This Wednesday, we had a special visitor join us at Side by Side. Li SiYuan, Mali’s son, had the day off school for the Dragon Boat Festival, and so we invited him to visit us and then join us on our day trip to the Seven Colour Butterfly Garden. Li SiYuan has visited us before, and Pepper and William were very excited to see him again! After Max and Li SiYuan had a quick play with the pets, we cut and packed some fruit for lunch and then left Side by Side for our day trip!

It was quite an adventure getting to and from the Butterfly Garden, we had the whole day, so we decided to take advantage of the great weather and the holiday. We ended up walking, taking a taxi, taking the subway and also taking a bus!

The Butterfly Park was really fun! There were lots of statues of cartoon butterflies and caterpillars, and we had fun being silly and pretending to fly like butterflies, and standing with the butterfly’s wings behind us to make it look like we were butterflies! Inside we saw some small butterflies, some huge butterflies, and some butterflies that were hard to see because they looked like the flowers! There were a butterflies of all different colours. We also saw some caterpillars, some of which were also very colourful!

All photos on Side by Side’s website have been posted with permission from our clients, or their parent/guardians. These photos belong solely to Side by Side and are not to be used, reproduced or downloaded without our permission. If you or your child is in one of the photos, and you would like a copy, please contact us.

This week we all had great fun celebrating the last week of the year; summer holidays start next week for most people. Here are some of the things we got up to during the week.

Alana made letter cookies, and she worked out she could spell more than 15 words with the letters she made!

Eric, Dominic, and Max finished our veggie bus by making number plates and screwing them on, despite the wet weather!

Daniel  performed his beach song for a small audience, which included his parents and younger sister.

James and Armin had one final game of Make ‘n’ Break before the holidays!

Kiera counted Anita’s money jar one last time for the year – there’s a grand total of 58.50 RMB!

On the last day of school Max, Eric and Dominic made Chinese dumplings (jiaozi) with Mali – yum!

All photos on Side by Side’s website have been posted with permission from our clients, or their parent/guardians. These photos belong solely to Side by Side and are not to be used, reproduced or downloaded without our permission. If you or your child is in one of the photos, and you would like a copy, please contact us.

This Friday was our end of year excursion, which we financed by selling cookies this term. We went to the Go Ape Adventure Park inside of Chaoyang Park. Eric, Dominic and Max were very brave and climbed up on the high wires and ropes. After we finished climbing we had a nice picnic in Chaoyang Park.

All photos on Side by Side’s website have been posted with permission from our clients, or their parent/guardians. These photos belong solely to Side by Side and are not to be used, reproduced or downloaded without our permission. If you or your child is in one of the photos, and you would like a copy, please contact us.

“Today I had my lesson outside with Anita. I chose outside because the weather was nice. Today I was working on the iPad at the beginning of the lesson, and first Pepper jumped on the chair next to me and then Miele leapt onto the table and sat down. William was prancing around the garden while I was working! Today’s lesson was awesome!”

Making Bread Rolls

This week, Eric, Dominic and Max made wholewheat bread rolls for lunch. It was exciting to see how the yeast let the dough grow and when we ate the baked bread rolls they were still warm and delicious!

All photos on Side by Side’s website have been posted with permission from our clients, or their parent/guardians. These photos belong solely to Side by Side and are not to be used, reproduced or downloaded without our permission. If you or your child is in one of the photos, and you would like a copy, please contact us.

On Wednesday Jayden wrote his journal about the best things about summer. He had to look the words he spelt incorrectly up in the dictionary, and then write them correctly in his journal. During this activity, Jayden had a little bit of “help” from one of Side by Side’s furry assistants – Miele came and sat on the desk, and thought it was fun to play every time Jayden turned the page!

Mali’s Birthday

On Thursday we celebrated Mali’s birthday. Mali chose to have a pineapple cake, and we took Rosy and Ruby on a picnic. Pepper was very excited to go on an adventure with us, and we also had our P.E. lesson outside in the sunshine. Dominic, Max, and Eric all brought lunch to share, and Mali was given some lovely presents.

All photos on Side by Side’s website have been posted with permission from our clients, or their parent/guardians. These photos belong solely to Side by Side and are not to be used, reproduced or downloaded without our permission. If you or your child is in one of the photos, and you would like a copy, please contact us.

This week, James had a spelling test on the words he commonly uses in his journal writing. He was very confident he would do well, but James was surprised when he received 100% and was given a much sought-after Spiderman sticker! In addition to the awesome Spiderman sticker, James was allowed to choose a prize from Anita’s prize box, and he chose a bright blue super ball.

Veggie Bus Progress!

This week Eric, Dominic, and Max finished the wood work for our veggie bus (we’re now calling it our “veggie bus” since we will be putting vegetables in it as well as salad, and it is bright yellow, like a school bus!).  We all went to buy some final tools and materials so we could give the veggie bus a steering wheel, mirrors and four wheels after painting it bright yellow. Everyone is really impressed with how “cool” our bus looks, and since it’s still empty, Dominic, Max and Eric have had some fun playing around in it this week!

All photos on Side by Side’s website have been posted with permission from our clients, or their parent/guardians. These photos belong solely to Side by Side and are not to be used, reproduced or downloaded without our permission. If you or your child is in one of the photos, and you would like a copy, please contact us.

During the last year, our tuk-tuk Ruby has helped our day programme group go to a lot of different places. Everyone loves to ride on Ruby, and Anita, Philipp and Mali are always happy that they can offer a ride on Ruby as a reward for good behaviour, and that we can ride her to a great picnic spot, or to the HouShaYu Markets. On Monday Dominic, Eric, Max, Mali and Anita went to buy a second tuk-tuk we called “Rosy”. We are looking forward to many future picnics and shopping trips with Rosy and Ruby.

Building a Salad Truck

This week Eric and Max helped Anita, Philipp, and Mali start a big project. We’ve planted so many vegetables in the past few weeks, and we want to present them in a creative way. This week, we started building a salad truck. Max and Eric did a lot of wood work with sawing, hammering, screwing, and drilling. We are already very excited about how the truck looks, and the neighbours are also very curious and interested in seeing the project as it progresses.

All photos on Side by Side’s website have been posted with permission from our clients, or their parent/guardians. These photos belong solely to Side by Side and are not to be used, reproduced or downloaded without our permission. If you or your child is in one of the photos, and you would like a copy, please contact us.

This week, Taylor had some guests join her session with Anita. First Cuddles came and sat on the desk and watched them play Irregular Verb memory, then Pepper came, and finally Philipp came and joined in our game. Taylor had to choose a card from side A (the present tense verb sentences), then read the card, and give the sentence in past tense. She then had to try and find the sentence from side B (the past tense verb sentences) and try and make a pair. The game was a lot of fun for everyone, and Taylor did a great job!

Watch Our Garden Grow!

The week, we continued our gardening! Max, Eric and Dominic were all very excited to make our old sand and water trays into planters, and they got to use the drill to make drainage holes! Eric did a great job  planting chillies in one and lettuce in the other, while Dominic and Max helped plant bitter melon, eggplant and tomatoes in the back garden. Anita also got an exciting package from her sister in Australia this week; it included some tower planters we could use at Side by Side. We worked very hard to put the towers together, and then we went and took the towers to our local plant seller, Miss Lei. We filled one tower with strawberries and one with a lot of colourful flowers!

All photos on Side by Side’s website have been posted with permission from our clients, or their parent/guardians. These photos belong solely to Side by Side and are not to be used, reproduced or downloaded without our permission. If you or your child is in one of the photos, and you would like a copy, please contact us.

Each week Tiernan’s sessions involve a variety of activities that work on many different areas of language – spelling, reading fluency, writing, giving descriptions, rhyming, and blending and segmenting words. Once a month, Tiernan is allowed to choose the activities he does in his session. This week, he chose to use a story starter for his journal, to work on spelling, to write silly sentences, do rhyming, practice musical syllables, and play a description guessing game.

Spring Gardening Begins

The weather is finally warm enough for us to start planting in our garden so we started planting this week. On Monday Eric, Dominic and Max planted tomato, zucchini, cucumber and capsicum seeds in our group garden. Miele, William and Pepper were also excited to join us outside. We are looking forward to seeing the first seedlings becoming visible!

All photos on Side by Side’s website have been posted with permission from our clients, or their parent/guardians. These photos belong solely to Side by Side and are not to be used, reproduced or downloaded without our permission. If you or your child is in one of the photos, and you would like a copy, please contact us.

Dominic had his birthday during Spring Break, so we celebrated on Monday! Dominic made noodles with Mali for lunch, and Eric was in charge of serving them. We made a chocolate marble cake, and Max helped put on the ‘Happy Birthday’ candles. Dominic was given some lovely presents as well.

James and Armin Make ‘n’ Break!

This week, Philipp and Anita combined James and Armin’s individual sessions so they could play Make ‘n’ Break. Armin and James worked on social interaction, problem solving, fine motor skills, sportsmanship and strategy. They had to prepare Anita’s classroom by moving the desk and chairs, get the game from the top shelf of the bookshelf, set the game up, decide fairly who would start, play the game, and then pack up and put everything away properly.

All photos on Side by Side’s website have been posted with permission from our clients, or their parent/guardians. These photos belong solely to Side by Side and are not to be used, reproduced or downloaded without our permission. If you or your child is in one of the photos, and you would like a copy, please contact us.