HJIS Sendai Aoba - Summer School 2026: Week 2 - July 31st, 2026

Hello, Preschool families!
It has been a fantastic two weeks of Summer School. The children have enjoyed exploring both our Mission to Space and Ocean Adventure themes through creative crafts, science experiments, sensory play, and literacy activities. We are so proud of everything they have learned and created, and we hope they enjoy sharing their projects with you at home.

Morning & Afternoon Meeting

Each day, we began with our morning meeting by talking about the date, weather, and classroom jobs before singing our morning song and dancing together. At the end of each day, we gathered for story time before singing our goodbye song to finish another fun day of Summer School.

Language & Literacy

This week, we reviewed the second set of Jolly Phonics sounds: c, k, e, h, r, m, and d. The children sang the Jolly Phonics song each day before practicing blending and initial sound activities on Jolly Classroom. They took part in a variety of hands-on phonics activities, including playdough letter formation, letter lacing, a sound exploration activity using letter, animal, fruit, and vegetable toys, and a shaving foam rescue activity where they washed hidden objects to identify them before sorting them by their beginning sounds.

Summer Activities

Throughout the week, the children discovered many amazing things about the ocean and the creatures that live there. We began by learning about the ocean and creating colorful jellyfish by painting paper bowls before adding flowing tentacles and oral arms using plastic tape. We then learned about sea turtles while making miniature beach dioramas inside clear capsules using soft clay, miniature plants, sequins, and stickers. The children made painting with puffy paint to create colorful fish paintings. As the week continued, we learned about starfish, including where they live and how they eat. The children made their own salt dough by mixing flour, salt, and water before shaping and baking their own starfish. They later painted their finished starfish in their favorite colors and created miniature aquariums by adding plants, water, glitter, and fish to small containers before decorating them with sea creature stickers. We finished the week with a trip to the park, where the children enjoyed water play with water balloons, water pistols, and other water toys. After returning to school, they enjoyed free play in the big room before relaxing with the movie Sing 2 and a refreshing shaved ice treat.

Monday – Jellyfish Making

Tuesday – Beach Diorama and Puffy Painting

Wednesday – Starfish Making

Thursday – Mini Aquarium and Starfish Painting

Friday – Water Play and Shaved Ice

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.