Pre-KG 2026/ 27 Blog 7 / K1 Collaborative learning - Colours & Transport

 Pre-KG 2026/ 27 Blog 7 / K1 

Collaborative learning - Colours & Transport

The week after our big, fun and very successful Oktoberfest started on Tuesday and highlighted the ongoing and wonderful collaboration of Pre-kindergarten and K1 by combining their subjects in a lot of interesting activities.

As all the children are learning the colours in English as well as German, we started by repeating these with some search games including finding a car in a certain colour. 

The children had so much fun looking for the right car and were very proud when they got it.

It is always amazing to see how fast children pick up another language, so for the parents to not fall behind, here is a quick language game you can do at home to improve your German.

Oh, and "was fehlt" means "what is missing", so you have to guess the missing colour.

Deutsch lernen - Farben

The children continued their learning by connecting a certain colour car (rot) with the same colour garage (auch rot) and again they did a great job.

They also listened and sang along to one of their favourite German songs called "Papas rotes Auto" which teaches colours and has a story to each car which is also interesting for our native speakers.

Papas rotes Auto

On Wednesday the children did a transportation themed puzzle challenge and showed a great concentration span. We have some keen puzzlers who can complete puzzles with a lot of pieces !

Another activity was stringing little wooden vehicles and traffic signs which also improves concentration and fine motor skills. 

Here again the children strung with patience and were happy about their long chain of transportation.

Imaginary play is always included and we had children pretending to go on trains, planes and ships. Two friends boarded the big ship aka the wooden house and waved goodbye from the deck ! See you there !

In every kindergarten program there should be a lot of movement and on top of our usual outside time we did a roller race. This was the first step to practice for a race on sports day by implementing easy rules like driving around obstacles and of course, taking turns. 

The game went really well and the children stayed in their attributed group and used the scooter which might have not been in their favourite colour. Good job, everyone!

Reading books about a new subject always helps children to understand more of the matter, expands vocabulary and gives opportunity for comments and questions.

Easy worksheets with colourful images and the task to connect also enhance interest and language skills.

After learning so many new things, it was time again for more Sports Day practice, this time in groups and team colours ! There will be an orange team and a green team and the children wore their jerseys without fussing. 

They then raced along the school's hallway on their mini Benz cars up to Ms.Anita, gave a high five and then raced back to their team mates !

 In between Ms.Anita was able to take some cool pictures! Bravo, Pre-Kindergarten and K1 children for taking turns and showing off your gross motor skills ! Those cars were fast ! 

On Thursday afternoon the children also went on a transport search finding many different types in the school's vincinity and ticked them off the chart that Ms.Hanna had provided.

And finally, on Friday, the children practiced another race in their P.E. lesson, this time on the big yard !

Everyone really tried their best and we witnessed some amazing collaboration. 

Well done, Pre-Kindergarten and K1 children, we are always happy and proud to witness your friendship and helpful attitude to each other.

Special thanks this week go to Ms.Hanna who substituted for Ms.Miho and brought a lot of creativity, enthusiasm and cheerfulness into the classrooms.

And a big thank you from all of us to Ms.Harumi who helped guiding the children through their first weeks of school with lots of care. Ms.Harumi is needed upstairs in Grade 1, so she will leave EY, but we are always looking forward to her coming back and saying hello !

To round up a fantastic week, the children challenged themselves to even more learning about transportation in German.

Fahrzeuge auf Deutsch

Please enjoy acquiring new vocabulary with your child in a stimulating way !

Viel Spass beim Lernen der Namen für die verschiedenen Fahrzeuge auf Deutsch !

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 6 DSKI Oktoberfest and Sweet potatoes !

 Pre-KG 2026/ 27 Blog 6

DSKI Oktoberfest and Sweet potatoes !

We really can feel that autumn has arrived as there are many celebrations in Germany and Japan at this time as well as a bounty of delicious food.

While we mainly associate autumn (Herbst) with apples, pears, chestnuts and pumpkins in Germany and other countries around the world, persimmons, grapes and sweet potatoes are very delicious in Japan.

Luckily we have a little field on Rokko Island near the school where the children can plant tulip bulbs that will bloom in spring and sweet potatoes that get harvested in autumn. It is a wonderful way to learn about seasons, life cycles and get involved in the community.

So this week all of the EY children were very excited to go to the field in order to harvest the potatoes. 

The smallest children from Pre-Kindergarten showed their strength and pulled the (not very heavy) cart containing the shovels. 

Then they dug and pulled with all their friends from EY and every potato was greeted with a big cheer whether small or very big.

It was a nice collaboration between all of the EY children and after letting the potatoes "rest" for a while, we will cook something delicious with them.

Back in the classroom the children already started the cooking in our roleplay corner kitchen and they came up with a lot of delicious looking dishes. Nice teamwork with the chefs from Pre-Kindergarten and K1.

Then the Pre-Kindergarten children made their own sweet potatoes using newspaper and purple construction paper and compared them to the real ones. They also practiced putting them into the oven! But on the cooking day of course this will be done by the teachers !

This week was also the final week preparing for our DSKI Oktoberfest. This is a traditional festival from Germany which actually was a wedding celebration of a prince and a princess and has become one of the biggest and most well known festivals around the world.

Please find some detailed info in this link.

Oktoberfest

The Oktoberfest involves a lot of dancing, so the children practiced a cheerful song called "Fliegerlied" first inside the rooms, then in the hallway and finally outside on the ground.

Everyone participated cheerfully and is ready to present their dancing and singing to their parents and visitors at the Oktoberfest.

Please dance along with your child at home, everyone knows the right movements quite well. Bravo for so much engagement !

Fliegerlied

We also watched a short video clip by Andrea Thionville depicting the Oktoberfest in child friendly images and using easy German language. The EY children were fascinated by the Oktoberfest clip and especially liked the food and clothing. 

Oktoberfest für Kinder

K2 and K1 made cardboard and Playdough Brezel with me in German class and all the EY children coloured their own versions of the traditional German clothing, called "Dirndl" and "Lederhose" and we displayed their beautiful paintings on the big entrance board. There was a lot of praise from the parents working on the decorations, so I am sure the art work will enchant all our visitors.

To make the display board even more pretty and to work on their fine motor skills, the Pre-Kindergarten children made some garlands out of recycled blue and white wrapping paper. They worked very diligently and were very proud of their results.

What a great week of collaboration, dancing and decoration in anticipation of our big Oktoberfest festival !

We are ready, so please come and join us !

Wir wünschen allen Familien eine gute Zeit, guten Appetit und viel Spass auf dem DSKI Oktoberfest !

With kind regards, 

mit freundlichen Grüßen, 

Anita Ursula Mönch

DSKI Pre-Kindergarten homeroom teacher 

Playgroup / EY GFL & Deutsch      

German Saturday School homeroom teacher