Tsukuba International Preschool

On Thursday May 12th, TIP students, parents, grandparents and teachers visited Ibaraki Prefectural Livestock Research Centre. Our students learned how to make butter and ice cream, experienced milking and feeding adult cows, and also got to pat a young calf. I am sure if Children (and adults!) had to make their own ice cream and butter by hand, we would eat a whole lot less of it, know that we know it’s not quite so simple.

A very big THANK YOU!!! to all of our parents and grandparents that came along on the day. We would not have been able to go if it weren’t for you all coming along, so thank you! We really appreciate it and hope that you enjoyed the day out with your children and other families, as well. Below are an assortment of pictures from the day.

Putting our aprons and bandannas on as we prepare to make butter and ice cream

Shaking up fresh cream to make butter

Shake, shake, shake...

Waiting to make ice cream

Adding fresh milk and fresh cream to our egg and sugar mix

A younger sibling lends a helping hand

It was so yummy, we had to enjoy every last drop of our ice cream!

We learned how to milk a cow

Finally, we got to feed the cows!

Today, TIP students experienced the process of rice planting, first hand. Mrs Hiromi, our resident expert on rice farming, taught us how to plant our own rice bucket, and now each student will be responsible for checking their rice each day when they come to school, ensuring it has plenty of water to grow into a nice rice plant.

Children took their buckets to gather some dirt from Mrs. Kano's garden

First step, was to half fill our buckets with dirt

After adding some fertiliser, we used our muscles to carry the buckets back to TIP

After adding some water, we had to stir our mud mix a lot

Rice seedlings!

Finally, we planted our rice seedlings

A P3 student and P1 student get comfortable sharing a story

“What did you have for breakfast?”, asked Ms. Skye one Monday morning. “Bread”, says the students. The next question was directed to our class…”Where does bread come from?”. “Kasumi!”, “Ito Yokado”, “The supermarket!” replied the children in enthusiastic voices. “Of course it does, but what about before the supermarket?”. Silence. 

Unit of Inquiry

This month, P2 & P3 students began a new unit of inquiry into Sharing Our Planet. To find out what children already knew and weren’t sure of, they sorted food into 4 groups; food from animals, food from plants, food from plants and animals, other, and unsure. We have shared many stories from our Unit book corner, such as “Pancakes, pancakes”, by Eric Carle, to get us thinking about what food is and where it all comes from. We even made pancakes with our class! Students are currently working cooperatively to build a farm corner in our classroom that will allow us to explore the importance of farms and how they provide for us. So far we have a plower, tractor, hen house, chickens, fluffy sheep, pigs, cows, sun, clouds, rain and lots of seeds. We also have some picture cards and words to act out “Old McDonald had a farm”, as well as some farm-to-table food mini puzzles.

Some students collaboratively making a barn, which they decided was necessary for our farm corner

Each student has also brought in some seeds from food they have eaten at home, such as lemons, grapes, paprika, avocado and bean seeds. They used their sketching skills to sketch the seed, and as a homework task discovered what the adult tree would look like, and sketched it also. We have planted some of these seeds and are learning to take care of them each day.

Students were also introduced to the concept of life cycles, through one of our favourite stories, “The very hungry caterpillar”. We have learned that many things have life cycles, and through shared reading of books such as “How a seed grows”, “The tiny seed” by Eric Carle and the “The little flower seed” from Clifford’s little reader series. Children have begun to think about life cycles of different plants and animals, and have been able to draw these during learning centre time. They have also thought about how to grow seeds and what we need to help plants to grow. We have just planted some radish sprouts, and after Golden week we plan to grow some small radishes in the garden, and rice, in buckets. We will also explore composting.

Some students match animal picture cads with the sounds that they make

At home, parents can support your child’s learning by talking about where the food you are eating comes from. Is it a plant? What would the tree look like? What is in the cake they are eating? Where would those ingredients come from? Read the labels on food packaging to discover what ingredients are in food. Maybe you could also have your children help you to plant some seeds and watch them grow over time. Why not give your child the responsibility of caring for the growing plants, by watering them each day and making sure they get adequate sunlight.

There is also an interesting game on the BBC website that parents can try at home with children to help with their developing knowledge of what farms look like and what they provide for us:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/come-outside/games/come-outside-downonthefarm

Movement and Music

In Monday afternoon movement classes with Ms. Skye, children have been practising animal and plant yoga poses. We also learned the song “Old McDonald has a farm”, anad have practised the sounds and movements which go along with each animal.

Literacy

P2 & P3 students are working well on their weekly journal entries as they continue to reflect on their own experiences and ideas, and working at their own pace on drawing, writing (initial letter sounds, inventive spelling and recalling sight words), and speaking out loud to share their ideas and retell their stories. Some P3 students are also working on editing, by reading their sentence and going back to make corrections where they think they have misspelled something or left out a word. P3 have also been working towards developing their recognition of some of the most common (‘sight’) words which appear in our reading.

To develop student knowledge and interest in our current UOI, we have a selection of farm, plant, garden and animal related books in our farm corner that children have been using as a reference, and also reading independently and with friends. We have also made our own mini books, “From farm to me” which have a catchy, repetitive song about the processes that plants go through from the dirt being prepared for planting, to them being purchased at the supermarket.

P3 have learned how to read and write and have made sentences with the sight words: like, and, the, this, that, I, what.

Next month, children will work at using their knowledge of phonics to write labels for things in our farm.

Inquiry through the language of Math (P2 & P3)

P2 & P3 reviewed 2D shapes that children know, and cut various shapes from coloured construction paper to start off our farm bulletin board in our farm corner. We were then introduced to the concept of 3D shapes and have looked at faces, sides, and whether they will stand, roll, slide, or both of these. Children brainstormed things that we could make from 3D shapes for our farm corner, such as a hen house for the chickens to lay the eggs, and tractor to plow the seeds, and have been using items such as tissue boxes and toilet rolls to construct.

P1 with Mrs. Hiromi

P1 have also begun to do a weekly entry in their journals! They are working hard at developing a good crayon/pencil grip, expressing their experiences, and being able to talk about the pictures they have drawn. P1 students also continue to review letter sounds that they have learned and making things by cutting, tearing, pasting and folding.

P1 students can also recognise their own names, and have begun the first stages of “name writing” and developing an understanding the direction of English text. This involves recognizing and finding the letters of their names on coloured stickers, and placing them in the correct order on a piece of lined paper, from left to right. This week, they also began ‘rainbow’ name writing.

When the weather has allowed them to, P1 have enjoyed being active explorers and exploring the forest for signs of spring.

P1 students make pancakes from clay after sharing the story ancakes, Pancakes", by Eric Carle

Art Inquiry

Free painting with watercolours

All of our TIP students developed painting skills with water colours this month. We even tried blowing water colour paint across our paper to make ‘branches’ for a cherry blossom art activity.

Sakura art with watercolours

We also reviewed sketching on a cloudy spring day, when we watched the clouds and used our imagination to talk about what we saw in the clouds. We then sketched these things with white crayon on dark paper.

Finding shapes in the clouds and sketching them with chalk

“Mini Worlds”

This month, we added a new option to our Thursday afternoon learning centres, “Mini worlds”. Within a tissue box, are a number of things ranging from paper clips to coloured paper, toilet rolls and buttons. Children are to use their imagination and creativity to make something from the limited supplies given, with the addition of tape, glue, scissors and marker.Children are then encouraged to tell their teacher about what they have made.

What one student made with his "Mini World" materials this month

Japanese with Mrs. Hiromi

During the month of April, TIP students made koinobori (flying carp) from Japanese paper, in preparation for boys day. Boys day is a traditional holiday which is celebrated in Japan on May 5th.

TIP students were lucky to visit TIS, and watch the grade one students perform a Japanese skit. The grade one students created the script with Ms. Akane Kono. It was a wonderful show and we all enjoyed it very much!

Music with Mrs. Jennifer Sadler

This month we have been focusing on loud and quiet sounds found within music and the world around us. We followed up our movement to music as caterpillars changing into butterflies from last month by learning a song called “There’s a Quiet Caterpillar On a Leaf”. As we sing this song in a whispered voice, we use different hand actions to show the changes a tiny caterpillar makes as it becomes a butterfly. The children listened to a chant called “Caterpillar, caterpillar” and noticed that each line of the chant got louder and louder. We all said the words as we used our bodies to move to the different actions mentioned in the chant. The children learned how match their movements to the action words. If the actions words of the song were quiet, they could make their movements quiet as well.

The students learned how to use everyday objects to make music. We scraped corrugated cardboard with a pencil to get a very interesting sound that described the grasshopper in the folk song “Rillaby Rill”. We used these homemade  instruments to accompany our singing of “Tingaleyo”.

As we read through Robert Munsch’s story “Love You Forever”, we sang along to the lullaby as it came up in the story. We imitated the rocking of a mother holding her baby by rocking our bodies each time it came up in the story. The children talked about different songs that are sung in their home and I sang a song my mother made and sang to me each night when I was a child.

We are learning the song “Down By the Bay” and listening for words that rhyme.

Violin with Mr. Craig Coleman (P2 & P3)

 

This month in violin class we continued to practice our position exercises using the tune of when the ants go marching in. The class also began the song “Boil ‘em Cabbage Down” practicing with different rhythms to understand that the bow can be divided into big bow (whole bow) and little bow ( half bow). These patterns were practiced on all four strings, placing the bow in the middle between the fingerboard and bridge so that there is a good sound. Looking forward to seeing the class again in May. Keep up the good work.

P2 & P3 students now follow this routine independently to prepare for violin class

Waiting nicely for violin class to begin

Looking forward…

- “Show & Tell” topics for next month, with weeks starting on the dates below, are:

• May 7th – My Golden Week holiday
• May 14th – My favourite farm animal
• May 21st – Free choice
• May 28th – My friends
• June 4th – My favourite school memory
• June 11th – No “show & tell” this week
• June 18th – No “show & tell” this week

Children explore our new sand table during afternoon centre time

Important dates

- April 28th to May 6th – Golden Week holiday

- Thursday May 10th – TIP Family Field trip to Ibaraki Prefectural Livestock Research Centre

- May 12th-13th – Tsukuba International Assosiation’s International Exchange Fair

- Thursday May 17th – Open School Day, TIS Grade 5 PYP Exhibition

- May 19th-20th – Relay for Life Ibaraki 2012

- Thursday May 31st – TIS/TIP Sports Day

- Thursday June 21st – TIP Graduation

- Friday June 22nd – Last day of school for students

Mrs. Emma helps a P1 student add to the top of a tower during free play time.

TIS & TIP students, teachers and families gather on our school lawn during our Life Celebration event

It was with great pleasure that TIP students and teachers attended the first annual, TIS Life celebration event, held on March 13th. The event coincided with the one year anniversary of the earthquake, and also the one year anniversary of the passing of a great man, our former Principal who established TIP, Mr. Kano. It was decided that the Life celebration event should be a day when our school community could come together and remember the past, as well as celebrating our lives, and what we love doing.  TIP students had a lot of fun, as they tried hoola hooping, origami, signed a TIS sign, ‘cooked’ marshmallows in the ‘campfire’ in Grade 1′s reading tent, danced, enjoyed Mr. Coleman’s yummy BBQ, and much, much more. Following this,  we enjoyed a school-wide picnic lunch on the lawn, and gathered together to make a heart shape around Mr, Kano’s tree.

Toasting a 'marshmallow' by the campfire in grade 1's reading tent, at the TIS Life celebration event

Playing duck, duck, goose

 

Literacy

P2 & P3 students are now in the habit of doing their journals on Monday mornings. They are thinking carefully about something they have done and would like to write about. P2 have been working towards thinking of beginning sounds and labeling their pictures, with some students sounding out their full words. P3 students are currently working towards forming sentences, using finger spaces, and periods, as well ass thinking about when we us upper and lower case letters. Some P3 students have also begun to write 2 sentences to accompany their drawings.

P3 have learned all 5 vowel sounds, and a song to help them remember.

P2 and P3 have again this month been working on building stamina in independent literacy choice time, and after each session reflect on their choices and how well they have worked by “checking in”. This is something you could have children do at home, reflecting on how well they did something. Please ask your child to demonstrate how we do this at TIP. During this time, children can choose between reading by themselves, reading with a friend, a storytelling activity (puppet shows, felt storyboards, journals, making story books), or practicing numbers, letters and words (whiteboard writing, trace and wipe words, making words with beads or alphabet blocks, card games, and so on.

Our P1 class continued to review our alphabet phonics sounds with our Letterland storybook. They also did some art and craft, making things that start with reviewed letter sounds, using scissors, glue and origami paper.

Art Inquiry

During Art time this month, we looked at how Picasso expressed himself in his rose and blue periods, and produced our own picasso esque artworks. We also read a story about Aboriginal art and looked at some symbols that were used in early rock paintings. Students brought in a rock and did their own rock symbol paintings.

P2 & P3 also learned how to sketch, and have been adding to their sketch books weekly. It’s really helped some children to relax and concentrate on drawing skills.

Sketching in the forest

Towards the end of the month, TIP students all learned about watercolour paints, and have been starting to experiment with them. We look forward to doing some spring art work with them soon.

Learning how to use watercolour paints

Fun with numbers (P2 & P3)

During March, students continued to build their number skills, and P2 made a number train for display in our classroom. P2 & P3 also made their own clocks, and learned how to tell the time on the hour. P3 also learned about digital time and matched digital and analogue times. We compared day and night times by drawing pictures of what we do during each, and also played “What’s the time, Mr. Wolf?”.

Japanese with Mrs. Hiromi

In our P1-P3 Japanese culture class, we made camellias with origami paper, by ripping carefully and sticking on paper we call, “Chigiri-e”(ちぎり絵). We also started making a TIP “Spring garden”, which students will add to weekly as they make spring themed items with origami paper.

Japanese with Ms. Akane Kono (P3)

This month, Ms. Akane has really noticed how much our P3 students have grown up, as they are consistently demonstrating positive attitudes a strong skills. There were three P3 Japanese classes this month, and in each class we read books, memorized hiragana with puzzle activities, and practiced how to write and read hiragana.

The books we read this month were “a lot of people”(にんげんがいっぱい), “Pele’s new clothes”(ペレのあたらしいふく), “aiueo-king”(あいうえおうさま).
We learned about how to count in Japanese, what words include each hiragana like “aiueo”, and how to be caring to each other, especially if we help someone, we will be helped by someone. Students could focus on listening to stories, even if they were a little long, and could think about characteristics of the stories such as the characters, letters, words and so on.

When we did puzzles, students said “aiueo” by themselves using their own initiative. They helped and cooperated with each other, and are beginning to thnk of words that begin with the characters, rather than thinking about the characters in isolation. For example, “「めがね」の「め」”.

Students had learned how to write all of the hiragana by the beginning of the month, then we practiced to use them. We tried to confirm each hiragana with coloring pictures.

PE with Mr. David Onuoha (P2 & P3)

We have been learning about movement that has to with space while performing specific manipulative movement skills, such as kicking a stationary object during soccer and hand-ball.  We also  did games that had to do with body-balancing  and locomotion, For example balancing on a ball with or without aid, running, racing and  fun walks. All students were willing to work co-operatively with others during physical activity by taking turns and encouraging others.

Looking forward…

- “Show & Tell” topics for next month, with weeks starting on the dates below, are:

• April 2nd – Free choice
• April 9th – Spring
• April 16th – Gardens
• April 23rd – My favourite food/drink
• May 7th – My Golden Week holiday
• May 14th – My favourite farm animal
• May 21st – Free choice
• May 28th – My friends
• June 4th – My favourite school memory
• June 11th – No “show & tell” this week
• June 18th – No “show & tell” this week

Look! I made a seesaw!

Important dates

- Friday April 6th – Scholastic Book Order due

- Friday April 14th – TIP Student Portfolios are due back

- Wednesday April 18th – Open School Day (pm), Parent Circle

- Monday April 23rd – Earth Day, Parent Volunteer Day

- Friday April 27th – Shoes home day

- April 28th to May 6th – Golden Week holiday

- Thursday May 17th – Open School Day, TIS Grade 5 PYP Exhibition

- Thursday May 31st – TIS/TIP Sports Day

- Thursday June 21st – TIP Graduation

- Friday June 22nd – Last day of school for students

P1 exploring during recess time on the TIS field

This week we had our very first Student-led conferences, which are very different from Parent-Teacher conferences. Our P2 and P3 students were given the responsibility to tell the story of his or her learning in all areas of development. They showed their parents around our school, showed displays of their work, talked about the work in their portfolios, and became ‘teachers’ as they demonstrated an art activity to their family. We found it to be a very positive experience for our students, strengthening their confidence and communication skills, and sharing their world of school with their families. We would like to say a VERY BIG THANK YOU to all of our parents who were able to participate and for being such patient listeners, and supporting and encouraging your children in their learning journey! This would not have been possible without your support.

A P2 student shares her portfolio

A P3 student retells his favourite Eric Carle story with picture cards

A P2 student teaches his Mum and Dad how to do some dot painting using different symbols

A P3 student shares the characters that he has been learning in Japanese class

One of our P2 students teaches her Mum about equal parts by making and sharing some clay party foods

Getting ready to demonstrate an art activity

One of our P3 students shares some photos and work samples in his portfolio with his family

Taking a look around our classroom with Mum

This is how we do doy paintings!

First, we draw something we like or that makes us happy in crayon....Then, we paint a red wash over the top

Teaching Mum Hiragana characters learned

Cutting up a clay hot dog into equal parts to share with her family