October - Bubbly BUBBLES!!

Blowing bubbles, an age old playtime joy is fun, but more fun is in the making of your very own implement! So in line with celebrating the end of Kraftee Bug classes for calendar year 2018, what better creative activity than to involve the Bugs in the celebratory mood .....design your very own coloured straw implement and enjoy the moment!

Learning Outcome: Bubble blowing, working with straws, individual creativity and loads of fun Happy holidays Bugs! See you in 2019... taller, brighter, more questioning and creative! Thank you all for enriching our learning experience with you

 

October - Warm and Cool Colours

Colour is one of the most important aspects in design as it creates mood, evokes memories, expresses feelings and even relieves stress. Today we delved deeper into the world of colours by learning the ‘warm and cool’ colours. Class started with a brief discussion on the meaning and the comparison between the two tones. With the knowledge gained, our Bugs were tasked to arrange pencil colours according to the two groups of warm and cool colours.

Next, using oil pastel, the class was instructed to choose their colours and create their own warm and cool colours table.

Learning Outcome: the knowledge of warm and cool colours, Classifying Colours, oil pastel techniques and organizing information in Tables.

October - My Gift Box

There are many ways to nurture creativity in kids. One is definitely to encourage them to ‘make’ instead of 'buy'. Today, our creative journey takes us to creating a pyramid gift box out of just paper. What better way to impress gift giving than the pride that goes into making your own gift box for the small contents of sweets, chocolates or even an eraser....There you go - time fillers to make as many of these to give away or even as decorative pieces

Learning Outcome: Make with care and love; Simplicity in creativity; an effective and creative use of paper

October - Origami : Bookmark

Paper folding or 'Origami' provides both mental and physical stimulus with exercise. Origami helps develop hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills and mental concentration.

Today's activity challenged our Bugs at the cognitive level as they followed instructions, developed new skills and enhanced their creativity by constructing their very own cute Owl Bookmark from paper.

Learning outcome: Exploration of Origami, emotional satisfaction, nurturing creativity and imagination.

September- Neoplasticism: Piet Mondrian

Today the class was introduced to one of the pioneers of the 20th century abstract artist, Piet Mondrian. Students were briefed on the abstract arts, modern arts and the artist's signature style, 'Neoplasticism'.

Following today's lesson, they were tasked to create their own Neoplasticism art.

Learning outcome: A brief on art history, introduction to modern art and the understanding of Neoplasticism, colouring control and creativity

September-Mid-Autumn Festival - ‘Tanglung’!

Who says Mid-Autumn/Harvest Festival celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th month in the Han calendar is just a festival celebrated by Malaysian Chinese? With the full moon on that day Chinese in several Asian countries also celebrate the end of harvest in their own way albeit named differently, in varying ways and eating their own special fare; and more importantly the occasion for family reunions.

In Malaysia, the retailing and making of mooncakes in several flavours and shapes herald the coming of the festival, followed by sale of lanterns in a myriad of colours, designs and materials to the delight of children.

Today, the Bugs learnt the history and significance of the Mid-Autumn Festival also popularly known as Mooncake or Lantern ('Tanglung' in Chinese) festival, and what it means to the family unit and significance to all in a multi-racial and cultural society like Malaysia.

To reinforce a memorable take home value, the Bugs learnt to make a basic lantern with simple materials like ice cream sticks and wax paper. They were given the liberty to embellish their lanterns with individual designs and colours.

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival (24/9/2018)!!

Learning outcome: a lesson on Mid-Autumn Festival, making of a basic lantern, individual creative preferences and colours

September - My Flag

In conjunction with Malaysia Day celebrations tomorrow, we evaluated the vibrant colours of the 14 state flags of Malaysia today. From Perlis to Sabah, we discussed briefly the design and colours of each flag as well as the symbolic meanings.

Next, with the knowledge gained, our Bugs were tasked to exercise their creativity by creating their own flag. Every image and colour used in the design must have a reason or story behind it.

Learning outcome: Enhancing our Bugs' general knowledge of Malaysia, developing their motor skills especially in hand-eye coordination and skill in colouring neatly within lines; creativity and understanding of design concept through the creation of their own flag.

Happy Malaysia Day !

September - How’s the Weather?

Today we introduced our Bugs to a scientific tool – ‘Charts’! Charts help one to learn how to gather, organize, understand and share information through graphics and visualization. The subject matter chosen today was ‘Weather’. The class started with a discussion on the weather, describing types of weather and personal preferences for the types of weather and why. Next, they went about creating a chart to organize and classify the types of weather.

Besides learning to organize information creatively, today’s lesson also helps our Bugs to be drawn to features of the weather.

Learning outcome: Chart-making, awareness of types of weather and creative representation of the individual's understanding of the subject

August - Merdeka Paper Bag

Paper-folding or Origami literally translates into 'ori'(folding) and ‘gami’ (paper). Research shows paper-folding has many educational benefits mainly in developing behavioural skills, cooperative learning, cognitive development and helps in the learning of mathematics, particularly in geometry and spatial visualization abilities.

Today our bugs explored this beautiful art by creating paper bags from scratch. Next, they were asked to decorate the paper bag, according to the month’s theme – ‘Merdeka’.

This activity engaged our students in schematic play; which is a powerful learning process for young children, exercise creativity and teaching children to listen and follow directions.  

Learning outcome:  paper bag making, practice of origami and creativity

August : Merdeka Composition

August is the Merdeka month!!! What better time to foster and instill Malaysian patriotism and nationalistic spirit in children. 

Today’s activity centres around composition where our Bugs were first tasked to colour a series of Malaysian icons such as the Jalur Gemilang, KL Tower, KLCC etc. Next, using the icons, they were guided to arrange the icons on a piece of paper, exploring the art and skills of composition as in identifying focal points, visual balancing and experimenting the elements that complement each other.

Today’s exercise also focused on colouring technique; stirring up a livelier effect with the application of light and dark.

Learning outcome: Instilling patriotism, exercise in composition and visual arrangements; as well as developing colouring technique.

July - Wayang Kulit

'Wayang kulit' or shadow play, a royal court entertainment before and then a popular traditional entertainment in northeast peninsular Malaysia is soon to be a forgotten art form if efforts are not continued to preserve it. With similarities to puppetry, it re-enacts history, folklore of heroes and heroines and stories real and imagined.

Today's lessons hope to rekindle the child's imagination through play and art. Students crafted their own "wayang kulit" character and as part of public speaking exercise, they were asked to tell a short story based on that character.

Learning outcome: Wayang Kulit making, story telling, character design and creativity development

July - Blow Painting

Creativity is not about just being able to paint perfectly but to also work with paints. It is about experimenting with new things, being careless, getting messy, learning about what works and what doesn’t, and more importantly - having FUN! Today our activity was just that – EXPLORING! The adventure began with first putting drops of watercolour on paper. Our Bugs then gently blew the drops around using straws. As the drops of paint move, they left an uneven trail of paint and colours...so creating an abstract effect. The different colours used brought about fusion and blend of vibrant shades. There were squeals of excitement and joy all around, watching how masterpieces emerged.

Learning Outcome: Exploring colour blending and fusion, blow painting, movement, patience, precision, imagination, fine motor skills and creativity.

 

July - Watercolour: Depth and Distance.

Art is all about exploring creatively; a tool to help one's express our senses in various media and forms.
Today, our bugs explored another adventure in art - the technique of creating depth and distance in a watercolour landscape. Our bugs learnt how to differentiate and create visuals of distance by using a splash of graduating colour tones and a basic knowledge of perspective.

Learning outcome: creating depth and distance in an art work, the use and understanding of light and dark toned colours, and techniques with water colour.

July - Contour Art

Krafteebug IS BACK, and Contour Art is the lesson of the day!

After a long hiatus, Contour Art was chosen to ease students back into exercising their eye-hand-mental coordination for creative output. Students were shown a sample of what is to be done and how...with precision and patience. They were then encouraged to make their choice of subject matter, be it flora, fauna, insect or the abstract ....carefully coming up first with the body and then working on the contours and clever use of colours to bring the subject to life.

Learning Outcome: precision, patience, clarity and clever use of colours

May - Mother's Day

Mother’s Day is around the corner! The class started with a discussion on “why my mom is the best!”. Fascinatingly the Bugs gave wonderful answers! To name a few - “because my mom gave birth to me", "mom bought me Lego", "cooks the best nasi goreng” and many more!

But what was interesting about today’s activity was how the Bugs 'took over' the class. Initially, the task was to create a Mother’s Day card but somehow, in the spirit of ‘freedom in creativity’, the Bugs were allowed to creatively come up with their own concept of a Mother’s Day gift. A few came up with abstract handprints - messy but with swell outcome especially in fostering curiosity and experimentation, stimulating imagination and created understanding of the senses.

The main objective is to instil in our Bugs the spirit of giving, encourage showing of appreciation towards loved ones and the idea of making gifts instead of buying.

Learning outcome: Express creativity, encourage self-made, crafted gifts instead of acquiring commercial ones.

April - Facial Proportions

We all love to draw, copy, doodle and scribble. Who cares if our representations of what we fancy does not meet that of the actual and real world?

But portraiture is another game altogether, and today the Bugs are taken into the adventure of facial proportions! There are many ways to create a proportionate portraiture but today, our Bugs were guided through the simplest and easiest way of creating one - by only using pencils, erasers and simple measurement using the thumb and index finger.

This activity exercises a more realistic approach to facial drawing and introducing the concept of proportion through using it in the drawing of the human figure.

Learning outcome: Introduction and simple technique in creating proportionate portraiture, creative enhancement and experimenting and developing different styles of human figure drawing.

April - Layers of the Earth Popup Book

How to make Science interesting? Popups!! Today our Bugs were introduced to the layers of the earth! The class started with a round table discussion on what is on and above the ground. Next, with the help of visual aids, our Bugs learnt the different layers and characteristics of the earth; from ‘crust, mantle, outer core to the inner core’. To make things more interesting, they were asked to create a popup book based on today’s lesson.

Learning outcome: Knowledge of the Layers of the Earth, the art of making popup book, and loads of fun

April - Positive and Negative Space

Today, our students were exposed to another visual component of art - ‘Space’. Space is an element of art by which positive and negative areas are defined or a sense of depth achieved in an art work.

Using coloured construction papers, our Bugs explored the relationship between positive and negative space by creating their own original visual images.

Learning Outcome: promote an awareness of shape and space, learn about negative and positive shapes, contrast, and develop cutting and gluing skills.

April - Paper Roll Emotion Doll

Researchers find kids learn more through play. David Whitebread, a psychologist at Cambridge University says playing is essential to their development as they will learn to persevere, able to control attention and control their emotions. Based on that research, the theme chosen for today was ‘learning through play’; and the subject that we focused on was ‘emotions’.

As children grow and are exposed to different situations, their emotional lives also become more complex. Developing skills for managing a range of emotions is therefore very important for their emotional well-being.

Doll is a fun and simple tool for teaching kids about a variety of subjects, especially emotions. Today our Bugs were tasked to create their own doll from recycled material (tissue paper roll) that enabled the change of emotions.

Learning outcome: Emotion management, enhance imaginative skills, promotes toy-making and promotes recycling.

March - Batik

Today, we emphasised on the four areas of creative development; `sensory, imagination, material and technique’. The class started with a brief introduction of our traditional art - ‘Batik’, and a video on Batik painting was shown to the class (Sensory). Next, a demonstration of the technique was shown and the class was asked to come up with their own Batik subject matter/theme (Imagination). The students then explored the combination of crayon (alternative to wax) and watercolour (material). This activity applied the technique of wax-resist and watercolour wash which emphasized on creating smooth changes of colour (technique) 

 Learning outcome: Introduction to Batik (wax-resist), creativity and watercolour wash technique.

March - Endangered Animals

Four days ago, the world was shocked by the passing of the last Northern White male Rhino. This sparked actions to spread awareness and understanding on animal extinction. Today’s two sessions discussed the cause and effects of animal extinction and how being kind to animals and the environment can help save the animals.

Giant Pandas and African Elephants are listed in the Endangered Species. As part of this awareness initiative, students were introduced to finger puppet; where they created an impression of the lovable Panda and the African Elephant.

Learning Outcome: Awareness and Knowledge of Animal extinction, Creativity, Sensory, Imagination, Fun and Fine motor skills.

March: My Bedroom Name Tag

Children go through a phase of being possessive and wanting to put a stamp on things, and themselves. They seek ownership, attention and identity. Today's exercise on "personal name/door tag" is to acknowledge the child's need to express individuality and personality, a sense of pride in associating with what matters most and showcase their creative preferences in colours, style and form.

Learning outcome: Expression of Individuality and personality, Creativity exercise and sense of pride and accomplishment

March- Vitamins!

Vitamins! Today we have chosen a “healthier” subject matter, VITAMINS! The class started with a round table discussion on how healthy, rich with vitamins food can help our body. Focusing on the essential vitamins, the class discussed on the source and the benefits of Vitamin A, B, C, D, E and K. Next, the Bugs were tasked to creatively express visually what they have been taught onto paper.

 The main objective of today’s exercise is learning through visuals. Many large bodies of research indicate that visual cues help to better retrieve and retain information. We hope this exercise will help our Bugs to be a better learner; applying learning through visualizing technique as part of their creative learning process.

 Learning Outcome: The source and benefits of Vitamin A, B, C, D, E, and K, Learning through Visual technique, Creativity enhancement and hopefully promote awareness of a better, healthier diet for all.

March-My First Cartoon!

Today we have chosen a “healthier” subject matter, VITAMINS! The class started with a round table discussion on how healthy, rich with vitamins food can help our body. Focusing on the essential vitamins, the class discussed on the source and the benefits of Vitamin A, B, C, D, E and K. Next, the Bugs were tasked to creatively express visually what they have been taught onto paper. 

 The main objective of today’s exercise is learning through visuals. Many large bodies of research indicate that visual cues help to better retrieve and retain information. We hope this exercise will help our Bugs to be a better learner; applying learning through visualizing technique as part of their creative learning process. 

 Learning Outcome: The source and benefits of Vitamin A, B, C, D, E, and K, Learning through Visual technique, Creativity enhancement and hopefully promote awareness of a better, healthier diet for all.

February: Pencil Colour Technique!

Research finds colouring stimulates creativity, improves focus and hand to eye coordination, and motor skills. Today the class went technical where our students were introduced to the three basics of pencil colouring techniques; ‘Pressure, ‘Different Strokes’ and ‘Layering’. Next they were given an outline of ‘Bunga Raya’ to practise the techniques they have learnt earlier.
Today’s exercise helps our students understand the basics of colouring, pressure shading and colour blending. This would better their colouring skills which would also increase their self-confidence and motivation.

Learning Outcome: Colouring Techniques, Self-Motivation, Creativity

February - Oranges!

Today we celebrated the uniqueness of multi-cultural Malaysia by understanding the significant of ‘Oranges’ during Chinese New Year. Orange or “Kam” (in Cantonese) represents ‘good luck’ and it is a customary for families to exchange oranges during family visits.

The class started with a briefing on 5 interesting facts on Oranges. Then, using just construction papers, our Bugs were asked to craft their own oranges. Once completed, they have to present their artwork to the class. Public speaking exercise is one of our continuous improvement where we aim to help our students to improve their self-confidence and to better their communication skills which would help them to express their creative works better through words.

Learning outcome: Knowledge on Chinese culture, orange is more than a colour or fruit, creativity, and an exercise in public speaking.

February – Lion Dance Mask

Gong Xi Fatt Cai!!  With Chinese New Year around the corner, we dived into the festive spirit by choosing a CNY theme to kick-off our first creative session for 2018!! Today, the bugs were introduced to the ancient, all-time favourite Chinese art of ‘Lion Dance’ enjoyed by the young and old.  It was an exercise in appreciation of an art form that is so typical and easily identifiable during all 15 days of the Chinese New Year celebrations.

Aside from exploring the Chinese culture, calling attention to the noise that comes with the art, today’s exercise helped hand-eyes coordination, development of patience and learning focus on details.   They were also drawn to recognise colour, hue shape and the form of the lion’s mask.

Learning outcome: Introduction to Chinese Lion Dancing, the form of Lion dance mask, hand-eye coordination, patience, focus and dabble in colours.