News / Nunn Road / 2022 / September 2022

 Dear parents,

We celebrated our Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival or Mooncake Festival with the children at Nania. I hope you enjoyed the mooncakes that children made for you.

Few weeks before this celebration, the children picked the ‘blue flowers’ in the garden during their playtime. They passed the flowers to Auntie Janet who washed and kept them aside.  The flowers were later processed into blue food dye. At the same time, green food dye was obtained from pandan leaves.  A day before the celebration, we brought the children to the kitchen to see the food dye making process carried out by Auntie Janet.

                                                                        

During one of the morning artistic activities, the children made and coloured their own lanterns.  The 5 and 6-year-old children used their nimble fingers to make chain strings to use as handles for the lanterns.

                                                                  

On the morning of the celebration, the children made their own moon cakes consisting of 1 blue and 1 green mooncake. First, they flattened the mooncake skin with their hands and then placed the lotus paste ball in the middle.  Then, the skin was wrapped round the paste and the mixture was rolled into a ball again.  Lastly, they placed the rounded mixture into a moon-cake mould and pressed it until it fitted perfectly into the mould. The moon-cakes were then taken out of the mould and put into the fridge to set. The same process was repeated for the other coloured mooncake.

During our snack time, we gathered both classes in the dining hall. We teachers enacted a simple play by acting out the meaning behind this celebration i.e. the roundness of the moon symbolizes the unity of a family when everyone gathers happily together to eat the delicious moon-cakes and to drink tea. We ended the play with a moon-cake festival song and enjoyed eating the homemade mooncakes with the children. These mooncakes had been made a day before by the teachers and kept in the fridge to set.

In the afternoon, the children with the teacher’s help packed the beautifully set mooncakes the children had made. When they went home, each child was given that box of mooncakes together with their handmade lantern to take home. During the story time, I told the children the legend about the Mid-Autumn Festival. They heard about Hou Yi and Chang Er.

                                                                                    

 We also had our Bento Day recently. Children prepared their “wallet” and “money” during our artistic activities. On that morning, big children helped to clean the mats and packed the Bento Box. Later, Aunty Janet opened her Bento Shop and children “bought” the food from her using “money” that they had made. Children enjoyed the Bento Box and asked for more servings.

The children are practicing songs and poems for the coming Harvest Festival. The big koko and jiejie in the class lead the younger ones during practices in our morning ring time. Some children were absent recently due to sickness or family trip. They who don’t have enough practice may need some encouragement to perform in front of the crowd on the day.

In Nania, we celebrate Harvest Festival to thank Mother Nature for the sun, rain and wind.  Through the poems and songs, the children express their gratefulness for the food on their plates and to the farmers who work hard to grow the crops as well as to their parents who lovingly prepare food for them.

We look forward to seeing you on the 7^th of October (Friday). Please take note that only a parent is invited for this event as we will have indoor programme. Kindly be punctual so that you won’t miss your child/children’s performance.

After we celebrate the Harvest Festival, the English Class will start to prepare for Graduation Day. Enclosed are poems and songs that children will practice for the special day.

                                                                                                                                     Teacher Thian and Teacher Ang 

 October 2022 Activities

 7^th (Fri)          Harvest Festival. The programme for the day is enclosed herewith.

 10^th (Mon)     Public Holiday replacement (Birthday of Prophet Muhammed) 

 21^st (Fri)        We celebrate Deepavali with the children during the morning snack time. Children will get to eat traditional snacks like ‘murukku” for the celebration. We encourage children to wear Indian traditional clothes on that morning.

 24^th (Mon)      Public holiday (Deepavali)

 25^th (Tue)       Nania’s holiday

 28^th (Fri)        Yen Hng’s 5^th birthday celebration.

Others

 Craft Circle activity is scheduled for the 28^th.

 One new girl joined us from September. Jannel is now 3 yrs old.

 2022 Harvest Festival Programme

Date:  7^th October 2022 (Friday)

Venue:  Nania

Schedule:

09:00 – 09:30am  Bread making (for snacks) & free play

09:30 – 10:00am  Japanese class presentation

10:00 - 10.05am  Toilet Break

10:05 – 10:35am  English class presentation

10:40 – 11:00am  Snacks

11:00 – 11:30am  Puppet show

11:30am               Goodbye song & gift (origami flower)

11:40am               Goodbye till we meet again

 As the children will be making bread for the morning snack, we request all parents to send your child by 8.50am. Please drop them at the side gate near the English Class.

  Parents can join us at 9.50am and please be on time. Please enter by the main gate and congregate at the car porch when you arrive. Only one parent is invited as we will have indoor programme.

  Please park your car at the parking lot of the Che Hoon Khor Moral Uplifting Society.

  Parents who attend the festival please do self test on Thursday evening or Friday morning. Parents are requested to wear mask especially during children performance and puppet show time. Children and teachers can be mask free. Please inform Class teacher if you prefer your child/children to wear mask.

  Children will have their snack inside while parents will have snack in the garden.

We will have puppet show for both class together. If you feel the room is crowded, you may rest in the garden. We will provide the link for recorded puppet show later.

  The children will place their shoes on the shoe racks. Parents, please place your shoes around the mat.

  It is not necessary to bring school bags, water bottles or extra clothes.

  It is sometimes difficult for young children to join in the festival’s presentation because of the crowd.  We encourage mothers to sing together with their younger children to support their participation.