Fire Drill and the earth

Today is January 20th, 2020 and we had our first gymnastics class with Kaji sensei this morning. We played a game “Mochiu, mochi, mochi” which we think he chose, because it is the New Year and you eat mochi in Japan, on New Year. Of course, at the end of the game, when he chased us, we all screamed so loudly. When he said “oshiri” mochi, we sat on the floor on our bottoms and when he said, “chikara” mochi we flexed our muscles and when he said, “kaiju mochi”, we ran away because we didn’t want him to pretend to eat us, like a monster. It was fun to start off our first gymnastics for the year on 20/1/2020. You can see that there are so many 2’s and so many 0’s in today’s date.

During the morning William and Rian completed their “kakizome” which is the first kanji that we write for the year. In Japan, people do this every year and they try to live by the kanji which they choose. Our kanji says ねずみ年 which means the Year of the Mouse. We will remind Zen and Mares to do theirs tomorrow and Wednesday and then we will all have done ours.

On Friday, Nanako brought along a wonderful book of hers called Maps which has Maps of the world and pictures that are related to different countries on the maps. Today, Kai sat with us while we told him where we come from and what things about where we come from, are important to us. We then drew a picture using a permanent marker, about the story that we spoke about and painted it with watercolour paints. We are learning about the earth, the continents, the animals that live on certain continents etc. which are connected to International Months, which is our theme for the following two months. We are excited to welcome our families to Flowers Class to teach us more about where we come from and to share the many interesting things with our friends and teachers.

We spent some time after our gymnastics lesson, doing deep breathing and feeling the cold air coming out of our nose and the warm air coming out of our mouths. We also spoke about the Fire Drill that we did this morning with Petals and Buds classes. As soon as we heard the alarm, which was a real fire alarm, we covered our mouths and left the classroom as quickly as could be. Our teachers think that we did it in a minute which may seem like a short time, but actually, it would be better if we could do it faster. We will try to improve our time, like sportspeople do, whenever we have evacuation drill. Next time it will be earthquake drill because we do both each month. When we do earthquake drill it is slightly different. We go under the table but Shelley said she wasn’t sure if this was the best idea. We shared our thoughts about this:

Momo: If you don’t have space inside the table, you just cover your head

Antoine: If a big piece falls on your head maybe you will be squeeze like a pancake and some might eat you, because you’re a pancake.

Benjamin: If an earthquake shakes and you are under the table. One of the blocks may fall down and break the table and crash our head; and we’ll die.

Shelley: You know what is a really strong place inside a house? The doorway. So if there is no space under the table, you can also stand in a doorway.

We are very interested in things around us and when we were downstairs, after we had “evacuated” the building for our Fire Drill, we told our teachers why we have to get out of a building if there is a fire:

Braxton: The smoke can get in your nose

Magnus: You can’t breathe from the smoke because it goes in your lungs

Yuiko: Your skin will burn

Ben: You will go on fire and die. You might be fire

Keita: You will get hurt

We continued listening to another part of our story about the boy who found the entrance inside the mountain with his dad. Today, they heard some sounds but they couldn’t see anything, even though they had headlamps. They looked all around inside the mountain and first they heard a noise and then there was no noise at all. The story is filled with suspense and some funny parts. The funny part for us was when the boy wanted to go to the toilet and there was no toilet inside the mountain. When the boy and his dad got home, his mom was so curious about where they had been and asked if she could come along on their next adventure into the mountain…..and they said that she could come along as long as she had all the necessary items for such an adventure. We are looking forward to seeing what happens when mum comes along.

We looked at our map of the world after talking about an island. We tried to find an island on the map. Shelley: Has anyone been to an island?

Momo: Everybody

Shelley: What is an island?

William: It is a little place and all around is water

Shelley: And what can you see on the island in this picture?

Yuiko: People saying hi

Magnus: Palm tree with coconuts

Shinji: Tree and sand William: I can see flowers

Ryoma: Sun

Shelley: And what can you see under the water?

Jamie: Turtle

Ai: Shark

Sota: Fish

Braxton: Sea horse

Sara: Dolphin

Shelley: Can we see under the water when we are walking on an island?

All: No

Momo: We can dive

Ryoma: One time I see a boat at the bottom of the ocean and I give food for the fish. Ben: I think pirates were in that boat that went to the bottom of the ocean. Maybe a rock broke it and it sank.

Braxton: I think pirates cried when the boat sank.

Thanks for a fun day and we hope to see some of our friends in the park later. Love always Flowers Class teachers.