Pre-KG 2022 / 23 Blog 29 Families- Love and Fun together !

Pre-KG 2022 / 23 Blog 29

Families- Love and Fun together !

The Pre-Kindergarten children have become very talkative and one of their favourite subjects is their families.

Often the first word a child says is “Mama” or “Papa” or the equivalent in their spoken language, as the parents are usually the first primary caregivers in a child’s life and the centre of their universe.

When I created the Pre-Kindergarten curriculum many years ago, I choose the sequence of my unit subjects which became 1) Colours & Shapes, 2) Animals & Food, 3) Body and Family for many reasons and in consideration of the developmental stages and level of speech of a child.

While a 2-year old child might be able to say the names of the family members at the beginning of the school year, he / she is much better equipped towards the end of the school year to elaborate on family relations and their feelings with increased vocabulary.

So there was quite some talk about exciting Golden Week holidays spent with family and friends and memories of the Sports Day together. There was also lots of excitement about the planned trip to the Kobe Nunobiki Herb Garden with the parents.

We started the week with a charming song in German about the love for one’s family and the children very much liked the video which depicts all kind of situations in a family setting and features the grandparents as well.

Das Familien-Lied

When we told the Pre-Kindergarten children that it will be Mother’s Day soon and asked them whether they would like to make a beautiful paper flower for their mums, the children were all smiles. So they patiently folded crepe paper in a colour of their choice, used lots of cello tape and were very proud of their result. Rightly so, because the flowers were adorable. 

The children had started a week before with making another gift for their mothers which involved many steps: choosing bottle caps, gluing them together, writing a card and finally packaging. The children were thrilled to make the original flower shaped coasters for their mums and we were not surprised to hear that mommies seem to drink a lot of coffee!

During the week we also had a photo shoot for the yearbook, a whole school emergency drill and a new friend join our Pre-Kindergarten class.

A heartfelt welcome to Kylie Miller and her parents, we are so happy to have you with us in Pre-Kindergarten and in the DSKI school community !

Kylie and her mother were also on board to join our fabulous excursion to the Kobe Nunobiki Herb Garden !

And what a fantastic day it was with a fun trip on the school bus, a thrilling gondola ride, beautiful views, colourful flowers, fragrant herbs, adventurous walking routes and full of sunshine, friendship and the love of our families!

We ended the day with a delicious picnic and the children handing their handmade presents to their mums who were very moved by the gesture.

Thank you so very much to all the parents coming along and for creating joyful memories with your children ! 

Wishing everyone a blissful weekend and loving Mother’s Day!

Yours, 

Anita Ursula Mönch

Pre-Kindergarten homeroom teacher

Playgroup / EY GFL

Pre-KG 2022 / 23 Blog 28 On the Move!

Pre-KG 2022 / 23 Blog 28

On the Move!

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Pre-KG 2022 / 23 Blog 27 New Unit: Body and Family !

Pre-KG 2022 / 23 Blog 27

New Unit: Body and Family !

So we had STEM week last week with rocket building and singing a German song about an astronaut flying to the moon which proved both so popular that the activities continued into this week.

There was lots of rocket flying in the classroom and I let the children finally take them home for their parents and siblings to be able to join the play.

The children also loved to sing along to the “Karl, der Astronaut” song and make the floating movements with their arms. It was quite a fascinating idea for the children that everything floats in space, even the body and the food !

Karl, der Astronaut

Within some days the lego rockets slowly turned into houses and farms for the children’s families and the children showed fantastic creativity. 

I definitely would love to live in some of their cool creations. Future architects in the making !

Along with the building came the talk and it was heartwarming to see how much the children love their families. One little girl chose 2 lego figurines embracing each other to show herself and her brother.

The children then wanted to make their family members out of playdough which proved a little difficult, but everyone tried really hard to form the heads by rolling Knete (German for playdough) into balls of various sizes. 

There were some wonderful figures including a little man (with a little help) and a dog which was sculpted amazingly realistic. 

Great job, everyone !

One of our Morning Circle songs includes the song “This is the way I wash my face” (to the tune “Here we go round the mulberry bush”), which involves movements around the face, so the children became interested in the facial features.

Our big board outside gives the children the perfect  chance to draw and scribble with chalk, wipe and try again and they have become quite good at drawing faces with lots of details.

When we went to the green field the other day, the children not only wanted to play and dig on the little sandhill there, but also draw faces, so we used some sticks to do so.

After a while we took a rest on the benches and enjoyed another German song called “Mit Fingern, mit Fingern” which teaches vocabulary for different movements you can make with your hands. The song has been around for a while and has many and longer versions online, I probably learnt the (first part) version which I wrote in the Pre-Kindergarten Song Book from my grandmother. 

Mit Fingerchen, mit Fingerchen..

Some of the parents have sent in their family pictures already, which I printed and laminated and the class sat in a circle to discuss them.

It is always fascinating to see how much photos trigger memories which the children are eager to share and how much the children want to talk about what they see on the photos, even though it is not their own family. 

Often it is accompanied by wishful thinking….I want to go swimming, I want to go skiing, I want to go on a horse……and yes, dear children, we teachers share your sentiments.

I hope that I soon can offer another exciting excursion for our Pre-Kindergarten class which is so inquisitive and so active. 

They love to move, they love to play with their friends, they love to discover new things and they always pick up some additional skills along the way.

Last, not least, I would like to introduce Mr.Lubin Nepomuceno to all of you. Mr. Lubin is the art teacher at DSKI, but has plenty of experience with little children and already has been the Pre-Kindergarten assistant some years ago.

Mr.Lubin will be on board on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and Ms.Chinatsu and I appreciate his help on our very busy days.

Welcome (back), Lubin!

With the whole team, let’s learn, let’s have fun and let’s keep moving!

Yours, 

Anita Ursula Mönch

Pre-Kindergarten homeroom teacher

Playgroup / EY GFL