Little Beans

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Making snowskin mooncakes

September 19 - the day we made the snowskin mooncakes in Little Beans! A day of fun and laughter.

We made three types this year - pandan, dragon fruit and orange snowskin with red beans filling.

The dough coloured by natural dragon fruit (pink), pandan juice (green) and orange (yellow).

And the red bean paste.

How to make? First, flatten the dough and put the paste in the middle.

Wrap dough carefully around the paste and roll until smooth.

Place the dough with filling into the wooden mould. Press gently.

Knock side of mould against a wooden board until dough is loosen. Gently tap out the mooncake.

Viola - decorate mooncake as desired!

The different wooden moulds.

And the newer, modern plastic mould.

Hard at work, decorating the mooncakes.

What's so funny?

Press out the dough.

The finished mooncake - yummy!!!!

Sunday, August 22, 2010

The Navy Beans (6 year olds) did a unit on water last week. We discussed the various forms of water as well as the water cycle. As an extension, I also explained hurricane and tornado. Never knew much about the differences until I checked the info from the web.

Ying asked me how I know so much. I replied that I didn't know everything, but can find out through reading as well as searching for the information from the web, which Josh asked "from Google Search?"

It was quite funny as children as young as 6 know about Google Search. I promptly assigned them to go home and ask Mum or Dad to help them look up for info on hurricanes and tornadoes. Hmmmm... I wonder how many will come back with the task tomorrow???

Back to our science lesson, I showed them the difference between solid and liquid. Most things such as stones or spoons are solids and will not change shape over time. Compare this with ice cubes (water in solid form) which will melt and change its shape into that of its container.

We also looked at the different 'shape' of water in liquid form when contained in different beakers, containers, plates. There is liquidity and no definite shape.

I've filled up a balloon with water and placed it in the freezer. Passing the frozen balloon around, we have a great time feeling the cold, smooth, wet balloon.

We next peeled of the balloon, and viola, we have a solid ice in the shape of the balloon. We placed it inside a ziplock bag and leave the ice there for several hours.

Wanted the children to observe the shape of the balloon ice after a few hours. Of course, they predicted that the ice will melt and take on the shape of the bag.

Also showed them hot steam arising from hot water - that's water in gas form when it gets very hot.

Can't really see the vapour from the picture, but visible to the children and now they know the terms solid, liquid and gas (vapour) well - thanks to the hands-on experiments under our Junior Scientist Programme.

My Green Beans 2

Green Beans 2 also did a water relay. Easy at first, with no obstacles but they have to carefully fill up the bottles with water from the jug.

Later on, their teacher added some hoops as obstacles for them to pass through before finally reaching the bottles.

This activity requires a lot of concentration, good hand-eye coordination as well as patience.

Good teamwork too and notice how the children atthe back were waiting for their turn? Another test of their patience.

My Soya Beanies (2)

The children have been learning about merdeka, Jalur Gemilang, bunga raya or hibiscus, the people of Malaysia, etc as part of our theme on National Day.

Some of the 3 year olds can proudly tell you that the name of our national flag is Jalur Gemilang.
Below is one of the many flags that we have done - too bad the picture is not clear as the background is too bright.

Basically, the children coloured the crescent and star with oil pastel before colouring over with tempera paint. Next, they glued red and white crepe paper to represent the stripes.

In the meantime, another group of three-year olds were making penguins - an activity associated with the letter P. They proudly came to my office and asked me to marvel at their work and to take pictures! (They saw me taking pictures of the Jalur Gemilang and did not want to be left out!)

After some hard work ... it's time to tuck in for a well-deserved meal. Note that all the children are highly independent and can eat by themselves. Even the younger ones aged 2.5 can feed themselves, occasionally needing help. Love to see them enjoying their meals.

Even Perfect, our friend from Nigeria, has no problems eating our 'nasi lemak' - pandan-flavoured rice (no santan though) with saffron carrot-potato-chicken cubes, eggs and cucumber!

Yummy!!!

My Soya Beanies (1)

There are many of them now - in fact close to 20! Fortunately, I have 4 committed and passionate teachers to guide and take care of them.

Below are just some of the activities that they have been up to lately ... I was not always around to take snapshots of their activities and there are many more that are not captured!!!

WATER GAMES - scoop a ball and put it in the correct pail, according to the colours. Great for colour recognition and matching.

The balls in the pool, up close.

The children have to scoop up a ball and put in the correct pail with the corresponding label.

Very gently, and carefully scoping up the ball and dropping it into the pail.

These are the pails with the colour labels. Most children of 2 and 3 understand the game well!

Yellow ball to yellow-labeled pail.

Aaaahhhhh.... if only I can go inside the pool!!

Let me scoop first ... I want the red ball!

But, somehow got the yellow one!

Yeah!!! We are the winners! Eh, how come some children are in the pool?

Another game which they played was pouring coloured water into coloured pails - another good matching game as well as enhancing hand-eye coordination.