Pre-KG 2024 / 25 Blog 36
Fashion & Protection : Clothes for our body
As the Pre–Kindergarten children keep on learning about the body, we started to discuss about what keeps our body warm and protected.
The idea of a hat, a jacket and shoes came to the children quite easily, therefore at circle time we looked at what else we all were wearing and spoke about the necessary vocabulary in English and in German.
Here is some of the key vocabulary, so kindly catch up with your child.
Jacket – die Jacke, blouse – die Bluse, t–shirt – das T– Shirt, pants– die Hose, dress– das Kleid, socks– die Socken, shoes– die Schuhe, cap – die Mütze
Some of the words sound very similar in English and German, so the children are quite fast at understanding. There is a good website by Andrea Thionville, but I would recommend it for the parents at this time to reduce screen time if your child has any.
The German Saturday school children had made some amazing cut–out people for their project month which they kindly donated to Pre–Kindergarten.
The theme of their project month was community helpers, so they created a policeman in my group and a kindergarten teacher in a different group for which as they told me later I was the inspiration ! It made me immensely happy that I had touched the children‘s life and I love the Ms. Anita doll with the dragon necklace and a toy rabbit in her hand!
These two figures were perfect to give the Pre–Kindergarten children an idea of what people could wear and they took the opportunity to look through our Pre–Kindergarten clothes boxes to see what else was available.
The children took out the clothes and tried to dress the dolls which turned out be be quite challenging. After a while the children started to role play, pretending the dolls were their babies and feeding them. It was heartwarming to see how gentle they were and how much the children understood that small babies need good care.
We continued with teaching the children about a variety of clothes and I told them about the Japanese Kimono ( which I used to wear for my dance lessons). The fabulous fashion museum on Rokko Island is holding an exhibition about Meiji era Kimonos which are beautiful and stunning with their colorful, lively patterns.
So after revising some key vocabulary, I showed the children the exhibition pamphlet and explained about the kimono. Never one to waste an opportunity to recycle and make art in the process, I asked the children whether they would like to create some colourful outfits for a paper doll. The big „Yes“ was enough to get to work and the children looked for favorite pattens from a variety of options I had provided by cutting the pamphlets. Some children can cut by themselves, but others still need a lot of help, so we focused on gluing and spacing this time.
The results were very charming with all the children creating colourful summer outfits. We backed the cutouts with a chosen color and I will make a new display with the children soon, so please stay tuned.
As they continued to learn about clothes, the children showed us every morning during Circle time what they are wearing and especially our girls were very proud of their fashion choices.
Noah was also very happy to show his friends from the German Club what he has been learning and he made sure to tell them that the arms need to go through the sleeves when dressing. Toll, du schaffst das mit dem Anziehen immer besser, Noah!
And it seems that when changing their own clothes, the Pre–Kindergarten children have also become a little more confident.
There is a cute song about getting dressed from Simple Songs which we haven’t watched yet, but it might be useful.
This is the way we get dressed
With so much talk about clothing and fashion, the children got very excited to go to the fashion museum and what a success it was.
We left the school and the children walked in pairs to the museum where they politely greeted the staff. Over years, my Pre–Kindergarten classes have become known to be regular visitors to the beautiful exhibitions there and the staff are always amazed at the good behavior of the children and their interest and curiosity.
This exhibition was again a feast for the eyes! Right from the entrance a multitude of patterns and colours enchanted the children and their teachers…flowers, fish, ships, well known motives like apples and so much more.
The art and rich tapestry of the kimonos was truly delightful and the impact was summed up when we left and the children said: Kimono is so beautiful!
Please do take your child to a museum, they always take new impressions away and with time will love to go there.
This time the fashion has a bonus part with ethnic costumes from countries around the world which was also fascinating. We could not take pictures, but Ms.Priyanka explained about the importance of the cowrie shell ( Kaui Muschel) which is used as money in some cultures and coincidentally was also featured on the belt of her beautiful Indian trousers that day.
Again an amazing week of discoveries and connecting their learning to the outside world for Pre–Kindergarten! Please make good use of the subject by practicing to change clothes with your child and let them wear something breezy for the hotter days now.
After our museum visit, we had to say goodbye to our wonderful STEM week booth which had generated so much interest and admiration !
You will be able to have a look again at the pictures during our SLC ( Student led conferences) on 12th June 2025, details to follow soon !
Well done, Pre–Kindergarten children, you are great inquirers!
Kind regards,
Anita Ursula Mönch
Pre–Kindergarten homeroom teacher Playgroup / EY Deutsch & GFL
German Saturday School homeroom teacher
