Dinosaur Days
Coming back to school after the Christmas break, the Vertical Class kids have shown a noticeable inclination towards dinosaurs. The increased interest in this topic has resulted in two weeks of dino fun!
Week 1:
The class learned about plant-eating dinosaurs. We watched The Land Before Time, made Stuffed Apatosaurus, 
Egg Container Triceratops, Paper Plate Stegosaurus
and Clay Parasaurolophus.
Week 2:
Carnivorous dinosaurs was the class’ focus. We compared dinosaur sizes through Clay Play, made Deinonychus Claws, 
Oviraptor Eggs Poster
and Towering T-Rex Toys
More of our dinosaur activities here.
A Morning at the Fair
The Nest Preschool had an Art Fair last January 15. The masterpieces of all five classes were proudly put up for the entire Nest community to see!
The Vertical Class wall was filled with crafts and worksheets about animals such as the Christmas Black Widow Spiders, Connect-the-Dots Polar Bears, Paper Plate Puffins, Stuffed Apatosaurus, Paper Plate Stegosaurus, Egg Container Triceratops, and Clay Parasaurolophus.
The children were very excited to see their works in the exhibit!
Some more pictures can be found here.
Nest Paskong Pinoy 2009: Paskong-Pasko talaga!
Puno ng kagalakang ipinagdiwang ng Nest ang pagsapit ng Kapaskuhan sa Word Community Church sa Lungsod ng Pasig noong ika-18 ng Disyembre 18 sa pamamagitan ng isang pagtatanghal ng mga sayaw at mga awiting sariling atin. Ang NEST Paskong Pinoy 2009 ay dinaluhan hindi lamang ng mga mag-aaral at guro ng Nest kundi ng mga magulang, kapatid, at iba pang kapamilya ng mga mag-aaral.
Ang Pre-School ay nagtanghal ng mga katutubong sayaw katulad ng Bulaklakan, Singkil, Tinikling, Maglalatik, at Pandanggo sa Ilaw.
Bulaklakan ng Sparrows at Mockingbirds
Singkil ng Blue Jays
Tinikling ng Robins
Maglalatik ng Vertical Class
Pandanggo sa Ilaw ng Cardinals
Ang mga mag-aaral ng Grade School ay sumayaw at umawit ng mga kantang mula sa Halina, Immanuel na isinulat ni G. Arnel de Pano. Kabilang dito ang mga awiting “Paskong-Pasko Na Talaga” at “Pasko Na Naman.” Gumanap na munting Maria at Jose sina Zoe Gutierrez at Gelo Yanga habang umawit si Bella Ante bilang Maria at si Dylan Palima bilang Jose.
NEST Grade Schoolers
Dama ng bawat isa ang diwa ng Pasko, at lubos ang pasasalamat sa kabila ng mga pagsubok na kinaharap ng marami sa taong 2009.
Makikita ang iba pang larawang kuha sa Nest Paskong Pinoy 2009 dito.
Christmas Party!
Despite having 2 classmates absent during the party, the Cardinals class still a rockin’ christmas party!
Aside from the usual eating and gift giving, the class had games and hand paints.
Teacher Pola of the Verticals Class visited the class to do some hand painting.
After hand painting, the class played three games: Trip to Jerusalem, Bring me and stop dance. An extra game was “Candy Shower”, where in the teacher simply threw candies for them to catch and collect.
After the games, the children feasted on spaghetti, pizza, hotdog, barbeque, ice cream, cupcakes and juice. (Thank you parents fo rthe food!)
After eating was gift giving and exchange gift.
Over all, it was a fun and exciting party for everyone. 
For photos, visit: http://cardinals2009.multiply.com/photos/album/35/Cardinals_Christmas_Party
Cardinals Big House Ice Cream Store
A whole week was spent preparing for the class ice cream store. From voting on a name, making a store label, decorating and putting up posters, and preparing some ingredients and recipe boards, it certainly was a busy week for the Cardinals.
Each day the class would eagerly prepare for the store, their excitement building up after every activity.
On our big day, the class took turns being waiters, chefs and cashiers/order takers. Cashiers would ask thhe customer what they wanted, then note it down on order slips the kids themselves made.
The order slip would then go to the chefs, who would consult our recipe diagram on how to make a certain sundae. Once made, they orders would go to the servers.
The servers would then serve the ice cream to the customer.
Everyone had a grand time! Even after all our ingredients had run out, grade school kids would still visit to ask if we had any left. Some of the kids would even say, “We are closed!”
It was a very fun and fruitful day for the class. The next thing to discuss now would be: What do we do with the money we earned?
For pictures, click here!
Making Chocolate Sauce
As part of our preparations for our ice cream store, the class made chocolate sauce.
Chocolate sauce was an ingredient the kids wanted to serve with their ice cream, so instead of buying one from the store we decided to whip some up in class instead.
The kids tasted unsweetened cocoa powder so that they could compare it to the finished product.
The kids were asked to measure and pour ingredients and stir the pot. When the mixture was cool, everyone had a taste.
The activity certainly hyped up the kids for the coming major activity- the ice cream store!
For more pictures, check out our multiply site.
CHRISTMAS in Australia
Jingle Bells
(http://www.ulladulla.info/xmas/jinglebells.html)
OH, JINGLE BELLS, JINGLE BELLS
JINGLE ALL THE WAY
CHRISTMAS IN AUSTRALIA
ON A SCORCHING SUMMER’S DAY
JINGLE BELLS, JINGLE BELLS
CHRISTMAS TIME IS BEAUT
OH WHAT FUN IT IS TO RIDE
IN A RUSTY HOLDEN UTE
This is the Australian version of Jingle Bells! The graders sang it last October in the Grade1-Maya room designated as Australia (during the United Nations week, each homeroom represented a particular continent. Holding their passports, the kids toured around each “continent”).
And as they sang such version of Jingle Bells, the kids learned that in Australia, December falls in SUMMER, and so their Christmas is in Summer!
The Grade1 kids, being the hosts in their homeroom, wore swimsuits or summer clothes to also illustrate the Australian tradition of going to the beaches on Christmas Day; and their traditional clothes.
So in reality, it IS Summer TODAY in Australia, also called The Land Down Under.
It is because it is in the Southern hemisphere. This means that it is below the equator, so that while it is cool in places above it, it is the opposite below.
But before all else, everyone who entered “Australia” had to stay standing and sang the Australian National Anthem (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B57QEEl97po&feature=related) as they faced the flag.
Australia, with a population of about 20 million people as of 2008 (Philippine population was about 90 million as of the same year), is surrounded by waters. In the photo that follows, the blue cellophanes that surrounded the map represented the oceans, including the Great Barrier Reef which had the fish and corals drawn by the kids at Art class with Teacher Grace (OUR THANKS to her for making the big kangaroo that we placed outside our door as our welcome symbol for Australia!).
“Hi I’m Kangaroo!” said the Grade 1 representatives to the other graders in their respective groups, as they wore the puppet kangaroo.
They continued: “I have a baby in my pouch, and that makes me a marsupial. I have other friends in Australia. I can tell you their names but you have to find them as you put together the puzzles!”
The puppet show continued: “Did you find me? I am Tasmanian Devil”;
“Im Koala.”
Aside from these animals, the platypus, and kookaburra are also found in the continent. Click this link to view the laughing kookaburra.
The most awaited part of the program was learning about (and TASTING) the continent’s food! Our grade 1 hosts served bread with jam topped with all-purpose cream which looked similar to the Australian scones…
(from http://www.essentially-england.com/images/scones_and_jam_2.jpg)
…and milk, which was a sure hit!
Anchor milk is an original product of New Zealand, which belongs to a bigger region with Australia. (For sharing purposes, however, we served Bear Brand milk with sugar and a lot of ice).
The remaining minutes were spent doing postcards / Christmas cards for their homeroom advisers. They wrote about the things they learned about Australia, and to say “MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM AUSTRALIA!”
Here are more photos:
Kids made their own boomerang, which is now famous as a toy. The natives or Aborigines used this as a weapon.
Famous places in Australia include the Sydney Opera House, Harbor Bridge, the Blue Mountains:
Even more photos when you click here!
Happy Holidays from the Vertical Class!
Thank you to all our families and friends for making our 2009 extra wonderful. Thank you for all your support!
We love you!
Happy 5th Birthday Angelica!
Last December 17, Angelica had her advanced birthday celebration with the Vertical Class.
Fairytales and stories about princesses have always been Angelica’s favorites so it wasn’t a surprise when she told the class she was going to be a princess on her birthday.
Angelica got to pick the games we played at her party.
Musical Chairs
Stop Dance (which got really intense and 4 kids won! )
Longest Happy Birthday
Pick-A-Prize
and
Pinata
The class had so much fun!
Thank you Daddy Chito for the party and thanks Teachers May and Kleck for letting us use the Blue Jays classroom!
Click here for more of Angelica’s birthday pictures.
Happy 5th Birthday Ina!
Today, Ina celebrated her special day with the Vertical Class.
The classroom was filled with giggles as the children adored the nuggets with flags and super cute cupcakes!
We sang Ina a happy birthday song as she blew the five candles on her cake!
And of course, there’s always room for ice cream!
We also tried our hands at balloon twisting and produced our version of swords and bunny hats.
Ina gave her classmates thank you presents and her advanced Christmas gifts too. Oh, it was such a wonderful day!
Thank you Mommy Candy and Daddy Dennis for the memorable celebration!
More pictures of Ina’s party here.
