A peek into my teaching life
The past many weeks, I've been so busy at work.I still write, but to the parents of my students.
Posting the letters here, for you to take a peek into my teaching world.
I am so glad I can rest and recharge.
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Letter One:
Term Four Theme :
The Food Pyramid
Dear Parents,
Your child’s work on this term’s theme will be separated from his / her weekly worksheets.
Please file your child’s work, recipes, art and craft etc into a folder or big box. Your child has been putting in lots of effort for each and every assignment given to him/ her so far, so we would appreciate if you could take time to help your child organize his/ her completed work. This is to encourage your child in the area of learning especially when he / she gets to see that not only his/ her teachers value his / her work, his/ her parents and caregivers value his / her work too.
Thank you for your active involvement.
These two weeks, we have covered the sub-topic “Carbohydrates”.
We had great fun making the French toast yesterday. Special thanks to Miss Ong, our chef and to Xu Lao Shi, our assistant chef. (Er, Mrs Ng was the factory worker.) Your child is looking forward to making French toast with you!
Our Carbohydrates’ diet week was also a great success. Thank you for preparing the food or snack for your child to bring to school the last two weeks.
We will be moving on to the next sub-topic “Vitamins and Minerals”. We will focus mainly on vegetables and fruits. More projects are coming our way, stay tune! J May God bless your weekend !
Yours truly,
Miss Ong and Mrs Ng
K1 Class Teachers
22 September 2006
Friday
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Letter Two :
Dear parents,
Theme on Food
I’m very glad that this final term of the year has been a very enriching learning experience for both your child and I. It is Galilee Kindergarten’s first attempt in covering one theme for one whole term.
“Food” is a very broad topic. By the Grace of God, Miss Ong and I were able to map out a very comprehensive and exhaustive curriculum, which includes art and craft, recipes, projects, field trip, food tasting and challenging activity sheets.
From the mouths of all your babes, I got to know that many of you do look into our request of compiling your child’s work in a box or a drawer. Thank you for taking time and effort to show your child that you value his/ her class work very much. I really appreciate the follow up from your part. I can see that your child is also very happy that you are interested in what he/ she has been learning in school.
Parents’ support and help
I want to take this opportunity to thank many of you for your active involvement in all the class and school activities this term. Without all your valuable help, we teachers won’t be able to carry out all that had been planned for your children. Miss Ong and I have 55 children under our wings, we can’t imagine stapling 60X7 booklets or assemble 60 boxes all on our own. We would have to camp in our classrooms or burn many late nights if we were to do all the preparation work on our own.
a. Food Pyramid Box Project
Thank you Mrs Shannigrahi, Miss Chin, Miss Ana and Mrs Ng (from K1A) for taking precious time on Monday (6 Nov) morning to assemble the boxes for the Food Pyramid Project.
Thank you, Mr Kuek for graciously providing the 60 boxes and cardboards. Thank you very much. Without your help, this box project won’t be possible.
Thank you Mr and Mrs Loh, Mr and Mrs Raymond Tan, Mrs Ang, Mrs Chan, Mrs Ng (from K1A) and Miss Chin for preparing the zig-zag food booklets last weekend.
b. Tanglin Mall Marketplace
Thank you Mrs Joyce Tan and Mrs Toh for helping our class in the field trip. With your help, we could ensure that the children were safe and the activities were carried out smoothly.
c. Galilee Café
Thank you Mrs Shannigrahi, Mrs Goel, Mrs Lynette Tan and Mrs Tan (Patson’s mum) for helping us at the café’s stalls on 17 October, Tuesday. You ladies even prepared the food and drinks! By the way, the teachers did break even from the sales of the food and drinks. This, we must thank all you supportive parents out there for allowing your children to come to school with $1 worth of coins that morning! *grins. So .... is your child a spender or a saver? Heehee ..... J
Special thanks to Miss Chin, our photographer for every class and school activity. The complementary photos which you have been seeing were all taken by Miss Chin. She had spent many hours taking the photos (at times, for the full 3 hours per activity, she was with me.).
d. Organic Food Facts
Special thanks to the ten parents who cut out this Sunday Times Special Report (1 October) for your children. Your contribution has enabled me to have enough colour pictures for every child in our class. We had spent much time discussing the organic food facts in the newspaper report. I have condensed the discussion into 20 “mini” facts. Each child would have pasted around 5 of such facts into his/ her work. Please read through them with your child.
I can’t thank all of you enough. All of you are great partners with me in this journey of nurturing your children into wholesome, confident, happy and positive children.
Last but not least, may your family have a wonderful holiday.
May God bless your family bountifully. Amen.
Yours sincerely,
Mrs Jesselyn Ng
K1B Class Teacher
10 November 2006, Friday
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Letter Three :
Dear Parents,
Theme : Food Pyramid
Our Grand Finale
13th to 16th November 2006
First of all, thank you for taking time to prepare the health food for your children to bring to school over the last four days.
Let me share with you what the children had brought and some of the actual conversations which went on in the class and during the feasting sessions.
Here goes .....
A Journal of Mrs Jesselyn Ng :
Yippee !!! No more formal worksheets for the class. No more marking for me!
Hmmmm ....... What are we going to do this week?
Bring health food to the class. Talk about it. Look at it. Eat it!
Angela, Shivika and Shermaine brought apples on three separate days. Angela, thank you for bringing your apples in slices. They definitely looked very appetizing. I want to thank auntie for helping me to cut the other apples. I can’t be in the kitchen and serving the children food at the same time.
By the third round of having apples in a week (Law of Diminishing Marginal Returns kicked in already), I have to cajole the children to finish the last ten slices of apples.
Mrs Ng : “Apples for sale! Only 5 cents per slice!” (a few customers “bought” the apple slices)
Mrs Ng : “Apples for sale again! Special offer! 1 cent per slice!” (hee, sold out within a minute! Yeah!)
Celine, Hwee Qee, Cheyenne, Zecary and Zoë (my daughter) started to chorus this phase among themselves with lots of chuckles and giggles....
“Mrs Ng for sale! Hahahahaha .....”
Mrs Ng : “Hey! Mrs Ng is not for sale!”
Ok, at least the children did not give me a price tag.
*grins.
Wen Bin brought star fruit. It was sweet and sour at the same time. Those children who love star fruit kept coming back for more and those who don’t fancy it had a hard time trying to swallow their first bites. If you get to see those “sourish” expressions on those faces, I believe you will laugh. Hee .... I did, but I still have to put on a straight face and strongly encouraged them to make sure the first bites went in. (For hygiene purpose besides for health reason.)
Most of the children love the grapes and bananas Celine and Ben brought respectively. These were sold out items.
Mr and Mrs Kuek prepared and transported twenty Chinese pears to school on Tuesday morning. Thank you so much for your generosity! The children were very happy that they could each bring a pear home. Some even smelled the pears before placing them into their bags.
Mrs Ng : "Xin Hui, thank you for the twenty pears. It should be 22. How about me? How about Xu Lao Shi?" (Just Kidding.)
Xin Hui : "Oh, we only have twenty children in our class."
Ok, Xin Hui’s concept on size is excellent. The teachers are not small. Therefore, we are not entitled to the pears.
Mr and Mrs Kuek, I was just pulling Xin Hui’s leg. At this age of five, it can be very fun when we see the children’s reactions and hear their candid responses when we have the opportunities to tease them.
The sweet corn which Reuel brought was a great hit too. Many children came back for more helpings. Special thanks to Mr and Mrs Ang for packing bowls and spoons for the children.
At 11.20am, Reuel said : “Mrs Ng, where are my sweet corn container, bowls and spoons?”
Mrs Ng : "They are still in the kitchen sink. If you want it back, I can only get to wash them after you go home. I’ll return them to you tomorrow."
Reuel : "But .... I want to bring them home today. Can I go to the kitchen and ask auntie for them. I think my mummy can wash. No problem."
Mrs Ng : "Are you sure?"
Reuel : "Yes. I will be extra careful, Mrs Ng."
(Now, this boy is rather matured and reliable. He follows instructions rather well too. Reuel came back after five minutes.)
Reuel : "Mrs Ng, auntie washed them for me already. Yeah!" (broad smiles and a satisfied look)
In the end, guess what happened? Reuel left the whole bag in class after going through all the trouble! Hee hee ..... When I saw the bag in the class after dismissing the children, I went, “Oh well, the process of retrieving the items was fun at least.” *wink
Elizabeth brought organic corn cakes and Jerome brought organic crispy rice bars. Mrs Tan and Mrs Toh, did you both go shopping together? Thank you for sourcing for these organic foods. The children also realize that healthy food also means less tasty food.
They finished the corn cakes even though it was plain because they know that these are good for them.
As for the rice bars, the children were blessed by Mrs Toh’s generosity. Each child could bring a bar home. And .... How come the children know that the bars came in different flavours? As usual, there will be some fussy ones who took very long to decide which flavour they fancy.
Mrs Ng : "School vans are waiting. Your helpers, grandmas, mummies and daddies are waiting downstairs. Hurry up. Choose and go. Com’on .... (hee) "
Cheyenne brought oatmeal biscuits. It was a hot favourite. Maybe this was because Cheyenne did a very convincing presentation that these biscuits are superb for health as they are very rich in nutrients. Well done, Cheyenne! That really encouraged your classmates to choose to eat a healthier type of biscuits whenever they can.
These children, though young they may be, they can give me diplomatically correct answers!
“It is not good for us to eat junk food and titbits.”
“For biscuits, whole meal or oatmeal biscuits are healthier than chocolate biscuits.”
“But ..... We still can eat chocolate biscuits.”
“Ya, we can! But, once in a while.”
“And ..... Maybe just a few pieces will do.”
I was like, “Hello? Did I hear wrongly?”
I want to specially thank the mums who prepared the macaroni (Anish), egg and cheese sandwiches with cucumbers in them (Zhi Hong), butter and sugar sandwiches (Patson), oatmeal bread sandwiches (Zecary), noodles (Hwee Qee) and quail egg, sausage and grape kebabs (Kimberley).
Kimberley : “Quail eggs have proteins in them. However, we cannot eat too many of them each time. Maybe five quail eggs will do. As for the sausages, my mummy did not fry them. She also did not add any salt or oil. So, it is healthier. Grapes give us vitamins, please eat.”
This interesting activity will not be possible without your involvement. Once again, thank you for taking time. I appreciate all your effort and love for the children.
I’ve taught the children how to look out for the Nutritional Facts Tables behind every food box. They are keen to know more about these tables. Please take time to read the labels to them whenever you have the chance to show them such tables.
I have this sample which I cut out from my son’s honey stars (cereal) box :
Have a most wonderful holiday!
Love,
Mrs Jesselyn Ng
15 November 2006
Friday
posted by Jesselyn Ng @ 11:52 PM
1 Comments:
great article. I would love to follow you on twitter. By the way, did any one hear that some chinese hacker had busted twitter yesterday again.
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