Idea popping – Getting excited!
Our inspiration for our Start Small Dream Big project started from our ‘Senses’ topic. As children learned about their senses, they also explored how it would be like not to have ours. To extend their learning about the sense of sight, we invited a guest speaker, Ms Dolores from Singapore Association for the Visually Handicapped (SAVH). She shared about how people who are visually impaired use braille to read and how they walk with a white cane. Children were excited to touch braille and see how a white cane looks like. Thank you Ms Dolores!
Let’s Find Out!
This inspired many of our classes to focus on visual impairment for their Weeks of Wonder (WOW) project. They had many questions during the ‘I Wonder’ phase and found out the answers from various sources such as through the internet via videos, by inviting guest speakers, from family and from teachers. Here are some aspects of the lifestyles of people with visual impairment that they found out about:
They explored how it was like to walk blindfolded with a white cane. They also learned how a white cane helps a person with visual impairment.
They observed tactile pavements in the environment and understood the use of tactile paving. They explored ideas on where else there should be tactile paving to help people who are visually impaired. They came up with ideas such as having tactile paving in the supermarkets, shopping centres and libraries.
They made their own versions of tactile paving and explored walking on them while blindfolded.
They were introduced to braille and found out more about this language for the visually impaired. They created their names in braille and even made textured books in school and with their families. They also found out about places in Singapore that has braille, like lifts, bus interchanges and some staircases.
They watched a video about a guide dog in Singapore and learned how they help people who are visually impaired. They understood more about what they should or should not do when they see a guide dog.
Let’s care for the visually impaired
The weeks of wonder (WOW) project marked the beginning of the Start Small Dream Big project for our K1 children as they wanted to do their part to care for people who are visually impaired.
Taking into consideration the children’s aspirations, we launched our Start Small Dream Big Project for 2018, ‘Caring For People Who Are Visually Impaired’!
Tune in to our next post to find out how they involved and got back to the community!
