Memories

We were talking about favourite moments and favourite topics.

Princes and Princesses Dance was one of them.

Spelling races.

Getting wet on the pier.

Butterflies and frogs

Pirates at Casa da Música

Outside Learning

Gamelan

The Gamelan in a traditional ensemble from Indonesia

using percussive instruments. Reception Bears had the

opportunity to interact musically to create an

exquisit and intriguing sound.

Together we played the sound track to a short film about Spring.

Some illustrations of the event:

Eisteddfod

Dr Seuss and his fantastic poems.

You can find some poems here.

Chinese New Year

Reception Bears prepared themselves for the Chinese New Year.

First we learnt how to say Happy New Year.

新年快乐

(sshin-nyen kwhy-ler)

We learnt about various Chinese traditions.

People visit one another and present their hosts with

 tangerines and oranges, which mean "luck" and "wealth."

Our first guest taught us how to make dumplings

and also steam a rice cake/pudding - nian gao.

We all had a go at making dumplings.

 The dumplings were delicious with the soya bean sauce.

Jing used a special pot to steam the nian gao.

We all had a taste of the rice pudding, but we did not all like it.

Our next guest taught us how to make pretty patterns with paper.

Paper was invented in China, they are very good at
making things from paper.

 We cut a monkey and a Chinese character

that means "double happiness."

See the story bellow to find out why this is the

year of the Fire Monkey.

Do you think the Jade Emperor was clever?

The New Year is also called the Spring Festival.

This is the character for Spring.

We folded and cut this intricate pattern.

Our third guest taught us how to draw some

Chinese characters.

We used brushes and special ink on red paper.

We followed instructions carefully.

We wrote numbers from 1 to 10.

Our last guest lived in Singapore and has celebrated

the Chinese New Year ever since.

Sarah makes cupcakes and decorates them with tangerines.

She helped us make the frosting and decorate our cupcakes.
Rodrigo's family provided some delicious tangerines.

We all had a taste and there were still plenty to take home.

The Chinese New Year was also a good excuse for a rickshaw ride.

It takes skill as well as strength to pull a rickshaw.

新年快乐

Peter and the Wolf

In the Portuguese sessions with Professora Maria do Céu,
Reception Bears have been talking about
Peter and the Wolf. 

The children have illustrated the story and their work
is on the displayboard outside the computer room

if you wish to view some of the pieces.

It snowed!

The sky was not blue. A cold wind was blowing

and believe it or not... it snowed.

We witnessed some Jack Frost Magic.

Magic snowflakes that did not melt fell from the sky.

We looked at the pretty patterns and tried to match them up in pairs.
We could not do so because they were all different.

We cut our own paper snowflakes and had a lot of fun throwing them down for our friends to catch.

Wise Men - Dia de los Reyes

We wish Daniel a lovely "Dia de los Reyes."
We made some Wise Men out of recycled materials to take home.

Professora Maria do Céu taught the class this song:

In true Spanish tradition, on January 6th, the Wise Men bring children presents and there are parades in the streets.

This video shows what the parade looks like.

 

Our Creative Nativity - performance and crafts

Our stars

At the end of the show

Do you like our crafts? Can you identify the recycled materials?

Some shepherds looking after some curly sheep.

The Angels that appeared in the sky with beautiful voices

The stable where Jesus was born

World Origami Day

Today we celebrated origami day by folding origami fish.

We will also learn how to fold a crane.

The same paper bird Sadako, a WWII victim folded, wishing for good health and world peace.

In many places around the world children and adults fold thousands of cranes and place them in Sadako's honour
and her wish for world peace.

If you would like to encourage your child to continue to fold,
you can use:
http://en.origami-club.com/

A story with spots and stripes

We had a painting experience based on the story

My Mum and Dad make me laugh

Our classroom looks really good with our beautiful patterns.