Philosophy

At Pocket International Preschool, we're serious about providing education in a fun, compelling, and unique way. In fact, our curriculum's unique integration of target phonics, vocabulary and grammar into a wide array of subjects produces students with superlative verbal and reading English abilities.

These diverse subjects range from science and music to math, art and social studies. Via our carefully and creatively planned curriculum, our students become high achievers while being engaged in related activities like arts and crafts, story time, cooking, and reading and writing activities to name but a few.




We have a deep understanding of early childhood education and a great appreciation for the diverse, innate talents and abilities of different children. As such, we strive to create an environment where these unique talents and abilities are nurtured, allowing them to shine through. Most importantly, this is accomplished by encouraging creativity and curiosity among our students. Our students regularly participate in activities like show and tell, talking-time and creative writing sessions in the school journals. Here, they learn to ask lots of questions, see the world in different ways and learn that often there is more than one answer to a question.


All of this is accomplished with carefully planned and designed facilities, the latest, high-quality study materials, and a well-crafted schedule organized according to different themes for each month.

School Overview

Daily Schedule

10:00-10:30	Drop-Off, Free ChoiceTime, Classroom Chores & Attendance
10:30-10:40	Circle Time
10:40-11:10	Group Time (Monthly Theme Project)
11:10-11:20	Clean Up + Washroom
11:20-12:00	Park Visit (or Exercise and Music)
12:00-12:40	Lunch
12:40-12:50	Clean Up + Washroom
12:50-13:20	Study Time
13:20-13:40	Art & Crafts
13:40-14:00	Computer Time, Reading, Puzzles
14:00	Pick Up

Daily Lesson Summaries

At the end of each day, the students' teacher will provide a summary of the day. We encourage parents to review the day's lessons with the student at home.

Events

Each school year is full of fun and interesting events which includes holidays and customs from both the west and Japan. Just to name a few, we have a Halloween party, Hat Day, Girls and Boys Day, and Thanksgiving. At PIP, one of our educational goals is to cultivate a cultural awareness among our students through such activities.

Parent-Teacher Conferences

A student's educational success is based upon many things but one of the most important is the involvement of parents. With this in mind, we hold several parent-teacher conference sessions throughout the year in order to discuss the student's progress and to address any questions or concerns the parents might have. Aside from these planned conferences, parents are invited to request a conference at anytime during the year should they feel it necessary.

Report Cards

Twice a year, we will issue report cards detailing the students' progress. Parents are required to review these, provide comments, and then return them.

Online Educational Resources

We are currently developing our own ine of online, educational computer games so the cildren can continue learning in the most effective way even at home. All of the games will parallel the material they are learning at school from basic colors and animals to phonics and math. Each game contains and English speakers voice.

Library

We believe that reading is the gateway to a great English education. Here, at PIP, we have over 1,000 books in our library tailored for varying ability levels. In conjunction with their studies at PIP, we encourage all student's to continue reading and borrow these wonderful books for free!

Bookfair

Once a year, we hold a book fair where families can purchase books and other educational materials at greatly discounted prices. This is event is very popular among our Pocket community.

Free DVD Rentals

Of course, in addition to reading, we encourage our students to watch English DVD's as a supplement to their education. Students are welcome to check-out any of our over 200 DVD's available for free.

Special Summer and Weekend Programs

Through our programs children have access to unique homestay opportunities both here and abroad in Canada. We fully plan and support the entire process to ensure that our students have a safe, fun, and valuable experience.

Our Director

The Program Director for Pocket International Preschool is Kana Akashima, who brings a wealth of educational experience to the program at Pocket International School.

With more than 25 years of teaching experience including two years in the Canadian school system, she has created a school with strong academics, a reading program par-excellence, and a curriculum designed to nurture a student's physical, emotional and social development. As a mother who has spent time living abroad with her daughters, she hopes to instill a sense of cultural awareness, confidence and responsibility among the students at Pocket International School. She accomplishes this with her unique insight into both the Canadian and Japanese school systems, where she has chosen the best elements of both for the students here.

Special Programs

Our school understands the importance of extracurricular activities in a child's education and throughout the year there are many such programs available at PIP.

A few examples of these programs include a school sleepover, snow camp where students spend a day and night in a nearby snowy location skiing, sledding, and playing in the snow, and a one night excursion with Robin Hood Camp where they have an outdoor adventure. These particular activities are available only to members of our English Pocket schools including non-international school students. In the summertime, we hold a special summer program with which is available to everybody. At our PIP school branches, students come for a week-long, themed experience, and in addition to doing fun-theme related activities, the students also continue their studies with English. The program's daily schedule is the same as our regular PIP schedule. In addition to this summer program, we hold various "day camps" filled with fun and interesting one-day excursions including blueberry picking, museums, art camp and nature camp. For more information on any of these programs please contact one of our branches.

Curriculum

We have taken great care in designing our curriculum which is modeled upon the curriculum used in the state of California. This curriculum is particularly sensitive to the ESL requirements of our students and takes this into account by employing the repetition of specific phrases throughout various projects and activities the students are involved with.

For example, Instead of saying three phrases for the same thing, we focus on one phrase. In an ESL environment this is particularly important to developing a strong foundation in English. If students can focus on a particular phrase such as "Put it on the table.", later, they will be able to quickly learn other related phrase like "Set in on the table." and "Place it on the table." It's also important to note that this curriculum doesn't only focus on English education. Instead we try to strike a good balance in developing a child's emotional, physical, social and academic well-being along with math, science, art and music. In all of these activities, we encourage our students not just to listen but to do and make.

Aqua (2~3.5 Years Old)

At this age, children are learning to become independent from their mothers and are learning about self-awareness. It is here where the educational adventure begins.

Alphabet	Capital Letters
	Small Letters
Phonics Sounds	Vowels
	Consonants
Numbers	1 to 20
Colors	Black, Blue, Brown, Green, Orange, Pink, Purple, Red, White, Yellow
Shapes	Recognizing Shapes
	Circle, Triangle, Rectangle, Heart, Square, Diamond, Oval
Social Study Context	Grouping, Patterns, Giving Directions, Matching, Practicing Odd One Out

Jungle (3.5~4.5 Years Old)

At this age, children begin to enjoy stronger relationships with others and learn about participating in a group. As they gradually recognize the differences between themselves and others, it is our goal to teach them the rules governing social interaction. Creative activities play a big role in accomplishing this and also help students start to use and develop their imaginations.

Alphabet& Phonics	Review Capital Letters
	Review Small Letters
	Review Vowels
	Review Blends
Math	Patterns, Coin Identification
	Mesurement, More Or Less
	Numbers 1-50
Colors	Mixed Colors
Language Arts	Same and Opposites
	First, Next, Last
	Reading 3 & 4 Letter Words, High- Frequency Words, Rhyming Words, Compound Words
	Sequencing A Story, Reading Sentences

Zoo (4.5~6 Years Old)

By the time children reach this age, they have made substantial cognitive and physical progress, and their interaction with others has become quite complex. The games they are capable of are also quite complex, requiring speed and rhythm. At this stage of development, children develop an ability to compare and contrast their behavior with that of others. Part of this behavior awareness includes developing an understanding of right and wrong. During this time, it is critical that children be immersed in a good educational environment. With these things in mind, we aim to provide a high level of academically focused education while simultaneously nurturing the students' self-esteem, while promoting good behavior and confidence.

Traditional	Days Of The Week
Manuscript	Months, Seasons & Special Days
Reading	Finding The Main Idea, Reading For Details
	Visualizing, Identifying Cause & Effect, Fact & Opinion
	Capitalizing First Word & I, Recognizing Periods
Grammar	Word Order, Telling Sentences, Asking Sentences
	Exclamation Sentences, Identifying A Sentence
	Naming Words & Special Names, Action words, Linking Verbs
	Describing words, Singular / Plural nouns
Writing Practice	Completing A Sentence
	Writing 3-Part Sentences, Adding Adjectives
	Writing Sentences & Questions
	Sentence Combining, Sentence Building, Creative Writing Journal
Map Skills	Map Words, Directions, Symbols, Land & Water
	Neighborhood (Map), World Map
Math	Adding to 10, Odd & Even, Skip Counting
	Coin Identification & Value
	Measuring Length, Height, Volume
	Comparing (More or Less, Longer or Shorter)
	Telling Time
Language Arts	Vocabulary Enrichment
	(Phonics: Vowels, Consonants, Soft g, s, silent e, double vowels e.t.c)
	Antonyms & Synonyms
Science Context	Sink or Float, Plants
	Materials (Solids, Liquids, Gases)
Arts & Crafts	Using Various Materials and Their Imagination

General Information About Our Academics

Phonics Education

Most importantly in our academics, phonics comes first. It is essential to a successful English education. Through phonics children not only become familiar with the building block sounds of the English language, but phonics opens up a world of reading and writing, both of which are critical to learning new vocabulary and grammar. From our youngest class to our oldest class, phonics is fully integrated into the program. In our customized graduated curriculum, children are introduced to beginning and then middle and ending consonants, short vowels, long vowels, and then diagraphs, r-controlled vowels, and finally vowel combinations and dipthongs. By the time our students finish this program, they have excellent reading and writing abilities. Finally, it is an educational imperative here that students not only learn how to read but how to understand what they read. With this in mind, all of our reading actvities occur as an ongoing dialogue between the teacher and students where they discuss the meaning of the content. Often, at advanced levels, our students write short passages summarizes a particular story or simply telling a story which they imagined.

PIP Sight Words and Reading

In PIP we make sure our students learn at least the first 100 of Fry's Instant sight words. Fry's instant sight words are a list of the words that appear most frequently in books. By learning these words students begin to focus on what they are reading instead of trying to figure out every word. We believe that the goal of the learner should not only be to be able to read the text but also to understand and respond to what they are learning.

Science

PIP science is all about exploring and asking questions. During class time we do challenging and fun experiments that allow the students to understand their world. Topics include, plants, animals, weather and water. Each experiment follows the scientific method which all students understand. The scientific method consists of a Question, Hypothesis (guess) Test, and Conclusion. Students enjoy whether or not their hypothesis is correct. Two examples of questions are: How can you move a magnet without touching it? What will happen to water left in the sun? A student who is now in first grade put it best when he wrote us a note saying "I love science. Your experiments made me excited! Your science projects were so much fun!"

Monthly Themes & Events

Every month our classes are planned according to a theme. These themes appear throughout the students' academics, arts, music, reading, science, etc. The youngest cllass has a separate theme from the two older classes. We believe these themes are important because they help the students relate what they are learning to the world around them.

Aqua (2~3.5 Years Old)

	Month	Themes
2011	April	Animals(Animals and their homes, Baby animals)
	May	Be a Good Helper(Household appliances, chores)
	June	Rainy Days(Rain gear/Weather)
	July	My Town(Places, things around town, How to get there)
	August	Grandma's House(Helping Grandma/Relatives)
	September	Harvest Time(Vegetables, Adjectives, Farming)
	October	Halloween(Costumes, Candy, Monsters)
	November	At the Circus(Performers, Performances, Animals)
	December	Christmas
2012	January	In a Garage(Tools, Equipment in a garage)
	February	It's my Favorite(Names of clothing, Patterns)
	March	Funny Sounds(Different soundspeople, objects, actions make)

Jungle(3.5~5 Years Old) & Zoo(5~6 Years Old)

	Month	Themes
2011	April	Habitats(How and where animals grow up)
	May	Responsibility(Household items, appliances, rooms, chores)
	June	Water Cycle(Rain, Weather, Rain gear)
	July	My Town(Place around town, Map skills, Street Signs)
	August	Family Tree(Relatives, Relation, History)
	September	Harvest Time(Vegetables, Plant Life Cycle, Agriculture)
	October	Halloween(Costomes, Candy, Monsters)
	November	Entertainment(Forms of Entertainment, Circus Performers)
	December	Christmas(Customs, Traditions from different countries)
2012	January	In a Garage(Tools, Car Part, Carpentry)
	February	Where Do They Wear It?(Names of clothing, Patterns, Traditions Clothing)
	March	Funny Sounds(The different sounds people, objects, actions make)

Events!

Throughout the school year, our calendar is punctuated with a variety of fun events selected from both Japan and North America. One of our goals here is to foster a sense of cultural awareness among our students so they can appreciate the differences between the various peoples of the world.

	Month	Event
		Japan	North America
2011	April	Cherry blossom Viewing	Easte(4), Earth Day(22), Dental Health Day(18)
	May	Boys' Festival	Mother's Day(2nd Sun)
	June		Father's Day(3rd Sun), Eric Carles' Birthday(25)
	July	Star Festival	Independent Day(4), Hot Dog Day/Ice cream Day(23)
	August		Hawaiian Day(21)
	September	Moon Festival, Road Safety Week(21-30)	Labour Day(First Weekend),
	October		Halloween
	November		Thanksgiving(4th Thursday)
	December		Christmas(Gingerbread House, Advent Calendar, Party poppers)
2012	January	New Year's Day, Calligraphy	Winnie the Pooh Day(18), Hat Day(20)
	February	Setsubun	Valentine's Day(14)
	March	Girls' Festival	St. Patrick's Day(17), Earth Day

Calendar and Tuition

2011-2012 Lesson Calendar

Tuition

Study Options		New Tuition Fee
2 Days A Week		36,000 Yen
3 Days A Week		46,000 Yen
4 Days A Week		53,000 Yen
5 Days A Week		63,000 Yen

2)Registration Fee	21,000 yen	※Registration fee for a sibling is half.
3)Utility+Educational Materials' Fee Per Month	4,200 yen
4)Short Term Absence Fee Per Month	2,100 yen

Contact Us

Questions? Comments?? Compliments??? All forms of correspondence are welcome and we will respond as quickly as possible!

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Sample Newsletter

We want our parents to know about everything that is going on in our school and that's why we publish a monthly newsletter chronicling the past month's activities while letting everyone know what's in store for the next month. This newsletter is available both in a paper format as well as online through our password protected system.