The Brilliant Pandas learned lots of interesting facts about St Nicholas Day and the Christmas season during visual arts lessons. They painted Santa Clauses with tempera paint on light blue paper. Before the creative process, we discussed the main characteristics of Santa Claus. Many different types of Santa Clauses were born that day. Big Santas, small Santas, upside-down Santas, hiding Santas, skinny Santas and fat Santas. The children perfectly personalized their Santas according to their preferences. Santa Claus will be thrilled when he will see all the art pieces made by the Brilliant Pandas. Well done!

The Brilliant Pandas children flew to the Chessplayground land and caught the chess pieces in a big mess. The pieces were all over the place. The Brilliant Pandas children know how important it is to be clean and organized and to line up nicely and neatly when needed. They helped the chess pieces to line up with King Crucifers help, and they learned the starting positions of the chess pieces. Then, they had a ‘reflection dancing’ game with the chess pieces and they mirrored their partner’s movements. Afterwards, they worked on their chess workbooks and put the missing chess piece stickers to their starting positions. Thanks to the Brilliant Pandas now all the chess pieces are in their places and are ready for a battle. Well done Pandas.

The Brilliant Pandas had a great time during the Thanksgiving party. They played bingo, made a toilet paper turkey craft as well as some delicious pumpkin muffins that they consumed after their lunch for their dessert. All Happy Kids classes were excellent performers. The Pandas sang two songs, one by Luise Armstrong, What a Wonderful World and the other a children’s song called the Powow Song.

Our brains are hard-wired to see the patterns and sequences in the world around us. Learning to see or hear and then recall patterns and sequences means that we can extract meaning from information, language, music, and movement as well as organize the information so we can remember it more easily. As children develop the ability to recognize and decode patterns and sequences, their learning potential is greatly enhanced because their brains are building skills in prediction and categorization, which can be applied to any new information they encounter.

Special Days are always highly appreciated at the Brilliant Pandas Class. This time we plunged headfirst into science. Investigating volcanoes and how they work, then creating a volcano craft and the height of the whole day making a REAL volcano of our own was just oodles of excitement and fun. Our volcano erupted and oozed colourful lava. Magnificent!

By participating in singing games, children develop social skills that prepare them for adulthood including; taking turns and waiting for turns, working cooperatively, observing and accepting others’ ideas, gaining skills and confidence in being a leader and follower, and watching, listening to, and speaking to one another.

The Brilliant Pandas have been busy working on a collaborative art project during visual art lessons. They took turns and painted parts of the giant Paw Patrol picture. The children were very excited, amazingly focused and made sure not to go outside the lines with their brushes and paint with the right colours in the right areas. If it were up to them, they would not finish painting and preparing the other parts of this picture that day! Well, there is more to come, stay seated, this Paw Patrol picture will be amazing when it is done by the Brilliant Pandas!

The Brilliant Pandas children flew to the Chessplayground land and helped Sturdy Rook to deliver some very important letters, such as a birthday card to Elephant Street 4, a birthday invitation to Guitar Street 6, a lost letter to Apple Street 1, and many other letters with many other purposes as well. Then, they listened to a story of the royal couple who got soaking wet in the rain and needed a rescue. We discussed what we would do if it would start to rain and we would have no umbrella. Some would run home, some would jump up and down in a muddy puddle, some would dance, some would take a raincoat out of their bag, and some would go underneath something near that can protect them from the rain. After the Brillant Pandas worked on their chess workbooks and fixed a chessboard by colouring some missing black squares, they connected the chess pieces with their shadows and learned how to identify them by their looks. What an amazing lesson it was!

Today the Brilliant Pandas had a special day. We celebrated Halloween. Big and small dressed up in costumes to have some fun. Witches, cats, bats and superheroes gathered in the classroom to have some exciting activities. Bingo was a real hit as always. This time looking for werewolves, cauldrons, witches and zombies was the task. Colouring sheets reflected the same theme and they were truly popular, but the best fun as always was baking with Ms Enikő! Making chocolate muffins with jelly bean bats has proven to be oodles of joy and laughter. Just look at the photos to take a peep into this marvellous day.

Theme: All Keyed Up

Exploring and playing instruments is an opportunity for strengthening fine motor skills. For instance, playing the woodblock requires that your child hold a mallet with a pincer grip and holding the guiro in one hand while striking the woodblock with the other. The skills being developed will benefit writing and sports as well as the study of a musical instrument. Encouraging the children to use both hands when playing also strengthens both dominant and non-dominant hands.

The Brilliant Pandas drew wicked witches and sharpened their drawing and colouring skills by having a directed drawing activity during visual art lessons. They excitedly followed the art teacher’s ’step-by-step’ instructions and personalized the witches according to their preferences. Although they drew ’the same’ witches, none of them look the same! Well done Pandas!

The Brilliant Pandas children flew to the Chessplayground land and played a few games with the chess pieces. First, they played an ‘opposite matching’ game with the chess beanbags where they had to find their opposite pairs out of many. Then, they went on a ‘treasure hunt’ and crawled through a tunnel to identify and take each chess piece back to their home one by one as the chess teacher nominated and told them to. After that, they worked on their chess workbooks and filled in the missing square pictures of the Chesspalace using stickers. At last as a treat, they coloured one colouring page from the book related to our hunting game. What an amazing adventure it was!

The Harvest Assembly was great fun both for the children and the teachers. The Brilliant Pandas were wonderful and their performance meticulous. The many games and activities everyone joined and enjoyed immensely. We hope that looking at the photos you will appreciate just how much fun we had.

Think of the brain as lots of different filing cabinets. The cabinet that can hear and distinguish sounds is different from the cabinet that holds the ability to make a movement. When we ask the brain to listen, then distinguish a sound and respond with a movement we are strengthening the connections that in the future we will use to integrate new learning, make decisions, and be critical thinkers.

The Brilliant Pandas are celebrating the month of the Big Draw Festival and are focusing on their drawing skills. The festival’s theme this year is ‘Make the Change’. The Brilliant Pandas decided to focus on professions that make changes in our everyday life and drew firefighters this time. They followed the art teacher’s ‘step-by-step’ instructions and drew amazing firefighters! Well done Pandas!

There have been two very busy weeks for the children at the Brilliant Pandas class.
Being able to react calmly and quickly in an emergency can save lives. This is what we established through many exciting and fun activities the other day when we celebrated World First Aid Day. We looked at what can be found in a first aid kit, discussed the different injuries there might occur in our environment, learnt the protocol for establishing if someone is unconscious, followed by learning the recovery position. The Brilliant Pandas had fun galore and learnt many exciting new things.
Opening Party was a real success this time also. This is always a great opportunity for parents and children to get together and meet up, as well as for the teachers to give more information about the curriculum and what lies ahead for all of us in the forthcoming school year.
It is always a true adventure for all of us, when the ponies visit. So this was the case on this occasion too.
We hope the photos will reflect the tremendous fun we had!
Please call back in a couple of weeks for some fresh exciting news!

Exposing children to different genres in music, such as opera, provides a telescopic view into history, as well as a spark for imagination, creativity, and emotion. Dating back to the 16th century, opera is the one of the most complex of all art forms. Stories told with singing, elaborate sets and costumes, orchestra, and props, and historically wealthy patrons were, at one time, the most popular form of entertainment.

The Brilliant Pandas were inspired by the International Dot Day and read ‘The Dot’ book written by Peter H. Reynolds. They painted their own tiny dots and made them bigger and bigger and even more colourful too. They realized even a small dot can take them through undiscovered artistic journeys and creative-lands. The project proved to them that they can be all little artists. Well done Pandas!

The first two weeks of school have flown by.
The Brilliant Pandas all settled and learnt the rules and expectations of our class.
Being a good friend is a must in our class, so it is not at all surprising that our World Literacy Project revolved all around this topic.
First, we read and revisited a cute story about a Little White Owl, who, though by appearance plain and white has multiple talents. His imagination and storytelling ability are one of a kind! He impresses even the pickiest and choosiest audience. As a follow up to the story we completed a number of fun and engaging activities. We sorted actions into two categories showing how a good or a bad friend would behave, then we extended that to talking about our own wishes and created our ideal best friend with those character features important to us. Being unique and one of a kind is what we all are and to prove this, we created our colourful owls.
We hope you will see how much we enjoyed these activities by looking at our photos!
To find out about our adventures, please call back in a couple of weeks.

Circle dances come from the wonderful tradition of communities dancing together, a tradition that is timeless in origin and yet relevant today in its capacity to foster togetherness. Dancing in a circle benefits the mind, body, and spirit. “Circle dance is a very accessible form of dance for people of all ages and abilities, with the emphasis on participation, not performance”. (Michaelsen) As the children cooperate together to do the steps of the experience creates a sense of belonging and contribution.

The Brilliant Pandas started the art lessons with an exciting art project. They made layered self-portraits: first, they highlighted the main lines of their faces on see-through sheets, then coloured the photocopied drawings of their self-portraits according to their characteristics. Lots of giggles and laughter filled these lessons and many funny-looking self-portraits were made! Well done Pandas, what drawtastic self-portraits you made!