The first day of April and it's back to school

1st April 2019

It’s the first day of April and the blue skies, abundant cherry blossoms and open, loving arms and hearts of our teachers, welcomed us back to school. There were so many things that we wanted to share with our friends and teachers having spent a week away from school, during spring break.

We felt that Shelley was so happy to be back with us and she told us a few things that she did when she was on holiday, at her nieces wedding in Cape Town, South Africa. First she told us that she had to take two airplanes to get there. The first one stopped in Dubai and the second one stopped in Cape Town. She came back to Tokyo, the same way. She told us that she swam in the Atlantic Ocean, which is a very cold ocean and that the temperature of the water was about 13 degrees Centigrade. Brrrrrr…….she took a very long time to walk into the ocean and then even longer to put her head right under. She said that she shouted when she came out of the water as it was sooooooo cold. It was nevertheless refreshing and she felt wonderful after-wards. She had a smiling face and her heart is full because she spent time with her old friends from when she was much younger and she really loved seeing the mountain and the ocean every day, when she woke up.

We then started a conversation:

Shelley: Always after a break from school, some of us forget things. Did anyone for-get something today.

Taisei: I forgot indoor shoes

Ava: I also forgot shoes

Ai: Blanket

Orion: I forgot my blanket too

Shelley: I forgot where I left my glasses

Shelley: There are also so many reasons why today is special. It’s a special day for me because I am seeing you all after the holidays.

Emilie: It’s Temma’s birthday

Alona: Tomorrow is special because we’re going to the picnic

Natan: Also my sister and baby are coming

Ava; We’re going on a bus

Antoine: We’re going on a big bus

Ethan: It’s going to rain in Amishiro Park

Shelley: We’re going to Kinuta Park and it’s special for me to come back to Ohana.

We then had a chance to share what we did in the holidays with our friends and teachers too.

Ai: I went to pick up strawberries; and I went to the zoo and I went to the aquarium. I also went to the onsen

Taisei: I practiced bicycle with two wheels

Alona: I went to the snow. I played with my brother and sister and built a snowman. Also we went to the onsen and the water was hot and the snow was falling down.

Kai: I stayed here and ate lots of lunch specials. My sister came from Arizona and we went hiking and toured Tokyo.

Orion: I went on an adventure with my daddy

Ava: I went to California

Emilie: I stayed in Japan with mommy, daddy and my baby sister. I went to see cherry blossoms

Anika: I went to Pudiquwa. I was watching the movie

Sarah: I played with my daddy

Liezel: I went to get my haircut. We went to see the cherry blossoms and walked and walked and walked a lot.

Kensei: I went to Kyoto. I saw my grandma. My grandma and grandpa went to see sakura

Lisa: I had a playdate with Momo, Lola, Emilie, Sarah and Mia and Anika

Lola: I played

William: I went to Okinawa. I went to the beach two times (showing two fingers). When I go to the beach, I saw a big gecko. I saw fishes and rainbow fish. I saw so many rainbow fish…..

Natan: Did you know which one was Nimo? I went to Temma’s birthday party. It was in the park. I don’t know the name of the park. It was a dinosaur’s cake like Momo and Antoine. I don’t renember the name of the park

Taiga: I went to America to Disney

Ava: Did you see Minnie Mouse and Mickey Mouse?

Taiga: I saw Minnie Mouse, Pooh and Tigger

Temma: I went to a hotel. I stayed so many nights and slept in the hotel I went by bus. In the onsen in the hotel, daddy was floating (demonstrating lying on his back)

Antoine: I went on a bus. I went on a boat. I go eat. My grandma and my mummy was on the bus. Not my brother and my daddy. Gabu didn’t go. He was in the house.

Ethan: I took two trains. I went by airplane. We landed in the airport in England. Today we parked my airplane. Today I live in Japan

Taisei: I went to Alona’s house. We watched Peppa Pig and ate popcorn.

You can see that we all had a fantastic time during spring break and are happy to be back at school to share in our experiences and have fun with our friends, while

learning with our teachers. We can also learn from our friends and sometimes our teachers think that we learn the most from them!

This morning in class, we spent time getting back into our school rhythm and played on the mats as well as at the tables. We had a variety of puzzles and card games to play. The one card game is called “What comes next”. Each group of cards had three cards that we arranged in sequence according to events e. g. a whole apple, an apple with a bite in it and the apple core. We spoke about the reason why we chose the cards in this order.

The second game was large cards which we arranged in categories. There were animal cards, food cards, toy cards, insects cards, flower cards, things that belong on your head cards and transport cards. We often play games using the concepts of classifying and categorizing and it is also a great learning tool, for us to see the actual pictures and group the cards accordingly.

Some of us decided to become teachers this morning and sat with a book on the mat, “reading” to our friends. We enjoy taking on different roles and when we return to school after a break, we like to trial being different people in our class. Sometimes we are the teachers; other times we are a student; we can even be the teachers assistant.

Monday means gymnastics and we did many things that are new. Our warm ups were the same however what followed was quite different. We were divided into a girls team and a boys team. The boys sat on the floor with their legs stretched out and the girls had to jump over their legs. The boys had to do the same. We stayed in two teams for the second exercise which involved boys first doing a dog pose like in yoga and the girls had to slide on their tummies like a crocodile without using their hands, and slide underneath the boys tummies. We swapped so the boys did what the girls were doing and vice versa. The third game was in pairs. It was similar to the first game but we worked just with our partners and we had to jump sideways over their legs, ten times. The final game was a “janken” game and whoever lost had to stand with their legs astride. If you kept on losing, you had to make your legs wider and wider. We laughed a lot in this one!

The last game was sort of like a sumo wrestler match. Miyashita sensei held up the large green mattress and in our two teams, we had to push him and see if we could push him over. Of course both teams were able to push him over. He is a good sport! What a fun class it was today.

Our Yoga class focused on breathing and sun salutation, “Suriya Namaskar”. It has many poses inside it which we have already learnt before. So it was about combining them into this special pose which many people do, every day.

Thanks for a fabulous welcome back to school after spring break and we are excited to see all of our friends tomorrow on the bus, by 8.30am, ready for our family Cherry Blossom/Hanami picnic

Thanks for a great start to the term

Love always Flowers Class children

Happy birthday Temma…..Today is Temma’s real 5th birthday and we are looking forward to celebrating with him, Taiga and Taisei some time this month.