Tsukuba International Preschool

Welcome back to TIP, for the 2011-2012 school year! The TIP Teachers were extremely happy to welcome back our returning students, as well as lots of new friends who have joined us for the first time. A big warm welcome to you all!  There were limited tears and lots of excitable children who are definitely ready and eager to be at school.

This week was our orientation week, allowing children plenty of time to get acquainted with their new friends, teachers and school environment.  We were surprised how quickly this year’s class were able to settle in and begin following daily routines. We sang lots of songs such as “Hello, hello…”, “Heads, shoulders, knees and toes”, “The wheels on the bus”. “If you’re happy and you know it”, as well as a days of the weeks song. Below you will find a highlight of what we did during our mornings at TIP this week, as well as some photos of our children in action.

Tuesday August 30th

This morning we met all of our new friends, and went on a gingerbread man hunt to become familiar with our school. Children followed clues such as “I am somewhere where there are lots of books….”, until they eventually stumbled across a gingerbread man story book and basket of cookies. We practised our “Roley Poley” song of thanks which we sing before each lunch and snack time. Before going home we read “David goes to school” which is always a favourite story at Preschool!

Look what I found!

Finding our favourite seats on the first day

Wednesday August 31st

Today we tried to recognise the first letter and sound of our own and friends names, as teachers handed out name tags. During morning meeting time, we also considered some different ways we might be feeling this morning, such as happy, excited, sad and shy. Children also did their first drawings of the year, of their favourite things, on some large puzzle pieces of paper. During free play time, children practised cleaning up one toy, before they chose another to play with, as well as cleaning up nicely on the teacher’s prompt. Children were also introduced to PE class, doing some stretches, funny shape running, and finished off with a game of “What’s the time Mr. Wolf”. Our shared reading for the day was “No, David!”, another fun story about David getting himself into mischief.

Building blocks with new friends

Perfecting a rocket

Exploring new toys

Thursday September 1st

During morning circle time today, We reviewed some feeling words and began our weather report and daily calender activities. We also reviewed some feeling words and pulled faces that could represent these feelings. Today we also used our puzzle pieces from yesterday to move around the classroom and find a friend whose puzzle piece fitted nicely with our own. Children then collaboratively taped the pieces together, and we displayed them at the entrance to our classroom. After that, a walk in the forest provided children with the opportunity  to practise being partners with a friend, and exploring the many creepy crawlies, and nature that surround our school. We also played a listening game and reflected on how we had been good listeners. We documented this on e a mini poster: Good listeners…Stop! Look! Listen! We practised neat colouring in on a dumbo colouring activity, and older students thought about the kinds of things they learn when they listen to their friends, teachers and parents.

Exploring the classroom toys during indoor recess

Making dinner in our kitchen area

Friday September 2nd

We continued to practise all of our daily routines today, and children showed much improvement on managing their toys during play time, and making beautiful lines while waiting for the toilet and waiting to go outside. We are so proud of them! We also reviewed “How to be  a good listener”, and that is exactly what all of the boys and girls did when we shared “The Gingerbread man” and did our earthquake drill. We learned where the safe area of our classroom is, and practised responding to teachers announcements “Earthquake, jishin“, by moving to the safe area quickly, and then to “Duck” (get down on the ground and tuck their head under) and “Cover” (cover the back of their head with their hands). Although many of our students are quite used to earthquakes and what to do nowadays, we would like to ask parents to review this at home with your preschoolers, and talk about where the safe place in your home is in the event of an earthquake.

Children find a soccer ball on the field at recess, and practise their soccer skills

Reminders…

- Thank you to all the parents who have brought in children’s supplies already! If there are are still some things that your child needs to bring in, please try and send them to school this week.

- If you are interested in volunteering at TIP, please try and return our “Invitation to volunteer” during the coming week. Thank you!!!

Important dates

Monday September 12th – Open School Day (9:00-10:00am) & Parent Circle (10:30-11:30am)

Wednesday September 14th – School Tour for prospective families, 9:30am

Monday September 19th – National holiday, No school

Friday September 23rd – National holiday, No school

October 5th to 7th – TIP Parent-Teacher conferences

Monday October 10th – National holiday, No school

Tuesday October 11th – Open School Day (1-2pm) & Parent Circle (2-3pm)

Wednesday October 12th – School Tour for prospective families, 9:30am

October 20th to 21st – PYP Authorisation visit

Thursday October 27th – TIS & TIP Fall Festival

Running on the field

The past 2 weeks at TIP, children have been sharing stories about moving up a class, reflecting on what we have learned the past year, and what our favourite things about TIP this year have been. We also created some new memories to take on our new journeys with us.

Tanabata wish: "I want a McQueen toy"

Our final Unit of Inquiry this year, was From Farm to Table, and we learned about where food comes from, what different ingredients make up some popular food items, and the processes involved in getting food to us. On Thursday June 23rd, TIP students, parents and younger siblings visited the Ibaraki prefectural agriculture research centre, which is a large prefectural farm not far from Tsukuba City. Here, children experienced firsthand how to milk and feed cows, and learned how to make fresh butter and ice cream. It was certainly a fun and memorable experience to tie up our learning for the year. We showed our appreciation by writing thank you letters to the staff on Friday, telling them what we had learned and what we enjoyed most on our visit there.

Patting a 3 day old calf

Feeding the cows

Shaking our butter

Shake shake shake

Mixing eggs for our ice cream

Making ice cream

Yummy ice cream!

What a wonderful year we have had at TIP! It’s gone by extremely fast though. Following our field trip on Thursday, we had our TIP graduation ceremony. It’s hard to believe it’s been a year already, but we are confident that our 12 P3 graduates will be just fantastic learners in 1st grade! We wish them all of the best and hope that they continue to grow and learn as much as they can, and continue to care for all those around them as they have done this past year. We are so very proud of each and every one of them. For our younger students, we can’t believe how much they have all grown up! We are so proud of all their achievements and are excited that we get to spend another special year with them after the summer.

TIP Graduating class of 2010-2011

Post graduation tea party

Next week we have three additional student days, which we will dedicate to “Summer Fun”. Our students have brainstormed a list of activities, old favourites and new ones, that they would like to do with their class. Some things that have made the list include learning centres, making clay, cooking, origami, sand play and art.

This will be our last blog for the 2010-2011 school year at TIP. Once again, a HUGE thank you to all our families, who have supported us throughout this year! We could not have done as much as we have without your continued support and cooperation. Thank you! We wish you all a very enjoyable and safe summer holiday, and look forward to reuniting again after the summer.

Playing hopscotch during PE centres

This week, children very much enjoyed our 2 visits to TIS! On Wednesday we watched the drama club’s “Little red riding hood” play, which the children loved! Then on Thursday, we took up an invitation to have a look at Grade 3′s solar ovens and even got to try some cookies that they had baked!

Units of inquiry

During inquiry time, children have been exploring their chosen focus foods (P3/Kinder) and insects (P1& P2/Pre-Kinder) by making them from paper clay. They then chose colours to paint them with and told their teacher about what they’d made. Kinder students are really starting to think and ask questions about the source of their foods, and enjoy giving us a mini report each lunch time when they open their lunch boxes! Thank you so much to those parents that have sent in some food labels for us to take a look at! We will use these in inquiry time in the coming weeks.Pre-kinder are also now very knowledgeable about the insects that are found in our surroundings, and are constantly reporting what they’ve found.

Liteacy time

Preschool children reviewed journal writing this week, and did our best on a final entry for our portfolios. Pre-Kinder students have been practising their name writing, and Kinder students have been doing some word work in their Letterland activity books which most have now finished.

As a class, we have also been doing lots of story retelling and reflections. This week we read the story ”Wemberly worrisome”. Children reflected on the main characters behaviour and enjoyed telling the class about a time they or their Mummy or Daddy have worried. Many students talked about the March earthquake, although they decided they are no longer worried about earthquakes.

Children also retold the story, “A very busy spider”.

Maths

This week, we shared the story “A very busy spider”, by one of our favourite authors’, Eric Carle. We also watched a kinder educational video clip about parts of a clock, and telling time on the hour. Kinder students then went on to talk about what they know about clocks, and handled some toy clocks. We practised turning the hands to make different hourly times. On Thursday, children made their very own clock, which we will continue to use next week during maths time.

Japanese

This Friday in Japanese class, children put together their rainy season origami gardens. They also sang a Japanese song about the rainy season. Next week we will learn about Tanabata and do a craft activity.

Exploring Music

Children explored different voices this week and made music to the tune of “Old MacDonald had a farm”. In violin class, children have been strengthening their arms and fingers through some new exercises, as well as refining the way they should stand and hold their instrument, and use their bow. Please encourage your children to practise what they have learned at home.

Looking forward…

- Our “show & tell” next week is free choice. There will be no “show & tell” the following week.

- On Thursday June 23rd, TIP will have our field trip and graduation ceremony. Please remember to return permission slips, bus money, and order a bento if you would like to, by Friday June 17th.

Important dates

Thursday June 16th – TIS PYP Exhibition

Thursday June 23rd – TIP Field trip & Graduation

Friday June 24th – Cleaning Day at TIP (old clothes, please), Third term officially ends, Portfolios go home

Monday June 27th to Wednesday June 29th – Optional additional student days

Wednesday June 29th – TIS parent volunteer day and picnic lunch with families (TIP will also join)

Thursday June 30th – Summer holidays begin

Radishes from our garden!

This week at TIP we finally harvested our radishes from the garden, and had some fun tasting them! Without doubt, our  word of the day was “bitter”, or “nigai” in Japanese. I am proud to say though that every boy and girl at least tried a little bit!

TIP children also made pancakes this week! Students remembered how to make them and thought about where each ingredient had come from and how they had arrived at our school. Children chose between Mrs. Hiromi’s homemade strawberry jam and chocolate syrup for toppings. Please ask your children about their pancake experience and perhaps you could try making them together at home?

Making pancakes

Units of inquiry

During inquiry time this week, Pre-K students examined our local mini beasts in more detail and carefully made them from oil clay.They then used materials from our junk and craft boxes, to construct them.

Kinder students are demonstrating an interest in food and  have begun making foods from paper, and sharing them with our class for “Show & Tell” or during play time. In inquiry time this week, we reviewed solid shapes, and went ahead and constructed some solid food samples using our craft and junk box materials.

Liteacy time

This week at TIP, we shared “A very hungry caterpillar”, and children retold the story using large picture cards. We learned what antennas were and made our own with pipe cleaners. Children also did a little drama, reenacting the story together.

We also shared the story “Owen”. It’s a story about a  young mouse who could not part with his favourite fluffy baby blanket before starting kindergarten. Children retold the story and then  shared with the class some of their favourite things that they like(d) to take everywhere with them.

Kinder Maths

This week during maths we started a new unit on time. We sorted and ordered events by the time of day that they are done, and played some action games. Next week we will look at clocks and learn how to tell the time.

Japanese

All of our children love making origami and they really are getting incredibly patient and skilled at the art of paper folding! This week in Japanese class, children continued to talk about rainy season and made some hydrangeas (ajisai あじさい) by folding paper, as well as tearing and sticking small pieces on their origami.

Looking forward…

- Our “Show & Tell” for the next two weeks are free choice, and we will not have it in our last full week of school.

- On Thursday June 23rd, TIP will have a graduation ceremony. Please keep this day free in your schedule. Further details will follow soon.

Important dates

Wednesday June 8th – Open school day

Friday June 10th – Scholastic book orders due

Thursday June 16th – TIS PYP Exhibition

Thursday June 23rd – TIP Graduation

Friday June 24th – Cleaning Day at TIP (old clothes, please), Third term officially ends, Portfolios go home

Monday June 27th to Wednesday June 29th – Optional additional student days

Wednesday June 29th – TIS parent volunteer day and picnic lunch with families (TIP will also join)

Thursday June 30th – Summer holidays begin