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 Brilliant Pandas cooperate to do the steps of the experience create a sense of belonging and contribution.

The Brilliant Pandas have been learning about the chessboard, specifically the difference between files and ranks, and the different moves of each chess piece. They learned about the moves of a rook by listening to the story “Sturdy Rook Gets Lost in the Woods.” They also practised identifying and positioning the chess pieces.

The Brilliant Pandas have been preparing songs and gifts for the Mother’s Day assembly. First, the children were given an easy-to-use digital camera and asked to take pictures of their favourite flowers, trees, and scenery for their mothers. Secondly, the children prepared Mother’s Day cards by sticking tissue paper to the white card. In Mathematics, the children performed a shape sorting activity, following on from our current topic on 3D shapes. Finally, a big thank you to the parents and the children for all of your efforts with the Fashion Show costumes. The children were very excited to display the costumes on the catwalk.

We have had a busy fortnight in the Brilliant Pandas beginning with our Easter celebrations. The children prepared Easter gifts, cards, and baskets for the Easter egg hunt outside. This week, the children have been finalising the collaborative artwork for the Big Draw. Our piece is titled ‘Moon the Colour of Sand’, and was inspired by the work of artist Suzanne Siegel. In the Unit of Inquiry, the children discussed their favourite jungle animals and drew them on paper. They then went further by writing sentences to explain why it was their favourite animal.

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 learned about planet Earth in one of their art lessons. They created a beautiful Earth mosaic using recycled paper pieces. During this activity, they practised their scissor and sticking skills. The children were fully invested in creating their artwork, trying to make it as close to the sample art piece as possible.

The Brilliant Pandas have recently learned about the difference between files and ranks on a chessboard, as well as the various moves of the chess pieces. They also listened to the story ‘Over The Hill And Dale’ which helped them understand the similarities between a map and a chessboard. To further practice their skills in positioning the chess pieces, the Brilliant Pandas have been playing various games that help them recognize the positions on ranks, files, and diagonals.

We have had a busy fortnight of preparations in the Brilliant Pandas, beginning with the Easter gifts and baskets for our upcoming Easter festivities. The children have been practising two songs to perform for their parents at the Easter assembly and also preparing our collaborative project for the upcoming Big Draw in April. At the end of the week, the children visited the Tropacarium as part of our Unit of Inquiry ‘Natural Habitats’. The children saw many sea creatures in their natural habitat, including sharks, turtles, and sting rays. They also got to stroke and comment on the sting rays as they swam rose from the tank.

An activity like ’Grasshoppers Three’, where we dance with scarves to a lively song, is a potent developmental tool. When the Bright Bunnies dance with their scarves in different ways, such as up high and then down low, they increase their body awareness as they move intentionally to imitate our modelling. They learn spatial awareness as they move the scarves over their heads and down by their toes. They improve their coordination by learning to control the movement of their arms and hands. Becoming familiar with the movement of our limbs on dancers, construction workers, or just navigating an ordinary day.

The Brilliant Pandas children painted flowers in various colours to welcome spring. Some used one colour, while others used multiple colours or submerged the flowers to create an abstract look.

The Brilliant Pandas revised and learned about different chess pieces and the difference between the files and ranks. Additionally, they learned about the positioning and movement of chess pieces on a chess board by playing catch the chess pieces and identifying them. They also played games where the children had to take different positions on the chess mat.

We have had a busy fortnight in the Brilliant Pandas, starting with a field trip to the Campona Lego exhibition where the children got to explore the amazing constructions, realistic buildings, running vehicles, and many exciting attractions. In Mathematics, we have been focusing on learning the teen numbers and counting in tens. The children played the parachute game outside, which involved searching for the numbers under the parachute as they were called out. In Unit of Inquiry, the children have been learning about natural habitats, focusing on sea creatures. The children studied a picture of the ocean and explored what they could see, hear, smell, taste, and touch.

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 learned about the natural habitats of various insects with a special focus on the honeybee. The little artists created the honeycombs and the life cycle of a honeybee using different art materials and techniques. The children used their imagination and prior knowledge to create their artwork.

The Brilliant Pandas learned about teamwork during one of their visual arts lessons. They identified and discussed the importance of working in a team. The children used recycled materials to create their artwork. Children were excited throughout the process and helped each other to complete their art projects together.

The Brilliant Pandas revised and learned about different chess pieces and the difference between the files and ranks during their chess lessons. They also learned about the positioning and movement of chess pieces on a chess board through different games.

We have had a busy fortnight in the Brilliant Pandas beginning with the Carnival celebrations. The children were visited by the TuráZoo and introduced to many different animals including snakes, turtles, and lizards. The Brilliant Pandas also attended Rolii Polli and completed the Student-led Conferences with their parents. Next, the children celebrated World Read Aloud Day with a reading from Ms Williams of the book ‘The Crocodile Who Didn’t Like Water.’ Finally, the children have been preparing their cards and decorations for Valentine’s Day and practising the routine for the whole school assembly.

Exploring and playing instruments is an opportunity for strengthening fine motor skills. For instance, playing the Glockenspiel requires that the Brilliant Pandas hold a mallet with a pincer grip. The skills being developed will benefit writing and sports as well as the study of a musical instrument. Encouraging the Brilliant Pandas to use both hands when playing also strengthens both dominant and non-dominant hands.

We have had a busy fortnight in the Brilliant Pandas. The children have been preparing their cards for Valentine’s Day and speaking about their families and friends and the people they love. In the outside area, the children have been focused on telling the time through songs and games like ‘What’s the Time Mr. Wolf’ and telling the time to the hour. In Unit of Inquiry, the children have been learning about the unrealistic drawings of Pablo Picasso and attempting to draw their unrealistic portraits using different shapes and lines.

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.

The Brilliant Pandas learned about warm and cool colours during their art lesson. They identified warm and cool colours through various images and then painted the sun and moon effects according to their imaginations.

During a chess lesson, the Brilliant Pandas learned about the principles of chess through different games. They learned to move the chess pieces diagonally, vertically, and horizontally. Additionally, they also learned about the distinctions between the files and ranks of the chessboard.

The Brilliant Pandas had a fun and creative visual arts lesson learning about the polar animals and the collage artwork technique and made beautiful penguins using the different coloured paper pieces. The children chose the paper pieces and pasted them on the paper to make a figure like a penguin. It was a joyful activity which resulted in some beautiful penguins.

The Brilliant Pandas had a fun and educational day playing games with chess pieces. The children started with a warm-up game where they blew the paper boat from one end to the other.

After the children listened to the story called “Who Will Be the Captain” and answered the questions related to the story. Then the children played some games in which they tried to find the chess bean bags by making binoculars with their hands. In another game, the children were asked to pull a string and one with the longest string became the captain. The children had a fun learning day.

We have had a busy two weeks in the Brilliant Pandas. The children completed their winter-themed ornaments using tin foil and natural materials. They are now focusing on the preparations for Valentine’s assembly and have been practising the songs for the assembly. The children also played a circle game called ‘Am I Napoleon’ where they had to take turns to guess the animal on their foreheads by asking questions that could only be answered by using yes and no. Finally, the children were introduced to Picasso and his revolutionary style of drawing known as cubism. This was an ideal way for the children to recap their knowledge of shapes and even create and design shapes in their portraits.

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 children in the Brilliant Pandas are getting into the festive spirit. They had a great time making a St. Nicholas Day boot during their Visual Arts lesson, choosing different Christmas-themed paper strips and sticking them together. It is so cute how excited they are about Santa coming and bringing them presents. Surely they cannot wait to meet him.

The Brilliant Pandas Class had a fun and educational day playing games with chess pieces. They began their lesson by reviewing the story “The Royal Couple”. Next, they played a game called “Tik Tok Boom”, in which they picked a rhyme and ran towards the chess beanbags when they heard the word “boom” to locate the called-out chess piece. In another game, the children stood at the starting point of the chess board. They attempted to identify chess pieces using their physical characteristics and place them in the appropriate files. These activities helped the Brilliant Pandas to develop their critical thinking and problem-solving abilities. Overall, the children enjoyed playing “Tik TikTok Boom” and learning about chess.

We have had a busy two weeks in the Brilliant Pandas. The children completed their Thanksgiving assembly and shared a meal afterwards. They are now focusing on the preparations for the Christmas party and have been making Christmas cards from handprints using various colours for decoration. The class has also dressed the Christmas tree and is eagerly awaiting the visit to the school from Saint Nicholas.

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 recently participated in a visual arts lesson where they created mushroom artwork with a recycling theme. The lesson began with a discussion on recycling and the importance of reusing materials to reduce waste. The children also learned about Marcel Duchamp, the first artist to introduce recycled art. With this knowledge, the children were inspired to create their own unique mushroom artwork using recycled materials such as lolly sticks and half cups. Each child was able to express their creativity and preferences in their artwork, resulting in a diverse and colourful display. This lesson not only taught the children about the importance of recycling but also allowed them to explore their artistic abilities and develop their fine motor skills. Well done, Brilliant Panda!

The Brilliant Pandas children had a fun and educational day playing games with chess pieces. The children started by revisiting opposite pairs of words such as up and down, hot and cold, black and white, day and night, and big and small.

After that, the children acted out a story called “Royal Couple” where the King and the Queen got stuck in the rain and the pawns came to the rescue and helped them. It was a great experience for the children to act out the story and learn how to tell a story.

Children shared their experiences of coming to kindergarten in the rain. Children then moved on to the chess board to play the game where they tried to identify the different chess pieces by their physical characteristics and place them in the correct position on the board. In this way, they were able to develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Overall, the Brilliant Pandas children had a fun and engaging day while also learning important skills.

We have had a busy fortnight in the Brilliant Pandas. Firstly, the children have been preparing for the Thanksgiving assembly by practising their songs and making their turkey decorations using paper plates and paint. For the Unit of Inquiry, the children have been discussing their families and the different family members outside of the immediate family. For ICT, the children were introduced to programming using the Code and Go Robot Mouse, here they practised using various directional languages such as forward, backwards, left, and right to instruct the mouse.

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.

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 hold 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 Brilliant Pandas to use both hands when playing also strengthens both dominant and non-dominant hands.

The Brilliant Pandas children practised their scissors skills, composing skills, and sticking skills, and made goofy pumpkin faces in their visual arts lesson. They drew pumpkin faces, cut them on their outlines, and glued other important elements onto them, such as eyes, mouths, teeth, and stems according to their preferences. They also learned about Halloween symbols and how, why, and when to celebrate Halloween.

The Brilliant Panda’s children played games with chess pieces blindfolded. Children began their learning experience by learning some opposite pairs of words, such as up and down, hot and cold, black and white, girl and boy, day and night, and big and small. Then, they listened to a story called ‘Magical Box’ where the tiny pawns decided to find some hidden treasure in the chess palace by being brave and entering a dark secret room. With the help of the chess teachers, students recreated the scenes of the story and participated in it by going through a magical secret cellar door and picking up treasures such as chess pieces.

We have had a busy two weeks in the Brilliant Pandas culminating in our Halloween Party on Friday. The children were delighted to dress up in their colourful costumes and to take part in various games and activities throughout the day. In Mathematics, the children were introduced to symmetry, and this was linked to our self-portraits where the children were tasked with completing the other side of their face from a photograph showing half of their portrait. Finally, in Jolly Phonics, the children are continuing to learn new letters and sounds and are now learning group 3 sounds.

Nature and art? Art outside? Yes, please. The Brilliant Pandas children collected, and then observed some natural objects, such as leaves, conkers, pinecorns, twigs, and maple seeds in our garden with their art teacher. They painted them with colourful paint and created prints on rolled paper to the best of their abilities. The children thoroughly loved every moment of the art lesson and enjoyed observing and working with different patterns and textures.

The Brilliant Pandas children visited the residents of the chess palace and helped Rolly Rook deliver all the postcards to the chess pieces. They played a racing game with the chess pieces and checked who could run and react the fastest and who could follow the rules the best. They also sang the chess rhymes in front of their classmates and collected their well-deserved applause from their peers and teachers.

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.

We have had a busy fortnight in the Brilliant Pandas. The children celebrated International Grandparents’ Day by sharing photographs and stories of their grandparents. Afterwards, the class planted some flowers in the garden to give thanks to their families. The Harvest Assembly was a great success and the children were so excited to perform their songs for the parents. The children made a decoration for the Harvest Assembly which is an Autumn Dream Catcher with different coloured Autumn leaves. For our Unit of Inquiry, the children used portraits of themselves to draw their own freehand images on paper. The class discussed similarities and differences and commented on their facial features and where the parts of the face are positioned.

How many new colours can you mix using the three primary colours? The Brilliant Pandas children experimented with yellow, red, and green colours and mixed them in various ways to create secondary and tertiary colours. Children also made pictures of houses, swimming pools, seas, dogs, and monster trucks using yellow, green, and blue paper strips. When the children finished their artwork, they deservedly felt accomplishment and pride as they put a lot of effort into reaching their goals and creatively used their imagination and creativity, fostering their artistic expression.

The Brilliant Pandas children visited the residents of the Chess Palace and played a lot of exciting games with the chess pieces. First, they grouped giant, small, and soft chess pieces and distinguished between chess pieces. Then, they ran together with them and stood next to the ones who were checking on them. At last, the children covered their eyes with blindfolds and used their touching senses to find the chosen chess pieces. The supportive classmates clapped for the successful peers’ victories and encouraged them to keep up with their good work.

We have had a busy fortnight in the Brilliant Pandas. The children have been preparing their songs for the Harvest Assembly and practising some actions to go with the lyrics. We have made use of the good weather and ventured outside for our Tribes activities. The children worked with their key adults to practice letter formation on different surfaces including sand and concrete. Finally, for our Unit of Inquiry, the children have been learning about facial features including hair colour, eye colour, and skin colour. They were tasked with matching these facial features correctly from cut-outs of their own personal portraits.

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 them 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 had their very first chess lesson. They flew to the Chess Palace on the chess rug and looked around the palace. They met with chess characters, such as Queen Quenessa, King Kaspian, Speedy Bishop, Sturdy Rook, and the Tiny Little Pawns. The children played games with the chess characters. They moved on the giant chessboard according to the chess pieces’ wishes, such as jumping on black or white squares, jumping on two feet, and walking on tiptoes. They listened to the story of the Chess Palace, played some circle games with the chess-themed giant dice and laughed a lot with the residents of the Chess Palace. The Brilliant Pandas children already know: ‘If I play chess all the time, superpower will be mine.’

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 the Brilliant Pandas learn how to take concrete physical experiences and move toward more abstract symbolic thinking, which includes creating mental images. Their 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 the Brilliant Pandas to learn and practice both concrete and abstract skills.

‘Make a mark and see where it takes you.’ – said our art teacher to the Brilliant Pandas children who got inspired by the International Dot Day that happens every year on 15 September. First, the children read ‘The Dot’ book written by Peter H. Reynolds and extended their knowledge of Vashti’s amazing art journey. Then, they challenged themselves and painted small dots, big dots, dots by not painting dots, layered dots, colourful dots, and patterned dots.

We have had a great start to the academic year in the Brilliant Pandas. The children have settled into their new classroom and are forming some new friendships in their Tribes Groups. The first project the children did was inspired by the story ‘The Little White Owl’ by Tracey Corderoy. The task was to make an owl on a template by using sponge paint. The class talked about patterns and tried to follow their own patterns and designs during the craft. The children also started on the Jolly Phonics programme, and have been working through the first set of sounds. Finally, the children had the opportunity to participate in some fine motor skills fun by using tweezers to select and match the pom poms to the correct colour.