Apples and honey, oh what a treat!

October 7th, 2019

We are in the 10th month of the year and are so happy that the weather has cooled down. Now, our classroom doors are open and we are enjoying the fresh air coming into our room. Today was such an amazing day as we were visited by two doctors; Dr. Yuri and Dr. Yoko. They came to talk to us about the body, show us a book and pictures of the body and we saw what is inside our bodies, for real, when we watched a video. We could not imagine all the information that they shared with us and will share some of the things that we learned here.

We learned that your brain has a map and that some of the connections to parts of our body are bigger than others. For example, the part that sends messages to our hands is much bigger than the part that sends messages to our feet. Why? You may ask! Well, we had some ideas and ultimately we learnt that our hands are required to do many more tasks than our feet, so this is why the part of the brain is bigger.

We were amazed when we watched the video how many veins there are inside our bodies; even inside our stomach, our oesophagus, our large intestine etc. In fact, there are veins everywhere. We also saw that if you stretch your small intestine lengthways or vertically, it is about four times taller than your height. The large intestine is shorter than the small intestine but is called the large intestine because it is wider in diameter.

We learnt that Dr. Yoko, has a baby inside her tummy. She said that it is actually not inside her tummy and she showed us a picture of a baby growing inside it’s mums body. We actually saw a real video of a baby growing and how it starts off as an egg. We could just see a pulse in the strange tiny form that it first appeared to be. Then it changed shape and when it was a lot bigger, we noticed that the hands looked like a frogs feet. As the baby grew, we could see the actual fingers forming. We were surprised that it had such a big head and Dr. Yuri told us that the brain is such an important part of our body; that’s why it was appeared to have a really large head. When we are born, our head is in proportion with our body which means that it is the right size.

There are so many facts to learn and at the same time, we have so many thoughts in our imagination, which we shared today. Sometimes we ask questions and our friends supply us with the answer. When we asked: “How does the baby come out?” Magnus knew and told us: “It comes out of the vagina and sometimes you have to cut it out!” It’s great to get correct answers from our peers as sometimes adults don’t like telling us certain things!

This is our conversation:

Shelley: So, if I am not feeling well, you suggested that I go to the hospital?

Magnus: You can be in a wheel chair if you can’t walk.

Shelley: If I go to the hospital, who am I going to see?

Jamie: Doctor

Shelley: Well, today we are so lucky because we have two special doctors who came to visit us. What do we call a doctor in Japanese?

Kensei: Oisha san

Dr. Yoko: We heard that you are studying about the body (and then she showed us a picture of the brain) What is this? Which part of the body is this?

Ryoma: Brain

William: I have a book about the body

Dr. Yoko: This is the map of our brain. If you want to stand up, which part of the brain tells you to stand up

Momo: Your brain tells your feet to stand up

Dr. Yuri: Which part of your brain tells you to stand up?

 We were not sure as this was the first time that we learned about our brain having a map inside. We didn’t even know that there is one section of your brain that deals with sensory and feeling parts and the other part is for action.

Dr. Yoko: If you want to hold something, which part of your brain do you use? And then she showed us the surface of the brain, which is the outside part of the brain. Dr. Yoko: When we stand up, we don’t use all parts of the brain.

William: How can we become alive?

Today Dr. Yuri and Dr. Yoko observed how busy our brains are and how many things we think about each day. When we are having discussions, our discussions have their own way of developing and sometimes they go in their own direction. They choose where they want to go! Then Dr. Yoko told us that our brain has a map. This is a sensory map. There is water. It’s a bit different. There is a big face and a big hand. Why is there a big face?

Momo: Maybe because it’s connected to your veins and arteries

We discovered that in the map of the brain there is a very small part and a big part. The wider part is for our hands and the small part is for our feet. But why is the part for our hands bigger than the one that is for our feet?

Dr. Yuri: What can we do with our hands?

Ben: If we want to wash our hands our brain tells us the wash and scrub them

Momo: We hold something

Magnus: We pick things up

Jamie: We move our fingers

William: We lift things up

Sara: We stretch

Kensei: We clap our hands

Ryoma: You can bump

Ai: You can do “Jan Ken”

Dr. Yoko: When you eat something, what do you use? Do you use fingers or toes?

Rafael: Fingers

Dr. Yuri: Our hands do many more things than our feet

Then Dr. Yoko held up a black and white plastic sheet with some pictures on it. It is called an

x-ray.

Dr. Yoko: Do you know whose body this is? Or what part of the body this is?

Braxton: The bum

William: It looks like a belly

Ai: Everyone’s body

Momo: My dad’s stomach

Dr. Yoko: Yes

Dr. Yuri: If someone has a stomach ache, they take a cat scan to see inside.  

Shelley lay on the floor and we could see that instead of cutting her stomach open, you can take a picture of the inside of her tummy.

Momo: You can use the special computer to see inside her tummy

William: Or we can drink medicine

Momo: How can you see your body because it’s covered in skin?

Dr. Yuri: You can use a scope, x-ray or scan

Shelley: The scope is like a pipe with a camera on the end and it goes right inside your body and takes a video or photos.

Dr. Yuri: When your intestines are working well, they help digest your food and it comes out.

William: When I have a stomach ache, my poo goes out too fast.

Momo: One time when I went to the toilet, my poo is too soft

William: How does the pee goes out?

Dr. Yuri: That’s another part of your body.

We watched a video of the inside of our body, which was amazing. While we were watching, Dr. Yuri explained some things to us.

Dr. Yuri: The lungs are very soft. They contain air and feel like tofu. There are two tubes in our neck; the oesophagus and bronchus which is the air pipe. The oesophagus is where the food goes down.

Ryoma: That’s blood (inside the lungs)

Dr. Yoko: What’s inside here (showing us her tummy)

Momo: A baby boy

Dr. Yoko: How long does the baby stay inside the mummy?

Ryoma: Ten months

Magnus: What is that chord?

Dr. Yuri: The umbilical chord that connects the baby to the mommy

William: But how can they be connected?

Shelley: What’s that special thing on your tummy?

All: Belly button

 Ben: If boys are standing up inside the mommy, the baby will be a boy. If the baby is lying down, it’s a girl

We started watching how a baby starts inside a mommy and how it grows through each stage.

Momo: The baby starting to hatch!

William: There is a heart

Ben: The head is very big. Why is it so big?

Dr. Yuri: The brain is very important that’s why it’s the biggest part of the baby growing.

Rafael: After the baby comes out, it cries. Why?

Dr. Yuri: The lungs expand and fill with air to help the baby breathe. Then it cries.

Then she showed us a model of a hand. We saw bones, knuckles, blood, muscles.

How lucky we were to have two mum doctors come to our class today. Thank you Dr. Yuri and Dr. Yoko for coming to Flowers Class today. We loved having you in the class being our teachers and we learnt so many new things about our “amazing machines”…...our bodies!

Monday also means gymnastics and we had fun using our bodies and doing exercises with Miyashita sensei. Afterwards we listed to a wonderful story about a “little red house, with no windows and doors, and a star inside”. Do you think that there is a house like this?

The lead up to the story was when we all stood in a circle and Shelley asked us to close our eyes and imagine what kind of fruit could be represented by our large circle shape. We had many ideas e. g. a strawberry, an orange, an apple, an egg, a mikan, melon and another apple. Then we learnt that it is the Jewish New Year at the moment and when people celebrate they eat apple dipped in honey. So, we sat down in our circle and this is how the story went:

“Once upon a time there was a little girl who lived with her grandma. Her grandma asked her to please go out and see if she could find a little red house, with no windows and doors but with a star inside. So the little girl set off and she came across a farmer, who could not help her. Then she met the farmer’s wife and she too could not help her. Perhaps the dog could help her. But, he could not. Who was going to be able to help her find a little red house with no windows or doors, but it had a star inside. Finally she came across a little boy who really wanted to help her. He took her to an orchard with fruit and there she found an apple. She could not understand how this could be the little red house, with no windows or doors but it has a star inside. So she took it home to her grandma and she took a knife from the kitchen and she cut it through the center, sideways…….and it was just like a miracle. There was a star inside.”

We did this in our classroom and we could not believe it, there was a star in the middle of the apple. So, it was the little red house with no windows or doors, but it had a star inside. The extra treat that we had was to each have a piece of apple dipped in honey. Some of us chose to just eat a small piece of apple and some of us dipped it in the honey…...yummmmm!

It’s round and red and good to eat

You dip it in honey and oh, what a treat…….on Rosh Hashana!

We grated sweet potato which we will cook tomorrow morning in class. Our day was so busy,

time ran away from us.

We hope you enjoy seeing some of the photos from our visit from Dr. Yuri and Dr. Yoko.

Love always, all the children in Flowers Class