First Stop- Israel!



Dear Mom and Dad,

Happy Monday! We definitely have a reason to be happy as we started off our International Month celebration today! But, first things first!

On the big table, Pauline asked us if we wanted to help her make some lanterns; X giggled as she commented that these were Jack– O’ Lanterns. Pauline said that these were Chinese lanterns for Chinese New Year– tomorrow is a special Chinese New Year celebration! She also mentioned during circle time that for the Chinese, red and gold are lucky colors, so that’s why we used those colors for the lanterns. The activity was actually a good cutting practice for us, as we had to cut along the lines that Pauline drew. On the carpet we politely asked if we could play with our Lego blocks.

After an early snack, Miyashita sensei arrived. We did our usual warm ups where we did a bear walk towards him, then a jog going back to our position. We then practiced throwing and bouncing the ball. Our gym class concluded with a mash– up of dodgeball and hot potato where Miyashita sensei rolled the balls towards us, and we had to avoid it because it was “hot”.

We had a special visitor come in when we bid Miyashita sensei goodbye– Safta is back! We then pretended to pack our backpack with all the things we would need for a trip: gloves (just in case it’s cold where we’re going to), toys (“In case we get bored at the airplane!” Y said), food (“Because if we’re hungry,” X said). We boarded the plane and off we flew! Guess where?

“Where is Z from?” Pauline asked.

“Israel!” we answered. We pretended that Safta was our pilot!

Safta first showed us some seashells. These were extra– special as these came from the beach that was near where Z lived in Israel ( Z calls it “My beach” as they would often go there). She showed us a picture of the beach– it was beautiful! Then she showed us the Israel flag– it was blue and white. She also showed us a picture of a camel– she said there were lots of camels in the desert. If we walk by ourselves in the sand, we might sink, but camels have special feet that allows them not to sink in the sand.

We read a book called “Everyone Says Shalom”. Zl said that it means “Hello” in English. It had nice drawings of the beautiful places in Israel, where people say “Shalom” to each other often no matter what– may it be morning, evening, in the market, in the desert, or even when we’re singing.

We read another book, “The Colors of Israel”. We saw some yellow cable cars, red trains, the blue in Israel’s flag. Some of our friends excitedly shared that they, too, were able to ride a cable car.

We said thank you to Safta for coming back again; she said she might come visit again to read us a book! Oh my, we feel incredibly lucky! She said it’s a pleasure to come to our classroom– but the pleasure is all ours!

We hopped on our “plane”, then came back to Tokyo. Hmm, I wonder where we’ll go next?

Love,

All the jetsetters in Petals Class.