sounds. The children were tasked to be in pairs, A will have their eyes closed where as B will play an instrument for A to guess.

2. I had the opportunity to discuss Noise pollution with the children. When there is too much loud noise, it actually affects our eardrums and damages our ability to hear. I shared this with the children for the children to think and reflect on how much noise they have produced and the effects of their actions if they continue to expose themselves to very loud noises everyday.

3. Observation & Communicating findings

4. Hayyan: I will play the instrument hard so you can hear it loud and clear!

5. The children could not keep their eyes closed throughout the time their peers picked the instrument and play its sound. If I were to do this activity again, I would prepare eye masks to cover the children's vision so as to prevent curious little eyes to peak and see what instrument their peer have picked.

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1. The children were introduced to the different instruments and its sounds. The children were tasked to be in pairs, A will have their eyes closed where as B will play an instrument for A to guess.

2. I had the opportunity to discuss Noise pollution with the children. When there is too much loud noise, it actually affects our eardrums and damages our ability to hear. I shared this with the children for the children to think and reflect on how much noise they have produced and the effects of their actions if they continue to expose themselves to very loud noises everyday.

3. Observation & Communicating findings

4. Hayyan: I will play the instrument hard so you can hear it loud and clear!

5. The children could not keep their eyes closed throughout the time their peers picked the instrument and play its sound. If I were to do this activity again, I would prepare eye masks to cover the children's vision so as to prevent curious little eyes to peak and see what instrument their peer have picked.

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Mud Kitchen Exploration - Sustainable Play with Nature

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Mud Kitchen Exploration - Sustainable Play with Nature

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1. Activity Description:

The children were presented with a variety of natural materials such as leaves, rices, sand, soil, water, and sticks to create recipes or structures. The children will also discuss about sustainability and the different ways they can reuse natural materials instead of disposing them.

2. What opportunities did you provide for the children to discuss issues concerning the world around them?

After the lesson, the children had a chance to share about their creations and at the same time, share how they used these natural materials in various ways. They also shared how they loved using the sand and soil to create rice dishes, or chocolate deserts too.

3. What Scientific Process Skills were used?

Inventiveness

4. Share the voices of children.

Bo Cheng: I make chicken rice with the sand and stones.

Sofiyyah: I think we can add water to the soil to make mud. Then when we finish already can pour on the ground for the plants to grow.

5. What was a challenge you faced and how will you carry out this activity differently?

I would like to add some clay for the children to explore working with ‘mud’ and to let them step out of their comfort zone to touch something ‘dirty’.

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Paper Cup Telephone

Activity Description:

The children compared the different volume coming from the different paper cup telephone and shared about the sounds made from different materials/lengths

Opportunities for discussion:

The educator asked “What do we use to talk to each other when we are not together and at different places?”. The children answered phones, telephones and video-calling. The educator asked the children to imagine a world where there are no phones, telephones and where we could not video-call. When the teacher asked how it would be like, the children answered:

Chase- “I will not see who is calling me!”

Falisha- “We cannot call the ambulance for emergencies.”

Genevie- “I will miss my daddy when he is away!”

Scientific Process Skills:

Observing, comparing, communicating

Challenges Faced:

The children had to be reminded to straighten the string/ yarn attached to the paper cup so they could hear clearly. There were a number of them who said that they could not hear from all types of paper cups even though it had different materials attached to it.

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Description:

In this lesson, children will explore the concept of upcycling and understand how it differs from recycling. They will work in pairs to plan and create a product using recycled and old materials. Throughout the activity, children will be encouraged to use their creativity and problem-solving skills to transform materials such as paper, plastic, metal, and glass into something new and useful.

Opportunities for discussion:

Encourage children to think about the everyday items they use (such as old cardboard boxes, plastic bottles, or worn-out clothes) and ask: "What could we make from these things instead of throwing them away?"

This helps to foster creativity and problem-solving, as well as an understanding of the potential of materials that might otherwise be discarded.

Scientific Process skills:

communicating and observing

Children's Voices:

Yuze: We fold it up then can make it round like a pencil holder.

Elyza: But still have hole below!

Challenged faced:

While encouraging creativity, some children might feel a bit overwhelmed by too much freedom and could need a little more guidance to feel confident in their projects. To help, it's useful to offer a bit of structure—like a simple idea or step-by-step guide—while still giving them the space to explore their own creative ideas.

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Activity Description:

The children compared the different volume coming from the different paper cup telephone and shared about the sounds made from different materials/lengths .

Opportunities for discussion:

The educator asked “What do we use to talk to each other when we are not together and at different places?”. The children answered phones, telephones and video-calling. The educator asked the children to imagine a world where there are no phones, telephones and where we could not video-call. When the teacher asked how it would be like, the children answered:

Chase- “I will not see who is calling me!”

Falisha- “We cannot call the ambulance for emergencies.”

Genevie- “I will miss my daddy when he is away!”

Scientific Process Skills:

Observing, comparing, communicating

Challenges Faced:

The children had to be reminded to straighten the string/ yarn attached to the paper cup so they could hear clearly. There were a number of them who said that they could not hear from all types of paper cups even though it had different materials.

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1. Activity Description:

The children predicted and experimented the sounds from the chime bar i.e. which bar gave us the highest pitch

2. Opportunities given:

Besides the chime bar, the teacher offered different materials that can be found in our learning centre, such as a rattan basket, plastic box and a metal container. The children then explored and shared with one another which materials gave out the loudest sound, in this case, they said it is the metal container. They also reinforced their MM lesson of forming their own beat.

3. Scientific Process Skills:

Predicting, communicating, comparing

4. Children's voices:

Charvik: "It is my first time trying out chimebar in school. It sounds loud!"

Mayra: "I like this bar that has the letter 'E'."

Yutong: "This one (metal) is so loud!"

5. Challenges faced: Not much challenges but I should have let them know not to be too hard on the materials / the strength to use when exploring on them, as the plastic container was cracked in the end.