Pre-KG 2024 / 25 Blog 35 STEM week & Sustainability

Pre-KG 2024 / 25 Blog 35

STEM week & Sustainability 

This year the theme of the STEM week at DSKI was 

Sustainable Cities for the Future / Nachhaltige Städte für die Zukunft 

This is a big idea and the words themselves are very difficult for our Pre–Kindergarten children aged 2 and 3 years old, so I devised a strategy to make the theme accessible to our little ones.

As the subjects in the Pre–Kindergarten curriculum are staggered to help the children understand the world around them, we had discovered a lot about food ( including making delicious cucumbers sandwiches) in our last unit and the children know by now that we need food to grow and survive. They also stated that we need water, sun, air, trees, grass, houses etc. which shows amazing understanding of life essentials and they drew all of these in their painting that was leading their inquiry.

Following were discussions about what green spaces the children like to be or play in and they mentioned, gardens, parks, forests, playgrounds, water (rivers, lake, ocean ), flowers, farm and grass spaces.

The next step was to think about how we can build these discoveries and show everyone that these are important to us now and for future generations.

As the teachers had decided on Lego as the ideal building material for this STEM week, the children got really creative and started to make several of the green spaces they had imagined.

It was awe–inspiring to see what wonderful ideas the children had about their future comfortable life and how well they collaborated while constructing. 

Soon we had a flower garden,

A playground

and a farm with a lake and animals.

The last challenge was the city with houses that might be higher structures in the future if humans cover too many of the valuable green spaces. 

Several prototypes were made and taken apart and the children made different towers only to find our that they were too high and too shaky.

And where does the food grow when there is no space on the ground? Ms. Anita introduced them to the concept of hanging gardens which could be envisioned with growing plants inside plastic capsules.

Now the good teamwork of the Pre–Kindergarten teachers came into action: 

One of Ms. Anita’s passions is recycling, so she brought the plastic capsules and Ms. Priyanka brought mung beans to grow as one of her passions is cooking while Mr. Derek was the hands on construction advisor and together we helped the Pre–Kindergarten children to bring their final vision to life ! 

A city with plenty of green spaces and houses that are lovable, livable and provide food ! 

We proudly brought our finished creations to the STEM room to combine them with the wonderful  Lego works on transportation by K1 and on recycling by K2 for a stunning EY collaboration display ! 

Finally, the Pre–Kindergarten children were busy filling the plastic capsules with cotton and mung beans to be distributed at the exhibition to friends and parents in order to raise awareness on the importance of food and alternative growing methods.

They were placed in our beautiful Pre–Kindergarten exhibition booth which Ms.Anita had designed throughout the week with the explanation of the process, the palm trees from our assembly, lots of lovely, theme related photos, the forest and ocean dioramas the Pre–KG children had made previously, a Lego car carrying the beans, our ship shape sofa and a green carpet to welcome our visitors.

On Friday then was our STEM week open day for the parents and the Pre–Kindergarten children were very excited and proud to show their parents and visitors their amazing achievements. It was lovely to see all the parents appreciate their children’s work and we also enjoyed the fantastic displays of the other classes. 

A lot of work was going on behind the scenes, so a big thank you goes to the STEM week team Ms. Pam, Mr. Stefan and Mr. Benjamin ! 

We even were featured in the German Pavilion at the Osaka Expo, what an achievement!

This busy and wonderful week ended with lots of wonders, aha moments and smiles and all the bean capsules finding takers.

May this small gesture inspire you to grow your own food even in limited space! 

Kind regards, mit herzlichen Grüßen, 

Anita Ursula Mönch 

Pre–Kindergarten homeroom teacher                           Playgroup / EY Deutsch & GFL

German Saturday School homeroom teacher

Pre-KG 2024 / 25 Blog 34 Body, Family, Peace and Nature

Pre-KG 2024 / 25 Blog 34

Body, Family, Peace and Nature 

What a fantastic and enriching week we had at Pre–Kindergarten while covering our subjects of „Body and Family“ and extending the learning beyond the classroom ! 

The Pre–Kindergarten children continued to learn about the body, by revising and adding new vocabulary and dancing to the „Head , shoulders, knees and toes“ song with much more accurate movements. 

Ms.Priyanka keeps on guiding the class through a variety of yoga poses and here, too, have the children ( and teachers!) shown much improvement! 

The Pre–Kindergarten children also joyfully play with the kitchen items in our classroom and create meals.

While the children are learning that it is very important to move your body, they also are starting to understand that the body needs food to grow .

We always talk about the food the children are eating at school and appreciate all the effort that has gone into making it and the delicious ingredients that it contains.

Strawberries, crackers, apples, blueberries, chestnuts, cheese….yummy! Tomatoes, broccoli, onions, corn, shrimps, meat, rice and noodles – how delicious.

So to give the children an idea where the food comes from which makes their body grow and to involve the parents in our unit learning , we made a trip to the Peace and Nature Farm in Ozo, Kita–ku, Kobe with our school bus. 

Peace and Nature has been founded by Bahram and Shinobu Enanloo in 2003 with the mission ( quote) to create a safe and secure environment and food, help raise future green leaders and send messages from Japan to the world.

Green leaders are defined as people who learn from nature, know local and social issues and act toward solutions. 

Hyogo Japan / Peace and Nature

My own family has been involved with Peace and Nature from the beginning and my children have spent many days together in nature learning about growing rice and taking care of the environment.

Peace and Nature has also been welcoming many of our DSKI classes and families for their meaningful workshops and we support each other through sponsorship and events. 

Peace and Nature Website

What better way to learn about food , environment, green spaces ( our Pre–Kindergarten STEM week theme) and the joy of working together with friends and family than go on a trip to the farm, starting with the youngest children in our school, Pre–Kindergarten! 

So off we went on the school bus with our gentle school bus driver, Mr.Fujita – from Rokko Island up the Rokko mountains, through tunnels, past lush green fields and beautiful traditional Japanese country houses to the Peace and Nature Farm where we were greeted  with big smiles by Bahram and Shinobu Enanloo as well as Mr. Kan Aoki, their vice director. 

We carefully listened to Mr.Bahram’s explanation about the natural environment that includes frogs and sometimes snakes, took some Pre–Kindergarten group pictures and then went on a short walk to greet a local farmer and look at the rice fields getting prepared. 

After snack time, the workshop started with Mr.Bahram showing us how to walk on the field and where to pull the onions, so they would come out smoothly. The children eagerly pulled and harvested their own onions which they were very proud of. 

They also made discoveries of tiny frogs, beautiful flowers and lots of fragrant herbs in the herb garden which were shown and explained to them by the Peace and Nature Team. We all could take some herbs home for making tea and for cooking with ! 

The children, parents and teachers loved the experience in nature and we even made some new friends from the local Ozo Kindergarten.

After having lunch which tasted so much better outdoors and which was accompanied by Mr. Derek playing a song on the guitar, it was time to say goodbye with a beautiful heart–shaped card the Pre–Kindergarten children had crafted together with Ms. Anita.

Thank you very much, Ms.Shinobu, Mr.Bahram and Mr.Kan for this valuable experience teaching us about nature and sources of food ! 

We really appreciate your kindness and hope to be back soon ! 

With the green lushness of nature still fresh on their minds, I talked to the Pre–Kindergarten children the next day again about the importance of taking care of nature, having green spaces and food and we looked at our toy food and books on the subject. 

Sustainability is such a difficult word, but broken down it makes sense even to little ones and the Pre–Kindergarten showed a good grasp of what is needed in future cities to survive. 

They started to draw a map with all the essentials that people and animals need like houses, water, food in different forms, sun, flowers and trees.

It is always humbling to see how brilliant the children are and I am looking forward to the day when they will become our green leaders. 

We will continue with our research and building green spaces during STEM week and the children will be showing you the process of their learning and the results next Friday!

On the last day of this busy and wonderful week we had a whole school emergency drill, which was a combined earthquake and tsunami drill and again the Pre–Kindergarten children showed how much they have grown mentally and physically. Not only did they listen carefully to all the important and life saving instructions, but they also lined up orderly and walked all the way to the local Elementary School which will be our refuge in case of disaster and back to DSKI.

What a fantastic job, dear Pre–Kindergarten children, during this whole week ! 

We are much looking forward to more discoveries and adventures next week ! 

As the weather is getting hotter, please stay cool, wear breezy clothes, drink plenty of water and have your child bring a hat to school. 

And please enjoy your onions ! 

Kind regards, mit herzlichen Grüßen, 

Anita Ursula Mönch 

Pre–Kindergarten homeroom teacher                           Playgroup / EY Deutsch & GFL

German Saturday School homeroom teacher