What is Movement?
Posted on | October 28, 2008 | No Comments
A basic movement is basic physical education that emphasizes motorskill and spatial awareness. It also involves the implementation of “movement exploration”.
Domain of Physical Education(PE)
- Physical domain
- Social development development domain
- Cognitive domain
“Movement exploration” is actually problem solving approach.
Movement program must be:
- Consists of variety of movements such as jump, run, walk, squat, skip, hop…
- Creative and fun to extend interest, once they have interest, they like to repeat the activity
- Encourage decision making and problem solving
- Emphasize on safety and control
- Appropriate for their level(age, developmental stage), allow children to experience success as much as you can
Semester 3 Coming…
Posted on | October 21, 2008 | No Comments
Semester 3 is coming this Sunday, 26th Oct 2006.
No idea what sort of subject we are going to take. Only will know by then.
Result would be out in 2 weeks time I guess…
That’s all for the time being 
Second Semester Exam Tomorrow
Posted on | October 10, 2008 | No Comments
It’s been a long time not updating this blog ;p I’m just so lazy. Besides, second semester ends already. Tomorrow and Sunday will be exam days!
I don’t feel anything at all. So relax! This is so weird. Maybe I’m well prepared already? Hmm… Nevermind about that, done the two papers these two days and I’m off to my almost one week holiday before new semester starts.
No idea when I should go and enroll myself yet. No notice or anything.
Children with Special Needs
Posted on | September 28, 2008 | No Comments
Children with special needs are those that are at risk of physical, developmental, behavioural, and emotional conditions who required health and related services of a type or amount beyond that required by children generally.
Issues with special needs children:
- Inclusion of Children with special needs
Provide optimum environment where special equipments or facilities are required - Children with stress
Provide supportive, protective environment nd promot well-being - Children with chronic illnesses
Provide protective an prevetive environment - Children from drug abuse family
Proper strategies and practices needed
Tools required for special needs children:
- Supevision
Offer maximum well-being - Education
Gain knowledge on how to deal with the children - Cultural competence
Actions and reactions to children who are ill/disabled differs from culture to culture
Challenges in Integrating Drama & Music Across Curriculum
Posted on | September 26, 2008 | No Comments
Most of the time, teachers of other subjects might approach the music & drama teacher in a surprise and left them defensive.
Other subject teachers will want the music and drama teacher to teach certain topic to the students. However, the music & drama teacher doesn’t have any plan for those instead she already got her own lesson plans. It is not easy for her to come out with something immediately. There is no way to interrupt the planned activities of the music & drama teacher if there is no prior planning or arrangement.
To solve this problem, early planning in the school year with both teachers will solve this problem.
For example, the science teacher wants to teach the children about body parts, then the music & drama teacher found out that there’s body parts song that can be taught. At the same time, this song allow the children to do actions along with it. With early planning like this, it will ensure that children will get the best from both world.
There is also problem of getting suitable material to teach. In case there is no early planning and the other subject teachers need help from the music & drama teacher, the music & drama teacher can provide materials needed to the other subject teachers and they can use the material anyway they like to teach.
Early planning and communication is important for successful integration of drama & music across curriculum.
Semester 2 Ending…
Posted on | September 24, 2008 | 2 Comments
WOW! Time sure flies.
Semester 2 is ending really soon! Exam will be on 11th & 12th October. Very fast eh? One semester is only 7 weeks. It’s like just started not too long ago and then now it’s going to end.
Done both assignments, passed up one and need to pass up another one this Sunday. In the process of preparing for exams.
Children with Learning Difficulty
Posted on | September 19, 2008 | No Comments
Children with learning difficulty have normal intelligence but hav significant difficulties in the acquisition nd use of language, listening, peaking, reading, writing, reasoning, or mathematical ailities.
How to teach them drama and music? Just some examples:
- Set up pretend environment
- Give “uncluttered” directions
- Repeat the activities
- Provide supportive and accepting environment
- Encourage and praise over and over again
- Practice instrument parts kinesthetically away from the instrument first
- Highlight visual using large print, color, frame and isolate pattern on overheads o in their books
- Slow down verbal input or recording
Music & Movement Activities in Pre-school
Posted on | September 15, 2008 | No Comments
Guidelines for music and movement activities in pre-school
- Be knowledgeable with contents and teaching techniques
- Pay attention to festivals and annual fests that related closely to your community
- Choose topic and try to link it with other activities that are being carried out
- Prepare materials before teaching
- Understand the abilities and needs of the children. Do not compare the abilities of one child to another
- Each child are individual with different abilities and needs
- Get information of the experience of the child so that he/she can develop further
- Plan lessons based on child’s experience and expanding it from thereon
- Use simple to understand language
- Plan many types of activities so that they can learn in many ways
- Understand the child fully by observing and analysing the behaviou and performance of the child
- Plan activities which needs the use of different senses such as smell, taste, sight, hearing, and touch
- Have positive attitude towards music and be interested and willing to learn and improve oneself
Principals of teaching singing in pre-school:
- Conduct singing activities informally so that it’s enjoyable and effective
- Plan activities which include movements, imaginations and creativities as children are naturaly very active
- Teacher should adapt to the language development level of the children so that they can understand
- Pre-schoolers’ attetion span is very short. They are unable to focus more than 10 to 15 minutes
- Give attention to quiet and shy children and don’t force them do the activities
- Should encourage the children to sing solo or in groups and appreciate their performance
- Group children according to gender will create opportunity to talk about boys and girls and their roles in community
- Feeling of harmony must be developed
- Teacher must assist in developing self-confidence
- Provide opportunities for children to choose songs, rhythm and musical instruments
- Start with simple songs then progress to difficult songs
- Provide oppotunities to explore fantasy world through singing, drama, pantomime, movement and so on
- Help children improve their voices by guiding them to sing according to appropriate tune, rhythm and pitch
How to choose songs?
- Short and simple repeated lyrics
- Words and sentence structure are simple and relevant to their age level and understanding
- Should reflect their world, experience, feelings and interest
- Choose songs that give training in good health practices and cleanliness, socialisation, manners and develop postitive attitude towards their own self and others
- Song should be a joy to sing and help in language development
- Theme song should be attractive and increase their knowledge
- Rhythm should be simple with clear beats and encourage children too move or do actions spontaneously
The Importance of Percussion Band in Pre-school
Posted on | September 14, 2008 | No Comments
Pre-school percussion band helps children express their spiritual and physical feelings towards music. Through various music activities, they can gain knowledge, skills, and experience which continue to develop throughout the years. The fact that children feel happy when beating a musical instrument or anything around them make it even more important to have a percussion band in pre-school.
The 3 things to remember when organising a percussion band:
- The children must learn to start playing together
- The children must learn to stop playing together
- The children play musical instruments according to the tune, learn to recognise a loud, a soft or a medium sound.
When planning an activity, you must consider the children’s physical development, their age level, and their maturity. Movements, imaginations and creativities should be included.
The objective of having a percussion band in pre-school:
- Cultivate an interest in rhythm and be able to follow the rhythm
- Develop a co-ordination of harmonious and gentle movement
- Cultivate power of concentration and careful attention
- Produce creative ideas in various moods
- Experience the joy of responding in a group to musical stimulus
- Develop social relationships necessary for group appreciation of music.
- Listen and appreciate music
- Develop a good memory for various sounds and rhythms
Suitable percussion instruments for children:
Tambourine, triangle, clapper/castanet, ritomica, woodblock, sleigh bell, rhythm stick, maracas, drum
How to conduct percussion band activities:
- Play in a bright and lively tune
- Demonstrate body movements according to music
- Let children imitate, all movement must be according to music
- Use improvised instruments before giving them the real percussion instruments
- Introduce percussion instruments and demonstrate how to play them
- Take turns to play and do a number of rhythm training
- All children play a new ryhthm together, then divide into groups
- Rhythm should be simple and suitable
- Musical accompaniment for the percussion instruments can be recorded or sung or played on a pianica, recorder and so on
Childhood Illness
Posted on | September 12, 2008 | No Comments
What is childhood illness?
Relates to conditions where is the a marked declining of a child’s health status which is also an indicator of declining nutritional patterns.
Most frequent dietary problems in children:
- Underweight/poor growth/failure to thrive
Causes:
- Medical reason
- Diet too high in fibre or too low in fat
- Insufficient vitamins and minerals
Management:
- Provide nutrient rich food(full cream milk, cheese, meat, eggs…)
- Increase frequency of eating - Overweight/Obesity
Causes:
- Too many fat-rich and sugar-rich food
Management:
- Provide balanced diet
- provide fulling snacks of fruits and sandwiches
- Establish regular pattern of meals & snacks - Poor formation of teeth, bones, and dental disease
Causes:
- Lack of calcium and flouride
- Too many sugar-rich or acid-rich food
Management:
- Consult dentist
- Increase high calcium-rich food - Lack of iron/anaemia/lethargy
Causes:
- Vegetarian or non-red meat eater
- Insufficient intake of iron-rich food
- lack of vitamin C
Management:
- Increase red meat intake
- Increase vitamin C intake
- Increase food intake - Constipation
Causes:
- Insufficient natural sugars
- Insufficient liquid intake
- Insufficient fruit and vegetable intake
Management:
- Increase range and quantity of fruits, vegetables
- Increase fluid intake - Mild diarrhoea
Causes:
- Due to high intake of sugard or fruit juices
Management:
- Limit sugar consumption
- monitor intake of fruits and high fibre food
- Ensure high intake of water - Food fads/food refusal
Causes:
- Dislike certain food or refuse to try new food
Management:
- Prevent any form of conflict
- Remove offending food without fuss, do not offer alternative
- Ensure snacks are not low nutrient, high sugar or high fat
- Do not fill up with other food
If there are children that require special diet attention due to certain medical conditions, care details must be obtained from medical specialist on details and implications of dietary provision, likely reactions, emergency procedures. Example od physical distree and illness:
- Food intolerance such as lactose intolerance
- Food allergy
- Gastro-intestinal disorder
- Coeliac disease
- Cystic fibrosis
- Phenylketnuria(PKU)
- Diabetes
- Tooth decay
Common illness in children:
- Cold/flur
- Chicken pox
- Dry mouth
- Painful throat/sore mouth
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