Whether a child is telling a story, reading, doing a math problem, or calling plays on the soccer field, it all comes down to remembering the order of a sequence and planning the action. Being able to break down a task into steps is also important in learning self-management, especially for children who tend to be hard on themselves (common among young gifted children).

The Tiny Tigers have been very busy the past few weeks as we have been discussing ‘How We Share Our Planet’ as our Unit of Inquiry, through several fun activities. We have also finished our Set 6 Jolly Phonics sounds and are now revising them all. We were also very lucky to have had celebrated together one of our little Tigers third birthday. It was great to share these special moments. A long awaited program has also finally arrived as we attended our Rolli Polli session on 8 June 2022. The Tigers were super excited to ride the bus and enjoyed the special gym session very much! We all had a wonderful time and cannot wait to go again. We hope to see everyone at our End of Year party, held on 23 June 2022 to say goodbye together to the school year and enjoy a fun party in our beautiful garden. The Tiny Tigers have been practising their performance wholeheartedly and are all very excited to put their show on stage. We would like to thank everyone for the fantastic school year and wish you all a great resting and fun summer.

The Tiny Tigers  made colourful paper plate birds during one of their visual art lessons. First, they painted the paper plates with tempera paint and brushes. Then, they glued colourful and patterned paper pieces, colourful feathers, paper beaks, and wiggly eyes on the bases and personalized them according to their preferences. They practiced their decision-making skills, painting skills, sticking skills, and composing skills. 

The past two weeks have been very exciting as we have had several special occasions to participate in.We all awaited the special moment where our little Tigers enjoy their morning in the classroom with their parents during our Student-Led Conferences. It was fantastic to see how they all guided their loved ones through all the several fun stations, showing their knowledge and all the new skills they have acquired. A big thank you to all our Tiny Tigers Parents for the cooperation and for making this lovely event so special.

Besides carrying on with our Unit of Inquiry and with our Jolly Phonics program, where we have continued familiarizing ourselves with our new Jolly Phonics sounds from Set 6, sounds /y/ and /x/ along with their stories, songs, rhymes and jingles and related crafts, we have also been practising for a heartwarming performance for the Environmental Day Assembly. They performed very well and we are very proud of them all!

As the weather has warmed up, we have also been enjoying splashing around in our water table exploring the different animals hiding beneath and exploring fun water related arts and crafts projects.

We were also very lucky to have had enjoyed pony riding in the beautiful sunshine. All our little Tigers were very brave and had a fantastic time riding proudly.

On 24 May we enjoyed our first fieldtrip together where we visited a themed playground, based on a famous cartoon character: ‘Pom Pom’. The Tigers had an amazing time exploring and playing together and ended the outing with a delicious icecream treat.

Whether a musical piece can be described as flowing, gentle, and light, or bold, choppy, and heavy is due in large part to articulation, which refers to the way in which specific notes in music are played or sung. Articulation might affect the volume of a note, its duration, or its relationship to the note that follows it, and it is an important component of musical expression. In this lesson, Tiny experienced two articulation concepts-legato (smooth and connected, like a snail) and staccato (choppy, like a grasshopper)-through a series of music-and movement activities that bring the concepts to life.​

The Tiny Tigers children are learning interesting facts about space and planets and are making space-related artworks during their visual art lessons. At this time, they made marbled planet artworks. First, they painted the bases of the planets with marbles. Then, they cut circle shapes from the previously painted paper with scissors. At last, they glued the planets and some stars on the bases and personalized them according to their preferences.

Art with movement and liquid paint is always a lot of fun. The Tiny Tigers children explored how to paint with movement by manipulating yarns in various ways. They pulled, tapped, and shook the yarns on their bases. They used their hand-and-eye coordination and balancing skills to handle the yarns according to their needs. They also made decisions and chose colours of their preferences. What an exciting way to play, explore, paint, and explore colour mixing!

The past couple of weeks have been very heart-warming as the Tiny Tigers have been excitedly practicing songs and preparing lovely presents for their Mothers. As the long-awaited day arrived, the class performed a wonderful Mother’s Day show and surprised their Mothers with lovely gifts. They made flower cards and had the opportunity of planting a flower in a pot that had been previously painted by the children. Our special day ended with a fun musical game, where mother and child danced together.

We have also introduced our new Unit of Inquiry, ‘How we share the plane’ – Our Home: The Earth, focusing on the subject of Understanding the World. Within our Jolly Phonics program, we continued familiarizing ourselves with the Set 5 new sounds /v/ and /oo, oo/ along with their stories, songs, and jingles and will be moving on to our Set 6 sounds in the next weeks.

Due to the wonderful warm weather, the Tigers enjoyed a water table in the class in which the children splished-splashed about, exploring and practicing pouring, measuring, and experimenting skills. We also took our daily Gym sessions outside into the bicycle area where a wide variety of obstacles were set up for the children. They had a fantastic time outside moving about and they all helped clean it up afterward by working together as a team. We are also having great fun in our beautiful big garden enjoying a water gate in the sunshine, the big trampoline, and all the fun equipment where we can all explore and socialize with the others.

The same song can sound completely different when performed by two different singers or played by two different instruments. If the key is the same, the tempo is the same, and the articulation is the same, what is it that accounts for these differences? The answer is timbre, which refers to the character of a sound-the unique colour or tone of a singer’s voice, or the sound quality of a particular instrument. In this lesson, the Tiny Tigers explored a variety of timbres in activities that built their capacity for musical appreciation and expression. They identified and discriminated sounds, articulated personal sound preferences, and created specific sounds to express themselves musically.

Before going on their well-deserved Spring break, the Tiny Tigers celebrated Easter with lovely songs and dances during the Assembly. After performing, the Tigers had some fun Easter-themed games and activities in the garden. While they were busy playing, The Easter Bunny secretly visited Happy Kids and hid some presents for the children. The Tiny Tigers were very excited to hunt for the yummy chocolate eggs in the garden.

The next day we went to Rolli Polli again where we always have a lovely time. The Tiny Tigers enjoyed all the activities in the gym, everybody got very tired, so falling asleep after lunch was very easy on that day.

Returning from the Easter break, we were lucky to have more celebrations: two of our Tiny Tiger boys turned three years old. After enjoying a lovely marzipan cake on one the first day, the next day a delicious chocolate cake was shared by our other birthday boy. What a week! Thank you for celebrating with us.

In our individual development time, we practiced the correct pencil grip and pencil control through some fun math activities. On our Phonics journey, we are still learning the sounds of Set 5. We hope that the weather will not let us down and we can enjoy the sunshine more and more in the garden. The Tiigers were very excited to find out that one of their favourite garden equipment is up and running again: the big trampoline is set up now. And the queue in front of it is always long, long, long…

In this activity, the Tiny Tigers are required to actively listen to the beats 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’re hearing. They demonstrate they understand the difference between a walking beat and a running beat by changing their movements when the beat changes.

The Tiny Tigers children learned interesting facts about daytime and nighttime. First, we listed daytime and nighttime activities. Next, we observed daytime and nighttime-themed pictures and talked about their main features. At last, the Tiny Tigers children made daytime and nighttime-themed pictures and practiced their painting, printing, and sticking skills.

Our children are happy to welcome a new arrival in the group: a lovely little girl joined Tiny Tigers not long ago. Her first day was very special for her and for us as well: we celebrated her birthday together. Tiny Tigers sang her a birthday song and she shared her delicious strawberry cake with us. Thank you for this special experience.

Apart from celebrating, we also continued our Phonics work: we finished the sounds of Set 4 and learned two new sounds from Set 5. In our unit of inquiry, ‘The Rhythm of Life’ after learning about plants, this time we discussed some interesting facts about the life cycles of animals. We read a fun story, ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ and we found out about the miraculous transformation of the tiny green caterpillar, how it turned into a beautiful butterfly. We also used some puppets to act out the story.

On 7 April we celebrated World Health Day. We had a lot to discuss and to do on that special day. We talked about what we need to do to lead a healthy lifestyle. We realized that Tiny Tigers are doing very well as far as sporty lifestyle is concerned: we go every single day to the gym and do lots of fun exercises to get strong and fit. We also learned about the importance of healthy eating. Tiny Tigers did an interesting activity where they had to decide about different types of food whether they are healthy or unhealthy. We all agreed that fruits are very healthy so we decided to experience this in the classroom with a hands-on activity: we prepared and ate our own fruit salad. It was well worth the effort.

Gross-motor skills engage the large muscles (the arms, legs, and torso) and govern one’s general mobility (walking, running, and jumping). These skills impact a child’s capacity to engage in sports activities (throwing, lifting, catching, kicking), tend to self-care needs (dressing, hygiene), and endure any physical activity for a reasonable length of time. In this lesson, the Tiny Tigers worked to strengthen their gross-motor control by creatively experimenting with different movements through play. In the process, they also work on the associated skills of balance and coordination, strength and endurance, focused attention, and body and spatial awareness.

The Tiny Tigers children made cute baby chicks during one of their visual art lessons. First, they observed pictures of baby chicks and learned their body parts and main characteristics. Then, they used an alternative paitning tool to paint the baby chicks’ bodies. Next, they used their palm powers to squeeze the glue out of their tubes and glued eyes, beaks, and feet on the baby chicks. These baby chicks are the cutest baby chick creations you have ever seen for sure!

The thick, warm winter clothes are slowly disappearing from our wardrobes now and Tiny Tigers arrive in the mornings in pretty, colourful spring jackets. As the warm and sunny days of spring have finally arrived, we enjoy more and more outdoor activities so we were delighted to welcome the cute ponies again in Happy Kids. Although everyone’s favourite was ‘Jenő’, the tiniest and sweetest little pony, all four ponies worked very hard and Tiny Tigers enjoyed riding very much.

On a sunny morning the Tiny Tigers had the chance to spend some time on the bike track as well. They tried out the different motorbikes and scooters. Some Tigers were slow, some were really fast and confident but they all had a very nice time.

In our Unit of Inquiry we carried on discussing our topic ‘The Rhythm of Life’ . We concentrated on plants this time, how they grow from a little seed and what they need for growing. We also read the story of Jack and the Beanstalk to get some inspiration for our special project: everybody in the Tiny Tigers group planted his or her own little bean in a cup and we were so excited every morning to check whether something had happened yet. And the other day we were happy to find out that our first little bean sprout popped up indeed and started to grow very fast. We hope that the others will catch up soon as well.

We were still busy with creating beautiful Spring inspired works of art and we also started to prepare for our next extravaganza, the big Fashion Show. So watch out dear Parents, Tiny Tigers will hit the catwalk soon.

Rolling is a locomotor movement that comes from the torso rather than legs or arms. It is unique in the way it allows the Tiny Tigers to experience the sensation of seeing the world from the stomach and back, all in one continuous motion. Rolling also stimulates the vestibular system, which helps enhance the Tiny Tigers sense of balance and orientation in space. We know all this from the developmental experts, but the real experts (your children) think the rolling in ‘Walk Along, Rover’ is just plain fun.

The Tiny Tigers children have been busy learning about and recreating some of the main signs of the spring season during their visual art lessons. They know that spring is here when they can see blooming flowers, such as daffodils, tulips, bluebells, and crocuses here and there. The children used their artistic skills and made tulip gardens. First, they painted stems, leaves, and grass with brushes. Then, they printed flower heads with forks. At last, they printed clouds with DIY stamps. Thanks to the Tiny Tigers children the Happy Kids corridor is blossoming with spring flowers.

The Carnival season has arrived with lots of excitement and fun in Happy Kids. We did our best to scare away winter, we dressed up, we were loud and determined but still, winter does not seem to be giving up yet. Perhaps our little Tigers were not scary enough…

Anyhow, Tiny Tigers had a wonderful Carnival day with amazing costumes, everybody looked fun and fabulous. In the morning we watched a nice puppet show where we learned the story of a little hedgehog who didn’t quite know in the beginning how to make friends and be kind with others but of course, all ended well finally. Then we enjoyed a lovely costume parade where we celebrated each other’s wonderful outfits. Later we had some party time with crazy dancing and lots of bubbles. Tiny Tigers played some fun games as well, such as musical statue and bean bag toss but the most popular attraction was definitely the doughnut eating competition. In such a yummy competition everybody felt like a winner.

Carnival was not the only festive event in the last two weeks: one little Tiger had his birthday as well which we celebrated with a wonderful and delicious Thomas-cake. Thank you for sharing this lovely occasion with us. On top of that, on March 8th all the ladies (girls and adults as well) in the Tiny Tigers’ group had the most amazing surprise: we all received a beautiful little potted flower from one of our lovely boys. Thank you for being such a thoughtful gentleman! Thank you to all the parents for their kindness who thought of us on that special day!

We are all looking forward to seeing the warmer spring days coming but until then in our unit of inquiry, ‘The Rhythm of Life’ we observe and watch out for every little change in nature and we call upon the spirit of Spring by drawing and painting trees in blossom and lovely spring flowers.

Children need at least 60 minutes of active physical play a day. Activities like this one, which invites your child to get up and move like a rabbit or any other animal he dreams up, help build strong, healthy muscles and bones. On a rainy day, put on some music, and turn your family room or play area into a forest or savannah where everyone can move and dance like their favorite animals.

The Tiny Tigers children continued using one of their favourite art tools in various ways during visual art lessons. At this time, they bled crepe paper pieces on their bases by squeezing water on them. The children experienced how the crepe paper pieces lose their colour and flow together with another one. They also experimented on kitchen roll paper pieces by using colourful water drops on them. The kitchen roll pieces sucked the water drops fast and spread into giant patches. What an amazing week it was!

Welcome back from the ski break, we hope that you spent some peaceful and relaxing time with your children.

As we are slowly getting closer to the end of the cold and dark winter days, we enter an exciting festive time again in Happy Kids, the Carnival. We have already started our discussions in the new unit of inquiry: ‘How the world works’ and ‘The Rhythm of Life’. Our little Tigers started to notice that in their warm winter clothes sometimes they feel too hot now during garden time as we see some blue skies and the sun more and more and the temperature rising. We will mark the change of season with a special event soon. The Tiny Tigers will dress up for Carnival to scare away the darkness of winter, to celebrate the arrival of light and to greet the warmth, the colours and the joy of life that spring will bring us.

We also continued our journey of Jolly Phonics. We learned ‘ai’, the first sound of Set 4 and we had some fun matching games and treasure hunt activities covering our old and new sounds. The Tiny Tigers have been into some serious math recently as well; they started to learn how to compare numbers and quantities and how to describe them using words like ‘more’, ‘less’ and ‘equal’. We are looking forward to celebrating Carnival with the Tiny Tigers on 3 March and have some really fun time together. We cannot wait to see them posing in their wonderful costumes.

In ‘Walk and Stop’, we experience tempo changes through sound, movement, and even sight, when we see others move. One of the benefits of playing with tempo is preparing our ears to listen for the variety of tempo that naturally occurs in speech.

The Tiny Tigers children used one of their favourite art tools during one of their visual art lessons. They just love mixing colours, making small and big drops, squeezing the pipettes from high above and near to the surface, or even making slow and fast water drops with them. The pipette helps them to strengthen their palm muscles and fine-motor skills. Not just that, but the pipette is one of the best tools to prepare their hands for using scissors and writing tools effectively in the future.

Recently, the Tiny Tigers children made a few Valentine’s Day-themed crafts during visual art lessons. First, they learned the symmetry painting technique; they were amazed to see the magic each time they closed and opened their sheets. Next, they printed hearts with recycled heart-shaped paper tubes on a giant paper surface. Then, they made heart collages with colourful and patterned paper pieces and practiced the use of scissors, glue sticks. Well done Tiny Tigers children, thanks to your diligent hands the corridor spreads love to those who pass your display’s path.

Hearts, hearts, hearts. Red and pink and purple hearts. They are just popping up everywhere you look in Happy Kids: classrooms and corridors are covered with hearts. Are we falling in love with the sunshine that is warming us more and more every day? Or with the light that is coming back and makes the nights shorter and our days longer and longer? Or maybe we are rejoicing over the love that we can give and receive from faithful friends and beloved ones? Yes, perhaps all these things together fill our hearts with joy now, when we celebrate Valentine’s Day. Yes, love is in the air in Happy Kids.

Tiny Tigers were busy finding out more about this special day: they were reading nice stories about it, made beautiful Valentine’s inspired crafts and prepared lovely gifts for the people who are most special to their hearts. And they were practicing every day some songs and dances for their performance.

Apart from all this we still found the time to finish the sounds of Set 3 in Jolly Phonics, so now we are ready to move on to learn some new sounds from Set 4 in the upcoming weeks. In our unit of inquiry we are still on the road. We were discussing the different aspects of journeys and traveling.

This week we also had an exciting event: we were delighted to be able to return to Rolli Polli, where the Tiny Tigers had a fantastic time with lots of running, jumping, balancing and crawling, hanging and climbing. We cannot wait to go again.

And finally, today we had our very special Valentine’s Day performance. After all the hard work of practicing, the Tiny Tigers were so excited to show you their beautiful songs. We hope that you enjoyed our show and you all felt very happy, special and loved. We hope you can feel in your hearts: love was really in the air for you today.

One of the fundamental aspects of music is tempo. We learn to move quickly when we are in a hurry or excited and slowly when we need to be careful or want to extend something we enjoy. You may have noticed that your child enjoys fast and slow music equally or that they prefer one tempo to another. Experiencing a variety of tempi (and learning to distinguish among them) helps with many aspects of your child’s life, including language, reading, music, and sports.

The Tiny Tigers moved to the next level and they started to have visual art lessons in our beautiful and well-resourced art room. They worked in two groups and two tables. They made winter tree artwork by printing snowflakes with their pointer fingers and made winter textured collages by sticking interesting materials, such as cake paper, silk paper, cotton wool, crepe paper, and foil paper pieces with liquid glue. They also moved to the next level of using liquid glue in small containers and glue spreaders and they made 3D recycled lid artworks from recycled lids. What an exciting period, well done Tiny Tigers.

In the cold, sometimes gloomy, sometimes sunny winter days the Tiny Tigers have been busier than ever. We had lots of fun with the cute little ponies who returned to Happy Kids and they worked very hard to put big smiles on our children’s faces. And those smiles were there indeed. But there was more excitement on the way for us. We also celebrated two birthdays as two of our little Tigers turned 3 years old. A birthday girl and a birthday boy surprised us with two fantastic cakes. Thank you for celebrating with us.

In between some fun events like these, we also continued with our work in the classroom. We carried on reading stories about journeys, discussing our experiences about traveling, and singing songs about vehicles and traffic. We reminded ourselves regularly that it is fun to get our hands dirty: we made artwork with lots of paint, sometimes using little wooden trains to make marks on the paper, sometimes just our hands. We also experimented with stamping and the unique technique of foil painting.

In the Jolly Phonics program, we were revising some of the sounds in Set 2 and Set 3 and we learned new ones as well: ‘u’ and ‘l’. We did not forget about our brand new project of being little detectives. After hunting for some shapes in the classroom, one day the Tiny Tigers were so excited to be able to investigate in the garden with real magnifying glasses, that they even forgot about the rain. And the investigation will carry on soon nowhere else but in your home.

Making music is a social experience and we have a lively time playing our instruments together. We get to share ideas, smiles, and the steady pulse of the music. Positive social interactions like this help children feel good about themselves and give them the confidence to interact with others with equanimity and integrity.

Theme: Marvellous Me

Peekaboo is a classic favorite that’s good for more than a smile and a laugh. Hiding and finding you over and over again helps to illustrate object permanence. This concept helps children learn that you’re there for them even when they can’t see you. That’s the kind of reassurance they need to foster their emerging independence.

After a well-deserved Christmas holiday, Tiny Tigers have started the new year in full swing. We were lucky enough to have something to celebrate almost immediately when we returned to school: one of our Tiny Tigers had his birthday, so we enjoyed a delicious cake and had some party time with balloons.
We are also pleased to share the news that we have a new addition to our class, a lovely little boy joined us not long ago.
The winter holidays could have been a great time for families to travel and this gave us a good opportunity to channel these experiences into our next unit of inquiry, ‘Journeys’. We had some discussions about traveling. How can we travel when we go near or when we go far, how do we prepare, what do we need to pack when we visit warm and cold countries.
Besides making some beautiful winter-themed artwork, we also had some fun activities connected to vehicles and traffic; Tiny Tigers created lovely pictures using toy cars and paint. We haven’t forgotten about our journey through ‘Jolly Phonics World’ either, so we learned some new sounds from Set 3: ‘g’ and ‘o’.
And last but not least we have started to prepare an exciting new project in which Tiny Tigers will act like little detectives and will make some fun inquiries at home around the house. Details are coming soon.