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Welcome to the Happy Kids parents blog!

Click on your child's class to access the class blog. 

Welcome to the Happy Kids parents blog!

Click on your child's class to access the class blog (password required). 

Cuddly Koalas

Brilliant Pandas -18 October 2024

The Brilliant Pandas enjoyed an active day at Rolli Polli, tying in perfectly with our unit on health and fitness! They practised gross motor skills through rolling, jumping, and climbing, and absolutely loved the giant inflatable trampoline. Each movement helps build their strength and coordination, all while having a blast!

Brilliant Pandas – Music and Drama,18 October 2024

Imagine the brain as a set of filing cabinets! For Brilliant Pandas, each clap, stomp, and movement strengthens brain connections, boosting multi-tasking and problem-solving skills. These fun sound and movement activities help build pathways that support lifelong learning!

Brilliant Pandas – Chess,18 October 2024

The Brilliant Pandas buzzed with excitement during chess class! They learned the names, moves, and personalities of each piece, practising how to navigate the board through ‘ranks’ and ‘files’ with fun games and rhymes to remember.

Brilliant Pandas – Chess, 4 October 2024

During the chess lesson in Brilliant Pandas class, the children were introduced to the basics of chess, from the names and features of the pieces to understanding the ranks and files on the chessboard. They engaged in various chess-related games and enjoyed learning chess rhymes, which added a fun twist to the lesson. The children’s favourite activity was the musical chess game, where they walked in a circle, anticipating when a chess piece would be raised so they could sit down and participate in the game. They also enjoyed playing the “passing the chess piece” game, reinforcing their learning playfully and interactively.

Brilliant Pandas – 4 October 2024

The Brilliant Pandas have been continuing our unit of inquiry on how to keep ourselves healthy. This week, the focus was on hand washing and good hygiene. We discussed when we should wash our hands and why it is important to do it properly. To symbolise how germs spread, the children put a glitter mixture on their hands, symbolising the germs, and then the class shook hands with one another. The children were shocked to see how much the ’germs’ had spread around the class. To investigate the best way to wash our hands, the class experimented using different water temperatures with soap or not. First, we hypothesised what would happen, and after the experiment, we compared our predictions to what actually happened.

Brilliant Pandas – Music and Drama, 4 October 2024

Children are naturally inclined to move, and in our Brilliant Pandas classes, we harness this innate energy through creative movement activities. These experiences are multi-layered, allowing children to explore their world physically while expressing their thoughts, feelings, and ideas. Creative movement is an invaluable brain-building tool, engaging multiple learning modalities, including auditory, visual, tactile, kinesthetic, spatial, and conceptual learning. Through these activities, Brilliant Pandas develop their physical coordination and strengthen executive function skills such as problem-solving, comparing, and experimenting with new ideas.
Movement in our classes is more than just physical activity; it’s a rich cognitive experience saturated with opportunities for language development. Children engage in receptive language (understanding others) and expressive language (sharing their thoughts and ideas), fostering communication skills crucial for their overall development. By weaving together physical, cognitive, and linguistic elements, we create an environment where children can flourish, building confidence in their ability to explore the world and communicate their ideas effectively. These early experiences lay the foundation for lifelong learning and emotional resilience.

Brilliant Pandas – Visual Arts, 4 October 2024

The children at Brilliant Pandas had a fantastic time creating harvest baskets! They began the activity by colouring basket samples and fruits with vibrant oil pastels. After that, they cut out their designs and glued them together to form delightful fruit harvest baskets. This hands-on project encouraged their creativity and helped strengthen their colouring, cutting, and sticking skills. What a wonderful way to celebrate the harvest!

Brilliant Pandas – Chess, 20 September 2024

During their chess lesson, the Brilliant Pandas delved into the basics of chess with a captivating tale about the “Chess Palace.” They got to know the names and characteristics of the chess pieces through various games and catchy rhymes, making the learning process both fun and memorable.

Brilliant Pandas – Visual Arts, 20 September 2024

The Brilliant Pandas began the school year with excitement, learning about themselves through mirror self-portraits. They collaborated on tribe-themed artwork, shared summer memories, and familiarized themselves with art room routines. They also enjoyed directed drawing lessons to depict pandas and celebrated International Dot Day with colorful dots and patterns.

Brilliant Pandas – 20 September 2024

Taking the learning outdoors allows for the lesson to become a multi-sensory experience. The Brilliant Pandas have been utilising this for our maths lessons. The large open space allows for a carousel of different activities to keep the children busy and engaged whilst also being in a natural and calming environment. Sending the children running off in all directions to find a set number of leaves, sticks or stones meant that not only were they practising their counting skills but also being active in their learning and expanding their language skills. A giant hopscotch was drawn on the football pitch, and the children had a lot of fun calling out the numbers as they jumped between the boxes. Those who would benefit from additional challenges were then asked to jump over one or two boxes at a time to improve their skip-counting abilities.

Our Unit of Enquiry is currently exploring how to keep our bodies healthy. Keeping active and natural fresh air go hand in hand to achieving this. We began our journey in the classroom where the class learnt about the heart and how it works. We discussed what we thought might happen to our heart rate when we exercise, but the class was divided and unsure. The learning then moved into the garden, and we played some running around games. The children were very excited to be able to check their heart rates and discover their own answers to the previous question. Learning experiences such as these not only promote the children’s love for learning but also their ability to research and find answers for themselves.

Brilliant Pandas – Music and Drama, 20 September 2024

Pretend play enhances learning by engaging multiple areas of development simultaneously, including physical, social, emotional, mathematical, musical, language, and literacy skills. Through pretend play with others, the Brilliant Pandas are learning how to transition from concrete physical experiences to more abstract symbolic thinking, such as creating mental images. Their literacy skills are also evolving as they use symbolic thinking and language to structure simple actions into more complex sequences and imaginative scenarios. This lesson strongly emphasises pretend play activities, which simultaneously stimulate various areas of the brain, providing the Brilliant Pandas with valuable opportunities to practice and develop concrete and abstract skills. The approach supports a holistic method of learning, enabling children to grow in multiple developmental domains while having fun.

Brilliant Pandas -18 October 2024

The Brilliant Pandas enjoyed an active day at Rolli Polli, tying in perfectly with our unit on health and fitness! They practised gross motor skills through rolling, jumping, and climbing, and absolutely loved the giant inflatable trampoline. Each movement helps build...

Brilliant Pandas – Music and Drama,18 October 2024

Imagine the brain as a set of filing cabinets! For Brilliant Pandas, each clap, stomp, and movement strengthens brain connections, boosting multi-tasking and problem-solving skills. These fun sound and movement activities help build pathways that support lifelong...

Brilliant Pandas – Visual Arts,18 October 2024

With Halloween just around the corner, Brilliant Pandas painted webs and spiders in a fun water-resistant project. They loved bringing these spooky images to life with watercolours!

Brilliant Pandas – Chess,18 October 2024

The Brilliant Pandas buzzed with excitement during chess class! They learned the names, moves, and personalities of each piece, practising how to navigate the board through ‘ranks’ and ‘files’ with fun games and rhymes to remember.

Brilliant Pandas – Chess, 4 October 2024

During the chess lesson in Brilliant Pandas class, the children were introduced to the basics of chess, from the names and features of the pieces to understanding the ranks and files on the chessboard. They engaged in various chess-related games and enjoyed learning...

Brilliant Pandas – 4 October 2024

The Brilliant Pandas have been continuing our unit of inquiry on how to keep ourselves healthy. This week, the focus was on hand washing and good hygiene. We discussed when we should wash our hands and why it is important to do it properly. To symbolise how germs...

Brilliant Pandas – Music and Drama, 4 October 2024

Children are naturally inclined to move, and in our Brilliant Pandas classes, we harness this innate energy through creative movement activities. These experiences are multi-layered, allowing children to explore their world physically while expressing their thoughts,...

Brilliant Pandas – Visual Arts, 4 October 2024

The children at Brilliant Pandas had a fantastic time creating harvest baskets! They began the activity by colouring basket samples and fruits with vibrant oil pastels. After that, they cut out their designs and glued them together to form delightful fruit harvest...

Brilliant Pandas – Chess, 20 September 2024

During their chess lesson, the Brilliant Pandas delved into the basics of chess with a captivating tale about the "Chess Palace." They got to know the names and characteristics of the chess pieces through various games and catchy rhymes, making the learning process...

Brilliant Pandas – Visual Arts, 20 September 2024

The Brilliant Pandas began the school year with excitement, learning about themselves through mirror self-portraits. They collaborated on tribe-themed artwork, shared summer memories, and familiarized themselves with art room routines. They also enjoyed directed...