Monthly Classroom News

In May, we will celebrate Mother’s Day!  We will take the chance to express our love and to thank Mum for her unconditional love. In the first week, we will read some stories about ‘Mother’s Day’ and make some crafts to show our love to Mum . It is a great opportunity for children to understand the devotion of Mum, and learn how to express their feelings for, and show appreciation to their loved ones.

In the following weeks, we will continue the theme of ‘Community’. We will explore different places and facilities around us, as well as the people who always help in our community, such as police stations, fire stations, hospitals, general clinics, dental clinics, etc. Children will get familiar with our community by knowing the facilities around us, and the different characteristics of the people who help in our neighbourhood. It is also an opportunity for them to ask for help and say thank you to different helpers.

• ‘I am a Doctor!’- Children can make a stethoscope craft  together with their parents and caregivers, and use it as props to “examine” their favourite toys for role play.  Children ,siblings or parents can take turns to pretend to be the doctor and patients to get familiar with the situation and it would  be good preparation for those who are afraid of going to the doctor!  (Please avoid using empty medicine bottles in play for safety precaution and ensure all medicine is out of children’s  reach.)
• ‘Blow the fire away!’- draw a firetruck on a plastic zip lock bag and put some shredded paper in red/ orange/ yellow as the fire flame. Let children blow the fire away with a straw to practise their ability to control breathing and complex mouth movements to further develop language skills. 
• ‘Get the thief!’- Children can pretend to be the police to chase the thief in the playground, when parents and siblings pretend to be the thieves. They can also switch being the other character. You can apply more fun rules, such as, running in slow motion, walking sideways, standing still when a whistle blows, etc.,  to develop attention, body coordination, action planning  and balancing skills in a fun way! 
• ‘Put the Fire out!’- Children can have sensory play by mixing some red/ orange/ yellow paint or food colouring with shaving foam. They can also use a  bottle to spray at the foam like putting out the fire! Spraying movement is great practice for fine motor skills! You can also let your child explore the texture with bare hands for sensory stimulation! 
• ‘How Many Healthy Teeth?’- Let’s count the teeth together in the mirror, then make a craft by drawing a mouth on a piece of paper and stick shredded paper or small pom poms on together. That would reinforce the Early Mathematics Experience concepts such as  one-to-one coordination and real object counting skills!

We encourage parents to read story books with their children as much as possible, which not only helps children’s cognitive and language development, but also helps to cultivate children’s reading habit and enhances parent-child relationship. There are some great books with the May themes. Look out for:

• ‘Pig Pig Gets a Job’ by David McPhail
• ‘What Do People Do All Day’ by Richard Scarry
• ‘Career Day’ by Anne Rockwell
• ‘Whose Hat Is This?’ by Sharon Katz Cooper
• ‘Even Firefighters Hug Their Moms’ by Christine Kole Maclean
• ‘Clothesline Clues to Jobs People Do’ by Kathryn Heling & Deborah Hembrook
• ‘Fireman Small’ by Wong Herbert Yee
• ‘Little Critter Policeman’ by Mercer Mayer
• ‘Do I Have to Go to the Hospital?’ by Pat Thomas
• ‘The Berenstain Bears Go to the Doctor’ by Stan & Jan Berenstain
• ‘Maisy Goes to Hospital’ by Lucy Cousins
• ‘Busy Fire Station’ by Campbell  Books
• ‘Busy Police Station’ by Mandy Archer (Ladybird books)
• ‘Peppa Pig Goes to Hospital’ by Howard Hughes
• ‘I Love Mom With the Very Hungry Caterpillar’ by Eric Carle
• ‘The Berenstain Bears: We Love Our Mom!’ by Jan Berenstain and Mike Berenstain
• ‘What Not To Give Your Mom On Mother’s Day’ by Martha Seif
• ‘I Love You to the Moon’ by Elizabeth Bennett (Author), Jennie Poh (Illustrator)

• Police station
• Police
• police car
• Help
• Fire 
• Fire Station
• Fire truck 
• Spray 
• Hospital
• Clinic
• Doctor
• Nurse
• Patient
• Sick
• Hurt
• Ambulance
• Medicine
• Dentist