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Join UsNews / Nunn Road / 2017 / September 2017
We thank all who turned up for our Parents-Teachers night. Indeed, it was an eventful night with time well spent talking and sharing issues and topics about your child. During the meeting, I shared about the daily program, rhythm and development of the children in the class. We try to care for your child in a loving environment within the healthy boundaries of ‘do’ and ‘don’t’ and I appreciate your feedback on seeing the positive development in your child after coming to Nania.
We have also shared about the afternoon literacy hour for the six- year-olds. The children always enjoy their lessons and they compile all the worksheets of each subject that they have learnt into a beautiful and meaningful ’book’ to share with you. They are happy to learn their formal lessons in a rhythmical and artistic way. Rhythmic songs and poems are sung/recited before or after lessons. Artistic form drawing, weaving and finger knitting when they have their free time.
I urge you to read Junko’s writing in the Web page ‘At Nania’ to understand the child development that we strive for daily.
By the time you are reading this newsletter, we would already have had our Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival or Moon-cake festival celebration with the children at Nania.
In the time leading up to this celebration, the children picked the ‘blue flowers’ in the garden during their playtime to give to Auntie Janet who washed and kept them aside. The flowers were later processed into blue food dye. At the same time, green food dye was obtained from pandan leaves.
Two days before celebration, we brought the children to the kitchen to see the food dye making processes carried out by the kitchen staff.
During one of the morning artistic activities, the children made and coloured their own lanterns. The 5 and 6 year-old children used their nimble fingers to twist yarn strings for use as handles for the lanterns.
On the eve of the celebration, the older children rolled the lotus paste into round balls and these were kept in the fridge.
On the morning of the celebration, the children gathered in the dining area to make their own moon cakes consisting of 1 blue and 1 green moon-cake.
First, they flattened the mooncake skin using their own hands and then placed the lotus paste ball in the middle. Then, the skin is wrapped round the paste and the mixture is rolled into a ball again. Lastly, they placed the rounded mixture into a moon-cake mould and pressed it till it fitted perfectly into the mould. The moon-cakes were then placed into the fridge to set. The same process was repeated for the other coloured mooncake.
In the afternoon, the children with the teacher’s help packed the beautifully set moon-cakes. The fresh and delicious smell wafting from the moon-cakes lingered in the classroom long after we had finished packing. During dismissal, each child was given a box of mooncakes together with their handmade lantern to take home.
Seeing that the children preferred to eat our own homemade moon-cakes rather than the store-bought ones, we decided to serve them only the moon-cakes dyed with the blue-flower and pandan food dyes. These moon-cakes were made a day before the celebration by the teachers and they were kept in the fridge to set.
We had our celebration during the Wednesday morning snack time. We teachers enacted a simple play by acting out the meaning behind this celebration i.e. the roundness of the moon symbolizes the unity of a family when everyone gathers happily together to eat the delicious moon-cakes and to drink tea.
We ended the play with the moon-cake festival’s song and enjoyed eating the homemade mooncakes with the children.
Moving along, the children are practising songs and poems for the coming Harvest Festival. We do this during the morning ring time. The big children in the class lead the younger ones during practices.
In Nania, we celebrate Harvest Festival to thank Mother Nature for sun, rain and wind. Through the poems and songs, the children express their gratefulness for the food on their plates and to the farmers who work hard to grow the crops as well as to their parents who lovingly prepare food for them.
We look forward to seeing you and your family on the 6th of October (Friday). Please be punctual.
Teacher Nora