An All-English Preschool in Yokohama.
English classes for 2 years old to elementary school age.

Hello everyone, it’s time for another special lesson intro!  We do a lot of crafts as part of our education at Sunrise.  Here are some of the crafts we made in preparation for the big Christmas Party at Sunrise!

 

We always make some hats for the kids at Sunrise.  This year the Caterpillar class (2-3 y/o) made elf hats.

The cut out all the pieces and (with a little help) made them, which was great scissor practice.

And the Butterflies made Santa hats!

They painted them…

Added Santa’s body (think Disneyland)…

And then we added some cotton!

The Butterflies also made some musical instruments…some Jingle bell snowmen!

They sewed them together very carefully.  The Shiny class (4 y/o) used yarn…but the Fluttery class (5 y/o) used a needle and thread!  Some of them were amazing at it! We drew on some faces, added a hat and tied on some bells!

The Caterpillars made some really nice Christmas trees.  The cut the green paper and added the stickers by themselves!

Finally…time for the Christmas party!  Everyone put on your hats!

And of course, for our Christmas party the kids practiced some songs.  The Caterpillars sang Jingle Bells and then did an instrumental to “Deck the Halls” with bells and castanets.

The Butterflies practiced very hard too.  They sang “Must be Santa” and “Frosty the Snowman”  Aha!  That’s why we needed those snowmen!

After that we played a fun winter game called “Flip the cards”.  The green team had to make all of the cards green.  The red team had to make all of the cards red…It was an intense competition!

Finally, after the kids went to the bathroom they sat down…and found a letter from Santa…it said to call his name…

I think they heard something…they were really excited…and suddenly….

Santa came!!

 

The kids had a lot of questions for him.

And…he had lots of presents for our kids!  Naturally, the kids were happy!

Merry Christmas everyone!

It was a busy month, but it was worth it!

So here at Sunrise, we like to embrace as many, foreign holidays as possible in order to give our students a taste of all the different activities that English speaking countries like to indulge in. For this month, our main focus was the American holiday, Thanksgiving Day.

Both the Caterpillars (2/3yo) an Butterflies (4/5yo) made lots of different Thanksgiving foods in preparation for our big Thanksgiving dinner!

Here’s the Caterpillars making some yummy-looking, bread rolls!

They looked so good that some wanted to eat them!

Here’s the Butterflies making some delicious, turkey legs!

They too, look absolutely scrumptious!

Both the Caterpillars and Butterflies, also made Thanksgiving hats, to wear at the Thanksgiving dinner!

Here’s the Caterpillars painting their turkey bowls.

Then after a day of drying, we put a beak, snood, comb, eyes, feet and leafy feathers on to make it look like a turkey!

The Butterfly boys made some Pilgrim top hats…

The butterfly girls made some Pilgrim bonnets…

We then all wore our hats for some Turkey Bowling…

Some Pin the Feathers on the Turkey…

And for our HUGE Thanksgiving Day dinner!

As you can see, we used all the food that our kids prepared and on the day, we even let the Butterflies have a go at setting the tables with plates, cups and cutlery then the Caterpillars were brave enough to serve all of our food!

Then to top it all off, we were gifted with some stuffing which we let the kids try. It’s so yummy!

We hope you enjoyed our super fun, delicious looking dinner and we look forward to our next special lesson. What could it be…? You’ll find out soon! Thank you everyone!

 

Mr. Steven.

Hello everyone!  As you know, October is the month of Halloween…A time for scary, spooky monsters and yummy, yummy candy!  At Sunrise it is no different.  I want to show you all some of the interesting decorations our kids made to celebrate Halloween.

The Caterpillar class (2-3 y/o) made some extra creepy skeletons to learn the parts of the body.

Mr. Steven cut out lots and lots of bones and skulls and let the kids connect them with pipe cleaners.

It was a challenge, but the kids were determined to finish….

And with a little help and persistence…they could do it!

Now we have a whole family of skeletons!

They also made plenty of cool handprint bats!

The Butterfly class (4-5 y/o) made something a little different.  First they drew some monsters on cardboard…

And teachers cut them out.  Finished?  Not yet!

We wrapped them extra carefully in gauze…and made some freaky looking mummies!

Here they are, hanging out with their friends!

During free play the Japanese staff helped the kids make some Halloween origami too.

Our whole school is spooky looking….

Not to mention our kids!

 

That is just a taste of some of the stuff we did for Halloween.  We have our Halloween party coming up, so the fun isn’t over yet!  Until this next time!

Mr. Anand

Hello everyone! This month, we’ve been learning all about keeping our home, bodies and even our planet clean! By washing our bodies and cleaning our homes, we can keep the planet clean for future generations. But simply wiping the floor or washing our hair, won’t help too much. We need to recycle all manner of things such as, paper, aluminium and plastic.

So first, we need to know how and why we need to clean the planet. For this, we need to know about the other environments of the world.

The ocean is the biggest and the most in danger as so much oil and pollutants are dumped there.

But there are many other places  in which too many pollutants are carelessly thrown aside without a second thought for the nature and animals that inhabit it.

This is a pollution box, showing the effects of oil and other substances that boats drop into the ocean.

Here we are recycling some old paper and a bicycle using the paper box and aluminium box.

By teaching to recycle, we can help kids understand the dangers our whole world faces and how to prevent pollution.

The Butterflies then actually used some old, unneeded paper, to make some new paper!

The Caterpillars took their cleaning skills into the home and learned all about germs! Tiny bacteria that, if breathed or eaten or simply touched, can make you sick and makes the room really dirty. So we learned that one must wash their hands, periodically, throughout the day (especially when they LOOK dirty) to remove all the bad germs.

We did this by simulating the fact that germs are EVERYWHERE and by touching things, sneezing, coughing and even just moving, the germs will spread and could cause one to get sick!

On the tables!

In our hands and on our chairs!

But if we wash our hands, we can at least make them clean!

So after the germs covered our hands, we practiced washing our hands in a toy sink (so we didn’t put tape and paper in the real one) then went to the bathroom to put that practice into action!

Other than germs on our hands and in our house, we learned that there are so many germs in your mouth! To remove those germs, we need to brush our teeth at least two times, every day! So that means we need to learn proper technique to keep our mouths, clean.

We used a laminated mouth and make-shift toothbrush to practice brushing up and down…

Left and right….

And round and round!

When we realise just how dirty everything really is, we can make a change and have the cleanest planet, possible.

Thank you for joining us, this month.

Until next time, stay clean!

Hello everyone!  I hope you guys are keeping cool in the summer, because we have certainly had some hot days…we have plenty of ways to keep cool.  Sometimes we splash in the pool…

But every so often we like to do something special….we have tons of fun making shaved ice!  The kids get excited every year when we bring out the shaved ice machine.  But before we do that, we always practice serving each other with a few role-plays.  First we had a little barbecue…

And using the same kind of format, practiced with “shaved ice” made out of tissue…

And finally we had the big day!  Naturally, when it comes to making something to eat, washing hands comes first.

From there we had some kids help serve the others…some handed out plates…

Another served the ice (with a little help…)

Another friend poured the syrup…

And we can’t forget the best part…the eating!

A day of shaved ice brings lots of smiles…

and colorful tongues!

Needless to say, it is one of my favorite days as a teacher too!  I hope that you guys have found a good way to keep cool, but I have a feeling we have found the best

Until next time!

Mr. Anand

Sunrise Kids International School

Hello everyone, At Sunrise we always try and include a little science in our lessons.  This month’s theme is “Under the Sea”, so it was a no-brainer that we would learn about the science of water!   There are a lot of different ways we can experiment with water, but we tried a few new things this year.

The Caterpillars tried to use water to make some art.  

Water is always great for making art, but we can do some great stuff if we add soap!  We mixed a little bubble soap with paint and water…and started making bubbles!

The kids we surprised to see the different marks bubbles can make on water.  They kept going and going…

Dip, dip, dip,

blow,blow,blow

Pop, pop, pop…

And..voila!

Bubble art is so much fun!

The Butterflies took a little more scientific approach.  We learned all about the “skin” on water.  It has a special name…

Surface tension allows us to do all sorts of cool experiments!

The kids tried to use surface tension to float objects on the water.

Some were harder than others…

We also learned about breaking surface tension using soap.  First we sprinkled some pepper on some water…

And then we dropped some soap on it!  The kids were shocked at the results!

Finally we looked at a few interesting properties of water.  Like how it doesn’t mix with oil…

Even if you stir it up!

That is…unless you add soap!

Soap allows the water and oil to mix!  Aha!  That’s why we use soap to clean up!

Once we understand a few things about water, we can understand a lot about how the world works!

And understanding is what Sunrise is all about!

Until next time!

Hello everyone!  Did you know that in Japan we celebrate “Toki no kinenbi” every July 10th?  It’s a significant day which celebrate the 1st water clock in Japan.  Google it when you get the chance and you’ll find out a little bit out the importance of the day.  Of course, with a day devoted to time, it’s a great chance to learn about telling the time!  As a result, we learned a little bit about how to read a clock.

The Caterpillar class learned about different parts of the day

What do we do in the morning?  What do we do in the afternoon?

We also practiced telling the time using our “dengon” game.

We also played “What time is it Mr. Wolf?” in the park!

These are some great ways to practice time!

Of course, the best way to learn about clocks and time is to really get into it with a craft!

The Caterpillars made some sunshine clocks with their teachers.

Some even tried cutting themselves!

The older kids cut some cups…what are they making?

Does it make a little more sense now?

How about now?

We added a nice face plate (the kids drew the numbers).

Add  some hands, and look at what you have!  Some very nice and useful watches!

The kids always want to wear them and love learning about the time!

Toki no kinenbi is not exactly this biggest day of the year, but it does help us think about time, which plays a big part in everyone’s lives!

See you next month!

 

Hello everyone, the days are getting hotter and hotter, which means that we get to do one of our favorite projects at Sunrise.  It’s time for planting!  We have been having lots of fun learning about how a seed grows.

 

One of the ways we learn is through songs – one of our favorites is “Oats Peas Beans and Barley Grow”, which you can check out here

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZq3m0cZ_bk

 

We also do lots of fun crafts.  The Caterpillar class (2 and 3 y/o) made a beautiful display in our Sunflower Room with water, sunshine, soil and flowers complete with petals, stems, leaves and roots.

After plenty of hype we had our planting days just last week.  The Caterpillar class planted some morning glories and the Butterfly class (4 and 5 y/o) planted edamame beans.

 

First we explained what we were going to do (the kids were excited!)…

Then we made groups…

The Butterflies decorated their pots..

.

 

Next we scooped the soil…

After that we poked some holes in the soil…

We planted the seeds….

And then we added some water…

And there you have it!  Planting day is always lots of fun, and we were lucky enough to have great weather on both days.

 

But that is just the beginning, of course.  The real lesson is in taking care of our plants – giving them lots of water and sunshine.  If we are lucky, we are going to have a beautiful garden!

 

We have lots of other activities planned throughout the year, but that will do it for this edition of our blog!  Keep reading!

 

Mr. Anand

Soccer lesson  at YokohamaFC Higashitotsuka football Park on 22nd of April

Every year in April, we have and Easter week leading up to an Easter event on the 15th.  This year was no different and was the culmination of many different crafts and activities.

We started in the morning, by putting on our Easter bunny hats.

Then we turned into bunnies as we hopped along to the song “Little Peter Rabbit”.

Then we moved to separate rooms to set up the Easter Egg Hunt…everyone’s favorite event!

First we hid the eggs.  The Caterpillar class (2-3 y/o) his eggs for the Butterfly class (4-5 y/o) and vice versa.

Then we got our baskets!  The Caterpillar classes spent the week decorating the baskets and drawing a cute rabbit on the side.

The Fluttery Butterflies (5 y/o) weaved their baskets out of paper and the Shiny Butterflies (4 y/o) made theirs out of paper plates.

We switched rooms and…

We hunted for eggs!  They were inside boxes, on window sills, behind curtains…

…and some were way up high!

The kids all came together and counted their eggs.

But wait….some eggs had things inside them!

The pieces all made a puzzle!

Ah!  A rabbit!!  But what is our Sunrise Kid reading?

Oh!! There’s a letter on the back!  There is a present waiting in the entrance??  Better check it out!

A basket!  A chick!  A letter!

Lucky us!  Easter candy!

Our kids love to help serve each other!  She’s no different!

Yahoo!  A reward for a job well done!

Happy Easter!!