A couple of weeks ago, Kylie's school were teaching them the topic on recycling & encouraged us parents to build a "flying vehicle" out of recycled materials with them back at home then have them submit it back to their teachers. I was more than happy to be able to participate in my daughter's learning in school & so I dug out a few scrap materials to build us a rocket!

Just some of the materials we used to build our rocket!

So first, we wrapped the kitchen roll in metallic tape that a friend left me for wrapping presents last christmas.

Kylie was really eager and participative as well. But of course, she needed help.

The shiny body of our rocket! 

I've never made a rocket before so i just winged it. Cut a tooth paste box in half and wrapped it in construction paper. Kylie chose purple - her favourite colour. This was gonna be our rocket's engines!

Wrapping the plastic cups in shiny tape!

Put them together & there we have the engines!

Next, add some double-sided tape (or glue) to the "engines" & stick them not o the body of our rocket!

Add a paper cone on top & TADAHHH! There we have our rocket! All that's mission now is some windows & lights!

Coloured markers will do the trick!

& Voila! My brother said it looks like a castle which I kind of agree but hey! At least we tried! haha. Should have added orange and red paper strips to the ends of the engines to create the look of the engines "blasting" so maybe it'll look more like a rocket. heh. But Kylie was so proud to bring her rocket to class! She also came home telling me what some of her classmates made :)

I really love how she'd learn things in school & tell me about it when she comes home. Like the other day, we walked past a recycling bin & she pulled me over to tell me what it was and what the different symbols on it meant (i.e. paper, plastic, glass). Kylie's been attending school since she was 2 months old (infant care then) & I attribute most of her learning and development to her school. In case you're wondering, she's attending a normal government school (PCF Sparkletots) & not some fancy private childcare & i must say, so far I've been relatively pleased with her school. Especially with her current Nursery 1 (N1) teachers. They're really patient & loving towards Kylie & I remember her 2nd teacher-in-charge was so eager to have her transferred to her class when Kylie was still in Playgroup. I really like her current form teacher's approach towards the kids as well. Had a chat with her during the meet-the-parents session early last month & I asked about how they're able to discipline so many kids at once & the skills and techniques she shared with me really impressed me. Like when we reprimand the kids, make them feel that it's about how they feel and not how we feel such as (you're going to make daddy angry if you do this or that) because you want them to be aware of themselves and their actions and their more likely to listen if it was about them rather than about someone else. Kylie's been around kids her age since she was 2 months old & it's also made her much more extroverted and sociable. Honestly, I was a bit apprehensive to leave her in the care of someone else at the start, especially when she was just a little over 2 months old but if you ask me now, I'd definitely put my 2nd kid in school at an early age too. & compared to nannies, I think they're able to learn and socialise a lot more but of course, finding the right school is important & frankly speaking, I really don't see much of a difference in private schools and government childcares. In the end, a child's development also depends on the kind of nurturing she has back at home and not solely on the child's school. Both parents and their child's educators have to work hand in hand in order to bring out the best in a child.