Occasionally, Wee Care is asked to provide a longer school day for the children who attend our preschool programmes.
Chinese Reading / Writing Programme
In the Chinese, Reading and Writing programme, children are engaged in their learning of the Chinese language through story-telling and play-based activities. By listening to different stories each session, children are allowed to be exposed to numerous Chinese characters. With frequency, they will learn and also understand how these characters are formed and written. These activities would in turn expand the number of Chinese Characters in their “word bank”; their confidence and keenness in the Chinese language.
Chinese Calligraphy Painting
The Chinese Calligraphy programme encourages young children to get in touch with Traditional Chinese culture through the painting of Chinese characters and motifs. Traditional Chinese painting pays attention to artistic conception, cultivating the sentiments of young children through expressive strokes and fine motor control of bush work. Learning Traditional Chinese painting also requires patience and the temperance of the will, having the children pick up the ways to be calm in the process. Ultimately, aiming to cultivate their endurance, self-confidence, intelligence, and coordination.
Chinese Speech & Drama
More and more research studies show that children who are bilingual have more flexible brains with added resources for multi-tasking and problem-solving. In particular, they have a more efficient cognitive system that allows them to attend to important information and ignore the less important. Ellen Bialystok, a Distinguished Research Professor of Psychology at York University, has discovered that bilingual people show symptoms of Alzheimer’s Disease five or six years later than monolinguals. In other words, bilingual brains tend to age slower and cope with cognitive deterioration better.
Creative Art
In Creative Art, we take the stance that children are narrating their ideas whilst producing pieces of “art”. Invariably, in the artistic process, there is “repetition” and “boundedness”; children begin to “do”before they begin to “make”, and there is exploratory play with materials and forms prior to intentional exploration of form and creation of meaning.At the same time, we listen when the children tell us stories about their visual creations. Some label and some describe what they are doing/making, especially when the teacher gets time with them individually. Importantly, the children are given the chance to engage in preliminary “first-attempt”, “second attempt” and “master”pieces. The best pieces are kept in a portfolio that are returned to the children at the end of the term. The best pieces are exhibited at some stage, and we respect “gallery visitors” and their words of encouragement! Some of the incidental goals that the teachers work on in the course of each session include: fine-motor strength, dexterity and coordination; attention-span, eye-hand coordination including visual-motor imitation skills and conceptual thought.
Creative Movement
Every lesson in this programme incorporates a Creative Movement with a Fundamental Movement Skill. In other words, every week, the children in this programme learn a Motor Skill, plus engage in movements with a more creative, dramatic, imaginary flair. For instance, we may focus on the joint topics of Bouncing and Emotions. Can you bounce a ball happily, sadly, fearfully…?
Creative Writing
In Creative Writing, our aim is to show the children that writing is a form of making meaning. In other words, writing is not just about good grammar or syntax (although these are important and must always be addressed); it is also a means for the writer (in this case, the child) to convey meaning to the reader (i.e. you!). To reach this goal, the teacher engages the children in discussions about the topic each week, before highlighting key vocabulary and stylistic devices, as well as providing a focal point (such as a story, craft or video) around which the children’s imaginations and writing can evolve and develop.
Numicon math
Numicon is a research based, multi-sensory mathematics teaching programme . The programme uses visual Numicon images in a series of practical teaching activities. Numicon aims to facilitate children’s understanding and enjoyment of maths by using structured imagery that plays to their strong sense of pattern. Young children will be also able to see connections between numbers through play and explorative activities.
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