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A tradition at Beanstalk is to visit the elderly residents at Kotobuki-Sou. The children put on a performance of songs and dances.

In preparation for the visit to Kotobuki-Sou they began making a present for each of the residents. 

We were really excited to see the residents at Kotobuki-Sou. They all got changed into their Santa costumes and got ready for a few photos .

Outside Beanstalk they were all set for some group photos. They all look great with the Christmas decorations outside of the school.   

When we arrived at Kotobuki-Sou we were really happy to see all the Christmas decorations.

They have a really big Christmas Tree!

And we had to get some more photos of the children next to it.

We were welcomed with warm smiles and we were happy to see them.

This year we sang 4 Japanese songs and 1 English song.

We practiced dancing `actions with the residents, getting them to follow along with us.

We enjoyed the singing and dancing.

For the English song we practiced how to pronounce naturally with our British teacher. Everybody tried many times and we finally got it.

We handed out the presents to the residents at the end of the day.

Everybody had a great time and the children really enjoyed performing.

This is the last winter of the Heisei era. We wish the residents of Kotobuki-Sou a healthy and happy future for the new era.

This past month the children took Kokuren Eiken Jr.

We had students in each level from E to A and they all did great.

This was the first time that the Robby Rabbits had taken the Kokuren Eiken Jr.

Although some of them were a little nervous they all listened and performed really well.

Happy Thanksgiving!

At Beanstalk, we try to introduce students to holidays from all over the world. Everyone can appreciate the message behind the holiday of Thanksgiving, and those values of friendship, thankfulness and sharing are important for any child to learn.

Students worked together to make a special treat- Apple Fritters. Missy Mouse class stirred the apples…

Robby Rabbit class mixed the batter…

and Deedee Deer class cooked the fritters on a hotplate.

We all enjoyed our treats!

Students have been making some seasonal crafts as well. Deedee students wrote what they are thankful for on feathers of a Native American headdress.

We hope everyone enjoyed their holiday!

Each month, each class has their own monthly theme. We use this as a basis for a variety of lessons, including creative play, math, English, craft, and science. This month our theme in Missy Mouse class was food, so of course we had lots of fun cooking their own snacks.

One day, we made banana pancakes. Students cut up their own bananas…

…and helped mix the batter!

It was so rewarding to eat a special snack that we made by ourselves.

The next cooking day, we made vegetable chips. First, students explored the raw, whole vegetables… What’s this??

Then, we tasted the vegetables in their raw state before cooking. Everyone liked the sweet, crunchy carrots.

Finally, we cooked the chips! Students watched as a teacher cooked the chips from a safe distance.

The students were able to identify what vegetable their snacks were made from.

I wonder what fun activities next month will bring?

Science is a big focus at Beanstalk. We believe that Science is a significant part of human culture and represents one of the pinnacles of human thinking capacity. It provides a laboratory of common experience for development of language, logic, and problem-solving skills in the classroom

We have regular science activities in our Kindergarten and after school classes.

We began this month talking about all things Physics for our elementary class; this includes the basics of flight, force, cars, and all things that move fast.

We started out discussing Newtons First law of Physics, an object as rest will stay at rest and object in motion will stay in motion unless a force stops it.

We used this to talk about how cars move and accelerate with force. We demonstrated this by building our own rubber band cars.

It made for an exciting lesson and the students recorded their results to calculate who’s car design moved the fastest.

 

 

 

We then used Newtons third Law of Physics, which states that for every reaction there is an equal and opposite reaction.

We used this to discuss how rockets use pressure and gases as fuel to fly in the sky. We talked about how to fly them, how to make pressure in our bottles as we crafted our own bottle rockets.

Sometimes experiments don’t go as planned!

This can lead to some messy situations.

Our after school science classes are on Tuesday afternoons from 4pm and in our Saturday classes.

In the afternoon, we all went went trick or treating! It was a beautiful day.

The students were so careful as they walked to the trick-or-treat spots with their parents and teachers. A special thanks to the parents who took time out of their busy schedules for our party.

All students practiced saying “Trick-or-treat!” and were especially looking forward to getting lots of snacks. Thank you so much to all the families who donated candy to make our day extra-special.

Thank you again to all parents and students who were able to attend our Halloween Party! We can’t wait for next year’s Halloween!

 

 

 

 

After the fashion show everyone gathered for lunch.

 

 

With everyone happily fed we started to get ready for the performances.

 

 

Time for the main event.

 

 

We headed to Kotobuki-sou after the performance at Amandan terrace.

 

 

The students sang several songs to the residents.

 

 

The students handed out gifts to each resident after performing.

They were all very happy, and the students were glad to hand out their handmade presents! We are looking forward to going back to see everyone again at Christmas time.

On the morning of the 31st, it was time to get ready for our Halloween Party!

The stage was set and ready for the fashion show.

 

As soon as everyone was ready, all the students walked the yellow brick road.  We got to see some great poses!

 

We were so excited for Halloween to come! The students practiced every week leading up to the main performance.

 

 

We also practiced doing a fashion show.

 

 

A tradition of Beanstalk is to visit the residences at senior citizens house Kotobuki-sou. The students made gifts for the residences; a pumpkin card with a message inside.

 

 

We practiced giving the gifts to the residences.

 

We had our Halloween party on 31st October and the students performed their songs in front of their parents.

We also went to Kotobuki-sou to perform in front of the residents and hand out gifts.

We finished our preschool party with a trick-or-treat stop at the park!
Thank you too all students and families for coming and making our Halloween party special.