It's Gym Class Day! (But, Wait... It's Wednesday!)

That was the common sentiment when our teachers announced to us that we had gym class today.

           Our teachers explained that we missed one day of gym class, so we need a make– up day. We did our usual early snacks, packed away, and Kaji sensei arrived!

We had our warm– ups, of course (gym class isn’t complete without it), and we then sat on the floor and spun around– on our bums!). Then, we saw Kaji sensei with a new equipment– a slope! He had it under the green mat, and we practiced doing the backward roll. The slope made it easy for us. So, when we got the hang of doing the backward roll, we tried to do it without the mat. Then, we practiced jumping over a rope, and landing on both feet. After that, it was game time! We played the shuriken game. If Kaji sensei said “leg shuriken!” then we would jump to dodge it. If he said “head shuriken!” then we had to duck to dodge it.

After saying goodbye to Kaji sensei, we had a circle time, just long enough so that we could spend some time outside (We were always inside the classroom since Monday!). First, our teachers talked about how today was an important day.

“Today is March 11!” C told us.

“In just a few days, it will be my cousin R’s birthday!” A said.

“No, it’s not. R is my brother,” A said. We explained that A’s cousin has the same name as A’s big brother.

Pauline said that 9 years ago, something terrible happened that made Japan sad and made the whole world sad. There was a big, strong earthquake, and after that, there was a tsunami.

“It’s like a thunderstorm,” A said.

“There’s rain,” T said.

“Lots of water,” R said. Pauline explained to us that all the water from the ocean washed over the whole place. Even if you can swim, it can be difficult to swim because the water came in fast and strong.

“Burned all the houses,” A said.

“The water came in and the house fall down,” C said.

“The water come and everything gets wet and houses broken,” A said.

“The waves come to the country,” A said. They were right; the tsunami washed over houses, schools, supermarkets, parks…. And there were people who died. A lot of people died on that day, that’s why today, we remember them. Pauline said we can remember them with a prayer, by simply thinking about them, and by “living our life to the fullest”- she said that it means just enjoying everything and being with everyone and just being happy and thankful.

Speaking of being thankful, Pauline asked what we learned yesterday with Sayaka.

“We talked about wasting food,” A replied. Pauline then showed us two pictures: one was a thin child eating off the ground, the other was a child eating from the garbage. Our teachers explained that we have some friends in other parts of the world (like the children in the photos they showed), that even though they are hungry, they have no money to buy food, so they will try to look for something to eat in the garbage, or eat something from off the ground. Even though it was dirty, they didn’t care– they just had to fill their tummies with something. Our teachers encouraged us to try finish our lunch, or try a food even though it doesn’t look appetizing to us, doing our best to minimize food wastage. They also reminded us again that whenever we have parties in school, we just need to get food little by little, as opposed to piling our plates with food. We can just get some food again if we feel like we’re still hungry. That way, we avoid wasting food.

After our short discussion, we went outside for a walk. Just to be safe, we’re avoiding going to the park for now. We went to our favorite pond, ad thought that it will be the same as before– still, murky green water. But once we arrived, our teachers gasped because they swore they heard a plop!

“I really heard something!” Pauline said.

“I heard it, too! There must be something in the water..” Nimo wondered.

“Oh! Look! There it is!” Sayaka exclaimed, and we crowded around her. It was a frog! It was swimming and it stopped to look at us. We also saw some small orange fishies. How exciting! The pond has come to life!

We watched our froggy friend as he disappeared under the water, and resurfaced and climbed back on land. He was the same color as the mud, and he was doing a good job of camouflaging himself. Nimo had a difficult time locating him.

After saying goodbye to our froggy friend, we went back to school just in time for lunch.

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

Love,

All the happy, living– life– to– the– fullest- children in Petals Class