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After getting to know our new friends and settling into the classroom, we kicked off the school year with our first unit: All About Me. We began by exploring the Zones of Regulation and our senses by creating our own feelings meters using handprints. The tickling feeling of the brush made us laugh a lot! Alongside this, we learned our first sound from the Jolly Phonics programme and couldn’t stop singing the "S" song all week. For our entry point, we created a class friendship book where each student filled in an "All About Me" page, helping us to find many similarities with our new friends. We’ll continue to add new friends throughout the year.
In the second week, we focused on the outside parts of our bodies. We started by labelling some of the students' body parts by placing pictures in the correct spots. Then, we traced our bodies on large sheets of paper and painted them in our favourite colours. We played various hands-on body parts games, and by the end of the week, we could all identify and label the different body parts on our big paintings. We also danced to the song "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" in English as well as in Japanese, Dutch, German, French, and other languages spoken by the students' families. It was lots of fun listening to all these different languages and dancing along to them.
During the third week, we made a body puzzle where we matched body parts to the correct spots and we measured different body parts with blocks to see how long they were. We then delved deeper into the body to discover our inside body parts. We pretended to be doctors using an X-ray machine to look at bones, crafted our own skeletons, and did pre-writing exercises on the pretend X-ray machine.
The fourth week focused on what makes us unique and special. We began by learning about each other’s home countries. We listened to the different languages, located the countries on the world map, explored them using pictures, and studied the flags. The children also explored their likes and dislikes, including foods they enjoy eating by finding them in grocery leaflets and cutting them out to fill their stomachs. We played an interactive sorting game to find out how many students liked or disliked certain things, such as rain or music. The week ended with our first trip of the year, to an exhibition all about the body. The children did an amazing job showing off all the internal and external body parts they could name and recognise.
In the fifth week, we got to know each other’s families. We practised naming different family members, using words like baby, brother, mum, and grandpa in playful activities. We also played a fun counting game where we put families in different houses and even wrote numbers on the houses. To finish the week, we crafted beautiful house frames for our family pictures, and the results were lovely.
Week 6 was a very busy week as we went on two trips. First, we visited a retirement home, where we enjoyed a musical balloon activity with the elderly. We met many wonderful people and made new connections. Then we learned how babies grow inside their mothers bellies. We started by measuring and sorting babies from smallest to biggest and went on our second trip to the museum to learn more about how babies grow.
After finding so many leaves outside, the 7th week just had to be all about autumn. We learned how to make our own leaf rubbings and even created graphs to show the colours of the leaves we found on the playground. We kept finding mushrooms outside, so we crafted unique magic mushroom forests. The week concluded with an autumn walk where we found and examined chestnuts, beechnuts, bolsters, acorns, snails, pinecones, leaves of different colours, and various mushrooms. They really had a blast during this hunt. In the afternoon, a guide led us through a spider exhibition, where we learned everything there is to know about spiders and even got to touch an old spider skin and teeth. Everyone was so brave and found it very interesting.
Week 8, the final week of our unit, was filled with Halloween spirit. We found a recipe for pumpkin soup and went to the grocery store together to gather the ingredients. Then, it was time for our first group project: giving our pumpkin a scary Halloween face. Everyone worked together brilliantly, cutting out shapes and collaborating. We read a funny book about witches and their brew and played a counting board game where we made our own potions. Did you know the Frog class is great at imitating scary monsters and witches? We ended the week with a spooky phonics game to review all the sounds we had learned over the past weeks. Finally, we said goodbye to our pumpkin friend and cooked our own pumpkin soup, practising how to safely use a knife to cut the vegetables. The week wrapped up with a Halloween party where we dressed up, enjoyed our homemade soup, shared spooky snacks, and had a dance party.
Have a lovely autumn break, everyone!
We began our Up and Away unit by exploring everything about bubbles. We did this through many hands-on activities. We created art by blowing coloured bubbles or stamping them with different circle shapes. Then, we blew our own magic bubbles that could dance on the table. This was so much fun! We made them move, created animal shapes, and even held them in our hands without them popping. We also enjoyed practising adding small numbers together on a bubble popper.
In the second week, we flew a bit higher in the sky and learned all about kites. We went on our Entry Point trip to the Bourgoyen, where we blew bubbles with our homemade bubble wands and flew kites. We had so much fun that we wanted to make our own kites after the trip. We ended up making the prettiest diamond-shaped kites we had ever seen, some with rainbows and others with dinosaurs.
In the third week, we focused on kite patterns. We discovered how to mirror patterns on a kite using butterfly symmetry. After practising this a few times, we created unique patterned kites. Since we learned that kites can have different shapes, we wondered if the shape affected how well the kite flew. After making circular, square, and rectangular kites and comparing them, the children discovered that wind and having a tail are more decisive factors than shape.
In week 4, we learned about kite festivals around the world. We watched videos and listened to stories about kite festivals in China, Japan, India, and America. The learners loved seeing and recognising all the big animals, vehicles, and other shapes. Inspired by this tradition, we created our own kite festival by painting kites in shapes of our choice, including carrots, tomatoes, octopuses, dragons, and even a tiger. This week, we also learned to play a Domino game with kites and their shadows. Despite being a new game, all the children picked it up quickly and couldn’t stop playing.
In the 5th week, we explored hot air balloons and parachutes. We learned how hot air balloons rise and had fun experimenting with parachutes. Our class friend, Mr. Frog, wanted to fly, so we worked together to make a big papier-mâché hot air balloon. The group effort was amazing. Then it was time for our egg drop challenge, where they built constructions to protect eggs from breaking when dropped. In the end, we saved 7 out of 10 eggs and enjoyed them as a snack. We ended the week with a trip to the ‘STAM’ museum, where we viewed Ghent from a bird’s-eye view. We even found the ISG school on the map and some of the children’s homes.
In week 6, a rocket landing in our sleeping room prompted us to learn about space. We focused on the solar system, planets orbiting the sun, gravity, and astronauts. We played a hands-on planet counting and writing game, painted our favourite planets, and wrote their names. Our pretend area became a real rocket ship with dress-up clothes and buttons to steer. We also practised for the International Festival, which everyone really enjoyed!
The 7th week was all about aliens. We read many funny books, with ‘Aliens Love Underpants’ as our favourite. We created our own aliens, practising drawing and cutting, and played a silly counting game where we gave the aliens many eyes. We also finished our Parents’ Day gifts, which made the children very proud.
In week 8, we learned about how astronauts live in space. We discovered constellations and enjoyed finding shapes in them. We let our imaginations run free, creating or copying constellations, some abstract and others recognisable like rockets or bears. We also played a space board game, trying to cover our numbers the quickest. This week, we held our Sounds Party, we made crowns of our favourite sound, and danced to the letter songs from the first three groups of letters from the Jolly Phonics Programme.
We started week 9 with our Exit Point trip to Ostend. Despite the changeable Belgian weather, we explored fishing boats, nets, and the fresh catch from the morning. After walking on the beach, the children concluded that, ‘the wind was funny and made us feel like kites’. Back in Ghent, we had an surprise visitor, Mia’s dad, an aeroplane engineer. We learned about the parts of a plane and how heavy planes lift off and stay in the air. We even folded our own aeroplanes and had a flying competition, with the furthest one flying 22 big steps away!
Week 10 was our last full week. We took a final trip to the Blaarmeersen and continued learning about airports. Our pretend area transformed into a real airport with a plane, ticket and security desk, pilot, stewards, and passengers. We created our own passports, played counting games, and ‘flew’ to our favourite destinations.
We ended the school year with week 11, making lasting memories. We started with the Wacky Olympics, played fun games together, and held a big end-of-year party.
I wish everyone an amazing summer holiday and lots of fun and learning on their adventures next school year!
Ms Erin
We kicked off the first week of our Plants and Flowers unit with an amazing entry point. We went on a walk in the area around the school to look for plants, flowers, trees, and weeds. Not only did we discover many new plants and flowers, but we also collected any rubbish we found on the street during our walk so that the plants had a clean environment to grow. After the trip, we continued playing in our pretend flower store and started learning about the parts of the flower. We did this in a hands on way through puzzles and crafting our own flowers.
In the second week, we visited a real flower store. Here, we used all our senses to explore flowers. They were so pretty and smelled very nice. In the end, we all got to pick our favourite flower to put in our class bouquet. We used this to make an artwork where we painted our favourite flowers in a vase. We planted our own flowers and micro greens and learned about their need for water and sunlight to grow. We also practiced spatial awareness with a fun flower planting game and ended the week with a special bingo event which the children loved.
The third week, we welcomed two new friends to our classroom, Mia and Martina. Everyone was very welcoming towards them, and they quickly found their place in the group. During this week, our focus was on floral art, and we learned about the Japanese artist Murakami. We made our own bright flowers with crepe paper and also did a group project where we worked together to make one very big and colourful flower in the sky. We ended the week by sharing at the assembly. We tried something new and used our body’s to show how seeds grow into flowers. Everyone did their very best and did an amazing job!
In the fourth week, we learned that plants get their food from the soil, we had lots of fun experimenting and getting our hands dirty! During the week we also had a surprise visit from a real florist. She helped us make our own fairy gardens. It was so much fun, and the results looked amazing. The children have been practicing counting and number recognition through various games involving flowers. We had a cosy end to the week by coming to school in our pyjamas to support Bednet.
In the fifth week, we went on another trip to “De tuin van Kina”, where we saw so many different flowers, plants, and blossoms. Here, we helped Fox find a house and even asked every worm, bee, or ant if they had seen the fox. After exploring the garden, we went inside to the bee exhibition and discovered how honey is made and how the bees help grow new flowers. After the trip, we learned about the garden fairy and how magical her garden is. We followed this by cutting, gluing, and painting our own fairy garden with the most magical skies and flowers.
We concluded the unit in the sixth week with our exit point, a trip to the botanical garden. We could not believe all the plants and flowers surrounding us. Some cactuses were even bigger than the teacher! This week, we also started preparing for Easter by making our own chick and bunny Easter baskets. Luckily we did because on Friday we were surprised by the Easter Bunny who hid Easter eggs all over the school for us to find. What a fun way to end the week.
Happy Easter holiday everyone!
We kicked off the new year with our shopping unit. We decided to cook soup and created our own shopping list. Following this we went on our entry-point trip to the grocery store, where we explored the different sections in the shop and bought all the ingredients. Then, it was time to make our cauliflower-bell pepper soup. The children were excited and happy to cut up all the vegetables themselves. After some cooking and mixing, we all enjoyed the soup, and everyone wanted to take the leftovers home. This week, we also started playing in our pretend store, taking on the roles of shopkeepers and customers.
In the second week, we delved into the market, discovering that it resembled a store but was located outside with many stalls. We explored markets from different countries, finding many similarities and some differences. This week, we also experimented with using a weighing scale and learned words like "heavier," "lighter," and "even." Balancing different groceries with blocks was fun and a great way to practice counting. On Friday, we went on a trip to a real market in Ghent. Using all our senses, we observed the stalls and noticed that the fish stall, in particular, had a strong smell. Here, we bought dried pineapple and mango to try back at school—a delightful treat after such a wonderful trip!
In the third week, we moved on to a different kind of store—the bakery. Our class transformed into a bakery. We made salt dough by following a recipe and created our own bread and pastries. When they were finished, we put them in the oven to bake and painted them in appropriate colours. We also played a game, helping the baker fit pastries into boxes—a fun way to practice spatial awareness. We ended the week with a waffle writing dance and then went on a trip to the bakery. We had the chance to go behind the counter, look at the bread cutting machine and the big oven. Additionally, we bought a cake and enjoyed it together with the UPP.
During the fourth week, we learnt about second-hand stores and learned how to reuse, reduce, and recycle. We began the week by weaving our own reusable shopping bags. Initially, this was a little difficult, but the children proved to be very resilient, and made beautiful bags. On Tuesday, we visited a real second-hand store and donated items we no longer use. We also chose a toy to buy to reuse in our classroom—a coffee machine for the pretend area. Later that week, we saved some plastic bottles and milk cartons from our recycle bins and gave them a new purpose by making bracelets and wallets. We used these wallets during our exit point, buying treats at the snack shop set up by upper pre-primary and lower primary.
The fifth week was all about money. We took a closer look at the different kinds of prints on bills and coins. Everyone brought in different currencies to observe. We also created our own bills and made rubbings of the coins we liked. We played a currency memory game, matching numbers on bills and coins. On Wednesday, we reviewed all the letter sounds we have learned so far by sorting different objects according to their first initial sounds. A fun, learning activity the children enjoyed. We ended this week in Carnival spirit! On Friday we came to school dressed up in costumes of our choice and celebrated with the whole school during the carnival parade.
Happy holidays everyone!
After the autumn holidays, we jumped right back in and started our second unit, Patterns. We began this unit by exploring the patterns on our clothes. During the entry point, we observed clothes with stripes, dots, zigzags, numbers, checkers, and even dinosaurs. All the patterns had different colours too. After exploring the patterns we were wearing, we designed our own patterned shirts or pants for Mr. Frog. Later, we got to make our own patterned sweaters by writing patterns in shaving cream.
In the second week, we examined patterns from different countries and cultures. Everyone brought a pattern from their home country, and we observed them with all our senses. We saw patterned pig statues from Russia and clothes and fabrics from India, Hungary, Ghana, and Slovakia. It was fascinating to see the differences and similarities between the patterns. During this week, we also focused on patterns outside and in nature. During our pattern walk, the learners saw, shared, and described so many different patterns. We also had a special visitor this week—Dhven’s mom came to school and brought henna with her. We all got a henna pattern on our hands; it was so pretty and a little ticklish.
In the third week, we focused on butterfly symmetry and patterns in art. We used a mirror to reflect our patterns and practiced mirroring butterfly wings; this was really fun. We discovered that the Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama uses many patterns in her art and got inspired to make our own. This week, it was our turn to share at the assembly. We practiced a patterns song, and the performance was amazing; everyone was very brave!
In the fourth week, we got to know Elmer, the patchwork elephant. He likes making the other elephants laugh and made us laugh a lot too. We learned that he is a special elephant, full of patterns, and played many Elmer games. We even worked on a group project where we made a patterned elephant together. Later that week, we had an early visit from Sinterklaas at night, and he dropped off some letter cookies for us to practice making our names with. This was a yummy surprise.
In the fifth week, we were getting ready for the real Sinterklaas visit. We learned a very pretty English Sinterklaas song, made a portrait of Sinterklaas, and even helped him deliver presents by boat to the right houses. On Tuesday, we made him a drawing and put out our shoes, and luckily for us, on Wednesday, we got a visit from the real Sinterklaas and were surprised with some very fun math learning toys. They have brought us much joy so far! Since Theo was moving to Australia this week, we researched the country, schools, and nature a little bit. Then it was already time for the exit point. We all picked out our favourite pieces of art from this unit and set up an exhibition for the parents to visit. We started the exhibition with our pattern song and then guided our parents to our own art.
In the sixth week, we were all in the festive mood because we started learning about New Year and different ways to celebrate the new year and bring light to the winter days. For this, we crafted our own tealight candle holders for some extra light and warmth. We also practiced our New Year’s poem and made our wishing star for the winter show for the parents. Everyone was very excited for this and did amazing.
During the last few days of the seventh week, we created our own "magic" scratching paper. We also researched life in London, as this is where Luca is moving. Afterward, we reviewed all the sounds we learned throughout the year and sorted objects into the right piles based on their beginning sounds. It was a fun way to end the year together!
We wish you and your family a joyful holiday season and a happy new year. We can't wait to see what 2024 has in store for us.
During our first week of school we took the time to get to know our new friends and feel comfortable in the classroom. Our first IPC unit was houses and homes, we started this unit with our entry point, which was a walk around the neighborhood. During our walk we saw different kinds of houses, house numbers and building materials. After this we built houses in many different ways, we built with Lego, blocks, cylinder rolls, rings, milk cartons… We also crafted our own house and put our family pictures inside.
The second week we built walls for the classroom and discovered that if you use the zigzag brick pattern, your walls are way stronger. We also learned about different rooms in the house and the furniture inside. We crafted our own house together with different rooms.
The third week we read a story about an architect and we designed our dreamhouse and tried to build it. This week, we focused on the houses in our home countries. We looked at the pictures and discussed the similarities and differences. This was very interesting, later we made the pictures into a bingo game to play.
The fourth and fifth week was all about the 3 little pigs. We read the story in different ways, acting it out with masks the children made. The students enjoyed telling the story to the teachers. During these weeks we experimented and built houses with straw, bricks and sticks. We practiced huffing and puffing like the big bad wolf in arts and crafts but also in a numeracy game where we wrote those results down. We went on two house visits and explored all the different rooms.
During the sixth week we helped animals find their home with a problem solving game and searched outside for more animal homes. We also focused on castles and even made our own castle out of 2D shapes. This prepared us for the exit point, the visit to ‘The castle of the counts’ where we toured the inside and outside of the castle. It was a wonderful experience for the children.
The seventh and last week of the unit we followed Hansel and Gretel on their adventure in the woods. We listened to the story and even made our own gingerbread house. We did this by following a step-by-step recipe that we read together. Later on we even decorated it with real candy. We also learned a very spooky song about ghosts and we practiced all the sounds we learned during the unit. Everyone remembered the movements and songs. On Friday we ate our house during our Halloween party, along with other homemade healthy snacks and it was delicious!
The sun has finally come out in Belgium and we have just finished our last IPC unit for this school year: Sand and Water. What an exciting unit for our younger students! Experimenting and exploring were at the heart of this unit.
For our entry point we created an indoor beach and a sand room! The children put their swimmers on and dived into the wonderful world of sand and water. We absolutely managed to sparkle their curiosity!
During this unit the children learned about the water cycle - thank you Ms Chiara for leading this learning activity! The children were able to observe and participate in experiments to understand that water does not always look and feel the same! Water can be liquid, solid and gas! Wow! We also explored the concepts of floating and sinking and experimented with different objects trying to forecast what would happen to them once we put them in the water. During this unit we also learned about the names of different sea creatures and some of the things that make them so unique. We watched some amazing videos such as an octopus changing colours, a male seahorse giving birth and a puffer fish getting scared!
In Lower Pre-Primary we love to have our water table accesible in the classroom. During this unit, the water table of course never left and instead, every week it was full of new surprising things to discover: sea creatures, shells, stones, beads, sand, water beads, …
Being creative is always an important objective and during this unit the children discovered three new techniques: Stencils, acrylic paint mixed with sand and watercolour paint. Over the course of the unit we even created our own collaborative beach art project!
Using water we also made ice lollies for ourselves and our friends at Upper Pre-Primary! We shared them together after listening to the story of The snail and the whale. So refreshing and healthy!
For our Exit point, we went on a class trip with many parents to play in the water at the Blaarmeersen! We enjoyed a full summer day, an amazing and exciting playground full of new challenges, a lovely picnic in the shade and had fun splashing in the water all together!
It has been an amazing year and a beautiful journey to share with our little family at ISG!
We wish you all a lovely and sunny holiday!
Ms Laura, Ms Dori, Ms Celina and Ms Merve
During this IPC unit we have learned much about the amazing world of bears. Children are always curious about animals and bears are an interesting and fun one to focus on! They could barely stop talking about them...!
Our entry point for this unit was a teddy bears’ picnic at school. Children were allowed to bring a teddy bear from home for the entire unit starting by joining our! As a snack, the children made their own sandwiches, which of course made them double delicious!
During this unit, roll playing was a key element. The children listened to the story of Goldilocks and the three bears and then role played it. For a whole week, the story kept being played over and over. The children never seemed to have enough! Later on, we removed the props and introduced the four puppets. The children loved using the puppets to tell the story.
Throughout these weeks we have learned much about bears: the different kinds there are, where they live, what they eat, about hibernation, … Very exciting things to learn!
During sports the students went on a bear hunt. They had to swim, jump and travel just like in the story We are going on a bear hunt.
The children created polar bear portraits with forks, made their own bear hats and binoculars and stamped bear pawprints.
In our water table, children classified bears according to colour by putting them in the right pipe. As a sensory activity, our students experimented with coloured ice cubes. They loved it!
During this unit we completed bear patters and practice making more challenging puzzles too.
For our exit point we went on a trip to the Citadelpark! There we went through caves, did an obstacle course with our sports teacher, Mr Francis, and had a teddy bears’ picnic. To finalize we went on a bear hunt and found a bear that was hibernating (Ms Luna)! The bear was very kind and woke up to say hello to the children before going back to sleep.
Learning about bears has been an amazing journey and we look forward to the next IPC unit after the holidays!
Ms Laura and Ms Dori
For the last weeks the friends at Lower Pre-Primary have been learning about clothes and it’s been quite a journey! Being winter, children have lots of work putting their own clothes on. Gloves, hats, scarfs, shoes, and jackets can be a tricky thing for our youngest friends! For this reason, it was a fascinating unit for them.
For our entry point, we wore our favourite clothes to school. We talked about why we like those clothes so much and carefully looked at each other’s clothes.
During this unit, we were able to see clothes from around the world and try some on. We learned that people are different and sometimes like to wear different clothes. Despite that, we learned that we still have a lot in common no matter what we wear!
Children leaned about weaving and even gave it a try themselves! We learned as well about why people wear clothes and explored the different types of fabrics there are. We connected clothes to the weather and the seasons. Here the children had to pack their own suitcases for either a summer holiday at the beach or a winter one at a snowy location.
We read ‘All bodies are cool’ and drew around ourselves on a big paper to later design clothes using paint and fabric. Sorting buttons, drawing with shapes made of felt, pairing socks and hanging clothes in a washing line were some of the other games we played during our unit.
Our role play area was broadened, and the children played out all sorts of stories. Children had the chance to wear many different clothes in the classroom. Sometimes that was a big challenge and a friend’s help was needed.
We had special celebration days in which we came to school wearing a pyjama, wearing blue clothes or wearing odd socks. We celebrated this special day together with our friends at Upper Pre-Primary. The last day before the holidays, we celebrated Carnival with the whole school!
Our exit point for this unit was making a tie-dye T-shirt. Each T-shirt is beautiful and unique, just like our wonderful children!
Our second unit this year was Food. A simple thing for us adults, yet such a big wonder for the little ones!
The entry point for this unit was going to a vegetarian restaurant called De Appelier. Taking the bus there was an excitement on its own. The kids loved visiting the restaurant´s kitchen too. They were very brave and tried lots and lots of surprising new dishes!
Where does food come from? At the beginning of the unit, some of the children answered ´from the box´ to this question. By the end of the unit, the kids knew that food comes either from an animal or from a plant. They even know from which for much of the food they regularly eat!
Which food is healthy and which unhealthy? The kids loved to learn about this and kept checking if what they had in their lunch boxes was healthy.
Making orange juice, boiling and peeling an egg, cooking an omelette, making a smoothie and making tea were activities that the children loved. After all, orange juice squeezed by your own efforts tastes way better than any juice you could ever buy!
During this unit, we worked much with the senses. Touch a vegetable inside a box and guess what it is; smell little bottles and find two that smell the same, then guess what the smell is; taste some food blindfolded and guess what it is; shake plastic eggs and find two that sound the same, then guess what is inside.
As an exit point, we made gingerbread cookies. The children kept a few for themselves and their families. The remaining ones they gave to some of the people that help care for them at school. The children choose to whom they wanted to give these cookies. They were very thoughtful and generous!
Have a great Christmas Holidays! See you new year!
Ms Laura
