Pre-KG 2025/ 26 Blog 13 The wonderful world of Eric Carle

 Pre-KG 2025/ 26 Blog 13

The wonderful world of Eric Carle 

Eric Carle is one of the most beloved authors of children‘s books in the world.

His books with a combination of charming illustrations, easy rhymes, interesting stories and colourful creativity catch children‘s interest and imagination.

Eric Carle’s parents immigrated from the south of Germany to the USA and he grew up in both countries. Being a big fan of his books, it was always my wish to meet him, but unfortunately he has already passed away. 

What is left is his wonderful legacy and children everywhere growing up with very hungry caterpillars, brown bears and stories of papas getting the moon ! 

Eric Carle‘s books are colourful and meaningful, making them great sources for teaching all the units in our Pre–Kindergarten classroom. 

After learning about the world of colours, the children are discovering the vast variety of animals on earth. 

They are learning new names and love to match our toy Schleich animals to the corresponding pictures in the book. Of course we also read the stories, so the children not only hone their eye– hand coordination and their listening skills, but also their vocabulary skills.

We have one story with felt pieces and I have created cards of most of Eric Carle‘s books, so the activity of combining the parts and comparing the result with the book adds another depth to learning. It also fosters their love of books, reading and therefore literacy. 

It is often assumed that literacy starts late in Kindergarten or even in first grade and means to teach young children how to read and write.

But actually developing language and literacy skills begins at birth with some arguing that it starts even in the womb, because babies already hear language spoken then.

In our daily interactions we use language: we talk with each other, we read books together, we sing songs, we play and role play and therefore we help our children develop skills to become successful readers.

Playing on a daily basis is an essential tool for children to express themselves, discover the meaning (and power !) of words and learn how to convey their feelings and later tell stories.

Reading to your child should be a daily routine as it fosters bonding, love for language and love for books.

The Pre-Kindergarten children go to the library every Monday to borrow a new book and they love it. Kindly read with your child at home and expand their private library. When ordering through our Scholastic school program, you are supporting our DSKI library program as well. 

One of Eric Carle’s books has one guess what food animals like and food is also a topic we will dive into more. This week we handed out to the Pre–Kindergarten children the sweet potatoes which we harvested at the Peace and Nature Farm and we watched the K1 students make something delicious with the sweet potatoes purée. What a beautiful purple colour and what a delicious taste ! Thank you, K1 ! 

This week the Pre–Kindergarten children together with their friends from K1 and K2 also showed a lot of energy while practicing for Sports Day which will be held next Monday ! 

We are very excited about this event and found the perfect book to exercise a bit in the classroom as well : From Head to Toe by Eric Carle! 

If you do not have the book at hand, please enjoy the read–aloud version.

Eric Carle : From Head to Toe

Wishing you a fun and active weekend ! 

Kind regards, mit freundlichen Grüßen, 

Anita Ursula Mönch

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

Pre-KG 2025/ 26 Blog 12 Sankt Martin and the message of sharing

Pre-KG 2025/ 26 Blog 12

Sankt Martin and the message of sharing

Each year at DSKI we craft lanterns with the children and celebrate the traditional day of Sankt Martin. This year the play depicting the famous deed of sharing his coat took place in a new and exciting location, the amphitheater in the nearby park, where it was wonderful to see the whole school community come together! 

A big thank you to the performers and all the teachers who made this a special day and our fabulous PTA for providing delicious hot juice punch and Weckmann after the beautiful lantern walk. 

Laterne, Laterne

So who was Sankt Martin and why is his message still so important in modern times? 

Martin was actually called Martin of Tours and he was made a soldier by his father against his will. While stationed in France on a cold winter night he encountered a poor beggar who had only rags as clothes.

Sankt Martin Lied

Martin took pity on him and cut his warm coat into half and gave one half to the freezing beggar. Martin was said to have done many additional good deeds and therefore was later made a saint, but the celebration depicts the sharing of the coat with the message that caring is sharing.

The message of caring about each other and sharing is universal and even children can understand it.

On 11.11 Germany and other countries celebrate the festival of Sankt Martin.

There are processions with people holding beautiful handcrafted lanterns following a person on horseback with a red cloak (coat) and a sword representing St.Martin and his good

deed.

Wer war St.Martin ?

Wer war eigentlich dieser heilige Martin? Eigentlich hieß er Martin von Tours. Sein Vater war ein römischer Offizier und deswegen musste auch Martin gegen seinen Willen zum Militär. Schon mit 15 Jahren wurde er als Leibwache bei Kaiser Konstantin eingestellt.

Während seiner Zeit als Soldat trug sich eine bekannte Geschichte zu, die wir heute im Lied "Sankt Martin" besingen. Der 17-Jährige war im Norden des heutigen Frankreichs stationiert. An einem eiskalten Tag im Winter ritt er gerade zum Stadttor hinaus, als er einen armen Mann traf, der keine Kleider anhatte. 

Der Bettler sprach ihn an und bat um Hilfe. Martin hatte außer seinen Waffen und seinem Mantel nichts bei sich, was er ihm hätte geben können. So nahm er kurzerhand sein Schwert und teilte den Mantel in der Mitte durch. Die eine Hälfte gab er dem Bettler, die andere legte er sich um die Schultern. In der folgenden Nacht hatte Martin einen Traum: Er sah Jesus, bekleidet mit dem halben Mantel, den er dem Bettler gegeben hatte.

Für diese gute Tat wird Martin heute noch verehrt und soll ein Vorbild dafür sein, seinen Nächsten zu lieben wie sich selbst.

Jedes Jahr finden rund um den Martinstag am 11. November überall Martinsumzüge statt. Vor allem die Kinder laufen mit wunderschönen selbstgebastelten Laternen durch die Straßen und singen Martinslieder. Mit dabei ist immer ein Reiter mit prachtvollem Mantel auf einem Pferd. Er stellt den Sankt Martin dar. Denn ihm zu Ehren feiern wir das Martinsfest.

Heute ist das Thema „Teilen“ aktueller denn je und es gibt ein neueres Lied zu Sankt Martin, das aufzeigt, dass nicht jeder privilegiert ist.

Lichterkinder

So Sankt Martin is the symbol of a caring and sharing person.

The Pre-Kindergarten children are very young, just two or three years old and the concepts of sharing and caring do not come to them easily.

Actually self-centeredness in toddlerhood is a normal part of development and not a reflection of parenting or caregiving.

But children observe and they will learn and understand when they grow a bit older. Having good role models in their family, friends, caregivers and surroundings will certainly help a positive development.  

This week the Pre–Kindergarten children and their friends from EY showed that they can be very caring indeed by helping each other and playing with each other. It was heartwarming to see how everyone supported each other and integrated our newcomers Anne and Jane into the Pre–Kindergarten class.

And the Playgroup children did a fantastic job, too welcoming a new friend into their group! 

On the last day of the week then, we went to visit one of our kind school sponsors, Amadeus and the owner Ms.Fujita was happy to receive our thoughtful gift showing gratitude for their continued support and sponsorship. Our two oldest Pre–Kindergarten children did a wonderful job of helping with the caring gesture.

Thank you for your kindness everyone, may the spirit of caring and sharing always be with you! 

Kind regards, mit freundlichen Grüßen, 

Anita Ursula Mönch

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

Pre-KG 2025/ 26 Blog 11 Enriching Community Links / Excursion to Peace and Nature

 Pre-KG 2025/ 26 Blog 11

Enriching Community Links / Excursion to Peace and Nature

This week gave us many opportunities to connect to the DSKI community and involve them in our class discoveries and learning.

We started with the school’s Open Day where our school families had the chance to visit their children‘s classrooms and also could take a glimpse into the learning of other classes in order to see what educational programs the school has to offer. 

I was very happy about the great interest in the German program with many EY parents coming to my classroom and inquiring about how they can support their child whose German is advancing. Thank you to all the visitors! 

Andrea Thionville Farben

On Tuesday morning school the DSKI board and management held a presentation where families had the opportunity to learn about the school‘s plans to extend our program from elementary to Secondary education. This are fabulous news as your children can stay with us until graduation from Highschool. 

Then on Wednesday morning the EY children and their parents and teachers assembled in the MPR ( Multi Purpose Room) to craft the lanterns for Sankt Martin together. There was an array of colourful lanterns to choose from and the children joyfully glued squares and triangles in „bunten Farben“. 

A lovely spirit of community was in the air and the children were very happy about their beautiful, individual lanterns. We are all looking forward to a wonderful Sankt Martin celebration with some traditional songs! 

Laterne, Laterne, Sonne, Mond und Sterne

In preparation for our trip to Peace and Nature, the Pre–Kindergarten children made a lovely card with lots of colourful dots, looked at a map of the farm and talked to the teachers about the activities that will be offered. They also looked at the school bus and their child seats.

On Friday then, we were all ready to go ! 

Many excited friends from Pre–Kindetgarten and K1 boarded the blue school bus with their teachers and some of the parents. 

Our seasoned bus driver, Mr.Fujita greeted us and then smoothly drove through the city, up Rokko Mountain, through tunnels, past fields and old farmhouses to our final destination – the farm of Peace and Nature in Ozo where we were warmly welcomed by Ms. and Mr.Enanloo from Peace and Nature. 

We handed over our handmade card and some gifts and took some lovely group pictures.

After snack, we started the interesting workshop together with some new friends and teachers from the local Ozo Elementary School – first digging out sweet potatoes ( the very delicious red type) and then watching Mr.Enanloo prepare the field for planting tiny onion seedlings.

The children have become quite knowledgeable about harvesting potatoes and there was such a variety in size…from very tiny ones to giants ! We will make something delicious with them at school.

The machine for preparing the field drew lots of interest and afterwards Mr.Enanloo explained that the tiny onion seedlings were very delicate and needed to be put into the soil carefully.

It was heartwarming to witness how carefully the children planted and how kindly they treated the small creatures found around the farm.

Frogs, worms, crickets and even birds were observed and they children were in awe of all of nature‘s wonders. 

On we went to the Herb Garden where a variety of fragrant herbs awaited us and were eagerly harvested by children and parents alike. They will be a good addition to soups, stews and salads! 

At lunch time we all enjoyed our delicious homemade lunches with a good appetite and had persimmons for dessert which were harvested by Ms.Anita, Ms.Shinobu and Mr.Bahram.

Afterwards we were ready for a stroll around the neighborhood, where many beautiful views and some adventures awaited us. 

We were kindly allowed to touch the stubbles of a field where the delicious rice already had been harvested. 

This kind of sensory exercise connects the children to nature, just as Mr.Bahram‘s encouragement to feel the big pebbles with their bare feet.

Everyone had a fabulous time by connecting to nature through a multitude of activities and we left the Peace and Nature Farm with a big smile and enriched by the valuable experiences.

Thank you very much to Ms.and Mr.Enanloo for their kind guidance, for being a valued sponsor of our DSKI programs and for giving us the chance to connect to your community in the countryside of Hyogo prefecture. 

We certainly will be back ! 

With so many wonderful activities throughout the week and with lots of new learning and discoveries, we could all enter the weekend with a happy heart.

Kind regards, mit freundlichen Grüßen, 

Anita Ursula Mönch

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