HJIS Sendai Aoba Class Blogs 2026-27: Week 17

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 water bottle helper, line leader, and lunch helper. As everyone continues to settle into our new classroom, we reviewed our classroom rules and expectations, discussed how to safely use our learning centers, and enjoyed singing many of our favorite familiar songs together. This week, we also attended a Morning Assembly led by Ms. Anji and Ms. Ai from Pond Class. The students learned about the importance of being responsible through the story David Gets in Trouble. They then took part in an interactive game where they were presented with different scenarios and had to decide whether each action was a green choice (responsible) or a red choice (irresponsible). The students enjoyed discussing each situation and did a wonderful job thinking about how they can make responsible choices both at school and at home. During our afternoon meetings, we enjoyed reading stories together and ended each day by singing our Goodbye Song.

Language & Literacy

Preschool

This week in Language & Literacy, we reviewed the letter sounds s, a, t, i, p, and n from Jolly Phonics Set 1. The students practiced identifying beginning sounds, matching letters to pictures, and strengthening their phonics knowledge through a variety of fun, hands-on activities. Throughout the week, they matched letters to pictures with the correct initial sounds, sorted miniature objects by placing them onto their matching letter sounds, played an exciting game of Phonics Croquet, where they hit a ball through hoops labeled with different letter sounds, raced to the correct sound during an active phonics running game, and completed a color-by-phonics worksheet to reinforce letter recognition. A favorite activity this week was Phonics Croquet, as the students loved combining movement with learning while practicing their letter sounds.

Maths

Preschool

This week in Math, we continued exploring patterns, with a focus on recognizing and creating repeating AB patterns using colors and shapes. The students created colorful pattern snakes by painting repeating color patterns with Q-tips, used makeup sponges and paint to stamp repeating patterns in different directions, arranged shape cutouts to create patterns based on color, shape, and size, and made beautiful beaded bracelets by carefully threading beads in repeating AB patterns. These activities helped strengthen the students' pattern recognition, sequencing, and fine motor skills. A favorite activity this week was making the pattern bracelets, as the students were excited to create and wear their own repeating patterns.

Topic Exploration This week, our Topic Exploration theme was Transportation. The students explored different types of vehicles through art, science, music, movement, and imaginative play. They created colorful tire-track paintings by driving toy vehicles through paint before washing them in a pretend car wash, learning about caring for their vehicles while enjoying a fun sensory experience. During music and movement, the students practiced listening skills through musical pattern clapping and a musical hoop jumping game, following rhythms as they jumped to each hoop. During our Science activity, they investigated how different ramp surfaces affected the speed of toy vehicles, making predictions and observing how the vehicles traveled across different materials. To finish the week, the students worked together to build a cardboard vehicle, taking turns pretending to drive.

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.