Pre-Kindergarten 2021/22/23: Pre-KG 2026/ 27 Blog 6 DSKI Oktoberfest and Sweet potatoes !

Pre-KG 2026/ 27 Blog 6

DSKI Oktoberfest and Sweet potatoes !

We really can feel that autumn has arrived as there are many celebrations in Germany and Japan at this time as well as a bounty of delicious food.

While we mainly associate autumn (Herbst) with apples, pears, chestnuts and pumpkins in Germany and other countries around the world, persimmons, grapes and sweet potatoes are very delicious in Japan.

Luckily we have a little field on Rokko Island near the school where the children can plant tulip bulbs that will bloom in spring and sweet potatoes that get harvested in autumn. It is a wonderful way to learn about seasons, life cycles and get involved in the community.

So this week all of the EY children were very excited to go to the field in order to harvest the potatoes.

The smallest children from Pre-Kindergarten showed their strength and pulled the (not very heavy) cart containing the shovels.

Then they dug and pulled with all their friends from EY and every potato was greeted with a big cheer whether small or very big.

It was a nice collaboration between all of the EY children and after letting the potatoes "rest" for a while, we will cook something delicious with them.

Back in the classroom the children already started the cooking in our roleplay corner kitchen and they came up with a lot of delicious looking dishes. Nice teamwork with the chefs from Pre-Kindergarten and K1.

Then the Pre-Kindergarten children made their own sweet potatoes using newspaper and purple construction paper and compared them to the real ones. They also practiced putting them into the oven! But on the cooking day of course this will be done by the teachers !

This week was also the final week preparing for our DSKI Oktoberfest. This is a traditional festival from Germany which actually was a wedding celebration of a prince and a princess and has become one of the biggest and most well known festivals around the world.

Please find some detailed info in this link.

Oktoberfest

The Oktoberfest involves a lot of dancing, so the children practiced a cheerful song called "Fliegerlied" first inside the rooms, then in the hallway and finally outside on the ground.

Everyone participated cheerfully and is ready to present their dancing and singing to their parents and visitors at the Oktoberfest.

Please dance along with your child at home, everyone knows the right movements quite well. Bravo for so much engagement !

Fliegerlied

We also watched a short video clip by Andrea Thionville depicting the Oktoberfest in child friendly images and using easy German language. The EY children were fascinated by the Oktoberfest clip and especially liked the food and clothing.

Oktoberfest für Kinder

K2 and K1 made cardboard and Playdough Brezel with me in German class and all the EY children coloured their own versions of the traditional German clothing, called "Dirndl" and "Lederhose" and we displayed their beautiful paintings on the big entrance board. There was a lot of praise from the parents working on the decorations, so I am sure the art work will enchant all our visitors.

To make the display board even more pretty and to work on their fine motor skills, the Pre-Kindergarten children made some garlands out of recycled blue and white wrapping paper. They worked very diligently and were very proud of their results.