It's NURSERY time!

Last Tuesday, on 28^th of June 2011, we have visited a nursery near our housing area to see a ‘Story Session’, conducted by the teachers at the nursery. We arrived at 9.30 am and were welcomed by Mrs Allison Butterworth, the Deputy Headteacher

Us with Mrs Alisson Butterworth, in front of the nursery

Before having the chance to see the ‘Story Session’, we had a discussion with Mrs Alisson. She started the discussion with the area of learning and development of children in Early Years Foundation Stage (EYES). There are six areas of learning and we were focussing on the first area of learning which is Communication, Language and Literacy for children from birth to five.

There are a lot of things that had been discussed and I would like to share some of them here.

1. How to deal with unresponsive children since not many children would respond on what we are trying to tell them. For example, we would like to tell a story about a girl with 3 bears from a book entitled ‘Goldilocks and the three bears’ to the children. What we can do are

• We need to be relax, fun and playful since we are dealing with children who are still learning. Children are usually playful, so, we try to be playful to make them feel comfortable with us. At least they will stay a bit longer with us.
• Having things with us to make the story alive. For example, we can have 3 teddy bears, a cottage or anything related to the story
• Using different voices and use different gestures to describe words that being used. For example, use loud voice to say the word ‘screaming’, smile if the characters in the book are happy etc

Mrs Allison is holding 'Goldilocks and three bears' storybook

2. Should we use Malay or English since English is not our first language in Malaysia, but we use English story books ?

• Definitely using our home language, at least 50-50. For example, we narrate the story in Malay first and then followed by in English T
• The purpose of narrating the story is to make the children understand the storyline so, we better use Malay first to catch their attention. There is no use to narrate in English if they do not understand the story, but, we can still use simple English afterwards to make them get used to English Language

Mrs Allison also gave us a very useful book, entitled 'Letters and Sounds'. It aims to build children's speaking and listening skills in their own right as well as to prepare children for learning to read by developing theri phonic knowledge and skills.

Letters and Sounds

After having discussion for about an hour, we then went to the classroom to see the ‘Story Session’ conducted by one of the teachers. The teacher and children enjoyed the session very much as the teacher knew how to catch the children’s attention and make them involve in the story. After the ‘Story Session’ finished, all the children gathered in a room for ‘Singing Session’ as Tuesday is the singing day.

The Classroom.

We then had a short discussion on how we are going to implement what we got here into the 'Learning Through Play' program this 30th of July. We have a lot to improve!

From Britain with Love

It's CARBOOT time!

We went to carboot and charity shops several times to buy children’s storybooks to be sent to children in rural areas in Malaysia. This time, we choose to send the books to Sabah, Terengganu and Perak. Hopefully, we can send more books to other places next time!

rambang mata

just 50p per book! extremely cheap :)

After spending a few hours at carboot, it’s time to go back home..

arrived home.. tired~~

At home, we arrange the books according to the size

[perasaan : rasa macam tolong cikgu susun buku teks kat sekolah :)]

too many to handle.. Fuh!

We use Palshipping service, and there are 4 medium boxes, full with books to be shipped to Terengganu and Sabah!

palshipping is always the best choice :)

we also got more book from charity shops..

Some books are packed into smaller boxes to be brought home by because we need these books at the ‘Learning through Play’ program in Perak. Thank You so much for those who willing to sacrifice few pounds of their baggage allowance to transfer the books back home.

By now, these boxes has arrived Malaysia :)

These are just a few boxes. There are a lot more inside.. :))

Thank You so very much for all the efforts. May Allah bless. Thank You Allah for the opportunity

From Britain with Love