Pre-KG 2024 / 25 Blog 25 Karneval / Fasnet and Food for Special occasions

Pre-KG 2024 / 25 Blog 25

Karneval / Fasnet and Food for Special occasions

In Deutschland laufen seit einigen Wochen die Vorbereitungen für den Karneval auf Hochtouren. Auch in vielen anderen Ländern der Welt wird dieses Festival zelebriert, wobei der Karneval in Rio und Venedig auch sehr bekannt ist.

 Im Süden Deutschland gibt es die allemannische Fasnet, die mittlerweile zum kulturellen Welterbe gehört und schon Wochen vor dem Rosenmontag gibt es Narrensprünge, Zunfttreffen und allerlei Hexen und andere wilde Maskierte ( genannt Hästräger mit Larven) . 

Carnival

/Karneval,, Fastnacht und Fasching

Im Pre–Kindergarten ging es dementsprechend lustig zu, mit Basteln von Girlanden, einem tollen Tanzlied und dem Gestalten individueller Masken.

Karneval im Kindergarten

Die Kinder waren mit viel Interesse und Liebe dabei und haben auch geholfen den Schuleingang zu dekorieren.

It is Carneval season in Germany and many other countries around the world and since weeks preparations have been in full swing. In the south of Germany we celebrate Carneval as allemanic Fasnet and since weeks there have been parades including jumps, lots of witches and other wild costumes. This festival has become a world heritage intangible asset!

So you can imagine that there have been a lot of fun activities in Pre-Kindergarten like garland making, dancing and creating beautiful masks!

As we also celebrated a birthday, the children started the week (on Tuesday) revising the shapes and then practiced their cutting skills by making lots of triangles which they coloured, put dots on and made them into cute garlands.

On Wednesday we talked about food and fruit again and sorted toy food into different categories.

Later that day we had the chance to celebrate Emma’s 3rd birthday and everyone was very happy to spend time together singing and eating  the delicious fruit salad Emma’s parents had so lovingly prepared! 

Heartfelt congratulations, dear Emma and thank you to the Shinno family for the healthy snack and the cute presents. The little turtle is adorable! 

In their first unit the Pre–Kindergarten children have become very knowledgeable about shapes, so they were thrilled that they could collaborate and help Grade 2 by making stars for their space themed assembly . 

Ms. Theona received the stars thankfully from our 3 little princesses and the next day we could admire them during the event.

What a great job Grade 2 did taking us on a journey around space and how informed they were about all the planets ! Thank you for teaching us and for sharing some healthy treats with us! May your stars always shine bright ! 

With all the different food involved this week, we asked the children what they love to eat or what they eat for special occasions. There was a great variety of answers from cherries, fish, hamburgers, chicken soup and noodles to icecream. 

Thank you to the parents who kindly provided photos with special food such as winter chicken soup, Chinese New Year food and birthday icecream cake. Everything looks so delicious, no wonder these are some of your children‘s favourites! 

So many of our parents and grandparents are fantastic cooks ( as well as our teachers) and the children love their homemade food, but they told us that they also sometimes visit a restaurant. What a great opportunity to do some food related research on Rokko Island ! 

We first went to the Sheraton Hotel which features a beautiful Garden Cafe with delicious buffet style food. The Pre–Kindergarten children got very excited about the wonderful photos, but we could not have lunch there, so we discussed the food and opted for a pamphlet. Please note that your child will be able to dine free of charge with you ! 

Next we went to the Udon shop which is also a popular place to eat. There were shouts of joy seeing the real looking display items and I hope you can enjoy the fabulous handmade udon noodles there some day. And yes, your child will get a free toy ! 

The last station was the display of the Saizeriya Restaurant and by then the children had worked up a real appetite. 

Pizza, pizza was the chorus we heard and there was a reason we did our research walk just before lunch time. 

Everyone went back to school with a little more vocabulary and anticipation of a good meal. Nobody was disappointed and the school lunch looked very appealing, too.

Well, as this week we also celebrated Karneval, it remains to say that we could not indulge in the food associated with this festival as it consists mainly of candies and sweets thrown from decorated wagons into the crowds of spectators or special donuts called Krapfen, relished at home. But in the south there are also Brezel given away which are usually more associated with the Oktoberfest. 

We enjoyed the creative part of the Karneval / Fasnet by making masks and shared our happiness by decorating the entrance of the school with posters and handmade masks. 

And a little happy dance afterwards ! 

Thank you , Pre–Kindergarten children for always bringing enthusiasm, beauty, laughter and joy to your friends, teachers and the DSKI school community! 

Wir wünschen euch ein frohes und buntes Karnevals Wochenende ! Helau, Alaaf und Narri Narro ! 

Wishing you a joyful weekend with lots of delicious food ! 

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 24 Different Food & Cucumber Sandwiches

Pre-KG 2024 / 25 Blog 24

Different Food & Cucumber Sandwiches 

The Pre–Kindergarten children are continuing their inquiry into a variety of food and had another exciting cooking experience! 

They started the week by looking at cards of food items, naming them and then connecting them to a stand. This proved to be quite difficult and required good hand to eye coordination. 

After a while the children managed this task well and when looking at their line up, were very proud to be able to name so many different food items. There were bread, apples, oranges, carrots, tomatoes and others. We also practiced the names in German…Brot, Äpfel, Orangen, Karotten, Tomaten usw. 

The children then used their crayons for a colouring sheet which featured some food favorites and later looked at a very interesting book called „Eating the Alphabet“ which features fruits and vegetables from A to Z. 

Many of the words were still unknown to the children, but they enthusiastically tried to find the fruits they knew in their kitchen toy boxes. Both these activities triggered a discussion about colours and flavors and the children are learning to express their thoughts more precisely. 

To foster the children‘s creativity we had another playdough session and everyone tried their hands at making fruit and vegetables, especially cucumbers which they cut in order to practice for our cooking session the next day. 

It was amazing to see with how much precision and concentration the Pre–Kindergarten children cut and they managed very well with the soft playdough.

On Wednesday then the Pre–Kindergarten children were excited about a fun and educating food preparation following an idea of Ms.Priyanka : How about making easy, but delicious cucumber sandwiches! 

In the morning we first showed the children the kitchen area and pointed out that this is a great place for preparing food, but one needs to be careful with a hot oven or sharp items like knives. 

The actual cooking session later involved many steps:

1) Ms. Anita preparing the kitchen and STEM room with all the necessary utensils and ingredients ( toast, cucumbers, mayonnaise). 

2) Everyone washing hands, putting on aprons and marching to the kitchen / STEM room.

3) Ms. Priyanka explaining that a sharp knife can only be handled by grownups and the children listening very attentively.

4) Ms. Priyanka expertly cutting the cucumbers into slices. 

5) Ms. Priyanka spreading mayonnaise on the toast and placing the cucumber slices, showing the children a finished sandwich. Wow effect ! 

6) The Pre–Kindergarten children trying to cut the cucumbers themselves with dull knives learning that this is very hard, but not impossible with a little help ( in this case by Ms.Anita).  

7) The children spreading mayonnaise on the toast with Mr.Derek supervising.

8) Putting the cucumber slices onto the toast. What an amazing job the children did! 

9) Bringing the plate with the cucumber sandwiches back to the classroom without dropping them.

10) Enjoying the delicious sandwiches with a big smile. Well done, Pre–Kindergarten class ! 

11) Tidy up, cleaning and washing the aprons by the whole team! 

The happiness of the children and pride of having made food by themselves was palpable and the result very satisfying and yummy. 

Thank you Ms.Priyanka for the inspiration and our whole class for the nice collaboration.

Gochisosama deshita!                                    Earl Sandwich, the initiator of his namesake, the sandwich would have been well pleased with us ! 

So with so many new experiences and knowledge gained, the children were ready at the end of the week for a second assessment of language and voila, we could see the expansion of vocabulary. 

Out came the toy fruit and veggies, the aforementioned book and the Pre–Kindergarten children were ready to show their knowledge! 

What a fantastic week of connecting different aspects of the unit and gaining new skills along the way. Not to forget a yummy treat ! 

To get into the mood for the long weekend, the children finished with some singing, clapping and dancing along to two fun songs about…..you guessed it: fruits and vegetables! 

Vegetable song / The singing walrus

Vegetable song

Have a wonderful long weekend and maybe include your child in a cooking session ! He / she will surely love it and so will you ! 

With kind regards, Mit herzlichen Grüßen, 

Anita Ursula Mönch 

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

German Saturday School homeroom teacher