Learning about the continents

We noticed something stuck on our wall today. Hmm, we looked at the pictures and saw lots of interesting animals, airplanes and people. It is the world map. For some time, we wondered what it is then Ma came and told us, “This is Australia.” Sh asked Vieda, “Do we have Indonesia, too? I went there before.”. Sh was so excited when we found where Indonesia is. M started to look where Japan is, but had a bit of challenge to locate it. A helped him by saying, “ I saw it before. I saw it with drum and sumo!”. We all tried to find Japan and sure enough, it is where the pictures of drum and sumo wrestler are! Br pointed at the animals (whale, tiger sharks, manta ray) he saw on the map and asked why they are on different places. When E heard that, he asked, “ Why do I see dinosaur fossils here (Mongolia) but not in Japan?”. This map fascinates us so much that we have so many questions! We had fun looking at it and talking about what we see.

In  other work stations, we also had fun  working patiently on the world puzzles. Some puzzles were a bit tricky but with some help, we were  able to complete them! Another work station helped us remember what we learned about where animals and objects  live or move —- on the land, water or in the air. We even giggled as we touched different bugs which felt a bit ticklish! We loved putting sea animals and shell in the water very much, too! We also built different things using cubes. Ke made a magic wand and “casts” spells on us by saying, “Magic magic wand! Kano is a ballet!”.

We started our circle time by singing our chant about our favorite cookies. We had came up with very unique “cookies! Here’s the list:

Ai: Rainbow cookies, Ja: Volcano cookie (to which M reacted, “That’s hot!), Br: Robot (After we pretended to eat the “robot cookies”, Ma said, “Broken!” while M mentioned that “It’s hard!”. 

Vieda then showed us a globe which sparked our interest and our lively discussion went like this:

Vieda: What is this?

Everyone: Earth!

Ke: Water

So: In earth, they have some water, It’s the blue one.

Ja This is the countries.

Vieda: What is the shape?

An: Ball

Mo: Symmetrical

E: Circle

Vieda: It’s a 3D shape.

Ra: 3D shape.

Ke: Triangle.

Ke 3D

Ra Sphere

Ka: But Japanese is Chikyu.

Vieda: In English, sphere. In Japanese, kyu.

As we continued learning about our planet earth, we talked about continents. We guessed the number of continents we have.

A: 100, Ma: 8, Ai: 5, Ed: 10

Then we sang a song to name the 7 continents namely: North America, South America, Antarctica, Africa, Europe, Asia and Australia.  It was an echo song and we had fun singing it!

 We looked at a map (and not a globe) as we talked about the continents which could have prompted Ed to ask, “ These are the same globe but it’s not the other side?”

 Vieda: What do we see in the continents?

Ra: World

Mo: Continents

Ry Continents

Vieda: Sh shared with us before that he went to visit Indonesia. We can find Indonesia in Asia. Japan is in Asia, too.

Ry Japan and Asia is so close!

Vieda: Where is Liezel and Vieda are from?

Sh: Like Petal’s class teacher. I go to Singapore.

We talked more about Asia and some of the countries that are located in it. We were “surprised” when we learned that Japan is in Asia!  Then we remembered that we missed Sa last week. We made some guesses as to where she was. So thought she was in Venezuela, Ja thought she was in Australia and A thought she was in Spain. Sa smiled and said, “Yes I was in Spain!”  Is Spain in Asia? Hmmm, Ry pointed to us on the map where Spain is. And it is not in Asia,  We know Co is from Germany and she told us that it took her 12 hours on the plane to go to Germany from Japan. It was interesting to note that Germany and Spain are very far from Japan and they are not in Asia, but rather in Europe! 

We also realized that India, where Ri is from, and China, where E is from, are actually in the continent named Asia.

E (as he looked at the map of Asia) Is it (China) hugging every countries? Do countries walk? Do you walk to countries near China or do you drive a car? Can you walk to other countries that is near to China? Hmm, I go to China by airplane. Because there is ocean from Japan.

Co Europe is a small continent with many countries. You can drive, take a train or even walk to other countries.

Ma You cannot swim because you will get tired.

Kai: Before airplane, how do you think people traveled?

Ry: Maybe walk and swim.

Ma: Ship!

An: If you swim, you will get tired and take a long time.

 We had our music program with John today.  We enjoyed singing the Ohana song together.  We played a game called Copy My Friend where we practiced to listen, look and copy.  It was fun making different rhythms with our friends such as tap the floor, touch our chest and said Hoo or tried doing tap, clap, wave and said Ha, ha, ha! Just before we finished our music class, we did Pinocchio song and had so much laughter and giggles as we did the actions. Thank you so much, John!

After snack time, we had our shared-reading using a big book. We took turns in guessing what book it was. Be was able to guess it right. It was Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?. It made him so happy that he said, “ I did it! It was true!”. We sang through the book and at the end., we tried to name the animal that comes after each one in the book. We did our best to name the next animal without looking at the picture, and we were correct each time! E told us that the reason why he named it correctly was, “ I read from the words.”.

The fun did not end there. We played a game called, “Message Relay” where we practiced using our listening ears and whispering voice. It was a little challenging for us to whisper but after some time, were able to do it. We had two teams and it was amazing to hear that the same message passed on from the end of the line, came out to be a different one when it reached the first person in the line! We had two rounds. The message for the first round was, “ I love you!” (which became heart and height in the  middle, then eventually turned out to be Japan as it reached the first person) while the second one was, “ Let’s go!” (interestingly became, “Come to my house”). We laughed so much for all the mix-ups!

Thank you so much to all our friends and teachers who made our day very exciting and fun as always!

Lots of love,