Pre-KG 2021/ 22 Blog 29 Spring has come !

Pre-KG 2021/ 22 Blog 29 

Spring has come ! 

When the Sakura trees are in full bloom and pink cherry blossoms colour the landscape everywhere, then we know that spring has arrived in Japan, arguably the most beautiful season here.

There are many other flowers that are the harbingers of spring, but most visibly in the nearby Rokko Island tulip field are the beautiful tulips in manifold colours, many of which the DSKI EY children have planted themselves.

So one of the spring events this week was visiting the field, admiring the flowers, singing the traditional song “Saita, saita” and thanking the members of the Rokko Island Beautification Committee for always including us in this nice event.

Saita, saita tulip no hana ga

The children love these beautiful tulips very much, so we went to see them again on another day and managed to get a Pre-KG group photo with Ms.Chinatsu and Ms.Anita (not an easy task to keep the group together, lol).

This week the children also continued to work on their new unit subjects of “Body and Family”.

We had talked about the family members last week, so we ask the children to choose a favourite family member (including themselves) and draw that person’s face on a paper plate.

As we had not spoken in detail about the facial features yet, this was another activity set up by the teacher for preliminary assessment, meaning that we can monitor this way what level the children are at in their understanding.

The result was varied - some children were still wondering, while others already had a good grasp, not only of which parts belong to a face, but also where they are positioned.

A similar task was given with Play dough on another day and one little girl surprised everyone with her well appointed face of a baby. 

The children had also crafted their Easter baskets throughout the whole week, applying flowery origami paper and lots of colourful rabbits. Thank you, Ms.Miho with helping to make such cute bunnies!

Finally, on Friday our long awaited Easter celebration had arrived, featuring a nicely decorated hallway and the provision of colourful Easter eggs with fluffy chicks.

Thank you so much to our wonderful PTA !

On the warm and sunny day the Pre-KG children enjoyed 

a fun egg and spoon race with their friends and teachers from K1 and K2 and showed good sportsmanship !

Back at school, the children got their handcrafted Easter baskets and went to search for the colourful eggs the Easter Bunny had hidden. Lots of smiles were seen when everyone found eggs with cute chicks inside. 

What a Happy Easter Event Day !

Together with the flowers and sunny days, spring also brought another little friend from Playgroup to our class.

A heartfelt welcome to Alice who loves soft bunnies and cats and to her parents ! We are happy to have you in Pre-KG at DSKI !

Yours, 

Anita Ursula Mönch

DSKI Pre-Kindergarten homeroom teacher 

Pre-KG 2021/ 22 Blog 28 Connecting Units

Pre-KG 2021/ 22 Blog 28 

Connecting Units 

The Pre-KG children and their other EY friends all came back very happy after the spring break and the teachers were glad to see their big smiles and hear their excited voices.

There were talks about going on an airplane, meeting grandparents and eating yummy food.

The Pre-KG children are still learning to tell stories, but it was nice to get snippets of their holiday activities.

They spent time with their families, so what better way to tune into our new unit than by asking them about their family members.

Well, this didn’t prove easy to anwser for everybody.

So, as the children were eager to play with their beloved animal figurines again, we took this opportunity to ask them about animal families first. This seemed to be a little easier to process - out came daddy, mummy, sister, brother and baby elephants, cows, sheep, horses and many more.

The children lined up and counted the members of their animal families (nice math practice ) and then stated to talk a little more about their own families.

The experience showed that the children could make connections with items familiar to them and apply new knowledge.

To wrap up the previous unit, the Pre-KG children coloured their favourite animals, using finger paint.

They had so much fun choosing the colours, feeling the cool liquid and then applying it to their paper.

This week the children also had the opportunity to explore new equipment the school has acquired. The seesaw proved very popular as well as the BBQ set and the big play house.

The house is a great place for role play, so the children happily joined their older “brothers and sisters “ from K1 and K2 to imitate family situations like cooking and fixing equipment.

Role play often imitates real life situations and is a great way for children to show their understanding of the world.

We revisited the subject of family throughout the week and the children found their lego family members and created different houses and environments for them.

The class also enjoyed the beautiful Sakura blossoms in front of the school and the sunny spring weather in the park.

Last, not least, we had another new friend join Pre-KG and we are all very excited.

Welcome, dear Amaru and family to our DSKI community!

We are all looking forward to many exciting discoveries and play choices together !

Yours, 

Anita Ursula Mönch

DSKI Pre-Kindergarten homeroom teacher 

Pre-KG 2021/ 22 Blog 27 Wrap up and Step up!

Pre-KG 2021/ 22 Blog 27

Wrap up and Step up! 

After experiencing a busy Book & Culture Week, the children participated in more exciting projects this week!

The whole of EY showcased some of their learning in the exhibition “Thinking outside the trash”. 

K1 and K2 were wrapping up their unit on materials and sustainment and displayed some of their wonderful and colourful art, writing projects and toys.

These two classes also exhibited the art they made in German class with "Materialien wie Holz, Papier, Metall, Stein oder Plastik." 

There were so many amazing things to see and the Pre-KG had lots of fun exploring the exhibition and playing with the recycled toys. Especially the car track and city, the colour bottles and the trash monsters caught their attention.

The Pre-KG children also proudly showed their parents and the school community their contributions to the exhibition, all connected to the Pre-KG unit and made of recycled materials: their autumn treasure plate fairies, their triangle butterflies and birds, their lovely sushi Hanami, their barn with bird house and their sky, land, sea boxes where they had placed their animal figurines. 

Last, not least the Pre-KG children made a Steckenpferd, a fun, stick play horse which is great to hop around on and was very much enjoyed by the children of all grades .

Thank you to all the EY teachers and children for their collaboration and fabulous creations !

During the week, the Pre-KG also continued to work on their unit subjects, adding to their knowledge of what animals eat. 

Mr.Stefan Mayr, one of our school’s German teachers, had promised to bring his dog to school, so the Pre-KG children could feed him some treats as a connection to their learning.

We first looked at many dogs in different books and tried to find out what they eat. Someone came up with the idea of meat, so the children got some meaty looking toys and found lots of meat advertised in the supermarket pamphlets. We talked about the fact that dogs also eat dry dog food.

So when Mr.Mayr came to the school gate with his dog, the children were well prepared. There was a lot of joy when Mr.Mayr kindly let the children give his cute dog (called Omochi) some dog treats.

But Mr.Mayr had not only come with his dog, but with his whole family !

Everyone said hello to his lovely wife and then the children greeted their sweet daughter Emma with lots of smiles and enthusiasm.

In fact it was very hard for them to part with her. 

Thank you, Mr.Mayr for bringing your family and your dog to school !

In class we then talked about the importance of family and

as many of our children had the opportunity this week to show their families the recycle exhibition, the Pre-KG children naturally connected the current unit of “Animals & Food” to their next unit of “Body and Family”.

I wish you all a wonderful spring break with your families and lots of sunshine !

Looking forward to hearing about all the adventures after the holidays !

Times with Family and Friends are the best!

Yours, 

Anita Ursula Mönch

DSKI Pre-Kindergarten homeroom teacher