A Busy Thursday

Hello everyone!

Today Preschool A had a very busy day:

In the morning, Takuma's mother came to tell us about her job as a dancer. We did some core strengthening exercises, watched a video of her performing with Ayu and, of course, danced together:

It was great having her visit. If anyone else would like to come and tell the class about their jobs, you are more than welcome. I think the next guest will be Louis's father, who is a surfer.


Next we went to the park. We ran three laps around the central circle to start, then kicked the soccer ball around, played on the playground and swings, and practiced being risk takers by jumping off the tree stump:



It can be a little bit scary, but everyone wanted to give it a try.

After lunch we did some math activities, watched Number Blocks and then painted some of the characters from that show:



We are mainly focusing on washing our brushes and not mixing our paints at the moment.

To finish off the day, we had one of our two weekly Japanese lessons. Andy and I swapped roles, with her leading the class and me acting as the assistant. I'm sorry for how bad my Japanese is; the kids are helping me to practice and improve:




It was a busy day, but lots of fun. Tomorrow we will do it all again, but then it will be time for a rest.

Have a great golden week everyone!

I look forward to seeing you back in a week or so.

Tuning In

The beginning of our inquiry wall

The last two weeks have been dedicated to the 'Tuning In' phase of our unit of inquiry. We have practiced writing our own names, talked about our favorite fruits (thank you to all the parents who came in to share theirs with us), as well as other things we like and don't like, compared favorites and checked up on everyone's understanding of family members (the fact that grandma is mum's mum was a revelation).

Next week we will begin the 'Finding Out' phase, which looks like it will be focused on jobs. Some parents have already agreed to come in and share their occupations with us, and if you would like to too, you are more than welcome.

As promised, here are a few videos of the kids in class:

Cutting and gluing likes and dislikes


Favourites at fruit time


Castanets in music class

Hopscotch in P.E.

I'm sorry I didn't manage to get a video of Andy's Japanese lesson; the memory card was full. I will make sure to get one next week.

See you at the picnic tomorrow!

The First Week

Hello again everyone.

The first week in Preschool A was quite a busy one. Thank you so much to all the parents who came in to share their favourite fruits with us, and also to all those who will be coming next week. Here are a few extra photos of the kids waking to the park, sitting under the sakura, etc. I'm sorry I didn't manage to take many videos this week, I will make sure to get a few more from now on.

Walking in pairs is a big step. It will takes us a few more tries before we are ready to walk to the park without an extra assistant, but we are at least being safe.

Mikan were very popular during our fruit picnics

Playing alphabet bingo

Our first visit to the library

Next week we will be begin to focus more on crafting the kid's self introductions. Have a great weekend, see you all on Monday.

The First Day

A Day of Firsts

I hope you all weren't too worried about your children's first day as ELC students. There are a few big changes from their time in Nursery, but they have handled them well. Only one of the kids felt the lack of a scheduled nap time a took a little snooze in the library area, but that's fine; they are all welcome to nap when they feel the need. We had a few accidents, but that's to be expected as they complete their toilet training and get used to asking to go to the toilet when they need to. Walking to the park in pairs was a bit nerve wracking, but we got Prekinder B to help out and be their big buddies (sorry I didn't manage to get any photos of park time; the sakura was very beautiful. I will try to get some tomorrow). We have had a great start to the week and I'm sure it will continue the same.

We try and give the children as many opportunities for play based learning as we can, with a wide variety of different toys and activities. Andy and I are always available for conversation to help them naturally improve their English based on their interests.

Having a look at what last year's preschool class did for their 'Who We Are' unit.

One of our focuses for today was on writing our own names. We are working on basics such as how to grip a pencil, but the kids are already doing very well.

Our music corner was very popular. Hopefully, when things have calmed down a little, the kids can have a go at learning how to play 'Happy Birthday'

Our 15 minutes of TV time was spent watching 'Number Blocks', a great introduction to basic math that you can watch at home on You Tube

Maths centers using manipulatives: the blocks allow the kids to recreate things they have seen on 'Number Blocks' and explore combining and dividing numbers

Packing up the backpacks after the afternoon snack was a bit of a challenge, but the kids who finished first were very good about helping out their friends. 

 Thank you for providing all the requested clothing and materials. Hopefully not too much of it went home in the wrong bags, but that will happen as the kids get used to being responsible for taking care of their own things. Please let me know if you received anything that you shouldn't have. It would also be great if you could double check absolutely everything is named; you never know what strange things are going to end up lost.

See you tomorrow!

Welcome to the Preschool A Class of 2019-20!

Hello parents and welcome to the classroom orientation!

Our names are Ben and Andy and we will be your children's teachers this year. It's going to be lots of fun! please check here on the blog every Friday night to see what we got up to in the last week.

Today we will be talking about what to expect from your child's first year of the PYP, how to get involved in the classroom and at home, and how to make sure we communicate well with one another.

If you have any problems or aren't sure about anything, please send me a message or stop by to chat.