Weaving woolly webs

Our famous five from U KG weaved woolly webs of different patterns. Their teacher made lines on thick construction paper and  once they understood the trick the patterns were endless. They were simply superb and so we displayed  their work on the bulletin board for a whole week. Oh they showed off their work by calling their parents to come in and see. It was surprising to see little fingers work finely creating beautiful patterns. They used  thick and blunt needle but all preferred pointed ones. We took this idea from The Crafty Art Book by Jane Bull published by Dorling Kindersley.

U KG busy weaving 

They used these woolly web to make Father's Day Card. I think their card turned out to be the best one in the whole school.

Birds -2

 I spent the weekend making nomenclature cards in Nepali. I have the English version so just felt like to make a similar one in Nepali. I think children enjoyed the Nepali cards.

Nomenclature cards in English

Nomenclature cards in Nepali

 I plan to make these word cards in Nepali too.

picture cards and word cards

bird booklet 

Even the youngest lot enjoyed matching cards. We can use the same cards for memory and lotto games too.

Playgroup matching birds

While making materials  is fun and tiring its the organizing part that is important. I wish the materials last atleast few years so I request  teachers to remind children not fold or chew cards.

cards stored in old zip lock bags

Science for Lower Kindergarten-Birds-1

My two days holiday besides the usual weekend was quite relaxing. It gave me time to decide and collect materials for the next theme-birds. Among the four subjects children learn science thrice a week. Recognizing, matching, coloring, singing, listening to stories is a fun part for almost all the children but when it comes to writing its tough for few. Like always parents like neat writing and good spelling. We have few children who are least interested in writing but very good at spelling and recognizing objects. And the other lot who are involved in all the activities but not good at spellings. Then it becomes the real test for teachers who encourage children write and learn without scolding or spanking. We don't introduce new topic until they memorize the spellings. Its one of the main reason why all classes don't follow the same theme. Luckily this year U KG are quick in all activities. They have finished bird related works and now its  L KG's turn.
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different birds

bird puzzle

books

flash cards

I have removed  Nepali word cards from the pockets charts and replaced with birds.

pocket chart with pictures 

I used a transparent box of size  10"x 7"x 4"  for holding all the teaching materials like birds model, pocket size books, flash cards and matching cards. 

materials  in one box

I drew pictures of birds from different  books. Children color and cut along the lines to paste  in booklet.  This booklet is kept as a reference till next year. They start writing with three letter word  like hen, owl and then move on to four and five. This year they need to learn at least six to eight spellings.

pictures for booklet

collection of books 

The stories and reference books collected  are kept in one bag until the theme is over. Teachers can add or remove books as per their liking. Its just to organize things and save time.

thick paper bag for storing books

I don't teach L KG so just to make sure children have excess to all the materials available I sometimes do the preparation.  

Prop story-I know an old lady who swallowed a fly

With my crazy and busy schedule it is increasingly difficult to find time for making materials and blogging . But today I thank Indian Prime Minister  for visiting our country. Its a two days holiday for schools and colleges in Kathmandu Valley and so I decided to make a prop story-
 I know a lady who swallowed a fly 

paper folded in half to draw symmetrical image

pictures colored, pasted on cards and covered with cello tape

stand for the old lady's face

Hollow mouth for inserting cards

I have stacking cards from scholastic and have read the story many times so probably children will remember the sequence.

9 stacking cards

. I have yet to see how children will react to my prop story.

Upper Kindergarten busy with Origami

I am sure this will be a surprise to my Japanese friends when they see us coloring papers for origami. Here I haven’t seen any shop selling papers exclusively for origami. Maybe I need to explore the market. We had plenty of origami papers as a gift. Now its almost finished and therefore we make children color one side of the paper. It’s a bit lengthy process and perhaps boring for some but children sing along while coloring. They use white papers for practice but color the final one. I leave it up for them to choose between crayons and colored pencils. I tried to make small squares out of glazed papers but it tore quickly while making creases.

I remember purchasing origami papers at hyaku-yen shop in Japan. My son made countless of models when he was just in kindergarten. I just wish children here in the school learn to make too.

some prefer pencil colors

very busy

group work for decoration

Teacher with a child