HJIS Sendai Aoba Class Blogs 2025-26: Week 12

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, last Thursday, we had an earthquake drill through in the afternoon and our Orca friends were quick to their feet to evacuate.

In the afternoon, we also had our Show and Tell week. It was wonderful that our friends' different objects and photos about the first letter of their names from Blue group. It was engaging and meaningful as we tried to guess what our friends brought/showed. It was also like a form of review game for beginning sounds. 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, "Firefly". We described the pictures and read aloud the words with everyone. Then, we reviewed phonics Ii this week through activities like singing a song, beginning Ii and related worksheet. In addition, we did a related Raz-Kids 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. In addition, we also learned the sight word "big" and did a worksheet about it for reading fluency.

Kinder

These are the activities we did for this week. To jumpstart our Literacy time , we started talking about our Raz-Kids book entitled, "My New City". We described the pictures and read aloud the sentences. They did a collaborative activity using a Venn Diagram in order to show comparison between old and new cities. It was such a delight how Kinder students learn to collaborate and work harmoniously together as a group. In addition, we also learned the sight word 'will' and did a worksheet about it for reading fluency. Then, we talked about word family -et and made a craft to enhance our understanding on word families, and did some related Raz-Kids worksheets. Last, we had a spelling game and word exploration activity using magnetic letters.

Maths

Pre-K

For Week 12, the Pre-K students continued to learn about sorting and matching. This week, we learned about other ways that we have seen matching around us such as completing a puzzle, sorting and matching familiar animals, completing a picture, and even making our own original puzzle. By practicing sorting, we are organizing and grouping items based on our knowledge.

Kinder

For Week 12, Kinder students learned our numbers up to 30. Many of our students are able to recognize and count out loud up to 30 already, but we also practiced counting down, writing the numbers as well as counting objects up to 30 this week.

Topic Exploration

This week, our Orca class talked, "Japan" in celebration of the upcoming Tanabata festival. First, we watched an educational video about Japan for kids to jumpstart our topic. Then, we had various activities such as flag decorating using crumpled Japanese paper and red paint, musical chair game while listening to a Japanese rhyme song, Kimono puppet making, build-a- tower STEM activity out or cardboard, clay and popsicle sticks, and Japaanese fan craft to hone their awareness and skills. The build-a-tower STEM activity was one of their favorite activity as each group had to come up with their own ideas and problem-solving skills to make their towers sturdy as their teacher went around pretending to be an earthquake. Our next topic will be about Trees. 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.