Tis the time of the year

19th November 2018

It is our first day back at school for this week and we missed seeing our friends and teachers on Thursday and Friday last week. We know that they were having Parent Teacher conferences and we are always grateful to them for their love, caring and insights into who we are and what we can do, in order to fulfill our potential. Shelley told us when she was telling us a make believe story just before Miyashita sensei arrived for our weekly gymnastics class.

She started off the story like this: “Once upon a time, there was a group of children who went to school. When they were in class, they were boys and girls but sometimes they liked to play pretend games and be animals. Sometimes they were (she would make the sound of the animal and we would guess) lions, (Ai said that they could also be tigers because lions and tigers both roar) gorillas (she pounded on her chest) monkeys (she touched under her arms and made funny monkey sounds) and then she made a loud sound and we were on the right track because we said a bird. We said a flamingo, a chicken, a duck but she was something else. She said that she had big black winds and then Sar guessed and said: “Carasu”. What is “carasu” in Japanese? Tem said: “Crow”. Yes, she was pretending to be a crow. She said that there is a beautiful Native American fable about crows having gorgeous colourful feathers and a wonderful singing voice. The crow was being helpful to it’s friends, the tortoise, the moth, the skunk and the owl and even though he was being kind, he suffered because he lost his beautiful coloured feathers and now only has black ones, and a not so great singing voice. Here is a link to a beautiful movie about this story. Crow: The Legend

In the picture here on the left, Eth built a birthday cake and Orion was blowing the candles out!

Whenever we are talking about one thing, so many other subjects come up and we get side tracked in our discussions. Our teachers think that our brains are so busy but we think sometimes their brains are busy too and they have so many things that they want to share with us. We started singing one of the songs that we will be singing at our end of year Winter Party. It is all about “Channukah” which is the Jewish festival of light. Some of us remember the song from last year and were so happy to sing it again. Al told us that she was the Shamash, the lighting candle, together with Jun, last year. It’s a repetitive song, so it is easy for our friends to remember too.

Earlier in the day, Liezel sat with us and we made candles  for our “Channukah” song. We used toilet rolls that we covered with coloured paper and we used tissue paper and cellophane paper for the flames.

We are still working on our Christmas Cards for Santa Soul Train and are spending time doing the final details, like writing our names and some other words, on them. Our parents will be making Christmas Cards for Santa Soul Train this week on Thursday and we will give them some things to use for their cards.

We started a 300 piece puzzle with a picture of under the sea. Our teachers told us that they did it last week and it took them a while to complete it. We hope to complete it tomorrow. Tomorrow is teacher exchange day and Shelley will be in Buds Class for two days so today is actually the last day that we will be together with her. She made a sad face when she told us; we think that she wants to stay with us in Flowers Class.

The focus of our day was preparing and starting to make our Christmas gifts. We are making gifts that are unique to us, as much as possible. Our teachers spoke about us being a factory with all of us producing the same gift however they believe in individuality and encouraging us to think for ourselves and create with freedom in our own unique way. Shelley sat with us and asked us what theme we would like for our wreaths which we made over a few days the week before last. She went through many different themes and these are the ones that we chose; Christmas, animals, under the sea, Israel, transport, the park and princesses. The first few were themes that a few of us chose and the last few are ones that only one of our friends chose. Within each theme, we told her what we would like to make e. g. for the under the sea theme our two friends who chose this theme are making a shark, scuba diver, whale, turtle, fish, flying fish and boat, while for Christmas, the choice is similar e. g. a tree, presents, a star, a snowman etc.

This took a long time as there were four groups to start, with one teacher and a few children in each group.  We selected the materials that we wanted to use and our teachers used the glue gun to make sure that everything was glued together firmly. Once we have made the five things that we chose for our wreath we will attach them to it. We didn’t take any photos during this time of day, because our teachers were all so busy working with us. Maybe some of us can take photos when they are so busy.

We sang a new transition song which may have been an inspiration from the conference that our teachers attended on Saturday. We are excited to see what emerges from their experience there where they learnt about ways to teach music, drama and storytelling to children.

Thanks for an amazing day and enjoy the Obento workshop tomorrow. We know that this is a busy week with Christmas Card making with the Ohana elves at Chevorne on Thursday. Thanks to all our mums and dads for their constant support of our school and all that the parents organize, fund raising and for fun!

OXOXOXOX Flowers Class children