Kindergarten Program

School Year 2023-2024

I. Introduction
II. Kindergarten Class
III. Daily Schedule
IV. Communication
V. Kindergarten Items List
VI. Events and Programs
I: Introduction

To all the parents who are joining us.

“Welcome to ai International School and Welcome to School Year 2023 - 2024.”

II: Kindergarten Class

The Kindergarten class consists of teachers who work hand in hand to make sure that your child/s
needs are properly met throughout the entire school year.

For this school year, the members of the Kindergarten teaching team are:

Ms. Raymond (K6) Coordinator

Ms. Nicole (K5)
Ms. Gleen (K5)
Ms Joyce (K4)
Mr. Shihoka (K4)

Our program is a mixed age group of children from ages 4 - 6 years old.

We believe that the multiage group class helps the Kindergarteners develop their intrapersonal
and interpersonal skills and their ability to cope up in a big classroom setting.

III: Daily Schedule

8:15-9:20 Morning Preparation, Free Learning Time, and Free Play

● Students put away their lunches, utensils and other items
● Students will help prepare the morning snack
● Students review specific academic needs with their teacher
● Children play in areas of the classroom

9:30-9:55 Morning Circle Time

● Students are welcomed, roll call, songs and finger-plays, calendar, discussion
about the day’s events
● A daily theme is taught

10:00-10:20 Snack
School provide morning snack, eaten after the first learning center

10:25-10:55 Learning Center – (K4)

Park – (K5)
Center Time – (K6)
10:55-11:25 Learning Center – (K6)
Park (K4)
Center Time (K5)

11:25 – 11:50 Learning Center (K5)

Park (K6)
Center Time (K4)

Learning Center - Language

● Students learn practical English supported by phonics, grammar and reading
lessons
● Hands-on learning tools, games, writing exercises and art projects are used
● Textbooks are used for the K5 and K6 levels
● K4 students primarily learns through games, manipulative, art and writing exercise
● K5 and K6 use additional phonics supplements and readers
ESL Lesson
● Students have an ESL lesson to learn oral communication, syntax and
pronunciation
Learning Center – Math
● Students learn age and individual level appropriate Math concepts
● Hands-on learning tools and manipulative, games, worksheets and art projects are
used

12:00-1:30 Lunch and After Meal Routine

● Students eat their home or school lunches
● Students brush their teeth and rinse their mouths
● Teachers checks students` temperature

1:30 -1:45 Creative Reading/ Dramatic Play

● Story Time - Students learns about characters, story-structure and book concepts,
develop their imagination, listening skills, and love of books.

1:45 -3:00 Afternoon Center Review

● Sensory, Art and Science Lessons
Sensory: -Explore the Five Senses
-Develop observation and descriptive language skills
Art: -Use of different materials to express creativity
-Develop descriptive language, art evaluation and
appreciation skills
-Develop fine motor skills
Science: -Observe and interact with different experiments
-Learn to make logical predictions and conclusions
-Develop the ability to share ideas
-Develop descriptive language
Music: -Learn different music and beats
-Introduce different instruments
-Learn simple music notes/Do, Re, Me
3:00 - 3:20 Afternoon Circle Time
● Review the day’s activities
● Discussion about upcoming events
● Quiet review games or songs

3:20 – 4:30 Afternoon Activities and Dismissal

● Students eat their home snacks together

● Playtime at the park. If temperature is too hot or cold as well as on rainy days,
indoor activities and games are prepared
● Dismissal assembly will be done in the patio as students gather together and wait
for the 16:10 school bus departure or their parents to pick them up at school.

4:30 – 6:30 Extended Care Activities and Dismissal

● Students gather in the classroom for indoor arts, music and movement, creative play
and worksheet review
● Dismissal of 17:10 and 18:30 school bus students
● Gate will open for student pick up at 16:30, 17:00, 17:30, 18:00 and 18:30

Additional Activities:
Library
● Students are allowed to choose one book a week from the 2nd floor Library on Fridays
● Students must return their book by the next week – Monday to Wednesday.
● Should there be any case of loss, inform the class teacher immediately
● Student can only borrow another book after returning the previous one

Review
● Students review Language and Math concepts on Thursdays and Fridays
● Weekly homework is introduced and distributed on Fridays to the K5 and K6 levels

Class Pets
● Students will help take care of our school pets.
● This will teach your child how to take care of a pet and to learn more about our school pets

Park, Music and Kinesthetic Expression

● Creative lessons on Thursdays - focuses on developing gross motor skills,
coordination, cooperation, music and movement
IV: Communication Between Teachers and Families

Class Homework Notebook

Every Friday, your child will bring home a Homework Notebook for a weekend written
exercise.
Parent/Teacher Conference (PTC)
Parent/Teacher conferences are held three times a year for all children.
The first PTC is to discuss your goals for your child and for parent and teacher to get to know
each other.
The other two are to discuss your child’s development and progress throughout the year.
An observation log is kept for each student and the information forms the basis for each child’s
confidential assessment and evaluation.
At the PTC your child’s progress is discussed and a written evaluation is given to parents/
care givers.
We consider PTC to be very important and we expect that a parent attend all conferences and
take the time to discuss their child’s progress and needs with their teacher.
It is through these discussions that we are then able to plan the next steps for each child.

Teachers and Director are also available for conferences at any other time if there is something
you wish to discuss. In this instance please make an appointment with the Director or
Coordinator of your child’s class.

Email and CoDMON app

Any information shared in this community will be distributed in 2 different ways:

1) Hard Copies of letters pertinent documents will be placed in your child’s individual letter pouch
inside their ai bag.
2) Email to your home, office or mobile phones
3) CoDMON app

We are using CoDMON to share and update information.

We will upload many important notices on this app and you will find pictures and video clips
from the classrooms and school events there, too.
You will need to create user account to access to the CoDMON.
ai Office will email you the QR code to access your account.

It is very important to provide ai Office with your updated email addresses. ai Office has been
emailing all students already when sending the information. If you haven’t received any emails
yet, that means you need to contact us and make sure ai Office has the correct email addresses
to get in touch with you.
V: Kinder Items List

Everyday items:

School Backpack
School backpack to fit all daily materials including communication notebook
and letter pouch.

Letter Pouch
This is used for communication between school and home.
The Letter Pouch should stay inside your child’s bag everyday.
You will find letters from ai Office, the classroom, etc. inside the Letter
Pouch.
The Communication Notebook will be placed inside the letter pouch, so
please read, write, and return the Communication Notebook everyday.
If you have any documents that needs to send/return to school, please
place it in the letter pouch in the morning, and your child’s teacher will
collect it and pass it on to ai Office.
For lunch, field trips, book club and other small payments please put the slip and the money in an
envelope, seal it and label the envelope with your child’s name and what the money/slip is for.
Any kind of communication on paper, between home and school, should be placed in this Letter Pouch.
This way we can avoid losing letters, discarding letters accidentally, tearing letters from home/school
inside the child’s bag.
Please remember to check the Letter Pouch everyday, and keep it inside the child’s school backpack at all
time.

Please do not put stickers or draw on the Letter Pouch

Sub Bag (prepared from school)

Please put lunch, snack, water bottle, utensils and toothbrush inside this sub bag.
Please remember to bring this bag to school everyday.
Home Lunch (optional: School Lunch catered daily)
In order to provide lunch in the best condition for our children, we
usually utilize our food warmers, refrigerators and microwaves in
the classroom.
Please separate cold and hot food, by containers, and label them
clearly as to where they should be placed: in the warmer,
refrigerator or kept at room temperature.

Eating Utensils
Used for lunch and snack

Water Bottle with a Strap

On trips outdoors, students will be asked to carry their own water bottles

Snack
Children who stay at school till 16:30 or later, need their own snacks for
afternoon snack time.
Please make sure the snack is clearly labeled with your child’s name.
We can refrigerate snacks if required.
The school encourages good health habits therefore sweet juice drinks,
soda, gum, candy (including Ramune, conpeito etc) or chocolate (in any
form) are not allowed.
The school is also a “Nut Free” school and we ask that no foods containing
nuts be sent as snacks or for lunch.
This means foods such as peanut butter, nut powder in cookies and cakes, almonds and nut
decorations on food, food that might contain peanut oil etc.
If you are unsure please check with your child’s teacher.

Hand Towel with a Loop

Used for drying hands.

Toothbrush, Toothpaste, Cup, and Bag

All items should come in a bag, please label each items to avoid
unnecessary lost or mixing-up.
Semester/Monthly Items:
Indoor Shoes
To be used inside the school and sent home when too small or at
the end of the month for washing.

Portfolio File
This is used to profile your child’s academic/ artistic growth during the
school year.
We will provide each child with a new Portfolio File each Semester (3
times during the School Year).
The Portfolio will be taken home at the end of each semester.

Art Smock
Art Smock is used for expressive and messy art exploration.
It should have long sleeves and cover your child’s chest area.
It will be returned at the end of each semester.

Seasonal items:
Extra Clothes
A full set of seasonally appropriate clothes that will be kept in the classroom.

Please make sure that all their belongings

are properly labeled with their name to avoid
unnecessary loss or mixing up.
VI: Events and Programs

We have a busy day throughout the year.

It is always a good time to celebrate and get to know the other people within the ai Community,
that is why we encourage all of you to participate and join us in all of our upcoming School
Events. It would also help your child to develop good self-esteem and belongingness to the
community.

Some of our up-coming events are as follows:

School Events

*Parent/Teacher/Conference (PTC) 1st PTC September 25th to October13th

2nd PTC (TBD)
3rd PTC (TBD)

Please check our new sign –up procedure for PTC via Google Form

*Sports Day September 19th- 22nd

*Fall Field Trip October 4th
*Fall Festival Week October 25th – 31st
*Winter Carnival December 15th
*ai Expo Week March 11th - 15th
*ai Expo Culmination March 20th
*Spring Field Trip May 9th
*Science Fair Week May 30th
*Graduation and Celebration June 22nd
*Summer Festival August 28th

For complete details a separate letter/sign-up sheet will be sent home as we head closer towards
the event.
Class Events

*Monthly Birthday Celebration

This is a monthly event for all the Birthday Celebrant/s (3rd Tuesday of each month).
This year we want to have it mainly as a Class Event where the celebrant/s and their friends
can spend more quality time together during the party. We will make a Birthday Cupcake
for celebrant/s, so there’s no need to bring any personal cakes and goody bags.

*ai BEACH DAY Fall Semester 20232024

Sept 11th
Nov 22nd
(Winter and Spring Semester dates will be announced later)
* Welcome PTC September 25th – October 10th
*Christmas Class Party December 20tth

*Kakizome Day January (TBD)

*Mochitsuki Day February (TBD)

*Valentines’ Day
… and many more!

For a complete details a separate letter/sign-up sheet will be sent home as we head closer
towards the event.

Thank you so much for your time today, we all appreciate your effort to make the beginning of
our school year better and smooth.

Let’s all look forward to the best school year and we thank you in advance for all your support and
cooperation in the coming months.

KindergartenTeachers
2023/2024
Mr. Raymond
Ms. Nicole
Mr. Gleen
Ms. Joyce
Mr. Shihoka