Term 3 is a go

Hope everyone had a great New Years holiday!

Term 3 has started and our focus for this term is expressing ourselves through art. And with that comes preparation for our year-end performance (YEP) 

Tuesday we got right into the swing of things, the students didn't miss a beat and got back into the routine without any problems. In the morning we learned and practiced blended phonics sounds, we started off easy and I was really impressed with how much knowledge they retained over the holidays. We also did some group reading where everyone had a turn or two to read passages from Raz-Kids books.

We started off our unit of inquiry learning about the words express and expression and how we express our feelings in different ways. The students learned that "Express yourself means to show people how you feel"

Wednesday we read a book called "The Dot" it is about a girl that feels like she can't draw and be an artist but ends up drawing wonderful pieces of art based off dots. It's a book to show the students that even if they like they are not good artists, that art can be inspired by a simple idea like making a dot. For language focus we practiced sight words, for the rest of the term I will be testing students individually on their ability to read sight words so please encourage them to practice at home! (Red cards and blue cards)

On Thursday the students learned about the basics of color theory. Color theory teaches us that we feel certain feelings based on the colors we see. For example the color red conveys strong feelings like love, or anger, while yellow can convey feelings of happiness, or nervousness. We then took what we learned and created some watercolor paintings of our names.

Friday the students were taught about distance. We learned about centimeters and meters. To make it more fun the students were taught how to make paper airplanes in order to measure the distance of how far the students can throw it. Learning the concept of distance is difficult, and we will be revisiting it several times over the course of term 3. Kids loved throwing airplanes inside the gym though!

Before the students move onto kinder I will be testing the students reading, writing and math comprehension each week. Reinforcing their reading and writing at home will go a long way to help them develop their skills for kinder. When a student gets positive reinforcement at home it definitely shows in the classroom!

Until next week, 

- James  Barbosa

Term 2

 Hey everyone, 

I hope you're enjoying the fall season. It's starting to get chilly but it's a welcome change from the crazy heat we had in the summer! Term 2 is going well, here is an update on how the class is going. 

Our Unit of Inquiry for the first half of term 2 is How the world works. In this unit we are talking about how living things go through many changes. I am impressed with how well they understood the unit and vocabulary. They have learned about what living things are, and what makes something a living thing and the changes they go through. From a human baby to an adult, to a tadpole turning into a frog, the students grasped the concept easily. 

Towards the end of the unit the students have planted their own seeds and are taking responsibility for caring of their plant. Some have even started to grow! 

As for our adventures in math we have been practicing addition a lot in order to work on calculating big numbers! So if you can challenge them at home to practice their addition skills that would go a long way in their understanding of math. This term a lot of our math focus is on patterning. Patterning is everywhere, in the sounds we hear, in the clothes we wear, and in what we see. Students are working on their understanding of patterns. In the pictures you seem the students had to make their own patterns out of colors. 

Patterning will be an on-going thing throughout the year from here on out, if you are bored at home try making up some patterns to help them learn the concept!

As it got colder we had some great opportunities to go to the park and have fun. One such day we were able to spend a lot more time at the park and even ate our snack there. 

Hopefully before it gets too cold we will be able to have another picnic in the park.

We will beginning our new unit soon. This unit will focus on Organizing ourselves and our things around us. Stay tuned to find out more. 

- Mr. James

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