Happy Philippines Day

March 22nd, 2018

Dear Parents,

Today we had quite a busy day with lots of fun activities. Because of the terrible rain, we couldn’t go to the park today, so instead we kept warm inside. It would have been fun to jump in all the puddles, but maybe we can do that another day.

It has been a day filled with emotions; First we celebrated K’s birthday. As a true birthday boy, he received a birthday crown and we all sang Happy Birthday with our best singing voices. Then we gave him a card that we have all helped to decorate. He looked very happy and we were all very happy for him as well. However, we were also sad to hear that today was K’s last day at Ohana. As a goodbye gift we gave him a placemat with a picture of all of us and some drawings, that he can use at home and remember his time here with us. We gave him our best wishes and a looot of BIG hugs. We will miss you so much, K.

Today was also the day of G’s show and tell with Brownie. She showed us pictures of her and Spotty in front of a swimming pool and said “I did swimming lessons with Brownie. I took her to swimming pool”. We asked her if Brownie also went into the pool, but G said “No, she didn’t go in the pool”. It looked like they had a lot of fun, which made us all want to go swimming, too.

G told us that her big sisters also played with Brownie and one of her sisters even said, “I also want a Brownie”. Our silly teaches thought that she meant the brownie cake but of course it was our cute dog - we all love Brownie so much. G showed us a picture of her and Brownie on a bike. We asked her if Brownie liked to ride the bike, but she said “No, because it was going too fast.” Maybe she likes slow bike rides better.

T asked, “Did she take shower?” and S asked, “Did she go to the pool and swim?” because the picture showed G with wet hair and Brownie also being a bit wet.

M asked, “Did you go to park?” and G replied, “No”.

L asked, “Did you sleep?” and G said, “Yes, I put her in my sack.”. Then Pauline asked, “You have a sack?” and G replied, “Brownie sleep in my sack on my bed”.

It looked like they had so much fun together. Now Brownie will be staying in Petals Class while we all go on spring break. We all wonder what she will do here. Maybe she will play with Spotty in his new home or ride the toy cars. Or maybe she will even make a painting or have a party with all the toys. Who knows?

Another special thing happened today. Pernille asked us which day it was today, and E said, “Norway day” and A said, “Japan day”. Pernille also asked us all where Pauline comes from, and we all said “Philippines”. So, we figured out that today was Philippines day.

M asked “where is Philippines?” and Pauline showed us on a map. Then she asked us if it was far away or near Japan, and T said, “little bit near” and we all agreed. Pauline also told us that Philippines doesn’t have 4 seasons like Japan, they only have two seasons. Summer and rainy season. She said that right now it is summer and very very, very hot. We felt a bit jealous because it is raining so much here now.

Then she showed us a lot of pictures and said that the flag has 3 stars on it because there are 3 big islands in the Philippines: Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. She also showed us pictures of the beautiful beaches, and E said, “We can go swimming”, which we all thought would be very nice. They even have whale sharks that people can swim with, and Pauline said that they are not at all dangerous even though they are so big.

In the Philippines they have some very yummy fruits, like mango and pineapple. We love to eat fruits. They also eat a lot of rice, and Pauline told us that sometimes people put rice and other foods on top of a banana leaf and use the leaf as a plate. Then she said that they eat with their hands and A said, “Like India”. That is called boodle fight.

Pauline also showed pictures of the two national animals; the water buffalo and the Philippine eagle. The eagle is also called Monkey-eating eagle. Then we saw pictures of the traditional clothing, which looked very beautiful and is actually made from pineapple fibers. We thought that was a bit silly because pineapple is usually for eating.

After Pauline’s presentation, G asked, “How to count in Philippines?” and Pauline taught us to count to 5 in tagalog, one of the languages spoken in the Philippines.

Some other things we enjoyed doing today were “cooking” with play dough, fishing water animals from the big fish tank, building cool things with wooden blocks and decorating popsicle sticks for a big project. We had such a great day.

Love,

The happy children in Petals Class