Pre-KG 2025/ 26 Blog 30
Our Community is our extended family
The Pre-Kindergarten children are learning more about their bodies and families in their current unit and the past weeks at school provided many examples of how a class and the school community work as an extended family.
The children spent the majority of their week in class surrounded by classmates, teachers, friends from EY and other DSKI community members including siblings and parents. The great advantage of a smaller school that starts as early as Playgroup (one year olds) is that there is often a lot of interaction accross the grades including assemblies and our many events with the children from the older grades showing a very caring attitude towards our youngest one, as some of them have also started DSKI in Playgroup , Pre-Kindergarten or EY.
1) Grades 5/6 Exhibition (UP/Upper Primary)
Our oldest children at school held their PYP exhibition before the Golden Week holidays with a focus on passion projects which was demonstrated in an array of topics and some truly amazing displays. This exhibition also shows the children's learning over the years and their ability to research and present. The UP children showed great care and patience in explaining their project to the Pre-KG / EY children and it was heartwarming to see these interactions. Some of the older children have siblings in Playgroup or Pre-Kindergarten and with parents visiting as well, so it truly became a family affair. Congratulations on a fabulous exhibition to Grades 5&6, their parents, their homeroom teacher Ms.Pam and all the wonderful mentors.
2) Book Day
The book at DSKI was truly a fantastic event this year ! Not only was there a parade with everyone dressed in colourful costumes featuring their favorite book character, but the MPR stage also was decorated beautifully as a well known author of Japanese children's books was invited and held two amazing workshops for our school community. The school was also honoured with the presence of the German consul, Ms.Saxinger who read passages from a well known and much beloved classic, Pippi Langstrumpf. The day ended with a sumptous buffet and lots of laughter and conversations in the hallway.
The EY children had nap time through some of the events, but also enjoyed a lovely reading by Yuji's mother with smiles on their faces.
There must have been many happy faces in the wider community as well as this book day also ran a book collection drive for charity and a stunning amount of books was collected. What a great way to extend happiness!
A big thank you to Ms.Elena, Ms.Makiko and Ms.Harumi as the Book Day team for their astounding work and vision and to all the amazing helpers in our DSKI Community of which are too many to mention.
3) Goodbyes
Part of life is saying goodbye and it never comes easily. During the week the DSKI school community had to say goodbye to two gentlemen who from now on will enjoy their retirement.
The first gentleman was Mr.Fujita, our wonderful school bus driver for many years who was our safe guard on many daily drives and helped create memories on our many excursions which we will cherish forever. Our Pre-Kindergarten trip to Animal Kingdom was the last opportunity to see his great care towards the children.
Otsukaresama, Mr.Fujita, we will miss you.
The second gentleman was Mr.Windmeier, our new German principal who brought with him ideas and a vision to extend our school beyond current facilities and lead it into the future.
The Pre-Kindergarten children especially enjoyed his Christmas story reading and him popping into the class introducing new families and friends to us.
Thank you for guiding our next steps, Mr.Windmeier. Wir wuenschen Ihnen alles Gute in Deutschland und weiterhin gute Gesundheit !
4) Rokko Island Tulip field / Community Garden
The small plot of land near our school brings the children so much joy, lets them learn about growth, life cycles and seasons and connects them directly to the Community on Rokko Island.
Generations of Pre-Kindergarten children and their friends from EY have planted tulip bulbs, checked on their growth regularily and then are stunned by the beautiful tulip field in spring with the children always proudly telling their parents that THEY planted these tulips!
This time we went to harvest the tulip bulbs which can be recycled depending on their condition and we are already looking forward to the sweet potato planting.
5) Japanese Children's Day
Kodomo-no-hi aka Children's Day in Japan is a joyful festival celebrating the growth of the children and praying for their health and happiness. Even though it is called children's Day it includes usually display items for boys like helmet and armour to balance for the girls Ohina-sama Day. The festival itself is very old , became very elaborate during the Meiji times and also features Koinobori, carp streamers representing the family which are displayed from the roof tops. The children sang the traditional song in class, made Koinobori and happliy took them home.
We hope you had a good celebration in the Golden Week holidays, there was a very big Koinobori streamer in Harbourland where the school had a booth on 4th and 5th May !
