the little clovers

Clover Alumnus, Gabriel Ng, achieved GOLD in SwimSafer 2.0 program!

noreply@blogger.com (the little clovers) — Mon, 05 Apr 2021 03:00:00 +0000

Gabriel doing his usual practice rounds at the pool.

Congratulations to Gabriel Ng, a 2015 Clover Montessori graduate, for attaining GOLD in SwimSafer 2.0¹ program Singapore! To attain this GOLD certification, the swimmer has to posses rigorous water survival and swimming competency skills. Gabriel has started his training in the SwimSafer 2.0 program since he was at Primary 1. His consistency and perseverance have lasted him to work towards the GOLD stage five years later, which is now.

We are glad to be able to get Gabriel to come on an interview with us across the border.

Interview with Gabriel:

CLC: Hi Gabriel, congratulations for your achievement!

G: Thank you😊

CLC: Did you expect yourself to get the GOLD award?

G: No, because I saw a lot of swimmers at my swim group are better than me. In fact, I started to lose confidence in myself when I saw how well the others swim.

CLC: Did anyone help you along your way to success?

G: Yes. My Coach.

CLC: How did he help you?

G: He motivated me to persevere and drilled me. A lot of times when I felt I could not continue, he would push me to go forward to show the best of my abilities. He really unlocks my full potential.

Gabriel posed with his Coach and GOLD SWIMSAFER 2.0 certificate.

CLC: How often did you practice and how long is each practice session?

G: In the past 5 years, I practiced during my swimming lesson on a weekly basis. Nowadays, I have to study for upcoming tests, I would sometimes swim for an hour or two.

CLC：Have you felt like giving up?

G: Yes and no. Yes, because at times I would face with some challenges during my training – I had to cope with some situations like training in the heavy rain and cold weather. This would result in me not able to complete my swim rounds in the designated timing. On the other hand, I wanted to get the GOLD award so badly and along with my coach’s constant motivation, I did not give up and moved on.

CLC: What did you do when you met with difficulties or challenges?

G: I would try to overcome the difficulties if there were minor situations. If there were major ones, I would try extra hard like trained myself more and persisted more. I did not usually get help from other people because I wanted to challenge myself and do it on my own.

CLC: What's the biggest learning you can take away from this process?

G: Never give up and strive to achieve your dreams

CLC: Thank you so much for sharing with us! The Clover Teachers are very proud of you. We wish you all the best, do reach for the stars and the sky is your limit!

G: You're welcome!

THE CLOVER MONTESSORI WAY
www.clovers.org.my

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¹ SwimSafer is a national water safety programme in Singapore introduced in July 2010 by the National Water Safety Council (NWSC), a council appointed by the then Ministry of Community, Youth and Sports (MCYS).

The SwimSafer programme consists of six progressive stages, each comprising 12 hours of lesson time. Survival and activity skills are taught in each stage of the programme, working progressively toward the next stage.

At the end of each stage, each child will receive a stage completion e-certificate.

SwimSafer 2.0 Assessment Criteria.

International Publication for Clover Montessori Alumnus!

noreply@blogger.com (the little clovers) — Fri, 25 Dec 2020 09:44:00 +0000

First Clover L.C. (Clover Montessori) Alumnus chosen for Publication with UK Online Journal!

Well done to Zhi Hui (Olivia), an alumnus of Clover Learning Centre (Montessori) for her successful publication titled "Superwoman" with Issue 1 of the online journal ‘Untitled: Voices’. Issue 1 of the online journal was launched on June 22, 2020, while we were in the midst of our national Movement Control Order (National Lockdown due to Covid-19).

It features work as a response to the lockdown written by Olivia and 38 other underrepresented writers from around the world.

Based in the UK, the launch of the ‘Untitled: Voices’ journal by Untitled Writing aimed to serve as a platform to showcase writing by underrepresented writers from around the world. The collection includes a mixture of poetry, short stories, monologues, flash fiction and more.

Olivia was also featured on the online news platform
"Broadway World News"
upon her publication with the Untitiles.

We had a conversation with Olivia to find out more about her inspiration for writing “Superwoman”.

-------

Clover's (CLC) Interview with Olivia (OL)

CLC: What inspired you to create this piece?

OL: While we focused our attention on the roles of front-liners played in the pandemic, I happened to come across the thought of motherhood in that period. I started to realise mothers play such a significant and selfless role too. During the MCO (lockdown), where every member of the house was at home 24/7, mothers were the ones who ensured the smooth running of the household. For instance, my mother would still make sure we were well fed with her mouth-watering cuisines every mealtime, despite how busy or tired she was. 

" While we focused our attention on the roles of front-liners played in the pandemic... I started to realise mothers play such a significant and selfless role too."

CLC: Why did you choose the title “Superwoman”?

OL: It was at such a critical time earlier this year, I witnessed so many mothers putting

their family’s needs above themselves. It would only have been right to give them the

honourable title of “Superwoman”. They will always be the Superwomen of their

household; they will always be worthy of our appreciation.

CLC: That was extremely heart-warming to hear! Thank you for sharing it with us and

once again, congratulations on your publication!

OL: Thanks a lot! (smiling)

THE CLOVER MONTESSORI WAY
www.clovers.org.my

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Olivia’s poetry piece about motherhood, “Superwoman” was featured in Issue 1 of the online journal ‘Untitled: Voices’.

CLICK HERE or image below to view (Olivia Toh, page 18 & 19).

Clover Award Winners 2020

noreply@blogger.com (the little clovers) — Tue, 15 Dec 2020 11:03:00 +0000

This is the first year we are giving away awards as we have seen how much some of the children have evolved. These awards are given to the children who consistently work towards the betterment of themselves and display good social citizenship in the year 2020. We hope they will bring their good work and social ethic to their adulthood.

It is also an encouragement for their friends to look up to them and work towards self-improvement. To display happiness for their friends is also a virtue.

Award Winners 2020

Most Outstanding Learner Award:

This award is presented to the child for he knows how to stay focused in the face of distractions. He takes responsibility of his own learning and does not let other people or situations stand in the way of that. He makes academics a priority and keep his sights set on his learning goals.

Ian Loo (K2)

Damon Tan (K1)

Most Improved Student Award:

This award is to honour and acknowledge the child’s vast improvement in academic, behaviour and learning attitude.

Ooi Qi Yang (K2)

Leia Ng (K1)

Carlson Wie (K1)

Most Self-Motivated Learner Award:

This award is presented to the child for he has the ability to drive himself in the face of set-backs, take up opportunities, and show commitment to what he wants to achieve.

Teo Yao Ee (K1)

Most Hardworking Student Award:

This award is presented to the child for she has always accepted challenges and worked towards her goal with great perseverance.

Chong Yu Thong (K1)

Most Reliable Student Award:

This award is presented to the child for she can always be trusted to follow through in the little things which then she can be trusted with the bigger things.

Isabelle Nyo (K2)

Clovelle Chua (K1)

Most Helpful Student Award:

This award is presented to the child for she always takes initiative to provide assistance to her friends and teachers.

Lim Zhi Tong (K2)

Most Polite Award:

This award is to honour the child for demonstrating grace and courtesy by being the most courteous among his friends. He takes initiative to greet and show good manners and respect to his teachers and friends.

Teo Yao Ee (K1)

Early Bird Award:

This award is to honour the child for her consistent effort of arriving at school punctually.

Amber Ho (K2)

Adeline Tan (K2)

Chong Yu Thong (K1)

Duty Master Award:

This award is to honour the great effort of the child for consistently arriving at school early during his/her duty day to clean and tidy up the learning environment for his/her class. He/She also always obliged gladly when being asked upon to help their friends to fulfill their duty when they were late or absent. His/Her great sense of responsibility and willingness to provide a clean environment for his/her classmates shows his/her positive sense of social citizenship.

Adeline Tan (K2)

Low Zhen Jet (K2)

Chong Yu Thong (K1)

Little Helper At Home Award:

Achieving highest points for doing things for himself, and also work on household chores to show great citizenship at home during the MCO period.

Siah Yeow Ren (N2)

Clover L.C. Alumnus Received Achievement Award in Marlborough College

noreply@blogger.com (the little clovers) — Thu, 02 Jul 2020 09:11:00 +0000

Congratulations to Elliana Chin for attaining the Achievement Award for Year 4 student in Marlborough College (Malaysia)! She is an alumnus of Clover Learning Centre and we are very thrilled to receive this news and definitely proud of her achievement!

She is one of the two prize winners for this award in the Year 4 category. This Achievement Award is given to a child who has consistently produced a high standard of work across a broad range of subjects over the course of a year.

Her mother personally sent a thank-you text to all Clover Learning Centre Montessori educators who had helped built up Elliana's foundation of learning during her formative years. We appreciate this and believe that Elliana has definitely earned it through her perseverance and hard work!

We’ve also contacted Elliana to learn more about her learning journey at Marlborough College.

CLC: Hi Elliana, you've recently received the Achievement Award at your school, How do you feel?

E: I feel incredibly happy with my award and was also surprised I got such a “high level” award. I felt surprised because I didn’t think that I would have that award this year. I was even surprised when my mum got the email. I was pretty much happy though.

CLC: Did anyone help you along your way to success?

E: My success was of course due to my parents’ and teachers’ guidance.

CLC: What did you do when you met with difficulties or challenges?

E: When I met difficulties or challenges I was frustrated but I didn’t give up. I also had the comfort and encouraging words from my parents. Thank you for this letter (interview) and I appreciate your sharing of happiness from my success.

P.S. This achievement was also earned by the help of your school’s guidance.

(Elliana’s response is raw without editing from anyone.)

UK Scholarship offered to Clover L.C. Alumnus to study Summer Program in Cambridge University

noreply@blogger.com (the little clovers) — Mon, 26 Aug 2019 04:46:00 +0000

Congratulations to Zhi Hui, an alumnus of Clover Learning Centre (Montessori), for being offered a scholarship to do a two-week summer bootcamp with Immerse Education in the Cambridge University! She was one of the two students from the Johor state to be awarded based on an essay she wrote with her topic of interest. At the summer camp, she had the opportunity to explore innovative subjects and build her skills and confidence in a nurturing and exciting environment.

The summer program just ended, and it had been a wonderful experience for Zhi Hui. We had an interview with her to find out more about her experience at the Queen's College, Cambridge University (U.K.).

CLC: Congratulations Zhi Hui! We are very happy and proud of you being awarded the scholarship to do the award-winning immersion program in the premise of Cambridge University.

ZH: Thank you (smiling).

CLC: How were you selected?

ZH: The program offered scholarships through their essay competition. I submitted an entry, writing about their given topic.

CLC: What subject area did you read at the Cambridge University?

ZH: Creative Writing

CLC: Did you enjoy the summer school?

ZH: Yes. I enjoyed it tremendously and definitely wish to attend another one in the future.

CLC: What was your most unforgettable encounter that you had there?

ZH: The whole experience is unforgettable! I liked being able to experience college life with a combination of other intriguing activities.

CLC: Was there anything that posed as a challenge for you?

ZH: Yes. I had to learn to be less reserved, more open to participating in activities and events, and to be more open and socialise to meet new people.

CLC: Was there anything that fascinated you?

ZH: What fascinated me was the passion and enthusiasm the people there possessed when it came to both academics and having fun. They work hard, and play hard too!

CLC: What's the thing that you treasured the most?

ZH: The thing I treasured the most was the new bonds that I’ve created with people from around the world.

CLC: What's the thing that you miss the most?

ZH: I miss when we would get to explore the city in small groups of friends. I totally can feel the freedom of taking charge on our own.

CLC: What's your greatest gain there?

ZH: I've got to learn different writing techniques from the academic sessions of my chosen course. I also had a chance to understand more about the other subjects which I might be interested in through the academic fairs that were held. For example, medicine and law.

CLC: What's your goal when you return to Malaysia?

ZH: I returned with a goal to strive for the very best in terms of my studies and extra-curriculars. At the same time, to figure out my passion and make clear my intended direction.

CLC: Thank you Zhi Hui for sharing. We wish you all the best!

ZH: You're welcome and thank you too!

We hope her achievement inspires more Clover students to achieve in their lives. Attitude is altitude, if you have a will, you can do it too!

(ZH's response is raw from the interview.)

BRAVO to Clover Talent Team!

noreply@blogger.com (the little clovers) — Sun, 09 Nov 2014 16:32:00 +0000

Champs Talent Competition Invitation

I received many invitation calls from various organisers for the past few months to take part in their pre-school talent competitions, but I rejected all of them, except for this Champs Talent Competition, which requires all schools to present a 10 minute musical skit. I accepted this invitation as I thought it was professionally organized. Hankidz, which was the talent company being engaged to organize this event, would send coaches to the pre-schools to do pre-selection and coaching sessions with the schools. I thought this was a great opportunity for our Clover kids to be exposed to coaching from outside our school, and they would have an opportunity to make use of their musical and drama learning from Kindermusik and Speech and Drama classes.

How we got to the Finals

The pre-selection round was to show Hankidz our past year concert video -- we got in straightaway. To be selected as the finalist of this competition, the Teachers had to submit the skit storyline. My bed-rest advice from my doctor for my pregnancy was ditched right to the back of my mind -- I had a 4-hour long non-stop meeting with Kindermusik educators at my house. We came up with the full detailed storyline within the day. I was quite confident that we would make it, and we did. We got to the Finals. The real work began.

The real and hard work started...

Ten children were selected by our Montessori and Kindermusik educators in Sep 2014 to participate in the Champs Talent Competition (Southern region), Season 2. The Finals was on the 9th Nov 2014, which is Today.

It had been a short period of time for practice, we only had 8 practices before the children went on the real stage. Lots of coaching were done before the Hankidz coaches came from K.L. to see our Clover team the first time in October. After hearing their comments in their first visit, Kindermusik Educators (Shirin, Joanne, Winnie and me) continued to coach the children to work with their facial expressions. It was from incorrect expressions (should show angry face, but they were smiling all the time.), to more and better facial expressions. The children showed so much improvement by the time Hankidz coaches came the second time in November, which was also four days before the Finals. The instrument players were extremely precise in their timing to play their musical instruments at the right times.

Coach KC and Xue Yi were teaching the children on how to make facial expressions.

Stress came from third party which we couldn't control.

There were some hiccups at the vendor who made the props. Luckily, we had Kindermusik Educator Winnie, who is excellent in art, re-making those unsatisfactory prop on the night before the Finals. Her props looked so beautiful. I never had to worry about the work she produced.

At the Finals
The real day finally came. It was Today. When our Clover performance started on the real stage, I was nervous while standing by the side watching them as I was worried about those little mistakes that they had always made during practice sessions. However, they didn't disappoint any of us, every Clover child did their part to 100%, it was their best performance ever!Bravo! I was moved to tears! Hugging and kissing each of these little Clover angels as they walked down from the stage after the performance.

Narrator (Du Ee) spoke clearly with intonation. Main actors were acting with gestures and facial expressions. Instrument players were playing live musical accompaniment at the back.

The last part of the performance - the black bear revealed the Champs as magical cure for the sick monkey. They were dancing to celebrate.

I finally broke down at the backstage. My little boy, Du Ee, came and asked me, "Are you okay? Why are you crying?" He looked worried, he thought I didn't think highly of their performance or they had done something wrong. "I am crying because I feel very very happy to see you all did so well!" I said. (Well, he still looked puzzled.) He and other little darlings came to me and hugged me too.

Our Clover children evolved...

I felt so emotional because I saw how these little children evolved over a short period of 2 months. To let young children like them to understand working as a team was never easy. At the very initial stage of the preparation of this competition, the children were very ego-centric. They only did their part in the skit and lost focus and started playing , talking or laughing while it were their friends' turns to work on the roles. Or they would start to scold their friends who forgot to say the lines or play the instruments. Then, after the 4th practice of much counselling and coaching from us, they seemed to understand it was important to focus throughout the whole skit in order to achieve the best. They were observed to be more encouraging towards one another, and it was not easy especially for the young instrument players to stay still and wait for their turn to play.

Power, Power, Power, Oosh! We are a team!

The Clover Talent Team. Yay!
(From Back Left: Shirin, Joanne, Chaz Yee, Winnie.
From Middle Left: Taryn, Kayla, Trevor, Trishiqka, Ze Ming, Brandon.
From Front Left: Du Ee, Zheng Yuan, Yu Tong, Gabriel.)

They really pulled it off on the real stage in front of 400 audiences very well. I was extremely proud of them. The teachers and their papas and mamas felt the same too.

Although we did not emerge as the top three winners for this competition, our real consolation was that we were at the fourth place amongst the 15 finalist schools. We were the only school with 5- and 6-year-olds playing musical instrument live on stage. We did not spend any money like the winners to get extravaganza costumes, but our down-to-earth performance won so much praises from everyone. This was a great experience for both teachers and students.

At the backstage, waiting for their turn. The face painting was the last minute art done by Winnie.

The three protagonists of the act - Elephant Bonbon (Trishiqka), monkey Piko (Brandon) and Twinnie rabbit (Kayla).

Look at the happy faces. Children are children. (From left: Taryn, Trevor, Ze Ming, Shirin.

The wise old monkey (Ze Ming), elephant Bonbon (Trishiqka) and rabbit Twinnie (Kayla).

Our excellent instrument players Zheng Yuan and Yu Tong.

Hungry...

Waiting restlessly for another 2 hours in the holding room for the other finalist schools to finish their performance.

Our children might seem a bit disappointed for not getting any trophies, it was also time for them to learn that they had not done anything wrong not to win, but there were others who might be better than them in certain ways. We just had to improve on those areas and do better the next time. After all, this is what education is all about.

Gratitude and Appreciation

Last but not least, I would like to express my sincere gratitude and appreciation to our Kindermusik educators - Shirin, Joanne and Winnie. They jumped straight in to this talent team the minute I called for them. This is how passionate they are as educators. I am glad to work with talents like them -- we recorded a sound track for this competition within 1.5 hours at Clover. It is with this kind of enthusiasm and talents that we can make things happen within a short period of time.

Also, I can't thank the parents enough to be supportive of their child participating in this competition. They had done much practice with their child at home in order to help us speed things up for we only had limited number of practices before the finals.

Group photo: The 10 Clover Talent Team members, their families, Clover Kindermusik and Montessori educators.

THANK YOU ALL!

Author of this blog:

Chaz Yee

Head Directress

Country Project - Vietnam

noreply@blogger.com (the little clovers) — Sun, 05 Oct 2014 08:35:00 +0000

We had a special Vietnamese guest, Ms. Hang, who visited our school on 1st Oct 2014. It was a planned visit - we invited her to come to Clover during the country project of Vietnam week. It was such an honour to have Ms. Hang doing the Vietnam week for us. She brought in all the things that we requested her to in order to conduct our Montessori country project lesson.

She got the child-size Vietnamese costumes for a boy and a girl for us. We dressed two students up. They looked Vietnamese! ;) So adorable.

As Ms. Hang wasn't used to conducting a lesson with children, she conveyed the knowledge to our Montessori educator, Ms. Latifah, who helped to do the explanation to the children at Clovers.

Firstly, the Vietnam flag was shown - "a red flag with a gold star".

This is a traditional Vietnamese Coconut Bowl...authentic stuff...all the way from Vietnam!

Children were passing the bowl around to have a closer look. The outer part of this bowl was made of coconut shell.

Now, showing the currency of a country is important, and Ms. Latifah explained the difference between the Vietnamese Dong from the Ringgit Malaysia.

We passed the Vietnamese notes around for children to have a closer look. They were told the man on the notes is Ho Chi Minh, who was the Father of the country, as he fought for independence.

Children were looking at more Vietnamese Dong notes, comparing the notes with one another.

Ms. Joanne assisted in the explanation of how the Vietnamese Coffee is to be brewed. The children were intrigued!

Our special Vietnamese guests, Ms. Hang, demonstrated the coffee-brewing process.

All children waited patiently for the coffee to drip slowly into the glass jar below.

While waiting for the coffee to be ready, we passed around the spring-roll wrapper, which was made of rice. This was to show children what was "before" the end-product of the yummy spring-rolls that they were going to pop into their mouth later.

Ms. Hang brought in her home-made spring rolls and sweet-and-sour fish sauce.

Yum yum...we always love food tasting.

These 3 year-olds Nursery children asked for more!

Our K1 and K2 children were enjoying it too!

Ms. Soraya was showing the children the hand-stitched bag. A very typical Vietnamese craft bag. So beautiful.

Children were having a closer look at the hand-stitched bags.

A. Chaz Yee presented a small gift to Ms. Hang, showing Clover's appreciation to her effort and presence in helping us make the lesson about Vietnam more lively and interesting.

We hereby extend our heart-felt thanks to Ms. Joanne as well, who brought Ms. Hang to our school. Thanks Joanne!

To view more photos, CLICK HERE.

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=107432699050433675884&target=ALBUM&id=6066626862939407089&authkey=Gv1sRgCLXs1tbjgfGdigE&feat=email

Excursion to Malaysia Cultural Village

noreply@blogger.com (the little clovers) — Sun, 21 Sep 2014 05:44:00 +0000

The day started with a bit a thunder and drizzle, but it didn't dampen the mood of the children, Teachers and parents who had already signed up for this excursion more than a month ago. I brought Clovers students to this village four years ago, and this re-visit is a brand new experience for the current batch of students. The village also varied their activities, presenting some new activities that were not done before here. It was a full 3-hour non-stop trip and we were glad our children did not complain at all in view of the humid weather.

Every year, we try our best to tie the theme of our excursion to the cultural theme that we teach the children during that year. This extension of learning beyond classroom usually helps children to understand and remember their learning well. This year, our cultural theme focused much on the Malaysia culture. It is high time for the children to understand more about their country in the midst of all the Americanized animation or children series.

The guide explained the making of batik to the children and adults.

This pot was used to melt the chanting.

The artist demonstrated the drawing of the floral pattern on the cloth using chanting.

Youngest artists at work (they were only 3 years old)!

Our Clover ex-students returned to join in the fun with us!

Our 4-year-old artists at work. Concentration was observed. Shh...don't disturb.

Ta-da! Done!

Tea-time after all the hardwork of painting the batik! Nice fruit tea and coco biscuits. All were natural.

While the children were enjoying their tea-break, parents had a chance to engrave their names on the pewter key-chains. They hammered the alphabets on the key-chains.

Pak-cik demonstrated how to catch a fish using various traditional equipment.

Pak-cik demonstrated how to weave the strings to make them into a fishing net. Cool.

Yummy mummies!

Children were playing kompang for their "friends' wedding".

Two girls were dressed up as "bride" and "bridesmaid", while two boys were dressed up as "bridegroom" and "Best man", to depict the Malay wedding.

Children were exploring Malay traditional instruments such as kompang and angklung.

Last but not least, the guide brought us to the coco tree and we saw the coco fruit on the tree.

The guide passed the coco fruit to the students and it smelled like mango.

After getting to know more about the coco fruit, everyone had a coco drink made from the natural coco from the tree. Hmm....slurp...some children even asked for more.

We came to the end of the excursion, the children brought back their batik painting to show their family.

We were proud and lucky to have Ken Neoh, who is a multiple award-winner, as our professional photographer on the excursion day!

For more photos of this excursion, please CLICK HERE to go to our Web Album.

Kindermusik at KidzRoom (Danga City Mall)!

noreply@blogger.com (the little clovers) — Fri, 11 Jul 2014 03:01:00 +0000

Kindermusik at KidzRoom (Danga City Mall)!

Great news! We have expanded our Kindermusik classes to KidzRoom @ Danga City Mall!

For parents who are on waiting list, or did not have a chance to enroll your child into our Kindermusik@Clover classes, this is a new option for you!

As usual our Kindermusik classes fill up very fast. Please HURRY!

G63-63A, Ground Floor, Danga City Mall, Jln Tun Abdul Razak 1,80000 Johor Bahru.

Tel: +607-224 0208/2244551 email: kidzroom63@gmail.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dcmkidzroom

VISIT OUR WEBSITE NOW!

noreply@blogger.com (the little clovers) — Wed, 12 Mar 2014 08:31:00 +0000

We proudly present you our website. This is something that we have wanted for a long time and finally it has come true! Take your time to browse through all the programs that we have and you will find gems and treasures!

www.clovers.org.my

How's your day, my darling?

noreply@blogger.com (the little clovers) — Fri, 30 Aug 2013 10:00:00 +0000

"Did you learn anything today?"
"How much did you get for your test today?"

These are the common questions that parents ask their child when they finally have time at night to reunite as a family after a full day work. This very short reunion time during weekday nights seems to make parents feel stressed and need to go straight to the point.

SLOW DOWN, DADDY & MUMMY....

Perhaps it will be better to start conversations by asking the child questions relating to his/her emotions/feelings. This will help the child FEEL the LOVE from Daddy & Mummy.

"How's your day, darling?"
"Are you happy/ sad today?"
"Tell me one thing that made you happy today."
"Tell me one thing that made you sad today."
"Why so? Is it because you didn't do well in your test?"
"Tell me one thing that made you proud of yourself today."

From here, it is likely that your child would pour out all the stories about him/herself, his/her friends, teachers and things that happened. If he/she says he/she felt sad, maybe she wasn't learning well or maybe she was misbehaving and got a sounding from the teachers. In contrary, if she says she is happy, maybe because she learned well at school.

Children will know their parents are concerned about them, not just what they have achieved.

PARENT-CHILD BONDING will be achieved, and beware of turning this into a PARENT-CHILD PRESSURE reunion time.

Onion Planting 2013

noreply@blogger.com (the little clovers) — Sun, 04 Aug 2013 13:53:00 +0000

Planting onion is so fun. Auntie Chaz Yee bought bags of black soil and contributed all the containers she had collected over the time of eating her favourite soya bean curd and MacDonald sundae ice-cream for the Clover children to plant their onions. Auntie Latifah bought the onion bulbs and the children happily started planting.

Do you know saying nice things and singing a song to your plant will help it grow healthily? We used to plant garlic with the children in school many years ago, all the children said nice words and sang twinkle little stars to their garlic, except for a boy, who was shouting at his garlic. In the end, only his garlic didn't grow.

When we told our little clover kids about this "history", all of them listened attentively. We could see them singing and speaking softly to their plants, and took care of their little onion by watering it everyday for a week at school. Most of the onions started sprouting after a day or two, good signs!

Auntie Soraya explained to the children how to plant an onion and what they could do to take care of the plant.

This is the day when the children needed to bring home their little "baby". Auntie Margaret was giving them a briefing, telling them to take good care of their little onions at home during the school holiday.

To see more photos, please CLICK HERE.

Selamat Hari Raya 2013!

noreply@blogger.com (the little clovers) — Sun, 04 Aug 2013 13:37:00 +0000

Auntie Latifah did a talk-about of the costumes and items used and activities carried out during the Hari Raya festival.

Two children were selected to wear the costumes. Teachers also taught them how to greet Salam.

Another two children were selected...so cute!

Once a year we celebrate this festival, and we always look forward to it as we get to taste Auntie Latifah's superb cooking of a special Malay dish during the food-tasting day. This year, Auntie Latifah cooked soto. The clover children enjoyed this dish during the snack time. It was so delicious that all the Teachers vonluteered to take home the left-overs :) .

The children were also introduced to bahulu, biskut kacang, kuih tat, etc. So yummy!

The raya food for food-tasting.

Children would sit on the line and hear the Teacher explained when each type of food was eaten. Auntie Latifah explained in some Muslim families, soto is the breakfast on the first day of raya.

The children enjoyed the raya tarts and cookies.

The children enjoyed soto during snack time.

It's craft time!

The nursery children made a moon and a star to symbolize the festival.

The kindergarten children made pelita this year. All the nursery and kindergarten children produced very impressive work. The nursery children could paste very well, and the kindergarten children could cut with scissors very well. All the practical life skills of cutting and pasting helped in the eye-hand coordination. The making of craft also develop an aesthetic sense in the children.

The kindergarten group of children making the pelita.

Ta-da!

To see more photos, please CLICK HERE!

快报名！《我绘作书》八月课程（for 3 to 12 yrs old)

noreply@blogger.com (the little clovers) — Sun, 28 Jul 2013 13:13:00 +0000

《我绘作书》

I Make My Own Book

Learning the Chinese language through story-telling, games, crafts, songs, videos & making a book.

Develop your child's self-confidence & life-skills (e.g., dealing with anger, learning to be responsible for his/her own actions, having self-confidence, create art) through stories & activities.

At the end of each semester, each child will make a PICTURE BOOK with parents.

(Although parents are encouraged to join the class for bonding purpose with child, parents may or may not accompany the child in the class. Lessons are conducted in the Chinese Language.)

August 2013 Semester Lessons
Fridays	Saturdays
Lesson Time 上课时间: 2 – 3 p.m.	Lesson Time上课时间: 3.30 to 5 p.m.
Age年龄: 3 to 6 years old	Age年龄: 5 to 12 years old
Semester Start date 开课日: 23/8/2013 (See all lesson dates in the attached poster 所有上课日期如下)	Semester Start date 开课日: 24/8/2013 (See all lesson dates in the attached poster所有上课日期如下)

To see a video of this program being featured in the Tzu Chi channel, please CLICK HERE.

概括的主题 Themes are inclusive of developing：

自我认同、情绪情感、关爱成长、生活创意及生命教育！
Self-recognition, emotional, growing up with love and care for the others and environment, creativity and an education of Life!

*透过绘本的阅读，交流与分享，让同学参与活动，发现与体验生活感受提升观察力，思考力及创造力，为自己的人生创作第一本手绘书。

Activity-based Chinese Picture Book reading, sharing, exchange of ideas. This helps children discover own and others’ feelings in life experiences, improves their observation, cognitive level and creativity. From here, they create the first hand-made picture books.
*透过绘图、故事表达自己真实的想法～更能了解自己内在！
制作手绘书的过程，孩子自己内在不停的内化强大！

Express own thoughts into words, and eventually converting them to writing, through illustrations and stories in books.

同时，家长更可以透过孩子的创作，更了解孩子的内心世界！
爱，是多一点了解～！

Parents will understand their child more via their child’s work.

To Love is to understand more…

主要活动 Main activities are：
绘本导读、绘画手工、戏剧游戏、短片分享、共同创作以及手绘书制作。

Guided story-telling of picture books, crafts, drama, games, watching videos, team-work and book-making session.
一学期=10堂课 + 1堂 4小时亲子手绘书 (周末）

1 semester = 10 lessons + 1 book-making session with parents (4 hrs on a weekend)

学费：RM 360

（Clover L.C. Montessori students and Funpoint member will enjoy a rate of RM 320 per semester）

Clover L.C. Montessori ex-students, Kindermusik, Ballet & Enrichment will enjoy a rate of RM 340 per semester.）

Nature Walk @ Tmn Merdeka (July 2013)

noreply@blogger.com (the little clovers) — Tue, 23 Jul 2013 12:25:00 +0000

We are very glad that we are able to bring our school children to the nearest park at Taman Merdeka this year. This is a very pleasant park with a variety of trees and plants that our children have learned before in school.

Auntie Chaz Yee explaining to the K1 and K2 children how to make the printing on the pebble-washed ground using crayon at the start of the walk.

Auntie Margaret explaining to the N1 and N2 children how to make the printing on the pebble-washed ground using crayon at the beginning of the walk.

We are all set to WALK! YEAH!

The children could recognize the bamboo trees, which we had explained the diet of a panda at the early part of this year cultural lessons. Then, the teachers also pointed out the coniferous trees, which they had learned about it as the habitat of some European animals. Many beautiful water-lilies, lily pads, dragonflies and butterflies were also in sight.

Teachers were explaining the pine trees as the coniferous trees, which are ever-green. The K1 and K2 students could say the fruit of the tree being the "pine cone". This shows they were attentive in Auntie Latifah's cultural class :)

Although some children have been to this park with their parents several times before, they seemed to have discovered something new at the park when we asked them to observe the texture of the ground and bark of trees by doing crayon-scrapping activity. They also discovered that the leaves come in various shapes and sizes and flowers come in different colours when we asked them to collect the fallen ones on the ground. They all seemed excited when they saw different types of fallen leaves and flowers on the ground, and could not wait to pick them up and put them in their little brown bags which they had brought from school.

Look at our collections of twigs, leaves, flowers, dried fruit and tree barks!

Ee Tong was chasing two little brown butterflies. In the end, she was chased by the butterflies.

The children taking every opportunity to do crayon-scrapping activity to find out the effect of texture on paper. Some were crayon-scapping on the tree roots, some on the tree trunk.

Some did crayon-scrapping on the stone wall.

Some did crayon-scrapping on the tree trunk.

We also found something interesting...which insects or animals used the dried leaves to make a bundle like this? When we went back to the park in the afternoon with another group of children, this bundle shrunk to a smaller bundle.

The K1 and K2 discovered a millipede. They were in awe.

The K1 and K2 children saw this cotton-like fruit with its shell and seeds still attached. So amazing!

We also sang the "My Pigeon House" song while keeping our voices soft and gentle, peeping at the pigeon holes...

The heat and the long walk in the park (about 1.5 hours of walk) did not dampen any mood. The Nursery children, although with their short little legs, had spent the most effort in walking, none of them complained. In fact, they looked so happy and contented when they were departing the park. All children from as young as 3 years old to 6 years old asked when we are to bring them for a nature walk again. They are all good children who appreciate the nature.

The teachers also did a good job in extending their students’ classroom learning in the park. Auntie Chaz Yee and Auntie Latifah brought two different groups of children for the nature walk within a day at two different times, exhausting! Guess age is catching up. But the teachers felt as happy and contented as the children :) .

Auntie Chaz Yee, Auntie Latifah, Auntie Shirin and the K1 and K2 children (on 22 July 2013 morning).

Auntie Latifah, Auntie Neva and the N1 and N2 second session children (on 22 July 2013).

Auntie Chaz Yee, Auntie Margaret, Auntie Liew, Auntie Neva, Auntie Mary and N1 and N2 first session children (on 17 July 2013).

On the way back to the car, we passed by a mango tree. Lots of mangoes were on the ground, Auntie Latifah and the children picked up the mangoes and...

Some of them brought the mangoes home...

some ate the mangoes at school....

Yum Yum...

K1 and K2 children enjoyed pasting their collections from the nature on the art paper.

Look at what I have got from the park!

We LOVE NATURE!

To view more photos of these nature walks, please CLICK HERE

KidsArtFun 2011 PART1 by Aunty Shirin

noreply@blogger.com (Shirin) — Mon, 27 May 2013 05:21:00 +0000

Yesterday，a good friend of mine sent me an image through watsapp, a picture of a flyer that's about Kids Art Carnival. I was doubtful at first but curious, so we went to down to 'Cultural Street' 文化街 in Johor Bahru old town to check it out.

I was pleasantly surprised with the stalls that were set up along the road by different art schools in JB. There were also plenty for little ones to create. However when I returned home and looked at my son's angry bird magnet creation, I cant help but question where is the creativity in it? It looks great, however most of the work was pre-prepared by the teacher, all the child had to do was to follow a sample and assemble the things together. Even so, the teacher did most of the work for them. So where is the thought process? What did the child learn from making it? What was the idea behind it? What skills and technique did the child learn?

This brings me to the blog that I have written about my experience with KidsArtFun @ Clover 2 years ago. There was some error to the blog and it wasn't published. So here is the long awaited blog :

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When I was asked to teach art, I asked myself the question. What is Art actually? What should preschoolers be learning about art and what can they really achieve? What can they create?

I began the classes this year by asking the children, “What is art?” “What do you do in art class?” they said art is painting, drawing, art is craft, something hung on the wall…etc. one of the children said : “Art is when teacher draws something, we just copy.” It struck me that art should not be ‘just copy’, it should encourage children to develop creativity. Yes, initially children learn through imitation but once they have learnt the skills, they should be able to create art independently with confidence.

So this is my quest for KidsArtFun Year of 2011, to bring them from 'just copy' to 'creating with confidence'!

So where should I start teaching art from? I thought learning from the famous artist would be a great way to start this journey to creativity. To learn to look and appreciate art, think about art, form opinions about art and also to learn the skills to create art like a famous artist.

Firstly, they needed to know how to manipulate the tools to use them to create art. So you can see we did a lot of exploration of tools to create art and how to use them creatively.

Exploration of tools: Early on in the year, we first explored how to use tools creatively, to expand the children's mind to think about the different ways to use them. We used a variety of tools and explored them through different ways of holding, rolling, flicking, poking,brushing, printing etc. List of tools explored include:

pencil, charcoal, colour pencils, crayon, paint with brush, finger painting, printing with vegetables/leaves/sponges, paint with other materials such as card board, cotton bud, tip of a brush.

Learning about Colours :We then move on to colours, observing colours in our environment, learning about primary colours, secondary colours, mixing colours, rainbow. primary, secondary colours, tertiary colours, rainbow colours, mixing colours, colour wheel, warm/cool colours..etc.

Learning about rainbow colours through pictures and song!

Do you see concentration, joy and even dance during art class?

As an extension for craft using rainbow colours, we experienced how to make sand art from raw sand by sieving, adding and mixing food colouring to get desired colours, putting out to sun and dry, then pour them into a glass bottle through funnel to make beautiful patterns.

We sieved, we added food colouring and gave it a good massage!

Drying coloured sand in the sun.

Our K1 & K2 budding artist. (2011)

Our very own coloured sand - pouring through funnels into glass bottles.

Our N2 and K1 making sand art in a bottle.

Our end product with our project with coloured sand art.

Art piece titled: Birds of paradise

Beautiful rainbow coloured birds in the rainforest.
Hand printing and printing with real leaves.

From Primary colours, we learnt how to mix them to get secondary colours. We learnt to identify cool colours and warm colours. Now it's time to put them together to make the colour wheel!

Art piece titled: Colour Wheel

The primary colours: Red, Blue & Yellow.

The secondary colours: Purple, Green & Orange

Finally its the tertiary colours.

They first matched the colours with crayon for the inner wheel. As for the outer wheel, they had to mix only the primary colours to get the desired secondary and tertiary colours. 3 colours is all we need to make the rest of the colours!

The completed colour wheel, originally designed around the1800’s to show how different colors blended.

We also went on to explore different ways to create art-> will update more in detail and pictures

- Drawing, shading, painting, colouring, folding of origami, colour sand, sand art, printing, straw blowing, scraping, collage, painting on egg, making coloured sand, still life. etc

We learnt stories about Famous Artist/their famous works of art & technique used, we then explored and adopted the skill in our painting-> will update more in detail & pictures

- Leonardo Da Vinci / Mona Lisa / exploration & colouring

- Paul Cezanne / Apples / Still Life

- Vincient Van Gogh / sunflowers - Deutsch: Stilleben mit 12 Sonnenblumen English: Vase with 12 sunflowers

- Vincient Van Gogh / Starry night / Strong colours, mixing no or little water

- Georges Suerat / River … / pointillism

- Monet / The Water Lily Pond/ mixing paint on paper

- Henri Matisse/ The Snail / Collage: Drawing with scissors

- Andy Warhol /Pop Art

END OF PART 1 Stay tuned for part 2-3-4 where we made easter eggs in nest, learn about many famous artist...etc...

Blog Author: Auntie Shirin

Music and the Brain

noreply@blogger.com (the little clovers) — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 09:58:00 +0000

Ballet and Fun Dance Presentation (4 Nov 2012)

noreply@blogger.com (the little clovers) — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 12:24:00 +0000

It was a beautiful Sunday morning. A group of dancers from the Ballet and Fun Dance classes led by Mrs De Silva did a wonderful dance presentation at the Taman Tasek Community Hall on 4 Nov 2012.

The presentation was kicked start with the pre-primary students who just started their ballet lessons a few months ago. The two little ballerinas of 4 years old were adorable and did not seem to have stage-fright at all. They tried to present their dance with some last minute adjustment to their dance positions due to the absence of their fellow classmate.

The Pre-Primary Ballerinas, Shee Ya and Haasimah.

Follow on were the Fun Dance students’ items. These were the 4 and 5 year-olds angels that Mrs De Silva has for her Monday (2 - 3p.m.) class. It has not been easy to impart dancing skill to children as young and active as this group. She has dedicated a lot of patience to turn the energy of these young ones into structured dancing. Although these young ones did not synchronise in their dancing much as what a professional dancer is to be expected of, they knew exactly the right time to perform a certain footwork and steps despite their physical development stage might not have brought them to the right level yet. Bravo to these little angels! They were so cute!

The Fun Dancers, Du Ee, Taryn, Xin Yuan, Bong Yi and Kayla.

The first graders who are only 6-year-olds ballerinas. They were adorable and with Cha Lih putting on a constant smile and AnQi did all the proper dance steps as how she had practiced before.

The Grade-2 ballerinas, Kai Lih, Natali, Wen Yi, Tai Hun, Pei Ting and Loke Zen. These girls worked their best at the presentation, showing off to their audience their ballet routine at the bars.

The second graders again with costume and props. They were beautiful.

These are the Grade-6 ballerinas, Celine, YunXi, Rysheen, Nicole, Lynn and Celest. They were at an emergent level and good coordination with their peers were observed.

The Eighth-Graders, Kee Min, Jia Hui and Chloe, presented their routine and footwork. These teenagers have achieved so much throughout their years of ballet lessons with Mrs De Silva.

The graceful swans from the Advance group, Gia Hui, Shan and Amanda. These adults have demonstrated the charisma and gracefulness of ballerinas and they each presented a solo dance which wowed the audience.

Mrs De Silva and her students.

We have to thank Mrs De Silva for her dedication and passion in the education of dance. It is with this spirit, the Royal Academy of Dance (RAD, U.K.) awarded her with a life-time membership of the RAD, which is a highly-acclaimed award in the Dance sector.

We would also like to extend our heartfelt gratitude to the following people for their help and support:

~The Chairman and Committee members of Taman Tasek for the use of this hall, Mr. and Mrs. Richard for being most helpful.

~ Parents for bringing their children and also being so helpul and generous, friends and well-wishes for their presence.

~ Mr. Ousmand for helping to clean the hall several times and with extended hours, and unwilling to accept any reward for the great job he had done.

~ The great sound system was another major factor that contributed to the success of this presentation. We extend our special gratitude to Ms. Christine Lee and Ms. Gia Hui for sponsoring the sound system for that morning. It was with this great gesture that we were able to enjoy the presentation.

~ Ms. Liew, her nephews and Ms. Soraya for distributing leaflets for the event.

~ The three Advanced Level students for preparing the stage and working with creativity, providing help in every way.

~ Mrs. Foo for the "Little something" to the kiddios.

~ Last but not least, the darling dancers, for doing their best!

Teaching Young Children Manners

noreply@blogger.com (the little clovers) — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 09:07:00 +0000

I remember my father always said, "Hey, no manners!" when we were young. What he wanted to say was, "Hey, please have some manners!" and his intent was to tell us that we had to be polite all the time. Well, so we all learned manners through his "no manners" comment, then we knew what we did was not socially right. This was the old-style teaching, but the intent is absolutely right to teach children manners. When we met our parents' friends at home or public places, we were trained to quickly address these elders "uncles" and "aunties" whether or not we had met them before. But I begin to see a shift in this for our next generation, it seems like the elders are greeting the younger generation first, and sometimes may not get a reciprocal response.

Manners have to be taught, which help a child, who eventually grows into an adult to be able to socialise well with others. Reminding children to greet helps them to develop a sense of respect for the elders.

Teaching manners also starts with the Parents' own manners. MODELLING effect takes great place here. Children learn from imitation. A family value of politeness is also instilled better in modelling after the adults than hearing the preaching. I was teaching the Kindermusik Baby class two weeks ago and talked with parents about how babies learn to speak ---- It is through imitation! Hence, if a baby lives in a family who always uses polite words with each other like please, thank you and may I, the baby's speech will naturally include these magic words.

Teaching manners is never too early, and should never end. In fact, it starts with the Parents as Kindermusik always says Parents are the First and Most Important Teacher for a child.

Below are some practical guides from BabyCentre for Teaching Manners. Hope these tips can help to shape a good-mannered next generation to maintain the world a beautiful place.

All about EYEs (Eye Day @ Clover)

noreply@blogger.com (the little clovers) — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 10:16:00 +0000

Welcome to Eye-Day!

The Teachers (Aunties) at Clover had been planning for this day for three weeks, and we were all looking forward to amaze the children with what eyes can do and teach them how to protect their eyes.

We started off the day with Dr. Shanthi's presentation using a three-dimensional model of an eye. We were very honoured to have Dr. Shanthi, who is an eye-doctor and also our ex-student's parent. She had been very supportive and helpful in providing the information and Eye-Test materials prior to the Eye-Day.

The Teachers had prepared the children for 2.5 weeks beforehand by teaching them various parts of the eyes using the Montessori way. Hence, when Dr. Shanthi came to do the presentation, it was not that difficult for the children to understand what was going on.

Dr. Shanthi, with Umasivu (our ex-student) as assistant, showed our children the three-dimensional model of an eye. She was showing them how a lense looks like.

Dr. Shanthi put some pink sticky tapes on the top, bottom and the sides of a ping pong ball, and demonstrated how our eye muscles work to let our eye balls look up, down, side-ways and diagonally. So, now we all know each eye has 6 muscles to help us look around!

Dr. Shanthi's tips to protect our eyes:

1. Sit 6 metres (20 feet) away from the television when watching a program.

2. Children should only watch television program for a maximum of 1 hour a day.

3. The eyes must be ONE LONG RULER away from a book when reading and writing.

4. Do not rub the eyes.

Eye-Xercise

It was time to exercise our eyes. The children learned some eye-xercise from Auntie Shirin. This is to learn to relax our tired little eyes.

Step 1: Children closed their eyes tightly and opened them wide again. Repeat this several times.

Step 2: Stick out your index finger and make a big circle in front of you. As you do this, let your eyes follow your index fingers (don't move your head!).

Step 3: Stick out only 3 fingers from each hand and GENTLY roll them around your eyes.

Step 4: Rub your palms together to make them warm, then cover your eyes with your warm palms. Relax!

Eye Test

After the eye-xercise, our children were splitted into various groups. Some went for the eye-test first. They were seated 6 metres away from the number chart and were asked to call out the numbers selected for them. Most of them had pretty good eye-sight, phew!

Colour Blind Test

Another station in our "Clover Eye-Clinic" was the Colour-Blind-Test station. Children were tested on their distinction of colours by recognising numbers on the ishihara chart.

All Teachers were role-playing as Eye-Nurses by wearing some of the Teachers' husbands' over-sized white shirts. This put a smile on all the children's face as they started to call our school an Eye Hospital.

Optical Illusion

Drawings, pictures and diagrams can make fun of our eyes. We searched on the net for various pictures and did up a mini exhibition hall for Optical illusions. Each Teacher guided their own group of children to view the exhibitions at different times. The children were amazed and we as Teachers were amazed too by what the children could see from different perspectives. Yu Tong, who is only 3 years old, was very good at detecting hidden objects in the pictures. We were impressed!

Our 4-year-olds were looking at the exhibits under the guidance of "Nurse Margaret".

Our 5- and 6-year-olds were measuring the various sizes of the items seen on the pictures. Their eyes were playing trick on them! See below for examples of optical illusion arts that we showed our children.

Optical Illusion Art Example 1: Which middle circle is bigger?

(Answer: Both middle circles are of the same size!)

Optical Illusion Art 2: Do you see any animals in this picture? If yes, what are they and how many can you find?

(Answer: There are four horses in this picture.)

Eye-Show

The children watched an Eye-Show at our mini-theatre. The show made them realise the tests that we had done during the first part of the day (Eye-Test, Colour blind test). It was fun and a time when all the Teachers finally could catch their breath.

Eye-Craft

All the children did eye-crafts at the end of the Eye-Day. They were supposed to be optical illusion art. Some were successfully made, some not so, and we are going to try and make it again with the children for the coming weeks. This also made us realise that the experience of making the craft is very important to make the illusion work. Hence, we are going to make the children practice making them more before they can get it right.

To see MORE PHOTOS on the EYE-day, please CLICK HERE.

Phonic Sounds a to z

noreply@blogger.com (the little clovers) — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 12:22:00 +0000

Here is the long-awaited phonics video that many parents have requested. Please excuse my tired face after a long day at school and the drilling noise in the background.

Hope this Clover video helps you to understand how each alphabet is sounded so that you can aid your child in reading and blending phonetic words. Start with three-letter-words like bat, cat, dog, lip, net, pan, etc. Caution that “boy” is a phonogram word (“oy” is a phonogram pronounced as “oi”).

I will post up videos on how to blend words in the pink (three-letter –words), blue (initial and final blend) and green series (phonogram) using phonics in future posts.

This video shows how Vowels a, e, i, o, u are sounded in phonics. Take note of the difference in the shape of the mouth when sounding “a” and “e”.

This video show how to sound the Consonants in phonics.

How We Digest and How We Breathe!

noreply@blogger.com (the little clovers) — Tue, 22 May 2012 10:22:00 +0000

Digestive System

My two intestines keep digesting,

One is small and one is large.

My liver cleans blood and fights infection,

So many functions it's in charge!

Our clover children learned about the small and large intestines and their functions in Term 2 this year. It was not an easy topic to teach, hence we used a model as shown in the picture below and did a simple experiment to show how water entered our digestive system. It was a fun experiment.

(It is a shame that I only have the older children photos here. I forgot to pass the camera to the Teachers in school when the younger children did this experiment! Yikes!)

Auntie Latifah demonstrating how the consumption of water gets into the digestive system.

The children taking turn to label the digestive system.

Our Lungs

Breathe in... Breathe out...

Aunties, "Can you feel your chest becoming bigger as you breathe in the air? It becomes smaller as you breathe out?"

Children, "Yes!"

The children were explained that the air entered their lungs, which we also call this air oxygen as we breathe in. They were also told that they breathe out carbon dioxide which the trees and plants need. The younger ones were listening attentively and recited after the Aunties when we did this lesson. The older children were explained in more details on the wind-pipe and other parts of the lungs.

Thanks to Auntie Latifah, who brought in a cow's lung for show-and-tell. Children were in awe when they were given a chance to stick their little finger into the wind-pipe. Cool!

I just came back from my long medical leave, but could not wait to start teaching the children. I was explaining to the children on how the air goes into our lungs through the wind pipe.

All the children had a chance to get "up close and personal" with a real lung.

Shake them Skeleton Bones!

noreply@blogger.com (the little clovers) — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 09:34:00 +0000

It is exciting to start the cultural theme this year as we are working on a familiar yet complicated topic – The Human Body.

The Aunties first gave the children an overview of the human body and their five senses. Children love singing the song “Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes” with the omission of different body parts. They often laugh hysterically if someone in the group makes an error to sing out the missing part of the body.

Children learn about the human body parts through songs. They love it!

Auntie Latifah used "Life Models" to teach the children different body parts.

Auntie Margaret was preparing the materials to stimulate the children's senses.

Each child from the Nursery group had a chance to isolate his/her sense so to refine his/her senses. To refine the gustatory sense, the child was blindfolded and nostrils were "closed" so to isolate the taste sense (Picture on top). To refine the tactile sense, the child was blindfolded and felt the item naming it rough or smooth (Picture at the bottom).

Then, with the courtesy of Dr. Theva and Dr. Mun, who are parents from our graduate student Kareena, we managed to borrow a REAL human body skeleton to school! This skeleton was even taller than any of the Aunties! The children and teachers were in awe when they touched and felt the REAL bones of a human body. This concrete experience was indeed inspiring.

The Human-size skeleton and its skull gave the children a very good concrete experience.

The children also worked on skeleton puzzle and some work that reinforce and extend the learning of bones. The younger ones learn about bones in their various names, such as head bone, neck bone, back bone, finger bones, thigh bone, foot bone and toe bones. The older ones were introduced to more advanced terms like the skull, ribcage and spine. Everyone enjoys learning about bones, and they love singing the song of bones too.

The older children were good at fixing the huge skeleton puzzle and labelling each bone.

The younger children were good at fixing the skeleton puzzle too under the guidance of Aunties. They were very excited especially moving from the concrete experience of Human-size skeleton to a huge 2-D puzzle.

Aunties will continue to teach other extensions of bones to the children doing craft and experiment in the next few weeks. The children are all looking forward to the activities!

Young Musicians Emerge!

noreply@blogger.com (the little clovers) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 02:35:00 +0000

Our 5 to 8 year-olds completed their Kindermusik Young Child semester 2 last December. It had been a great semester as children started to play melodies on their glockenspiels. Some of them told me that they even tried it on their piano, which made them excited. I could see the children were enjoying their fruit of labour – having to learn all the theories and took some time to build up their musical foundation in Semester 1. They are now more confident to play on melodic barred instrument and also with the strong foundation in music, they seem to be able to make music everywhere they go! (To see more of this blog, click here)

Children's and Teachers' Day 2011

noreply@blogger.com (the little clovers) — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 15:42:00 +0000

What a WET fun-filled day!
It was the first time we had so much Water Play in school. The children came into the school with swimsuits. Angels’ grandparents also came in early to help setting up the swimming pools.
At 9.30 a.m., we started our warm up. The children were grouped into two groups and Aunties demonstrated how the telematch was to be played.

First, the children had to soak up water from a pail and squeeze out the water into another pail. Second, they had to scoop a coloured ball from the first swimming pool and sort it according to its colour in the 4 pails (practical life skill!). Then, they slid down the slide and splashed into the 2nd pool, quickly pick up a water shooting tube to aim and shoot at the bottles.

There were one or two children who were not used to water play and were afraid to get wet despite wearing very nice swimsuits. To get them “going”, Auntie Chaz Yee started pouring pails of water at those children. It was not long after, the Aunties and Angel’s Grandma were having fun pouring big pails of water at the children. Some children started to get back at the Aunties (e.g., Zhi Jean picked up the water shooting tube and started shooting at Auntie Latifah! Haha!).

At about 10.15 a.m., the children went into the building and changed. They were all very helpful and practical-life-skilled children, helping Aunties to set up the dining tables. We had guests children like Jael, Alfred (Angel’s brother), Anastasia (Angel’s cousin), Mita (Auntie Margaret’s daughter) and Trevor (Tristan’s brother). They enjoyed the company of their new friends. While the Aunties were busy setting up the dining area, Angel’s Grandparents volunteered to clean up all the outdoor equipment for us, so kind of them!

Finally, we had the Teachers’ Day presentation session. The children presented their little cards and gifts to the Aunties to show their appreciation for their Teachers. This was a chance that Zhi Hui took to show off her photography skill (her father trained her well!). Although she hadn’t gotten anything for the Teachers, she assisted Du Ee & Ze Ming to make their Teachers’ Day cards at home, good effort! Umasivu also stood up to say her gratitude to Auntie Latifah & Auntie Chazyee. “Auntie Latifah, I Love You!” Gabriel Wong said it loud and clear enough that almost made Auntie Latifah tear.

the little clovers

Clover Alumnus, Gabriel Ng, achieved GOLD in SwimSafer 2.0 program!

International Publication for Clover Montessori Alumnus!

First Clover L.C. (Clover Montessori) Alumnus chosen for Publication with UK Online Journal!

Olivia was also featured on the online news platform "Broadway World News" upon her publication with the Untitiles.

Clover's (CLC) Interview with Olivia (OL)

" While we focused our attention on the roles of front-liners played in the pandemic... I started to realise mothers play such a significant and selfless role too."

Clover Award Winners 2020

Clover L.C. Alumnus Received Achievement Award in Marlborough College

UK Scholarship offered to Clover L.C. Alumnus to study Summer Program in Cambridge University

BRAVO to Clover Talent Team!

Champs Talent Competition Invitation

How we got to the Finals

The real and hard work started...

Stress came from third party which we couldn't control.

Our Clover children evolved...

Gratitude and Appreciation

Country Project - Vietnam

Excursion to Malaysia Cultural Village

Kindermusik at KidzRoom (Danga City Mall)!

VISIT OUR WEBSITE NOW!

How's your day, my darling?

Onion Planting 2013

Selamat Hari Raya 2013!

快报名！《我绘作书》​八月课程 （for 3 to 12 yrs old)

Nature Walk @ Tmn Merdeka (July 2013)

KidsArtFun 2011 PART1 by Aunty Shirin

Music and the Brain

Ballet and Fun Dance Presentation (4 Nov 2012)

Teaching Young Children Manners

All about EYEs (Eye Day @ Clover)

Phonic Sounds a to z

How We Digest and How We Breathe!

Shake them Skeleton Bones!

Young Musicians Emerge!

Children's and Teachers' Day 2011

Olivia was also featured on the online news platform
"Broadway World News"
upon her publication with the Untitiles.

快报名！《我绘作书》八月课程（for 3 to 12 yrs old)