Happy Hoppers Blog | Eco-Kids Preschool

Dinosaurs – Under the Soil



THEME

Dinosaurs



COLOUR

Green



SHAPE

Triangle/Cone/Sphere



NUMBER

Recap

j

LETTER

Dd – Day

What a fun two weeks of learning all about dinosaurs!

There was so much knowledge for our Happy Hoppers to absorb, and WOW! They did so well!

They learnt all about the diverse types of dinosaurs … ones that used to swim and ones that used to fly, even though not all flying dinosaurs had feathers. They even remembered big words like Pterodactyl, Pterosaurs, Paleontologist and when the first fossils were discovered (over two hundred years ago!)

We listened to some fun songs with even more information about dinosaurs. Even our worksheets were dinosaur themed! During these two weeks we concentrated on cutting skills, drawing of shapes, counting and colours. Our beautiful artwork of a dinosaur shadow will be displayed at the Art show. Our Happy Hoppers are getting so excited to show all their creativity!

For FunFit Sports this week, Coach Trevor carried on improving our hand-eye coordination with catching and batting. Our Happy Hoppers are getting so good with this activity.

Yoga Day was all about dinosaurs too!

We marched and stomped, roared, rolled around in happy baby pose and calmed our breath like a baby Dinosaur.

Ending off with a sequence of tree, cat, cow, dog, snake poses.

Enjoy the well-deserved break! It was a busy term. We can’t wait for the new adventures that lie ahead for Term 3.

Have a wonderful holiday folks!

Dates to Diarise:

9 August: Public Holiday (National Women’s Day)

12 August: Holiday Club Starts

2 Sept: Holiday Club Ends

3 Sept: Staff Return To School

4 Sept: First Day of Term 3!

6 Sept: Haircut Day

9 Sept: School Photographs

10 Sept: School Photographs

11 Sept: School Photographs

20 Sept: Hat Parade Day

23 Sept: School Holiday

24 Sept: Public Holiday (Heritage Day)

Lots of love

Teacher C, Teacher Yolandie and the Happy Hoppers Assistants

Our Hoppers!

Space



THEME

Space



COLOUR

Orange



SHAPE

Diamond



NUMBER

10 Recap

j

LETTER

Nn- Night

What a fun exciting two weeks we have had! Last week was all about concert and we are so proud of all our Hoppers, they are all Superstars. 

 We had a lot of fun with this theme and really tapped into our imagination chatting about space. The Hoppers learnt so much about Space. We did some fun activities like catching a star with tweezers hidden in a bucket of beads. This is such a wonderful fine motor activity. We also tried to copy and create our own planets with loose parts, this was great fun. 

 Our Hoppers love dancing to songs and loved learning the words to the planet song. After we listened to the planet song the children were all hyped up and excited to start their planet artworks project. 

 We did an amazing balloon painting to create planets. These came out so amazing, we decided to keep them for the art expo.

 We focused on our letter of the week. We read all about Noisy Nick and all the noise he likes to make. The rest of the week we finished off our art and watched some space videos and some astronauts in space, and even a space rocket launch. This was so exciting to watch, and our Hoppers loved it.  

 For FunFit sports this week, the Hoppers did an obstacle course with Coach Trevor using the jungle gym, they loved this and did so well when they got to the monkey bars. Well done Hoppers. 

Yay for Yoga! Wheels on the bus yoga. Ankle rotations/rolls help improve blood circulation in the ankle and legs. It is also excellent for improving ankle mobility and flexibility. Our various poses included Open leg forward bend. Triangle Pose, Child Pose, Spinal twists and one leg balance poses.

 Thank you for all the donations for our Concert, we really appreciate it. 

  Our theme next week is: Dinosaurs 

 Have a safe and lovely weekend! 

ONE MORE SLEEP UNTIL CONCERT!

Dates to Diarise:

27 July: EcoKids Concert

8 August: Pyjama Dress Up Day & Break Up Day

9 August: Public Holiday (National Women’s Day)

12 August: Holiday Club Starts

Lots of love

Teacher C, Teacher Yolandie and the Happy Hoppers Assistants

Our Precious Stars!

Reptiles



THEME

Reptiles



COLOUR

White



SHAPE

Hexagon



NUMBER

1-10

j

LETTER

Ll – Lizard

We had an action-packed week, we’re sure the Hoppers must be exhausted from all the fun that was had.  

  We started off the week revising our letter of the week. We sang and danced to our jolly phonics letters and read our letter land book ,Lucy Lamp Lady. After our story, we went around the class and each Hopper got to tell us a word starting with the letter “L’’. Well done, Hoppers! 

 For our Art this week the Hoppers coloured in a snake and practiced their cutting skills and cut their snake into a spiral. I am so proud of our Hoppers, they did a fantastic job! This was a fun fine motor skills activity, and the children were incredibly happy with their snakes. 

We focused a lot on number recognition 1 to 10. This is very important to be able to achieve this skill before going to Curious Crew next year so please keep practising Hoppers.

 The highlight of the week was the reptile show. Julian from Wild Ones showed us his amazing and wonderful animals. The huge tarantula was a hit as well as the snakes. 

On Friday for Yoga, we practiced our Reptile Yoga poses. We also focused a lot on spinal twist exercises, which activates the spinal nerves and enhances flexibility and blood circulation. 

  Concert practice has been in full swing this week; our Hoppers are doing so well. We are so proud of them and cannot wait for the big day! I’m sure most of you already know all our songs, so happy to hear our Hoppers are practicing at home. Keep it up! 

  Our theme next week is: Space 

See you on Monday!

Dates to Diarise

18 July: Nelson Mandela Day

27 July: EcoKids Concert

8 August: Pyjama Dress Up Day & Break Up Day

9 August: Public Holiday (National Women’s Day)

12 August: Holiday Club Starts

Lots of love

Teacher C, Teacher Yolandie and the Happy Hoppers Assistants

Our Hoppers!

Winter, Temperatures, Fire and Ice



THEME

Winter, Temperatures, Fire & Ice



COLOUR

Grey



SHAPE

Rectangle & Rectangular Prism



NUMBER

8

j

LETTER

Ww – Winter

The Happy Hoppers have been working extremely hard this week.

We spoke about Winter temperatures and how cold it can get and different clothing we can wear in winter like boots scarfs, gloves, and jackets. We discussed warm foods to eat like soups, stews, and curries. We also spoke about activities we enjoy doing in winter. Some of the Hoppers told us what they like to do in Winter like watching movies.

We did a fine motor activity where the children had to take round stickers and paste it over the circles on the pictures of gloves, scarfs, or a winter jersey. For our main art activity the Hoppers did some straw painting where they had to use a straw to blow paint to make a fire and underneath it they used their index fingers to paint the logs of the fire.

At FunFit sports Coach Trevor played some cricket with the Hoppers and taught them some batting skills which is super good to improve their eye-hand co-ordination, laterality, and their general ball skills.

Yoga this week was also a blast they warmed up with a body boogie song and went on to Foot Rolling. Our prop for the day was a drumstick, they had to sit in boat pose and by using their feet and core muscles they rolled the stick forwards and backwards.

We have really been working hard and are looking forward wo our Mid-term break.

Have a wonderful weekend and break.

Have a wonderful Mid-Term break!

Dates to Diarise

8 July: Back To School

11 July: Haircut Day

12 July: Reptile Day

18 July: Nelson Mandela Day

27 July: EcoKids Concert

8 August: Pyjama Dress Up Day & Break Up Day

9 August: Public Holiday (National Women’s Day)

12 August: Holiday Club Starts

Lots of love

Teacher C, Teacher Yolandie and the Happy Hoppers Assistants

Our Hoppers!

Caring For Our World: Recycling



THEME

Recycling



COLOUR

Green



SHAPE

Triangle & Pyramid



NUMBER

7

j

LETTER

Rr – Recycling

I can’t believe we are almost at the end of June already. It feels like just the another day our new Hoppers had just started school.

This week was all about recycling. This is a huge favourite for our Ecokids as this is what we are all about. Looking after our world is so important. We spoke about what it means to recycle. This isn’t an easy concept for our Hoppers to understand but we are sure they got the just of it by the end of the week. We sang lots of recycling songs and they definitely know the words REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE.

Our art activity was a huge hit this week as we made our own recycled paper. We used paper shedding and water in a huge basin. The Hoppers had so much fun mixing and stirring the paper into the water. Some Hoppers loved the feeling mixing the paper and water together and others not so much.

We went on a lovely nature walk to collect all sorts of sticks and pinecones but mostly to check if our school is clean and pick up papers.

At Yoga, the Hoppers worked on their bilateral integration [2 sides of the body working together to perform a task in a co-ordinated way]

Please remember not to send sick children to school. Pump them up with a lot of vitamins.

LABEL ALL BELONGINGS.

Have a wonderful weekend.

See you all on Monday.

Next week’s theme is Winter, Temperatures, Fire, and Ice

Recycling turns things into other things ... which is like MAGIC!

Dates to Diarise:

28 June: Book Character Dress Up Day & Mid Term Break Up Day

8 July: Back To School

Lots of love

Teacher C, Teacher Yolandie and the Happy Hoppers Assistants

Our Hoppers!

Father’s Day and Sport



THEME

Father’s Day & Sport



COLOUR

Gold



SHAPE

Star



NUMBER

6

j

LETTER

Dd – Daddy

Another week that has just flown by so quickly. The old saying is true “time flies when you having fun!”

We had so much fun discussing how special our dads are and what role they play in our families. We also discussed that some families don’t have daddies and that is fine cause moms are also there to love and help us. We love all our families big and small. We spoke about sports that some daddies like to watch or take part in like soccer, rugby, swimming, gym etc. it was great to hear these little Hoppers tell us how they feel about their dads.

We made a lovely Father’s Day card that said “scored the best dad with a soccer ball on the front with each Hoppers special footprint on the ball. This looks so awesome. We hope you love your special card. We also made some popcorn with broken Oreo’s with melted whit chocolate over them. On the packet it said pass the snacks to match our card we made.

Yoga this week with teacher Nicole we the dancing bear warm up song. Our stretches were tree, boat, and chair poses. Working on our hand-eye co-ordination. we played a game called Topple, which had the kids practising their pincer grip by placing little counters on top of each other. The Hoppers did super well.

We had a lovely gross motor workout where the Hoppers had to catch a tennis ball in a cone then walk over small blocks not to touch the grass {lava} then over a balancing board and then the last stage climb into a sack and jump to the edge of the grass in the quad and back. Kids just love being so busy.

Our concert practise is way under way, and we are looking forward to the big day.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Love the Happy Hopper Teachers and Assistants

Have a wonderful day on Sunday our Eco Dads!

Dates to Diarise:

16 June: Youth Day

17 June: Youth Day Holiday

19 June: Hearing Tests

28 June: Book Character Dress Up Day & Mid Term Break Up Day

8 July: Back To School

Lots of love

Teacher C, Teacher Yolandie and the Happy Hoppers Assistants

Our Hoppers!

Land, Air and Sea Transport



THEME

Land, Air & Sea Transport



COLOUR

Blue/Navy



SHAPE

Diamond



NUMBER

5 & Recap

j

LETTER

Jj – Jet

We started off this week talking about various kinds of air, land, and sea transport. We also had so much fun pretending to be various kinds of transport. We spread our arms and were super-fast jets, we made “Choo-Choo sounds for a train and blew our horns to be a big ship. 

 For our art, this week we coloured in a picture of a sailboat with wax crayons then we cut it out. On a separate piece of paper, we used tissue paper to create some water. We painted over tissue paper with water and let it dry and then after it dried, we pulled the tissue paper off which left behind a lovely blue colour to represent water. The Hoppers loved this activity.

We played a hide and seek triangle game. Teacher Yolandie hid various triangles away in the class and when she held up their name cards, they had to recognise their name and then go look for a triangle in the class. Some Hoppers were able to recognise their names and others needed some help.

Assessments are still on going at this stage.

 On Friday for Yoga was dice day. Shaking the magic box and seeing what 2 poses we had to do and for how many seconds we had to hold it was very exciting. The poses included Camel, downward dog, cat, and cow pose. Forward bend, backward stretch table pose and relax pose.

 Our Hoppers did their cooking session on Thursday morning. They made apple boats with quarter apples with honey dripped over it and covered it with rice Krispies and cut cheese into triangles which they put onto a toothpick to represent a sail. This was a sticky affair but so much fun.

 It has been such a wonderful week! 

Have a wonderful weekend!

Next week’s theme is: Father’s Day and Sport

We wanna know folks ... what is your DREAM car?

Dates to Diarise:

14 June: Bike-A-Thon

16 June: Youth Day

17 June: Youth Day Holiday

19 June: Hearing Tests

28 June: Book Character Dress Up Day & Mid Term Break Up Day

8 July: Back To School

Lots of love

Teacher C, Teacher Yolandi and the Happy Hoppers Assistants

Our Hoppers!

The Farm: Farm Animals



THEME

The Farm: Farm Animals



COLOUR

Red



SHAPE

Circle & Sphere



NUMBER

4

j

LETTER

Ff – Farm

This has been a short but remarkably busy week. We learnt all about farm animals. This is such a wonderful and exciting theme to learn about. The Happy Hoppers loved learning about all the different farm animals and what they eat and drink and where they live on the farm. They also learnt about what mommy, baby and daddy animals are called and what they produce for humans e.g.: wool from sheep.

For our art, this week we did some cork stamping which is a good fine motor activity which strengthens their hand and finger muscles. The Hoppers enjoyed this activity.

We spent a lot of the week doing assessments. The focus this week was to recognise their name without a picture next to it. Please encourage your little one to recognise their name. if you do write their name please remember to write only the first letter as a capital. Please can you also practise some number recognition with your little Hopper, numbers 1 to 10.

Yoga this week the Hoppers had to hold on to a magic stick, the kiddies had to use their tummy muscles to hold their arms and legs straight out in a superman pose. This pose targets the upper and lower back abdominal muscles and hamstrings. The task was to hold the stick for 5 seconds, using 1 hand moving the right finishing off with another 5 seconds.

Funfit sport this week the Hoppers played some cricket. They concentrated on batting and catching. This is a good game to improve eye hand coordination and eye foot coordination and many other skills as well.

Please can you label all your child’s belongings as this is still not happening.

Remember to boost your child’s immune system by giving them good vitamins.

Have a wonderful weekend!!

Love Teacher C and Teacher Yolandi

Have a HAPPY weekend folks!

Dates to Diarise:

7 June: Haircut Day

14 June: Bike-A-Thon

16 June: Youth Day

17 June: Youth Day Holiday

19 June: Hearing Tests

28 June: Book Character Dress Up Day & Mid Term Break Up Day

8 July: Back To School

Lots of love

Teacher C, Teacher Yolandi and the Happy Hoppers Assistants

Our Hoppers!

The Farm: Fruit and Vegetables



THEME

The Farm: Fruit & Vegetables



COLOUR

Blue



SHAPE

Circle



NUMBER

3

j

LETTER

Vv – Vegetables

Wow another week that has just flown by so quickly. We learnt all about farm produce. What an important fruit and vegetable s are and how they are grown and looked after on the farm. The Hoppers were quite surprised to learn how much work goes into looking after the fruit and vegetables on the farm.

We told the Hoppers that it is super important to eat a lot of fruit and vegetables. We heard a lot of stories about what their favourite fruit and vegetables are. For art, this week we did some tearing and sticking of an apple which is so important to strengthen their finger muscles.

Cooking we concentrated on the skill on stirring we made some delicious strawberry Nesquick milkshakes. The Hoppers just loved this, and it was so cute to see their milky moustaches.

At yoga, this week we worked on picture and pose association. There were a variety of pictures with animals and numbers. We matched our poses according to the pictures according to the number of breaths according to the numbers on the picture. We also listened to a new song called “I am a mountain tall and strong.

At FunFit Sports with coach Trevor with carried on with our assessments. The Hoppers had to practise hopping on one leg and standing on one leg for more than 2 seconds. We also practised catching a bouncing ball and throwing a ball overhand.

PLEASE can we ask that you label all water bottles as we don’t always know whose bottle is whose when we are outside as there are so many kids all together.

Remember to give your Hoppers lots of Vitamins and NOT to send sick kids to school.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Peace Out Folks!

Dates to Diarise:

29 May: Voting Day

31 May: Tractor Ride Day & Slipper Day

7 June: Haircut Day

14 June: Bike-A-Thon

16 June: Youth Day

17 June: Youth Day Holiday

19 June: Hearing Tests

28 June: Book Character Dress Up Day & Mid Term Break Up Day

8 July: Back To School

Lots of love

Teacher C and the Happy Hoppers Assistants

Spreading Hap-pea-ness!

Wild Animals and Birds of Prey



THEME

Wild Animals & Birds of Prey



COLOUR

Black



SHAPE

Square & Cube



NUMBER

1 & 2

j

LETTER

Zz – Zebra

This has been a delightful week learning all about wild animals and birds of prey. The Hoppers really enjoyed this theme so much. We spoke about the big five and all the other animals we can find in the parks. We discussed where they live and what they eat. We also asked the Hoppers which is their favourite animal. We got lots of different answers. The lion seemed to be on the top of the list, well I guess after all he is the king of the jungle.

We art this week we made a paper plate elephant which turned out to be so beautiful. We sponge painted it, but we have decided to keep it for our art show. The Hoppers also made a rhino crown which they coloured in rainbow colours.

Cooking this week was skill based the kids learnt about beating an egg to help Chef Thembi make our French toast. This sounds like a simple skill but for young learners it takes some skill and patience to break an egg and beat it. It teaches them patience to break an egg with their thumbs and some strength. They also used their senses by feeling the egg, smelling it.

At FunFit sports we played a matching game the Hoppers had to collect a ball in a colourful ball basket and match its colour to the correct cone. They had so much fun.

Yoga this week the Hopper’s did animal yoga, using our magic yoga bag. We picked out little animals and discussed some interesting facts about each of them while doing a relevant pose.

PLEASE give your kiddies some extra vitamins.

Have a wonderful weekend!

We wanna know folks ... what is your favourite WILD animal?

Dates to Diarise:

24 May: Eye Screening

29 May: Voting Day

31 May: Tractor Ride Day

7 June: Haircut Day

14 June: Bike-A-Thon

16 June: Youth Day

17 June: Youth Day Holiday

19 June: Hearing Tests

28 June: Book Character Dress Up Day & Mid Term Break Up Day

8 July: Back To School

Lots of love

The Happy Hoppers Teachers and Assistants

Stay Wild And Free Our Hoppers!

Mothers and Babies, Mother’s Day



THEME

Mother’s & Babies, Mother’s Day



COLOUR

Pink



SHAPE

Heart



NUMBER

1

j

LETTER

Mm – Mommy

Welcome back to Term 2. We are looking forward to another term full of learning and lots of fun.

This has been a short but very busy week. We started our first day back just settling in again and talking to our friends that we all had not seen for a few weeks. The stories were endless. We also got to meet our new Happy Hopper, Iyana and her family.

We discussed mommies and their babies. Aren’t moms just so special and absolutely priceless!

We made an incredibly special card for our mommies which included a questionnaire all about mom, some of the answers we received were so cute and some really funny (Enjoy reading it!) We also baked some special biscuits for mom. We hope you enjoy them and have a very special Mother’s Day on Sunday.

This week we also concentrated on a lot of Gross motor activities. We did some catching with a big ball and practiced throwing over arm to each other. We also did some hopping on one foot.

Please remember to label all your child’s belongings, this is very important as we still have a lot of clothing and water bottles that are NOT labelled.

Now that the colder weather is approaching remember to give your little one some extra vitamins.

Have a wonderful weekend.

We hope you have a very special Sunday our very special Eco Moms!

Dates to Diarise:

24 May: Eye Screening (Details to follow)

29 May: Voting Day

31 May: Tractor Ride Day

7 June: Haircut Day

14 June: Bike-A-Thon

16 June: Youth Day

17 June: Youth Day Holiday

19 June: Hearing Tests

28 June: Book Character Dress Up Day & Mid Term Break Up Day

8 July: Back To School

Lots of love

Teacher Katy, Teacher Cecilia and the Happy Hoppers Assistants

Our Hoppers!

Occupations And People who Help Us



THEME

Occupations & People Who Help Us



COLOUR

Blue



SHAPE

Circle



NUMBER

Recap

j

LETTER

Xx – X-ray

We have had so much fun this week learning about occupations and people who help us. Doctors, dentists, hairdressers, firefighters, police officers and so many more. We got to see what each job involves and what they offer, and on Thursday, we got to see the kiddos dressed up as their dream job. We had everything from a ballet dancer to a firefighter, nurses, doctors, superheroes, and construction workers. They looked amazing! 

We have been so busy this week with developing our fine motor skills, practising lots of cutting and colouring in.

Cooking was easy this week as we just made some popcorn which we enjoyed while watching a clip about different occupations.

We can’t believe this is our last week of Term 1 already. We hope you all have a wonderful holiday, and we will see you all in Term 2.

PLEASE remember to label ALL your child’s belongings even their shoes. There are still many unmarked items being sent to school and when all the kids are on the playground and items are not marked it makes it difficult to find their way back home at times. 