Happy Holiday Trees

Dear Mommies and Daddies,

We had a fun day today in Flowers Class with all our new friends from Petals class and all the toys and activities. It was great seeing our friends in again today for the winter wonderland winter school. On the main table we saw some red boxes with some origami paper nearby. The origami paper was twice the size of usual origami paper and there were lots of colors. Today we used the paper to make our own special Christmas tree to hang in the box. To make the tree we firstly folded the paper in half and then in half again to make a square. We then folded pieces following Hisami’s instructions carefully. When we turned the paper over we saw we had madea wonderful tree. Next to the red boxes we saw lots of sparkly shapes with which to decorate them to make them look pretty. We also glued on two signs with ‘Happy’ and ‘Holidays’ printed on them. Once we had finished folding and decorating Hisami then helped us attach the tree to the box using cotton thread and a needle. It looks really good and we are very proud of our work. On the second table we saw some really nice puzzles, one an iguana and the second one a lobster. They were a little difficult at first as the piece were very thick and also reversible. Over in the carpet area we saw the new literacy and games table with two activities; the first is a game called speedy fingers where we needed to match a pattern of colored foam disks with a ball shaker and the second was a hand coordination game where we needed to move a wire around a shape without the buzzer going off. The ‘Home Corner’ was also very popular this morning with many of us taking out food, dressing up like princesses and playing mommies and daddies together. After packing away the toys and art materials nicely we all got together on the carpet to sing the ‘Good Morning’ song together, check the calendar for the day, month, season and weather. We also played a listening game where we needed to touch our heads, knees, ears, eyes etc but Darren kept on making mistakes which was funny. We had our yummy snacks all together on one table today and it was fun talking with our friends about our holiday plans. We got ready for the park really quickly together today and were all happy to be out in the warm sunshine. Some of us played soccer while others used the climbing frame and swings. On the way back we played ‘I spy’ using colors and saw a spiderman toy in the window of a local house. Once we had removed our park smocks and jackets we headed to the 3rd floor office where we saw the big bottle cap mural on the ground. We started this yesterday but there is lots more to do. Today we worked with white, blue, orange green and red bottle caps. We needed to be a little bit careful that the caps lined up with the edges of the board. The glue was white and sticky with some of it going on our fingers but soon wiped off. We are looking forward to another great day tomorrow. Have a good afternoon and see you again tomorrow, Ohana!

Love, all the kids in Flowers Class

Buds Class

It’s a beautiful day and it’s our third day of winter school. We’re really having so much fun playing and socializing with friends and teachers. The weather was so chilly and our teachers reminded us to be always stay warm by wearing thicker clothes to school. As we said bye to our parents, we did our morning jobs and explored the activities in store for us. We had the play dough today and we definitely enjoyed making some imaginary ice-cream and cake for everyone. Sayaka and Chiaki also guided us on how to make these figures and we were so interested and listened to them the whole time. John was busy cleaning on the other table so we had to stay in our carpet area. We supported his time cleaning because it’s important for us to have a clean environment for the next term. During our circle time, Chiaki led the class and we started it by singing, “good morning song”, “Jingle bells” and “Skidamarink”. It was really a good practice because we’re able to use the bells and other instruments in class. We also read a book about “If you take a mouse to the movies”. We listened intently and realized that it was a funny story. Then, Chiaki took out a sock and it looked like a dinosaur. Then, she told us that the dinosaur was really hungry so we had to feed it. We gave some apples, pears, strawberries and many more. The dinosaur was very hungry and he couldn’t stop eating. We ended our lesson by singing more songs and dancing together. We went to the park with just Sayaka and Chiaki because John was really busy cleaning the classroom. We said goodbye to him and headed off to the park. There, we found the Petals and Flowers classes. We played with them and went to the green area and slides. We always enjoyed this time with them. Thank you so much everyone. Today is John’s last day before he goes back to the Philippines for a vacation.

Lots of love,

All the energetic children from Buds class 2016-2017