Frontpage: Koinobori Craft
We participate in the Koinobori Festival every year.
Students decorate the koinobori by painting their handswith colourful paint, then printing them on the banner.
There are about 1000 Koinobori ﬂying in the sky.
Our Kinder Kids students were cheering enthusiasticallywhen they found the special Koinobori they made.
Grow up big and strong like the Koinobori kids!

E x p a n ding fut ure pos s ibilit ies

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Published inMay 2019 Vol.3
Next issue isplanned to comeat the end of July

Kinder Kids Inc.
TEL：06-6135-0150
Pulala Tenma 2F, 3-1 Ikeda-cho,Kita-ku, Osaka-shi, Osaka. 530-0033

Active Learning: Nurturing Survival Skills for the future.

www.kinderkids.com

Japanese Spirit with an International Future. Kinder Kids inc.

Active Learning: Nurturing Survival Skills for the future.
How will education
change in 2020?
The Education Reform Plan 2020 is coming
soon and will be implemented from nextyear. Many of you may have already heardthat English and Computer Programming
education will become mandatory. The aimof the education reform plan set out by theMinistry of Education Culture Sports
Science and Technology Japan (MEXT) is tofoster survival skills that are fundamental tosurviving in the unpredictable future.
The reform plan changes not only the curriculum but also the methods for teaching andlearning. The conventional method forlesson delivery is a teacher led one-way
instruction, cramming knowledge. The new
education plan develops skills allowing
students to express their own thoughts andwork within groups, moving away from simply
evaluating how much knowledge students
have or how much students can memorize.
The biggest aim of this education reform
plan is to develop active learning (AL).

Learning Pyramids

Lecture5％

Reading 10％
Audio Visual

20％

Demonstration
Discussion Group
Learning by Doing

30％

50％
75％
90％

Teaching others
1

Reference：The Learning Pyramid. National Training Laboratories

It's Soft！

Teacher led style of delivering education.

Conventional
lessons

Interactive teaching methods
Active Learning

Experience-basedlearning to instill thatlearning is fun!
Recently in Japan there has been
increased focus on AL.
Kinder Kids has recognized the value of AL
for many years and our curriculum incorporates this philosophy.

Pre-ClassSensory PlayWe use slime or playdough to stimulate their senses through sight, touchand smell. We also encourage them toverbalize what they feel: activating
their brain and improving their English
vocabulary.

ResearchAs students
experience more,they learn more.

Presentation
Group discussion

In theme lessons about the environment, we discuss
what we can do to protect and preserve our naturalresources. We consider what we can do as individuals
and ask students to bring reusable resources to schools,
classify their material and then take them to a recycling
centre. Through these practical experiences,
students become more aware of and moreinterested in the environment.

Learning through inquir y andexpressing oneʼs own thoughts
is 10 times more eﬀective!
AL is an approach aiming to develop students thinking
ability where students participate or interact in the learning process, pro-actively researching a problem or having a
discussion between themselves. Traditional teaching methods don t stimulate students curiosity to discover morethan what they are taught in the lessons or how to learn.
AL also aims to encourage students to actively engage inlessons, discover how fun learning is and encourage
students to keep actively learning throughout their life.

ActiveLearning

Average learning
retention rates are
10 times higher
than traditional
lectures!

Kinder ClassI sorted
the garbage！

At Kinder Kids, wedevelop students thinkingby encouraging students to be
curious, life long learners.

FeatureStory2StaffInterview

OsakaInterview

AshiyaSpotlight

SchoolSchool

Osaka School Manager
Yoko SakamotoOsaka School is a very lively school as wehave the largest number of students in anyof the Kinder Kids schools. I think it s a real
beneﬁt for Osaka School that teachers andstudents who have diﬀerent experiences andbackgrounds can learn in one place. We reallyvalue diversity in childcare.
As we encourage students to respect eachother s diﬀerences, I think our students havehigh self-esteem. Students who used to be shy
become social butterﬂies before we know it! I
was made to feel very proud recently whentalking to a teacher from an elementary school
where one of our graduates attends. The teacher
told me that the ﬁrst one to talk to and try totake care of a recent transfer student was ourAshiya School Manager
Naoko Kamon

Kinder Kids graduate. In Osaka school, we often
hear about Kinder Kids graduates so I feel like
we are still very much connected to them. I
appreciate that parents of graduates or current
students are very cooperative and I hope that I
can provide a place that parents feel free to talkabout their concerns regarding their child.
HPFacebook

4-33 Nishiki-cho, Kita-ku,Osaka-shi, OsakaIﬁnd that teachers and staﬀ are very aﬀectionate and enthusiastic at Ashiya School. We
always treat each student with kindness andsincerity. The school is like one big family, sostudents are very close and have strong relationships with one another regardless of their age.
Recently a student was crying when we had agroup activity so another student spontaneously
supported them by talking to and encouraging
her. It surprised us and we were moved because
it happened without any teacher direction. It
often happens that students will help each otherout without being told what to do.
When we welcome new students who transfer or
attend Summer School, students in Ashiya talk toWork in an ice
cream shop!

because it's so cool!

Wethey re so cool andthey can catch bad people!

A ﬁreﬁghter！

a sk ed t he k i ds inbecause it's so cool!

DA PUMP！
A police oﬃcer!

Want to be…

Issa is cool!

A Princess!
Rapunzel!

Work in a ramen shop!
because I love ramen!

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11-24 Kusunoki-cho,Ashiya-shi, Hyogo

What do you want to bewhen you grow up?

A hairdresser!
they makeeverybody pretty!

Facebookbecause I love my teacher!

Osaka SchoolandAshiya School!

A police oﬃcer!

HPA Teacher！

becauseI love ice cream!

A bullettrain driver!

them in a very open and friendly manner sothose students have no time to be shy.
After our students graduate we hope they will
come back and visit anytime and feel as if they
never left.

Live until
100 years old!

A doctor!
4Overseas School Report

Interview

Englishin my future

A School that spreads the Japanese spirit of education
around the world1

The 4th Graduating Class from Kinder Kids
Osaka School - N. O.
We asked Ayano about the volunteer program in Canada Schooland her childhood memories.

I want to work somewhererelated to international
peace in the future.
5I have fond memories with Kinder Kids and always wondered if there was away I could interact with Kinder Kids again. Then, one day, my Kinder Kidsds rightaway to ﬁnd out more about it. I took part in the volunteer program inCanada for three weeks.
I had fulﬁlling days at the school as I helped my host mother's baby class,
took care of babies, and played with students from the kinder classes in thegym, and even helped the older children with their journal writing.
What I remember most of all as a student at Kinder Kids is my Christmas
Concert. I always liked to stand out, and I was very excited, so I chose arole that had the most lines and a long script. I also remember that I went
to lots of diﬀerent places on excursions.
After I graduated I didn't stop studying English, I went to Saturday Class(before it became known as Grad Club) and Summer Camp. English is a
global language so it can expand my opportunities to meet other people
that enrich my life. I think learning English in Kinder Kids made me conﬁdent when using English and enhanced my future possibilities.
Also, it was a turning point for me when I learned about Malala Yousafzai,
who sparked my interest in child labour. I was awarded ﬁrst place in theOsaka City Speech Contest with a speech about child labour when I was a
1st-grade high school student.
ing a job where I can teach children in developing countries how importanteducation is.

Canada School Director
Stephanie WinterCanadaWe've now reached our 5th anniversary since
opening as the ﬁrst overseas Kinder Kids
grown and is now so popular that there areproud that this success has led the way andcreated opportunities to open Kinder Kids
schools in Hawaii and Singapore.
Canada School holds a number of events overthe year including the Canada Day celebration,Halloween, a Sports Festival held in March andthe Summer Concert (the equivalent of theChristmas Concert in Japan). The children
recently took part in their Sports Festival
events and, as in Japan, the eldest grade SK(K3) performed a kumitaiso routine, wowing thewatching families.
We have been delighted to have a number ofoverseas transfer students from across Japan
spend a few weeks learning and playing
together with our Canadian students andteachers. It is a fantastic opportunity to see a
new country and a new culture in comfortableand familiar surroundings.
We hope all of our students in the Kinder Kids
family will beneﬁt from our support, come tovisit us and continue to explore the world!

Our success blends elements of Japanese
early childhood education, such as Music Class andKumitaiso with international literacy and a global vision.

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