End of Term Party - Term 3 Play Nest

Term 3 has ended for Rebecca at her PlayNest class at JG here in Shanghai. To mark the end of term, the children were requested to come dressed as animals reflecting the theme of the term. Needless to say, I had a lot of fun dolling up the little one, afterall, how else can a mother glean fun out of having a child?

Parents were also requested to bring some food for the children to share during snack time and we could also bring some food for the adults. Emails were also sent to encourage parents to attend the 'party' and I am so thankful that I was able to get off 1 hour from work to attend.

As Rebecca's friend, Daniel - the leopard, is lactose intolerant, we decided to make some home-made soya bean curd using Judy's recipe, leaving out the milk factor. We also made some breaded chicken drumlets for the adults.

I had gone through quite a lot of navigating and activiting of my shopping cum research cum sourcing skills to locate the ideal outfits for Rebecca. Daniel's mom had also asked that I find one for her son. So tah-dah, presenting, my little cutie bunny Rebecca Rabbit. Ain't she adorable? [Indulge me...] [Picture: Look at those cute ears and the round tums! tee hee hee...the little bobbly tail kept me giggling for some time too. I'm easily humored]

I had soooo much fun watching her. We started off with free play. [Picture: Those are the covers for the soya bean curd tubs that we made. I had bought cheap animal posters and we cut them up to decorate the covers. See Daniel in his uber cool leopard outfit. Lay Theng, his mom, told me that Daniel had been practising his growl/roar at home. Kids are so adorable]

Then circle hello time and the guest for the day was Percy the Pig who made his rounds greeting each child indivually. I do like that the children are encouraged to wait their turn as the other children gets their time.

[Picture: Priscilla (Cat), Chewy (Zebra) and Kristy (was a bird but took her feather boa off) were her teachers. The little dog-looking thing is Rebecca's "BABY" dressed up as a poodle. I had gotten the poodle suit for fun - to give Rebecca, but she decided rabbit was better. Baby aka Dolly is a lifesize baby doll and her teachers kept on mistaking her for a new student, especially when when Baby was nanny's "child" during circle time. That's Lucian enamoured with the dressed up Dog/Baby]

Magic box activity for today was puppet show. It was about Penelope the Pig who lost her OINK and went around approaching various animals to seek help in finding her OINK. Chewy made us all laugh with her very realistic impersonations. I think the adults had more fun than the kids. BTW, in case you WERE interested, Percy the Pig taught Penelope how to OINK. According to Percy aka Chewy, you would need to "Open you mouth, take a deep breathe and OINK!" [Picture: Starring Percy and Penelope the Pigs, Dolly sat at the table and joined in the meals too]

The outdoor/indoor physical activity for the day was ball play. Rebecca had loads of fun squashing into the ball-filled inflatable canoe. Joshua's mom, Rose, cornered me during this time to tell me how much she will miss Rebecca's company as Josh and Rebecca will be in different classes next term due to their age gap. Rose was so sweet, she's French, and kept telling me how much she wishes her daughter can be as sweet as Rebecca. [Sweet??? Ok...at times...but most people don't know when she's up to her mischief!]

We had singspiration as usual and as this was the last lesson for the term, the kids got to choose what songs to sing. Of course, it ended up being the parents who chose the songs. The standup song for the day was Ring-a-round the Roses, and I was amazed to observe that Rebecca knew the actions and some of the words. Her back was facing me when it came to the line "Atissue...Atissue...", and I suddenly saw 2 bunny ears jerking downwards and then she fell onto the mats. That set me off into a bout of giggles again. We ended off with "Twinkle, Twinkle", traditionally a time for the kids to lie and look at the stars (ok, manually controlled lights on a dimmer). [Picture: Look at the resting bunny!] It was time to receive her portfolio and graduation cert. Awww...my daughter's first graduation. Pictures of her and me in LayTheng's camera. So here's the others that I helped took. We then ended up with Bubble Time, one of Rebecca's favourite activity. It was only then that she gave up on her THICK rabbit suit and pulled off the bunny ears. We were wondering how long it would take for her to get rid of those ears as she 1) dislikes having things on her head 2) fears the heat. Guess 'immersing herself into her role' overtook her physical wants and she managed to last 1hr and 15 minutes [applause]Here's looking forward to the next Term in 2 weeks time when we start PlayGroup English and PlayGroup Chinese. I am so looking forward to the Chinese part!