Week 14

its the second last week of the term, unfortunately we couldn't go outside to the park all week due to the rain, and if it wasn't raining the humidity was too high. But we still had a chance to run around in the gym.

For the past two weeks I have been teaching the students about sportsmanship when playing games where there is a winner and a loser. Games like dodge ball and soccer are games that we have been playing. At first students were quite emotional when winning or losing and would react poorly, but as we played more and more they began to learn how to act with good sportsmanship. Instead of jumping up and down saying "we won, we won!" they started saying "good game", and whenever they lost instead of crying, or becoming angry at losing they began saying "good game".

Still a work in progress though, after all they are only 4 or 5 years old so their emotions get the better of them. But learning about good sportsmanship at an early age is always good.

On one of the last days last week we set up a gymnastics obstacle course and the students seemed to really enjoy it.

In the classroom we have been working a lot on our math, being able to count up quickly, addition and number ordering.

I set up an interactive game on the smart board and everyone was able to play a numbers whack-a-mole game.

That is all for this time, stay tuned.

- James Barbosa

Week 13 - PreK A first field trip!

Hello everyone, last week we went on our first field trip. We went to Nifrel, which is located in Expo city. Nifrel may look like an aquarium, but it is actually called an aquazoo.

There were a lot of interesting things to see inside. There were various water tanks of fish in the beginning. There was an interactive table top that reacted when you touched it.

As you went through Nifrel you come upon this really interesting room that was very dark. It is meant to show fish that live in darker waters. We saw jellyfish, and other weird kind of sea creatures.

The area after this was really cool. There was a large sphere that emulated how water moves, and looks. Judging by the amount of time the students spent in this room I would assume this was their favorite part!

We entered a few rooms where we could see animals in their watery habitats. For example, a hippo, and a few alligators. 

But we also saw something we didn't expect to see at Nifrel. A white tiger!

Towards the end we entered a room where the animals roam freely, we were told not to touch the animals but we were able to get pretty close to them. We saw penquins, beavers, and many times of birds, big and small.

At the end of the day the kids were pretty tired. On the bus ride home many of them fell asleep. The trip was a lot of fun and I look forward to planning another one! 

Stay tuned for more updates!

- James Barbosa

Week 12

Hello everyone,

Last week we had Tanabata and Japanese culture day that was held on Friday. Because of this we scheduled one of our Japanese lessons on Monday in order for the students to make Tanzaku that they can put on a branch we have in the class.

Here are the Tanzaku that the students made

And here is the Tanabata tree we had in our classroom for the week.

On the day of  the Tanabata event all the students dressed up in Japanese culture clothing, even I did. The students had Nagashi Somen which they tried to catch the somen with chopsticks while it was going going down a half-pipe. It was super fun to watch them do it.

Here are some pictures!

In the afternoon there were game stations set up that each student could go to, they even had face painting. Here are some pictures of everyone having fun!

Japanese Cuture day and the week leading up to it was quite exciting. I think everyone had a lot of fun getting to know Japanese culture.

Update!

as you may know, we have a new student in our classroom. Her name is Kinryo and she comes from China. Let us all have a warm welcome to Kinryo, our new addition to PreK A.

Just a reminder that parent/teacher conference will be held on the 26th. I look forward to talking with you.

Stay tuned next week

- James Barbosa

Week 11

Hello everyone,

Last week was a short week, as you know, due to the G20 summit that was held in Osaka. As a result there was not a whole lot that happened during the 3 days of class. 

For the next few weeks we will be working on our team work as a class both in class and out in the gym or park. They will learn more about responsibility, and how to communicate as a group. We began this by allowing each table to nominate who they thought would be best suited to be the table leader, and line leader. At first they struggled with understanding what was being asked of them, and each student would just pick themselves, but after taking the time to discuss it they answered honestly and nominated someone other than themselves. It was a good lesson that we will continue week after week.

Last Wednesday, which was the last day of the week, I noticed the students were trying to make a ball pit. But the problem was that two groups formed where one group wanted to make a ball pit in the toy house, and the other group wanted to make a ball pit using the toy gate. The problem was that there were not enough balls for two ball pits so an argument over the balls started. We then had a discussion over the pros and cons of each ball pit idea. Ultimately, the gated ball pit idea won over the house ball pit and everyone worked together to make a ball pit. Here are a few photos of the endeavor! 

Stay tuned for more.

- James Barbosa