Happy New Year!!!

 For the first month of 2012, we have been learning about different ideas for our kids’ futures with our theme of occupations!

We’ve sung songs, played games, and had general all-around fun as the kids have learned about some different jobs, including mail carrier, fire fighter, doctor, bus driver, teacher and baker!!

Craft is a super fun way to learn, so we also made these super cool baker hats:

The kids did such a good job using the names of shapes and numbers during the craft:
“May I have a square, please?”
“Three circles, please.”

The last part of the craft involved tying the headband – a bit hard for our little ones, so we offered a little help…once they ask nicely, of course: “Help me, please!”

 Our little bakers were very proud of their creations and, just to really make sure we were real bakers, we sang, “Pat-A-Cake,” (from our November food theme), while wearing our baker hats!

今日のPreschoolのレッスンでは、4人の子供たちが絵本を暗唱してくれました。WOW！！
みんな少し恥ずかしがりながらも、ママやパパの前で立派に発表することが出来ます！

他の子たちも、上手に暗唱するお友達を見てどんどん刺激を受けています！

English Nowは12月22日から1月10日まで冬休みとなります。
みなさん、冬休み中も楽しく絵本を使って遊んでくださいね！
休み明けのみんなの成長ぶりを楽しみにしています。

Happy Holidays☆

October and November are traditionally a time of harvest. In simple words, it’s the time of year when FOOD is important!

So we spent the last two months learning about food – we learned the names of all sorts of different kinds of foods and did a lot of fun food-related activities!

One thing we did that the kids really enjoyed was this:

Flowers? But…they’re not food!

No….but the fun part was that the kids made these paintings using food!!

We used cut-up pieces of lotus root (レンコン), Japanese radish(ダイコン), and broccoli (ブロッコリ).

The kids were really fascinated as they listened to Andrew giving instructions for the activity…

    
And they were even more excited to try for themselves!

I was really touched by the kids’ creativity and to see them having so much fun – the teachers commented a lot on what the little ones were doing:
Wow! Very nice flowers!
You’re making spiral flowers – they look cute!
Looks good! Do you want to make another one?

And it was nice to hear the kids responding and even repeating what the teachers were saying!
Interacting using art is fun and a great way to encourage communication!

Very proud of our little ones - I think these should be displayed in The Louvre, haha!

It’s Christmas!!!!!!

And Christmas means lots of festive songs, games, and creativity!

For our Christmas snack-making lesson, we decided to use cookies, M&Ms, raisins, and mini pretzels to make Santa’s best friend….A REINDEER!!!

Isn’t he (she?) cute?

All of the kids were excited and were very enthusiastic about asking for the different bits and pieces:
“2 eyes, please.”
“1 nose, please.”
“2 antlers, please.”

I was very impressed at how much they got into this activity and at how well they could ask for the different face parts!

And, of course, they were the MOST excited about eating their reindeer faces!

Merry Christmas, Team!!!

In preschool, some of our kids go home at 12 noon and some stay until 2pm, to eat lunch together and participate in afternoon learning time!

When 12 o’clock rolls around, and it’s time for a few of our wee ones to go home, we sometimes see hear little voices telling mom they want to stay and eat lunch with their friends!

So…we decided to give EVERYONE a chance to Eat Lunch Together!
Moms prepared little lunch boxes for their kids and we all had an early lunch together – from 11:30am till 12 noon!

It was a lot of fun with such a big group, a bit like a big party!