Pre-KG 2024 / 25 Blog 19
Learning about animals in the forest
As the world of animals is fascinating and incredibly varied, the interest of the Pre–Kindergarten children in the unit subjects is great.
The children looked again at this year’s Zodiac animal, the snake and started to check out its habitats.
Snakes can be found in many different places, from the desert, grasslands, wet areas, mountains to jungles and forests.
Many of the snakes in our books are depicted living in trees, so the Pre–Kindergarten children decided to build a diorama for the snakes by using a recycled box and glueing some different shades of green paper into it.
We then talked about what other animals live in a forest and the children decided on a colourful picture of woodland animals which they tried to find from our boxes of animals. The children recognized the male deer, presumably because it resembles a Christmas reindeer with its antlers.
Unless you have visited a forest with your child or talked about the many animals dwelling in the woods, it is still a little difficult for the children to identify them, but as they were interested, we gave them a colouring sheet and pencils.
Yes, the children used pencils this time and the wonder of holding them and drawing with them rather than with crayons was almost as exciting as the picture itself. Everyone was checking on their friends fine motor skills !
Our treasure trove of animals of course includes farm animals as well as wild animals, so the children found different species and matched them to their puzzles, showing good recognition skills and improved vocabulary.
Ms. Priyanka also read a heartwarming story called „ How kind“ where all the farm animals help a hen get back her egg.
Kindness first and foremost in our classroom!
As the forest diorama was lacking trees, the Pre–Kindergarten children went to the nearby park aka our small forest to find sticks and leaves.
The weather god rewarded us with sunny weather and blue skies when the children joyfully looked for nature‘s bounty to put in the basket to bring back to school.
So much happiness and so many smiles and discoveries in the fresh air! Good job, everyone!
On Friday the Pre—Kindergarten children worked on their diorama, placing the sticks they had found and thereby making trees for several animals.
The finished habitat box drew great attention from other kindergarten children as well.
Rounding up our inquiry into forest animals this week was the P.E. lesson where the children imitated different movements like bears, frogs and rabbits etc. under the gentle instruction of Mr.Brabant.
Last not least the Pre–Kindergarten children and their friends from K1 and K2 as well as their teachers had a meaningful circle time in the Pre –Kindergarten room were Ms.Anita talked a little about the Kobe earthquake and Ms.Alexia presented a story in Kami Shibai style about a little tiger experiencing his first earthquake drill at kindergarten. The children listened very attentively and had some comments and questions, so hopefully they will not be anxious when we do an earthquake drill at school next week.
The timing of this story was in memory of the anniversary of the great Hanshin Earthquake. On 17th January 1995 a massive earthquake destroyed our beloved Kobe and surroundings and more than 6.400 people lost their lives.
Some of our teachers and other members of our DSKI community had harrowing experiences and we will keep all the victims in our thoughts and prayers.
Kindly talk to your child at home about earthquakes in a sensible way and please mention that animals and pets are also affected.
The children are very fond of animals and might be worried about their well–being. We are always amazed how caring the children are!
Wishing you all a lovely weekend with your families.
With kind regards, Mit herzlichen Grüßen,
Anita Ursula Mönch
DSKI Pre–Kindergarten homeroom teacher Playgroup / EY Deutsch & German
German Saturday School homeroom teacher
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