HJIS Sendai Aoba Class Blogs 2025-26: Week 8

Hello, Orca Class families!

Morning & Afternoon Meeting

Our morning meetings this week were so engaging and fun! First, we talked about our 8 classroom rules to guide them throughout the day. Then, we started singing good morning song wherein we formed a circle and danced together as we say hello to everyone. It was such a joy seeing them laughing and holding each others' hands to begin our day. It was followed by checking our calendar time, assigning class jobs, doing a movement song and sharing about our whereabouts through our Class Dojo photos. In addition, we continued to practice for our performance for our upcoming Sports day.

In the afternoon, we read a storybook and had mini discussion through asking WH-questions like why, what, where, when and how in order to enhance their story comprehension and enrich their vocabulary words. This week was also our Show and Tell week. It was wonderful to see, touch and listen from our friends' different objects from Blue group as we got to use our five senses. Our friends shared that their favorite toys and crafts with pleasant scent. We ended our day through reading a storybook and singing a goodbye song.

Language & Literacy

Pre-K

These are the activities we did from last week to this week. To jumpstart our Literacy time , we started talking about our Raz-Kids book entitled, "This Tastes". We described the pictures and read aloud the words with everyone. Then, we reviewed phonics Bb this week through activities like singing a song, beginning Bb wheel craft and related worksheet. In addition, we had also learned about a sight word "my" and did a related worksheet. We aimed to enhance not only their literacy facet but also to lengthen their attention span and enhanced their focus and concentration which is essential to develop their skills and bodies holistically.

Kinder

These are the activities we did for this week. To jumpstart our Literacy time , we started talking about our Raz-Kids book entitled, "Under That Rock". We described the pictures and read aloud the sentences. They simply love this book as they even searched for worms and bugs under the rocks at the park. What a great connection, Kinder! We also asked them to read one sentence per each child to enhance their confidence and reading fluency. Then, we reviewed Mr. Sad who likes words with -ad and made a craft to enhance our understanding on word families, learned the sight word "has", and did some related worksheets.

Maths

Pre-K

For this week, Pre-K students started learning about comparative weights. We learned about the words “heavier” and “lighter” to make comparisons. They had some experience using a make-shift scale and seeing how some large objects can be light and some small objects can be heavy. Looks can be deceiving and we should know the material that something is made of to determine if something is heavy or light. We also experimented with objects if they are heavier or lighter than water.

Kinder

Kinder students this week continued practicing their number bonds. This practice using number bonds will continue to develop their understanding of the relationship between three numbers. Furthermore, with a solid understanding of number bonds, it will allow them to be able to more quickly do addition and subtraction math problems in the future. An example is 3, 2, and 1. If we understand the bond that 2+1=3 and 1+2=3, then we can understand that 3-2=1 and 3-1=2.

Topic Exploration

This week, our Orca class talked about our Five Senses. First, we read the book about Pete the Cat's Five Senses to jumpstart our topic. Then, we had various activities for each sense to hone their understanding and skills. These were "Five Senses" collaborative sorting activity, smelling painting out of food-grade flavoring and Japanese colored papers, texture touch guessing game boxes for hard, smooth, rough and soft objects, texture collaborative activity, listening to various sounds and my favorite snack guessing game. Undoubtedly, our class five senses were truly explored through fun and meaningful activities. After all, children learn best when they use most of their senses. Our next topic will be about Plants: seeds/life cycles. We can't wait to unfold and discover this topic in school through hands-on activities and explorations.

Free Play

Here are some more pictures of friends playing together in the classroom, in the Big Room, at the park, and enjoying other topics, events and activities at school.