HJIS Sendai Aoba Class Blogs 2026-27: Week 13

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, we attended our monthly Morning Assembly led by Ms. Ciena and Mr. Stephan. The students learned about this month's character trait, Reflective, through a puppet show based on The Rainbow Fish. Together, we discussed how Rainbow Fish reflected on his actions and learned the importance of sharing and showing kindness to others. At the end of the assembly, each class added scales to a large Rainbow Fish, creating a beautiful collaborative display. During our afternoon meetings, we read The Three Little Pigs by Mara Alperin. The students enjoyed joining in with repeated phrases and actions throughout the story. We ended each day by singing our Goodbye Song together.

Language & Literacy

Preschool

This week in Language & Literacy, we reviewed the letter Mm. We sang our Jolly Phonics song, used Jolly Phonics Classroom to practice blending sounds into simple words, and continued strengthening our letter recognition and early reading skills. Throughout the week, the students completed a variety of engaging activities. They created an M is for Monster craft using googly eyes, pipe cleaners, and circle stickers before practicing letter recognition with a hidden picture coloring worksheet by identifying uppercase and lowercase Ms. The students also played a matching pairs memory game, sorted picture cards into M and N categories based on their beginning sounds, and practiced blending simple words. To finish the week, the students completed an initial sound picture puzzle by finding the matching picture pieces before using tweezers to place pom poms onto the letter M, strengthening both their fine motor skills and letter recognition. A favorite activity this week was creating the M is for Monster craft. The students had lots of fun decorating their monsters with funny faces while reinforcing the letter Mm.

Maths

Preschool

This week in Math, we reviewed matching and sorting, revisiting concepts the students learned earlier this term. Through a variety of hands-on activities, the students strengthened their ability to compare, classify, and organize objects using different attributes. Throughout the week, the students sorted toys into big and small groups, grouped pattern blocks by their shapes, and sorted different toys into the correct categories. They also completed an "odd one out" worksheet by identifying which picture did not belong with the others. To finish the week, the students went on a shape hunt around the classroom before completing a shape silhouette matching activity, where they matched each shape to its correct outline. It has been wonderful to see how much the students have progressed since we first introduced matching and sorting at the beginning of the term. They are becoming more confident in recognizing similarities and differences, sorting objects into groups, and explaining their thinking.

Topic Exploration

This week, our theme was All About Me: My Home. Throughout the week, the students explored different types of homes, the rooms found inside a house, and took part in a variety of science, music, and creative activities. We began the week by discussing different types of homes from around the world, including houses and apartments. We also explored the different materials that homes can be made from, such as brick, wood, metal, plastic, mud, grass, and ice, learning that people around the world use different materials depending on where they live. The students enjoyed looking at pictures of homes from different countries and comparing the different rooms inside them. They discovered that although homes may look different around the world, many still have the same rooms, such as a bedroom, kitchen, living room, and bathroom. To reinforce this learning, the students completed a matching activity by placing household items, such as a sofa and a stove, into the correct room. During our Science lesson, the students explored a variety of materials, including wood, plastic, cloth, paper, metal, and rock. Together, we discussed the different properties of each material, such as whether they were hard or soft, rough or smooth, and shiny or dull. The students then sorted different materials into the correct categories, reinforcing their understanding through a hands-on activity. During Music, the students took part in a rhythmic movement lesson inspired by household chores. Using scarves, they pretended to wipe surfaces, while pool noodles became pretend brooms and vacuum cleaners as they swept, vacuumed, and cleaned along to the music. Everyone had lots of fun moving to the rhythm while using their imaginations. One of the highlights of the week was creating our miniature gardens. The students assembled their gardens using the houses they had previously colored, along with soil, clover seeds, miniature trees, flowers, and other decorative materials. They carefully planted the clover seeds and are excited to water them each day as they watch their gardens grow over the coming weeks. To finish the week, the students designed and decorated their own cardboard houses using a variety of materials, including cloth, yarn, paper, card, foil, and corrugated cardboard. They enjoyed exploring different textures and using their creativity to build unique homes. A favorite activity this week was creating the miniature gardens. The students loved getting their hands dirty while planting the clover seeds and are excited to watch their gardens grow over the coming weeks.

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.