Kindergarten Newsletter

Issue #4 (2025-2026)

Happy 2026! We hope your holiday break was restful and filled with joy. It has been wonderful seeing our students return to the classroom with such enthusiasm and ready to dive into a new month of learning.

As we settle into January, we are focusing on new beginnings and building on the growth we saw throughout the autumn term. This edition of our newsletter captures the excitement of our return and highlights the units of inquiry our students are currently exploring.

While we are just starting the new year, we are already looking forward to our Chinese New Year break in mid-February. We want to wish all our families an early Happy Lunar New Year! We look forward to celebrating the Year of the Horse with our students before the upcoming holiday.

Thank you for your continued support as we begin this fresh chapter together.

Golden Hour

Friday afternoons continue to be a cherished highlight of our week during Golden Hour! This dedicated hour of uninterrupted play provides our students with the space to follow their curiosity across a variety of engaging stations. Whether they are diving into immersive sensory play, getting creative with process art, or challenging themselves through gross motor activities, the children thrive in this environment of choice and exploration. We are especially excited to share that we’ve enhanced this favorite time of the week with the addition of a sand pit! It has already become a popular hub for digging, pouring, and collaborative building, offering even more opportunities for our learners to develop their fine motor skills and social connections as they wrap up the school week.

Pyjama Party

To wrap up our busy month, we traded our school uniforms for our favourite PJs for our highly anticipated Pyjama Day! The classrooms felt extra warm and inviting as both students and teachers arrived dressed in colourful slippers and pyjamas. It was a wonderful opportunity for the children to develop their communication skills as they introduced their favourite stuffed toy friends and shared their most-loved bedtime stories during circle time.

The highlight of the day was our special snack! We gathered together for a special snack of warm pancakes and refreshing apple juice, making for a truly memorable and cozy celebration of our school community. Thank you for helping your children prepare for such a magical day!

2 Year Old Classes Trip the the Hong Kong Zoological Gardens

Our 2 Year Old Class students recently embarked on a wonderful family trip to the Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens to bring our Animals unit to life! It was a joy to see the children’s faces light up with wonder as they spotted the vibrant pink flamingos wading in the water and watched the playful lemurs and monkeys swinging through their enclosures. We also observed the slow and steady tortoises. This hands-on experience allowed our young learners to connect with nature and see the animals we’ve been reading about in class up close. A huge thank you to all the families who joined us for this memorable day of discovery!

3 Year Old Classes MTR Trip

As part of our inquiry into How We Organise Ourselves, our 3 Year Old Class students took their learning on the rails for an exciting trip on the MTR! Practicing their independence, the children used their very own Octopus cards to tap through the gates at Kowloon Tong Station, heading all the way to Hung Hom. During the journey, we observed the many features that keep the city moving, from the yellow safety lines to the station maps. Upon arriving at Hung Hom station, the children were fascinated to see how different modes of travel connect, spotting taxis, minibuses, and double-decker buses. It was a wonderful hands-on experience that helped our little learners understand the systems that help us navigate our busy world!

Playgroup and 2 Year Old Classes

Our Playgroup and 2 Year Old classes have had a busy month diving into their Animals unit, exploring everything from the farm and the jungle to the deep blue ocean! Through sensory play, our little ones have been "fishing" in the water tray and practicing their coordination by "feeding" hungry animal friends. Our budding vets have also been very busy in the Veterinary Clinic role-play area, learning how to care for and show kindness to all creatures.

Creative spirits have been soaring during arts and crafts, where we’ve been busy making "muddy" pigs, vibrant jellyfish, lions and colourful turtles. We have also enjoyed many wonderful animal-themed stories that have sparked great curiosity about the world around us.

For our 2 Year Old class students, the learning went home with our Pet Adventure! Each child had the chance to take a class pet (a soft toy) home for the weekend to practice responsibility. It has been heartwarming to see the photos and hear the children proudly share their weekend stories — from tea parties to bedtime snuggles — with their classmates during circle time.

3 Year Old Classes

This month, our 3 Year Old Classes have been deeply engaged in their new unit of inquiry, How We Organise Ourselves. Through their Central Idea—People use transportation systems to move around—students have been exploring the specified concept of function as they investigate how different vehicles work and the roles they play in our community.

We began our Inquiry by assessing the children’s prior knowledge, which led to a collaborative data-handling activity where we graphed how we travel to school. This sparked curiosity about the MTR system. The children practiced their self-management skills by co-constructing a train system to navigate between common areas, following "tracks" just like in the real world. You may have seen our MTR lines and Octopus card readers around the school!

Our learning environments also featured a Travel Agent role-play area where students developed communication skills while planning journeys and a hot air balloon. To further their conceptual understanding, the children engaged in creative expression by painting and interacting with large 3D vehicles, exploring the key concept of form as they identified the different parts of a school bus, train, rocket and airplane. It has been an incredible journey of discovery as our Inquirers learn how transport systems keep our world connected!

4 & 5 Year Old Classes

This January, our 4 and 5-Year-Old Class stepped back millions of years as we launched our new IBPYP unit of inquiry under the theme Where We Are in Place and Time. Our young paleontologists have been exploring the Central Idea: Remains of prehistoric animals lead us to understand the past.

We began our tuning in phase with a hands-on fossil exploration, where students used their Research Skills to dig for "remains" in the sand and even created their own fossils. This led to a fascinating look at Pangaea, as they investigated what the Earth looked like long ago and how life existed on a single supercontinent.

Our students have truly embodied the Learner Profile attribute of being Inquirers, driving our inquiry forward with some truly amazing questions:

"How do they know how to put the bones back together?" (Connection)
"Did dinosaurs eat people? And why were there no people then?" (Causation)
"What is faster: a dinosaur with two legs or four legs?" (Function)
"How big were spiders in the Triassic period?" (Reflection)

To find the answers, the children have been researching dinosaur features, habitats, and the theories surrounding their extinction. It has been a month of profound discovery. We are so impressed by how these "prehistoric" remains are helping our students develop a deeper understanding of the world's timeline!

Hi everyone, I’m Miss Dom and I teach Playgroup and the Two Year Old Class here at Kingston. I come from Brisbane, Australia and I moved to Hong Kong in 2003 to begin my journey in Kindergarten teaching. I have worked at several Kindergartens across Hong Kong, both local and International. I love teaching here at Kingston because it's such a great school that truly emphasizes hands-on learning experiences for the kids. The joyful atmosphere fosters creativity and curiosity, making every day an adventure in the classroom. The strong bonds among the staff create a supportive environment where teamwork and friendship thrive. This sense of community not only enhances our teaching but also enriches the students' learning, allowing us to work together to inspire and guide them. It's incredibly rewarding to be part of a school where both students and staff succeed together. Outside of the classroom, I enjoy traveling and hiking, which allow me to explore new places and connect with nature. Spending quality time with family and friends is also essential to me, and now I cherish every moment with my son, Theo, who is almost 5 months old. I’m especially excited for him to start at Kingston next year and join playgroup, as I look forward to him becoming a part of the wonderful Kingston community!

As educators and facilitators at Kingston, we are continually inspired by the diverse talents and achievements of our young learners. We believe that every accomplishment, whether inside or outside the school environment, contributes significantly to the growth and self-esteem of our children.

We know that many of our students are engaged in a variety of activities beyond their academic life, such as dance, music, art, sports, and more. It is with great excitement that we invite you to share these wonderful experiences and victories with our school community.

To better celebrate and acknowledge these achievements, we kindly request that you complete the Student Talent Form below with any notable successes your child has had outside of school. This could include anything from winning a medal in a dance competition, participating in a community art exhibition, performing in a violin recital, or any other accomplishment that makes you and your child proud.

https://forms.gle/LGoXpAqaAKYXWStJA

Please include photos of your child taking part in this activity and any awards they have received so that we are able to share this with our school community!

2 February - Term 2 begins

4 February - Kindergarten field trip to The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show
6 February - 2 Year Old Class Animal Carnival

10 February - 4 & 5 Year Old Classes trip to Fa Hui Park CNY Flower Market
12 February - Whole school Flower Market
13-24 February - Chinese New Year Holiday

Stay connected with our school community by following us on social media! Join us on Facebook, Instagram, and RedNote for updates, event highlights, and a glimpse into our daily activities. We love sharing our exciting moments with you and fostering a vibrant online community!