Pre-KG 2023 / 24 Blog 16 Frohe Weihnachten !

Pre-KG 2023 / 24 Blog 16

Frohe Weihnachten !

What a wonderful and busy week we had at Pre-Kindergarten !

There were festive decorations in the classroom and at school, there was carolling, the making of small presents and finishing the many Christmas trees for the market with a lot of glitter. 

And there was a prevailing sense of Christmas, the spirit of goodwill, friendship and generosity.

Fröhliche Weihnacht überall

We were happy to start the week with a cheerful birthday party for Yushiro who turned 3 ! 

Thank you to his parents for the delicious cupcakes and the thoughtful presents for Yushiro’s classmates.

Herzlichen Glückwunsch zum 3. Geburtstag, lieber Yushiro !

On Tuesday our Pre-Kindergarten children who attend the full time program went on an excursion to ATOA, a new facility in Kobe that combines art with an aquarium. 

As Pre-KG is ending their unit of “Colours and Shapes” and starting their new unit of “Animals and Food” this was the perfect location to bridge the learning for all the subjects.

To say the least, it was a fantastic and very enjoyable experience and time went by very fast. I recommend to visit again, maybe in the winter holidays and deepen some of the conversations with your child.

On Wednesday there was some practice for the Christmas market performance and the children crafted some bauble shape ornaments for their family.

They showed good cooperation and great communication skills when discussing patterns and choosing a favourite Anpanman character for decoration.

The next day, on Thursday, the Pre-Kindergarten children attended the assembly of grade 1 where they attentively listened to a presentation on the theme of Children of the past and present. Great job, grade 1 and we all loved your enthusiastic dancing !

Later that day, there was another event, namely the visit of Santa Claus who brought the children the thoughtful gift of a book. As we and the PTA had talked to Santa beforehand, we knew that it was a copy of one of the children’s favourites : Eric Carle’s “Papa, please get the moon for me” in English and in German. 

The children were also making last preparations for the Christmas market.

Then finally on Friday, the long awaited Christmas performance and Market arrived !

The Pre-Kindergarten children sang “Little Snowflake” together with all of EY and Lower Primary in front of a big audience and what a wonderful job they did. 

It was heartwarming to see their smiles and also the applause of the spectators. 

The Christmas market started from 10.30am and our 3 teams of PreKindergarten children were ready for their customers. the class had decorated their booth in the morning and the Christmas trees plus lollies were shining in all their beauty.

Some of our little ones turned out to be real wizards of enterprise and before the end of the day we were completely sold out. 50 handmade Christmas trees, all gone ! Bravo !

Thank for your engagement, dear children, it was a joy watching you so enthusiastic and all the siblings and many friends dropping as well. 

There were many other stalls to visit at school and lots of cheerful voices could be heard. 

Before the Christmas market, the Pre-Kindergarten children had snack in their classroom and were joined by their parents and grandparents. 

There was also a very cute group of siblings who made everyone smile !

Then the teachers were in for a big surprise !

Initiated by our fabulous PTA mothers, Mrs.Gregory and Mrs. Montalbano, the Pre-Kindergarten parents had provided some lovely gifts and some beautiful cards.

We really appreciate your kindness and thoughtfulness and would like to extend our gratitude to all our wonderful Pre-Kindergarten families.

With your support, we can be our best, so here is our big thank , ein ganz grosses Dankeschön an unsere tollen PreKindergarten Familien, mit deren Unterstützung alles etwas leichter geht.

At this stage I would also like to thank the kind parents and PTA of K1 and K2 who always include the Pre-Kindergarten teachers in their thoughts.

Last, not least a very big thank you to my colleagues at K1 and K2 and the Pre-Kindergarten team who kindly help me with all the care for our precious children.

I wish you all a splendid holiday, the blessings of the Christmas season and a good start into the new year 2024, the year of the dragon.

Allen Pre-Kindergarten Familien und allen Kollegen wünsche ich eine wunderschöne und gesegnete Weihnachtszeit sowie einen guten Rutsch in das Jahr des Drachen.

Herzlichst,

Sincerely,

Anita Ursula Mönch

DSKI Pre-Kindergarten homeroom teacher 

Playgroup / EY German 

Pre-KG 2023 / 24 Blog 15 Sankt Nikolaus and other joys of this season

Pre-KG 2023 / 24 Blog 15

Sankt Nikolaus and other joys of this season 

The second last week of school before the winter holidays again provided a lot of joyful activities.

We open the Adventkalender every day which has 24 envelopes. one for each day until Christmas and we put up the charming nativity scene (Krippe) from Haba in the classroom.

The children show great interest in it, especially in the animals and the baby Jesus. Well, many Pre-KG children just had a new brother or sister at home and they all love babies, so no wonder it is so popular. We also listened to the song “Ihr KInderlein kommet” and the children tried to find all the figures featured in the song.

Ihr Kinderlein, kommet

When asking them what animals are in the stable, the teachers were up for a big surprise, because not only were there a cow, a donkey and some sheep, but a lot of others like elephants, an eagle, a deer, ants, a whale, a grasshopper, a lion and even a flamingo. Well, who are we to judge who visited on holy night ?

The children loved the activity, so we did it several times and everyone got some good practice naming a variety of animals which will come in handy for our next unit.

As mentioned in my previous blog, this season is always one full of lovely songs and music.

So what a treat when one of our former DSKI mothers, an accomplished violinist, Ms.Chie Ishibashi came to school and gave a wonderful concert, accompanied on the piano.

The whole faculty was present in the MPR and enjoyed the beautiful music. 

In the previous week we had the pleasure to listen to a wonderful rendition of Christmas songs by Stephanie’s father, Mr.Phillip Strange.

A big thank you to all the artists! 

Music enchants and unites !

We also had a practice with all classes from Pre-Kindergarten to grade 2 for the Christmas performance. The children did really well, but please bear with them if they get a bit nervous or jump around. They are very young and really do their best !

On 5th December 2023 DSKI celebrated Sankt Nikolaus and the Pre-Kindergarten children were very lucky to receive a double treat, first from the PTA Nikolaus helpers, then from their own Nicholas in class. 

Thank you very much to the Sallstig family for their generous goodie bags ! 

As the weather is still very mild for winter, the children have many opportunities to explore during outside discovery time.

The Pre-Kindergarten children play well together and have become quite chatty as well as keen observers of nature. 

They surprise their teachers again and again by showing us their good understanding of the unit learning e.g. when creating a rainbow snake with chalk of different colours, trying to draw hearts and shapes, counting or pointing out leave shapes and spiders. 

Being so interested in nature, the children this week had the wonderful chance of going tulip bulb planting at the nearby Rokko Island field with K1 and K2.

I explained about the tulip life cycle in the morning and the Pre-Kindergarten children were very attentive and wanted to take the chart back home, together with the origami tulip shape they had folded.

We will be monitoring the growth of the tulips closely by visiting the field at intervals. It is always exciting to see the first sprouts in spring and the the beautiful tulips later on.

Here is to the steady growth of our wonderful Pre-Kindergarten children !

Have a blessed and peaceful second Advent !

Sincerely,

Anita Ursula Mönch

DSKI Pre-Kindergarten homeroom teacher 

Playgroup / EY German