What is so special about Vinsers’ “open classrooms”?
Aiming to provide students with a creative learning space, Vinschool Ocean Park Kindergarten held a field trip (as an outdoor class) with activities designed for four learning areas of the International Preschool Curriculum (IPC): Language Arts, Creative Arts, Sciences, and Motor Skills.
Under the five themes “Harvest season,” “Flowers and fruits,” “Let’s play,” “Teamwork,” and “In the garden,” different activities were tailored to each grade level, with the last theme being in English.
Develop language skills with reading activities “Tap the Magic Tree” and “Plant the Tiny Seed”
The interactive book “Tap the Magic Tree” was selected for this special session with the aim to help children understand more about the changes that nature undergoes throughout four seasons of the year. In addition, the book also offered the children a lot of fascinating experiences as they knocked on the trunk, clapped their hands, shook and jiggled their fingers, guessed what would happen next, then turned the pages of the book to see the magical changes happening to the tree.
With the activity “Plant the Tiny Seed” for Bambi students, the children watched their teachers “turn into” seeds and trees in different types of weather: sunny, rainy, windy, and stormy. These two activities not only allowed the students to practice attentive listening and prediction skills but also provided them with new English and Vietnamese vocabulary about nature as well as the changes of weather that can be observed throughout the four seasons.
Explore Science with “Little Biologists” and “Talented Mathematicians”
Different from the regular classes, this outdoor, open classroom gave the children the opportunity to explore new things about nature. The children found out that some leaves are small, while others are as big as the hand of an adult; some leaves are green, and others are yellow. The children could not hide their excitement when for the first time spotting a snail slowly moving under the bushes.
After joining the “Little Biologist” activity, the parent of Vinser Bao Han said, “The children had the opportunity to discover many wonders of nature for themselves, such as the robust colors of leaves and flowers and a snail hiding behind its shell. Parents and teachers were merely facilitators for the children, guiding them how to observe. I am very pleased that my child has had a wonderful learning experience and at the same time improved her vocabulary of colors, plants, and insects during this session.”
In addition, the teachers also neatly integrated one-to-one correspondence counting skills into the lesson by asking the students to collect the number of leaves that were the same as the number written on their ziplock bag.
Create arts from nature through the activities “Paint the Nature” and “Creative is Fun”
Exploring nature in their own way helps students develop their imagination and creative thinking. During the activity “Creative is Fun,” Vinsers used the leaves and different objects they had collected to create unique art pieces. And while participating in the “Paint the Nature” activity, the students used their own lens to look at and recreate the surrounding environment on paper by using watercolors. Teachers and parents were pleasantly surprised by many of the students’ artworks.
Improve motor skills and health in “Let’s Have Fun”
Daily exercise is an essential need of preschoolers and is also an important contributing factor of good physical and mental health for children. In the open space of nature, the Vinsers from Kitty and Nemo level participated in movement games in groups such as “The Colorful Umbrella”, “Crawl through the Tube” or “Balance Racing”.
Vinser An Vi’s parent was very happy to see his child participate in the movement games: “She was really excited to play and learn at the same time. My child is in the Nemo level; although still very little, she was extremely active in the “Balance Racing” with her friends. As I can see, this activity helped her to not only develop motor skills but also maintain positive emotions regardless of the race’s results.”
The field trip to a special outdoor class has provided Vinsers with an opportunity to improve their language skills, explore amazing nature, exercise, and practice many other skills such as teamwork, observation, information retention, self-serving, and good manners while in public.
