Pre-KG 2025/ 26 Blog 5 Prints and more

Pre-KG 2025/ 26 Blog 5

Prints and more 

This week was a shorter week at school with Monday having been off, but nevertheless it was full of learning adventures.

When discovering colours and shapes the Pre– Kindergarten children are always offered a wide range of learning experiences and this week they explored ways to print.

The children started by using their favorite 3D shapes from the shape sorter and printed with three different colours. 

They showed wonder at the fact that the same shape appeared on paper and learnt that they needed to press their shape quite firmly to get a good print.

The results were colourful and very individual.

The next day the Pre–Kindergarten children looked at the Bavarian flag that will be displayed at the Oktoberfest and used diamond shaped sponges to create the image. This time the children printed outdoors and had a long role of paper to work with. 

The children enjoyed the different sensation the sponge provided and experimented with it changing shape when slightly squished. We will use the lovely print as a poster for Oktoberfest! 

Every Thursday the DSKI Playgroup is held in the Pre–Kindergarten classroom and the visiting children are becoming good friends with the Pre–KG class, so this week they made some discoveries together. With playdough as the medium for printing this time, the children used Schleich animals to make foot prints. 

All the children showed great interest at the different sizes of prints the animals made and printed again and again which gave us also a good opportunity to build some new vocabulary. While Elephant’s feet are actually called feet, many animals’ feet have different names – cats, dogs and bears have paws, penguins have webbed feet and giraffes, cows and horses have hooves. 

This activity proved so interesting that we continued with it the next day and at the end of the playdough session made a little quizz by showing the prints of a bear and a Dalmatian dog. 

To our amazement the Pre–Kindergarten children were able to identify the correct animals which shows again that so much knowledge is gained through play. 

You made wonderful discoveries, dear Playgroup and Pre–Kindergarten children! 

As prints can be found on clothing as well, the children looked at their colourful T–Shirts and discussed the prints. 

We then took the children to the entrance area of the Fashion Museum to see a wide range of floral prints arranged in a stunning display. 

By now, everyone knows that I am a regular visitor at our local Fashion Museum and I always do research to see whether the theme will benefit the children with their learning or whether it can be connected to their unit. The wonderful exhibitions never fail to amaze me and this time the Pre–Kindergarten children could witness prints on paintings coming alive on clothing. 

What a fantastic opportunity to make meaningful connections! 

We ended the week with an experiment that is related to STEM. Yes, this is a big word and really put on the map in recent years, but we have all experienced certain phenomena in our childhood.

The Kindergarten children always try to make sand cakes, but of course the dry sand doesn’t stick in the forms. You need water to make mud and voila, this is a STEM activity.

And just like you can not make sand cakes without the water, it is very hard to leave handprints in dry sand which the Pre–Kindergarten children could clearly experience. After adding water, they could leave their prints in the wet sand, another important lesson learnt! 

We are looking forward to having many more discoveries next week with lots of natural materials, trying to leave as little ecological footprints on our valuable earth as possible. 

Have a lovely weekend ! 

Kind regards, mit freundlichen Grüßen, 

Anita Ursula Mönch

DSKI Pre-Kindergarten homeroom teacher 

Playgroup / EY GFL & Deutsch

German Saturday School homeroom teacher