Week 4- Who We Are

This was a short yet eventful Silver Week here at JIES.
The students enjoyed some time off before returning to school for a family picnic. The picnic which was held at our school was a truly successful event with lots of families attending! Everyone enjoyed participating in games and enjoying different cultural foods!! Thank you to all the families who attended!

The students continued our inquiry of the self this week by discussing what the types of homes they live in. The students discussed different types of homes they had been to and seen in their lives.
Then the students were given the opportunity to create their own houses out of different materials. All of the students made very unique houses. We then discussed their artwork and looked to see how many different shapes we could find in each house.

We finished this week with a excursion to the Shinagawa Aquarium.  The students from Jinsho joined us today and we explored the aquarium in many different groups. The students loved seeing all of the different animals. The dolphins and the sharks seemed to be the favorites.

Have a great weekend.

Week 3- Who We Are

 Kindergarten was very busy this week. We continued our theme, Who We Are, by inquiring about each others families. We read books and watched videos about families all over the world. Then we compared the videos and books to our own families.
The students also brought in pictures of their families for show and tell. The students loved telling us about their family members. The students also created a labeled drawing of their family that will be added as page in the book that they are making this term.

In math all of the students explored the concept of longer vs. shorter. The students measured each others feet and explored which items in the classroom were bigger than and smaller than their feet.
The students also made paper chains and spent time comparing who made the longest chain and who made the shortest chain.

The students also seemed to enjoy music this week. Our focus this year will be on percussion. This week the students viewed a video from the Broadway show STOMP; a live percussion show wherein the musicians make music from everyday objects and recycled materials. After watching a segment from the show the students looked for items in our classroom that they could make into instruments. Together we found that water bottles, pringle containers and even a small broom could sound like an instrument. The students also made their own tambourines this week. They all worked very hard on the tambourines and enjoyed dancing with them when they were finished.

Finally, we finished the week by visiting a small park together near school. We wanted to observe the different types of families that were in the park but the park was completely empty!!

Have a great weekend!
Please remember that next week, September 23rd is our family picnic!!
Also, Friday September 25th is our whole school excursion to Showa Kinen Park!
Please e-mail me any questions you may have!

The students also enjoyed creating family artwork out of construction paper. Additionally, the children had sometime to make origami dogs and cats.

Origami house

Kindergarten has been learning how to say family in Japanese.

This week students enjoyed making a house (家 ie) with Origami.

They like telling friends about their family and drawing the family picture.

Week 2- Who We Are!

Show and Tell

We continued our inquiry into the self by focusing on our own personal likes and desires.
This week all the students brought in their favorite toys for show and tell. During show and tell each of the students got the opportunity to explain why that particular toy was their favorite and why it was special to them. Some students gave elaborate explanations and demonstrations while others were happy simply introducing themselves and giving a short explanation.

The students also had the opportunity to write and draw about themselves. The students each created a page for their 'All About Me Book'. The new page includes information about a few of their favorite likes such as color, animals and food. The students loved creating the illustrations and learning how to spell new words.

The students also begin to reflect on their peers in the classroom. The students separated themselves into two groups. One group of girls and one group of boys. The students then made predictions about how many girls and boys there were in the classroom. We then used our construction paper self-portraits to determine the actual number of both girls and boys. The students predictions were very close. The predictions, findings and art work will be displayed outside our classroom.

This week the students also enjoyed music lessons. During our lesson the students listened to the book, Hands, Hands, Fingers, Thumbs. This is a book that emphasizes different rhythms and percussion beats. The students followed along with the progression of beats with small wooden clapping instruments. We will continue an inquiry of percussion instruments in the coming months.

Math Centers

Writing a page for our books.

Comparing the number of girls to boys.