What is a FAMILY...We love our families!

Family, it means a lot to us...they are always there for us and people around us. Our families are our world. Today we had a long conversation with our friends! We know that we love our families and they love us as well . It’s always a great time talking, knowing and learning about our own families. We can see and accept something different between them and us!

Good mooooorning! We greeted our teachers and friends. As soon as we came into our classroom, we saw that the soft toys were sitting on the chairs and the chairs were lined up. It looks like inside of an airplane! We imagined that we traveled  to the beach, Disney land, and the hospital. Teachers wondered why they are flying to the hospital...J had a dog soft toy and said, “Look! This doggie is sick!” So clever that we traveled to the hospital.

  We spent a long time over there and it was fun! We also had Zingo game at the table, which we played together with Pauline. We always want to get a lot of chips to win!

After free playtime, we had a short circle time with Sayaka. She told us that today is a special day, because we will have a special guest and she is part of someone’s family. Hmmm...we wonder who it is. Children started started to guess. Yesterday was R’s grandmother who is came…so who could it be?

Y pointed C out and said, “C!” A few of us knew that C’s grandmother is coming today to Petals. Sayaka explained to us that she will be reading a special book to us, like what R's grandmother did it for us yesterda...Yay!  While we were waiting for her, we sang our morning songs, and looked at our life books. Sayaka showed E’s like book and asked her some questions.

Sayaka: Who’s this? (Pointed her uncle)

E: Mommy’s brother

Sayaka: How about this one?

E: Mama! This dada!

Sayaka showed us next life book, it was...B’s life book. Who are these? Do they live in your house?

B: We moved to another house, so our house is their house! Same house!

Sayaka: You live in the same house, so they must be your...

B: Family!

Sayaka: Do they live with you? (Points to picture of grandma and grandpa)

B: We visit them

Sayaka: Do you think they’re still family?

B: Yes, they’re just family

Sayaka: Is he your family, too? (Points to John’s picture)

B: He’s my teacher, but he can live with me.. or he can visit.

After we finished looking at his life book, we saw C’s grandmother came into Petals! We greeted her and asked her name. She is nanny Gina! She read a special book called, “Lost and Found” by Oliver Jeffers, she added that the book is C’s favorite book and she loves to listen it. The story is about one boy and a penguin. The penguin showed up at the door and he thought the penguin must be lost, so he helped penguin to return home. He decided going on an adventure to help the penguin...It was a very nice story and we were very quiet and listened to it all. Thank you so much nanny Gina for today! We really hope to see you again!

After we said goodbye to her, we realized that we were very hungry so we had snack time.

After we finished snack, Sayaka read a book called, “SAME, SAME but DIFFERENT” by Jenny Sue Kostecki-Shaw. There are two boys and they are best friends. They both have same hobbies and things in common, but at the same time, their world is a bit different, for example one of boy lives in America and the other is in India etc...same, same but different! Its ok to be different!

Its finally circle time! We started looking at our life books again. It’s Jessica’s life book.

Sayaka: Who’s this?

J: That’s my mama

Sayaka: And this?

J: My Et! This is Et’s daddy

Sayaka: Is he your daddy, too?

J: No, he’s Et’s daddy

Sayaka: Where did you go? (Points to a family picture on the beach)

J: I went to the beach!

Sayaka: Who’s this?

J: It’s Et’s daddy! 

Sayaka: Is he your daddy, too?

J: Yes!

Thank you very much J for sharing your special book.

After that Sayaka introduced toy frogs and container as families.

Orange is papa, mama, and a baby. Yellow is papa, mama, grandfather, grandmother, and a baby. Red is one mum and a baby. Green is two papas and a baby. Purple is purple mama, green mama, and blue baby. Last one is papa, mama and a baby who looked different from them.

Sayaka asked, “Could you tell me your ideas, which is family and/or which is not family?” We started sharing our ideas…

Sayaka: Who is not a family?

R: Red. Have only 1 mama. 

Ra: Yellow and purple family.

Ry: Red. No family. Only 1 mommy. 

E: Purple. Because green should go to green and blue should stay in blue. Green is family. Red no family. No daddy. If daddy okay, then family. (Eddie tried saying that family must be the same color; cant be different color.

E: Purple no family. This blue not the same. This one not frog. (The horse- then he changes the horse to frog)

E: Yellow, not family. Because three baby. Just one okay. (Rafael gets upset with this)

Ra: Yellow, YES family!(Getting upset)

E: Orange. Okay. Family. Just one baby.

C: Yellow and red, not family. Purple and blue, yes family.

Ra: Purple. This no family.

R: THIS family. (Points to yellow)

B: yellow, red, green, purple family. Purple is a bit different, but.... family.

B: Mama is a little bit tiny; my mama’s big. My daddy is bigger

B: Yellow. I think they can be a little family.

Y: This, this, this (Points to all the bowls) family.

R: this family, this family (points to all the bowls after the teacher explains to them)

Pauline: it doesn't matter who are living with even one mummy, two daddies, neighbor as long as you are loving each other and HAPPY!

Kiki: it sounds like all of them are families. It doesn't have to be the same. Family is not like a rule. It doesn't have to be set.

Sayaka: I think so too. Everyone has families and it looks not the same as your family. I have mum and daddy, but I don’t live together but we are still family.

It was interesting to see the perspective of the child. According to each child, their family is a “true” family. Therefore if there were more or less numbers than their own family, it was incorrect. This was a beautiful learning we all had as a class. Children were able to listen to different perspectives and ideas, even if it did not go with their own. At the end, “They are all families” and pointed at all the frog families. We love our own family and respect other families too!

We had a wonderful day and learned a lot!

Thank you very much Ohana FAMILY! See you next week!