YPK: What can be recycled? : April 23, 2009

ジーナ先生より

This morning in circle, we sang the Calendar Polka and learned how to polka (well, sort of). The kids requested *Everybody Jump* two times (they never get tired of that song!) and also Bear Hunt, and we did a little Row Your Boat before we sat down for our morning meeting. H.K. was our morning meeting manager today and did a fine job.

Jen's class today was Science, and in honor of Earth Week, the kids cut out pictures from newspaper advertisements of things that can be recycled and pasted them by category (glass, plastic, paper, cans) and talked about recycling, and what we can do to reduce garbage and pollution.

In Jeana's Language Arts today, the Gallaxies worked some more on using their notebooks correctly - writing today's date and the weather. W.D. got his notebook for the first time today and also practiced writing his name in mixed case for the first time. All of the kids are showing a lot of progress in their writing skills - they are tracking letters better, copying out words from the board with more ease, and writing their lower case letters better and better.

They are also making progress on leaving a finger of space between words and adding periods to end of sentences. K.H. asks me every day if he can use his notebook today. They seem to really enjoy the writing part. Once the novelty wears off and they are familiar with the basic mechanics of writing in a notebook everyday, we won't have to spend half the class on it, but for now, they need that time at least twice a week.

In Language Arts with the Planets, we reviewed the "Can it! Save the Planet" Song and also read and sang thru the "Koinobori Song" in English. Both Planets and Gallaxies used the last half of their class to make birthday cards for Jen, as well.

In PE today, we continued with our "training". The kids are already showing more concentration, more flexibility, more coordination - K.H. can do 10 sit ups now with almost no trouble. W.D. can, too. In fact, all the kids are showing improvement in sit ups. K.H. can also do 10 push ups perfectly! He is a great role model for the other kids. The kids take turns helping each other with situps - they are so kind and helpful to each other! Wow! After warmups and stretches, the
kids lined up to practice forward and backward flips on the monkey bars (with a teacher spotting them, of course). We've stressed that the kids should NOT do flips on the bars without a teacher to hold the jungle gym in place. I really look forward to the warmer weather so we can go up to the park and use the bars there.

You wouldn't believe the difference - Last week K.H. taught H.K. and Y.S. how to do front and back flips. This week they taught all the other boys! The smaller boys still need some help, but everyone is showing A LOT of improvement! It is a lot of fun to see them develop their arm muscles along with their English muscles.

In recess and free play time, the boys are still obsessed with "Kick the Can", but they also enjoyed playing in the Sand Box.

In arts and crafts time, the kids stamped animals on strips of paper to make a border for our classroom, and then danced to Ants Go Marching (til they were exhausted).

Our goodbye story today was *From Tadpole to Frog* and *Shark in the Park*. The kids took home their beautiful Koinobori decorations today.

YPK: The Earth Day Week begins: April 21, 2009

ジーナ先生より

Today was a very rainy day, so we couldn't go outside to play or have PE today. Instead we did LA and Math in the morning so we could have a longer craft time in the afternoon.

We welcomed back W.D. today - he missed the first couple of weeks of school to go on a trip around Japan with his family. We are very excited to have him back in the Kinders class.

This week is Earth Week, so we learned a new song today in Language Arts class with Jeana. "Can it! Save the Planet!" And we talked about Reuse, Reduce and Recycle, Pollution and Trash, and things we can do to keep the planet Earth clean. The kids are very enthusiastic about this subject.

In our arts and crafts block of time, we broke up into three centers - while one small group helped color and paint a big WE LOVE THE EARTH wall mural for the main room with Jeana, another small group played the *What's Garbage?* board game with Jen. And the third group put together the
big Zoo Animals floor puzzle.

In Math class with Jen, the kids have been working on reviewing the names of eight basic shapes (recognition, production, reading and writing) and talking about shapes in daily life.

Tomorrow, if the weather is good, the kids will pick up garbage in the park near our school in honor of Earth Day.

YPK : Cherry Blossom Picnic : April 14, 2009

ジーナ先生より

Today was our Hanami (Cherry Blossom) Picnic. We sang "The Ants Go Marching" and "Springtime is Coming" in morning circle. Then we enjoyed our milk/snack a little early so all the kids would have time to visit the potty before we boarded the bus for the park. We put on our backpacks and grabbed our hats and loaded up the bus. On the bus we sang "Let's All Go To The Park" and everyone enjoyed watching for beautiful cherry blossoms out the windows.

We went to Kaiseizan Park, which is located in downtown Koriyama. We walked to the small tots playground area. On the way, we stopped to admire the beautiful tulips and pansies, and say "thank you" to the men and women weeding the flower beds. We chose a spot under the trees for lunch and put our backpacks on a big ground sheet. The Toddlers and Rompers 1 played in the small tots lot where they practiced climbing and sliding and swinging. S.S. "took care" of Y.Y. T.S. enjoyed climbing on and off the rocking animals, and N.Y. loved the slides. M.O. really liked the swings. I.N. really liked the way the cherry blossoms would fall like snow when there was a big wind. They all had a great time.

The Rompers 2 and Kinders walked along the Seseragi Path to the other side of the park to the big kids playground. The Rompers 2 and Kinders exclaimed "beautiful" and "fantastic" as we walked thru the park. At the playground, the kids enjoyed climbing up the tall ladder on the big slide and swinging on the swings. They also walked on the wall around the maze. M.T. loved driving the bus. T.S. showed off his balance skills. H.K., K.H., and Y.S. enjoyed showing off their new "heads over" on the monkey bars. H.I., K.U., and T.E. played chased all over the lot.

At 11:30 we met up with the little kids for lunch and enjoyed our delicious obentos. The three kinder boys sat together on H.K.'s sheet and shared their lunches and laughs. It was so nice to see the three of them enjoying eachother's company and sharing everything. M.T. sat with Jen and Jeana. And the three younger boys sat in a row and got busy eating. H.I. then shared some snacks with all the kids after lunch, and then we went back to play again - this time we stayed on the little tots lot - til 1 pm when the bus picked us up.

Back at school, K.U. and H.I. did their self-introduction posters to the class, and we drew pictures of our favorite part of the picnic. The kids went crazy and most kids drew two or more pictures of their day. H.K. drew ONE perfect blossom in great detail, and then some cars. Then it was time to go home.

It was a beautiful cherry blossom day.

サタデーイマージョン－Aクラス : April 11, 2009

今年度新登場のクラスです。

YSS-A(サタデースクール・アドバンスクラス）。4年生以上の進級生によって構成されます。

1ヶ月から5週間をかけて一つのテーマの調べ学習を進めていきます。

最初のテーマは、4月22日のアース･デーに関連して、「地球温暖化(The Grobal Warming)」です。

調べ学習の始まりは、まず "discussion" です。「地球温暖化」について知っていることを話し合いました。ジーナ先生のお話の中で、"disappear"、"pollution"、"government" など、難しい単語が続々登場。

その都度子どもたちは、"What's disappear?"、"What's pollution?" と質問します。先生は英語で言葉の意味を説明します。

単語は、ある時は言い換えられ、ある時は詳細に解説され、またある時は場面による使い分けを提示され･･･子どもたちはその単語の概念を漠然と脳裏に描き出します。

もちろん辞書も活用しますが、本来、語彙力とはこのようにしてついてゆくものです。