Questions and more questions

“If your bodies have over 300 bones inside them when you are born, how come there are only 206 bones inside them when you are an adult?”

This was our most important question of the day. Added to that was “can bones disappear?” which of course we know they can’t.

Magnus: Maybe they get smaller

Shelley put out some corks on the floor to represent our skeleton. We told her that we need a skull, a spine, arms, hands, legs and feet.

William: Bones will come out.

When William said this, Shelley took some of the corks away but we told her “No” and she put them back.

Rafael: When we go bigger, some bones disappear

Ben: Only when you accidentally cut your arm (showing how you cut an arm off from the shoulder), your bones will disappear.

We watched a video that told us that as we get older some of the bones join together and that’s why we have less bones as an adult.

Shelley: What is inside our skull that is protected by the hard bones

William: Brain

Shelley: And what other organs do we have that are protected by our skeleton

Magnus: Kidneys

Sara: Stomach

Ryoma: Small and large intestine

Momo: Food pipe

Emma: The bones stick together

We did our “Skeleton Dance” and moved all of our bones and muscles together and then we fell onto the carpet, pretending that we didn’t have any muscles in our bodies.

Activities today included Eisuke completing a 200 piece puzzle with a picture of the Lion King on it; Zen, Emma and Rian completing their paintings; and a few of our friends working on December birthday cards. We have four friends having their birthdays in December so there are a lot of cards to complete.

Our Community Services events will be held in two weeks time as we get nearer to the actual Labour Thanksgiving Day here in Japan, which is Saturday 23rd November. Our schedule includes going to the Post Office, the Police Station and the Fire Station. As we mentioned in the journal yesterday, we would love some parents to join us on the Post Office and Police Station excursions, so please let us know ASAP, so you don’t miss out and we can enjoy having some of our parents with us.

Today we spent time making gifts for them. Vieda told us that they like receiving gifts that that can use, so we selected hangers which we covered with pipe cleaners and toilet rolls which we decorated with origami. The hangers can be used to hang a jacket on and the toilet rolls will become pen or pencil holders. We  will also make a card and express our gratitude to the police people, fire people and post office workers. Showing gratitude and expressing our thanks are important values that we learn about each day. We enjoy receiving thanks and appreciation from others and in turn believe that it is important to show our thanks to others. It gives us a good feeling when saying thank you and it gives us a good feeling when someone says “thank you” to us. From this special event, we will lead into another Thanksgiving, which is the American Thanksgiving and we will celebrate on Thursday 28th, with our American families. We will make the turkey, and some of our parents will make food as well. Having special meals is often the way that we celebrate events. Why do we use food in this way? Our second big question today was

“Why do we have special food when we celebrate events?”

Shelley: I have a question for you

Ben: Do you know why it’s called a question? Because you talk and you say why and what and

Eddie: How

Ben: How

Shelley: Why do we have special food when we celebrate?

Ai: So you can eat the Christmas house

Ben: When it’s Christmas you also eat Christmas dinner like chicken and some vegetables and for dessert you eat some Christmas chocolate

Emma: Cookies for Christmas

Ryoma: Maybe Christmas milk and cookies

Shelley: Let’s think about why we eat special food?

Emma: It’s a special day

Eddie: Because every day we are hungry

William: Because it’s healthy and because then you grow

Emma: You can’t live without food

Kensei: Because like eating, so, so big your tummy

Jamie: For get bigger and bigger and bigger (showing with his hands)

Coney: You share the meal with friends and sit together

Lisa: If you eat candy, you’ll be smaller and smaller and smaller

Momo: We eat because if you don’t eat, then you will be small

Emma: If you eat sweets, then you get black things in your teeth

Ai: If you eat sweet things, you’ll get fat

Rafael: If you eat you’ll be stronger

We have so many thoughts all the time and we love sharing them with our teachers and friends in Flowers Class.

Our story later in the day was called “Skeletons”. We learnt that bugs or insects have exoskeletons which means that their skeleton is outside their body. Our bodies have an endoskeleton which means that our skeleton is inside of our body. It sounds strange that theirs is outside their body.

Here are a few more questions from today:

“Without a skeleton, what will we be?” 

Ai: Octopus

“What do babies have more of than adults?” 

Ai: Bones

“What helmet can you never take off?”

Ben: You can’t take off your head

Rafael: Because if you take off your head, then it will roll around

Yuiko: Your eyes are in your head

“Which is the only bone in your skull that can move?” 

Jamie: Your neck

Kensei: Nose

Shelley: Do you remember what on your head is only cartilage?

Shinji: Nose

Momo: Brain

Shelley: Is your brain a bone?

All: No

Ryoma: Mouth

Ben: We move it when we are eating

Emma: And talking

Lisa: If a baby is small, why does he have lots of bones?

Shelley: Because………………………….

And all the children helped find the answer.

So you can see how many times we have discussions and even when we are talking about one thing, sometimes the conversation changes.

Thanks for a fabulous Tuesday in Flowers Class.

Love always, all the children in Flowers Class