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

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 performing arts corner created by the Pre-Kindergarten children 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, role play 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