We won a trial class @ Kindernomics

We joined a contest by My Playschool in April 2012 and was informed in June 2012 that we won the trail lesson at Kindernomics.  Made an appointment with them to go for the trial today.

Can resist taking a photo while on the way.

On our way in a Taxi

On the way I called up the school to inform them that we will be late for the class (same as the rest of the class, according to the girl on the phone).  There was an unusual long jam from PIE to CTE that our taxi uncle decided to go by another way; going in by Stevens Road.  However the route was not as smooth too, with jam and slow traffic.

We are already late, the lift to the office tower @ Forum the Shopping Mall is not helping!  *hhmmpphhh* Takes forever for 1 lift to reach B1 and send us up.  When we finally reached the school, the rest of the kids are in the class and lesson is just about to begin *rush rush* I was allowed to sit in to observe the class.

DinoEgg settled in fast n well, soon he was interacting with the other boys and Teacher Theresa.

Class started and according to the term's curriculum today the kids will be taught Sharing of Resources where they will learn addition & subtractions, multiplications, division & fractions, Problems solving & critical thinking.

A yellow ball was passed around and the boy who gets the ball have to stand in front of the class to do a simple introduction of themselves like their name & age.

Teacher Theresa proceeded with some cookie sharing where she took out 12 toy cookies and teach the boys the concept of division & sharing equally.  First she give 2 boys a plate each n tell them to share the cookies, one of them took 1 cookie and wait for the other one to take before taking another one, eventually they have 6 cookie each.  She added more boys with plates and they did the same.

Then its follow by story telling time, Teacher Theresa read out loud The Doorbell Rang where every time the doorbell rings, more people come to share Ma's wonderful cookies. Will there be enough to go around?

After that its some dough playing fun.  The boys were paired off, they were told to cut out as many cookies as they can using the big & small cookie cutter from the 200g of dough (have to use all 200g, no left over).  There were only 3 rolling pins to be shared among 5 boys (1 of the kid partner with Teacher Theresa). It was a fun, loud & noisy 20mins or so of "I need a rolling pin! can I use your rolling pin?" "Teacher can you help me take out the cookie?" "My dough is stuck to the rolling pin, help!!" etc. It was fun (yeah even sitting at a corner) looking at them.

Teacher Theresa gave out a worksheet where there are 2 rolls of big ovals & 2 rolls of small ovals.  Each set of big & small ovals belongs to the boy & his partner.  They are suppose to count the number of big & small cookies they have and color the ovals, after that count their partner's and color the ovals again.  

A little commotion occurred in the midst of coloring the ovals, 1 of the boys asked for help.  He has 17 small cookies but there are only 12 small ovals, obviously not enough ovals to color.  Instead of telling him, Teacher Theresa ask the boy "What do you think you can do?  How to solve the problem?"  The boy was stunned.   Not DinoEgg!  While still doing his coloring he say out loud in a as-a-matter-of-fact tone "just draw some more small circles beside it and color lah!" *1 PROUD MUMMY HERE* 

Once DinoEgg is done, Teacher Theresa went through the worksheet with him.  He has 8 big cookies & 10 small cookies, his partner has 7 big cookies and 9 small cookies.  Does he have more or less big & small cookies then his partner?  

Kids earn KinderDollars during the class for listening to teacher, finishing the worksheet, tidying up the place etc where they keep inside the pouch they hang around their neck.

DinoEgg earned 4 KinderDollars which he can either buy things (stickers, pens or bookmarks) or save it up. He decided to use 1 KinderDollar to buy a sticker n deposit the balance into KinderBank.

I would like to have a sticker pls

I shall save up the rest

The class ended with a goodbye song, DinoEgg left the school with a sticker in his hand and a happy mood.

I like the way the class is being conducted, role play and all plus incorporating the maths ingredients in the lesson.  Its a very refreshing way of teaching the kids "a sense of independence and make sense of the world around them by introducing them to essential and easy to understand economic concepts." as stated in their website.  By showing them the value of money, idea of saving money & earning money the kids will have a better idea of how the society works and what is expected from them in future.

We feel that we are doing the same with DinoEgg, since he is 4yrs old daddy has been teaching DinoEgg about maths problem solving, money & savings.  At the same time we let him order his food while in restaurants or food courts.  Our ideas are the same though methods may be different.  It may have taken him a longer time to grasp the idea but we got there eventually. And we are happy that we have the far sight to instil him the knowledge at that young age.

It was nevertheless an eye opening 1.5hours to me.  The lesson will also enable me to use some of the methods to reinforce our teachings to DinoEgg.

BTW he did get the answer correct about the cookies =)

Remarks : I am in no way affiliated to the management of Kindernomics or have been compensated to write about this excursion. All opinions are based on our experience during the trial class, and 100% my own.