Happy Kids Newsletter 2015 October

Dear Parents,
A very warm welcome to another fun year at HAPPY KIDS!
The new school year is flying by and we hold our first break from
Monday 19 October.
Many parents have commented on the extensive building renovations
that were completed during the summer.
These works included a new facade with colorful Led light network
covering our ground and first floor areas; a modern larger new entry
foyer and security fencing on both sides to ensure maximum safety for
our children.
We have sent all parents important information about our school
policies. These include items such as discipline, safety, sickness and
accident and other important general information.
With the alarming spread of viruses worldwide, we ask all parents not to
bring sick children into Happy Kids!
Please take this seriously as your healthy child could pick up an
infection from another child!
We also kindly ask that parents telephone our office in the event of
their child not coming in to Happy Kids for any reason.
We wish to remind all parents that our front entry gate is open at 8 am
sharp; afternoon late pick up is until 5 p.m.
Please inform Mariann or Kornelia, our late duty teachers when you are
leaving with your child!
Finally, we hope you enjoy reading the individual class activities and
general news. Please record the important diary dates listed on the last
page,
We do look forward to a happy, successful school year and appreciate
your confidence in entrusting the development of your child to Happy
Kids!
With best wishes,
Peter and Suzy Jones
Happy Hippos
Dear Happy Hippos Parents,
We are happy to say that we started
the year with lots of fun, with a very
positive atmosphere. The children
really settled in easy and we still get
new friends to play with. We would
really like to thank all the parents for their great cooperation, trust and
care. Without them life with the Hippos would not be as sweet. The last
few weeks have just flown by with all that we have learned and done
every day. Making new friends, learning and having fun together has
made the time pass by so quickly.
As we followed our Unit of Inquiry,
we began to learn about the
different colours which surround us.
We have discussed how people
choose different colours to dress
up. We made a rainbow and sorted
objects according to their colours.
We looked at the different colours
on our clothes and in our classroom environment. We also talked about
our body parts and discussed the differences
between our bodies and the bodies of animals.
We found animal toys and chatted about which
parts of their bodies are the same as ours and
which are different. Some animals have tails,
wings and a very long neck. We also tried to
figure out what we use our different body parts
for.
We learned lots of new songs related to these
topics: “Rainbow”, “Head, Shoulders”, "Eyes, and
Nose”, "If you're happy and you know it", "Baa,
Baa black sheep", "Slowly, slowly". The children
really enjoyed singing and acting out the songs.
We made some fun cards that reminded us of
the songs we have memorized.
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The children looked at many pictures, read
books, played with puzzles, participated in circle
games and sorting and matching games that were
all related to our Unit of Inquiry.
The children really listened with increasing
attention to the books we shared: "Brown bear,
brown bear”, “Doing the animal bop", "Dear Zoo",
"Scat, the cat". With the help of these books we
extended our vocabulary and learned to make
connections with the happenings in the books.
We also prepared some songs to share on our
Autumn Assembly: "The owl song" and "Sally goes
round the sun". It was a lot of fun and required a lot
of courage.
We made plum cake for our Harvest party in the
garden. We had breakfast together and enjoyed the
show with the magician and after we danced happily.
Our little hippos were very excited and open towards
this wonderful event.
Among these high points of the term were our daily
rhythms. Slowly our little children got into the
routine. They enjoy coming inside the classroom and
being involved in art activities making owls,
hedgehogs, vegetable print, painting, cutting, pasting etc.
Each day we practiced developing skills ranging from socializing,
following instructions, and making friends. We had our Circle Time with
daily basics like practicing counting and looking at the weather, exploring
our unit of inquiry and having lots of fun together in the classroom or in
the garden. The children also attended their Art, Music and Drama,
Physical Education classes with a big smile and curiosity.
Thank you! We all look
forward to the rest of the
year; learning and growing
and having lots and lots of
fun together.
Warm Regards
Réka and Dóri
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Tiny Tigers
Tiny Tigers Newsletter
A very warm welcome to all our families
in Tiny Tigers! It is already the middle
of October so there is a lot to tell you
about the first weeks of our little
tigers. Even though the settling in
period is still not completely over, we are
really starting to be a great group! The
children have got used to the daily
routine, they know how and when to do
things. They are learning to be more and
more independent, they are starting to
change their own shoes and wash hands
by themselves – even though sometimes it
takes quite a long time to finish
everything.
The kids enjoy choosing books in the Library and they are happy to take
them home to read it with their parents. Please be so nice to remember
to bring back the folders by Friday morning so they can choose a new
one again.
We have started to learn to recognize the
letters with the Jolly Phonics method and
the children enjoy singing the songs very
much and showing the actions that are
connected to each letter.
As our group name is Tiny Tigers in the first two weeks we talked about
these wonderful animals. We looked at photos of them and discussed
how big and strong they are. We tried to create tigers in many various
ways using different art techniques: painting, pasting, colouring etc.
Our first Unit was entitled ‘Homes’ so
first we had our inquiry into people’s
homes and houses. We discovered what
sort of rooms we had in a house and
what type of furnitures we placed there.
As parents were so nice to provide
photos of their children’s room we put
the pictures on the bulletin board so
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they themselves could explain to us what they had in their rooms at
home. We also talked about how a house could be built. We looked at
specially designed houses and the children were amazed at the unusual
buildings that can be created as a result of very wild imagination. We
pasted, painted, coloured, sorted houses and we even made a small world
model of a city street with cardboard boxes.
The ponies came to visit us and all the children
were very excited to see and touch them.
Almost everyone wished to have a turn to ride
them – they were sitting on them so
confidently!
We celebrated Harvest with a party in the
garden. The children enjoyed watching the
magic show and we even baked a cake with
raisins and yoghurt that turned to be so-so delicious.
We also had our first Rolli-Polli session and
all the children had so much fun jumping,
climbing, crawling and bouncing in the safe
and stimulating environment. We left the
kindergarten together for the first time
this year and they were all very brave
travelling on the school bus
together.
We celebrated two birthdays in the first few weeks
with yummy cakes; Happy Birthday again dear Oskar
and Celine! And thanks to Ottilia and her Mom, we also
celebrated the Swedish Cinnamon Bun Day – the kids
loved the cinnamon buns!
Now let us wish you a lovely and relaxing holiday and we
are happy to see you back after the autumn break!
Warm regards
Ivett and Anikó
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Marvellous Meerkats
Dear Parents,
We had a very busy September, with lots of
fun activities!! We would like to welcome again
all our big Marvellous Meerkats: Leo, Chino,
Dalma, Maryam, Yui, Gerda, Sofia, Peter,
Gianna, Álmos, Gergὄ, Andy and Fiona! It is
always nice to see all the children settling in
and getting used to our routines and coming to
school with a big smile on their faces.
Children began to form good relationships and
started to become friends with one another
during the past few weeks.
Harvest Festival was great fun, our class made
fruit salad for all the children in the school and
when we went to the garden, we also ate all the
yummy treats prepared by all the classes in
Happy Kids.
Our art sessions with Zsofi have begun and the
children made lovely pictures and art projects
that are always displayed on the corridor walls.
Marina entertained us all and made the children
sing and dance during her music lessons.
During circle time activities we talked about
the weather and the changes that autumn
brings to our life. We learned about the colour
of the leaves on the trees (green, yellow,
orange, brown, gold and red). Our Unit of
Inquiry is: All About Me, so we involved the
families in creating posters about their
children.
During Centre time, the children took turns
telling us about their posters, it was great fun
to learn about their favourite activities, food
and toys as well as about their families and life
outside Happy Kids.
We began singing several songs and began
reciting different rhymes. During circle times
we did quite a few counting activities –
counting leaves, walnuts, our fingers and all the
children who were present at circle time as
well as colour naming and colour matching
games.
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In the mornings the children worked individually
with the teachers – they were practicing proper
pencil grip, cutting, colouring in, painting and
tracing to help their pre-writing skills. They are
all very enthusiastic about this. Please, do keep
on coming in early so they do not miss out on
these precious morning activities!!
The Jolly Phonics programme was introduced during circle times, and we
began learning the sounds of the following letters with the action that
go with those: s, a, t, i, p, n. When everybody knows it really well, they
will make their own book about the letters and letter sounds and they
will take it home to teach all their parents how to sound those letters
properly .
We sang many different songs during our sessions. The most popular
ones were: ”The Scarecrow” , ”Row your boat”, ”Everybody Clap” and
”Jelly on the Plate” songs.
The kids also love books, so we read
few stories they really enjoyed
listening to:
”Ten In The Bed”,
”Clifford’s Family”, ”Little Red Riding
Hood” and ”How Do Dinosaurs Say
Goodnight?” and “How Do Dinosaurs
Count?”.
Pony riding was very popular among
our children, who were very brave to
try out this activity during the
settling in period.
We are looking forward to meeting
you
at
the
Parent-Teacher
Conferences- so we can tell you more
about the children and their recent
achievements!!
Regards,
Kata and Alex
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Fantastic Foxes
Dear Fantastic Fox Parents,
Firstly we would like to take this opportunity to welcome all of the parents to
the Fantastic Foxes! We have enjoyed getting to know you since the beginning
of September and we hope you are happy with how the year has gone so far. It
has certainly been an eventful time and we have been busy with lots of
exciting activities and great times. The kids have enjoyed the chance to play
together with new and old classmates and it is lovely to see new friendships
being formed and lots of fun being had.
Our first Unit of Inquiry is ‘How
We Organise Ourselves’ and we
have spent lots of time learning all
about how to behave inside and
outside the classroom. We listened
to stories about a very naughty boy
called James and talked about what
he should do to be a good boy. We
came up with some classroom rules
and talked about making good choices and poor choices. We are trying our best
to make good choices when we can (not like James!).
Our busy days always start with our Jolly Phonics and Maths folders. Every
morning we do one page from each folder. We love practicing our handwriting
and use our Jolly Phonics actions to help us remember the different sounds.
Once we have finished with all of our hard work, we usually relax by going to
the terrace or playing with the classroom toys. It is important for us to rest
our minds and enjoy our time playing with our friends.
As part of the Fantastic Foxes curriculum this year we are following the
Tribes system. Being in a tribe means we can learn about working together as
part of a group. In the first week we were each put in to a tribe: Red Foxes,
Grey Foxes, Marble Foxes and Arctic Foxes. We were able to make beautiful
posters with our other tribe members and we have hung them outside the
classroom for our Mummies and Daddies to
see. As well as our fox tribes, we also learnt
a lot of interesting facts about foxes and
how they live. We found out that they live in
a den which they dig with their legs. They eat
small birds and bunnies. They are night
animals who can even see in the dark! With all
of these amazing facts, we are really fox
experts now!
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At the moment the highlight of our week is our swimming lesson every Friday.
We really enjoy learning how to swim and jump and have fun in the swimming
pool. Our swimming teachers are very kind and patient with us. We are learning
how to take care of our belongings at the swimming pool and we can dress and
undress ourselves too. It is a big responsibility and we are proud of how well
we are doing. In addition to our weekly swimming lessons we have also started
our afternoon activities including Judo, Hungarian, Kindermusik and Ballet. We
really love attending these extra afternoon classes.
Even with such busy days we still had time to ride the ponies in the garden and
take a trip to Rolli-Polli. We had so much fun at Rolli-Polli playing games and
completing an assault course. Of course, everyone’s favourite activity is the
giant trampoline! It is so nice now Kitti is our Rolli-Polli teacher AND our gym
teacher, we are really very lucky. We would also like to say thank you to
Sarah’s Mummy for joining us at Rolli-Polli and taking some lovely pictures.
In September we had two birthday celebrations in the Fantastic Foxes. First
we had a party for Maxim who turned four in the summer holidays. Maxim even
brought a delicious chocolate cake for us all to share and he really enjoyed
blowing out the candles! Next we had a small party for Yoon Seo who had also
turned four in the holidays. We got to try some yummy Korean treats including
a special sushi cake! It is so great that we have the opportunity to try food
from different nationalities and Yoon Seo was very proud to share her food
with us. At the end of the month we were even able to prepare our own food
for the harvest festival. We worked together to make some delicious ham and
cheese sandwiches and the best part was eating them all up once we were
done.
With such a busy start to the year
we think it is time for a welldeserved rest. Have a lovely
Autumn Break and we will see you
all after the holiday.
Love,
Naomi, Juci and Korni
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Brilliant Pandas
Brilliant Pandas October Newsletter
Welcome to a new year in the Brilliant
Pandas class! We hope we have a very fun
filled and special year ahead of us. So much
has happened already that we are very
excited to tell our families about.
We have welcomed quite some new friends in
the class; they are settling in well and are
learning our routine. We have already had one
birthday; we celebrated Moos’s birthday last
week and rest assured we have many more to
come!
We started the year off by exploring what a
community means and how we can form one in
the classroom. We looked at the kind of
communities we can be a part of; in our home,
our neighbourhood and our school. We also
explored the different roles within a
community and how we can become a part of
the community.
We brainstormed some
classroom guidelines during our center time
that will promote tolerance and cooperation
within our class. We talked about ourselves
during circle time and shared our interests and
feelings. This is always important at the start
of the year so we can get to know more about
each other.
We have established the TRIBES Learning Community in our classroom
this year. We are the Bamboo, Giant Pandas, Red Pandas and Mountains
groups. The TRIBES programme creates a positive environment in our
classroom and has made learning a cultural and a social experience. Not
only has this made the children feel welcome and accepted by their
peers but also they are actively involved in their individual learning and
this has helped them develop independence and confidence. We looked
at the four main agreements: attentive listening, appreciation/no putdowns, the right to pass and mutual respect. We discussed them and
used them in activities and in our daily classroom routines.
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Because we have many new students in the
class, this is their first time being exposed
to the Jolly phonics programme. They are
working hard to learn this new concept and
we go over the letters that they have
learned daily in our circle time. The children
are getting used to completing their
individual development every morning; we are
making good headway towards our goals.
Our Harvest festival was a huge success. We made
yummy cookies to share with the school in the
garden along with other goodies from other classes.
We had a magician come in to surprise us with many
tricks and fun entertainment and we got to dance
after as well. Some of the children were very busy
getting their groove on in the garden! We had the
chance to try some freshly pressed grape juice,
which was a success with everyone. It was certainly
a relaxing morning full of fun and games.
We had our first Field trip of the year to
the Miniversum which features wonderfully
designed miniature towns and villages. It
was well worth the visit. We also had our
first Rolli-polli session where the children
enjoyed the activities very much.
Our extra-curricular activities are going really well. The children know
what activities they do and are learning how to get ready for them.
Swimming has been a success with all the children; they love to be in the
water!
Farewell to Ludwik who left to go back
to Poland. We wish you the best of
luck!
We hope you have a wonderful and
relaxing autumn break.
Thank you
Noushe, Ranji and Laura
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Cheeky Monkeys
Dear Parents,
A very warm welcome to all our “Cheeky
Monkeys” families, especially to our new
ones (Lola, Khalid, Sultan, and Jiachen). We
look forward to getting to know you and
your children. We had to say goodbye to
Laura (moved to Madrid) and Eira (moved
back to Japan). We wish them all the best.
By now, we all settled in and are off to a
great start to the year. We have had a
lot of celebrations already – the harvest
celebration and Autumn Assembly.
Chrysoula, Maria, Mihaela and Zsombor
turned 6 this month. Happy Birthday!!!
We had a great time preparing plum baskets for our Harvest Festival.
Only a few weeks later we had our Autumn Assembly which took place in
our gym. We were very proud to present something different – “Peep
Squirrel” with all our friends in the classroom.
On the 9th of September we went on our first field trip to the Barefoot
Park. The Barefoot Park encouraged us to take our shoes off and stroll
along barefoot through a thematic route. Not only did going barefoot
feel great, it also nourished, strengthened, and promoted agility in your
child’s growing feet, ankles, legs, knees, and hips.
We have started our TRIBES program. The outcome of the TRIBES
process is to develop a positive environment that promotes children’s
growth and learning. We have been having “Community Circle” and it has
now become an essential part of our day where we discuss concepts such
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as listening attentively, being respectful and
not using put downs. We have also made four
tribes (Baboons, Chimpanzees, Orangutans
and Gorillas). Hopefully, this will build better
social inclusion, tolerance, respect and
cooperation within our class.
Language and Arts, Social Studies and Information Technology had been
integrated into our Unit of Inquiry entitled “What was it like when you
were young?”. The children learned through discussion and project work
what kindergarten/school and home was like then; what play, games and
toys they enjoyed; what clothes and foods they liked/disliked. After the
Autumn break we will continue our inquiry into their favourite stories
from childhood and their special memories of childhood.
In Mathematics children now understand that patterns can be found in
numbers. They had daily practice in skip counting and recognising odd
and even numbers. During our morning individual development time the
children have been learning about the inverse relationship between
addition and subtraction. At present we are practicing automatically to
recall addition and subtraction facts to 10. Children have been actively
using the language of addition and subtraction, for example, add, take
away, plus, minus, sum, and difference in their daily lives.
Thank you all for coming to our
Opening Party. Also, we hope to see
you all at the Parent Teacher
Conferences.
Have a wonderful Autumn break!
Kind Regards,
Ms. Petra, Ms. Marianna and Ms. Milja
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A Message to Parents
What is Tribes TLC?
The Tribes Learning Community process, also known as Tribes TLC®
(Tribes), promotes social and academic development by creating a positive
learning environment through the use of active learning groups in the
classroom. The Tribes process is to assure the healthy development of
every child so that each one has the knowledge, skills and resiliency to be
successful in a rapidly changing world.
Four guiding principles, called “agreements,” are honored:
Attentive listening:
Involves paying close attention to one another’s
expression of ideas, opinions and feelings; to check
for understanding and letting others know they have
been heard. All of these are teachable social skills
and involve maintaining eye contact, withholding your
own comments, paraphrasing key words to show you’ve
been listening and using body language; listening with
your ears, your eyes and your heart.
Appreciation/no put downs:
Aims to develop a sense of self-esteem and self-worth through appreciation and
recognition of each other's gifts and talents.
Mutual respect:
To ensure that cultural values, beliefs and needs will be considered and honored.
Students learn to respect individual skills, talents, and contributions.
The right to pass:
Each person has the right to choose the extent to which she or he will share in a
group activity. Choosing the right to pass means that the person prefers not to share
personal information or feelings or to actively participate in the group at a particular
moment. Being a silent observer is still a form of participation and can lead to greater
learning.
Children learn a set of collaborative skills so they can work well together in long-term
groups (tribes). The focus is on how to:
• help each other work on tasks
• set goals and solve problems
• monitor and assess progress
• celebrate achievements
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Another essential element of the process, reflective practice is
the focus on what happened, why it happened, what feelings were
invoked, and what needs to change (or not). Without reflection,
learning and change cannot happen
Why Your Support Helps
When you, parents, use something as simple as the four
agreements at home, you support positive, productive behavior
and provide consistency for your son or daughter. We see that
carry over at school, and it helps us present and preserve a
culture that supports our school learning community.
When the agreements aren’t enough, let’s say they just don’t
always make the homework, or “be nice to your brother/sister”
happen … the art of reflecting on what is (or isn’t) going on helps
to focus on the reason “for doing this….”
“I-Messages” and “Paraphrasing” are very useful tools to transfer
responsibility to your son/daughter to encourage effective
decision-making and problem solving.
No “one thing” works all the time, but consistency and practice
over time, does. The reality is, whatever one practices, one
becomes proficient at. When you model listening, understanding,
appreciation, and respect…you have more reason to expect those
qualities in children and teens.
They really are watching and paying
attention to you – even when it doesn’t seem
so. Take care in how you speak and what you
say.
Creating a caring culture is an important step
in building a learning community. The good
news is that we all want your son/daughter
to be a successful, capable, and motivated
learner – both at school and in life.
We appreciate you, and all you do to support us at
school.
Warm regards,
Petra
Educational Coordinator
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Diary Dates
Autumn Break
Monday, 19th October—Friday, 23rd 2015
Halloween Party
Thursday, 29th October 2015
Parent-Teacher conferences
Monday, 9th November—Friday, 20th November 2015
Assembly
Thursday, 26th November 2015
HAPPY KIDS AT PEPPERS RESTAURANT,
MARRIOTT HOTEL BUDAPEST
Parents can sit back, relax and enjoy Budapest’s best
Sunday Brunch Buffet each Sunday 12:00 — 3:00 pm at
the popular Hotel Marriott restaurant Peppers while the
kids can be professionally entertained and creatively
occupied!
Call 737-7377 for reservations !
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