Category Archives: educational trends

Ghost puppet

How to make a ghost puppet

You will need:

• felt
• embroidery thread
• scissors
• needle and needle-threader
• stuffing
• dowel rod or chopstick
• fabric glue

This ghost-softie-template

How to:

  1. Print out the template
  2. Cut roughly around the ghost shapes and pin to felt, then cut around the lines of the template to get your ghost shapes

3. Thread a length of embroidery thread onto a sewing needle using a needle threader and tie a knot in the tail end

4. Begin sewing around the ghost halfway across the base, about 2cm from the bottom to leave room for a fringe.

5. Sew most of the way around using running stitch, leaving a small gap to poke the stuffing in

6. Stuff the ghost and poke the dowel rod in. If you like you can use a bit of fabric glue to hold the rod in place

7. Sew the remainder of the ghost, and finish by sewing tightly around the dowel rod and tying a knot in the end of the thread.

8. Cut a fringe along the base of the ghost

9. Use page 2 of the template to cut out some eyes and a mouth, or design your own.

 

10. Glue them on with fabric glue

11. All done! Now it’s time for a ghostly puppet show.

My work: 

Reference: https://www.thecrafttrain.com/ghost-puppet/

Halloween decoration- BAT CRAFT

Supplies

  • Bat craft template
  • Cardstock paper: black, gray, red and white
  • Scissors
  • Glue

HOW TO MAKE A BAT CRAFT

Use a black marker to draw the details on the inner wings and ears.

To make the bat, you will need: 1 black body, 2 black outer ears, 2 gray inner ears, 2 black outer wings, 2 gray inner wings, 2 eyes, 1 red mouth, 2 white fangs and 2 gray cheeks.

Start by gluing the gray inner wings on top of the black outer wings.

Glue the gray inner ears on top of the black outer ears.

Glue the wings on the body, one wing on each side of the body.

Glue the ears at the top of the body.

Glue the eyes onto the body.

Glue the mouth at the bottom of the body.

Glue the fangs on top of the mouth.

Glue the cheeks onto the mouth, one cheek at each end.

References:

  1. https://nontoygifts.com/bat-craft/?fbclid=IwAR04Q5Vll4OF9DCSo_tHXw23xI7ftUzhQL4db-X_dE_x_LlLnmGvO0tViTg
  2. https://nontoygifts.com/shape-bat-craft/

Wooden Spoon Bat Craft for Halloween

Halloween is coming! Let’s make some craft about Halloween : )

Materials:

  • Wooden Spoons
  • Black construction paper
  • Scrap of white paper
  • 2 googly eyes (7mm size)
  • Crafter’s tape
  • Paint and paintbrush

Carefully paint the back side and edges of the spoon. I didn’t bother painting the front of the spoon since you won’t be able to see it.

 

While you’re waiting for your spoons to dry, cut out your bat wings from black construction paper.

Fold the construction paper in half, draw a bat wing shape, then cut out the wings along the fold so they’re symmetrical.

You can print out my printable bat wing template to trace if you like. Just click the image below (or Bat-Wings-Template) and print the pdf on standard printer paper. Just make sure your printer is set to print the sheet at 100% size.

Once the spoons are completely dry, cut out two small black triangle ears from the construction paper and two small triangle fangs from the white printer paper. Attach them using crafter’s glue dot tape (the link is in the list of materials above). I find that the glue dot tape is a little easier to work with than standard crafter’s tape for small pieces like these.

Attach the googly eyes to the spoon using crafter’s glue dot tape.

Then carefully line up the spoon over top and press it onto the crafter’s tape.

Gently fold the bat wings up over the each side of the spoon

When you let go of the fold, the wings should be bending slightly up off the table. Just enough so that your bat isn’t completely flat.

Then repeat the steps for the rest of your bats!

      

Reference: https://onelittleproject.com/wooden-spoon-bat-craft/?fbclid=IwAR2vMXUmpGNHZKRZvznpGtYI1Vf8uAOTpm1Tl86vib1mmi0r-fr1QKc2vJs

The importance of make farewell official

On Monday, September 27, the social worker came to observe my class without notification in advance.

  • First, she criticized me on my student record was too rough so that she could not understand  it thoroughly. I had stated on the document and explained in person that it was because I spent too much time on ice breaker activity in my first class, so I had limited observation on pupils.
  • Second, the social worker asked me to request students write the letters in a super tidy way and correct them restrictedly to the extent of being fastidious. However, my kids just learned ABC. If they can write the letters so well that they did not have to come to my English learning support class.
  • Third, one of my students was too shy to open her mouth to pronounce a word. The social worker told me that I should have told the kids, whoever pronounce in the lowest volume needs to come on the stage to read aloud to the whole class as the punitive consequence. If they are competent/confident enough, why did their homeroom teachers referred them to us?

 

 

 

  • Fourth, when I attended the workshop, the workshop leader informed us about his suggested handout on letter sounds and related words for beginner learners. However, when I asked the social worker for the file, her reply was, “That version is NOT going to be appear on the monthly comprehensive exam, so all you have to teach is according to the version I gave you.” That is, A-apple, B-banana,C-coconut, D-dog, E-egg, F-fish, G-goat, H-hat, I-ink, J-juice, K-key, L-lion. My question is there is too rigid. I firmly believe that there should be multiple ways of connecting letters and its sounds. For example, A-ant, B-ball, C-cat, D-duck, E-elephant, F-frog, G-girl, H-hair, I-ice, J-jacket, K-king, L-lesson. No one can deny this fact. Why did the kids learn things appear on the exam only? It was too single-perspective. It is harmful!
  • Last, the social worker shouted/yelled at the student loudly enough that one can heard it from the other end of the aisle just because he did not write his words tidy. I strongly agree that no matter what kids have done last semester, they all need a fresh start for this semester. Besides, it is a tiny mistake, and he can simply re-write it. It was not a serious, insurmountable challenge or unreversed misery. As adults, we should allow kids opportunities to make mistakes in order to learn, grow, and thrive, let along saying that they are students who need learning support. 

After this incident, I wondered that I am not eligible to be a good teacher. I doubted about myself. I was perplexed and frustrated. 

Thank you very much for those who helped me went through this process. You are unsung heroes. 

Few days ago, when I scanned through my Facebook, there is a picture popped up.

This seems God is hearing my prayer. He is showing the way and answering my questions.

I told my students that next week is the last week of my teaching for some reasons. They almost cried especially the naughty boys. They kept saying that they don’t want me to leave and kept asking about my family situation. One of the considerate kid asked, “ Teacher, when will you come back?” His words melted my heart. I asked their permission for taking a group picture next week and told them I really enjoy working with them. They are lovely. I think it is a proper decision for making the farewell official because their emotions were stronger than I thought even if the social worker blamed me for announcing this to my students. She thinks that she is the authority of providing with the news for the school, parents, and students.

In addition, 6 out of 7 kids passes their monthly comprehensive exams. The social worker shout at the kid AGAIN and the kid burst into tears. I consoled her that I witnessed her progress although she did not pass the exam. I, as her teacher, accepted her performance because she did not screw it up on purpose. I am empathetic for her.

I personally DO NOT agree with the social worker’s teaching philosophy and her MEAN way of BLAMING the student on her grade because they are kids who need learning support. The discouragement will defeat children’s confidence totally. I am SAD about the traditional, rigid educational system. If I had power, I would FIRE the social worker to make the world a better and inclusive place!

10 Ways To Push Students to Focus on Learning First, And Not The Grade

As my own schooling from elementary school to high school is traditional test-oriented style. My teachers and parents viewed GRADES more important than learning progress. Twenty years later, I become a teacher. As a teacher, I witnessed my students struggled about their grades and even were blamed by the social worker that  “How come you get this grade? You wasted your own time, my time, and teacher’s time!” As a teacher, I don’t think so. I clearly knew that the girl did not fool around, but she tried to learn. It is just because she did not pass the exam doesn’t NOT mean that she did not make any effort.

#1 Let them pick!

Daniel Pink, motivation expert, suggests autonomy as a way to get kids motivated outside of the grade. “We’re not talking about a wild and wooly free-for-all where everyone does whatever they want whenever they want to do it,” he says. But you can give them choice over:

  • What they study
  • Which projects they do
  • What they read
  • How they do their work

#2 Teach the difference between learning and performing.

Kids should know the difference, and know which really matters.

  • A learning goal might be: “We will be readers who can make predictions about the text.”
  • A performance goal would be “I’m going to get an A in reading class.”