Posted by Teacher Ria in Uncategorized | 0 Comments

Cooking days are the bestest days, Teacher!

My kids love cooking activities. Be it something as simple as microwaving popcorn or something more complicated like making vegetable soup, the kids have a blast. Last week we had egg sandwiches and the kids were just ecstatic about it!

I like using these cooking activities as story stretchers, such as what I shared with my Green Eggs and Ham Story stretcher. Other ideas include:

vegetable soup for the story Stone Soup

pigs in a blanket for The Three Little Pigs

caramel apples for Ten Apples Up on Top or The Giving Tree

alphabet soup for Chikka Chikka Boom Boom

Not only do the kids learn a lot from these activities, its a lot of f too! So fire up that stove, bring out your electric grills and clean up that microwave and let the kids get cooking!

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10 things every preschool should have

If I had it my way, this is what I think a good preschool/learning center should have, besides of course, great teachers. These will definitely make teaching and lerning much more meaningful and exciting

1. A well stocked library

2. Sandboxes

3. Water tables for waterplay

4. Child-sized sinks and potties

5. LCD TVs , DVD players and similar audio visual equipment 6. A large playground 7. A bountiful arts and crafts stock room 8. A pretend play area (dress-up, kitchen, or store would be good examples) 9. A science corner with pets 10. A photocopier, laminator and similar paraphernalia. If ever I do set up a school, this will definitely be my list!

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Posted by Teacher Ria in Featured | 18 Comments

Ideas That Change

What’s the most resilient parasite? An Idea. A single idea from the human mind can build cities. An idea can transform the world and rewrite all the rules. – Cobb, Inception

As the quote from one of the biggest blockbusters this year, Inception, goes, an idea can really change lives. This year, Unilab encourages us all to look into ourselves and find our own “parasites” to effect positive change. Even a small idea may cause big changes, especially with the Filipino Youth.

click on photo to enlarge

Launched in June The Unilab Youth Camp for Change is an idea-generation camp and competition for college students that aims to

inspire fresh, developmental, and research-based social marketing initiatives that promote and advance health and wellness at the community level.

Now, Unilab pushes the envelope further with a simple little contest for you, my dear readers!

Simply answer this question by leaving a comment at the end of this post:

Q: If you were given a chance to do one good thing to improve the health and wellness situation in a community, what would it be and why? Your idea can be as simple as improving the drainage system to dramatically alleviate the cases of leptospirosis in your community or as grand as building an entire city hospital to address the health needs of your community.

The entries will be judged by Unilab and other media outlet. Five winners will take home two Unilab gift packs each.

So, what are you waiting for? Leave me your comments now! Let your ideas grow! Contest will run from July 27, 2010 to August 6, 2010. UPDATE: prizes will be claimed personally by winners via meet-up

Also, all college students are invited to join Ideas Positive: The Unilab Youth Camp for Change. You and your friends can channel your ideas in helping your chosen community through this program. The winning group can see their idea come to life with a P100,000 seed money plus a 3-day, 2-night all-expense paid trip to Boracay. For more information, visit www.ideaspositive.com.

Posted by Teacher Ria in Teacher's Corner | 0 Comments

What are we teaching our children?

A few months ago, I came across this pack of candy that I thought was quite cute. It was a play on one of the popular cigarette brands that said “Sucking Does Not Kill”. I liked how, in it’s small way, it implies that smoking is dangerous to ones health while the candy, well, it’s a better alternative, right?

However, days later I came across this one in a local grocery store:

I was quite shocked and angered by what I had seen. This actually encourages young children to think smoking is cool Grrr.

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Laugh Trip Moments with the Seniors

In the past few days, we have been discussing the senses. It sure has been fun talking to the kids about their ideas of what things they can see, smell, taste, feel and hear are. A lot of funny moments sure come out of these discussions. For example:

Teacher Ria: Okay, who can tell me what we see when we look up at the sky?

Kid #1: The clouds, Teacher!

Kid #2: Mr. Sun, Teacher!

Kid #3: Teacher, where’s Superman? I can’t find him!

In talking about taste:

Teacher Ria: So, what part of our body helps us know what things taste like?

Children: Tongue!

Teacher Ria: Correct! With our tongues, we can taste sweet, salty, sour, bitter and even spicy stuff. Now lets play a guessing game. Can anyone tell me what a chocolate bar tastes like?

Kid#1: Sweet teacher!

Teacher Ria: Good job! Now lets try this. What about a calamansi (Philippine lemon)?

Kid #2: Asim, Teacher. (Sour, Teacher)

Teacher Ria: Great! What about ampalaya?

Kid #3: Bitter.

Teacher Ria: Correct again! Very good guys. Now…this is tricky…let’s try this one. What does rice taste like (hmmm….no particular taste right?)

After carefully pondering over it. Child #4: I know, Teacher!

Teacher Ria: What?

Child #4: It’s yummy Teacher!

Hmmm….that’s right I guess!

This one I don’t know is laughable or what:

Kid: Teacher, what’s that? (pointing to my face)

Teacher Ria: What’s what?

Kid: There’s black-black on your face. And dots too. (referring to lines on my forehead and my freckles)

Gee….I guess I need to invest in some wrinkle cream and good foundation too!!!

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