Pre-KG 2026/ 27 Blog 3 An enriched Curriculum

 Pre-KG 2026/ 27 Blog 3

An enriched Curriculum 

Our Pre-Kindergarten class offers a welcoming and warm environment, a creative curriculum with stimulating activities and a caring team of teachers working together with specialists in EY.

During the first weeks, the children are always settling into new routines including nap time and learning to play with their new classmates and a bigger group of friends from K1 and K2.

Due to the ongoing heat the usual outdoor playtime has been allocated to additional indoor discovery time and the children have enjoyed lego castle building, colouring, construction and car races with their friends.

On Mondays we always start with a big morning circle inviting all three EY classes into Room 4 and sing together. 

This morning circle is a valuable time to let the children talk about their weekend or special events with their family and for the teachers to make important announcements. At present we are also practicing for our Oktoberfest dance, but psst..this is a little secret. 

During the whole week, the Pre-Kindergarten children have plenty of opportunity to play, interact, learn and challenge themselves to new games, songs and activities with their friends.

On Monday and Tuesday the Pre-Kindergarten class enjoys music lessons with K1 which are led by Ms.Azusa who is a very experienced teacher and always integrates fun movements  and instruments to get the children interested in music.

On Wednesdays, the children visit the library with K1 to borrow a new book to take home. The children are very proud to choose their own book to read with their parents and I am very appreciative of the support the parents give in helping the children learn to love books. The Pre-Kindergarten classroom also boasts a large variety of books and it is well known that I am a big fan of reading and always try to nourish interest for books in the children as well.

As I am teaching Playgroup on Thursdays and have the joy of welcoming new friends into our school community, the Pre-Kindergarten children join additional activities with K1 on that day. This week it was a fun experiment combining the unit of seasons and our subject of colours where the children could paint on an icecream cone printout with colourful icecubes.

The children watched in awe as the ice started to melt leaving colour trails. An enjoyable activity and also STEM !

Fridays are especially active as the Pre-KG and K1 children have an interesting P.E. lesson with Mr.Brabant ! At present the lessons take place in the MPR due to the heat outside and this week provided lots of movement during a stop-and-go dance game where the children had to stop on circles and identify the colour. What a great way to learn more about colours during sports time!

Every other Friday, Mr.Lubin will be on board teaching one of his engaging art lessons, where the children get to create with different media and are always excited about the results.

This week though there was another lovely collaboration between Pre-KG and K1 when the children enjoyed a treat of kakigori. Kakigori is shaved ice with a topping , usually syrup, but in our case healthy mango and peach juices. As K1 is learning about seasons and hot / cold, they froze some water and Ms.Miho showed them how to shave the ice. Every child got a spoon in a different colour and then it was time to enjoy ! The happy faces and shouts of "more, more" said it all. Nice waiting your turn, little friends !

All these special times enhance our well-rounded curriculum where the children have plenty of time to discover, try again, become confident and make new friends in the progress.

We are looking forward to more discoveries next week !

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 2026/ 27 Blog 2 The shape of our Pre-Kindergarten class / Tuning right into STEM

 Pre-KG 2026/ 27 Blog 2

The shape of our Pre-Kindergarten class / Tuning right into STEM

This week was the first full week back at school after the summer holidays !

Everyone is settling nicely into the routines again or is learning them anew along with their friends.

It was heartwarming to see how gently the older children helped the younger and newer children navigate around classrooms and different settings.

We also had a new friend join our Pre-Kindergarten class. A heartfelt welcome to little Lina and her family, we are so happy to have you with us !

This school year our DSKI mission statement will center around STEM activities and there are plenty of ways for our youngest learners to get involved and make interesting discoveries. 

The acronym STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths and is an umbrella term and teaching approach that groups these four related technical fields together.

You may think - wow, and two and three year old children can do that ? Yes, they certainly can and there are many activities that fall under the description of STEM.

So this week the Pre-Kindergarten children started their explorations by playing with the various rollercoaster toys in our class, where they let objects run along tracks or move them a certain way, hence learning concepts like gravity, momentum and acceleration. 

They also used different sizes of balls and various amounts of cars, stacked on each other to solve a physical challenge.

It was fascinating to witness how concentrated the children tried and learnt through trial and error and how much fun they had in the process.

In our first unit of "Colours and Shapes" obviously shapes play a big role and after fitting three shapes into a sorter, which needs good spatial awareness, the children used the shapes for making prints in playdough. 

They also enjoyed a cards to board shape matching activity where they needed to not only find the right shape, but the one in the correct colour.

An additional activity this week was gluing colourful squares onto a big rectangle which required good fine motor skills and eye to hand coordination.

The Pre-Kindergarten children all did an amazing job with these STEM activities and showed concentration, creativity and curiosity throughout the week.

Bravo, dear Pre-Kindergarten class!

Observing our bright inquirers, I feel that this will be a fabulous school year !

I am looking forward to seeing you all tonight at our DSKI school presentations by the PTA and School Board and then back in the classroom for our parents meeting !

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 2026/ 27 Blog 1 Welcome to the Pre–Kindergarten / Willkommen im Pre–Kindergarten 2026/27

 Pre-KG 2026/ 27 Blog 1 

Welcome to the Pre–Kindergarten / Willkommen im Pre–Kindergarten! 

A big welcome and Herzlich Willkommen to all of our Pre–Kindergarten families in the school year 2026/27! 

I hope you all had a fantastic and relaxing summer vacation.

It was wonderful to be back at school and greet all our families at DSKI and in EY including Pre-Kindergarten!

I am honored and very happy to be the Pre–Kindergarten homeroom teacher again this school year as well as the Playgroup, EY GFL / German teacher and one of the German Saturday School teachers.

In the Pre–Kindergarten classroom I will first have the wonderful support of Ms.Harumi and later again of Ms.Nini and the rest of our fabulous and experienced EY team and specialists. 

I would like to welcome Ms.Julia as the new K2 homeroom teacher and EY coordinator and Mr.Lukas as the EY German support.

This year again there will be many shared moments throughout all of the EY classes, especially during Monday morning circle and outside discovery time, but also a stronger collaboration between Pre-Kindergarten and K1 including shared specialist classes like P.E., Library, Music and Art. Ms.Miho and Ms.Kotomi will be the K1 classroom teachers and all the children are already familiar with them!

Pre–Kindergarten class started with welcoming back two of our previous students and having a new friend join from Playgroup ! 

A heartfelt welcome to little Geoffery and his family, we are thrilled to have you with us!

The children seemed to be very happy to be back at school and enjoyed an exciting day with all their friends from EY. They even had their first P.E. lesson with Mr.Brabant who incorporated a fun game using colourful balloons.

As our first unit will focus on "Colour and Shapes", the children enjoyed first matching activities and the exploration of their own classroom and the K1 classroom.

It really was a fabulous and smooth start into the new school year!

The German language will also play a big part of the EY curriculum, therefore I will include some vocabulary and many songs as well as cultural activities which have always proved very popular with the children in the past.

Our first big event will be the Oktoberfest !

Nochmals ein herzliches Willkommen an alle unsere Schulfamilien an der DSKI! 

Ich freue mich auch in diesem Schuljahr wieder die Klassenlehrerin im Pre–Kindergarten zu sein und auch das Deutsch Programm im gesamten Kindergarten zu leiten.

Wir bieten ein vielfältiges Programm in einer sicheren und ansprechenden Umgebung und viele Impulse für all unsere Kinder um zu spielen, entdecken, lernen und glückliche Tage zu verbringen.

I am looking forward to an exciting, fun–filled and happy school year with many new discoveries! 

Yours sincerely, 

Anita Ursula Mönch

DSKI Pre-Kindergarten homeroom teacher 

Playgroup / EY GFL & Deutsch

German Saturday School homeroom teacher

Pre-KG 2025/ 26 Blog 34 Extended Family, Body Control and Summer Holidays !

 Pre-KG 2025/ 26 Blog 34

Extended Family, Body Control and Happy Summer Holidays !

The Pre-Kindergarten class enjoyed a whirlwind of activities with friends and family right until the end of the school year !

The week started with a fabulous yoga session supported by the Indian Consulate and what a meaningful exercise time the Pre-Kindergarten children had with their friends from K1!

The lovely yoga teacher adjusted the movements to this very young age group and the children participated with concentration and joy ! Thank you so much for this opportunity !

Right afterwards we celebrated a birthday in class, with Kasane turning 3 years old. Her mother had baked a delicious sugar free banana cake which we all enjoyed, especially after the yoga session.

Happy, happy 3.birthday, dear Kasane-chan and thank you very much to her mum for the nice treat.

Later in the day, the Pre-Kindergarten children visited the K2 classroom art exhibition again and they really loved the garden of friendship.

Throughout the week, the children continued role playing with the dolls, did stretching exercises with Ms.Nini and talked exitedly about their classroom board where art work and photos of their families could be seen.

The children also happily packed their handmade gifts for their fathers (coasters with chosen recycled bottle caps) which they had made secretly and would present to their dads on the upcoming Father's Day.

This was also the week for the graduation of our Grade 6 students, final German lessons with K2 before they move upstairs to Pre-school 

.....and emotional farewells for teachers and friends who are moving away.

I get very teary during these occasions as many of the children already started in Pre-Kindergarten and now have become bigger and very independent students.

Then the final goodbye of the week was to my own Pre-Kindergarten class and looking at the children I am always in awe about how much progress they have made.

The best part of my job as a Pre-Kindergarten teacher is to witness the growth of these little children, not only physically, but emotionally and socially. The children are caring, confident and communicative and it is a great joy to see what nice friends they have made, also with their classmates from K1 and K2.

A lot of friendships at our school are formed as early as in Playgroup or in Pre-Kindergarten and my biggest wish is that you will always have the support of this wonderful extended family that includes the teachers !

A big thank you to my amazing Pre-Kindergarten team of Ms.Nini and Ms.Kotomi and the whole EY team for all their dedication to the class and their big smiles every day.

And my heartfelt gratitude goes to the parents of this Pre-Kindergarten class 2025/26 who did not have an official PTA representative and all have continuously helped me throughout the year with encouragement and kindness.❤

I truly appreciate everyone of you and this wonderful school year would not have been the same without your unwavering support. 

Vielen herzlichen Dank fuer Ihre Hilfe und Freundlichkeit waehrend dieses Schuljahres. Ich weiss Ihre Unterstuetzung sehr zu schaetzen. ❤

I wish you a fantastic summer break, full of love and laughter with your families and I am looking forward to seeing you all back next school year !

With kind regards, mit freundlichen Grüßen, 

Anita Ursula Mönch

DSKI Pre-Kindergarten homeroom teacher 

Playgroup / EY GFL & Deutsch      

German Saturday School homeroom teacher