Friday, January 22, 2010

The Stone Soup






























When winter winds blow, nothing tastes better than a bowl of hot soup. Hence, January has been named "National Soup Month" in the woods.

To celebrate "National Soup Month", each student from Mrs W's class brought home a "Soup Book" ... soup recipes contributed by parents of students in darling son KW's class. The class had a "Soup Day". Each child was designated to bring an item to contribute to their "Soup Lunch". I think it's very exciting and interesting for kids to learn about soups, and soups amongst different cultures.











To end their mini-unit on Soups, the class put up three plays at the end of the week. All three plays involved soups ... Tiger Soup, Stone Soup, and Soup for the King.

Darling son KW played a solider in "Stone Soup". Using stone to cook soup? Yes! It taught the villagers the value of "Sharing". Darling son KW had been telling me he felt "pretty nervous" at the thought of having to perform, and especially so since we would be attending the play. He was no longer nervous the day before the play. They already had three performances! Their teacher invited one class from each level (K/1, 2/3 and 4/5) to go to their classroom to watch the play!

This morning, I was pleasantly surprised to see the entire classroom filled with parents! I think parents of all the students in that class came to support their child!

The kids were great! We had so much fun watching them perform!

4 comments:

Happy Homebaker said...

My elder child cooked stone soup in class too. Everyone in the class brought something to cook. The teacher used a rice cooker to boil the soup and she really added in some stones in it :)
I like the way they teach the kids in school in the States.

PiggyMummy said...

The teacher actually added stones into the pot of soup?! That must be one creative (English Language?) teacher, and I'm sure your son loves her lesson! The way the schools teach is great in the States. Very creative. Not rigid. However, I won't say the same for the lack of practice in Math.

Happy Homebaker said...

She's a Chinese teacher, there is this chapter in their Chinese textbook. She really added some stones in the pot, but I am sure she must have cleaned them ;) As there are more than 40 pupils in the class, she had to boil 3 rounds of soup.
I remembered attending my niece's 'teddy bear picnic' when she was in Grade 1 (over at California), everyone brought along a teddy bear and packed food for the picnic, they really know how to make lessons so interesting for the kids. How I wish they can really 'learn more and teach less' over here!

PiggyMummy said...

I agree on "Learn more, teach less".

My kids don't have much homework from school, but they amaze me with what they learn. My boy in Kindergarten told me today "A square is a quadrilateral". I asked him when he learnt it and he said "quite some time ago". My elder boy had been correcting his little brother's grammar and telling me about sedimentary rocks. No exams. Just pure fun in learning .. and the kids remember what they have been taught. I had been warning my boys about the system in Singapore ...hopefully they can adjust when we return in three years' time.

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