Happy Kids Newsletter 2012 October

Happy News
October 2012
Dear Parents,
A very warm welcome to another exciting
year at HAPPY KIDS!
The new school year is flying by and we are
soon approaching our first break.
Many parents have commented on the large
variety of after school activities at HAPPY
KIDS. Our various programs include Judo,
Bully Proof, Drama, Art, Chess and Dance/
Ballet and I sincerely believe we have some
of the best instructors in Budapest providing an outstanding program for your children – of course all in English.
Every second week our lovable ponies come
to visit us, alternating with children’s yoga
held in the gymnasium.
Our skiing program starts in December,
taking the place of swimming and will run
weekly up to the HAPPY KIDS Ski Week at
the end of February. The skiing will take
place at the Fogarasi Ski School nearby.
This is a synthetic grass ski slope set in a
beautiful location within the forest. Our 2
English speaking instructors are well qualified and very experienced with teaching
young children to ski.
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 before 9 a.m. in the event of
their child not coming in to Happy Kids - for
whatever reason.
We wish to remind all parents that afternoon late pick up is until 5 p.m. Please
inform our late duty staff Dóra or Kornélia
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 we greatly value your confidence in entrusting the development of
your child to Happy Kids!
SANTA CLAUS VISIT TO FINLAND
In conjunction with Tensi Tours, we would like to give parents the wonderful opportunity to
fly to Lapland and visit the real Santa Claus! This represents a unique pre- Christmas
travel opportunity and promises to be an unforgettable experience for both children and
parents.
Please see the information website
http://www.tensi.hu/htmls/santa_claus_tour_in_lapland.html
for full details. Mention Happy Kids for a special discount !
Cute Kittens
Dear Parents,
As the lovely warm September flew
by, our Cute Kittens have managed to
settle in very nicely. It took a while
till all of them decided not to cry at
all and enjoy the new environment
but it didn’t take very long. We befriended the classroom and each
other very quickly and started to enjoy being together.
It’s so great to see how quickly the
children got used to our daily routine
– they are happy to join our circle
time and enjoy singing and playing
together. Their favourite song is the
Row, row, row your boat, of course
the part they love the most is when
the crocodile comes… By now they
know very well when and where they
can wash their hands, eat lunch, get
dressed or have their afternoon
It seems that the little kittens like
to play everywhere in the classroom
with all the toys they can find, but it
turned out that the most popular
corners are the shelves with the cars
and the home corner – they never get
bored with preparing food in the little kitchen for the dolls and each
other! There is another place that is
as popular as the kitchen – our terrace where they can ride a bike,
climb or slide endlessly…
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nap…
In accordance with our Unit of Inquiry ”Who Am I?” we have been
learning about our body parts - their
names and where they are - and had
fun singing the Head and Shoulders
song together. As much as the children enjoyed dressing up the bear on
our circle time wall in the first
weeks, now they are just as busy
with finding the right place for the
could try to paste with gluesticks
little boy’s body parts. We created a
and liquid glue.
big poster with the photos of our
body parts to show how well we’ve
learnt to find them!
What else did we do? The Cute Kittens have cooked twice already during the last month. Preparing for the
We have also learnt about our homes,
Harvest festival that took place in
what furniture we have in our houses
the garden, we baked a yummy
and who the family members are we
chocolate and banana cake that dis-
live with. Each of
the children
appeared very quickly from the tray…
painted a little house and pasted his/
Some of the children were already
her own and their parents’ photos in
brave enough to ride the pony – Well
the windows and doors. They enjoyed
done! – hopefully next time even
knocking on the door and opening it
more of them will try! We had so
to see who they find there.
much fun during our first yoga lesson
Seeing how nature is changing around
us with the new season, we made
many enjoyable autumn arts and
crafts – some of them with Zsófi,
our art teacher, thank you for them!
We used different techniques to
show what colours
the leaves are
taking during this season and how
with Tünde! The children really enjoyed
climbing/rolling/hopping/
crawling/running around in the gym.
And let’s not forget to mention our
fun parties in the classroom celebrating three birthdays: as Tobias,
Minjae and Natalie turned 2 years
old – Happy Birthday!
they are falling from the trees. The
children had a chance to paint with
brushes, sponges, rollers, stamps and
even with their fingers, and they
Kind regards,
Ivett and Zsuzsi
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Jolly Giraffes
Dear Parents!
cial thing to have a family and to be
loved.
In the beginning of the year we were
very excited to meet you and the
children. I guess it was a mutual
feeling.
The settling in flew very
The children traced their homes and
pasted pictures of their family members on the house then they painted
portraits of them.
smoothly, the children enjoy coming
An other fun project was making a
to kindergarten and they have lots of
doll house. Zsófi, our art teacher
fun and friends to play with.
helped us make a beautiful place for
our dolls to live in. The Giraffes all
had a little doll of themselves to play
with.
Now we are even more excited, because the children are very happy,
they feel safe and confident. The
children's personalities are blossoming, showing more colours each day.
The Giraffes are jolly and happy to
learn new things.
These past few weeks we have learnt
about our home and our family. People personalise their home in different ways. Our home and family create a sense of belonging. It is a spe-
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Music was part of our learning. Our
favourite song was “Polly put the kettle on” and “I am a little teapot”.
During our tea party we sang songs
The Harvest Party was a special day
and made fresh toast with a real
for us. Dancing made the children
toaster! We put the kettle on and
very happy; they enjoyed baking a
listened to the sound it made and we
peach cake and the picnic they had
observed the hot steam coming out
sitting on the grass with their
through the top.
friends.
The Jolly Giraffes really enjoyed
Jolly Phonics was very welcome in the
their
and
Jolly Giraffes. They really take lots
freshly squeezed lemon. They could
of pleasure in it. They can recognise
choose to eat toast with butter, jam
the different sounds that we have
or honey.
learnt already and the actions that
fruit
tea with
honey
accompany them.
Story time just before sleeping is
also a part of our daily routine. The
children enjoy listening to and retelling the stories and to draw pictures
of them afterwards. They even like
to read a story to each other.
We used the tea party to learn about
what we need to have in our kitchen
and to understand that the kitchen is
a place where we cook. We've learnt
not to touch the oven when it’s hot,
that the microwave is to heat food
It was a month full of Birthdays.
Happy Birthday to Haruki, Ari, Mihaela, Matous and Zsombor!
It is fun to share special moments
with our friends.
More fun to come.
up and so on.
Warm Regards,
Réka and Dóri

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Bright Bunnies
Dear Families,
We would like to extend a
very warm welcome to you all
and look forward to a fun
filled year with the Bright
Bunnies. The children have
settled very well into their
new class and know the routine very well now.
The children really enjoyed the
story “ We’re Going On a Bear
Hunt”. The story follows interesting language patterns and
repeats phrases. By the end of
the week most of the children
could re-tell the story on their
own. We also learned the meaning of under, over, and through,
which are covered in the story.
The first few weeks of term
we spent a lot of time getting
to know about each other and
our families. The children
were introduced to lots of vocabulary connected to the
topic and made beautiful self
portraits that can be found in
the portfolios.
The children really enjoyed
making the bears. You can see
them displayed outside the
classroom.
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The harvest festival celebration was a big success . The
children took part in their
first assembly as Bright Bunnies, and sang as well. After
the assembly we went outside
to the garden to share the
snack we had prepared with
the other classes. The children loved the music and had
fun dancing.
Please don’t forget to send in
warmer clothes for outside
time. It will soon be time for
hats and scarves. 
Many Thanks,
Alex and Anikó
Now that autumn is upon us
and the weather is changing
fast, we are making the most
of the changes in nature and
having fun making lovely pieces
of art. The tree we made from
pumpkin seeds took a lot of
patience and time, but it looks
great. Good team work Bright
Bunnies!
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Friendly Frogs
Dear Friendly Frogs Parents,
We have all settled in and are off to
a good start to another school year.
We welcomed our new friends Balázs,
Kota
and
Mia
who settled
to
right
the
class,
in. We
cele-
brated Rinka’s 4th Birthday and we
would like to thank her Mommy for
making the day special for all of us.
We started our swimming course and
all the Froggies are happy to go
every Friday. We also had our first
yoga class where the kids were all
excited to do some new exercises
with our lovely yoga teacher. They
also had a lot of fun riding the ponies.
We have been learning lots of songs
and poems. We all know “Hello Hello
We had our very first party, which
Hello How are you”, “The leaves on
was the opening day and we had our
the trees”, “You put your hand in”,
first assembly. We presented some
“Scarecrow”, “Froggy Kiss”, “Orange
new songs to share our joy and happi-
is an Orange” - also it was so great to
ness. We also had a great time pre-
see them all representing the new
paring
classroom agreements which are on
some
food
(Nutella
Cheese sandwiches).
and
the board.
All the kids had been nominated as
the daily helper, line leader or line
ender to feel the responsibility and
learn how to share and help. We have
done many language arts tasks that
center around our Unit of Inquiry ‘Families and Friends’.
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We looked at how families are similar
as working attentively, being re-
and different and how we make and
spectful and expressing appreciation
keep friends. Also we started to
to each other. This will provide
learn all about ourselves and our
our
body and 5 senses. We also made our
cial attitudes, friendship, respect
family house by putting family pic-
and cooperation within our class.
tures up. It was so great to see the
children working on their first mini
book to show how they can draw.
We’ve
read
some
stories
froggies
with
excellent
so-
We do appreciate all your kind cooperation by taking part in our first
about
friendship and love, such as Froggie
Goes to School, Are You My Mother
and I Love My Daddy. We’ve been
reviewing the first set of Jolly Phonics sounds (S, T, A and P).
In
Maths
we
reviewed
colours,
shapes and numbers. We’ve been
practicing numbers 0 – 10. We’ve
learnt some stories and chants such
as ‘One, Two Buckle My Shoe’ and
‘Ten Little Monkeys’ to explore the
many possible arrangements of num-
parent-teacher
conference,
our
opening day party and also our very
first assembly.
Kind Regards,
Pari and Juci
bers.
During ‘Group Circle’ time we discuss our daily routine and ideas such
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Brilliant Pandas
Dear Panda Parents,
Individual
What an eventful time it has been!
First,
we
welcomed
three
new
children to our group here at Happy
Kids. Haneen and Layan, both from
Saudi Arabia, and Ema, from the
Czech Republic.
These three little
girls continue to enhance our group
through their cheerful disposition
Development,
covering
learning to read and learning to do
math.
We began our adventure toward
reading with an exploration of Jolly
Phonics.
While it is a review for
some of our Pandas, those that are
already
familiar
with
it
provide
support to those for whom it is new.
and we all look forward to growing
Getting ready for mathematics is the
closer throughout the rest of the
other part of this morning activity.
year.
Here we move at our own pace
getting to know the numbers better
and how to use them to explore the
world.
Tribes is the other project which we
have
been
exploring.
After
discussing topics such as how to
listen attentively and what mutual
After a little time getting to know
respect is and how we model it, we
each
formed
other,
we
began
several
ambitious projects, first with our
smaller
groups
are
learning to work together in our
groups on small projects.
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and
Our circle time has been a place
dancing and music of Madárdal. They
where we can show off what we have
showed
learned
instruments and taught us some fun
through
our
individual
development and all of us like to help
each
other
do
just
us
lots
of
interesting
dances.
that.
Additionally, this is the time when we
talk about everyday things like what
the days of the week are, what the
weather is like, the seasons and the
months of the year.
Amid all of this learning and hard
work we still had time to celebrate
some things as well. We celebrated
Finally, we would like to give all of
Yui’s
you a heads up concerning our first
birthday
on
the
17th
of
September when she turned five
excursion.
years old! Our other big party was
will be going to the Vadas Park in Bu-
on the 27th of September when we
dakeszi just before we dismiss for
held our Harvest Assembly.
the Autumn Break.
For
those of you who were unable to
attend, the Brilliant Pandas sang two
songs for the whole of the school:
„Autumn Leaves,” and „Shake the
Apple Tree.”
Thanks for all of the support from
parents, teachers and staff and we
look forward to a great year!
After enjoying the
presentations of the other groups we
Barbara and Jason
went outside for snacks prepared by
each
group
Weather permitting, we
(we
made
No
Bake
Cookies!) before being treated to the
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Cheeky Monkeys
Dear Families,
Language and Arts had been inte-
A very warm welcome to all our lovely
new families who started this term,
we look forward to getting to know
you and your children! Also welcome
to our “Cheeky Monkeys” children
from last year. The children have
had a great 7 weeks in Kindergarten.
We are really enjoying getting to
know all of them and it has been
lovely to see how well they have settled into their new class.
The emphasis for the beginning of
the year was to build a strong learning
community by promoting our
TRIBES Community circle. It has now
become an essential part of our day.
The outcome of the TRIBES process
is to develop a positive environment
that promotes children’s growth and
learning.
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grated into our Unit of Inquiry entitled “Take and Give”. The children
learned through discussions and project work why people feel and think
differently; how this can lead to conflict and how they can appreciate the
perspectives of others. Throughout
the year they will continue to deepen
their understanding how differences
can be resolved and how bullying can
be prevented.
We have enjoyed the field trip to
Our Sports Day on the 21st of September. Children were able to choose
their favourite sports activity from
more than 80 different sports. The
Sports Day provided children with
the opportunities, inspiration and
support to participate in sport, recreational and physical activities.
The day truly benefited children’s
development in challenging situations.
confidence whilst they gained sup-
Trust, care, tolerance and the will-
port and knowledge to help them lead
ingness to give and accept support
an active lifestyle.
were all encouraged.
On the 5th of October we visited
Our classroom has been divided into
the Adventure Park in Csillebérc. By
interest areas so children have the
participating in the outdoor activities
chance to explore, make things, ex-
children felt a great deal of intrinsic
periment, and pursue their own inter-
enjoyment and satisfaction. The ad-
ests. This month we have developed a
venture activities gave a chance to
new interest area the Dramatic Play
build
self-
Area. Dramatic play is central to the
esteem. They also gave opportunities
development and learning of children.
to develop independence and self-
For this reason we included areas
reliance. Through successfully facing
such as the kitchen/home center,
up to challenges, overcoming fears
saloon, doctor/patient corner to in-
and apprehensions along the way,
spire creative and imaginative play.
children made major strides in confi-
In the Dramatic Play Area, children
dence with implications for all as-
break through the restrictions of
pects of their development. This out-
reality. They pretend to be someone
doors experience provided rich op-
or something different from them-
portunities for personal and social
selves and make up situations and ac-
self-confidence
and
tions that go along with the role they
choose. When children engage in dramatic play they deepen their understanding of the world and develop
skills that will serve them throughout
their lives.
Warm regards,
Ms. Petra, Ms. Ranjani and Ms. Zita
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Diary Dates
Autumn break
22—26 October
Happy Kids will be closed!
All Saints Day—Long weekend
Thursday-Friday, 1-2 November
Happy Kids will be closed!
Halloween Party
Thursday, 8 November
Parent-Teacher Conferences
5-16 November
Please sign up for individual times!
American Thanksgiving Assembly
Thursday, 23 November
St. Nicolas Day
Thursday, 6 December
Christmas/Hanukkah Party
Friday, 14 December
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