Gardens by the Bay - Celebration of Chrysanthemums { Mid Autumn Festival 2015 }

We visited Gardens by the Bay today and we enjoyed the clean, refreshing air in the flower dome. The theme from now till 10 November is "Celebration of Chrysanthemums".

There is a current promotion going on now and it's so worth it to go. 

1. Local seniors (aged 60 and above) can enjoy free entry into two conservatories. Accompanying caregivers of seniors can also enjoy 50% discount into two conservatories. Valid from 1 June to 31 December 2015.

2. Mid-Autumn Festival 2015 Promotion for Children
From 25 September to 4 October 2015, 5pm to 9pm daily, every child who brings along a lantern* will enjoy free admission to both conservatories.'

Before my visit, I imagined that I was going to see a sea of yellow Chrysanthemum flowers. But I was wrong. There are so many different species of Chrysanthemum and they come in many beautiful colours and shapes. 

The following photographs are taken by my 3 year old when we were in the flower dome.

Beautiful flowers as the background for our photos. 

If you are going to Gardens by the Bay for the lantern display, then you can head over to the Supertree Grove area. There are lantern display of many different themes. 

We spent some time taking photographs with our own Zodiac animal. 

The 3 Oxen in our family - My mother-in-law, my son and myself. 

The 2 snakes - My husband and his aunt.

Our only dragon girl, Faith. 

Our little piglet - Natalie.

There are many more lantern display and you have to be there yourself to explore. 

Look out for the Floral Clock as well. 

So don't wait, bring your parents and children to Gardens by the Bay now and have a fun Mid Autumn Festival. 

Literature Based Learning - Alexander and the Wind-Up Mouse

Alexander and the Wind-Up Mouse

When we saw this book at a bookshop", I was attracted to it and when I flipped through the book, I fell in love with it immediately. The illustrations are really beautiful and the moral of this story is something I want my children to learn - " Be Thankful For Who You Are" and " Be Contented With What You Have". So immediately, I knew I found another book for our Literature Based Learning, another book with a good moral for the kids. 

Character Study: 

For this book, I decided that it is going to be a more art and craft based learning. So, we made Alexander, the mouse and Willy, the wind-up mouse. 

We reused toilet rolls, painted it grey and added the details to make it into a mouse. Really easy. 

We cut the toilet roll into this shape and use white glue to stick the sharp end together. 

One of the things that caught my eye about the book was the beautiful background. Hence, we did a flower sponge painting on a piece of yellow paper. 

This is the final product of the mouse and the background. 

Making the Lizard. 

                                   

I printed out a picture of a lizard and cut out the shape. I put the outline on top of another piece of paper and squeeze some poster colour on it and allowed Faith to use sponge to spread out the paint. 

Once the paint is spread out, we remove the piece with the outline and got the shape of the lizard. 

We added a big googlies eye to complete our lizard. 

I used the characters that we created to talk to the children about each character. I asked them questions like - " Are they happy with what they have?" and " What kind of character are they?".  After listening to this story, the children learnt to be contented with who they are and be thankful for who they are because the lives of others may seems true and perfect, but may not necessarily be true. 

I used this opportunity to educate the older children about cyber space as well. With social media platforms like facebook, it is easy to be deceived just by looking at the photos people post. Hence, what we see maybe very different from what is going on from reality. Hence, we should just be happy with what we have and with our lives, instead of envying people all the time. 

The kids love to role play with the characters. Faith uses the character figures to re-tell the story. 

I simply love her story telling and how she simplifies the story. From her story telling, I get to know how much she actually understands from the book. 

After the art and craft session, character study and story telling, we moved on to more academic activities. 

For number recognition and counting, we did 2 dot to dot activity. Faith loves counting and joining those dots. It helps her to practise her hand-eye coordination and this trains her hand muscle as well. 

I also printed out a worksheet for word recognition and to practice writing.  

Download the worksheets for Alexander and the Wind-Up Mouse here. 



Other Literature Based Learning Books:

The Ant and the Dove (Aesop's Fable)

Click here to see activities on 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar'.

World Wonders and Famous Landmarks around the World

Good Night, Little Rainbow Fish

Pink! Look under letter P to find the activities for this book.