When NASA Calls

Dear Mom and Dad,

              Finally, it stopped raining! It meant that we could spend some time outside the classroom! We were really hoping that it wouldn’t rain later on in  the day.

              We did our morning jobs as we arrived in school. There was nothing on the carpet , so Chloe suggested if we can pretend we’re on the airplane again. Our teachers agreed, and she happily set up everything: the cardboard box as the cockpit, and the chairs for the passengers. There was a huge argument over who gets to be the flight attendant, and everyone was grabbing at the cart. Our teachers decided to take away the cart if we’re not playing nicely– they told us in a sternly that this is not the way we play. We should use our words with ach other, and use gentle hands. We should also learn how to wait patiently and respect our friend’s choice if they are still playing with the toy and are not yet ready to share.

We still played even without the  cart, and we all sat nicely on the chairs as passengers. We chatted with Chiaki about the things we did yesterday– like going through immigration, security, and the shaking that happens sometimes in the plane. We then took turns being the pilot and sitting on the cardboard box cockpit, and we pretended there was turbulence, and the plane was shaking. We giggled as we rocked the cardboard box side to side, heehee.

We had our round connecting blocks on the small table.

“I’m going to build Tokyo tower!” Amelia excitedly said.

“I want to build a house!” We heard Evie say.

After packing away and eating our snacks,  Pauline had  a talk with us about how we put books in  the library. We should make sure that we use our gentle hands with them and take care of them.

We should put them nicely on the shelf, where we can always see the front cover. We shouldn’t step on it-

“— or sit on it!” Amelia said.

“I don’t sit on it,” Una said.

“At home,  my book was broken, then Mommy fix it,” Mira shared.

“Me, too,” Evie said. “My book got broken at home.”

Pauline then read a book,  “I Want to be an Astronaut”. Rafael guessed earlier that we were going to talk about astronauts today, as  our teachers said that the vehicle operator we will talk about today is someone who operates the rocket ship, or space shuttle. The book described a girl who wanted to be part of a crew, and put spacesuits on, then ride the space shuttle and go into outer space. The book also described “zero gravity”. We wondered what it was, and Pauline said that on earth, gravity makes the things fall down. In space, there’s no gravity.

She tossed an Ohana smock, and we watched it fall down.

              “That’s gravity,” Pauline said. “In space, if I do the same, the smock will just float around.”

              We then watched a video on the projector, about real astronauts in a space station. They were floating, as if in the water! The astronaut was a woman, and her long hair was floating up– it was a funny sight! She showed us how she brushes her teeth– the water she used floated around in big, round  spheres, and she caught them with her mouth.

“Oh!” Chloe said in surprise. We felt the same way– it was like magic!

The astronaut also showed their bedroom, and where they go if they need to pee or poo.  She was floating around the  space shuttle.

“No walking!” Akira said.

Pauline cut the video short, as we wanted to go outside. We went to the pond today, hoping to see a frog, or two. Instead, we saw—

“Oh there’s a fish!”  Rafael said excitedly.

 We saw some tiny brown/ black– colored fish swimming around.

 We also saw some roly-poly, and mosquitoes, which Reika and Mira were too busy catching, or shooing them away.

              We went back to school and said good– bye to Brooke; it was her last day today. As she mentioned yesterday, she will go back to Florida soon.

              “Do you know where Florida is?” Pauline asked.

“In Canada?” Chloe said.

“”Japan?” some of our friends guessed. Brooke shook her head no.

“I need to take an airplane to go to Florida,” Brooke explained.

“South America?” Rafael asked. He was close; it was in North America– in the U.S.A.!

“U.S.A.! U.S.A.!” We started to chant the opening line of our favorite song, “Come on baby, America!” which made our teachers laugh.

How about you, how was your day?

Love,

All the little astronauts in Petals Class