Blessed with a school compound lush with trees and plants at Bethel Day Care Centre, there was just so much to learn from the natural environment around them.
Their gardener, Uncle Benny, was invited to do a sharing session with the children. He shared the names of the trees and plants growing in our school compounds. The children were tasked to go on a tree hunt to find the trees that he had shared about. The children identified trees like the Red Lipstick palm, Pine Tree and Coconut Tree and even remembered their names! Uncle Benny also shared how to care for the plants as well as its various parts. The children then heard the story “Be A Tree!” by Maria Gianferrari and talked about what the tree needed to grow.
Children also enjoyed role playing planting their own tree with kinetic sand and coloured paper. This was extended when the children watered the bushes during water play and shared “plants need water, sunlight and air to grow!”
“The trees need to drink water” – Zi Suan (N2) “So many red lipstick trees” – Nathaniel (N2)
The trees they had discovered outside their school then became the inspiration behind their 3D structures. The children went outside to observe the plants and trees in detail and got to know the parts they needed to create in their sculptures. Through the garden walks, the children decided as a class which tree they wanted to create. The Bethel children hope to share a little but of their garden with everyone. The K1 children first started brainstorming by bringing in various recycled materials from home.
The class took the time to point out the various parts of a tree before deciding which material best suit the various parts. While planning the structure of the tree, the K1 children were also discussing about extreme weather conditions.
Hence, they highlighted that they wanted to build a tree strong enough to withstand strong winds. The children even experimented with materials in water to see which was strong enough with withstand wind and water.
Eventually, the N2 class made a Red Lipstick Palm, the K1 class made a Chinese Banyan tree, the PN class made a Coconut tree and the N1 class made a bush, which was likened to the ‘burning bush’ in the bible.
The N2 children enjoyed using a pair of scissors to cut the leaves and taping them to the tree. The PNs were just excited to paint the tree trunk! A boy laughed and jumped with each stroke of paint he added.
Despite the challenges, the children pressed on and practiced their own problem-solving skills! Some children got tired after cutting the many grooves and lines on the leaves. To overcome it, the children took a break, had their lunch, and continued thereafter. The leaves kept falling as the children were taping it to the stem, and the children were feeling discouraged. With some encouragement, they finished to paste all the leaves up securely.
One N1 child is rather reserved when it comes to sensorial experiences. Hence, painting was seen as an activity that he would shun away from. Instead, he helped with more of the pasting for the 3D sculpture.
Zi Han (K1) shared that the “roots” of the tree needs to be filled with water so it can grow nice and tall. But while creating the roots, the bottles started leaking when it was overturned. So the children suggested to tape multiple layers over the bottle to prevent it from leaking.
“Oooh I have green hand.” – Alina (N1) “The leaves keep dropping” – Keeyan (N2) “It’s broken” (referring to a short leaf) – Keone (N2)
After the PN children finished painting, the floor became quite messy with paint. Together as a class, the young ones used wet wipes to clean the floor together! They were so capable and cleaned so well that the Cleaners did not notice that it was dirty before. The children cannot wait for everyone to enjoy their masterpieces. Come down to One Punggol from Thurs-Sat (10am-10pm) and Sun (10am-2pm) to take a look!
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