Special gifts

When we left Oliver's nursery the teachers gave us a bag with a whole lot of Oliver's craft projects he has completed in the class and other bits and pieces. Within the bag there was this wonderful gift - Recipes from Nursery.

All the recipes from his Food and Tech class since September:



With photos of his classroom friends:



So beautiful! Thank you for all your work Unicorn teachers!

Oliver also got a teddy bear with some clothes made out of the JIS school uniform. He was very proud since only he got to take the teddy home, nobody else in the class!

Last day at nursery

Friday was Oliver's last day at nursery. Matthew came home on Thursday night so we could both do the school run.　Well... Oliver insisted on riding in Boel's car with Lucas and Linnea so we ended up driving without him on the way to school.

Once he was in the classroom his teachers told him how much they will miss him which was very nice. I don't think he knew it was his last day and he could not come back and play with his friends anymore... I felt very sad.

Since he started in September his speaking and comprehension has taken off, he improved his social skills so much. It was just perfect for him. I just hope we can find something as good as Unicorn class in Singapore once we move there.

Look at our boy so confident and so grown up!

Learning about circles

This week at nursery the classroom activities were focused on learning about "circles". They played looking for circles in the classroom, did some shape sorting collage and in the food tech class (sounds so advanced ha?) they made circle pizza!

Oliver loves making pizza - he had a great big smile when I picked him up!





And of course ate it all before we got home, yum yum!

Loving school

I don't know where my crying baby has gone. This term at nursery Oliver is doing so well. He was ok before the holidays but still had to sort of trick him when we left him in the morning. Now? He runs into the classroom with big smiles and kisses me goodbye and is excited to see his friends and is right away into playing!

I am just amazed at how quickly children can grow. Here is Oliver - so grown up:





We will be very sad when he finishes nursery at the end of this month. But I am sure he will enjoy any other places he might end up attending.

Animals on ice

This morning when I dropped Oliver at nursery the teachers had a new play table set up. There were animals that live in cold climates. They were frozen with some water and stuck on the ice cubes - very cool!







They must have done pretend zoo or aquarium, Oliver keeps telling me "I see penguins! I see polar bears!" (Yes, Oliver can make good sentences now). I really love the teachers creativity : )

End of term party

It was Oliver's last day at school for this term. Got teachers presents in the bag, ready for the last day!



Us parents were invited to join in on Santa's visit to nursery and the end of the term party in the classroom. I don't think Oliver knew it was the last day but he certainly knew Santa was coming to the party! He was very excited and was telling me about Santa over breakfast.

The children shook the bells to invite Santa into the room, and a few minutes later we heard HO HO HO...



Some children were screaming from excitement and others were shaking seeing this strange person in the costume.
Oliver was the latter, he ran to me and told me we should go home NOW. I managed to convince him that Santa won't come close and he doesn't have to go and sit on Santa's lap. I think Oliver is scared of those who do not look human?

Anyway he decided to stay away from him. Bless him...



The party kicked off and all the children got so much food! I just couldn't get over the amount of food we had for the little ones party, it was bring a plate but ended up filling the whole table!





I made some Christmas fruit sticks:



Angry birds were dressed in Christmas colours too:



Luca and Oliver with Mrs. Kristine and Mrs. Budi:



At the end of the party we watched a slideshow of what the children have been doing in the classroom during this term, which was very nice. Oliver could recognise all his friends names!

Oliver came up a couple of times:





We weren't sure Oliver about starting nursery this little but we are glad we did. He has grown so much and enjoyed classroom activities and making new friends. Now he will be on holiday for the next 3 weeks. I hope I can occupy him as much as school can.

Happy holidays everyone!

Green, Red, or White colour day

It was another Junior School Colour Day today – students were encouraged to wear red, green, white or Christmas clothes! (the last Colour Day was to wear yellow to celebrate Deepavali).

We got ready slightly earlier than usual so that there was a chance to take some photos before heading out to school.

Here is Oliver in his favourite Christmas t-shirt (DEAR SANTA DEFINE GOOD):



Of course I dressed Luca in his Christmas colours too, here are the boys with L&L:



It's nice Luca's back is strong enough so that Lucas and Linnea can hold him by themselves:





When we got to school the Unicorn classroom was decorated in Christmas themes:





Some of the mothers from Oliver's class were very organised and gave Christmas presents to everyone so that they can take them home to put under their Christmas tree. How thoughtful is that!



Christmas is almost here. The excitement is definitely building up!

Teddy bear's picnic

On Friday Oliver had a teddy bear's picnic. He has done this twice (earlier this year and the year before) while he was at Geckos but this was the first time for him as a school activity. All the children from Nursery to Year 2 were involved. They have divided each year group into 4 different house colours.

Oliver is in blue house. It was lucky his teddy bear was blue so we didn't need to dress him especially.

Ready for a fun filled day!





He was very proud of his teddy coming to school with him. Whoever walked passed us was shown the teddy with a big smile and "Look at my teddy!". So cute!

International Day 2011

To complete International Week, the children at JIS took part in the International Parade this morning. This wasn't completely new to Oliver as he was there as a little Maori last year from Geckos toddler group. New Zealand was well covered so I prepared a Japanese yukata for Oliver to wear this year.

Oh boy it was a struggle! Hard to convince him to stay still while he is getting dressed and stop him pulling the costume apart.
After so much screaming and bribing, I managed to dress him and got to school on time!

Here is Oliver walking/running to his classroom in his yukata.







The school has changed the program a bit. This year all the students went to the brand new art center auditorium to watch the International Concert performed by 250 students (we will be going tomorrow night). I talked to Oliver's classroom teacher afterwards and was told that the nursery kids were very confused but very excited to be there and watched the show very nicely.

Us parents were invited to watch the International Parade. It was much more comfortable than the previous year, in the air conditioned gym with seats instead of outside in the Brunei heat. There were displays of the countries the students have been studying during the week.

Here is New Zealand.



Oliver's year group didn't have any display but studied the same country - Malaysia and it looked very nice.



All the students were in the gym and ready for the parade! So many countries to represent - so colourful!
I assumed it would start from the very little ones to the oldest. But no, Oliver didn't come on the stage until 3 quarters of the way through.



Finally it was time for Unicorn students.



Oliver's little friend dressed as a Smurf - from Belgium

I was worried Oliver would cry his eyes out. There was so much noise and so many people around them but he managed to get to the other side all by himself!





Lucas - the World Champions - All Black



This girl had an amazing costume:



After the parade we went to the International Foodcourt:





I managed to eat my favourite NZ pavlova and got Oliver a sweet treat.



It was a very very long morning for Oliver but we all enjoyed a special day at school : )

International Week

The Unicorn class has been studying Malaysia during International Week.

Very nice display in the classroom:



Oliver did some Malaysian crafts:



There are so many different nationalities in his class such as Germany, Malaysia, Brunei, France and Belgium. Oliver is fortunate to be exposed to different cultures and make friends from all over the world.

Yellow day

The school celebrated the Indian festival of lights "Deepavali" today. Students could wear the colour yellow. Oliver was very happy to be dressed the same way as L&L!