Little Hands Big Hearts
These little hands big hearts of our Kindergarten 1 and 2 children have brought a big smile to the senior citizens at the Clementi Lion Befrienders’ Activity Centre.This ...
Interactivity
A unique feature of PCF Clementi Blk 330 is how they integrate interactivity into the activities they do. This Interactivity takes place at different levels – self; peers; and even on community level – based on the activities.
Instead of using a normal white board, the centre uses an interactive board for teaching and conducting different activities in class for K1 and K2 since June 2010. The centre uses Activesoft software for the interactive board and according to Ms Anna, “the teacher will use the software to create their own game that is suited for the lesson plans”. Thus what seems to be an ordinary white board will be transform into an interactive platform for the children to learn. This makes the learning process for the children a lot more fun and colorful as they interact and engage in hands-on activities. For example, the children can select and change to different ink colors that they like.
PCF Clementi Blk 330 uses Ednoland for their computer-based learning. It has thinking games that encompass all areas such as language and literacy and numeracy. Through computer-based learning, the children are encouraged to engage in independent learning.
The indoor playroom in PCF Clementi Blk 330 is fully equipped with gym set, tricycles, water play and sand play. “Children will learn through play, and water and sand are good mediums. It is natural and they also learn about Science in that manner,” said Ms Chen Qiu Rong.
The centre will also invite speakers over to the centre to give a talk to the children. For example, there was a talk “Flip, flap, and flatten” by Tetra Pak, a multinational food packaging company who does the Milo packaging in Singapore, on the topic of recycling. They believe that such talks are important for the children as it involves community involvement. Moreover the speakers are professional in their field and the children can learn more from them.
Language and Literacy
Apart from having speakers, the centre keeps the children updated with current issues. This is to cultivate a positive reading habit on the news around us from a young age. Newspaper clippings are changed weekly to be constantly updated. At all levels, teachers will summarize and explain what is happening to the children. But for the K2s, they will have to do a short write-up of 2 – 3 sentences after the teacher explain to them. This is to help them in their language and literacy skills.
The teachers encourage the children to read through storytelling. There are enough books for each child to have their own book and the storybooks are changed every 3 week in each language – English, Chinese and Malay. This shows that the centre has a huge range of storybooks for the children to help them in their language and literacy skills. PCF Clementi Blk 330 has been collaborating with the library to constantly provide new storybooks for the children.
There is a parent home-school partnership whereby the children get to borrow a book home every week to read with their parents and do a book review on it. This also helps promote bonding with their parents while enhancing their literacy skills.
The centre also has a FLAiR program that helps K2 children who are weaker in the English Language. This program takes place daily and since the beginning of this program, the children have shown improvements in their language and literacy skills.
