Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year

I hope everyone is enjoying the holidays....On behalf of LittleLand and all the teachers of LittleLand including me, would like to take this opportunity to wish all parents, children, families and friends a very Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year.

See you back to school on 4th Jan 2010!! We can't wait to be back in full force as we have many exciting activities planned for the children.

Christmas moments

We had a wonderful time during the past two weeks, with lots of stories, songs and laughs. The children are great!!

Dec News

Can you believe that the holidays are almost here already! We would like to start by saying thank you to all the parents who attended our Assembly, it was a very successful afternoon. We also want to thank all the parents who were able to attend our Parent-Teacher Meeting. It was great sharing our information with you about your child and also learning more about each child from your point of view.

We would like to welcome 2 new children to LittleLand. It has been a pleasure to know them and we look forward to working with them. As this is the end of the school year it is an ideal opportunity to recognize the teachers for their tremendous work and dedication towards the children. We watched our toddlers from saying very very little to talking non-stop, we went through with children from not able to hold pencil to writing confidently and so much more.

This past month the children have been very busy exploring many levels of their development. We had a fabulous trip to the Penang Aquarium and were very proud of the children as they were well behaved during the outing.

This month we’ll be talking about Christmas. We are really excited about what we have planned for the children in this holiday season. They have been making Christmas crafts, making Christmas hats and also learning some Christmas songs. As usual they will be performing for the other groups. I think my favourite activities are when we do Christmas themed art and crafts. Pls take note that the last day of school will be 11th Dec and we’ll see you again on 4th Jan 2010. Christmas party will be on last day of school and children are invited to dress up on this day.

Under The Sea Assembly

Sun and Rain Assembly

Well done !! Today our Early Years Group performed very well in their Sun and Rain Assembly considering the size of the audience. I'm very proud of them!!

2009 Holiday Programmes

Our Cooking Party was so popular last year and we decided to have it again for the children this year. It's an enjoyable way to introduce boys and girls aged 3-12 years to cooking. Cooking is fulfilling, cooking is fun, cooking is an art and of course it involves a lot of techniques. They learn pounding the chicken softly, smashing the tuna into bits, peeling the potatoes skin, kneading dough and wait till you see children's faces when they wait eagerly for the food to cook! That's the interesting part of it!

If you are interested, do sign up early as we only have few places left! Come on, come and cook up a storm and have loads of fun!

2009 Cooking Party

Little Scholar Mandarin

Our very own Mandarin class in the afternoon is conducted based on fun learning. The curriculum is centered on relevant thematic activities through story telling, singing, word games, role-play and art-crafts. This enable children learn Mandarin in a fun way and unlike traditional chinese kindergarten where children are required to sit throughout the lesson by learning to write Chinese words pages after pages.

Through fun-filled, task based physical activities children learn quicker. Our daily lesson includes focus as follows :

Reading : Teacher will read your child a story and he/she will have chance to read aloud for friends and teacher. Different word games will be played every week.

Listening : Your child will enhance his/her listening through games session, art & crafts these are all equally important in training the children to be attentive in the class.

Speaking : Classroom interaction is highly encouraged through Show and Tell, dialogues, role-play, talkabout the day session. Your child will gain confidence and enjoy speaking and communicating in Mandarin throughout the lesson.

Writing : Beginning with an introduction of simple Chinese characters, we learn to read, write, and create short phrases. We get your child to get in touch with the fun found in Chinese characters.

Nov News

It’s hard to believe that the year is almost over. We have lots of activities planned for the children in this month. In our Botany subject last month, we talked about fruits and vegetables and which they like and which one they don’t like. The children really enjoyed the Deepavali and Halloween activities that we have planned for them. They enjoyed sprinkling coloured rice onto the Rangoli art designs, henna art Ms. Jenny did for them, chocolates from friends visiting their classroom, cupcakes decorations and performing for their friends.

This month, our theme will be Ocean. The children will be singing songs about the ocean and fish and we will be reading “Clumsy Crab” and “Sea, Sand, Me”. Art activities include making ocean in a bottle, adding sand to finger paint for texture and seashell rubbings. We will also do gross motor activities including shark chasing through wiggly tunnel and crab walking. The bigger children all continue to work hard participating in daily individual guided reading. We are sending some books or word cards back with the children. Please spend some time listen to your child read. Feel free to return the book to school in exchange for another book. The word cards are for children to keep at home.

Please keep in mind a few important dates this month:

Toddlers’ Hat Day – On 10th Nov, the Toddlers are invited to bring a hat to school - any types of hat, could be silly hats, cowboy hats, party hats, helmets or caps. They are going to have lots of fun pretending to be Harry Hat Man, show and tell their hats.

Field Trip - On 12th Nov, our Early Years and Preschoolers will be visiting the The Penang Aquarium Batu Maung, Penang in relation to their current topic work. More information will be provided soon.

Class Assemby - On 21st Nov and 28th Nov the Early Years and Preschoolers Group will perform for their class assembly respectively. The children are excited to show their parents how much they have learned during the school year.

Parent-Teacher Meeting - We would like to invite all parents to come to school for our second Parent-Teacher Meeting. The meeting will be held for two days on 23rd and 24th November between 2pm-6pm. Your child’s work folder and progress report will be presented to you. More details will be sent out later.

STAYING HEALTHY
When your child is sick, please have plans for back up child care. We have to turn away child who is unwell to school. We really need your cooperation and understanding on this matter.

East and West Celebrations

Oct News

Our Early Years and Preschoolers Group children took part in our Sports morning activities with great enthusiasm. We thought we would go ahead with the Sports morning for the bigger children after the rain has stopped. They walked along the balancing beam, jumped into hula hoops, kicked ball into the goal and threw bean bags into the basket. It was fun and helpful for the children to build their gross motor skills. This Wed 7th Oct will be Sport morning for our Toddlers Group. Parents, pls send your child in wearing our school t-shirt.

We hope that everyone in your family is healthy and happy. Speaking of health, we just finished learning about My Healthy Body. The children learned about healthy habits for the body, eating good foods, brushing your teeth, and exercising. We also taught the children about respect for others and how to care for their friends.

This month, we are starting our Botany theme on Fruits and Vegetables. Some of the many fun-filled learning activities scheduled for this theme include:
o Planting beans to sprout
o Playing the role of a gardener – we will be planting carrots, lettuces, teaching the children how to plant the seeds, water the plants and how to take care of the plants.
o Matching pictures of vegetables to where they are grown (trees, vines, underground, etc)
o Having a fruit and vegetable tasting activity during snack, cutting bananas and serve to friends

We would like to thank to our parents who introduce friends and relatives to our school. We will always continue to give the best of education to your child.

Dates to remember
Halloween Day on 30th Oct - Come to school dressed in black and orange or costumes! We will be singing Halloween songs, making Halloween cupcakes, art & crafts and learning to trick or treat!
Please be reminded that the school will be CLOSED for year-end break from 12th Dec – 3rd Jan 2010.
Deepavali celebration on 16th Oct - Henna art for the girls, demonstration on wearing Sari and children will have their own Rangoli art pieces to bring home.

Sept news

Welcome back !! We hope new children settling in well. The National Day party on the last day of school was enjoyed by everyone. The children had a great time making Malaysia flags and performed It’s A Small World song in front of their school mates. They learned about other cultures and the different types of traditional clothes as well.

We are already starting a theme on Health this month. This theme will include many aspects of health such as how to keep us healthy. We will be discussing foods that are good for us, important personal habits and exercise. Time will be spent practicing for our Physical Play Day on 30th Sept. The physical activities that we planned for the children include gross motor skills such as balancing, throwing, running and leaping. It’s important for children to learn how their bodies move and work.

Some of the learning experiences planned for the children include :

o Tracing our bodies at the art corner
o Weighing and measuring ourselves
o Preparing healthy snacks
o People around us that keep us healthy – doctors and nurses

Physical Play Day on 30th Sept for all year groups - the children will be playing in their own group, watched by the other groups and rotate around 3 activities. The children won’t be competing each other. The emphasis is on having fun outdoors while instilling a sense accomplishment.

Introducing SOCATOTS®

I hope you all are having a great week! Lots of things going on here and i'm just ready to reveal to you about my venture into physical play programme for young children. I'm bringing SOCATOTS® The World's first and no 1 soccer play programme from England, UK to Penang now and Kuala Lumpur soon..

It's a unique programme where we use football as a medium to develop essential skills such as numerary, literacy, colour recognition and motor. It's my aim to see children to be more active and get involve physical play activities rather than spend their time going for tuition after tuition and complete tons of worksheets.

Good luck! Stay tuned!

Aug News

The theme of the Farm Animals let us re-visit Zoology unit we learned earlier this year in March. We sang one of our favorite songs from Music Circle CD, We Went to Visit the Farm while pretending to be a variety of different farm animals using our bodies and voices. Another fun activity that our toddlers enjoyed was This Little Pig toes counting rhyme, where our teachers ran their fingers up the children's tummy and give them a tickle. Let’s not forget our group project which was making farmhouse out of cardboard box.

During story-time, the children listened to a very nice story about all the different animals that live on a farm in a book called Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown. For the Early Years children, they learned colour mixing for their art projects. They have started building 3 letter words using Large Moveable Alphabet. Parents, you may notice that your child is bringing home some words to work on.

The month of Aug we dedicated to learning about Weather. We started off talking about different types of weather, for Sensorial activities, children learned about rainbow colours, identifying loud and soft sounds, then later in the month, we also talked about how different weather can help us and plants. Our garden is looking beautiful, by the way! We’re getting a lot of spinach and lady’s fingers. It’s a great time the children learn everywhere around us there are signs of growth and changes.

The year is racing by and it is glorious to watch your children grow. Now most of them are ready for more challenging work and we have moved them to another level higher. The children really enjoy being in the new environment and meeting new friends.

Here are our classes in the AM Session

Toddlers Group ages 2 to 3 with 16 children
Early Years Group ages 3-4 with 9 children
Preschoolers Group ages 5-6 with 9 children

Besides our regular kindergarten classes in the morning, we also offer enrichment programmes in the afternoon. Little Scholar Mandarin available for children ages 3-12 and Ready Reader Early Learning Program (USA) for children ages 2½-4 works to improve the reading readiness of children.

Talking about growth, Malaysia is going to celebrate it’s 52nd National Day on 31st Aug. So I got the children dressed for their nationality at school. The kids paraded around the school and then we all headed into the middle area for a song performance. Then we went to the snacks area to sample the foods of many lands. And of course I didn't miss the chance to take photos!

What a nice cake...from this cute little boy's mum...gotta love his mum for having such a great Merdeka spirit for baking us this cake came with a recipe for us to try too! Another chance to teach the children to spot for our Malaysia flag!

Look how cute they are. We were really into Merdeka spirit! Took a chance to have a group photo for the very first time. But the pictures! As usual, they are cruddy. Some children just refused to stay still for a second....never mind we'll try again next time...

Need I introduce our Malaysia national costumes? From left is girl in cheongsam with a not so suitable pose, Malay baju kurung and an Indian costume.

One in red Samfoo with direct translation from Cantonese means Blouse and Pants and another in Indian costume.

Our Extended Day

I have been meaning to post this up regarding our afternoon programme. In the extended day program, our teachers guide child in creative and playful endeavors. Children will enjoy a social and relaxing afternoon with free play as well as songs, stories, outdoor play and special activities. The school provides two extended day options: pick-up by 3:30 pm and pick-up by 5:30 pm

The afternoon schedule are as follows :

12:00 pm - 12:30 pm • Lunch & Cleanup
12:30 pm - 1:00 pm • Shower
1:00 pm - 3:30 pm • Rest Time (quiet time followed by optional lessons and activities)
3:30 pm - 3:45 pm • Character Building Session
3:45 pm - 4:30 pm • Tea Time & Cleanup
4:30 pm - 5:00 pm • Outdoor Play
5:00pm - 5.30 pm • Focus activity - Story telling, singing, art & crafts, cooking, playdough and Montessori Practical Activity

Toddlers Group Music and Movement time

July News

Hello again! Can’t believe that July has just gone... We have had a very busy two weeks in June and a whole month of July. A warm welcome to 5 new students and 2 members of staff who have joined us this term. We hope they enjoy their time with us as they experience new things each day. We would also like to mention that it was a pleasure meeting with you last week for our Parent Teacher Meeting. We appreciated your praises and feedback.

We have spent the last month learning about Dairy Food. The children sequenced pictures to show the day in the life of a dairy farmer and the process of milk from a cow to the table. At snack time the children were offered milk and ice-cream for tasting and smelling activity.

Our theme in July was Farm Animals. Since beginning of July we have been teaching the children the different sounds that the farm animals make by singing Old MacDonald Had a Farm. The children loved This Little Pig toes counting rhyme very much...They laughed out loud each time the teachers said "This little pig cried Wee Wee Wee all the way home!!" What the children loved best was when the teachers run their fingers up to the children's tummy and give them a tickle. We then looked at textured animals books and completed many fun crafts dealing with a variety of animals. There is a farm house with animals and tractor in the block center too.

We learned about baby farm animals such as chicks, ducklings, piglets, calves and lambs and we played the mummy and me matching farm animal game. We listened to the The Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown.
After reading this story, we list what we might see on a farm. Our Early Years Group children completed a barn scene using paints, manila cards and lots of art materials. They also learned colour mixing for example red and white makes pink. Yes, pink for our cute curly pig...

Painting and mixing colours activity

Ducky craft using toilet rolls

Little Bo Peep has lost her sheep called Woolly. Don't worry we will just leave him alone and he will come home...

Cute Curly pig

Children learned body parts of a cow

Concepts the children learned on Farm unit were :
o A farm animal lives on a farm
o Barns, stables and sheds are homes for farm animals
o Horses are farm animals that can be used for transportation
o Cows, chickens, pigs, sheep and goats are farm animals that can be used for food, Some supply us milk and eggs
o Farm animals eat corn, hay, oats and grass
o We can recognise some farm animals by their sounds

The children will continue to be taught the importance of washing hands after each activity. We will teach the children about proper use of the playground equipment, outdoor safety such as walking on the sidewalk, not running in the parking lot, and holding hands with an adult when crossing the street.

Don't you think that children nowadays just refuse to let you hold their hands when they are on the road ? Read a news recently that a mum reversed her car and ran over toddler. This news has freaking me out!! That's why we think it's our responsibility to remind children about raod safety.