G is for "Germs" and "Garbage"

          We saw Pauline dragging the garbage bin towards us before she started circle time.

       “What are you doing?” we asked her. She just replied that we were going to talk about it today– but first, we need to talk about germs.

“Do you know what is throwing up?” Pauline asked.

“Sick,” L said.

“Like gohan coming out, “A said, while re-enacting throwing up. “When A was baby, too. Same,” he told us that when he was a baby, he threw up, too.

“It happened to my brother when he was in a speedboat,” H said. Yes, sometimes when we get dizzy, it makes us throw up. Pauline said that when we don’t wash our hands well, the baikinman, or the germs, will go inside our body then we’ll get sick. We have some friends who have coughs, colds, and stomach bug (hence, the throwing up discussion).

“Use soap then lots of bubbles,” C said. He’s right– just what like Sayaka mentioned to us last week, we need to make sure that there are bubbles when we use the soap, to make sure that baikinman goes bye– bye.

“If you’re using too much water there will be no more for the fish!” L warned.

“The fish will be sad and there will only be land,” C added.

“My brother said that ‘Magic Soap’ isn’t really soap,” H said suddenly. Pauline said they just call it “Magic Soap” as it has the same function as soap– to remove the germs.

“I have a question,” our teachers asked. “Can I do this?” they pretended to pick their nose, put their hands inside their pants and scratch their bum, and cough and sneeze without covering their nose and mouths.

“No!” we all said. We also said it was dirty and yucky. If we want to clean our nose, we need to use a tissue. We also shouldn’t put our hands inside our pants– if we do, then we need to wash our hands. Nimo also taught us that the best way to cover our nose and mouth when we sneeze is we do it in the crook of the arm, like the picture on the left:

We all practiced doing it.

“We can also cover with our hands,” C said.

“Well, if that happens, you need to make sure you wash your hands,” Pauline said. But, Nimo said that as much as we can, it’s better to try to sneeze our cough into the crook of our arm, so as we can avoid spreading the germs when we touch things around us.

We then talked about garbage, which came from C’s question last Friday: Is the garbage plastic or not plastic?

Pauline said we have different types of garbage. The first one is called un– burnable, which is composed of plastics, and glass. These are things that we cannot burn because it will release harmful air for breathing. Next is burnable, which is food waste, and paper. In Japan, these are burned and turned into energy used to heat up public pools, or the ashes are used for asphalt or cement for the roads. The last in our bin was PET Bottles and Cans– these can be recycled into something new, like a chair, table, toy, cup, plat, etc. When our teachers checked the burnable bin, they saw some tissues there.

“Uh– oh!” Pauline said. “It’s not supposed to be there!” she told us. “Why do you think?” she asked.

“Because tissue is made out of paper,” C explained.

Our teachers then tested us to see if we knew where to put each trash that they had– and we were able to put them in the proper bin! Yay!

“So how do we take care of Planet Earth?” our teachers asked.

“Don’t waste water,” L said.

“Recycle,” M replied.

“I see lots of gomi in the streets one time!” C pointed out. Pauline said that it’s sad because there are some people that need to learn how to respect and take care of our Earth. She then asked if what if we see someone in the park who’s throwing garbage everywhere? What do we do?”

“Stop them and say, ‘Don’t do it!’” H said.

“Can we say, ‘Hey, YOU! DON’T DO IT!’” Pauline said in an angry voice.

“Don’t do iiiiit..” C demonstrated in the sweetest voice, which made all of us giggle. He then turned to Pauline. “But what if that person doesn’t speak in English?” he asked.

“Dameeee,” M demonstrated in a cute voice, that had us all chuckling. Our teachers then said that whatever language we use, we should never forget our nice words said in a nice tone.

We also had our gym class with Kaji sensei today. We focused on our core as we practiced jumping over cushions, making sure we land on both feet. We also practiced our hand– eye coordination by throwing and catching the ball. We finished our gym class by playing a funny tamago game, which involves running away from the kaijin!

Today is also A’s birthday, so we sang him “Happy Birthday” in English, Japanese, and Chinese. It’s on the same day as Setsubun– and that got us singing “Hakou! Hakou! Oni no pants!” Sayaka told us that tomorrow, some of the Japanese mommies prepared a special activity us for Setsubun– we’re excited!

How about you? How was your day?

Love,

All the Earth protectors in Petals Class