Friday, September 5, 2025

Pre-KG 2025/ 26 Blog 3 Cool Play with Colours and Shapes

Pre-KG 2025/ 26 Blog 3 

Cool Play with Colours and Shapes 

As outside the heat was still on during our second week back at DSKI, we designed some activities to keep the children cool while they learnt more about colours and shapes.

We started the week revising our trip to the Fashion Museum last Friday and looked at the colourful pamphlet. 

It was wonderful to hear the Pre–Kindergarten children exclaim that they went there and saw this picture ( Koko itta, mitta ) showing that always something is retained from a museum visit and that they were very excited about it.

We asked the children to identify the colours blue, red, green and yellow on the picture and match it with corresponding foam shapes. 

And what an absolutely amazing job they did working together and showing each other the right colours! Bravo ! 

They also helped each other putting colourful ABC shape magnets on our big magnet board in the classroom. 

The next day, on Tuesday, the children enjoyed their first full music lesson with Ms. Azusa, singing and doing a ball game using a wool ball with colourful patterns. 

Later in the day there was an exciting collaborative activity with K1 : making a cool traditional Japanese ice dessert, called Kakigori. Rounds of ice ( just frozen water) were shaved with a special device and topped with 100% healthy mango and apple juice. 

The children shrieked with delight when touching the ice and thoroughly enjoyed this delicious summer treat made by themselves. Das selbstgemachte Eis mit gesundem Saft war sehr erfrischend und lecker ! Gochisosama deshita !

More fun and cool activities with K1 were on the agenda on Wednesday. After their usual outside exploration time, the children could cool down their bodies by choosing to put their feet either into the green turtle pools or the red crab pool.

 They were very delighted to feel the cool water. 

An additional offer was painting with ice formed like circles or icicles as well as using shapes and water to print. 

Again the children enjoyed the touch of the cool media and tried to draw a variety of patterns, resulting in lots of laughter and wet mats ( and some wet children! ). These mats are very eco friendly as you just need water to paint and the drawing magically appears. Then you dry them and they are right away reusable – they were a game changer for me and my own children, especially on rainy days and trips. 

This Thursday the first Playgroup session in the current school year took place and the Pre–Kindergarten children were very curious about the children who would eventually become their classmates. 

Everyone played together very nicely in the cool classroom inside, made colourful ( play) bentos and went down the slide with whee. We can’t wait for our new friends to join us ! 

As the typhoon on Friday luckily passed Kobe by, the school was open and we ended the week with some more fun learning. In the morning, the Pre–Kindergarten children had a friend from K1 join them stringing beads of different shapes and a lot of concentration and smiles could be seen.

As repetition is the key to success we let the children print again during their unit time. This time we added different types of shapes and the Pre–Kindergarten children proudly identified triangles, circles, stars and the road maker ! 

It was a great activity that kept the children cool and engaged while letting them show their budding knowledge.

Another amazing week of discoveries and learning ! 

Please keep cool, have fun and enjoy a lovely weekend! 

Kind regards, mit freundlichen Grüßen, 

Anita Ursula Mönch

DSKI Pre-Kindergarten homeroom teacher 

Playgroup / EY GFL & Deutsch

German Saturday School homeroom teacher 

Sunday, August 31, 2025

Pre-KG 2025/ 26 Blog 2 Pre–KG : Collaboration and The Arts

 Pre-KG 2025/ 26 Blog 2

Pre–KG : Collaboration and The Arts

This was our first full week back at school and what an exciting and busy one it was ! 

The Pre–Kindergarten children welcomed not only friends from K1 and K2 into their classroom, but also their new classmate ! Together they showed that in spite of their young age, they are very capable of sharing toys and playing collaboratively.

There was a lot of collaboration in EY this week, especially between Pre–KG and K1, with shared exploration time, morning circle, art activities, story time, concert experience and even a trip to the Fashion museum together ! 

The Pre–Kindergarten children also continued exploring colours and shapes by sorting vehicles of certain colours onto corresponding colour mats and creating collages with their images of choice ( dinosaurs and donuts ! ) . 

Art always plays a big role in the Pre–Kindergarten classroom and while the word art is often connected to painting , sculpture and creative handmade items, „ the Arts“ has a much broader meaning.

Quote: 

Art typically refers to the creative output of an individual/ group or the abstract quality of human creativity while „the arts“ is a broader term encompassing the collective disciplines of visual arts, performing arts and literary arts. So „Art“ can be a painting, while „ the arts“ would be painting, music, dance, theatre and other forms of creative experience all together.

So the Pre–Kindergarten children are very lucky to experience a variety of arts.

They have weekly music lessons and got to play several drums in order to understand better what would be going on at the big drum and xylophone concert on Wednesday.

DSKI had the great honor to be the venue of the first concert by the Christian Benning Percussion Group on their Japan tour and what a wonderful and unique experience it was! 

The group played a variety of pieces with lots of energy and gusto and the whole school community was absolutely mesmerized and thrilled.

A big thank you to this fantastic ensemble and the organizers ! 

After having learnt about the charming world of books and illustrations by Ms.Wakiko Sato, the Pre–Kindergarten children on Friday then went with K1 on their first excursion to the local Fashion Museum to visit the exhibition.

They were very excited about the colourful displays, did a great job naming all the animals featured on the big art piece which was part of a nebuta and happily climbed on the bed that is part of a story and was featured on the poster.

As a big fan of museum exhibitions and the Fashion Museum, I am always very happy to see the engagement of the children and the wonder at the new things they see. Please do not shy away from taking your young child to a museum, maybe a short visit at first, but they usually enjoy the experience.

And the Pre– Kindergarten children displayed amazing patience and interest when listening to 30 minutes of a drum concert ! 

You never know where your child’s interest in „The Arts“ lies, so we thrive to foster their curiosity and give them many meaningful experiences. 

Have a lovely weekend and please enjoy the picture book exhibition with your family! 

Kind regards, mit freundlichen Grüßen, 

Anita Ursula Mönch

DSKI Pre-Kindergarten homeroom teacher 

Playgroup / EY GFL & Deutsch

German Saturday School homeroom 



Thursday, August 21, 2025

Pre-KG 2025/26 Blog 1 Welcome to the Pre–Kindergarten / Willkommen im Pre–Kindergarten!

 Pre-KG 2025/ 26 Blog 1 

Welcome to the Pre–Kindergarten / Willkommen im Pre–Kindergarten! 

A heartfelt welcome to all of our Pre–Kindergarten families in the school year 2025/26! 

I am honored and very happy to be the Pre–Kindergarten homeroom teacher again this school year as well as the Playgroup and EY GFL / German teacher. 

For the Pre–Kindergarten classroom I will have the fantastic support of Ms.Nini and Ms.Kotomi and the rest of our wonderful and experienced EY team and specialists. 

After a nice and relaxing summer break it was lovely to be back at school and greet our families at DSKI and in Pre–Kindergarten ( aka Rainbow Room ) as well as the friends from K1 and K2! The children all have grown so much and they were full of energy and lively stories.

We started the Pre–Kindergarten class with 2 children, but new friends will be joining soon. 

It was amazing to see how fast our two little boys adapted to their new surroundings and how well they played and interacted with friends from the other classes. 

Moreover, they eagerly explored the classroom toys, showed great patience with puzzles and a keen interest in colour themed activities and games. 

We also loved their creativity with magnet shapes and they could explain very well what their constructions meant. 

What a fantastic start into the new school year ! 

As the German language also plays a big part in our curriculum, I will include some vocabulary and many songs which always have proved very popular with the children in the past. 

Ein herzliches Willkommen an alle unsere Schulfamilien an der DSKI! 

Ich freue mich auch in diesem Schuljahr wieder die Klassenlehrerin im Pre–Kindergarten zu sein und auch das Deutsch Programm im gesamten Kindergarten zu leiten.

Wir bieten ein vielfältiges Programm in einer sicheren und ansprechenden Umgebung und viele Impulse für all unsere Kinder um zu spielen, entdecken, lernen und glückliche Tage zu verbringen.

I am looking forward to an exciting, fun–filled and happy school year with many new discoveries! 

Yours sincerely, 


Anita Ursula Mönch

DSKI Pre-Kindergarten homeroom teacher 

Playgroup / EY GFL & Deutsch

German Saturday School homeroom teacher 


Pre-KG 2025/ 26 Blog 33 The Assembly and the Arts

  Pre-KG 2025/ 26 Blog 33 The Assembly and the Arts ! As mentioned in my previous blog, the Pre-Kindergarten children have been very busy in...