The Philippines

Good morning everyone! Mr. Sunshine showed up today and we’re excited for another beautiful day in our class. It was really busy in the morning because we had some big Lego blocks from Petals class.  Some of our friends were very interested in putting the blocks on top of each to make a tower. We were so proud to show our teachers the building that we just did. One of us knocked down the building because it was getting really tall. Another friend said that she’s building her own house and she wanted to make this house so tall. She even hugged her Lego blocks just to make sure that it wouldn’t fall down.

            On the other table, Goh-san was at the sensory table. We played with the sand and touched the big rocks. We even got some utensils from the kitchen so that we could practice scooping and putting the sand in the container. Our fine motor skills are developing a lot and we’re able to put more sand in it. The play dough table was quite busy today. We’re able to mold and roll the dough as much as we could.

            After morning play time, we all sat down and sang some of our favorite songs. Then, John stood up and danced to the music that was playing in the background. We were thinking about the sound and it was like a “gong” and some bamboo rhythm. It was very nature-like and we enjoyed listening to it. When he finished dancing around, he sat down and talked about his home country which is the Philippines. He showed us his country’s flag and it has some colors. We saw blue, red, white and yellow. He said that the blue means peace and red means bravery. There were also three stars and they represent the three island groups such as Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. John grew up in Luzon and he showed where it was located. He also had some photos of the animals that can be found in the Philippines. We saw the Philippine eagle which is bigger than us, the carabao who helps the farmers in farming, the tarsier – a creature that is small but with big set of eyes and the butanding – the biggest fish in the country. The dance that he was doing in the morning was an “igorot” dance. They are called the mountain people. They lived in the mountains of Cordillera, one of the famous places in the Philippines because of its preservation of nature. We all stood with him and started to dance the kalinga igorot ritual dance. They always perform this during special occasions in their region. “Salidumay”, a traditional song was played in the background and we started dancing like the igorots from the Philippines.

            We went outside today and walked from Ohana going to Robot park and then all the way back to the school. There was a road construction just right in front of Ohana that’s why not all cars can pass by. Thank you so much Ohana and see you all later at the GIVE event.

Lots of love,

All the musical children from Buds class 2016-2017