Pre-KG 2022 / 23 Blog 16 Favourite Food

Pre-KG 2022 / 23 Blog 16

Favourite Food

The Pre-Kindergarten children continue their inquiry into food and this week they focussed on favourites.

The children talked about the food they like to eat most and they seem to enjoy everything from fish, meat, pizza, pasta to ice cream and cakes. Even when I asked the children about Indian food, they agreed that it tastes very yummy. The children also seem to enjoy fruit every day which is so healthy ! 

Try to sing along to our cheerful fruit song !

FRUIT SONG (The Singing Walrus Version)

On Monday we were very busy with a new trial day friend who had a very good time in Pre-KG, but we could not go outside because of the rain.

So when Mamoru said on Tuesday that he loved bananas and watermelon and Malin told us that she likes grapes, I just had to take the children on another Rokko Island Adventure. 

The Pre-Kindergarten class is known for going on many discovery walks which give the children plenty of new insights, ideas, challenges and good exercise on top of all.

As I had done a research visit to The Fashion Museum (which I love so much due to their exciting exhibitions and super friendly staff ) I knew of a wonderful wedding dress in their exhibit that has grape applications on it. 

The museum’s current theme of wedding dresses also depicts beautiful and colourful settings of Indian, Indonesian and Korean weddings.

The children were stunned by the wedding dress with grapes ( there are grapes, da sind Trauben) and found the costumes in all the scenes very beautiful. There was no Indian food displayed, but we saw some Korean tea utensils. We also decided that we should make up for the lack of Indian food on another occasion.

Our discovery walk continued and we found a noodle restaurant (Anita, Chinatsu - I am so hungry) and fresh vegetables at the Sheraton Marche Shop ( for shopping like Peppa Pig}. What a good walk and the children learned so much !

In the previous week, some of the children had done a great job colouring a worksheet with all time food and drink favourites and it featured pizza. 

So when I talked to Malin’s mother ( Mrs. Marie Vogel ), she kindly agreed to make pizza with the Pre-Kindergarten children. Yippee and Juchu !

To tune into the subject and give the children an idea about the process, we listened to / watched the song pizza party, which is a lot of fun. 

PIZZA PARTY

On Wednesday then, Malin’s mother kindly brought everything necessary including the pre-made dough which had risen nicely.

The children were gently shown through all the steps which are:

Check the dough

Part the dough into equal pieces 

Roll the dough 

Spread the tomato sauce

Sprinkle the oregano

Put salami slices 

Add some sliced champignons

Sprinkle some cheese 

And more cheese…

Put in the oven

Adjust to the right temperature and bake

Admire your freshly baked pizza

Cut in into pieces

Enjoy the fresh and warm pizza

Itadakimasu ! It is so delicious !

Thank you so much Ms.Vogel for providing all the ingredients and this wonderful opportunity for the children to learn about pizza making.

Dankeschön, es war sehr lecker!

On Thursday we had the chance for some good vocabulary building, learning new names of food ad animals, building a zoo and check on the math skills.

Friday stated with icy rain, but luckily the Pre-Kindergarten had a cozy circle time with their friends from K1 and some warm-up exercises with Ms.Miho !

The children also created some of their favourite food with playdough, which involved lots of kneeding, laughter and resulted in some quite good looking food creations.

The week showed again that children really enjoy making food, they are also keen to help with preparations and show great interest and patience during the whole process.

I hope you have the chance to make some yummy dishes with your little ones over the weekend - a good pastime especially when the weather is lousy !

Guten Appetit ! Bon Appétit ! Buon Appetito !

Yours, 

Anita Ursula Mönch

DSKI Pre-Kindergarten homeroom teacher 

Playgroup / EY German 

Pre-KG 2022 / 23 Blog 15 Making a gingerbread house and O-Sechi

Pre-KG 2022 / 23 Blog 15

Making a gingerbread house and O-Sechi 

In my last Pre-Kindergarten blog I introduced all the wonderful food the children, teachers and their families ate in the winter holidays. The Pre-KG children love looking at their pictures in the classroom and they really are a good conversation starter.

After the children created some bentos last week with their new wooden food toys, we started this week by making some of the food items with origami paper. It was quite tricky to fold those colourful squares into fish and cakes, but the children showed great patience and so did Ms.Chinatsu. Now the origami art pieces are a colourful feature on our unit wall.

On Monday, we also did an emergency drill with Pre-KG , because it is important to practice and because the following day was the 28th Anniversary of the Great Kobe Hanshin Earthquake. 

As there were quite some gingerbread cookies featured on the pictures in class, we decided on Wednesday to decorate the gingerbread house which was kindly donated by Sofia’s parents. First we had to make icing which needed some good mixing, but we have very helpful children who have also some baking skills.

The decoration consisted of sweets including chocolates and gummy bears and looked very enticing, so some self-control was required.

The gingerbread house proved a little fragile and the icing did not settle well, so we made a quick change of planning. Everyone, including our trial day visitors,  had so much fun and we ended up with big gingerbread cookies which tasted really delicious. What a treat!

The next day we looked again at O-Sechi which is so beautiful and an art in itself.

Hm, so what actually is O-Sechi?  

According to Wikipedia - 

Quote: “Osechi-ryōri (御節料理, お節料理 or おせち)  

are traditional traditional Japanese New Year foods. The tradition started in the Heian period (794–1185).Osechi are easily recognizable by their special boxes called jūbako,, which resemble bentō boxes. 

The term osechi originally referred to o-sechi, a season or significant period. New Year's Day was one of the five seasonal festivals in the Imperial Court in Kyoto. This custom of celebrating particular days was introduced from China into Japan.

Originally, during the first three days of the New Year, it was taboo to use a hearth and cook meals, except when cooking zōni. Osechi was made by the close of the previous year, as women did not cook in the New Year.

In the earliest days, osechi consisted only of nimono, boiled vegetables with soy sauce and sugar or mirin. Over the generations, the variety of food included in osechi has increased. Today it may refer to anything prepared specially for the New Year, and some foreign dishes have been adopted as "Westernized osechi". 

And while osechi was traditionally prepared at home, it is also sold ready-made in specialty stores, grocery stores, and even convenience stores. “  -End of quote

Well, O-Sechi definitely looked very appealing to our children, so we decided to make some of the food in a similar way.

On Thursday, the children went shopping at the nearby supermarket which was an adventure in itself.

The chocolates had to stay on the shelves, but carrots, beans, fish sausages etc. went into the basket as well as eggs which miraculously did not break. 

Great job, Pre-KG !

Finally, on Friday, we set our table in the Pre-Kindergarten room with all the items to make some festive food.

The children carefully cut some kamaboko (fish sausage) with a blunt knife, then used the new cookie cutters for making cute flower shape carrots and added some black beans. After this they were scrambling the eggs skilfully and seasoned them with a bit of salt and pepper.

Then we were off to the kitchen where Mr.Lubin helped to make the omelette and finally the children had all the ingredients to make their own box of O-sechi.

They did a fantastic job and were very proud of their bentos which also tasted delicious.

What a wonderful opportunity to connect unit learning at school with life at home!

Gochisousama, dear Pre-Kindergarten children (yes, they shared, they are very caring) and I can not wait for the next culinary event with our class!

Yours, 

Anita Ursula Mönch

DSKI Pre-Kindergarten homeroom teacher 

Playgroup / EY German