Olá! Welcome to Brazil!

Dear Mom and Dad,

   Olá! Bem-vindo março! Do you know what that means? Well, we just said, “Hello! Welcome March!” in Portuguese, as it is the first day of March today. But why are we speaking in Portuguese? Well, it’s because we said “Bem-vindo” to some special guests we have from.....*drum roll* please..... BRAZIL!

                                                                                                                   Marilia, as she explains to us about the Brazilian flag.

     But, before we could travel to the beautiful country of Brazil, where our friend M is from, we had our morning free play time first. We continued making special cards for our friends; some played with a special South America map. We had our Play- Huts set up on the carpet; we had a fun time dramatizing “The Three Little Pigs”. Actually, there was only ONE pig, played by Pooja, and a big bad wolf, played by our friend J. At the last part of the story, where the big bad wolf had fallen into the pot of boiling hot water, the fox’s tail caught fire, and his burns had to be treated by a doctor, played by our friend Y. The End. Wait, what? I think we need to double- check again if that’s what happened in the real story....... What do you think? *wink* 

        After cleaning up, we read “Rabbits Don’t Lay Eggs!” brought by our friend R. As Pauline read the story, we learned that the rabbit has the name as R! The rabbit looked as cute as him, and in the story, he was bored in his burrow, so he decided to check if he could live in the farm, as he could always hear happy animal sounds coming from there. He met a duck named Dora, who told him that anyone who lives in the farm has a special job. The rabbit tried everything, from tidying up (he ended up tidying up Dora’s materials for her nest- oops), to being a scarecrow (he ended up eating the seeds, which he should be protecting from the birds), a rooster (he tried to give a magnificent call- to no avail), and a duck (he tried to lay an egg just like Dora- but something else round and furry popped out of him!) Pauline said we will continue reading the book again tomorrow, as it was time for our “trip” to Brazil. Can we read your book again tomorrow, R, pretty please?      

        So, on to our Brazilian trip! We happily said our hellos and “Welcome to Flowers Class!” to M’s mom, and her big brother, C. We oohed and ahhed as M's mom and C prepared the big table; it was covered in a Brazilian flag cloth, with bowls and mixtures of decadent- looking stuff. There was a big Brazilian flag hanging up, and M's mom explained to us that the green color of the flag symbolizes the forest; a big part of the magnificent Amazon rain forest is in Brazil. The blue stands for the sky, and the yellow means the sun. The 27 stars represent the 27 Brazilian states.     

        M’s mom said that we would be doing the national truffle of Brazil called Brigadeiro. We helped in rolling them into balls with butter spread on our hands. We then dipped them in sprinkles, and put them in special boxes with the Brazilian flag on it, which we get to take home at the end of the day. Hooray! M's mom also taught us how to sing “Happy Birthday” in Portuguese, then we sang it in English. It really does feel like it’s someone’s birthday, as it looked so festive with all the treats and the décor!             

                       Lindo maravilhoso (Means, "Beautiful! Marvelous!")! We simply adored how Marilia prepared the room for us. Thank you so much!

        We also got to interview C, as he sat in our special guest chair.

“How old are you?” asked D.

“I’m eight years old.” C replied.

“Umm... what movie do you like?” K wanted to know.

“He likes Star Wars!” M answered for her brother, which C confirmed.

“I like Star Wars!” J piped up.

“Yeah, I like Star Wars, too!” D said.

“Do you play any sports?” Goh asked him.

“ I like playing tennis.” C said.

“What do you do in the big school?” D eagerly wanted to know, as he was also going to the big school soon.

“Hmm.. I build things. I build cars and rockets...” C answered, and we all said “Wow!” in awe.

He was surely our celebrity of the day; we hope he can visit us again soon!     

And so, that concludes our trip to Brazil. Muito obrigado to our special guests for today; we truly enjoyed having a taste of your beautiful, beautiful country. See you tomorrow, Ohana!

 Love,

Pauline, Pooja, Goh, and all the cute jet-setters in Flowers Class