Pre-KG 2024/ 25 Blog 6 Kunstform Druck/ Printmaking as Art

Pre-KG 2024/ 25 Blog 6

Kunstform Druck / Printmaking as Art

Wenn man das Wort „Drucken“ hört, kommen einem verschiedene Dinge in den Kopf….vom Kartoffeldruck im Kindergarten bis zur Erfindung von Herrn Gutenbergs berühmter Druckerpresse. 

Gutenberg printing press

Drucken ist eine der ältesten Kunstformen und unser Gastland Japan erlebte eine richtige Blütezeit in der Edo Zeit (1600– 1868) als ihre weltbekannten Ukiyoe Holzdrucke kreiert wurden, denn wer kennt nicht Hokusai’s „Große Welle von Kanagawa“, die mittlerweile auch auf T–Shirts und Tassen zu bewundern ist. 

Genug Gründe die Pre–Kindergarten Kinder in der derzeitigen Lehreinheit über Farben und Formen ein bisschen mit Drucken experimentieren zu lassen.

Angefangen von Druck mit Plastikformen,Tüten,  Luftpolsterfolie bis zu Schwämmen konnten die Kinder tolle, neue Erfahrungen sammeln und sie hatten viel Spaß dabei ! 

Different images come to mind when we hear the word „print“ , from childhood memories when printing with potatoes to the invention of Mr. Gutenberg‘s famous printing press. 

Kartoffeldruck

Printing is one of the oldest forms of expression in art and our host country Japan experienced a real heyday in the Edo period ( 1600 – 1868) when their world famous woodblock prints, Ukiyoe, were created and who does not know the „Big Wave of Kanagawa“ by Hokusai which meanwhile can be enjoyed on T–shirts and cups as well. 

Reason enough to have the Pre–Kindergarten children experiment a little with print in their current unit about colours and shapes.

Starting with printing by using different plastic shapes, over printing with bags and bubble wrap to using sponges, the children could make many new experiences with a variety of media and in different locations and they had a lot of fun doing so. 

At first there was a bit of reluctance, then a lot of wonder at seeing a printed image, then there was joy at looking at their creations and the overall picture of what became pieces of original art.

Printing is an activity that can easily be done at home with anything available. You need to  buy child safe colours and be prepared for a mess, as the children tend to joyfully continue to print on the floor, their aprons and maybe the walls. There is always the option of printing with just water as mentioned in my previous blog. Also please note that not every child enjoys touching paint or needs a bit of time, so you might model the activity and let your child observe.

In the meanwhile please enjoy the picture gallery of our fabulous printing activities! 

Plastic shapes to print a colourful art image 

     Location: Pre–Kindergarten classroom 

Bubble wrap & glitter for „Under the sea“ image 

     Location: Deck in the vehicle area

Plastic bags tied in flower shape to create a German flag image in black, red and yellow 

     Location: New deck in front of MPR

Diamond shape sponges to make the Bavarian flag ( white and light blue ) for Oktoberfest 

     Location: STEM room 

The Pre–Kindergarten did a great job creating various prints and in between enjoyed playing with different friends in the outdoor areas and in the classroom during German Kindergarten.

Here is a little clip to enjoy with images and vocabulary about the Oktoberfest which will be held on our DSKI school grounds next Saturday, 5th October 2024 from 10am.

Please come and bring family and friends along ! 

Oktoberfest

Have a lovely and creative weekend ! 

With kind regards, mit herzlichen Grüßen, 

Anita Ursula Mönch 

DSKI Pre-Kindergarten homeroom teacher Playgroup / EY Deutsch & German

German Saturday School homeroom teacher

Pre-KG 2024/ 25 Blog 5 Making connections

Pre-KG 2024/ 25 Blog  5

Making connections

The PYP consists of 8 key concepts, namely : Form, Function, Causation, Change, Connection, Perspective, Responsibility and Reflection.

In their first unit „How we express ourselves“,  the Pre–Kindergarten children explore colours and shapes under the key concepts of Form, Change and Perspective as they learn the different names of colours and shapes, create with them and have their own opinion of dislikes and preferences. 

While we have chosen 3 related concepts, there are dozen of other ones that are relevant to our unit and one of them is connection. 

P.E., Music, German and Library time are embedded in our curriculum and the Pre–Kindergarten children have plenty of opportunities to expand their knowledge by connecting their unit subjects to these specialist lessons. 

They run to match colourful balls to rings and are exercising their body as well as their recognition skills during P.E. lessons.

During music time they explore a variety of musical instruments and learn how to drive a car fast and slow while holding a circle shaped wheel.

Lots of activities including dancing and colouring are used to make connections to German fun and easy to remember the language.

Körperteilblues

We also encourage reading and nourish love for books, so the children not only enjoy looking at a variety of books and being read to, but they also happily take home their library book on Mondays to read with their parents and siblings.

Connection further means connecting to their classmates in Pre–Kindergarten and K1and K2.

While many children are at ease doing their own thing, it is sometimes challenging to cooperate with a friend, but the children are learning and showing that they are starting to understand what it means to be a caring friend, to solve a conflict ( another related concept) peacefully, to take turns, to share, to construct with shape magnets together or to build a wall with colourful lego to make a bowling lane ! 

As they are growing together on this journey, they are ready for some collaborative art which also will make a connection to our upcoming Oktoberfest.

Please stay tuned for our new adventures. And please stay connected ! 

With kind regards, 

Mit herzlichen Grüßen, 

Anita Ursula Mönch 

DSKI Pre-Kindergarten homeroom teacher 

Playgroup / EY Deutsch & German

German Saturday School homeroom teacher

Pre-KG 2024/ 25 Blog 4 Water play

 Pre-KG 2024/ 25 Blog  4

Water play 

In Pre–Kindergarten this week‘s learning about colours and shapes was all connected with water play. 

Before going into details here are some numbers as food for thought: 

500 –100– 97– 75 –71– 60–15– 3–1.2

What do these numbers mean ? 

500 liters or more is the average water consumption per person per day in the USA.

100 liters is the average water consumption per person per day in Europe.

97% of the water that covers the earth is in oceans, hence it is salty.

75% of a newborn baby‘s body consists of water.

71% of the earth‘s surface is water. 

60% ( about) of an adult‘s body consists of water. 

15 liters or less is the average water consumption per person per day in some African countries.

3 days is the amount of days a human can survive without water.

1.2 % only of the water on earth can be used as drinking water.

So, we all can see that water is necessary to nurture life on earth and that it is a precious resource. 

With that in mind, we also know that water is one of the most soothing and fun things to play in and with. Who does not remember happy days with the family by the ocean, river, lake and in the pool or splashing around in the bathtub or in puddles ? 

We started the week by exploring water as a printing material by wetting shape cubes to print on the magic mats that are available in Japan.

The children tried the effect of the mats changing colours again on another day by using their hands for printing.

As the warm days linger on we took the opportunity to incorporate our learning into fun water play. The Pre–Kindergarten children joyfully splashed in the green turtle pools and poured water into colourful shape containers and bottles. They practiced pouring and using a funnel which required some concentration and good eye to hand coordination.

Throughout the week the Pre–Kindergarten children welcomed many friends from K1and K2 into the classroom and started to expand on their German language knowledge together. We also did some colouring of German traditional clothing to make unique collages for the upcoming Oktoberfest.

Während der ganzen Woche besuchten wieder viele Freunde von K1und K2 unsere Pre–Kindergarten Klasse und sprachen viel Deutsch, lernten neues Vokabular und malten Bilder aus, die wir dann am Oktoberfest dekorieren werden. 

Um das Medium Wasser für weiteres Lernen zu benutzen, machten wir einige Experimente mit Farben, wobei die Kinder wieder gute Konzentration und Auge– Hand Koordination  zeigten.

To use water as a learning tool, we expanded on the water play by doing some small science experiments. I showed the children how water changes colour by adding food colour and they were really fascinated. The children then again poured and measured water into different containers and bottles and in the end they started to mix the colours to create new ones. These are not only interesting and fun , but also STEM activities for the children and enhance their skills in exploring math.

As repetition is the key to success and the warm weather really makes for great water play,  we repeated some of the activities and were amazed how good the children became at pouring water into even small water bottle openings. Great learning, Pre–Kindergarten! 

Last, not least , the Pre–Kindergarten connected to the wider community by saying goodbye to the TOHO staff with a handmade card and a box of candies. Many EY children have visited TOHO supermarket with their parents or grandparents to buy food, a treat or a cold drink. When we interviewed our class and K1 they were very keen to drop by the shop with their teachers for a last time to say farewell and the staff at TOHO was very touched by our gesture.

Otsukaresama deshita, dear TOHO staff ! 

And great job, EY friends in showing once again your caring side ! 

As next week there is an national holiday on Monday, 16.September 2024 , I wish you a fantastic, relaxing, extended weekend. 

With kind regards, 

Mit herzlichen Grüßen, 

Anita Ursula Mönch 

DSKI Pre-Kindergarten homeroom teacher 

Playgroup / EY Deutsch & German

German Saturday School homeroom teacher