March, you can’t be here too soon! :(

“Teacher, when are we graduating?” one of my Blue Jays asked last week.

His eyes were intently fixed on me as it took me a moment to respond.

“March 14.” was all I had the courage to muster, though at the back of my mind I wanted to say “but don’t think about it yet, it’s quite far from now.”

Yesterday, when we were practicing our Moving Up day songs, I choked up a bit and my eyes started to moist. I was seriously thinking to myself “almost 9 months, and now it’s finally coming to this…”

March…please don’t come just yet. I’m not ready…

Helping Children Remember

There are times I marvel at how much (and how well) my 3-year-old brother remembers events from as far as two years back. I marvel because for the longest time, I’ve been a believer in childhood amnesia.

Childhood amnesia is the impairment of the ability of older children or adults to recall the first years of their lives.

In Daniel Siegel’s The Developing Mind, it is stated that:

“Developmental psychologists view childhood amnesia differently, suggesting that immaturities in the sense of self, in the sense of time, in verbal ability, and in narrative capacity may be the factors limiting recall for the period before the age of about two or three years.”

It is interesting to note however that in the same book:

“Children who have more experiences of talking about their memories with their parents are able to recall more details of their lives later on.”

and

“The talk in which children and parents engage prior to, during, and/or after an event works to organize, integrate, and thereby, facilitate children’s memory of it.”

Implications:

• Parents should really opt to talk to their children. The smallest conversations on how the child’s day was helps in enhancing memory, improves communication skills and fosters a greater feeling of self-worth in the child (that the parent wants to listen).
• Educators, especially preschool teachers should be careful in planning activities especially exposure trips and major school events. We must see to it that there is ample time to prep the children about what’s going to happen, point out the important details during the event itself and process the activity afterwards.

SM Science Discovery Center Trip

Looking for a new place to visit with your kids or students? SM Science Discovery Center is the first-ever technology-based, highly interactive science theme park in the Philippines. The Nest Blue Jays (morning and afternoon classes) toured SM SDC last Friday, February 13. Needless to say, the children had an awesome time as they learned more than a handful of things about science.

SM SDC has 10 galleries, each with unique features and again—all interactive! The children’s favorites are (their words are in quotes): Mr. T (The Virtual Reef)–the talking titan fish. “He’s so funny!” “He asked if he can marry you, teacher!” “He’s afraid of sharks.” “He knows English, Filipino and Chinese!”

“burping machine” (Grossology) “It was so fun. The sound was funny.”

“earthquake machine” (City Science)

“Movie about the reef!” (The Enchanted Reef film at Digistar Planetarium)

The other galleries are: Transportation Nation -with flight simulator, solar powered car, make-your-own-cars

Life Clock - type an e-mail, pick a date to send and your friend will receive it in the future (like 2010)!

Spaceship Earth -it’s all about caring for our planet

Robot Inc. - robot models and robot games

Image Port

It’s a great place to visit for older children. My pictures don’t do justice.

[note to self: must save for a better camera] but either way, if you want to see more, click here.

There’s no better kind of love

I got this cartoon from Teacher Lyn, my Psych 171 prof. It is a sort-of-known-fact that I absolutely adore children. There is no doubt that I’d love to have my own kids…someday.

“Deciding to become a parent is to decide to forever wear your heart on your sleeve.”

Indeed, unconditional is the best kind of love. Happy Hearts Day to all parents, teachers, caregivers, family members and all those who love children. ^_^

Whoosh Rocket

As an introduction to our topic on outer space, my prep class discussed human race’s continuing space exploration projects. We watched BrainPop videos: Apollo project and International Space Station, made whoosh rockets, had a rocketship race and sang Laurie Berkner Band’s Rocketship Run.

Make your own whoosh rocket.

Here’s how:

Materials

1.5 or 2L soda bottle (clean and dry; bottle cap must have a hole in the center)

isoprophyl alcohol

lighter or candle w/matches

optional:

art paper, scissors and glue (to decorate)

straw

rocket launcher

Procedure

1. Decorate the soda bottle using art paper cut-outs. Glue the straw on the side of the soda bottle (if you’re using a rocket launcher)

2. Put about 2drops-5mL isoprophyl alcohol, replace the cap and shake the soda bottle.

3. Position your rocket on the rocket launcher or on a sturday surface.

4. Put flame near the hole of the bottle cap using a lit candle or lighter.

5. Watch the rocket go whoosh!

IMPORTANT NOTE: All steps should be done with adult supervision, especially the lighting part.

Here is the YouTube video that helped me get the procedures right:

Class Volcano

My prep class loves making science experiments.

One of their favorites is the volcano we made last August 2008.

To make the volcano, we secured an empty water bottle on a recycled board, covered it using the my favorite play dough recipe and painted it with poster colors.

The following morning, we put 5 tablespoons of baking soda and about 3tablespoons of glitter inside the volcano.

To make it erupt, we poured the dishwashing liquid (with a few drops of red coloring)

and about 1 cup of vinegar….and….

Ka-boom!!!

Why: The vinegar reacted with the baking soda and formed carbon dioxide gas, which caused bubbles to push the “lava” out of our “volcano’!