Pattern Jon

There's something about 4yo Jon every time he comes to my art class.

The pattern in him.

1) His eyes started to water when his Daddy walked out of the classroom.

2) He doesn't allow me to close the door.

3) I was trying to cheer him up with funny joke and talking about thing that we are going to draw.

4) He would look at the white board at times and wondering at the door and check the presence of his Daddy image.

5) He cried out loud if he can't control himself, you could see some of his classmates were covering their ears! His daddy brought him out and made a discussion.

6) He entered the classroom. He decided to draw.

7) He can colour with no hesitation.

8) Painting calms him down.

9) He can't wait to show his Daddy his finished artwork! He was rewarded by his Daddy with a candy. I gave him snack as well.

10) He snacked and walked around the classroom happily, as others were still busying with their work.

11) When we said goodbye, he hugged my legs and couldn't let go. I squatted down and told him, "Promise Teacher Esther, not to cry on the next lesson k." He nodded his head.

This was his 3rd time, I need to break this pattern, I told his Dad to come earlier to prepare himself but it didn't work. I am thinking for the next lesson we shall work on some handicraft work to distract his fear.

Hope it works.

12yo Aimee says

12yo Aimee told us about her family planning to move to Australia after she has finished her college in Singapore.

I added, "Oh why don't you complete your university then moves to Australia, oh I'm going to miss you Aimee!"

She pointed at 13yo Sonia and asked, "How about you Sonia, are you moving to Germany after your college?"

Sonia was like, "Ehhh? I have no idea?"

Then I added, "Oh I'm going to miss you too Sonia!"

Sonia gave me a "Oh dear Teacher Esther" look.

Aimee announced, "WE WILL VISIT YOU!"

She continued, "We will visit you and by the time you will be an old grandma with no children!"

Both Aimee and Sonia laughed.

Yes, they are mean. But they are rushing me to have my own kids like elderlies.

Poor Teacher Esther. What would I be when I grow old. Old grandma with no children, perhaps.

My art students' Mid Autumn Festival!

Here, I'd compiled the videos of my little artists' lanterns and moon cakes making. The advance level students are not featured here as they are working on other projects. A pity that I didn't manage to capture the video of the morning class students. We made different kind of lanterns on every mid autumn festival. I hope the children love what they had experienced in this very moment they had in their art class.  :)

7yo Kean Yu said...

7yo Kean Yu was transferred from Thursday art class to Saturday art class, and he had joined the class for almost 3 terms time. The class is especially noisy because there are too many boys than girls. I asked Kean Yu, can he handle the noise in this class? Will he miss and still prefer his Thursday art class? He answered in no time, "No!"

I asked him why. He said, "I almost kissed Rachel when we looked into each other's eyes!!!!!!!"

I was giggling at him.

He continued, "Luckily, I shake my head, then I wake up!!!!!!"

Then, the whole class burst into laughter!

Sweet memories

12yo Joel Gn composed this beautiful music for all his teachers and friends called Sweet memories. Isn't it beautiful. Joel, T. Esther is proud of you! Thank you for the sweet memories! ^.^

Swan turned into Chicken!

8yo Isabelle showed me her growth patterns art work with her ballet pose, stretch her arm and one hand holding her paper, tip toe on the ground and the leg raised on the other side! I was amazed by her graceful pose. I posed like her and teased her, "Belle Belle, why are you doing this when you show me your work?!"

Chubby looking Isabelle knew I was teasing her, "Teacher Esther, you looked like a chicken!"

The whole class laughed.

"Do I? Do I? I never learnt how to dance ballet before, well, never mind!" I sounded disappointed.

"Teacher Esther, like this!" 11yo Sze Ying was kind enough to show me how.

"Ooh I see, so we must pose like a swan! You mean like this!?" I followed her pose.

"Oh dear Teacher Esther, you still look like a chicken!!!" Sze Ying commented.

The whole class filled with laughter!

Remember to SMILE!

When my students reached 12yo which is their very tense year and are doing their PSLE (Primary School Leaving Examination). You will see the numbers of students will go down, they will stop art class. Basically, it will be the time for them to prepare for their exam. But, I must say I always very pleased to see students who can make it for their art class even it was their PSLE week. It is not about my salary, it is more about their time management is well-managed.

For instance, 12yo Joel Gn came on last Saturday. I asked him if it was his PSLE week and why he was coming for class. He told me that his mum wanted him to come and to do art is actually to relax. Joel's Mum knows he needs it and yes, his Mum told him to right to do is to SMILE... ever since, when he was preparing his PSLE this year... this boy forgot to smile.

Dear Students, no matter how tough the school work is, face it, duel with it! You can make it! :)

11yo Ethan panicked us!

I was working on some pencil touch up work on Ethan's heart drawing artwork. I was showing him how it should be done and he said something, "It is coming!"

"What is coming?" I asked.

"Omg, it is coming!!!!!!!" Ethan cried and his nose "flushed" out blood!

I witnessed his nose bleed like waterfall and I was terrified! I quickly helped him to lean back and grabbed some tissue papers from my bag! Handed him the tissue papers and trying to stop the nose from bleeding!

All the sudden, there was a loud voice screaming a me!

"Teacher Esther, WRONG! You should ask Ethan to lean forward, not backward!" 11yo Carissa exclaimed.

"How do you know! How do you know!?" I was still terrified.

"I had nose bleed many times, I'm very experience!" She replied.

I quickly bent Ethan forward and grabbed some more tissue papers for him as his nose was still bleeding... Oh dear, I almost fainted when I saw the blood! The blood dripped onto Ethan's clothes and shoes, droplets of blood on the floor as well!

"Teacher Esther, pat some water onto his forehead as well, it might help! My dad always do that to me when my nose bleed!" Carissa instructed me.

I fled to the water cooler which situated just next door in no time, and got some cool water by my palm and used the other hand and patted on Ethan's forehead. I went and grabbed some more tissue papers and wiped away the patted wet forehead, then the loud sharp voice screamed at me again!

"Teacher Esther, why you wiped his forehead, you supposed to pat the water on his forehead and let it dry by itself! Oh dear, I made another round to the water cooler again and fetch him some water and patted it onto his forehead once again.

My class asked, " Where did you get the water from?"

"From the water cooler, I supposed cool water can help stop nose bleeding?" I guessed.

10yo Ellen exclaimed, "Eeee Teacher Esther, why did you get the water from the water cooler!!! Do you know we drink recycle water from water cooler! Your dirty hand will dirty the cooler! I will never drink the water from the cooler again!"

Oh dear, what was I doing! Anyway, my students helped me a lot when I was panicked!

Ethan's nose had stopped bleeding. 11yo Ryan Wan helped to clean up the floor.

There, we calmed down and out of the blue I told Ethan, "Ethan, you should have dripped some blood onto your artwork! It will look more artistic!"

Ethan went, "Yeah hor!"

The class all laughed and said, " Aiyooo Teacher Esther! You har!"

^.^

12yo Joel said...

"Teacher Esther, do you know that we gave Dad our red packets after we collected from our relatives."

Well, a Chinese custom when families pay visits to the elderly & friends during Chinese New Year with mandarins and the children get to receive red packets from the married couples and elderly. The little joy is that the red packet contain CASH! which means the more they collect, the merrier they are! ;)

"That's nice of him, he helps you to take care your red packets." I replied.

"No, he mixed my red packets with my sister's! And my sister cried!" Joel wasn't very happy with the idea too.

"Haha, don't worry. I'm sure he will divide into twos for both of you and you get the same amount as your sister. That's really fair!" I calmed him down.

"No, he said the red packets belong to him!" He was very disappointed.

The whole class laughed and said he should have kept the red packets by himself instead.

"Well, that makes sense too. Your dad has to give away red packets as well and his children collect them back for him. What do you think?" I talked sense to Joel and he strongly agreed!

Well, it is a cycle! I must say.

My MC Days!

I was very sick, I had to take MC for 2 days classes ,
when I was resting and I found this message from my student.

年初六与七，我生病了，中伤风感冒又发高烧，真是没有方法上课，只好拿病假。没有想到学生在想念我了！

My students' conversation makes me laugh!

9yo Chloe asked the class, "Have you seen Teacher Esther's husband? I have seen him before!" 

I told her, "He's very handsome right!" 

"Hmm, he looks weird!" She replied.

The others asked, "how does he look like!"

14yo Theon interrupted, "I know how he looks like, they both look alike! He looks like Teacher Esther - The Man Teacher Esther!"
 
Gosh, I laughed out loud!

Crying Cayla wants Mummy!

4yo Cayla was not ready for art class today. She was crying almost half of the art session, crying for her Mummy. I can see all the unsatisfied baby faces, one of them even used his palms and covered his ears. But, I was really glad that they were so patience and even waiting for me to start the lesson. The only method to calm Cayla down was I gave her a kit kat chocolate. She didn't want to draw, I let her be. Until she finished the kit kat chocolate, she decided to draw. From there, she started to draw and follow instructions. The best part was when she painted the background with water colour, there was the time to express her calmness. 

Well done Cayla, I hope she doesn't cry again in the beginning of the class. Cayla! Learn to be BRAVE, you can do it! :)

I have to thank Christine Gan for the Kit Kat Chocolate that she gave us last Christmas! It helps! Chocolate indeed can make a person HAPPY! ;)

Dylan made my day! :)

Look what I had found when I was doing some spring cleaning at my desktop. 6yo Dylan issued me a certificate on last year 2012 Teacher's Day. It really made my day! Thank you Dylan, Teacher Esther will work hard this year! ^.^

Favourite Pets!

My advance level students were working on Manga character drawing recently and we were discussing about the next project that they are going to work on and this time I asked them to paint their favourite pet with acrylic on canvas and required them to bring a picture of their pet!

11yo Joel Gn exclaimed, "Teacher Esther, you mean I can bring my dog here to the art class!!!"

I have no idea this kid came out with this question, I thought I just told him to bring a picture of their pet??? 10yo Chloe agreed with Joel and she wanted to bring her pet to the classroom as well!

I told them, "No trouble, just bring the picture of your pet will do good."

But both insisted to bring their pet for the next lesson... guess what, they said it and they did it! But instead of dogs, both brought the same animal, terrapins!

I really admired by their say and their action!

Their pets are really their FAVOURITE! They must not be missed!

Sweet memories for their painting theme! :)

5yo Momo said...

Momo's Mummy told me that Momo is like a superstar, her schedule is so packed with classes and activities. When she mentioned about her most favourite classes and activities she has been attending. Momo exclaimed, "Art class!"

Then her Mummy continued, "Art class, cycling and roller blading....hmm... how about violin???"

"NO! I want to focus on Teacher Esther!!!" Momo replied in no time.

We were both laughing at her exclamation.

I lost my sketch book! :(

It was an old muji sketch book that I used it to sketch on the spot to inspire my art students at the zoo! They love it so much that they were bugging me to teach them how to draw more! Very meaningful sketch book but it was gone :'(

After the zoo event, I was tired and hungry. I told myself I needed a soupy dinner, I called my husband, I will eat dinner before home. Went to the Kopitiam and order a bowl of hot bee hoon kueh soup. I placed my sketch book on the chair and moved on to collect my dinner. Then I placed my bag on top the sketchbook. There, I was enjoying my simple dinner. After I finished the food, the dish collector Uncle came and collected my tray and wrapped the table, I thanked him and grabbed my bag and went off!

I moved on to the Four Leaves Bakery and bought a loaf of bread for our next day breakfast. Then moved on to the bus stop. Hopped onto 167 bus and alight on the stop before and bought two bowls of Tou Huey without syrup and walked to the next bus stop to catch another bus home. When I finally reached home, I realized my sketchbook was not with me!!!!!  What am I doing! I totally forgot about it! Quickily, I called my colleagues to go to the food court and checked, no sign of it, someone took it away... BIG SIGH! 

The next day, I went to ask the dish collection counter, there was only lost umbrellas but no sketch book of mine... 

Life goes on....

Why my students hug me and love calling me Mama!?

My little students have been hugging me and called me "MaMa!" almost every classes lesson!

I told this to my older students 10yo Melody, 11yo Zhen Hong, 12yo Reina and Shania (10yo Keer & 11yo Teng Meng were absent) who are in upper primary levels, they told me straight without even thinking about it, "It is because when you do demo on the artwork and you are very good in art! That's why they hugged you!" 

Hmm...That could be one of the reason why they hugged me and called me Mama...

BOO!

Halloween is coming and I got my students to make Halloween masks! Different classes came out with different masks, some classes likes to follow my idea from the white board and also others love to create their own! This interesting theme excited them! The best part was, when I announced to them that they are going out of the classroom and "scare" people around the plaza! They cheered and were jumping up and down like little bunnies! One of my students suddenly hugged me and said "Teacher Esther, you are the best teacher in the world!" And I remembered, that was 8yo Rachel!

This is their first time "Booing" the public with their mask on!

4yo Asher and Javier were having fun making the masks, they spent more time decorate the mask because Cayla and Byton was absent.

This class has the most different and creative halloween character masks!

The children had a "Booing" good times that I had to tell the audiences to pretend to be scared! Haha!

This class has the most Ninjago masks! 

我们这一班！

Gor Gor Theon & Isaac wanted to express their drawings on the white board to the little ones! 

I'm glad that they are enjoying their artwork as well!

This is my favourite photograph! The Gor Gors make this class very special!

Imaginative drawing on the white board by Gor Gor Theon and Isaac! They really boosted up the little ones' imagination as well!

After their artwork, MoMo's mummy came to the art class with a yummy pandan cake for the little ones! Thank You Auntie Kim! :)

Everyone had packed and went home but Momo took out a new piece of paper and started to draw again! And she gave me this drawing! Isn't she a sweetie pie! :)

Art Talk!

When the lesson starts, my students will "report" to me about their family, school, games, movies and everything happening around them! The most amusing thing is they love to do it altogether and make the classroom very noisy! I stayed calm and would ask them to keep quiet first, raise their hands and do it one at the time! I would point at them one by one, as they'd reported, then times up for "reporting"! Eventually, I started my lesson!

Phew, it is always not easy to calm down the active brunch of children. The only thing that keep them quiet is to work on art! Art calms them down and work on their visual on a simple piece of paper and with colouring materials. Isn't that amazing! Of course, there are students who will get distracted or carried away easily. I have to pull them back to their work. What I could do is to let them express their speech right after their work, this will work as an communication between themselves and teacher and also understand their created visual by telling us. It is always a way to encourage the shy ones to stand front and talk about their work too, that will take times, the time will come when they are ready. I'm sure this will build up their bravery and personality.

My target for my little artists is not only their artwork talks by itself but also be able to present themselves to the audiences. Grow strong my little artists!

6yo Shayna shows and tells about her artwork.