Pre-KG 2021/ 22 Blog 14 Lights on and move along !

Pre-KG 2021/ 22 Blog 14   

Lights on and move along !

This week our school and therefore also Pre-Kindergarten wrapped up their first unit, an exploration into “Colours and Shapes” .

As learning never ends and inquiry is aways ongoing , this does not mean the end of discoveries, but we take a pause and reflect on our learning.

The Pre-Kindergarten children started the school year with having some idea of the subjects, but knowledge varied vastly depending on the child.

Together the children started their journey of learning more about colours and shapes, first doing various art projects like gluing shapes, printing with sponges and stamps, using finger paints, chalks and crayons.  

After a while it showed that the children’s interest was more in using physical props for discovery, so they engaged a lot in building towers with colour blocks or legos, made beautiful colour pin and wood parts pictures, enjoyed a variety of shape puzzles and used natural materials to create patterns.

This week on Monday when Pre-KG started their reflection, the children collected some of their favourite toys to create a shape and colour wonderland on a mat. 

They revisited all the props and talked about what they liked and what they had learned. One of our children said that they had also learnt about colours through crayons!

On Tuesday the children shared their wonderland with Open Day visitors and families and created rainbows on their pin boards. Suzu's sister was very excited about the beautiful rainbow art she made!

On Wednesday the children decorated their favourite shape in their favourite colour and hung up the finished ornaments on the Christmas tree in the hallway where we were lucky to meet also Aiki's sister.

On Thursday the children made colourful bentos with our food props. then they attended the “Christmas tree light up ceremony” with our principal, Mr.Inman. After listening to beautiful music performances by friends from other classes, Pre-KG children received a handmade advent calendar from the PTA. 

Thank you so much for this heartwarming gesture !

On Friday the children revised some of their learning in P.E.

They then looked at their previous art work and brought some of their tools together. Everyone could choose their favourite art project and the children were now very eager to create it again. When talking to the children it became clear that they not only had enjoyed their learning journey, but have indeed gained some new knowledge. 

In German when we understand something, we say “Jetzt geht mir ein Licht auf”, meaning “Now I got it”!

So together with the beautifully lit Christmas tree, the Pre-Kindergarten children show that they are bright lights !

Shine on and move along, Pre-Kindergarten !

Yours, 

Anita Ursula Mönch

DSKI Pre-Kindergarten homeroom teacher

Pre-KG 2021/ 22 Blog 13 Early Literacy in Pre-Kindergarten

Pre-KG 2021/ 22 Blog 13   

Early Literacy in Pre-Kindergarten

It is often assumed that literacy starts late in Kindergarten or even in first grade and means to teach young children how to read and write.

But actually developing language and literacy skills begins at birth with some arguing that it starts even in the womb, because babies already hear language spoken then.

In our daily interactions we and our children use language: we talk with each other, we read books together, we sing songs, we play and role play and therefore we help our children develop skills to become successful readers.

Playing on a daily basis is an essential tool for children to express themselves, discover the meaning (and power !) of words and learn how to convey their feelings and later tell stories.

(Thank you K2 and Pre-school for playing with us this week !)

Singing can be soothing or exciting, but definitely helps children to learn language in a playful and joyous way through sounding out words, repeating them, discovering new words and moving along to the songs. 

Often shy children who can not express themselves very well, love to sing !

Reading to your child should be really a daily routine as it fosters bonding, love for language and love for books.

The Pre-Kindergarten children go to the library every Monday to borrow a new book and they love it.

Please read with your child !

My own children grew up without a TV, but with lots of books and it surely fostered their imagination.

Remember that when you try to teach your child language through watching TV alone that there will be no one to answer their questions or relate to their emotions.

Printed words are all around us, so children are naturally curious about the letters.

In the Pre-Kindergarten class we use a magnet board with magnetic icons for our morning circle and all the children can pick their own name already. 

Some have started to sequence the days of the week, very naturally, very playfully and they are only 2 years old !

My motto has always been to nurture curiosity, but everyone at their pace. 

Nobody needs to get pushed, but also nobody needs to be held back.

One of our girls, Veronica, is very interested in letters, she points them out everywhere and she is very proud that she knows already many of them. 

We share her excitement, so this week the class was given additional opportunities to develop literacy: 

The Pre-Kindergarten children eagerly played with letters, matched letters, found letters on their clothing, coloured letters, looked at many books and listened to stories and their friends conversations while playing.

Fostering love for the spoken and written word and seeing the excitement of the children is a wonderful thing to behold !

Here is to the Pre-Kindergarten children becoming avid readers one day !

Yours, 

Anita Ursula Mönch

DSKI Pre-Kindergarten homeroom teacher

Pre-KG 2021/ 22 Blog 12 The spirit of St.Martin - Caring and Sharing

Pre-KG 2021/ 22 Blog 12   

The spirit of ST.MARTIN - Caring and Sharing

This week Pre-Kindergarten and the other classes at DSKI celebrated the festival of St.Martin.

The story is much beloved in Germany and many other countries and symbolizes the spirit of sharing and caring for others.

Even at a very young age children understand these values and we teachers try to nurture them by demonstrating and encouraging.

The Pre-Kindergarten children watched the story of St.Martin and sang the songs accompanying the story in German!

There are several songs like "St.Martin", "Laterne, Laterne" and "Ich geh mit meiner Laterne", and they are all very popular with the children.

Die Geschichte von St.Martin

St.Martin Lied 

Laterne, Laterne,

Ich geh' mit meiner Laterne

We then discussed how we can share and the Pre-Kindergarten children decided that they could share toys, their acorns and some stickers with K1 and K2. 

They also showed caring behaviour by helping to decorate the small and big MPR for the festival.

The Pre-Kindergarten children had a lot of fun crafting St.Martin lanterns with their teachers, carefully choosing their favourite shapes and colours for the design.

On 11.11 the Pre-Kindergarten children then walked with their friends from K1. learnt more about St.Martin, got a light for their lanterns and sang in the cozily lit MPR.

What a beautiful celebration and an important occasion to remember that kindness goes a long way!

A big thank you to our PTA at DSKI for providing delicious bread and juice to share and for my St.Martin team members - teachers Ms. Azusa, Ms.Lisa and Mr. Stefan for all their work and wonderful ideas !

And even though the Pre-Kindergarten children are still learning to share toys well, they are already sharing their classroom, their teachers Anita and David (with K1 & K2 for German classes and also for Playgroup) and their smiles and positive attitude with everyone who visits our classroom !

These little lights of mine……let them shine, let them shine, let them shine !

Yours, 

Anita Ursula Mönch

DSKI Pre-Kindergarten homeroom teacher

Pre-KG 2021/ 22 Blog 11 A colourful week - Eine bunte Woche !

Pre-KG 2021/ 22   Blog 11   

A colourful week - Eine bunte Woche !

Life in Pre-Kindergarten is always very colourful (“bunt” in German), moreover so during the recent weeks where we have been focusing on "Colours and Shapes^ in our current unit.

But not only do the children discover and learn about their subjects, each child is an individual and brings its own colour to Pre-Kindergarten, so we were all thrilled to have a new friend, Suzu, join our class.

Suzu was warmly welcomed and the now 5 Pre-Kindergarten children together explored various ways to make robots out of colourful shapes on the floor.

The children applied their knowledge of colours and shapes, chose carefully favourites and then created also amazing and very individual robots on sheets of paper.

Great job of showing your understanding of this unit, Pre-Kindergarten children!

An additional challenge was to match shapes in pairs or connect them on a worksheet.

The children managed this advanced task very well and showed even a good pencil grip. 

In the playful learning environment in our class, there is always some movement and outdoor learning involved !

Climbing from one colourful tire to another proved a bit challenging at first, but the children managed well after a while.

On Wednesday the children enjoyed the beautiful autumn weather, collected leaves, danced on the wooden deck and checked on the nearby community field where the nice lady in charge told us that she is taking care of the field and that we need to come back to plant bulbs in order to enjoy the colourful tulips in spring !

The Pre-Kindergarten children finished their busy week by parading around school holding their colourful robot pictures like lanterns, practicing for another exciting upcoming event (St.Martin next week!).

What a colourful and happy week again at Pre-Kindergarten !

Yours, 

Anita Ursula Mönch

DSKI Pre-Kindergarten homeroom teacher