HJIS Sendai Aoba Class Blogs 2026-27: Week 14

Hello, Desert Class families!

Morning & Afternoon Meeting

During our morning meetings, we sang our Hello Song, Weather Song, and Months of the Year Song. We also discussed our classroom responsibilities, with students taking on special roles such as caretaker, line leader, and lunch helper. This week, the students enjoyed discussing and sharing photos of what they like to do at home with their families. It was wonderful to see everyone excited to talk about their favorite activities and learn more about their classmates' lives outside of school. Thank you to everyone who has shared photos so far, we look forward to seeing more! During our afternoon meetings, we listened to an English story about Tanabata, helping the students learn more about the festival and the traditions celebrated during this time of year.

Language & Literacy

Preschool

This week in Language & Literacy, we learned about the letter Dd. We used Jolly Phonics Classroom to introduce and review the letter sound, sang our Jolly Phonics songs, and practiced blending sounds to read simple words. The students also reviewed all of the sounds from Jolly Phonics Sets 1 and 2 while building confidence with letter recognition and early reading. Throughout the week, the students completed a variety of hands-on activities. They created a D is for Dot craft using colorful dot stickers, filled the outline of the letter D with playdough by rolling and cutting it with plastic scissors, searched for previously learned letter sounds hidden inside kinetic sand, and completed a picture hunt by matching initial sounds to the correct pictures. A favorite activity this week was the kinetic sand phonics hunt. The students loved digging through the sand to discover hidden letter sounds while practicing their phonics in a fun and engaging way.

Maths

Preschool

This week in Math, we reviewed the numbers 1–10 through a variety of hands-on games and activities. The students practiced number recognition, counting, and one-to-one correspondence while working both independently and as part of a team. Throughout the week, the students completed a counting activity using number mats, formed numbers with playdough, and worked together in a cooperative challenge where they transported the correct number of balls using only paper cups to match the numbers shown on cones. They also created number ice creams by placing the correct number of dot stickers onto each cone and finished the week by painting numbers using Q-tips and paint. A favorite activity this week was the team cup challenge. The students enjoyed working together to transport the balls without touching them, demonstrating excellent teamwork, communication, and problem-solving skills.

Topic Exploration

This week, our theme was Countries, with a special focus on Japan. Throughout the week, the students explored Japanese culture while also learning that there are many different countries around the world. We began the week by learning about the Japanese festival Tanabata. The students listened to the story behind the festival before creating their own Tanabata crafts over two lessons. They also learned about the world by exploring countries such as Spain, France, and South Africa, comparing traditional foods, dances, and famous landmarks with those of Japan. It was wonderful to hear the students proudly share that they are from Sendai, Japan! The students also enjoyed learning and dancing to several traditional Japanese dances, including Soran Bushi, Awa Odori, and the Sendai Sparrow Dance. We also became engineers during a STEM challenge inspired by Japan's long history of building strong bridges. The students designed paper bridges supported by foam blocks before testing which bridges were strong enough to stay standing. They enjoyed making predictions, experimenting with their designs, and discovering how different structures affected the strength of their bridges. To finish the week, the students learned about one of Japan's favorite foods, Japanese curry. After listening to a fun Japanese curry song with Ms. Risa, they created their own curry craft using paper bowls and crumpled paper to represent the different ingredients.

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.