MAJOR ACTIVITIES for 2005

Project Approach
One day Wilderness Camp
Egg Plant Publication and K2
Re-create Recycled Materials
Parenting Talk - How Ready Is Your Child?
Drama Camp For K2
Cultural Weeks – Knowing the Music
K2 Graduation Camp
Graduation Concert - The Emperor and The Nightingale
Drama Skit - Constance ‘s Constipation
Others

Project Approach

In Creative O, we continue working on Project Approach for the kindergarten level. We believe that “Children learn best when they have the interest to learn” and that wanting to learn is from the child’s innate. Indeed, year 2005 proved to be a fruitful year for our little ones, as they learnt to initiate, participate, explore and create works that were related to the topics concerned. For the K2 level, the projects embarked were “King”, “Zoo”, “Camping” and “Primary School”.

Whilst, as for the K1 level, they did projects on “Money”, “Letter”, and “ Performer/Theatre”. Each project lasted for about 10 weeks. However, the last K1 project lasted 2 terms and it ended with an improvised drama skit entitled

Constance ‘s Constipation at the Seminar On Healthy Eating in Childcare Centres jointly organised by the MCYS and Health Promotion Board on 30 November at Nanyang Polytechnic. All K1 parents were invited to watch their performance.

One Day Wilderness Camp

   

24 March

This wilderness survival preparatory camp gave the K2 children a headstart before their graduation camp at St John’s in Sep. The children were taught life preserving skills like shelter-building, fire-making, food preparation. It also gave them opportunity to work as a team. The instructors were Foo Guo Liang and Vickneshwaran from Unleash.

Egg Plant Publication and K2

We continued to introduce children literature to the K2 children. Many of them have developed a keen interest in writing stories. The Chinese language teacher then showed them a series of Jimmy’s illustration and the children narrated the story that they had imagined for the illustrations. Thus, each illustration had many versions as well. The publisher of Egg Plant, a creative magazine for children, approached us and selected two stories by Xu Beilin and Stefan Liew Jing Rui, three poems by Tay Yu Jie, Benjamin Long Yu Bin and Chetwin Low Qi Hong and had them published in the magazine over three months.

Re-create Recycled Materials

Our K1 teacher Ms Low Chew Ying was invited by the MCYS to write an article about using recycled materials to support children’s learning for their Hand in Hand newsletter.

Parenting Talk - How Ready Is Your Child?

16 April

Jointly organised by Creative O Preschoolers’ Bay, Loving Childcare Centre, Loving Development Centre, Assyakirin Mosque Kindergarten, NTUC Childcare (Jurong)

3 talks in English and Mandarin were conducted respectively and concurrently.

This series of talks dealt with learning characteristics of preschoolers, changes in education policies and also examined the link between preschool and primary school. Speakers were renowned early childhood trainer Dr Jane Ching-Kwan and Ms Soh Chian Mui, Ms Cheum Foong Yee from Keming Primary School, consultant of Creative O Ms Kathleen Chan, and our principal Tan Beng Luan.

Drama Camp For K2

6 – 10 June

 

Conducted by theatre practitioner Mr Julius Foo, the children worked on the story The Emperor and the Nightingale by Hans Christian Andersen. Through the text, they learnt the basic drama elements such as space, timing and co-ordination.

Cultural Weeks – Knowing the Music

In December, we focused our learning on Indian and Malay music. Other than the display of musical instruments and viewing the dance and music VCDs, we also invited a drum and a trumpet musicians as well as a kompang player to demonstrate the instruments. Children were also given the opportunity to talk to the musicians and try to play a tune or two on the instruments. To know the context of use of music in one’s culture, we brought the kids to visit the Sri Mariamman Temple and Malay Heritage Centre.

K2 Graduation Camp

21 – 23 Sep

This is the 6 th graduation camp which took place in St John’s Island. From June to early part of September, the K2 was working on Camping as a project. The actual camp provided an opportunity for them to apply skills and knowledge acquired.

Graduation Concert - The Emperor and The Nightingale

19 Nov

With the help of theatre practitioner Mr Julius Foo, we staged a 45-min full-length drama The Emperor and The Nightingale at Nanyang Girls’ High School. This is our first attempt to incorporate items presented by each class and each level into one story. We even invited two parents to join in acting. It was truly a concert by every one and for every one.

Drama Skit - Constance ‘s Constipation

30 Nov

On recommendation by the MCYS, our K1 children were invited to put up a 20-min drama skit at the Seminar On Healthy Eating in Childcare Centres. This seminar was jointly organised by the MCYS and Health Promotion Board and was held at Nanyang Polytechnic. It took our K1 kids and the theatre practitioner Mr Julius Foo 2 weeks to work on the scripts and rehearsals. It was an improvised piece which incorporated the seminar’s key message “more vegetables and fruits” in a fun and humorous presentation.

Others

Forum - Chinese Language Teaching Methodology

23 April

Conceptualised by Creative O and jointly presented with the Association for Early Childhood Educators ( Singapore)-AECES, this forum on Chinese Language Teaching Methodology for early childhood educators had an attendance of over 200 participants.

We invited some experienced preschool Chinese language educators to share their experiences. The topics cover the implementation of Chinese language teaching in Project Work, use of comics to enhance Chinese language teaching, ways of learning Chinese words , etc. Our teacher Ms Cai Qin presented a paper at this forum.

Two moderators Ms Chen Ru Yi and Ms Connie Lum were invited to comment on the papers that were presented. Dr Chen Shi of KLC School of Education was the keynote speaker.

Educational Visit to New York

2 – 6 May

Our founder Ms Tan Beng Luan, senior teachers Ms Pat Chong and Ms Lem Sing Eng visited the School for Children (Lower) of Bank Street College of Education, Manhattan Country School, and City & Country School. They observed their class activities and had dialogue with the directors on curriculum and approaches of working with young children.

Art Exhibition

17 – 25 Nov

Our Visual Artist teacher Ms Susie Wong was pleased to present the art work of the K1 and K2 children in the Nemo Room. Their work included use of mixed medium such as clay, paper, recycled materials, crayon and paint. Parents and friends were invited to view these works.

Charity – In Aid of Tsunami Victims Through Mercy Relief

In January, many parents responded to the call of donating children’s clothing, milk powder, milk bottles, canned food, etc to the victims of the Tsunami disaster. With the help of some parent volunteers, we sorted the items and delivered them to Mercy Relief. A few of our K1 children donated their pocket money to the Tsunami Fund through Mercy Relief as well. In the subsequent months, we organised fairs to sell daily items and self-made cards to raise fund for Mercy Relief. A total amount of $1818.70 was raised with support from parents and staff of Creative Technology.

Family Day – Molecular Bonding

7 May

This annual family event was held in the compound of Creative Technology. Parents and children were challenged to accomplish “possible” wet missions. It was a good opportunity for them to solve problem together as well as have fun

200 th Birthday of Hans Christian Andersen

For the whole month in June, we introduced to the children the great writer Hans Christian Andersen by watching animation of his selected works, displaying his works and biography, and also read many of his famous works to the children.

Mid -Autumn Family Festival

10 Sep

Jointly presented by West Grove Primary School and Creative O in the school compound of West Grove, parents and children took part in workshops on lantern making, calligraphy, moon cake making, tea art, concert and lantern parade. Our K2 children also presented a movement item entitled Hula Fun.

Children’s Day – Puppets Alive

28 Sep

We invited The Finger Players, a professional puppetry troupe to stage Puppets Alive in Creative Technology Auditorium.

Visit Keming Primary School

To prepare the K2 for formal schooling, we brought them to Keming Primary School for a visit. One class of primary five students hosted the visit and showed our kids around the school and explained to them about the facilities. Our kids also sat in the class and took part in some activities.

Holiday Programmes

As usual, we organised holiday activities for our old boys and girls. It is a way to keep the bond between Creative O and those who already graduated. We organised the Glob 2 Art Camp and Titans Camp (outdoor adventures) in June, a Drama Camp and Hunt Makers (another outdoor adventure) in November. All camps were well attended mainly by our alumni.

Teachers' Training

Colouring outside the Lines: Brainstorming on Art for the Classroom

A Teachers’ Workshop on teaching art

In April, our art teacher Ms Susie Wong, a visual artist herself, conducted a 9-hour workshop to introduce teaching art to preschool teachers. Its hands-on lessons focused on looking at major artworks and material-based explorations. The objective was to cultivate artistic appreciation and a level of basic skill and familiarity with artistic practices for all children.

Teaching As A Profession

On 1 Sep, our principal Tan Beng Luan conducted a full-day training for all our teachers. She revisited the philosophy and teachers’ handbook with the teachers. The team also discussed the direction of Creative O as well as the role of a teacher in the next phase of development.

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