Pre-KG 2025/ 26 Blog 24 The Call of Africa

 Pre-KG 2025/ 26 Blog 24

The Call of Africa

There probably is a longing in all of us to go to Africa some day. Whether it is because of its deep history as the cradle of humankind and vibrant cultures with over 2000 languages, the image of the sun setting on the vastness of the land or its iconic wildlife which every child knows about - we are all fascinated by Africa. 

The Pre-Kindergarten children love elephants as much as I do (my favourite animal beside dolphins) so after looking into Farm, Hawaiian and Arctic animals, this week they learnt more about this gentle giant, the rest of South Africa's big five and many more interesting animals. And we had the great luck to have a fantastic guest speaker in class on Friday, so stay tuned until the end of the blog !

On Monday, the children revisited our book with maps (Riesenatlas) to find Africa and they also viewed a map of the country surrounded by images of its famous wildlife. 

Ms.Nini had organized a multitude of activities for the children to learn more about African animals: First she showed pictures with some of the animals’ features and the children much enjoyed the quiz and the matching activity.

Then she provided cut outs of the shadows and the Pre-Kindergarten children proved that they had become very proficient at recognizing shapes in their first unit. Bravo !

Next was a wonderful shadow play with our animal figurines. The children watched in awe each time a new shadow appeared and learnt that the size changes with the distance from the light source into bigger and smaller. Another exciting STEM discovery! Thank you, Ms.Nini, for these fabulous ideas ! 

Cutting is another skill where the Pre-Kindergarten children are getting better at and the beloved elephant was soon created using eye-hand coordination and glue. Now the elephants live on our classroom display board and are waiting for food ! 

Our clever children will soon make some paper fruits for them and some tall trees for the giraffes. Oh yes, let’s not forget the giraffes, which were also cut out after putting dots as their fur patterns. It was interesting to see that the children chose the colours of their dots very individually showing their imagination and creativity !

Having learnt the names and shapes of various African animals, the children then looked at their different feet or paws. Africa features a wide range of terrain with grassy land, muddy areas and sand. What kind of trail would an elephant leave in mud ? Can we still see a giraffe's hoof print (Spoor in Afrikaans and Spur in German) in sand after a while ?

The Pre-Kindergarten children took these questions and tested different animal figurines in thick mud aka playdough and sand and found out that a track disappears easily in sandy terrain when wiped out by hands (or the wind in nature). Being true inquirers they also discovered different sizes of tracks made by big or small versions of the same animals. Great discoveries and a lot learnt!

For Friday afternoon, we had invited Ms.Schelin , the K2 homeroom teacher as a guest speaker as she is very knowledgeable about Africa and its wildlife, because she was born there and has seen the animals with her own eyes!

Ms.Schelin brought with her a multitude of beautiful photos which she had taken and also amazing stories !

The Pre-Kindergarten children and teachers listened enthralled, were fascinated by the photos and learnt about so many new species who call Africa their home. Soon the children interacted and showed Ms.Schelin the corresponding animal figurines and puppets. The teachers imagined the adventure of camping out in the savanna, sitting by the fire and listening to the roar of wild lions.

Please Ms.Schelin, take us there and in the meanwhile, thank you so very much for your educating and entertaining photo presentation and for sharing anecdotes of your life in Africa. We were grateful and honoured to have you with us ! Dankie, Ashley !

We still have all the fabulous photos in our classroom for you to see and for all of us, who dream about Africa, I would like to end this blog with a poem:

The Call of Africa by C.Emily Dibb

Wishing you a roaring weekend,

With warm 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 23 Winter Animals and Winter Soup

 Pre-KG 2025/ 26 Blog 23

Winter Animals and Winter Soup

In our current unit I am taking the Pre-Kindergarten children around the world, albeit just figuratively.

After our research last week into the fauna and culture of tropical Hawaii, this week we went to explore the animals in some colder regions and looked at their eating habits.

First we referred again to our many books to see what kind of animals actually live in ice and snow, some permanently, some just during the cold winter.

The children came up with polar bears and pinguins, but then we found a good image that showed that also wolves, deer, reindeers, rabbits and huskies inhabit cold regions and even orcas live in icy water.

We printed the image and the children made another diorama which soon was the home for a multitude of winter animals.

My daughter Hanna had visited Finland this winter, so I also showed the children a photo of her with a husky.

We then watched a lively song in German of a little boy whose best friend is a pinguin.

Pi–Pa–Pinguin

As some of our Pre-Kindergarten friends had missed the making of the first diorama last week and the sea life related art, they added their colourful versions and showed really nice cutting and gluing skills. Beautiful collages, everyone !

Inspired by the icy scenes of the winter world, the children started to make icebergs and winter scenes with our foam blocks and Lego which became more and more elaborate over the week. Animals were added and Elsa and her sister Anna found a home, too.

Back to the food in these winter worlds and to the question what do the animals there actually eat as there is only snow and ice to see.

We were astonished that the children remembered that bears eat fish (BBC footage two blogs ago) and we told them that seals and penguins eat fish, too.

The polar bear was then used as a model to make our own version out of paper plates and the children had a lot of fun crafting them. They especially enjoyed giving their own bear a unique facial expression.

To feed those bears, some of our Pre-Kindergarten children learnt to fold a fish out of Origami paper which was not easy, but they showed persistance and amazing folding skills. Now our polar bears finally had some food.

Folding papers is a sensual experience which children enjoy and need to develop. So after they had touched the snow in a previous week and knew that it is cold as ice, we planned an additional activity to let them experience how cold ice actually is and that it melts through warmth and friction. Yes, our little explorers are getting ready for STEM week as science is a part of it.

We took out the drawing mat and provided the children with icecubes and gloves. Some wanted to touch the ice without the gloves and soon found out that at least they protect us a little from the cold. With wonder the Pre-Kindergarten children discovered that ice is frozen water and does really melt when in contact with warmth. 

They made some interesting ice cube doodles and watched the icecubes melting. Great STEM discovery!

Not only animals, but people need to eat and there is nothing better than a hearty soup in winter. 

The Pre-Kindergarten children have become quite adapt at cutting through previous activities like cutting our toy food and the real fruit for the fruit salad with K1, so they were very excited about another cooking session. 

They marched to the STEM room clad in aprons and holding the proper cutlery utensils and then cut cauliflower, carrots, broccoli and sausages into small pieces while Ms.Kotomi was boiling the noodles in the kitchen. 

When done, she showed them to the children who then mixed the cut vegetables with the noodles that would go into a good broth.

It was nice to see the keen interest of the children in making a soup and their great joy when I served them the finished cooled down version in a bowl brought from the kitchen.

The Pre-Kindergarten ate heartily all of the soup and the general verdict was: so yummy ! 

This was a simple recipe with a satisfying result and joyful participation by the children, so please try it at home ! Please use child friendly cutlery and have them stay away from the boiling water, we did not let the children enter the kitchen where our head chef Ms Kotomi was boiling the soup.

I hope she will enjoy some delicious food this weekend as it will be her birthday ! Heartfelt congratulations, Ms.Kotomi !

This long weekend the New Year Celebrations in Kobe Motomachi's China Town will be in full swing, so there surely will be additional delicacies to discover.

Kindly send me a photo of your child eating their favourite food for our unit wall display!

With warm regards, mit freundlichen Grüßen, 

Anita Ursula Mönch

DSKI Pre-Kindergarten homeroom teacher 

Playgroup / EY GFL & Deutsch      

German Saturday School homeroom teacher