CURRENT EVENTS

• 2020.02.21Open English Class ~ Junior

  

  Class 1
  Today was a lot of fun for the children and teachers in Class 1. Our day started early, and Mommies and Daddies were waiting for us to arrive. The children pointed out our mail box, which had a letter from our Brazillian friends, Paolo and Fernanda. They told us that Carnival was today! Some of the English teachers wanted to go to Carnival to dance the Samba, but their dancing clothes were dirty and mixed together in the washing machine. We completed a phonics puzzle to open the washing machine and the children remembered how to dress with a song about getting dressed. Class 1 children could ask each other, “Where does is go?” “It goes on the head!” and tell where to put the clothes. Everyone helped the sad English teachers get their dancing clothes on. Once they got in their airplane, we realized that it needed samba power to fly. We all put on our samba crowns and danced together. After the teachers had flown away, the children then dancd with their Mommies and Daddies as well. The children had a lot of fun getting ready for today, and spoke lots of great English, as well as danced with great energy! Thank you to all of the parents and grandparents who came today!

  

  Class 2 and 3
  We had so much fun in Classes 2 and 3! The children really enjoyed speaking English while making snowmen and dancing. They helped Mr. Snowman make snowmen friends! We were very impressed by the children’s speaking to ask one another “How are you?” When it came time to make snowmen, they could all say sizes like “big”, “medium”, and “small” and many children remembered locations such as “on the top”. Every child could speak in front of their classmates and say full sentences like “I have a hat.” We did the “Snowman Dance” and sang the “ABC Song” too! Thank you so much to the parents and family members who came today. We hope you could enjoy seeing your children communicating in English with confidence. The Junior children have made so much progress this year and have so much fun with English. Great job, everyone! See you next week.

• 2020.02.20Open English Class ~ Intermediate

  

  Class 4

  The children were very excited to take on the three challenges of Mrs. Thief and get the Class 4 alphabet treasure back. We warmed up with a quick English finger-play and I spy quiz from the teachers assistants. Next was the first challenge. This was singing an English song. Everyone could sing in a nice and clear voice and the first challenge was completed. The second challenge entailed children putting back three letter word puzzle cards back together and presenting them to the class. Everyone could read their three letter words very well in a big voice. The final challenge was the world quiz challenge. The children had to work in teams to put flag puzzles back together, assemble characters from different countries and identify the correct map. Everyone could do this very well and the children were successful with all of the quizzes. Class 4 could find a key for the magic machine and they were able to get all the treasure back and are well on their way to becoming Class 7! Well done Class 4!

  Class 5 and Class 6

  For over a week, the children have been looking forward to visiting Queen Grandmother’s Clock and Watch Shop. However, Queen Grandmother was sick today, so the children worked together to open her shop for her! We started out by playing a matching game to make teams of shop helpers and delivery helpers. All the children were able to ask and answer “What do you have?” and “I have a/an [shape]” clearly and loudly. After that, the children used instruction cards from Queen Grandmother to place the clocks and watches they had made onto the shop shelves, asking each other “Where does it go?” and answering “It goes ____” with confidence. Finally, the children helped complete an ABC board by matching phonetic sounds to pictures and placing them on the ABC board. Today, the children did a wonderful job making teams, setting up Queen Grandmother’s shop, and completing the ABC board using phonics! It will be exciting to see them take on new English adventures as seniors! Great job, everyone!

• 2020.02.19Open English Class ~ Senior

  

  Today was Open English Class day for the Seniors. In the morning, Class 7 invited their parents to watch their English Activity. We received 3 challenges from ‘i-Spy’, the first was a series of mazes. In pairs, the children had to navigate the hungry animals to the food using the commands, “Go forwards __ steps, turn left, turn right” etc. The next challenge was to put the sentences of the story Cinderella into the correct order. In their teams they did excellently reading and ordering the story. The next challenge was to play a card game about Endangered Animals, asking each other, “How endangered is it?” and “How many are left?” before defeating ‘i-Spy’ in a final round of the game. Everyone used lots of English and it was great to show all of the parents how much, how naturally and how enthusiastic the children speak English each day here at IYK. Thank you again to all of the parents that attended today.

  

  In today’s Open English Class, Class 8 were able to make delicious pizzas using lots of toppings, including broccoli, cheese, and sausage. To do this, they asked each other “Which toppings do you want?” and everyone took it in turns to say “I want __ and __, please.” I was very impressed to hear everyone saying “please”, “here you are”, and “thank you”. Class 8 also put slices of pizza into their pizza boxes and sent them to the nurse, pilot, teacher, fire fighter, farmer, and chef in a special delivery truck. To do so, they used English sentences such as “Where does he/she work?” and answered using the sentence “He/she works in the ___.” Everyone did their best to speak in a big voice. Well done, Class 8! I’d again like to thank all parents who took the time to come today.

  

  Class 9 worked very hard in today’s Open English Class. They completed a Phonics Challenge in groups to spell three-letter words in English. They wrote words such as ‘cat’, ‘bat’, ‘ten’, ‘pen’, and ‘dog’. They also used their spelling skills to write the secret five-letter password and unlock the fridge. Inside, we found lots of pizza toppings from our friend Giuseppe, including green peppers, mushrooms, and tomatoes. We made yummy pizzas by asking our friends “Which toppings do you want?”, and everyone was able to pick 2 toppings. We then carefully put our pizzas in the oven and, while we waited, we sang the ‘Pizza Song’ in a big voice: “There was a class at IYK, and they love yummy pizza!” We had lots of fun and everyone did such a good job, speaking and singing confidently. Good job, Class 9! Thank you again to all of the parents who took the time to join us today.

• 2020.02.18Today’s Class 4

  

  Today was a lot of fun in Class 4. First, we had a swimming lesson in the pool. It was great to see all the children trying their best to swim on their backs and everyone enjoyed the playtime at the end. After that we had a morning meeting followed by making birthday presents for three of our Class 4 friends. We also had a little bit of sketchbook and clay time followed by lunch time. Today’s lunch was the request lunch and the children could eat a lot of curry. After lunch we learned how to write some of the new three letter words. Playtime followed this and the children really enjoyed listening to the Hyogen Festival CD and dancing to all the songs again. All in all it was a great day in Class 4.

• 2020.02.17Today’s Class3

  

  「今日はラビットさんがお買い物に来てくれるんだよね！」と、プレスクールのお友達とのお買い物ごっこを楽しみに元気に登園してきた3組さん。「早く来てくれないかな～！」とお店屋さんのオープンを今か今かと心待ちにしていたお子さま達。今日は、お店屋さんの店員さんチームとラビットさんをエスコートするチームに分かれて、お買い物ごっこを楽しみました。「いらっしゃいませ～！！」「おいしい、アメリカンドックですよ～！」とお勧めするお子さま、「何味のジュースがいいですか～？」「クリームとサクランボがのったクリームソーダですよ～！」とお店の宣伝もバッチリ☆あっという間に品物は完売でした。一方、エスコートチームは、小さなお客さまの手をしっかり引き、「どのお店からにする？」「お金を渡すんだよ。」などど、優しく声をかけながら一緒にお買い物を楽しんでいました。進級を前に、一足早くお兄さん、お姉さん気分を味わうことができた、ラビットさんとのお買い物ごっこ。お子さま達、一人ひとりがちょっぴり頼もしく見えた一日になりました。明日はコアラクラスのお友達がお買い物に来てくれますよ♪みんなでお店屋さんになって楽しみましょうね☆

• 2020.02.14Today’s Koala Class

  

  Today in Koala Class we had outside play! The children enjoyed the snow even though it was a bit wet and not fluffy. They could enjoy sledding, digging, and making “cakes” with snow. After playtime in the snow we came back to the kindergarten and had morning meeting and lunch time. Everyone was very hungry! After lunch, the junior class children came to Koala Class. Next time we will join them for shopping, so they showed us the items they will sell and gave us money. Next time we have shopping and music. Let’s enjoy it and great job today, Koala Class!

• 2020.02.13Today’s class 2

  

  今週月曜日から２組の部屋には、雛人形が飾られ毎日嬉しそうに眺めているお子さま達。年中さんや年長さんも時間があると２組の部屋へ見に来ます。今日は、線書きのワークブックが始めの活動です。迷路のページを開いて、スタートからゴールまでみんな上手に線を引くことができました。あと２ページでこの本も終了です。続いての活動はSwimming。カエルジャンプやカニさん、ワニ歩きなどたくさんのことにチャレンジしました。入園当初プールが苦手だったお子さまも、水に顔をつけられるようになったり鼻からブクブクができるようになったりと、毎回大きな成長が見られます。そして今日１番大事なことが、食事後にありました。来週年少組のお店屋さんごっこにプレスクールを招待することになり、各クラスが商品とポスターをもってプレスクールへ商品の宣伝へ行きました。２組がつくった品物は“アイス”と“スマホ”。「アイス屋さんをします。買いに来て下さいね！」と元気一杯紹介しました。「これはバニラ！」「これはブドウ味！」とたくさんのメニューもしっかり伝えることができましたよ！プレスクールを招待する前にまず明日は、年少組だけのお店屋さんごっこです。どんな品物が売っているのか楽しみですね。店番もしっかりお願いします！

• 2020.02.12Today’s Rabbit Class

  

  今日も元気に登園してきたラビットクラスさん。雪遊びを楽しみに来てくれました。公園では雪のケーキ屋さんごっこやそりすべり、かまくらに入っておうちごっこなどを楽しみました。最後は大きな雪だるまと一緒にハイポーズ！バケツに入れた雪を持ち帰り、部屋で観察をしました。「小さくなってきたね」「溶けるんだよ」「氷になるんだよ」と想像しながら興味津々に観察していました。明日はどうなっているか楽しみですね。とても楽しい雪遊びでした。たっぷり雪遊びをした後はお腹がすいてお母さまが作ってくれたお弁当を「おいしいね」と勢いよく食べていました。2月生まれの友達のバースデーソングを歌ってお祝いもしました。明日はEnglish Lessonがあります。元気いっぱいなラビットクラスさんに会えることを楽しみにしています。

• 2020.02.10Today’s Class 1

  

  Class 1 had a fantastic day today. As soon as everyone arrived, we suited up for the cold and went to Kitakaze Park to play in the snow. It was deep and perfect for making snowballs! We all had a blast sledding and running around, and before we knew it, it was time to head back inside. After doing the Morning Meeting we started making our Hina Matsuri dolls. The children chose lovely patterned origami paper and folded kimonos, then made heads and stuck them on. Today’s lunch was rice ball cooking, so once we all had our plates, we squeezed the rice and made rice balls together. It was very yummy! After lunch we had some Discovery Time and the class helped put the finishing touches on some items that we will sell when we do pretend shopping soon! Have a great day and see you next time!

• 2020.02.08IYK Speaking Contest

  

  The 18th IYK Speaking Contest was held today and it was so much fun! The kindergarten children came in the morning and did a fantastic job. They showed excellent skills in English listening, pronunciation, intonation, communication ability, use of full sentences and great effort to speak only in English throughout the contest. The children visited a farmer in his farm, a zookeeper at her zoo and a fisherman at the beach and completed tasks and communicated in great English to earn their stickers. It was a really close competition and it was unfortunate that there could only be 3 winners per grade as everyone showed fantastic English enthusiasm. In the afternoon we held the Elementary level contest, with the children doing a similarly great job, this time tackling Eiken 5th, 4th and 3rd grade listening questions, as well as the higher grade children preparing and performing short presentations as their Speaking Test. It was great to see such a high level of English being spoken and everyone that entered should feel very proud of their efforts and we hope you feel encouraged to study harder and to challenge yourselves more with your English education. Again, well done everyone and thank you to all of the parents for their continued support.

  If you entered or not, we are looking forward to seeing you at next year’s Speaking Contest