"The Grasshopper and the Ants" in Macau

This week, our first year Helen O' Grady drama students in Macau gather to rehearse for their upcoming production on Friday, 17th June! These enthusiastic boys and girls will be performing "The Grasshopper and the Ants"! Although it was not a full dress rehearsal, the class put in their best efforts and had great fun at the same time.

The boys getting into position!

"The Grasshopper and the Ants" Full Cast!

One of the "ants" cannot join us next week as he will be leaving Macau to relocate to Singapore. We wish him all the best! 

We look forward to 17 June 2016!

5 days in Taipei: Sacred Heart Primary School

It has been so busy around Helen O' Grady Asia and we have many experiences that we wish to share with you!

One of our most recent event is our 5-days camp at Sacred Heart Primary School (Taipei). Teacher Francine had the privilege to travel to Taipei for 5 days to teach the little ones how to express themselves through our interactive drama programme!

With the stage marked out, Teacher Francine rallied the excited students together.!

Everyone was wearing the Helen O' Grady t-shirt and embodied the fun-loving and enthusiastic HOG spirit!

Besides the segment on drama, the children rolled up their sleeves and got down to painting on a cloth banner! They imagined what it would be like if the animals came together to compete in an Olympics game! They painted Mr. Lion, other animals and many other landscapes such as mountains!

We truly had a great time at Taipei and we hope to see them again soon! 

As the Chinese New Year approaches, all the staff of HOG Asia would like to wish Sacred Heart Primary and everyone a prosperous and blessed CNY!

Grady's First Day in School - Helen O' Grady's very first published book for children!

We are proud to release our very first drama read-aloud book! Read more about it below or find out more at http://www.gradybear.com/!

It is Grady Bear’s first day at school.

What will Grady’s first day of school be like? The other children look excited to be in school but not Grady. Who will he meet? What adventure will he embark on? Join Grady Bear and his friends and read aloud rhymes and rhythms in this roller-coaster adventure featuring the adorable, leader-of-the-pack Grady who meets, among others, the magical reading carpet of gold, yellow and green.

In Grady’s First Day At School, our readers will be introduced to school from a child’s point of view. Our young readers will relate to the emotional roller-coaster and the first-time situations that typically happen on the first day at school, and see how Grady Bear and his friends overcome their fears in creative ways.

Parents and teachers will get a number of opportunities to ease into conversations about common anxieties children may have about going to school, such as separation anxiety, making friends, fitting in, being independent, and following instructions.

In Grady’s First Day at School, you will get

• 20 pages of carefully selected written content based that support vocabulary, grammar and speech learning
• Read-aloud Drama: Readers will get to read and practice aloud rhymes, vocabulary and sentence structure written by published writer Su-Ann Mae Phillips
• Beautiful artwork by London-based artist Mike Lowe & layout designer Foo Siew Huey printed on non-toxic, child-friendly paper by Singapore-based Tien Wah Press
• Ideal 20cm by 20cm book size for sharing in small groups and/or in parent-child pairs. Perfect size for handling by little hands

Due to Limited Quantities, please CONTACT US for your copies now:hello@gradybear.com

Drama-in-Education Workshop in Bei Jing

On the 24th of November, Francine and Nancy visited Bei Jing to attend a Drama-In-Education Workshop organized by Beijing Institute of Education! 

We spent a great time learning how to diversify our educational methods together with Teacher Joseph Sun, Teacher Audrey Burkhart, Cindy, and many others! Nancy Soon had the pleasure of delivering one of the talks on the evolution of drama in education and got the teachers brainstorming for new and innovative ideas on how to engage children. 

We thank Beijing Institution of Education for their generosity and warm welcome even amidst this cold winter!

October Fun has begun!

Macau classes have started and we have gathered to have fun together! What better way to spend some time each week to have fun without expectations and to learn at the same time? 

Upper Primary Introduction! It is always a joy making new friends! 

Some of us attended Helen O 'Grady classes before and we came back to learn even more!

Lower Primary Introduction! We may be small, but we are capable of great things! 

  

We began with some locomotion fun! 

Moving around the room, we froze in a cool pose when Mr Fong told us too!

We did some barbecuing in class too! Using our hands as props, we prepared the food and spoke to our friends about how delicious the food was!  

We can't wait for the next class! It is going to be a great month ahead!

Drama Classes are Beginning!

At Helen O 'Grady, children have fun and are encouraged to express themselves freely! As teachers, we have witnessed the confidence and joy that many of our little ones have gained through this drama experience! 

We have much more information at our website: http://www.helenogrady.com.sg/

If you are interested to enrol your child, click here now!: http://goo.gl/fioCgt

HOGA Sign Ups Are Open!

Every year, we anticipate both new and familiar faces joining the Helen O 'Grady Family! 

All Helen O 'Grady principals and teachers are prepared to bring the fun in our Helen O’Grady curriculum to our students! Each lesson stimulates students to be fully involved and motivated. 

All students attend an one hour lesson, each week of the school year! 

Come join us as we transform that hour in your week into an hour of adventure that never ends!

Click HERE to Sign Up!

HOGAsia goes to Shen Zhen!

In the past week, we took a trip down to Shen Zhen Dong Hai Campus and interacted with a cheerful and active group of students! We conducted trial classes there and brought the HOG spirit and the joy of drama to our students! Students got to break away from their usual academic learning styles and experienced learning through drama with us!

We started off with one of our many fun and simple introductory activities called "Bird in the sky!" The children stretched out their arms and chirped confidently in their own bird languages!

Ms Francine praised the children for their enthusiasm and encouraged them to try new techniques and be creative even in doing something as simple as flapping their "wings".

In our Mine to Music component, we listened to HOG's original song "How Clumsy!" 

We tumbled, rolled on the floor and laughed at how clumsy we all were! 

At Helen O 'Grady, we believe that children can be creative and critical thinkers! In our improvisation activity, "ants and the chocolate cake", we asked children how they think ants will be like when eating and approaching the cake! Children raised their hands and actively contributed their ideas!

We sure had fun in Shen Zhen and cannot wait to meet these young talented ones again!

Launch of Helen O'Grady Drama Academy in Shenzhen, China

I am delighted to announce the official launch of Helen O'Grady Drama Academy in collaboration with UNI Whole Child Education Center in Shenzhen.  UNI has two centers, one in Donghai and the other in Baihua to cater to parents with children from ages 3 to 17 to join us in our drama program.

A Press Conference jointly with a short summer camp performance on "The Summer Olympics" was held on Saturday August 22, 2015. 

Congratulations and a big welcome to UNI's parents and children to our international drama family!

Taiwan joins the Helen O 'Grady Family!

We welcome Helen O 'Grady Taiwan to our family! Over the week, Mr David Chang and Vivian from Taiwan engaged in our training programme to pick up the ropes and get ready to bring the best they can to the youths and kids in Taiwan!

Mr David Chang and wife Vivian joined us in a day of training to better understand the Helen O 'Grady network and business operations!

The next day, Teacher Francine ran through some scripts and David, Vivian , Lawrence (from Macau) and Farhana (from Singapore) were diligently taking notes and asking good questions!

As Ms Farhana confidently took the role as teacher, Mr David Chang actively took on the role as a child and followed her instructions with great enthusiasm!

In one of the scenes, Mrs Vivian Chang got into character and waved to Mr David Chang and Ms Francine with great excitement!

Mr David took on the role as teacher next! With a loud bang, he gave his instructions with clarity and got all our attention! Bravo, David!

Though hours of training had passed, we did not realise that it was already getting late! We had great fun and that truly is the power of drama!

Congratulations, David and Vivian Chang from Taiwan for completing the induction training as franchisee! Before going home, David and Vivian relaxed at the Long Bar at Raffles Hotel Singapore! 

We are glad to have David and Vivian on board and cannot wait to see them in action in Taiwan one day!