2020 - 2021 Pre-Kinder Term 1 Reflection

Hello everyone, 

I apologize for not putting out a blog post sooner. With all that has been going on with the first half of Term 1 being taught from home, there was a lot to unpack when we finally got back in the classroom. 

I have had such a blast teaching this classroom and getting to know their strengths and weaknesses. Our first week back in the classroom consisted of re-acclimating to the classroom not just for the students but for us teachers as well. Our first priority was to truly meet the students personally and assess them in the classroom. But most importantly get them comfortable with the changes in their daily schedule and make sure they understand the rules of the classroom. 

During this month we worked a lot on our Unit of Inquiry. During term 1 we have been talking about "Who We Are" and about how the differences in people give us new ideas and perspectives. For one of our lessons the students paired up and would ask each other if they like certain things, and if they did they would paste the picture of the thing they liked. In the end the students differed in many things and the worksheet was proof of how they differed in what they liked. 

Their ability to read is a high priority in Pre-K and I am asking all of the parents to help them read at home with them whenever you have a chance. In class I make sure that each child has a 1-on-1 reading session with me, Ms. Nao, or Mrs. Aynur. We focus on 4 children a day and by the end of the week every child has had a reading session with the teacher. I also encourage the children to read in class when they have free-time. Throughout the month we are always practicing sight words and I am impressed with how much they remember. It's always fun to see how many ways we can teach and learn the sight words. 

In the gym we are using our time less for play time and more for practicing their gross motor skills and advanced movements. Anytime we are in the gym there is a theme behind it. Some of it is a secret though! because we want the parent's to be surprised during sports day. 

Okay, I'll show you a sneak peak but don't tell Ms. Nao I showed you.

As a reminder we will be having our Parent-Teacher Conference on 22nd of July. I am looking forward to having a chat with you all. 

Updates: I have been assessing each students reading level and I have noticed improvement in all the students. Please encourage them at home to practice reading on Raz-kids and read with them as much as possible, it will go a long way in their development. 

As for homework, if your child has trouble doing the homework encourage them to do their best but try not to give them the answer or have them work on it until they get everything right. We want them to make mistakes so that they take responsibility in correcting their mistakes themselves instead of relying on the parents or teachers for the right answer. Of course if they have trouble understanding the homework then giving them explanation on what to do is fine. 

If homework is difficult to understand for the parent, feel free to send a message to me via google classroom in either Japanese or English. It will be easier for me to respond via google classroom rather than Jupiter.

I hope you enjoy reading the blog, check back here every now and then for more updates.

What a year.

It is still surreal to me that the year has ended so suddenly. It feels like just yesterday that I first met the students of PreK A. I couldn't have asked for a better class for my first year working at Abroad International School. Throughout the entire year together we learned a lot of things, not just about the world, but about each other. PreK A had great synergy and personality that was unique. I'll truly miss it. I've learned just as much from them as they learned from me.

Some of the things that I'll remember fondly are things that were difficult to take record of. From marching around the school and to the park chanting "I don't know but I've been told! Mr. James is getting old!" Or creating special handshakes for each of the students. Or chanting "PreK A! PreK A!, PreK A!" in class and out of class. Throughout this year I set out to foster a high moral, prideful class. And I think by the end we accomplished that goal.

Since coming back from the winter break the students were so hard at work preparing for YEP. By practicing for the performance, as well as thinking up what art work they wanted. Unfortunately the year ended abruptly before the artwork came into fruition.















In the end we still had fun, in the end we learned a lot and grew. Kinder here they come.

For the next few weeks I am still available to assist students in any way, albeit remotely. Please do not hesitate to email me about homework or anything else. I would be happy to assist in their learning at home.

Thank you for a wonderful year, see you all in April.

- James Barbosa

Highlights of the last month.

We are fast approaching to the end of the year and I can't even believe it. The students have been hard at work preparing for YEP, as well as their art for YEP art gallery. Sorry for the lack of updates, the end of the year is fast approaching and there has been a lot of work to do!

The students had a lot of fun at Kids Plaza and I heard they especially enjoyed it because we went as a class, so the students were able to enjoy it with all their friends. Here are a few pictures of that time.

Another big highlight of the month has been our valentines day week where each student made a valentines day mailbox and throughout the last few days of the week the students could write a little valentines note, or make origami, or even bring a treat for their friends and put it into their mailbox. The students seem to enjoy it a lot and I was happy to see how much thought and time they put into making things for their friends.

Showed a lot of caring during this valentines week. :)

As stated above we are hard at work preparing for YEP, we are practicing the dance in class, but if they have time to practice at home the link to the dance is here.

As always if you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact me anytime.

- Mr James

New year, new term

Glad to see everyone back to school and I hope you all had a fun and relaxing holiday. This term we will be talking about how we express ourselves. The central idea being art, and how art inspires us. We started off this week with the question "What is art?" and "What kinds of art are there?". The goal of this term is to have the students express themselves in different ways. If they struggle with expressing themselves by speaking, perhaps they will be able to express themselves in other ways. 

Our first art project was to take card paper and make shapes out of it in order to make a picture of something using shapes. You can see the final product on the wall outside the classroom.

A few updates, we are well on our way in planning and practicing for YEP.

This week is Etta's birthday! Happy Birthday Etta!

We are planning our last field trip for the year and will have updates for you in the next week or so.

Stay tuned.

- James Barbosa

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone is having a great holiday. I look forward to seeing everyone next week for the 3rd term of the year. The last 2 weeks of school before the holidays were jam-packed with things like Our final assessment of our unit, a park excursion, and of course the last day of school which we had a talent show, and winter party.

The last week of school was also the 5th birthday of 4 of the students in the class. Ayuma, Kaname, Siwoo, and Kinryo have all turned 5

To finish our unit about sharing the planet we went to a park with the Pre-K B classduring our park time and we did our part to clean up the park.

They all did well with cleaning up and finished within 10 minutes. After that they were free to enjoy their park and snack time in the park.

On the last day of the week we had our talent show and winter party. For our winter party we made cookies. Unfortunately it was difficult for Ms Hisako and I to take photos, but we did take some.

See you all in the new year! 

- James Barbosa

Week 32 and Teachers appreciation week

This week was pretty fun! Ms Hisako and I really appreciate all the nice things that were brought in for us, all the cards and even crafts that the students made in class for us was really nice. Thank you so much.

This week we finished reading the story 'The Lorax' and made a craft based off the book.

We are nearing the end of the term and our 'Sharing the Planet' unit. Next week they will be learning about countries and their resources. As they learn they will choose a country to represent.

A few reminders to consider,

The last week of school we will have a lot of things going on. One is the class birthday party for the students whom birthdays are in December. The other event is our class winter party, and the talent show. 

Lastly I will be preparing a homework packet for the students that will involve math, reading, and writing practice. If you have any questions regarding homework, you can email me anytime.

That is all for this week, here are a few pictures of the students throughout the week.

- James Barbosa

End of November

End of November has come and gone and November was jam-packed full of things we needed to do. As you already know the students have been studying hard on their reading in the class and out of the class. I can already see improvements in their reading so lets try to reinforce it at home whenever possible!

With that in mind I have assigned books on Raz-kids for them to read in order to reinforce their reading ability. My hope is that the students will be able to be able to read the test books by just looking at the book once instead of taking home the test book to practice.

Now what happened towards the end of November? Well it was Rizumu's birthday so we celebrated it! Happy Birthday Rizumu, you're now the big 5!

The last week of November was also Science week. Our inquiry theme is about sharing the planet, so it tied into science week nicely. We had the grade 7 and 8 class come in and show us some robots, one robot was even able to solve a Rubik's cube so quick! The other robots the students were able to control them via smartphone and try and play soccer with them.

All the students had a chance to control the robots. 

In return for showing us the robots we made a big thank you card for the 7 and 8 class. 

A new addition to our class is our wonder tree. What makes a god inquirer? Well asking questions, and finding the answer to that question makes a good inquirer so the students thought up many questions about the world and we put them on the wonder tree. 

Towards the end of science week we met with the 7 and 8 class in the park for the last time to show the students the famous coke and mentos experiment. I asked the students 'What do you think will happen?' and Kaname said 'It will go like a volcano!' I knew some of the students saw this before, but I was happy with the explanation.

Before I end this blog post a few updates. We will be celebrating 4 birthdays in December, the class birthday party will be on December 18th, and on the 20th, which is the last day before winter holidays there will be a talent show and a big class winter party. 

Until next time, hope you enjoy this post!