For young children, movement is body awareness. The Brilliant Pandas are learning what their bodies can do. They are defining the physical perimeters of their bodies. They are becoming less generalized and more specific in their recognition of where the different parts of their bodies are and what those different specific body parts can do individually or in union with other parts of the body. They are becoming aware of the body’s movements ranging from frantic activity to rest.

The Brilliant Pandas children made clever rocking snails and colourful butterflies in their visual arts lessons. They observed some pictures of snails and butterflies and identified their main physical characteristics with the help of their art teacher. With the help of their imagination, cutting, drawing, colouring, decision-making, designing, and sticking skills, they were able to make beautiful creations that will be part of our decoration for the End of Year Celebration.

The Brilliant Pandas children sat in a circle and showed their chess teacher how much they know about the chess pieces. They talked about the chess pieces’ values, moving features, and personal characteristics such as how many of them we have in a chess set or where are their starting positions. Then, they challenged themselves and jumped over the chessboard filled with chess pieces in various ways such as using only black and white squares and jumping on two feet. Jumping among objects on a squared surface is highly beneficial for children as it helps improve their gross motor skills, coordination, and balance. The activity requires them to accurately judge distances and timing, enhancing their spatial awareness and proprioception.

The Brilliant Pandas have had a busy two weeks. Children have been celebrating Environmental Day and the class enjoyed different activities based on protecting and helping our environment. First, the children read the book ‘Where is the Elephant?” and discussed how to care for nature, forests and animals. Then, they learned how to draw different kinds of lines and make various trees using watercolour as an art activity.
In Mathematics, we have been continuing with ‘One is a Snail, Ten is a Crab”, our counting by feet book, and learning the tens (a crab) and ones (a snail) with numbers and the value of each digit in any given two-digit number to 50.

The children in Brilliant Pandas have been celebrating a birthday with their friends. They started with the happy birthday song, and then a birthday cake was shared around the classroom. After this, we had some songs and dancing to celebrate the birthday.

The Brilliant Pandas finalised the week with an enjoyable field trip to the Nagy Sportágválasztó. They enjoyed moving, dancing, playing and trying different sports.

The Brilliant Pandas, have had an eventful two weeks. Mother’s Day was a great success. The children were very excited to perform for their mothers by singing songs and reciting a poem. The children also prepared a gift for their mothers and handed it to them after the performance.

During our Unit of Inquiry lessons, the children continued with the topic of the five senses. This was then incorporated into our Mother’s Day game where the children were asked to identify their mothers by using their sense of touch and smell. In Mathematics, the children have continued to look at the teen numbers and the value of each digit in any given two-digit number to 20.

Locomotor movements, such as walking, running, or hopping, move the body from one place to another. Developing our locomotor skills improves our balance, coordination, and steady-beat awareness. A large percentage of the human brain is dedicated to gross- and fine-motor coordination and balance. So when the Brilliant Pandas practice their locomotor skills, they exercise their brains, too.

The Brilliant Pandas children made cute cactus crafts in their visual arts lessons. First, the children extended their knowledge and understanding of cacti and identified their main features with their art teacher. Then, the children chose from the available cacti designs and painted their samples with different hues of green tempera paint. At last, the children drew cacti patterns on the samples with markers, join the pieces together, and decorated the cacti with colourful silk paper pieces according to their likes.

The Brilliant Pandas children had a fun-filled play date with the chess pieces. First, they put the chess pieces to their starting positions and reviewed their main features with their chess teacher on the magnetic chessboard. Then, they raced against each other in groups to see who can set the chessboards the fastest. Next, the children had to cover their eyes with their hands and spot and correct the mistakes in the settings. At last, the children pretended to be black and white bishops and moved themselves on the chessboard diagonally back and forth in various ways.

The Brilliant Pandas, have had an eventful two weeks. Mother’s Day is a great and heart-warming time to share our love and show our appreciation to our dearest moms and parents. Therefore, the children have been very busy preparing different surprises for their moms. They were practising singing and dancing for Mother’s Day and working on a card with their handprints to write about why they love their moms.

For the Unit of Inquiry, the Brilliant Pandas were very busy with nature. The children were learning how to use their five senses mindfully to observe and notice the change around them coming with spring. Then, they had a nice nature walk to make observations and collect some plants, flowers, stones, sticks and leaves. They recorded what they saw on a checklist during the nature walk. For Maths, the children sorted, grouped and counted the materials from the nature walk.

In this activity, the Brilliant Pandas are required to actively listen to the beats played on the drum to determine a movement response. When you ask children to move in response to a musical cue, you help them to coordinate what they hear with how they move. They also learn to control their movements by connecting their own movements to what they are hearing. They demonstrate they understand the difference between a walking beat and a running beat by changing their movements when the beat changes.

The Brilliant Pandas children learned a lot of interesting facts about planet Earth during their visual arts lessons. First, they looked at the Earth using the Google Earth Web and identified its main features. Next, they used silk and crepe paper pieces and made their own planet Earth according to their preferences. The children used their creativity and ripped, crumbled, and folded the paper pieces in many ways. At last, the children used gold paint and cotton bus and painted shiny stars around their planets.

The Brilliant Pandas children had a fun-filled chess lesson. They paired up with their classmates and tricked each other in the funniest ways. Were they clever enough to notice the changes their classmates made on the chessboards? Do they know the chess pieces’ starting positions well? You can find the answers in the pictures.

The Brilliant Pandas children made Easter bunnies during their visual arts lesson. First, they observed pictures of bunnies and identified their main physical characteristics. Next, they painted the bunnies’ faces, ears, and noses with white and pink paint. At last, they painted the bunnies’ eyes, noses, and whiskers with black paint and personalised them according to their preferences.

The Brilliant Pandas children played some chess-related circle games during their chess lesson. First, they collected words that are chess-related to see how many words they can collect together as a team. Then, they played a chess-related true or false game. If the word they said was chess related, they had to put their hands on their heads, but if the word was not chess related, they had to place their hands on their shoulders. At last, the children moved and acted on the chessboard mat like the chess pieces and had a lot of fun playing among the chess pieces.

For young children, movement is body awareness. The Brilliant Pandas are learning what their bodies can do. They are defining the physical perimeters of their bodies. They are becoming less generalized and more specific in their recognition of where the different parts of their bodies are and what those different specific body parts can do individually or in union with other parts of the body. They are becoming aware of the body’s movements ranging from frantic activity to rest.

We have had another eventful two weeks in the Brilliant Pandas. First, we had the preparations for the Easter Assembly and Party; the children learned about the symbolism of the Easter egg in spring and the new life we see around us in nature. Each child prepared a card and a gift for the family by painting and decorating styrofoam eggs. For Mathematics, the Brilliant Pandas started adding within ten. We first discussed the idea of adding one more and then two more and the children used different objects to add in Tribes groups. We also reflected on our holidays and the children spoke about what they will do while away from school during spring break.

The Brilliant Pandas have had a busy two weeks. They started the week by working on their costumes to finalise their art project, ‘Phoenix: Rising from Ashes’, for the Charity Art Exhibition. Meanwhile, we have been continuing with the preparations for the Charity Fashion Show.

For Jolly Phonics, the Brilliant Pandas have been learning alternative sounds and continuing to learn tricky words. They were working really hard on writing and reading during the weeks.

For the Charity Fashion Show event, The Brilliant Pandas were learning about the Hungarian rescue team HUNOR and the rescue dogs. On the day of the Charity Fashion Show, we had the cutest visitor in our classroom with her owner. We had a conversation about how they recently helped people in Turkey and all around the world as a team with their dogs. The Charity Fashion Show gave us a great opportunity to express our deep sense of gratitude to them for their help. It was so much fun and joyful thanks to your participation.

Graphic notation is a term that refers to any written or visual music system that uses simple pictures or symbols other than traditional music notes and rests to represent sounds and silence. Because of its simplicity, graphic notation gives the Brilliant Pandas easy access to understanding musical concepts through symbols as well as sounds and serves as a stepping stone to the world of traditional musical notation.

The Brilliant Pandas children worked on some Charity Art Exhibition decorations during one of their visual arts lessons. They painted and designed the welcome poster to the best of their knowledge and created some background paper for the information sheets with their handprints. They loved painting their hands and printing them on paper.

The Brilliant Pandas children went to the Chess Playground and extended their knowledge and skills during their chess lesson. First, they went to the palace and looked around in the garden. They all noticed and identified the main spring signs in the palace too. Then, they counted the number of animals in rows and files with the help of their classmates. At last, they practised their direction and orientation skills and copied each other’s movements with the help of the chess pieces.

We have had another busy fortnight in the Brilliant Pandas. The children have been preparing for the Charity Art Auction and discussing their emotions during and after online learning. For this, they have connected colours and lines to different feelings which they have been expressing through their artwork entitled ‘The Pheonix’. We also celebrated Carnival, where the children got the opportunity to dress up in their various costumes and spend the day full of games and activities, including a popular team-building bridge game. This week, the children have been preparing for the Fashion Show with the accompaniment of the adults. The theme this year will be ‘Space’ and the planets of the Solar System. We are looking forward to displaying our planets for you during the show. In Mathematics, the children have been counting in tens, inspired by the book ‘One is a Snail’. They have practised reading a number beyond twenty and selecting the correct animals to make the number.

Touching each of the Brilliant Pandas’ fingers individually while enjoying finger play will help them to begin to recognize each finger as separate from the others. As they grow and develop, children learn to move their fingers individually, beginning with the thumb and pointer finger. The ability to move each finger, one at a time, is called finger isolation and it is vital to fine motor development. It contributes to the ability to hold a pencil correctly, use scissors, button and zip clothes, tie shoelaces, and play a variety of musical instruments.

The Brilliant Pandas children extended their knowledge and understanding of primary, secondary, and tertiary colours and learned to distinguish between cold and warm colours during one of their visual arts lessons. They made colour wheels from recycled colourful paper pieces and filled the colour wheels’ slices with ripped paper pieces to the best of their knowledge.

The Brilliant Pandas children played their favourite racing game with the chess pieces. Who is faster? Queen Quenessa or Queen Octonia? Speedy Bishop or Busy Bishop? Who is more flexible? King Kaspian or Tiny Pawn? The children also worked on their chess workbooks and learned a lot of interesting facts about the chess pieces, such as how many of them we have in an army.

All you need is love. The Brilliant Pandas children extended their knowledge and understanding of the Valentine’s Day event during one of their visual arts lessons. They made Valentine’s Day-themed paper hearts, used crazy scissors and shape cutters, and decorated the hearts according to their likes with patterned colourful paper pieces.

The Brilliant Pandas children had a play date with the chess pieces. First, they sat in a circle and gave the chess dice around and named some chess-related words. Then, they participated in chessboard-related activities and practised positional language with the chess pieces in various ways.

We have had an eventful fortnight. Our current unit, ‘A Century of Art’, has been allowing the children to discover different forms of art. The Brilliant Pandas were visited by an aspiring writer and friend from the Cheeky Monkeys classroom to share the book written and illustrated by him. The children were very enthusiastic and had a great opportunity to be inspired to be creative.

The Brilliant Pandas celebrated ‘World Read Aloud Day’ with a reading from the story ‘The Worst Princess’ by Anna Kemp. The story was read with actions and repetition. Children had great joy while acting the story out. As a follow-up activity, the children worked in pairs to sequence pictures of the story and retell the story to their friends.

The Brilliant Pandas love celebrating fun and special days together. To celebrate Valentine’s Day, they sang and performed a dance together. During the week, we discussed what love means to them and the ways of expressing love to understand the importance of this day. Children practised a deep breathing exercise which helps strengthen the heart to have more space for love. They tried to find where their heart is and listen to how it beats. To discover more, they listened to their own heartbeat again after jumping and running and talked about the differences and the reasons. Also, they listened to each other’s heartbeat and discussed how hearing someone else’s heart beating made them feel. In the end, they shared where they feel love as a feeling in their body and how they can spread love.
The Pandas enjoyed discovering different movements with lots of joy during Rolli Polli. It is always a ton of fun with the obstacle course giving the opportunity for children to roll and play on and around the foam structure.

Singing is a basic and beautiful form of human expression. The Brilliant Pandas’ ability to be expressive in language extends to exploring their many voices, singing songs in a limited range, and emerging pitch accuracy. In keeping with the integrated nature of learning, the benefits of singing extend beyond the ability to match pitches. Singing helps with memory and recall, physical development, creativity, and socialization.

The Brilliant Pandas children worked on their chess workbooks and completed various chess-related activities, such as fixing broken chessboards and placing the missing chess pieces in their places. They deepened their knowledge of chessboards, ranks, files, and diagonals, such as placing the chess pieces in various ways on them.

What is help? How to ask for help? When can you help? Can you always help? The Brilliant Pandas children made helping hand-themed artwork during one of their visual arts lessons. First, the children extended their knowledge of the importance of help and asking for help when needed. Then, they made helping hand-themed artwork by drawing their hands around with pencils, cutting their paper hands out on their outlines, and decorating them to the best of their knowledge.

We have had another busy fortnight in the Brilliant Pandas. The children have been preparing for the Big Draw charity event and discussing their emotions during and after online learning. For this, they have connected colours and lines to different feelings which will then be expressed through their artwork. Also this week, the children have been preparing for the Valentine’s Day assembly with the accompaniment of Mr Kyle on his guitar. We are looking forward to performing our songs for the parents at the assembly. In Mathematics, the children have been introduced to capacity as a measurement. They have been shown how to compare the capacities of different containers in the classroom and use the language of full, half full, and empty for description.

Experiencing the sound of the slide whistle going from low to high and high to low allows the Brilliant Pandas to focus on the melodic direction and sound of the glissando. Using their voices and the movement of their bodies to imitate the sound and shape of a glissando is a multi-sensory learning experience, one that lights up more of the brain and provides a more lasting learning experience.

We, the Brilliant Pandas, have had a busy two weeks. We have been continuing with our unit on ’A Century of Art’. We talked about art as a way of expression. Writing, singing, dancing and painting are different forms of expression to convey ideas and feelings. One of the Brilliant Pandas brought a microphone to show and tell to her friends. It gave us a great opportunity to talk about ’music’ as a different form of art and self-expression. The children learned that artists are not just painters, but also musicians and that we can all be inspired to learn to play an instrument or sing by famous musicians. Children, who were willing to sing, performed to their friends with the microphone. They also enjoyed hearing their voices through the microphone.
We have been continuing with learning the new sounds of the Jolly Phonics. For Maths, to learn the concept of measuring, ‘Is It Heavy or Light?’, the song by Jack Hartmann, was played to learn the objects which are heavy and light by practising with movements. Also, it was explained that we can compare the weights of different objects by using words like ‘heavier’ and ‘lighter’. To measure and compare, the children worked at the different tables as Tribes and they were encouraged to compare the objects by using the words ‘heavier’ and ‘lighter’.
The children in Brilliant Pandas have been celebrating birthdays with their friends for the past two weeks. The children started with the happy birthday song. Then, the birthday cakes were shared around the classroom. After this, we had some songs and dancing to celebrate our birthdays.

In the activity ’Beat and No Beat’ the Brilliant Pandas were listening to the music, making a distinction between hearing music with a beat or music with no beat, and responding creatively to what they heard. The rhythmic awareness that comes from listening to rhythm in music can carry over to an increased awareness of the rhythmic structure of language. This helps children speak, read, and listen fluently and comprehensively.

The Brilliant Pandas children made winter tree collages during one of their visual arts lessons. First, they observed various winter landscapes and learned a lot of interesting facts about winter trees. Then, they chose materials, such as foil pieces, foam paper pieces, felt sheet pieces, pompoms, and silk paper pieces, and made winter trees according to their preferences.

The Brilliant Pandas children went on a sailing trip with the chess pieces. First, they listened to the chess pieces and Mr Klye who told his favourite sailing memories to the children. Then, they dramatized the most exciting parts of the story using various kinds of materials. They learned how to choose someone to be the ‘It’ fairly and how to take turns when choosing a captain for the boat. Every child had a chance to be a captain and drive a sailing boat with a steering wheel which they enjoyed a lot. At last, the children learned and practiced setting up a chessboard and putting the chess pieces in their starting positions.

Listening, thinking, and making choices are required for the Brilliant Pandas to pay attention to the sound prompts in this game. In this process, they are using and developing their listening skills. As they think about the sounds in nature and imitate (a bear’s growl) they are using and developing their creative thinking skills. Finally, as they choose and use these sounds in the game they are exercising choice and strengthening their listening awareness.

The Brilliant Pandas children made beautiful and shiny baubles during one of their visual arts lessons. First, they observed various bauble designs and identified their similarities and differences with the art teacher. Then, they drew colourful designs, glued craft gems, and shiny Christmas-themed sequins on them in various ways, and shook glitter on them according to their preferences.

The Brilliant Pandas children had their last chess lesson in 2022. First, they looked around the winter-themed Chess Palace and talked about the changes they had noticed there since autumn. Then, they played their favourite chess games, such as chess-themed racing, recognition, reaction speed, and tag games.

We have had busy two weeks in the Brilliant Pandas. Firstly, we were preparing for our Christmas play. The children practised their lines and songs all week and gave an incredible final performance. In addition to this, we wrote Christmas cards and prepared a decoration for our families. In Jolly Phonics, the children have moved on to more complex sounds in group 5, and in Mathematics, the children have continued to learn the language of measurement, including taller and shorter, heavier and lighter.

The Brilliant Pandas had a busy two weeks. Children had been working hard on their Thanksgiving songs and they performed with great joy for the assembly. We learned about the history behind Thanksgiving and a book about what we can be thankful for was read in the classroom. They shared what they are thankful for with their friends and they wrote them on a piece of paper to make their own ‘Thankful Turkeys’. The Pandas celebrated Thanksgiving at the Gym with everyone and had a festive lunch during that day.

We have been continuing with learning the new sounds of the Jolly Phonics. Also, to practise the concept of sorting in maths, a great book, ‘Sorting, Math Counts’ written by Henry Arthur Pluckrose was read interactively and children were asked to sort the materials and group them by their colours, sizes, and kinds and lengths in the classroom. During the class discussion, Paulina had an idea that the ‘Matryoshka Doll’ can be sorted by size. The next day, she brought a Matryoshka doll from home to show how to stack the dolls and explained that it is coming from Russia. Then, each doll was given to a child to sort and order them by size and they stacked them by working as a team.

The Pandas also had Rolli Polli session to discover different movements with lots of joy. They had a ton of fun with the obstacle course giving them the opportunity to roll and play on and around the foam structure.

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 the Brilliant Pandas 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.

The Brilliant Pandas children have started the Christmas season and prepared some Christmas tree artwork to decorate the building. They painted pine trees with brown and green tempera paint and decorated the trees with pompoms, Christmas-themed sequins, and colourful buttons according to their likes.

The Brilliant Pandas children played exciting chess-themed games with the chess pieces. First, they helped Sturdy Rook to deliver the postcards to various addresses. Then, they used their senses and found the named chess pieces by recognizing their main physical characteristics with their fingers. At last, they danced with the chess pieces in various ways and played a memory game with them.

The Brilliant Pandas children started to create some decorations for our upcoming assembly. They made turkey animal crafts using various skills during one of their visual art lessons. They coloured rolls and semi-circles according to their preferences, cut the semi-circles out on their outlines with scissors, glued the turkey animal’s body parts together, and glued beaks, wattles, eyes, and feathers.

The Brilliant Pandas children have played with the chess pieces in various ways. First, they played the ‘Name the Square’ game and identified the squares some objects are. Then, they played the ‘Match the Chesspieces with their Opposites’ game. Next, they crawled through the tunnel and placed the named chess pieces back in their boxes. At last, they played a chess-themed circle reaction game and checked who can run faster than everyone else.

We have had another eventful two weeks in the Brilliant Pandas class. The children learned about Diwali as the festival of light and crafted their own candles to display on our classroom window. In Mathematics, the children continued to practice their number formation and early addition skills while reading the story ‘One is a Snail’ by April Pulley Sayre and Jeff Sayre. The children learned to combine the animals in the story to find different totals. In Phonics, we have been continuing with our sounds and letter formation. The children have just finished the group 3 sounds and will be moving on to learning digraphs next week.

By participating in singing games, the Brilliant Pandas 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.

We have had an eventful fortnight. October is “International School Library Month”, an annual celebration of school libraries worldwide. This month is vital to support children to gain a habit of visiting libraries to take the agency of their learning. Therefore, the Ervin Szabó Library today. They learned about the history of each room and had an opportunity to read many different kinds of books. The Brilliant Pandas were also celebrating “World Food Day” in order to highlight the food we choose and the way we consume it that affects our health and our planet. The children also had been learning about seeds and how to plant in the classroom.

Meanwhile, The Brilliant Pandas Class had been working hard on the project of “All About Me” for our current Unit of Inquiry called ‘Families and Friends’. The main goal of this project is to help children learn about themselves, their friends and their families by focusing on similarities and differences among them. While they had been working hard on drawing self-portraits to have an awareness of their own physical appearances, they also shared their hobbies and interests with their friends. For maths, The Brilliant Pandas were focusing on the topics of comparison and symmetry with this project. They were learning about symmetry and comparing their characteristics such as their hair, skin, and eyes, as well as their differences and similarities. At the end of the discussion, they completed the other half of their partner’s portrait by focusing on symmetry rules and similarities and differences among them.

Halloween season in the classroom just got even more fun and engaging with our spooky Halloween costumes, dance, songs, Halloween yoga and games. We got some sweets and celebrated Halloween both in the classroom and outside.
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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 the Brilliant Pandas ask the brain to listen, then distinguish a sound and respond with a movement they are strengthening the connections that in the future they will use to integrate new learning, make decisions, and be critical thinkers.

The Brilliant Pandas children have been very busy during visual art lessons. They learned some interesting facts about Halloween and recreated some of the Halloween symbols in various ways. They made spiders and spider webs from paper plates, egg carton pieces, pipe cleaners, and wiggly eyes. They made Jack-O-Lanters from colourful paper pieces. The children’s spooky Halloween arts and crafts proudly decorate our corridor. We are ready to have our Halloween party.

The Brilliant Pandas children went to the Chess Playground and met with the white army. The children noticed that the autumn season has arrived in the Chess Palace too. We looked at and talked about the main changes that happened in the Palace and also noticed some Halloween symbols there. We played a few games with the white army. First, we played a chess-themed memory game with the chess pieces, then sorted them according to their sizes, values, and the number of pieces we have in a set.

We have had another eventful two weeks. First, we had a visit from the dentist; we learned about the importance of brushing our teeth each day and taking care of ourselves by avoiding too much sugar. Each child received a certificate and a sticker for their efforts and patience while the dentist checked their teeth. For mathematics, the Brilliant Pandas continued to practice counting forwards and backwards to ten, and grouping pegs on a line according to the number they were given. In Jolly Phonics, we continued to learn the group 2 sounds with the songs and the actions and are beginning to blend group 1 and 2 sounds to read words. Finally, we celebrated the Harvest with our school assembly. The children performed their songs brilliantly and had fun outside with several games and activities to welcome the Harvest.

Most children, by nature, love to move! In our classes, creative movement activities are multi-layered and allow the Brilliant Pandas to explore the world with their bodies and express their feelings and ideas. As a brain-building tool, creative movement taps into a variety of learning modalities (aural, visual, tactile, kinesthetic, spatial, conceptual) and helps you develop executive function skills such as problem-solving, comparing, and trying out new ideas. Movement experiences in our classes are also saturated with language, both receptive (understanding others) and expressive (sharing one’s own thoughts and ideas).

The Brilliant Pandas children have been learning about harvest and harvestable fruit and vegetables recently. During one of their visual arts lessons, they have been preparing harvest-themed decorations for our upcoming harvest festival. First, we observed some pictures of grape trees, yards, and fruits and identified their main physical features with the children. Then, they cut green, purple, and blue paper stipes from paper, made paper circles from them, and merged them into grape-like chains. The Brilliant Pandas children made a beautiful grape yard which is definitely ready for harvest.

The Brilliant Pandas children are getting smarter and smarter when it comes to chess. First, they tested their memory skills and took the rain clouds away from the Chess Palace by naming the characters behind them. Then, they learned interesting facts about the chessboard. They identified the chessboard’s shape, learned the concept of file and rank, and counted how many files and ranks a chessboard has. At last, each child got a chessboard with a set and placed eight chess pieces on the asked ranks and files.

The Brilliant Pandas children drew cute panda artwork with oil pastels and are already decorated the corridor with their art pieces. They also celebrated International Dot Day during one of their visual art lessons. First, they read The Dot book by Peter H. Reynolds and discussed some questions related to the story. Then, the art teacher showed them how to paint with watercolour effectively. At last, the children painted various types of dots with watercolour paint.

The Brilliant Pandas children had their very first chess lesson with our chess teacher. First, they met with the famous chess characters. Then, they listened to the story of the Chess Palace. At last, they played some games with chess pieces. They raced with each other, orientated in various ways on the chessboard, and balanced the chess pieces on their heads, shoulders, feet, and backs.

The Brilliant Pandas have had an eventful fortnight. The children have been continuing learning new sounds and they have completed the first group of sounds, /s/, /a/, /t/, /i/, /p/ and /n/, in the Jolly Phonics programme.

Meanwhile, The Brilliant Pandas Class had been working hard on Maths. They have been practising numbers up to 5 with a fun game called ‘Bus Stop’.

We have been continuing with our current unit on ‘Families and Friends’. A book, All of Me written by Molly Bang, about being thankful for our bodies was read in the classroom and the children talked about their physical features and compared them with their friends. They have been also discussing the similarities and differences between themselves. Meanwhile, for the year-long Unit on ‘Rules and Routines’, we have been also focusing on the topics of ‘being a thinker’, ‘being a team’ as a class and as small groups with the TRIBEs activities and ‘collaboration’. The children in Brilliant Pandas have been celebrating a birthday with their friends. The children started with the happy birthday song. Then, a birthday cake was shared around the classroom. After this, we had some songs and danced to celebrate the birthday.

Pretend play strengthens learning by involving many areas of development at the same time: physical, social, emotional, math, music, language and literacy. Through pretend play with others Brilliant Pandas learns how to take concrete physical experiences and move toward more abstract symbolic thinking, which includes creating mental images. The Brilliant Pandas’ literacy skills are developing, too, as they begin to use symbolic thinking and language to organize simple actions into more complicated sequences and pretend situations. This lesson highlights pretend play activities that engage many parts of children’s brains at the same time, offering opportunities for your child to learn and practice both concrete and abstract skills.

We have had an excellent start to our time in the Brilliant Pandas. The children are settling in well and getting to know their new classmates and teachers. First up was the International Day of Charity, where the children learned the meaning of being charitable and illustrated different ways we can care for others. After this, we celebrated International Literacy Day where the children read a book called Little White Owl and designed their own owls for display. Finally, the children have started the Jolly Phonics programme and have been learning the initial sounds /s/ and /a/.