"Parting is such sweet sorrow...."

Our friends browse through their portfolios that they got for the farewell party.

Dear Mom and Dad,

         Today was a bittersweet day; we had a farewell party for some of our friends: R, Y, and Y. Their parents came to our class, and prepared lots of things for us. Like we said, it was bittersweet.

       Shelly joined us today for the party, and we had T (R’s Mom), K (Y’s mom), and H (Y’s mom) seated on our special chairs. They each said their thank you, and reminisced on the first day their children came to Ohana. It was a bit sad! We’re going to miss the mommies, especially when we have special events in school. Luckily, they prepared some games for us, before tears fell. C (Y’s dad), happily snapped pictures and took videos.

      Our first game was organized by T, and we had to squeeze the ball between our legs and race each other. That was so funny! The balls kept bouncing off, so we were chasing after it.

     Next was musical chairs by K. This got us pretty excited as this was game very familiar to us. In the end, it was M and Y battling it out for the final chair. When the music stopped, the chair was too big for them, and they ended up sitting beside each other! We laughed, then cheered. They were both the winners!

     The last game was about animals and their actions; H each gave us a card with a picture of an animal on it, then we need to do the action. When the game started, we needed to group with our friends who had the same animal, by identifying the actions they made. The octopus found each other by waving their arms, and doing a little shimmy with their hips. The elephant group found each other as they used an arm as their trunk, waving it in front of them as they trumpeted. The rabbit group made bunny ears with their fingers as they hopped around. The cat group made meowing sounds, and the kangaroo group had their arms bent in front of them as they jumped. The room looked like a zoo, haha!

     After that, our three friends sat in their special chairs, and Shelley told us that they were going to leave Ohana, and head off to the big school.

    “My school is near the Arisugawa Park,” Y informed us.

    “I’m going to Indian School,” R chimed in. Y added that she was going to Jingumae School.

    “Is there anything that you want to tell them before they leave?” Shelley asked us.

    “Thank you R, Y– kun, and Y for coming. Have a good school!” J said.

    “Have a good business!” D added.

    “I’ll miss you!” G told them.

   “Well….. I would like to say...See you again soon, and I would like to visit you,” M said. Shelley nodded in agreement, saying that good– bye doesn’t mean we won’t see them forever; we might still see them around, and we can catch up with each other.

    “When D finished Ohana, I saw him at Lincos, and I said ‘Hi,” J said, referring to one student who had already graduated from Ohana.

   “We can see each other at the park,” Y said.

   “Or have playdates!” D suggested.

   “Or sleepovers,” J though out loud. We all agreed that it sounded like a nice idea.

   We gave them mats that we made for them, that we wrote on and had our pictures in it. We also gave them their portfolios.

   “Look, everyone! So cute!” Y said while showing everybody a page in her portfolio that had a bunny artwork in it.

  “Thank you everybody for the presents!” R said.

   “I love you all!” Y, and we all went “Aww...we love you, too!” Shelley started a song declaring our love for them, and we all joined in.

   We had a yummy snack after that consisted of a jelly that K made, some fruits, and popcorn. We went to the park later on.

   That concludes our Thursday. We want to say thank you again to R, Y, and Y, and we hope that you’ll come visit us in Ohana. We’ll surely miss you!

Love,

All the children in Flowers Class.