Nyan’s now-former school, MMI, ran a website where every so often the teachers would post photos and text outlining some recent learning activity and/or achievement. We’ve never posted them before, but now that he’s done with MMI, why the heck not. Without further ado, here we go.
(All text and photos are by the teachers themselves, very lightly edited. The Chinese sections came in Mandarin; we used Google translate and tried to edit them, but mostly we left them as-is. So those sections don’t really make a lot of sense in some parts – blame the translation – but hopefully you can get the gist!)
Fine Motor Skills – Late 2014 (age 3)
Nyan has developed his fine motor skills. He is able to colour within the lines neatly and also to write neatly. He is able to cut paper, tear paper, crush paper and also draw circles and straight lines. Nyan is able to hold his pencil/crayon using the pincer grip. He is fully aware of when to use his pincer grip and when to use a palmer grasp. For instance during a threading activity he uses a pincer grip to hold on to the yarn as he put the straws through the yarn. He has very good hand-eye coordination as he is able to use his eyes to judge the placement and direction of his hand movement along with the object. Most of the time, Nyan focuses on the activity he is doing which shows he has good concentration skills. Keep Up the excellent work.
Math – Late 2014 (age 3)
Nyan is working with a spindle box, it consists of compartment 0-9 and 45 loose spindles. With the help of teacher, Nyan managed to place the appropriate number of spindles in the right compartment. Once he is familiar, he then started to work with cards and counters; this consists of 10 wooden cards and 55 loose counters. Nyan managed to arrange the cards in sequence order 1-10, then he counted the counters and placed it underneath the card. These exercises help Nyan to make associations with written symbols with loose quantities.
Social & Emotional Skills – Late 2014 (age 3)
Nyan’s social emotional skills are developing very well. He is able to express emotions openly and he is able to express his needs and preferences clearly. He is able to accept affection, attention and appreciation. He takes pride in accomplishments and understands the concept of “yours and mine.” Nyan is a very expressive boy, he voices out his opinions clearly without any fear. He always shows interest and actively participates in class. He approaches his peers and teachers positively and shows pleasure around others. He is willing to share his toys and take turns to play. He is willing to negotiate and compromise to make a better relationship with his friends. He generally initiates conversation with everyone and has a very welcoming and friendly nature. He is also able to imitate his friends. Nyan Is growing up to be a friendly, loving and caring little man.
Chinese – March 2015 (age 3.5)
We studied occupations, children are aware of the police and drivers. Children held a small plastic ring to imitate the action of driving. The teacher pretended to be police, the children were drivers who had to listen to the traffic police command. Children practiced stopping or driving according to red or green stop lights.
Nyan actively raises his hand to participate in activities, he chooses a small red plastic circle to pretend to drive. When he saw the red light he immediately stopped; when he saw the green light he continued to drive.
Gym Exercise – mid 2015 (age 4)
Nyan runs to the bicycle station and climbs up the bicycle. He holds the handle firmly and places both his feet on the pedals. He pedals at a medium pace with a smooth motion. The activity lasted almost 2 minutes, he then steps down from the bicycle. He walks to the trampoline and with a big step he is able to go up the trampoline. He holds on to the bar and starts jumping fast.
Nyan moves his body comfortably, showing that his gross motor skills are developing well. He enjoys running and jumping at the playroom with his classmates. His happy disposition makes it easy for him to do activities that he likes. Given more opportunity for him to have fun and do physical activities will help him further develop his gross motor skills and enhance his abilities to do different physical actions with confidence.
Chinese – sometime in 2015
In today’s Chinese class, we learned the names of common small animals. We sat for the teacher, the teacher first talk about a “animal paradise” in the story, the teacher first one by one to produce small animal pictures, chicks, ducklings, kittens, puppies, lambs, frogs. Teacher demonstrated children songs, so that children listen carefully and sing, children learn songs. Nyan is interested in animal pictures and is particularly fond of listening to stories. When the teacher tells the story, he listens very seriously, and is able to answer some simple questions. The teacher asked the children to play the role of the story and learn their cry. Nyan saw the pictures of animals immediately raised his hand, holding animal pictures, learn the way teachers teach, the small animals posted to the background wall. And can also follow the teacher singing “I love my little animal”.
Nyan has very high enthusiasm. I found Nyan particularly interested in listening to stories and interested in animal pictures. When the teacher tells the story, there is a good listening ability, he can understand the teacher’s instructions. Nyan can correctly grasp the pen to describe and read the basic strokes and simple Chinese characters. He can read Chinese characters with the teacher, recite simple songs and poems.
Cognitive Skills/Memory Game – 2016 (age 5 ish)
Nyan sat on the chair and was smiling at Teacher. He said to teacher: “I like playing the memory card game!” Teacher replied “Yes, I know! but first I want you to identify each community helper that you see on the card, okay?” Nyan smiled and said “Okay, Teacher Emilie.” Teacher showed all the cards and he was able to identify all of them. Teacher asked Nyan to start the memory game card. He flipped all the cards accordingly and placed five cards in the upper row and placed 5 cards on the lower row. Nyan quickly got the first card and found the match. He continued playing and found the match right away. He was able to finish the memory card game in less than one minute.
Nyan’s cognitive skills are developing very well. He is able to identify the names of all the community helpers with ease. His visual memory skill is very good, he is able to recall the picture cards quickly. He has good concentration while doing this activity. He was very confident while doing the task. Playing more challenging memory games with Nyan is beneficial for him to develop better concentration and this will have a tremendous effect on his ability to learn and have a great significance in his overall academic performance.
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Chinese – 2016 (age 5 ish)
Nyan can actively participate in the game activities. He is an obedient child. Through the performance of the game today, “Tortoise and the Racing”, children chose their favorite role to perform. He listens to other people’s ideas. In this game he learned to be humble and sharing, able to accept the teacher’s teaching.
Today’s Chinese class is the role-playing game “Tortoise and the Racing”. Activities at the beginning of a lot of children are sitting, listening to the teacher assigned to the task. Nyan sit still, hurry to run over, shouting: “I want a puppy, I want a puppy.” I said, “Nyan ask you to go back and sit, we want to be the same as usual, which group of children to sit the best, you can first show.” Nyan looked a little bit disappointed sitting there. I told him, Nyan learn to wait, be patient, we have to take turns to perform. Nodded, obediently sitting there waiting for the teacher to call his name. When she called his name, he was excited to run over, happy.
Social and emotional activities – 2016 (age 5 ish)
Nyan entered the classroom and saw his friends by the library corner. He got a book and sat on the floor with his friends while they were reading quietly. Zin Pang came and Nyan stood up and greeted his friend, he shook his hand and said “hello Zin Pang”. His friend shook his hand back and they both giggled and smiled. Nyan got a book and sat beside Zin Pang, he read the book while his friend listened. Nyan also got Valentina’s attention while he was reading aloud for Zin Pang. After reading a book, the children decided to go out of the classroom and play. Nyan held Ming Xuan and Zin Pang’s hand. They started to play ring around the rosy for a couple of minutes then teacher called them in to start their lesson.
Nyan’s social emotional skills are developing very well. He enjoys imaginative play with other children and he has no trouble sharing his toys from home. He easily develops friendship with other children as well. Nyan is aware of his friend’s feelings and show some awareness of moral reasoning, such as “fairness”, and good or bad behaviour. He loves playing games with his friends and he shows understanding of simple rules and instructions. He is able to share his thoughts and also able to listen while others are speaking. Nyan is a very sweet and friendly student, everybody loves playing with him. Teacher is certain that Nyan will continue to expand his circle of trusted friends as he grows older and that he will be able to maintain a closeness to a few special people including his teachers. Nyan will surely grow up to be a cheerful and caring person. Keep up the good work!
Chinese – 2016 (age 5 ish)
Today’s activity is fruit solitaire, to find regular order. Nyan immediately took out the fruit pictures, looked at the teacher to give the picture of the order, and soon put the fruit picture row long. “I’m short,” said Nyan right away, “but Nyan said,” I’m short. “I saw them quarreling and casually said, Nyan It is not good for you to turn your turn. He listened, according to the teacher said to turn a bend, and this time obviously found his Solitaire card is no longer a brains to a direction rushed. Some arranged in a spiral form, some like a tree with strong trunk and neat branches. For a while, Nyan quickly put all the fruit cards in the right way.
In this activity, you can find Nyan to find the rules of the game, to master or better. His mind is more active, can be empowered the rules of empathy. In compliance with the rules at the same time, the line will be converted into a multi-directional solitaire. Make the game play is rich.
Discovery to the World – 2017 (age nearly 6 ish)
It was 9 in the morning and it was time to start our thematic lesson. Teacher invited Nyan to come and work on his activity (Continent flashcards). Nyan came and greeted the teacher saying “Hello, teacher Priya”.Then he went on to place the continent flashcards with name tags stacked up. Then he placed the names of the continents in a line.
Teacher picked up a particular continent card and asked Nyan to identify the continent. He was able to identify the continent. Then Nyan went on to match the continents, having names with the ones without name tags. Upon completing his work Nyan exclaimed with joy and said “I’m done Teacher Priya”
Nyan is able to work independently with minimal supervision and also able to identify the continents with ease. His thinking and analytical skills are improving tremendously.
Numeracy/addition – 2017 (age nearly 6 ish)
It was 11 am and time for our maths lesson. Teacher invited Nyan to solve an addition problem. Teacher said, I have a problem for you to solve on the board. Nyan said, “Yes Teacher Priya,” and then he began by identifying the 1st and the 2nd addend written on the board. He was able to correctly identify both the addends and read, “The first addend is 28 and the second addend is 13”. He then began by saying that he needs to add the ones place first to see if he has to do regrouping. After adding the ones he said, “Teacher my answer is 11”. He continued by saying that he has to paste the number 1 in the ones place and carry forward the number 1 to the tens place. He continued to add the numbers in the tens column. After completing he said joyfully, “Teacher is my answer 41. Is it correct?”
Teacher said “Well done, Nyan. Your answer is correct!” He then returned to his place.
Nyan is showing a great attitude towards maths and is improving his math skills quickly.
He has been showing continuous progress over the last term and is also comfortable in performing skip count in two’s and five’ s. Regular practice will help him excel.
Chinese – 2017 (around age 6)
This week, the children ‘s learning theme is food, and today we let the kids use bread to do their favorite breakfast. The teacher explained the use of the ingredients and the use of supplies, Nyan and the teacher said: “I want the star shape!” The teacher taught him to use the Chinese saying this: “I want to star” Nyan whispered the doctrine again. The teacher gives each child a tray and disposable gloves. Nyan in the seat and other teachers to his sub-supplies, he took the gloves very happy to take, picked up the star mold, and picked up a piece of bread on the tray, carefully put the star mold on the bread, press A few times, bread just above the star print, next to get down, he looked at the teacher said: “Lao Shi! Can you help me?” Teacher taught him to speak Chinese: “teacher, can help me?” Nyan continue to do his breakfast. For a while, Nyan took the breakfast to ask the teacher: “I can eat this bread?” He taught it again, the teacher said, “Yes!” He Immediately said: “Thank you!” To eat the breakfast personally.
Nyan is a well-behaved child who is interested in Chinese. In class can concentrate on listening, doing things seriously, and is very polite, such as: morning to see the teacher will say good morning, the teacher to his textbooks, will say thank you, you can also share with friends and school supplies, like to help teachers and friend. He can communicate with the teacher in simple Chinese and teacher. Hope he later in listening, speaking, reading, writing progress, can use Chinese and friends, teachers exchange. Let’s work together Nyan!
Motor Skills Development – 2017 (around age 6)
It was in the afternoon, and time for our Rangoli activity. Nyan was ready to do the activity. He placed the rangoli stencil on the card stock paper. He then firmly held the stencil with his left hand and started sprinkling white Rangoli powder on the stencil and started spreading the powder on the stencil. Once done, he carefully lifted the stencil and kept it at the side and was able to see the the image of the elephant on the card stock paper. Nyan exclaimed with joy, ”WOW Tr Priya, it is so nice!” And then said, I would like to do this activity once again Then the teacher said, “Next time we can do this activity using different colours”
Nyan has involved in many fine motor activities with great confidence this term. He is developing a precise grip when it comes to cutting, pasting and origami as well. Nyan has a clear hand preference when it comes to manipulating small objects. Provide Nyan with complex patterns to work with.
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