Pre-KG 2025/ 26 Blog 33 The Assembly and the Arts

 Pre-KG 2025/ 26 Blog 33

The Assembly and the Arts !

As mentioned in my previous blog, the Pre-Kindergarten children have been very busy in the past weeks, practicing for the upcoming assembly, making all the stage props and creating some wonderful unit related art for our EY Art Exhibition.

Our school has many events and just recently, the UP (upper primary, our oldest children) performed a musical for which they had practiced for weeks and they really did a fabulous performance.

As we have only one MPR with one stage, the Pre-Kindergarten and K1 children had only a very few opportunities to practice, but what an amazing job they did at their Assembly!

Not only considering that the children had very few practice times, but their age and the fact that they had to perform in front of a large amount of people including their parents and the whole student and teacher body, it was fantastic to see how confidently they performed and moved to the songs which were both related to their units.

Old McDonald had a Farm

Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes

A big bravo und "Sehr gut gemacht" for our youngest children at school, you are true risk-takers and great entertainers!

The Pre-Kindergarten children also showed confidence when voicing their choices when making their art pieces. They had finished their marble paintings (Kugelbild in German) in the previous weeks, choosing their favourite colours and they also were very sure about what cloth they would like to use for their collage.

I own some beautiful pieces of cloth / material mostly made in Italy and I love when the children can make some stunning art pieces with them.

This collage was a several steps project with the children choosing their print in favourite colour and design. There were also interviews asking the children what they like to play with and how they move their body (our recent unit), so they could choose the additional pieces to mount on the collage. There were dinosaurs, lego, a ball (with a secret), an Anpanman image and a book !

The children and I were so concentrated and focused on making these collages and I was giving them a helping hand, that in the whole process, we forgot to take many pictures. Thankfully there are a few ones where you can see that the children made their own choices and helped gluing. 

Our EY Art exhibition had many visitors including two big groups of children and teachers from another school as well as the whole DSKI community at the SLC and the children's beautiful work got a lot pf praise from everyone!

A lot of interest was also shown by the many visitors in our Pre-KG Performing arts area, with children joyfully using the stick puppets for shows, playing with the dioramas and challenging themselves to the "flip and stand the magic bottle" game. 

It was heartwarming to see how happily the older children engaged in the corner created by Pre-Kindergarten and as some had already started in Pre-KG it was wonderful to see them back !

With all the ongoings in school, the Pre-Kindergarten children still found time to play together quietly, practice the dress up puzzle and dressing the dolls, roleplay cooking as a family and make some face collages, showing great cutting skills !

All the Pre-Kindergarten children have made so much progress, socially, emotionally and with their language and at the SLC the parents could witness this very positive and amazing development.

Thank you all for coming into school and sharing these meaningful moments with your child ! We were so happy to have you with us !

Next week is already the last week of the school year before the summer holidays and we will have additional exciting activities like a yoga session on Monday and some splashing and water discovery time throughout the week. And yes, we will make those magic bottles with sparkles which were so popular !

Enjoy the weekend with your amazing children and please give them a lot of praise for all their achievements !

With kind regards, mit freundlichen Grüßen, 

Anita Ursula Mönch

DSKI Pre-Kindergarten homeroom teacher 

Playgroup / EY GFL & Deutsch      

German Saturday School homeroom teacher

Pre-KG 2025/ 26 Blog 32 Head, shoulders....and Koerperteilblues

Pre-KG 2025/ 26 Blog 32

Head, shoulders....and Koerperteilblues

With the current Pre-Kindergarten unit subjects being "Body and Family", the children have done quite some activities focusing on their family including creating their family with lego people, colouring a drawing of their family members and role playing family scenarios while cooking and most recently taking care of the baby dolls.

Dressing themselves is a big step in any child's development and dressing the dolls is even more challenging. The children really enjoy this activity though and they love to chose different clothes for their baby. This time gives us valuable opportunities to talk about families and expand the children's vocabulary on clothes and different body parts.

The children have been singing the very popular song " Head, shoulders, knees and toes" and trying to point to the right body parts which is still a bit challenging for some. We usually sing the song ourselves, but there is a "Simple Songs" version you might want to follow at home, with or without the screen on, that is your choice. 

Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes

The children are quite used to just listen to the song as we will employ this method at our assembly when the teachers' voices will not be enough to reach the audience.

Undressing the dolls is also popular and as the days are hot, we let the children give the dolls a bath in our blue outdoor "pool" which gave the children a chance for cool play while learning and being active. 

The doll washing proved to be lots of fun and even though some children were a bit cautious, the all over verdict was that the children would like to do it again. You might incorporate this play in your bath time and will be surprised how easily your child can find the doll's nose and toes ! Great learning, Pre-Kindergarten children.

The discovery continued in the classroom during the week with the upcoming Assembly again giving the children opportunities to learn more about the body and clothes as they decorated the farmer (a stage prop) with colourful pants, boots, a belt and a charming picture of a sheep on his T-shirt. 

They also decided to give him a basket with Origami tulips which the children have become very adapt at folding. 

There was a wonderful family connection as one of our girls in Pre-Kindergarten, Kasane, has an older brother who made this carton silhouette for his own exhibition and then donated it to us. Thank you, Itsugo, the Pre-Kindergarten children love it !

The children also worked collaboratively on the farm house which is looking very good.

To support the idea of dressing themselves, the children are practicing at toilet time and they also used a clever puzzle where you need to fit the right pieces to get the correct sequence.

This puzzle will also be one of the items the children can show their parents at the upcoming SLCs (Student Led Conferences).

Lastly, we made some very exciting art projects which are a bit of a secret as the children want to surprise their parents with these.

I would like to finish my post which an energetic German song called "Koerperteilblues" which features a vast amount of vocabulary for body parts and is much loved by the EY children for its movement and upbeat sound. 

Koerperteilblues

Pre-Kindergarten is joining in the action and getting there !

Wishing you an active weekend in the sun !

With kind regards, mit freundlichen Grüßen, 

Anita Ursula Mönch

DSKI Pre-Kindergarten homeroom teacher 

Playgroup / EY GFL & Deutsch      

German Saturday School homeroom teacher

Pre-KG 2025/ 26 Blog 31 Creativity and Collaboration in Pre-Kindergarten

 Pre-KG 2025/ 26 Blog 31

Creativity and Collaboration in Pre-Kindergarten

The Pre-Kindergarten class at DSKI consists of 2- and 3-year old children and whereas we are not yet under the official IB PYP umbrella, the curriculum created by Ms.Anita 22 years ago on the foundation of the German Kindergarten play-based and inquiry-based learning, ticks all the right boxes and feeds right into the school's Primary Years Programme (PYP).

So what is the IB Primary Years Programme ?

It is an educational framework for 3 to 12 year old children and adopts an inquiry-based approach to learning. The PYP encourages students to boost their critical thinking, creativity and global awareness by promoting inquiry, collaboration and connections to nurture open-minded and knowledgeable learners.

The programme supports the child mentally, physically, socially and cognitively, just like we do in Pre-Kindergarten.

Creativity is a core related concept within the IB's transdisciplinary theme "How we express ourselves" and is embedded in the Thinking Skills Category of the ATLs (Approaches to learning).

While the Pre-Kindergarten children show lots of creativity throughout the year, it is always heartwarming to witness at the end of the school year how the children come together as a group, help each other, support each others' ideas and work collaboratively .

With our own combined Pre-KG / K1 Assembly and an EY Art Exhibition coming up, there were lots of opportunities to create !

The Pre-Kindergarten children will be performing some songs on the stage in the MPR and they diligently made their own stage props which they were very proud of !

There was really great collaboration among the children, they were helping each other and even giving each other some advice on where to paint or glue.

The Pre-Kindergarten children are also collaborating with K1 and K2 for the EY Art Exhibition and made some beautiful marble paintings showing their sense of colour, concentration and good hand-eye cordination.

Marble paintings are a part of EY education in Germany and they are called Kugelbild, because you use a "Kugel" = marble to create them.

                 DAS KUGELBILD 

Kugelbilder (oder Murmelbilder) sind eine einfache und faszinierende Maltechnik für Kinder, wozu man Farben, ein Blatt Papier und einen Karton benötigt. Durch Bewegen des Kartons und das Rollen der Murmeln wird die Feinmotorik und die Hand-Auge-Koordination gefördert.

THE MARBLE PAINTING 

Marble paintings offer an easy and fascinating way for children to paint by using colours, a piece of paper and a box to fit the paper in. The moving of the box and rolling of the marble help foster your child’s fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination.

The results were absolutely stunning and the children will be so happy and proud to show them to their parents and all the visitors we are expecting.

Wonderful collaboration and great creativity these past weeks, dear Pre-Kindergarten children.

Wishing you all a colourful weekend and happy weeks ahead !

With kind regards, mit freundlichen Grüßen, 

Anita Ursula Mönch

DSKI Pre-Kindergarten homeroom teacher 

Playgroup / EY GFL & Deutsch      

German Saturday School homeroom teacher

Pre-KG 2025/ 26 Blog 30 Our Community is our extended family

  Pre-KG 2025/ 26 Blog 30

Our Community is our extended family

The Pre-Kindergarten children are learning more about their bodies and families in their current unit and the past weeks at school provided many examples of how a class and the school community can work as an extended family.

The Pre-Kindergarten children spend the majority of their week in class surrounded by classmates, teachers, friends from EY and other DSKI community members including siblings and parents. The great advantage of a smaller school that starts as early as Playgroup (children from one year old) is that there is often a lot of interaction across the grades including assemblies and during our many events, with the children from the older grades showing a very caring attitude towards our youngest ones, as some of them have also started DSKI in Playgroup, Pre-Kindergarten or EY.

1) Grades 5/6 Exhibition (UP/Upper Primary)

Our oldest children at school held their PYP exhibition before the Golden Week holidays with a focus on passion projects which was presented in an array of topics and some truly amazing displays. 

This exhibition demonstrates these children's learning over the years and their ability to research and present. 

The UP children showed great care and patience in explaining their projects to the Pre-KG / EY children and it was heartwarming to see these interactions. 

Some of the older children have siblings in Playgroup or Pre-Kindergarten and with parents visiting as well, it truly became a family affair. Congratulations on a fabulous exhibition to Grades 5&6, their parents, their homeroom teacher Ms.Pam and all the wonderful mentors.

2) DSKI Book Day

The book at DSKI was truly a fantastic event this year !

Not only was there a parade with everyone dressed in colourful costumes featuring their favorite book character, but the MPR stage also was decorated beautifully as a well known author of Japanese children's books was invited and held two amazing workshops for our school community. The school was also honoured with the presence of the German consul, Ms.Saxinger who read passages from a well known and much beloved classic, Pippi Langstrumpf. The day ended with a sumptous buffet and lots of laughter and conversations in the hallway. 

The EY children had nap time through some of the events, but they also enjoyed a lovely reading by Yuji's mother with smiles on their faces.

There must have been many happy faces in the wider community as well as this book day also ran a book collection drive for charity and a stunning amount of books was collected. What a great way to extend happiness! 

A big thank you to Ms.Elena, Ms.Makiko and Ms.Harumi as the Book Day team for their astounding work and vision and to all the amazing helpers in our DSKI Community of which there are too many to mention.

3) Goodbyes

Part of life is saying goodbye and it never comes easily. During the week the DSKI school community had to say goodbye to two gentlemen who from now on will enjoy their retirement.

The first gentleman was Mr.Fujita, our wonderful school bus driver for many years who was our safe guard on daily drives and helped create memories on our amazing excursions which we will cherish forever. Our Pre-Kindergarten trip to Animal Kingdom was the last opportunity to see his great care towards the children.

Otsukaresama, Mr.Fujita, we will miss you.

The second gentleman was Mr.Windmeier, our new German principal who brought with him ideas and a vision to extend our school beyond current facilities and lead it into the future. 

The Pre-Kindergarten children especially enjoyed his Christmas story reading and him popping into the class introducing new families and friends to us.

Thank you for guiding our next steps, Mr.Windmeier. Wir wuenschen Ihnen alles Gute in Deutschland und weiterhin gute Gesundheit !

4) Rokko Island Tulip field / Community Garden

The small plot of land near our school brings the children so much joy, lets them learn about growth, life cycles and seasons and connects them directly to the Community on Rokko Island.

Generations of Pre-Kindergarten children and their friends from EY have planted tulip bulbs, checked on their growth regularily and then are stunned by the beautiful tulip field in spring with the children always proudly telling their parents that THEY planted these tulips! 

This time we went to harvest the tulip bulbs which can be recycled depending on their condition and we are already looking forward to the sweet potato planting.

5) Japanese Children's Day

Kodomo-no-hi aka Children's Day in Japan is a joyful festival celebrating the growth of the children and praying for their health and happiness. Even though it is called children's Day it includes usually display items for boys like helmet and armour to balance for the girls Ohina-sama Day. The festival itself is very old , became very elaborate during the Meiji times and also features Koinobori, carp streamers representing the family which are displayed from the roof tops. 

Koinobori Song

The children sang the traditional song in class, made Koinobori and happliy took them home. 

We hope you had a good celebration with the family and friends in the Golden Week holidays - there was a very big Koinobori streamer in Harbourland where the school had a booth on 4th and 5th May !

6) Birthday Party

Birthdays are special occasions where we celebrate that a child / person was born and we are happy to have them among us.

Often the birthday party in Pre-Kindergarten is the first one for a child to hold with people other than the family and the children are always so happy to share this moment and the treats with their friends and teachers.

This time we celebrated Lynn's 3rd Birthday and we had a cheerful time with delicious fruit and crackers. Thank you to Lynn's parents for helping to create special memories !

7) Mother's Day 

"Mama" (in any language) is often the first word a young child utters and there is a phrase that says that "the mother is the heart of the home" which highlights the mother's central and nurturing role.

I have very fond memories of my own mother who passed much too young and I loved how exitedly the Pre-Kindergarten children took to the idea to make a special flower for their beloved mums. 

Every child chose a beautiful Origami paper, patiently folded it into a tulip and stuck it on a stem with a leaf. Ms.Anita helped with writing a lovely message and the children proudly showed their flowers.

The Pre-Kindergarten children are really rays of sunshine and we will keep nurturing their connections to family, friends, teachers and the wider DSKI Community.

I hope your Mother's Day was full of beautiful moments and lots of love !

With kind regards, mit freundlichen Grüßen, 

Anita Ursula Mönch

DSKI Pre-Kindergarten homeroom teacher 

Playgroup / EY GFL & Deutsch      

German Saturday School homeroom teacher