A Hundred Ways to Say Something: KG's Mini-X in Their Own Words

Kindergarten students wrote a story, made costumes, recorded a soundtrack, and performed it all live. Here is how they did it, and how they felt when it was over.

UWC Thailand Community · March and April 2026

Kindergarten Mini-X How We Express Ourselves
Ask a kindergartener how they communicate and you might get a body wiggle, a drumbeat, or a very detailed explanation involving cat clothes. That is exactly the spirit that drove this year's KG Mini-X, a unit of inquiry built around a simple but expansive idea: learning to communicate requires exploration, appreciation, and practice, and it builds connections.

Inspired by the Reggio Emilia philosophy of the "100 Languages of Children", the unit was a reminder that expression is not limited to speech. Children have a hundred different ways of thinking, discovering, and sharing their perspectives. Over March and April, Junior and Senior Kindergarten students got to explore many of those ways at once.

THE STORY
From drama and art to a story called Ploy

It started with Senior KG asking a big question: how do you communicate without words? Students acted it out, talked it through, and came up with ideas that ranged from wearing cat clothes to using body language with your arms. From those shared drama, reading, art, and writing experiences, a story was born: the tale of Ploy, a character who learned to communicate in many ways.

Then all of KG got to work bringing it to life. Students designed and built their own costumes using cardboard, fabric, tape, hot glue, and collage. Each class painted a different scene backdrop in Art class with Kru Zone, using techniques they had been practising all year: colour mixing, printing, handprints on canvas. Junior KG worked with Kru Santi to compose the soundtrack, playing drums, bells, and shakers to create a soundscape of Phuket. They studied gibbon calls and elephant stomps before adding animal sounds to the recording. Senior KG read the words of the story aloud. In Thai lessons with Kru Nok, students had also been learning vocabulary for food, drinks, and ordering, which they put to use running their own play cafes on the day.
 

Then came the hot and sweaty rehearsals on the outdoor stage. They noticed what was working and what needed to change, and they kept going.
 

THE REFLECTIONS
In their own words, after the big day

When it was all over, the children were asked how they felt. Their answers were honest, funny, and genuinely moving.
 

Pippa: "I felt excited because I really wanted to show the grown ups! I wanted my mum and dad to explore."

Lucia: "I felt proud because there were so many people watching. My mum was smiling and I was proud doing really good acting."
Ronnie: "I was a little bit nervous. When everyone was clapping I felt like... *heavy breathing*"
Rooney: "I was excited and a little nervous because people were staring at me but I did it because I pet my parrot and looked at him."
Kyle: "I felt nervous because I was on the mic, but I practiced."
Misha: "I was proud of myself and confident because that felt like playing with others on the stage."
Willow: "I feel a little nervous on the stage because I see my mum and dad. And I wanted to... *dances around*"
Reiko: "Making it in art was the best thing ever."
 

There was nervousness and excitement in roughly equal measure. Several children said they dealt with their nerves by thinking of something else, or looking at a familiar face in the crowd. One looked at his parrot. One just looked at the mic. And one student, when asked how the day went, simply said: "It was bad." Which, for a kindergartener, is its own kind of honest.

WHAT IT ALL MEANT
Expression is not limited to speech

Each student also created a language portrait, mapping out the ways they personally communicate, an exercise in helping children see themselves as capable, multi-dimensional expressers long before they have the words to describe it.

What KG showed this year, through paint-covered hands and handmade gibbon costumes and very serious drumming, is that communication is already happening. Constantly, creatively, and in a hundred different ways.

Congratulations to all KG students, their families, and the wonderful team of Kru Nok, Kru Santi, Kru Zone, and Kru Holly who made the Mini-X possible.

 

Click here for more photos.