Blossom Edugroup

‘S’wonderful’ Lesson with Letterland!

bac — Thu, 10 May 2012 09:35:52 +0000

Let me do a good job out of decorating my snake!

Letterland is a child-friendly, multi sensory way of teaching children how to read, write and spell. The secret of its success lies in its use of pictograms which were designed to represent each letter of the alphabet.

During an English lesson when ‘Sammy Snake’ was introduced, the children were given opportunities to come up with words and sentences starting with the letter ’s’ and its sound. With the guidance of the teacher, the class came up with many different ’s’ sounding words and words beginning with the letter ’s’. Next, the teacher and children engaged in a sentence building activity where we strung some suggested words together to form sentences like ‘Sammy Snake is having spicy spaghetti for supper.’ ‘Sammy Snake looks at the stars while eating six strawberries sleepily. He falls asleep and snores with a s … s … s sound.’

Snazzy little snakes all lined up!

Through this activity, phonic sounds are introduced in fun way while the children learn confidence in exploring new words. It is also an excellent opportunity to exercise their imagination constructing these silly and fun sentences. After exercising our imagation, it was time for some craft to practise our fine motor skills too! The lesson was complete with the children decorating their paperplate snakes as they hissed along to Sammy Snake’s alphabet song ’s….s….s….’!

N2 主题教学

Linn — Wed, 09 May 2012 03:55:22 +0000

老师和戴着自制圣诞帽的孩子们一起在装扮圣诞树呢！

通过主题教学《圣诞节快乐》让幼儿知道圣诞节是西方传统的节日，就像华人过新年一样。圣诞节是一个快乐喜庆的节日。幼儿知道圣诞节是每年的12月25日。

这一天圣诞老人会坐着麋鹿拉的雪橇从很远很冷的地方唱着圣诞歌曲，背着一个装满圣诞节礼物的大口袋到小朋友家，悄悄得把礼物放在爸爸妈妈为小朋友准备的新袜子里。

幼儿知道过圣诞节时每家会有一棵漂亮的圣诞树，树上挂满各种美丽的装饰品，当收到礼物时要有礼貌地说“谢谢”，并祝福“圣诞节快乐”。

老师教我们做圣诞树咯！

活动中，只凭老师枯燥的讲解幼儿是不能理解和感受圣诞节的快乐气氛。老师要准备一些有关圣诞节的色彩鲜艳的图片让幼儿观看，给每个幼儿制作一个圣诞帽，准备一份小礼物。幼儿戴着圣诞帽领取礼物就会很兴奋，像真得过圣诞节一样，幼儿有了兴趣教学就很容易开展下去。

老师准备一棵圣诞树让幼儿自己动手装饰，发展幼儿动手操作的能力。引导幼儿说出装饰物的名称，发展幼儿语言表达的能力。幼儿听着圣诞歌曲在快乐的气氛中自己动手做一棵圣诞树，锻炼幼儿手眼的协调，又能让幼儿了解圣诞节都有哪些物品。幼儿在动手参与中，在玩乐中，潜移默化的学到了有关圣诞节的知识。

圣诞节快乐！

No related posts.

Blending and Segmenting

bdc — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 04:36:58 +0000

An important aspect in a child’s language development is the development of his/her phonological awareness. This is especially critical when the child is ready to embark on his/her reading journey. Research has shown that children with weak phonological awareness also have weak reading skills. In Blossom, children start to develop their phonological awareness from Playgroup all the way to Kindergarten 2 through the Letterland Program. Reading skills are introduced to the Nursery 2 children in the second half of the year through a variety of Letterland concepts.

Blending and segmenting are two very important concepts that help children develop their reading skills. In a pilot study conducted by Mary Oudeans, she mentions that, “Research indicates that integration of letter sounds with phonological blending and segmenting is critical for acquisition of beginning word reading skills”. Evidence further supports that phonemic segmentation (e.g. CAT= C-A-T) and blending (e.g. C-A-T=CAT) are the most crucial skills which can be taught to young children to help improve their literacy levels (Qi and O’Connor, 2000. p. 226).

In Letterland, blending and segmenting are taught through a number of strategies. Here are some strategies from the Letterland Guide that you may want to try at home with your child.

1) The Rollercoaster Trick

Let's try blending the words 'bed','cat','dog','fan','hat' and 'van' using the 'Rollercoaster Trick'.

Finger trace the shape of the rollercoaster as you say each sound, eg. d....o.....g

This blending strategy helps children move on from just saying individual sounds to running sounds together to read words. The children can use this blending trick any time they are having trouble reading a phonically regular word. They might like to use one arm (from shoulder to hand) as the rollercoaster, using the other hand to ‘ride’ the rollercoaster as they blend the sounds.

The 'Slow-Speak Trick' break ups words into their individual phonemes.

2) The Slow-Speak Trick

This second strategy helps children to break up spoken words into their individual phonemes, in order to aid spelling. Children are taught to stretch out any word by saying it so slowly that they can hear each sound, (e.g hhhhh……aaaaa…….ttttt).

In this activity, the children uses the 'Live Reading' strategy to blend the word 'din'.

3) Live Reading

In Live Reading, children model the blending process by arranging themselves to make a word (e.g. din) using the Picture Code Cards. They say the sounds of the individual letters as the teacher points to them, before blending the sounds together to read the word (e.g. ‘d….i….n’).

Letterland’s multi-sensory approach to letter and sound recognition enables children to model the letters and role-play the way they behave in words. Not only can they sing about the letters and their shapes, but they can also listen, look, draw and write about them!

Learning at Changi Airport

bbc — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 07:29:50 +0000

Let's have a look at what travellers can't bring up airplanes.

For our March holiday excursion, Blossom Berrykidz visited Singapore Changi Airport to coincide with our holiday programme theme on ‘Community’.

At the airport, we experienced riding on the skytrains to travel from terminal to terminal. We also walked around the arrival and departure halls to be introduced to the procedures of checking-in for a flight. The teachers also introduced the many different occupations eg. air stewardess, pilots, check-in desk officer, money changer, etc. that can be found around the airport and also explained their roles and duties.

What did we learn from a trip to the airport? At the check-in counters, the children were introduced to the check-in desk officer and also observed and watched how the travellers check-in with their luggages and how luggages are being weighed. At the arrival hall, the children watched travellers waiting and collecting their luggages at the conveyor belts. At the departure hall, the children watched travellers bidding farewell to their friends and families.

Have a break!

An old time favourite with kids, we walked over to the Viewing Mall where we watched various planes land, taxi and take off. We compared the different plane sizes and airline logos while taking a break to rest our little feet and fill our tummies with snacks.

To end the day, we made a last stop to the indoor playground to have some fun and gross-motor excercise before heading back to school!

N1主题教学《我爱吃水果》

bec — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 08:53:40 +0000

我们一起来品尝分享水果！

《我爱吃水果》这一主题教学活动，主要通过引导幼儿认识不同水果的名称、形状、颜色以及味道等，在认识的基础上，让幼儿正确说出自己爱吃的水果，并知道水果的营养很丰富，懂得多吃水果身体棒的道理；同时通过各类手工活动：彩色、手指印画等，加深幼儿对不同水果的认识，使幼儿主动参与活动，并能感受其中的快乐。

给水果宝宝洗澡喽！

让幼儿摸一摸袋子里的水果，猜一猜是什么水果，再拿出来看一看，自己猜得对不对，引导幼儿认识水果的名称；再通过帮水果宝宝洗澡的活动，加深幼儿对葡萄和草莓的认识，并知道吃水果之前要洗干净才可以食用。

手指印画葡萄!

重点引导幼儿学习比较水果的外形有什么不同，摸一摸葡萄和草莓，并引导幼儿说出：“粒粒葡萄像珍珠”，“红红草莓像鸡心”，让幼儿对照珍珠和鸡心的图片，说一说是不是很相似啊！让幼儿尝一尝葡萄和草莓，分辨两种水果的不同味道，感觉甜和酸两种不同的味道。老师通过念儿歌《排排坐》、唱歌曲《大苹果》、游戏《水果蹲》、手工《手指印画》等活动，让幼儿进一步认识不同的水果，知道水果含有丰富的营养，多吃水果可以使我们的身体更健康！

活动中，教师通过触觉、视觉、嗅觉、味觉等教学手段，让幼儿充分地观察、感知，认识了水果葡萄和草莓，同时对这两种水果的颜色、形状、味道也有了更多的认识；教师给幼儿提供了丰富的可操作的材料，幼儿在以“葡萄和草莓”为中心情况下，进行各式各样地活动，激发了幼儿的认知兴趣和探究欲望，体验活动所带来的快乐。

No related posts.

“Let’s Keep Myopia Away!”

Linn — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 05:03:22 +0000

"Heh, heh, heh, shall we play more computer games, children?"

Before the March holidays arrived, the children were treated to an entertaining and interactive skit “Crystal Clear” by Players Theatre as part of Health Promotion Board’s on-going efforts to promote good eye care habits among young children right at our very own centre! The aim of the skit was to increase the awareness of good eye care habits among young children, in a fun and interactive way. The main focus was on the central theme of “Playing Outdoors to keep Myopia away”.

Two times the fun and two times the excitement was exactly what the children felt and experienced when we went to the Health Promotion Board during the school holidays for ‘Eyecare Week 2012′ at HealthZone too! The organizers prepared various meaningful activities to keep the children immersed in a whole morning of fun. Children played games like mini basket ball where aiming the balls and throwing them into the basket, was a test of their eyesight.

: “Let’s try our hands at a matching game to learn more about good eyecare habits, kids!”

We then moved on to the other stations to match pictures, play at the indoor playground and attend a craft session where we were taught to make paper windmills. These sessions aimed to put across the message that children should engage in a variety of indoor and outdoor activities to keep their eyes and bodies fit and healthy . To top it off, they learnt a fun dance routine to the tune of ‘If you’re happy and you know it’ that encouraged the children to have fun with music and exercises!

After the rather energetic activities for the day, we got the chance to walk around HealthZone to look at and interact with the exhibits on health and fitness. The purpose of all these activites encouraged children to play under the sun and have fun outdoors instead of spending too much time watching television or playing electronic games!

On the whole, the activities lined up for EyeCare Week 2012 proved to be informative and entertaining for the children and teachers alike. Young and old, we’ve learnt to appreciate having some sun and remember to “GO OUTDOORS AND PLAY”!

A Healthy Me is a Happy Me!

bac — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 09:59:04 +0000

Wow, so many yummy and healthy food in this giant food pyramid.

It was an exciting day for us all at Blossom Aspiration Centre on 12 Mar 2012 as we went on our first excursion as a Blossom school! Although it was a short journey from Serangoon to Health Zone at Outram Park, the bus was filled with an air of excitement as we could hardly wait to set foot in HealthZone!

The first thing that greeted us when we entered the first area ‘Exciting Eatery’ was a giant healthy eating pyramid was displayed. The children were fascinated by the appealing life sized food models on each layer of the pyramid. Both the teachers and the children gathered some useful tips on reading food labels and make healthier choices with a virtual supermarket station!

Keeping our teeth clean is important!

A giant eye model displaying the structure of an eye such as the pupil, iris, retina etc captured our attention when we entered into the area ‘Vision Vista’. We could even search for an ideal spectacles frame to suit all our different face shapes just by taking digital shots of ourselves. Cool! At the ‘Tooth Terrain’, we were introduced to good dental health habits, as well as the functions and locations of various types of teeth. Going to the next theme area was the puberty passage where the children could learn about the various stages of growth in a human body.

"Come on, we can definitely beat the sumo wrestler!"

Finally, the long awaited moment had arrived. The children were thrilled when they entered ‘Fitness Funhouse’ where they had so much fun climbing and sliding! The children also had a go playing tug-of-war with a stationary “sumo wrestler”. The excursion ended with each of us having a packet of chocolate milk courtesy of HealthZone to accompany our nutritious lunch. It was a tiring but fun and unforgettable experience for all the children and teachers as well!

“Moment of Imagination and Nostalgia with Toys”

bec — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 02:13:40 +0000

"Say Cheese, Captain Haddock and Ultraman!"

In conjunction with our March holiday theme, “Nostalgic Toys”, Blossom Educare organised a trip to the Mint Museum of Toys, the world’s first purpose-built museum for toys, which showcases a private collection of vintage toys, including rare and unique one-of-a-kind pieces from around the world.

MINT is an acronym for “Moment of Imagination and Nostalgia with Toys” which also defines the exhibits in the collection as majority of these collectibles are in “mint condition” though they are vintage.

The museum collection includes more than 3,000 pieces of vintage toys and childhood memorabilia from the mid-19th century to mid-20th Century. Exhibits on display include Batman, Popeye the Sailor, Astro Boy, Tintin and many others. These toys are said to originate from over 40 countries worldwide!

So...these are what toys from the past look like.

This museum is certainly one with a difference! As the children went on a nostalgic tour of the museum, they, especially the older ones were captivated by some of the very unusual toys and collectibles as the guide explained their origins. With over 50,000 pieces on display in the 5 storey museum, the children had an eye-opening experience exploring the museum and its treasured collections of toys.

This March holiday excursion was truly an enriching and rewarding learning journey for both teachers and children. We were absolutely floored by the magnificent collection of toys housed within an award winning five-storey contemporary building! MINT also brought back some truly wonderful memories for many of our teachers as we revisited our childhood memories.

Blossom Edugroup’s 2012 Staff Workshop

bec — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 08:35:41 +0000

Many heads are better than one!

The delivery of high quality service is necessary for developing and nurturing trust. A high quality child care centre provides all children with excellent learning opportunities to optimize their physical, cognitive, cultural, social and emotional development; development also suffers when children experience poor quality care.

Therefore, the objective of Blossom Edugroup’s first staff workshop of 2012 was to bring up the service standard in Blossom. The active participation and contributions made by our dedicated staff was a thorough success. The staff thronged through various service related scenarios of a childcare centre and came up ideas and feedback to provide a better understanding for the need for within Blossom Edugroup’s centres.

Together with group facilitators, each group actively engaged themselves in service quality and service recoveries scenarios. For example, as a group discussed on disciplining methods, they drew experiences from the daily happenings in the schools and classrooms, analyse them and came up with more positive methods of disciplinary actions.

"Let's discuss some service standards we can all improve on!"

After each group’s discussion, all the groups gathered to present their areas of expertise. As each group presented their topics and questions were answered, everyone went home with a clearer picture of quality service and how to deliver quality service at our centres.

The rich information that were generated during the workshop have given us the basis to further fine tune the quality service standards at Blossom. Blossom believes that high quality child care programmess support families to balance work and family commitments while we provide a developmentally appropriate learning environment for children.

Visit Blossom at Smartkids Asia

Lawrence — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 17:18:48 +0000

Blossom will be exhibiting our pre-school programme and childcare services at the Smartkids Asia from 16 Mar 2012 (Fri) to 18 Mar 2012 (Sun).

Bring your children to our booth at B16 for free goodies specially ordered for this event.

Also for the very first time, our patented e-Profiling portal which is exclusive to children who are enrolled in Blossom centres, will be availabe for public access during the fair. Parents may register for a self-assessment of their child’s development and obtain an instant comparative analysis of your child’s development.

Support us by visiting our booth at B16!

Opening hours:
16 Mar 2012 (Fri) : 11am – 9pm
17 Mar 2012 (Sat): 11am – 9pm
18 Mar 2012 (Sun): 11am – 8pm