Our Planet, Our Home

         During free playtime, we had the opportunity to play with the big map we made last week. We had our toy cars out, and we happily ran them over the houses and the roads we painted and drew. On the big table, we helped Kai paint our Shichi– Go– San kimono and hakama— remember the voting we had last Friday? We’re excited to find out what we’re going to do! It got a bit messy while we painted— but we loved it.

Speaking of maps– we talked about that during circle time. Pauline showed us something called the globe.

“It’s not a globe, it’s Planet Earth,” Z said.  Pauline explained that a globe has a map of ALLLL the countries and places on Planet Earth. She tried to look for Japan, and she said if she could find the Philippines, she would be able to find Japan. But she kept turning the globe but she couldn’t find it.

“I can help you,” K. He was able to find Japan, which was a little bit above the Philippines.

“See, they’re close to each other, but the weather is really different,” Pauline told us. “What do you think is the weather in the Philippines?”

“Cold…?” A took a guess.

“It’s hot!” Z said. He was right. The Philippines doesn’t even have winter, spring, and fall/ autumn season— they only have summer season and rainy season.

“Pauline, do you know that Australia is behind the Philippines?” K asked. He pointed out where it was on the map and showed everyone.

“What colors can you see on the globe?” Pauline asked.

“Blue!” A answered. Yes, it’s because a big part of the Earth is water! The yellow and green parts of the globe were the land. Like how Ohana is standing on land— of course, it’s not standing on water!

We read “Our Earth” by Anne Rockwell. It had nice drawings and told the story of how the land was formed, and how the water runs through the Earth. It told us how dinosaurs roamed around before, and how glaciers continuously move. Our Earth changes but very slowly— we might have Mt. Fuji now, but, who knows, after a long, long, long, long, LOOOOONG time, it might not be there anymore! It told us all about living things– like you and me, animals, and plants. We need food and water that helps us to grow, grow, and grow.

“Do you think the table is a living thing?” Pauline asked.

“Nooooo!” We replied.

“The whiteboard?”

“No!”

“The book?”

“No!”

You see, we’ve got our “living things” information down pat.

When the book was finished, our teachers asked us how we can help take care of our beautiful home, Planet Earth.

“We have to turn the sink off,” H said.

“When it is full, we need to stop the tap,” K said.

“Turn off the tap,” Z said.

“No tap, no water,” K said, emphasizing on how we shouldn't turn on the tap if we really don’t need to use it.

“You have to throw it in the bin,” H said, as he talked about the garbage.

“Turn off the water, and stop the water,” Z said.

Pauline asked what if she’s at the park and she’s having a picnic? She’s done eating, and she has garbage. But, wait— there’s no garbage bin to be found anywhere! What does she need to do? Can she just throw it anywhere? Like on the grass?

We were silent as we mulled this over.

“You have to get a bin and then you have to throw it in,” H said.

“But there’s no bin to be found,” Pauline said.

“Kitanai,” Y explained, so she can’t just throw it anywhere.

“Throw it in the bin,” Z said. But, again, there’s no bin around the park.

“You can put it in the garbage truck,” Z said. But, the problem is, the garbage truck is not always around. Hmmmm…… what can we do? Pauline’s question was left unanswered and she told us that we can think more about it when we get home.

We had our gym class with Tsurumi sensei today, and we focused on balance and practicing our forward roll.

That’s all for today– how about you? How was your day?

Love,

All the Earth– friendly children in Petals Class

P.S.

We wonder what can be a good answer to our teachers’

question?