ESSENTIAL LIFE SKILLS T1 L1 2020

NURSERY 1 (born in 2016)

Hand control is the ability to use fingers in isolation to manipulate objects(i.e., utensils, tools) and complete tasks such as drawing, writing, cutting and eating.
Competency in hand control is supported by finger strength and mental concentration, which influences the ability to maintain finger positioning for precise movements.

Without these abilities, a child may encounter difficulties in completing table work in school and feel left out or incompetent, thus impacting morale and self-esteem.

Unfortunately, the overuse of touchscreen phones and tablets have impeded development of hand control and finger strength. These fine motor skills are not a given and have to be explicitly taught, modelled and practiced regularly.

As such, this lesson places emphasis on training your child’s fine motor skills (and hand-eye coordination). We seek to help your child achieve early independence(self-efficacy) to complete daily tasks.

One such activity is lacing – which involves stringing donut buttons together to form a necklace. This seeks to train precise and accurate finger movements while reinforcing early patterning concepts. Another activity involves the use of cotton wool for craft, which trains pincer grasp (involving thumb and index finger coordination) to pinch and pull out a portion of cotton wool.

NURSERY 2 (born in 2015)

Self-control, respectful interaction and clear communication are important social skills for both (group) play and (team) work. This helps children make friends and be included into social groups.

Often, children pick up such skills either through trial-and-error or by observing and modeling others.Hence, it is important to lead by example, in demonstrating the expected/appropriate social and emotional response.

This week, we seek to develop your child’s social common sense, to identify and explain why certain actions are socially acceptable or unacceptable. Children will also explore what it means to be good mannered and kind. Your child will be engaged to role play different scenarios as a medium to discuss the appropriate response and manners for each situation.

Another key focus would be exploring the different emotional states - happy, sad, excited, frustrated, brave, scared, etc. This process will allow your child to gain greater self-awareness (ability to think and process their feelings before acting it out), self-regulation (ability to react in a certain situation in a way that will not cause problems to others), responsible decision-making (ability to offer solutions to a problem while taking into consideration all consequences to themselves and others) and also empathy (ability to understand and appreciate the thoughts, feelings and experiences of someone else).

KINDERGARTEN 1 (born in 2014)

Symmetry is a natural phenomenon present in our everyday lives and an important principle in many fields of study – i.e. art (design, architecture), mathematics (division, geometry, algebra), biology (organic structure), chemistry (molecular structure).This lesson takes on an exploratory approach to discover symmetry in the things around us (i.e. mirrors, butterflies).

To reinforce this concept, children pair up to physically mirror their partner’s actions and create symmetrical patterns from opposing sides. Your child will also be engaged in creating their own paper butterflies. By applying paint to only one wing and folding both wings together, paint is transferred equally to both sides creating a symmetrical pattern. This experience helps children better relate to how mirrors - mirror images work.

We then extend this concept of symmetry to 2D shapes. Your child will be taught how to draw shapes reflected in a mirror line. This process develops mental visualization skills and spatial awareness while doubling up as the precursor topic to shape division & shape formation.The lesson further expands to introduce the life cycle of a butterfly, to learn about the developmental changes that occur from the beginning stage (egg) to the terminal stage (butterfly), appreciating the process of change (metamorphosis).

Lastly, children will be engaged in a scissors-paper-stone “tournament” where he/she will learn and demonstrate the ability to follow a given set of rules, be introduced to the concept of bracket elimination and deduce the winner using the point system.

KINDERGARTEN 2 (born in 2013)

Patterning is introduced as a topic in mathematics starting as early as Primary 1, where children are required to spot patterns in number sequences and shapes. Pattern recognition is a form of early mathematical fluency that guides algebraic thinking, trend spotting and problem-solving.

While most young children are literal thinkers, heightened pattern awareness develops meticulous and analytical individuals - capable of identifying and understanding relationships between elements through the observation for regularities / patterns.

This week, your child will learn to recognize various forms of repeating patterns (i.e. AB, ABC, AABB)and successfully extend these sequences linearly.In addition, we will be exploring strategies to fill in missing patterns in-between a linear sequence, even when the core unit is not evident.

We will also continue to train your child’s visual-spatial skills. In particular, mental visualization and rotation exercises to predict of an object’s final position after rotation in the anti-clockwise/clockwise manner.

Here, your child will also be introduced to patterns in the non-linear arrangement. This is an extension of repeating pattern recognition containing visual-spatial elements (multi-directional grid movement). By presenting information in unconventional ways, such experiences will prepare children to tackle new/challenging pattern puzzles with greater confidence and adaptability.

Next LESSON'S focus:
comprehensive review