Flintobox review : Aquatic life theme

This month I recieved  the Ocean Explorer theme from Flinto.

The content of the box were:

• craft - aquarium on canvas
• Book - Lost at sea 
• science project -submarine with periscope
• skills - snuba-do matching cards

My child started was very exited about making the aquarium. So we started with it first. He painted  the canvas for making his aquarium. The supply set provide by flinto included water colurs, tray, cuttings, moving eyes and messy mat. seeing all this I was content  as to i dont have to rush to get anything else from my own to complete the craft. Also i  felt elated as I was getting the full value for money spent.No after painting he has to make a big fish in the aquarium  with his hand-print, then we completed detailing by pasting other fishes, shells , sand and voila the aquarium was ready.

The second item was submarine making from pre-cut cardboard pieces, the most interesting part of making submarine was making the periscope. It was well engineered and I too was able to revise my concets of science. Seeing through the periscope keeps my child busy any time of the day.

The  third item was matching cards which had 5 item printed on them, related to Aquatic life , Its a good game that teaches the child visual discrimination alongside developing their  vocabulary related to aquatic life.

Overall it was a wonderful Aquatic life experience for my child.

Janamashtmi Celebration

Janmashtmi is a hindu festival on which we celebrate the birthday of Lord krishana. Lord krishna also called as baalgopal or nandlaal during his early childhood years was notorious as a loving ,cairng and mischievous child who loved to eat home-made white butter (called as maakhan). He had many female devotees called gopis and his love for Radha was so eternal and pure that Radha-krishna is synonym for love.

How we celebrated
We set up a jhanki depicting krishna birth and statues showing various krishna leelas.  Since the favourite food of Krishana is makhan , we kept makahn in many matkas.

The Children are asked to come dressed as Krishna ,gopi,radha or gwalas . Mostly boys dress up as krishna and girls as radha.

Take away crafts :
Krishna's favourite thing is maakhan (white butter)which was kept in matkaas in those times . So we made those matkaas' as 2D craft for children. We had coutout  a handmade sheet in the shape of matka then children decorated it with mirror, stones and sparkles.  On the top we pasted some cotton to look like maakhan.

Mango Party celebration

Mango is the most relished food amongst children. To enjoy the onset of summers we had a Mango party celebration for little kindergarteners.



Speak 4 liners

We asked children  to speak  4 lines on Mango . topic could mango as my favorite fruit or facts about mango or any rhyme related to mango..  This exercise improves their spoken skills, make them participative, removes stage frieght , builds confidence.

Group activity 
Children made a huge mango with their hand impression

Takeaway Crafts

Kitchenentte activity

Whenever their is kitchen activity involved we have loads of cheers in school. We made a sweet and tangy drink called Mango Tango. 

• first we churn the mango slices in mixer
• add crushed ice and water
• add some orange juice
• our cool mango tango drink is ready

Why gardening is important for children

Gardening is a way for relieving stress in adults but ever wondered how much it is beneficial for our kids?

Benefits of gardening are multi fold for our little ones. here we shall discuss the most important ones  :

Engagement
Its very important to keep kids engaged these days coz given a million number of toys they have they always complain of getting bored. So gardening is something that they enjoy a lot without doubt. Since it involves getting messy, playing with mud, digging soil, watering plants all these activities are adored by kids.

Off time from tv and mobile

Needless to say this is our ultimate goal. We just need to find more and more activities to keep children engaged.

Responsibility
Nurturing plants tends to increase your creative ability. It helps children

Learn science
The concept of how a plant grows from a tiny seed is what they will learn

Connect with nature
kids learn the most by observing and so goes for nature too when they spend time with nature , they learn more about it. As they grow up this eternal bond would always let them resolve all their troubles.

Good health
Whats the best part related to gardening besides all the fun involved, it gives kids good health. 

• vitamin d - you get ample amount of Vitamin D daily which is essential for health skin and bones
• gut bacteria - These are the good bacteiras which are required to improve your immune system. Playing outdoors gets children catch these bacterias which in further make them health
• Fresh air - Gardening is mostly done in the morning. So it gives children a chance to breathe fresh air instead of sticking to the tv . 

 

Teaching kindergarteners value of sharing

Toddlers are always too fond of themselves, their rule book says everything belongs to them . This attitude is good but it is equally important to know the concept of sharing.  Sharing is essential for kindergarteners social, emotional and cognitive development.
In this blog we shall discuss about  "how we can teach kindergarteners to share things and why it is important for them "

Learning by doing

Actions speak louder than words and so goes the saying for children too. These young minds cannot be taught to behave in a particular way unless they see and observe such an environment near them. For that we need to grow children in sharing environment whether it is home or school. Teacher can arrange for a special session for parents to let them understand how they cna inculcate such values in their children.


Taking turns insterad of sharing

Some children are  too apprehensive about sharing to them sharing can be introduced as a pattern . I have also mentioned in previous blogs that kindergarteners correlate things with a set pattern or routine.  So for example if 4 children are eating from the sam plate and ech of them is claiming the plate to be their's just telll them you will get it at your chance. It will be more effective if you also participate and behave kiddish and become the fifth child waiting for his chance.

Rewarding Efforts

Every day the child who shares can be rewarded with a toffee or a hug and you will see the whole class yearning for it. This act will encourage children to be their best and share things with  their friends.

How sharing attitude helps in long run

In the long run sharing attitude will help children  to build better communication skills and socialising skills.  These skills when imparted to children since pre-schooling days get deep-rooted in them  and they grow up to be smarter individuals.

Baisakhi celebration in kindergarten

Baisakhi is an Indian festival of harvest mostly celebrated by people of Punjab and North India. The farmers thank the god for giving them abundant harvest and also pray for their prosperity.  It  also marks the beginning of Spring season.

In schools Baisakhi is celebrated to make children  aware of  the hard work put by farmers in growing crops and also bring cultural awareness in them.

How we celebrated 
A small village setup was created in the school . It showed clouds, trees, punjabi man beating dhol and a woman dancing next to him. A bright shiny sun rose from behind the bunch of crops making the shine like gold. There were also street shops for bangles, toys, ice-cream .

Since Baisakhi is majorly a punjabi festival we asked children to come in punjabi wear. For our little kindergarteners it was a festival to flaunt themselves in traditional attires. They also  rejoiced on Bhangra beats It was a sight to watch

Then Lassi (sweetened butter milk)  a typical punjabi drink was served to children which they enjoyed muggling till the last drop.

We always send children carrying some take away craft which would remind them of the activity they had in school. This time we made ice-cream stick Bhnagra puppets. The teachers drew out a man in bahngra pose and the children did the colouring and stick them over small ice-creamsticks.
Next we made fan from colourful crape paper to make their turbans. And our cutie bhangra puppets were ready.


Balle Balle , it was a wonderful baisakhi celebration.

Non-Fire cooking day

To introduce the concept of kitchen and cooking , a Non-fire cooking day was organised in our school.

What is Non-Fire Cooking

Non-fire cooking involves no fire, so completely safe for children , also can be done outside kitche sitting on the dine table. So children love to be prepare a sumptuous mouth watering dish all by themselves. (A little assistance may be required for chopping.)

How we started

The children were made to wear chef caps which were also prepared as a craft by them using chart paper. It also helped them to know one type of community helper that's called as Chef - The one who cooks in restaurants.

Then we displayed the ingredients  required to prepare the two dishes that we have selected for children. Both healthy and yummy.

Dishes of the day
The dishes to be prepared by children were  Buttery Smily Sandwich and  Rainbow Sprouts Salad.

The ingredient used for Buttery Smily Sandwich  :

Bread, Butter, Ketup, Cucumber slices, Onion slices and Chaat masala.

The  Ingredient used for Rainbow Sprouts Salad  :
 Green moong sprouts presoaked, finely chopped onion,cucumber, tomato, mango,

Wow time to cook!! 

While we were busy arranging things on the table we could see the little eyes curious to start as fast as we could. So next was the turn of the children to come an;d prepare their delicacies. But before that their teacher demonstrated on how to prepare the sandwich

• take two slices of bread 
• spread butter on one and ketchup on the other 
• keep pieces of onion and cucumber
• sprinkle some chaat masala
• put the other slice on top
• present with a smile 

Also the salad :

• Take a big bowl 
• put two spoons of all ingredients 
• mix
• sprinkle chaat masala and mix and serve

The kitchen was now over to the children and was all set on fire :)

Weeklong event on Earth Day

This earth day on 22nd April Sunday  "lets pledge to save our earth with consistent efforts and put an end to use of plastic" , with this vision in mind our little kindergarteners had a  full week dedicated towards understanding our planet earth and making it clean and green.

Day 1 :  2 D modelling of earth 

First of all there was an oral session on what is earth, planet , solar system ?
Next we ha round of questions from children:
What does earth look like?
Exactly , where we live on earth?
Where are the oceans? where is the sky.?

 To answer all these queries we made a  small 2D model of earth. On this mode we divided it into 4 parts one showing the land. one water, one day and one night.

Now children were given cuttings of moon, plants, sun, stars , birds and clouds and they have to stick them on relevant section..

Day 2 : Educational movie
"Nothing marks an impression on us if its not seen by naked eye" especially with children. So to explain to them the concept of keeping environment clean by disposing the waste at the right place. Children also learn about the 3 R's reduce, reuse recycle  through these videos. You can find many such videos on internet.

Day 3 : Workshop on 3 R's
You can never anticipate the unbound energy and imagination of the child. Yes when we had this workshop on how can we reduce , reuse and recycle , our lot of kindergarteners have turned into hardcore entrepreneurs coming up with solution that they will implement in their homes.


Day 4 : Connect with nature - Plantation activity 
Best time of the week was this plantation activity. Children just love to play with soil and planting a sapling was no big task for them. We have arranged for a pot, soil, sapling,and a spade. Children gathered in group of 5 and plated the sapling in the pot and later covered the pot with soil.

Day 5 :   Dress as elements of nature
Last activity was meant for dressing up and presenting themselves as a part of nature. Some of them had come dressed as trees while others as sun or cloud or the birds


It was indeed a fun-filled and educative Earth week celebration.