Panda Class Blog - Wednesday 7th May




Dear Panda Families, 

We hope you had a fantastic long weekend! 

The children are enjoying the start of our new Unit of Inquiry, 'How We Express Ourselves.' We have been reading more books by Julia Donaldson such as 'The Gruffalo', and 'Tabby McTat'. We also read a book about finding confidence in ourselves called 'Giraffes Can't Dance' by Giles Andreae!


The Pandas have been exploring their musical talents on the stage in open play, and we have some fantastic budding performers, musicians and vocalists emerging!

Book Day dress up was a huge success, and a big thank you to all of you for preparing your child with a super outfit and their chosen book! We had a wonderful day talking about each child's favourite book and learnt about some new books in the process.

Our Chinese Puppet incursion was brilliant, and we were so inspired that we looked at different types of puppetry, such as shadow puppets, string puppets, and making our own puppets with our hands, We watched a brief clip from the 'Sound of Music' featuring a puppet show titled 'Lonely Goatherd'. We have been busy making our own puppets using paper bags. Some children wanted to make animals, and others wanted to make taxis, trains and dinosaurs!

We will be exploring storytelling in the next couple of weeks, starting by making our own books and learning how to formulate a story using the structure of 'beginning', 'middle' and 'end'. We will then move on to making story sticks, and story stones, which will be a wonderful opportunity for the children to express their imaginations, telling stories in different forms!

This song 'Silly to Calm' is proving to be very popular with the Pandas at the moment, and you might also like to play it at home. I've added it to our Spotify album for your reference. It helps us unwind after a busy open play, where outdoors is increasingly busy and popular with the warmer weather! 

The water trays are filled with exciting tools and toys that the children can independently choose to play with by picking their chosen items out of a box, and the Pandas are becoming very skilled at putting on their own aprons now!

During open play, we will gradually be introducing painting using various implements, so please keep an eye out for any artwork that arrives home, and ask your child what they used to create their piece!

Please see below for important dates and announcements taken from the Hillside Newsletter to all Hillside families. If you have any questions about the PTCS or anything else relating to the Newsletter, kindly contact our brilliant admin team, who will assist you further. 

The Hillside admin telephone number is 2540 0066, and the email address is: kinder@hillside.edu.hk

May (Fridays): K1 Chinese PTCs

19-22 May: K2 PTCs (Separate App Message)

26-29 May: K1 PTCs (Separate App Message)

30 May: ESF-wide K2 to Y1 Transition Day

Mozzy Season

At Hillside, we are extremely fortunate to have a large outdoor play area that backs onto a lovely natural green space. However, this does mean that mosquitoes and midges will be around.

We work with an exterminator year-round, conducting weekly fogging in the playground, drains, and other common breeding grounds. Additionally, we have mosquito-repelling lanterns and industrial fans in place.

However, we highly recommend applying insect repellent before school. Natural repellents may not last as long as chemical products, so reapplication is important. Roll-on repellents are very child-friendly and easier for children to manage independently. You may also apply repellent to clothing rather than directly to the skin, as we've noticed some bites can penetrate through clothing.

We understand that some children are more susceptible to bites and can develop itchy red lumps. We will apply an ice pack at school to help reduce any swelling for these children.


Here are our class photo albums for you to view:

                                            Panda Class AM & Panda Class PM

Our Spotify Album is Here. 


We wish you all a good week!


Best regards,

The Panda Team

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