Living Sanctuary Preschool

Being outside the classroom helps to reduce stress, relax the mind and body, as well as inspire creativity and imagination. At Living Sanctuary Preschool (LSP), we strongly believe in the outdoor environment being the Third Teacher. The Third Teacher refers to a child’s physical environment – that is conducive for running, and filled with materials to explore, build and have creative play – to facilitate discovery, experimentation and communication with others.

Earlier this year when the COVID restrictions were lifted, we were thrilled to be able to bring the children out for field trips. Each level went to a different environment outside the classroom: Pre-Nursery to Tayo Station, Nursery to Artground, K1 to the Art Science Museum, and K2 to River Wonders. The children were excited to go on their field trips! Prior to the event, there were also much anticipation in the classrooms, as the children actively discussed with each other what they would be doing at their respective field trips, even down to what they would be bringing for their snack!

The children had an amazing time at their field trips! It was wonderful to see them exploring the outdoor environment at River Wonders, carrying out collaborative and creative play at Tayo Station and the Artground, and discovering the fusion of art and science at the Art Science Museum! They had so much to share when they returned to school, and all of us cannot wait for the next field trip!

The staff of Living Sanctuary Preschool (LSP) had a wonderful time during the recent Teachers' Day Celebration! The day started with much excitement with the staff and children alike looking forward to the celebration. Exciting games were planned for the teachers, and the children gamely cheered their teachers on!

We would like to express our appreciation and gratitude for the many kind thoughts and blessings showered upon the Teachers on this special day. Thank you Children for your lovely cards and thoughtful gifts! Thank you Parents for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers, and being partners who work alongside us. Your support means everything to us!

Singapore Garden Festival

As part of the 8th Singapore Garden Festival 2022, Living Sanctuary Kindergarten had the honour to collaborate with other groups from the North-East District to participate in the Gardeners’ Cup competition.

Together with groups like the Tampines Changkat Community Garden and Meridian Secondary School, we created a Show Garden entitled “Garden of Nectar”. It is a fantasy garden for sunbirds to perch on. Taking inspiration from the sunbird’s skill of using discarded items to build their nests, the gardeners decorated the green space with educational art pieces made of recycled materials collected from their community. Our school played a part in this by submitting our Suncatcher Bulbs as part of the display.

Our Show Garden was awarded the top prize for the competition for our upcycling efforts and for intentionally choosing the plants that attract the sunbirds. We thank God for His blessings and favour!

This week, we feature the youngest children of Living Sanctuary Kindergarten: the Pre-Nursery children of Graceland! These little ones have adapted and settled into the school environment, and they are enjoying learning and interacting with one another and their teacher, Teacher Xin Tian.

In early childhood, music and movement activities help children to improve self-expression, hand-eye coordination, and even learn new concepts in a fun and engaging way! In this lesson, the children were taught songs about parts of their body. After becoming familiar with the songs, they were given scarves for placing on the parts of their body corresponding to the lyrics of the song sung. They listened carefully to the lyrics and when it came to the word ‘shoulder", they placed the scarf on their shoulders! They also practiced moving to fast and slow rhythms in the songs, and when the song said "freeze" they all froze in their positions!

The highlight of the activity was when the teacher played their favourite song 'Let it go' and the children had a great time tossing their scarves into the air! They had so much fun dancing and laughing as they participated in this activity!

Join us next time for another look into the lives of our 'eager beavers' at school!

This week, we feature the K1 children of Peaceland and their class project. Both the children and teachers always look forward to the termly projects, eager to share knowledge with one another and seize opportunities to nurture a mutual love for learning.

Together with their teacher, Teacher Samantha, the children began on the project with the brainstorming of topics they were interested to dive in and learn more. Finally, decided to learn about the various fishes in the sea. The children embarked on a research with gusto! They brought books and drawings about various fishes, and learnt how to share a few facts in simple sentences with their friends. This form of sharing helps them to gain confidence in speaking in front of a large group!

Children learnt about the body parts and the life cycle of a typical fish. They voted for their favourite fish, and it was a close fight between the shark and the shellfish! They read the story 'Swimmy' and after becoming familiar with the story, they used the story as inspiration to create their own fish toilet roll crafts. One of the highlights of the project was that they learnt to fold their own fish origami. This was an opportunity for them to practise their listening skills as they followed the instructions, and they did it well. They persevered in their task, and even helped one another by checking on the step by step origami instructions!

The Peaceland children had a wonderful time during the project period and they are now looking forward to their next project! Join us next time for another exciting look into the lives of the ‘eager beavers’ at LSK!

This week, we feature the K2 children of Gloryland and their class project. They always look forward to the termly projects with much enthusiasm, and are eager to share their knowledge and nurture their love for learning.

Together with their teacher, Teacher Simin, they brainstormed several ideas and decided to learn about sea creatures for their project, focusing on creatures like octopuses and jellyfish. Even before the project started, the children embarked on research with gusto! They brought pictures and information about various sea creatures, and learnt how to present this information to the class. This helped them to gain confidence in speaking in front of a large group!

There were many hands-on activities throughout the project, such as learning how to make a jellyfish bottle, and working as a team to plot out a safe passage through a sea of dangerous sea creatures. The children enjoyed listening to the true-life story of Inky the octopus, who famously escaped from a New Zealand aquarium in 2016. This sparked their interest in whether octopuses are true escape artists, and they watched a video proving just that! The children also learnt about the job scope of an aquarist--a person who looks after the creatures in an aquarium-- and many children shared that they would be interested in this job in the future!

The Gloryland children had a wonderful time during the project period and they are now looking forward to their next project! Join us next time for another report on the exciting time our children enjoy during project week!

This week, we resume featuring the classroom projects at Living Sanctuary Kindergarten (LSK). The children always look forward to project week with enthusiasm. During project weeks, they can go in-depth into topics that spark off greater interest in them.

The Nursery children of Joyland may be very young but they are of no exception when it comes to learning. Together with their teacher, Teacher Jia Yin, they brainstormed several ideas and decided to learn about butterflies for their project. Their activities included learning the life cycle of the butterfly, and the body parts of the butterfly. Over the weeks, they saw with their own eyes how the caterpillar slowly transformed over time into a cocoon, and finally into a beautiful butterfly! They also created caterpillar crafts and learnt songs and dances relating to the butterfly.

The highlight of their project was the releasing of their butterflies back to nature. It was a bittersweet moment for the children when they had to say goodbye to the creatures they had taken care of for so long. But they all agreed that the butterflies belonged to the outdoors.

The Joyland children had a wonderful time during the project period and they are now looking forward to their next project! Join us next time for another report on the exciting time our children enjoy during project week!

This week, we are sharing with you on the recent K2 Science Enrichment Camp, which took place over three days during the March 2022 school holidays. The focus for learning was the cotton plant. Children learnt about its uses and had a hands-on lesson.

First, the children were given the fluffy cotton bulb and asked to help separate the cotton fluff from the seeds. It was the first time the children were handling a cotton bulb and they were excited and fully engaged in it! Other activities they were involved in included examining the cotton plants grown in the LSK Garden. After learning more about the structure of the cotton plant, they returned to the classroom where they created their own cotton plant craft and labelled the parts of the plant. They also learnt about the life cycle of the cotton plant and created a pictorial model of it. The many interesting activities served not only to reinforce the learning but also to help them remember their learning. As the activities were interesting and engaging, the children tend to revisit their experiences at the camp and continue to hold conversations on it with their peers.

The highlight of the camp was making their own cotton stuffed toys! The children used the cotton they had painstakingly separated from the bulb. They even learnt to sew up the toy and did a great job! Again it was the first time they ever made a toy that involved the skill of sewing. They were justifiably proud of their achievement, and they happily showed off their toys to one another.

We are happy that the children have enjoyed the science camp. Through the camp activities, we also achieved the goal of helping children see how marvellous God's creations are!

During the recent March school holidays, Living Sanctuary Kindergarten (LSK) held a three-day science enrichment camp for the Nursery, K1 and K2 children. This week, we are sharing with you how our Nursery and K1 children enjoyed the science camp which focused on light and shadows.

At the start of the camp, the children were brought to a dark place and were asked what they would need in order to see better. All of them chorused, "Turn on the lights!" This sparked a discussion on what light is, where light can come from, and why it is important. Besides the discussions, the children were engaged in various hands-on activities. Some of these activities included making their own butterfly suncatchers, and then heading outdoors to 'catch the sun'! The curious children had such fun discovering how the sunlight shining through the cellophane paper could create beautiful patterns on the floor.

They also learnt that light can come in many colours, and these colours can mix to form new colours like green, orange and purple! They were exposed to the terms transparent, translucent, and opaque, and they experimented with shining a torchlight through liquids of various colours. One of the highlights of the camp was the shadow play! Children learnt to use their hands to create various shadows projected on a piece of cloth or on the floor. Later, they listened to the story 'Kites', which was dramatised for them in the form of a puppet show. They were then led to create their own light boxes and little butterfly puppets. Another exciting moment came when they used their puppets to act out the story!

The Nursery and K1 children had a wonderful time at the science camp, and they now know more about light and its marvels! The science camp had indeed heightened the children’s interest in discovering the world around them.

The K2 children of Agapeland at Living Sanctuary Kindergarten (LSK) have just concluded their term 1 project on polar bears, and they have learnt a lot about the fierce predators of the winter!

Before the project began, the children brainstormed on various topics together with their teacher, Teacher Jessie. After settling on finding out more on polar bears, they asked various questions, such as why are polar bears white? Why do they only live in cold areas? What do they eat? In the weeks leading up to the project, the children were encouraged to bring any pictures of polar bears or draw pictures of polar bears to display in their classroom.

During their project, the children had fun playing games such as animal charades, and conducting various science experiments, such as the one on the skin colour of polar bears. One of the highlights of the project was the creation of their polar bear silhouette for their art work. It was a time-consuming process, but not a single child complained, and serious faces could be seen as they focused intently on creating their silhouettes and then painstakingly painting a winter sunset sky. When it was finished, a classroom of polar bear silhouettes outlined against a beautiful wintry landscape greeted every visitor who entered their classroom!

The children have thoroughly enjoyed learning about polar bears, and they are eagerly looking forward to their next project. We are glad that you have had an amazing project, Children!

Before project week at Living Sanctuary Kindergarten (LSK), the K1 children of Faithland had a spirited discussion on what they would like to learn more about during their project. The result of the discussion was that they would be learning all about the friendly giants of the sea: whales!

They asked their form teacher, Teacher Chor Choo, many questions about whales: what do whales eat? Where do they live? How do whales breathe? Some also questioned if whales are fierce creatures! In the lead up to the project, the children were encouraged to bring any pictures of whales or draw pictures of whales to display in their classroom. This sparked their interest in the topic and they looked forward to their project with great anticipation!

During their project, the children carried out many interesting and engaging activities, such as creating their own narwhal puzzles, science experiments, and designing their own whale headbands. They also read the story 'The Snail and the Whale', and admired the friendship between the two vastly different sea creatures. The highlight after getting familiar with the story was to act it out! The children were excited to don costumes and snail and whale headbands, and embark on the mission to save the whale when it got beached! They had a blast acting out the story!

The children have had a whale of a time learning about the gentle giants of the sea, and there is no doubt they are looking forward to their next project. We are glad that you have had an amazing project, Children!

At Living Sanctuary Kindergarten (LSK), the last 3 weeks of the school term is usually devoted to a class project. Each class will take the time to think of topics that they want to find out more about, and embark on a series of hands-on activities to learn more about their chosen topic.

After a discussion with their form teacher, Teacher Janet, the Nursery children of Praiseland decided that they wanted to learn more about the feathered creatures known as birds. They first came up with a series of questions about birds, such as: Where can you find birds? What are birds that can be kept as pets? Why are birds happy when they fly? Can birds be harmful to people? Why do birds have different beaks?

One of the activities enjoyed most by the children was going outdoors to visit the school chicken. This activity was thought up as some of the children wondered whether a chicken was even a bird. While looking at the chicken, they observed the sounds it made and the colour of its feathers. They noted that it had wings and a sharp beak. Some sharp-eyed children even spotted an egg laid by the chicken! This sparked off a discussion about chickens and eggs, and they marveled at how useful birds can be to humans!

The children are enjoying their project on birds, and are looking forward to learning more about our feathered friends. Happy learning, children!