Pre-KG 2023 / 24 Blog 35 Family, Friends and Body Movement

Pre-KG 2023 / 24 Blog 35 

Family, Friends and Body Movement 

This week Pre–Kindergarten was really busy again with lots of visitors to the classroom which provided the perfect opportunity to showcase how principled the Pre–Kindergarten class is and how good friends the children have become. 

The children were quite unfazed by the amount of people entering the classroom and they all stayed on task and tuned in, especially during morning circle where they concentrated well and showed amazing knowledge identifying names and circle time icons, talking about breakfast and helping each other.

I am really proud of you, dear Pre–Kindergarten class! 

The children also all have started to understand some easy German phrases and now most of them want the greeting song to be sung in German. 

Guten Morgen, für dich, guten Morgen, für dich, guten Morgen, liebe(r) ….., guten Morgen für dich ! Wie geht es dir? …..Gut ! 

Die Pre–Kindergarten Kinder haben große Geduld gezeigt bei den vielen Besuchern, die wir letzte Woche hatten und haben souverän ihr Programm und ihre Routinen durchgezogen. Ich bin sehr stolz auf euch, meine liebe Klasse ! 

We deepened the learning about our subjects, by talking about the family members, colouring a little worksheet and building Lego families.

The children had fun showing each other their families and there were some big families with lots of friends! 

They also really enjoy reading books with their teachers that feature a variety of families like the one of Dora, the Explorer with her friend Boots or the Little Critters.  

Dora‘s Backpack

We further encouraged the children to build some homes for their families and there was an eyecatching high tower, almost reaching the ceiling which was initiated by master builder Noah.

A rainy day ( it was really pouring ! ) provided a great chance for our Open Kindergarten concept where siblings ( family) and friends ( like family) from K1 and K2 joined Pre–Kindergarten in their Lego construction projects, having lots of fun together. 

That day the children also moved their body on the interesting obstacles course designed by Mr.JP and showed that climbing, navigating through tunnels and kicking balls was really something they take to.

All these skills and different muscles were put to good use on another day when we finally visited the „Blue Park“ again which boasts different slides and exercising equipment.

Ihr seid alle sehr sportlich,liebe Pre–KG Kinder !

We also enjoyed a yummy vegetable snack under the green trees ! 

A hands–on approach was needed when painting parts of our classroom caterpillar or printing a row of rainbow flowers.

Paint on hands and printing in the sunshine sounds like lots of fun, but some children prefer just watching their friends. That’s ok, everyone has different likes and dislikes. 

Our colourful flower carpet will be displayed at the entrance to our Pre–Kindergarten room. Please have a look at it when you come in, now or for the SLCs (Student Led Conferences). 

Your child will proudly show you some of his / her learning at the time suitable for you. I will be happy to accommodate your wishes and let you have some valuable time with your child.

Lastly, I would like to introduce some of our little Playgroup children who are making lot of discoveries and are having a wonderful playtime together on Thursdays. Some of them will join us next school year and surely make good friends with the current Pre–Kindergarten class.

Willkommen in unserem tollen Pre–Kindergarten Klassenzimmer ! 

Ich wünsche allen ein schönes und sonniges Wochenende ! 

With kind regards, 

Mit herzlichen Grüßen, 

Anita Ursula Mönch

Pre–Kindergarten homeroom teacher

Playgroup / EY German 

German Saturday School homeroom teacher

Pre-KG 2023 / 24 Blog 34 Brown Bear and the charming paintings of Mr. Nizo Yamamoto

 Pre-KG 2023 / 24 Blog 34

Brown Bear and the charming paintings of Mr. Nizo Yamamoto

The beloved book „Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what do you see ?“ by Eric Carle shows in the title the verb „see“ which relates to the last of the five senses which we were talking about in Pre–Kindergarten: the sense of „sight“.

For many people a world without sight is hard to imagine as we love to see the smiles of our loved ones, the colours of the rainbow, the red of strawberries and the green of nature. 

Not to forget looking at pictures, reading a good book, or these days, besides watching TV looking at an IPhone, a tablet or a computer.

The Pre–Kindergarten children enjoy seeing their friends at school every day, playing with a variety of colorful objects or using their favorite colours to create art.

Many Early Childhood books teach children about colours and „Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what do you see“ is one of them. 

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See ?

And while it features animals with colours that can be found in nature, this book also plays on the imagination by showing a blue horse and a purple cat. At the end of the book everyone is looking at the teacher and the children in class. The Pre–Kindergarten children love the book, often finding themselves in the class group picture at the end. 

So besides reading the book, we watched it rhythmically rendered and matched felt pieces and magnets to the book.  

On another day during P.E. the children had the chance to choose a colourful bench where they could sit on with their friend and have good laughs with each other or try for high jumps. 

Art is a wonderful way to encourage children to express themselves, it develops fine motor skills, patience, self esteem, collaboration and last, not least, communication skills.

Children love to create, but they are also curious and keen to talk about what they see. That is one of the reasons I love to take them to the fabulous Kobe Fashion Museum.

To make the Pre–Kindergarten children understand and see what can be created from a blank canvas, I showed them a white paper and slowly coloured it with water colors. 

The children then eagerly created their own pieces, using bold strokes, fine lines, lots of water, little water, vibrant colors, subdued shades…..each to their likening and with a big „aha“ in the end.

Building on this creative experience we went on a little excursion to the Fashion Museum to marvel at the charming and skillful paintings of Mr. Nizo Yamamoto who hand–painted many of the films by Ghibli which transfer us into an enchanted world. 

The children all took away their individual impressions and looked spellbound during a little movie which showed Mr. Yamamoto transforming a white paper into beautiful clouds.

What a fascinating sight and a successful visit ! 

On Friday we looked at different „I spy“ books, which require keen sight in order to spot all the items hidden in the pictures.

The children did a great job finding every item and as they had so much fun, some wanted to borrow one book of the series to take home. Please enjoy the book together! 

We finished a creative and insightful week with exciting games like blowing colourful bubbles or balloons and watching them float into the sky.

Wishing you a joyful weekend ! 

With kind regards, 

Mit herzlichen Grüßen, 

Anita Ursula Mönch

Pre–Kindergarten homeroom teacher

Playgroup / EY German 

German Saturday School homeroom teacher

Pre-KG 2023 / 24 Blog 33 Sound and Touch

Pre-KG 2023 / 24 Blog 33

Sound and Touch 

After having made discoveries about the senses of taste and smell last week, the Pre–Kindergarten children this week concentrated on learning more about the senses of sound and touch. 

On Monday the children always have a music lesson with Ms. Azusa and besides singing, they enjoy using a variety of musical instruments and learning about different sounds. This week Ms. Azusa taught the children that the white keys on the keyboard are full notes and sound different from the black keys which represent flat and sharp notes. The children listened attentively and showed great interest in pressing various keys. 

The next day the children took out the roller coaster toys and discovered that all of them make different sounds. The wooden balls roll down the slide very noisily, but the wooden cars are much more quiet. 

In circle time we then used some household materials for sound and touch experiments. 

A newspaper feels a hard, but paper is quiet. When crumpling it up, it becomes noisy, but also feels more supple. Empty bottles and empty ball shape containers do not make a sound, but they do when the children squeezed them or put something inside to use them like shakers. 

Water is also quiet, but makes a splashy noise when poured from a bottle into a bucket or shaken in a bottle. 

Throughout the week the children made many new discoveries, touched various materials, put them into bottles and containers, listened to the sound or explored how they felt.  

We talked about the difference of a soft and a hard material and the children held one in each hand, but when doing an easy game it became clear that it was a little difficult for some children to grasp the idea.

Once everyone understood, the children made a little piece of art with an individually coloured background. 

Diese Woche haben die Pre–Kindergarten Kinder etwas mehr über zwei weitere Sinne, den Hörsinn und den Tastsinn erforscht und dazu einige Experimente gemacht. Mit viel Freude haben sie verschiedenen Tönen und Geräuschen gelauscht, eine Vielzahl von Materialien angefasst und mit einem weichen und einem harten Material ein kleines Kunstwerk gebastelt. 

Playdough is always a fantastic material for sensory experiences and to let one’s creative ideas flow. No wonder the Pre–Kindergarten children love it so much and all of them declared it to feel „good / gut“ to the touch.

There was a little discussion about whether it feels hard or soft, I guess it depends on the room temperature and the warmth of your hands. 

The children had lots of fun and really admired Mr.Jean Philippe‘s artistic rendering of a Playdough head and face. Bravo! 

For more sensory experiences we braved a windy day feeling the breeze on our faces and in the hair and listen to the water rushing in the Rokko Island canals. 

The rail at the stairs along our emergency route was a bit cool to the touch, but it is necessary to grip it to bring us speedily and safely to our assembly point.

After some windy and rainy days, the Pre–Kindergarten children were greeted again by bright sunshine on Friday which enabled us to have some much anticipated water and sand play.

We talked again about the soundless empty bottles, then listened to water being shaken in one of them and afterwards the children proceeded to more outdoors discoveries with sand, water, sound and touch.

The Pre–Kindergarten children joyfully invited their friends from K1 and K2 to their play and everyone had a wonderful time. 

As the weather gets warmer, there will be more water play, so please bear with the muddy and wet clothes of your very happy children.

Please enjoy similar experiences and lots of fun with your child this weekend. 

With kind regards, 

Mit herzlichen Grüßen, 

Anita Ursula Mönch

Pre–Kindergarten homeroom teacher

Playgroup / EY German 

German Saturday School homeroom teacher