All Together Now: "Respect!"

It’s the word of the day– no, wait– it’s the word of the year! Something happened again that made us learn again the importance of respect.

             “Do you want the good news or bad news?” Pauline asked us.

             “The good news,” Adam replied. We all nodded in agreement.

“Okay… so the good news is,” Pauline began. “Our friends from outside Ohana have given Petals Class a lot of books!” she announced. We oohed and ahhed when she showed us the books to us: something about Disney princesses, Peter Pan—

“I like Peter Pan!” A quipped.

— whales, giraffes, Peppa Pig, Minnie Mouse, planets…

“I like giraffes!” R said.

“I have Peppa Pig at home!” C excitedly said.

“I know Minnie Mouse!” M said.

“I have that planet book at home!” O chimed in. We were all excited for our new book and we can’t wait to read them!

“Now, for the bad news,” Pauline said, her face turning stern and serious. She held up the book we read on Monday, The Smeds and the Smoos. We loved that story!

“You see, this is a new book. It’s also one of my favorite books,” Pauline said. Then she showed us 3 pages that were torn. Some of us gasped.

“It’s a very new book, but it’s already broken,” Pauline said sadly. “We have always talked about respect– is this how we respect our books?” she asked.

“No,” we said.

“How can I let you read the new books if you will do this to the books? Maybe you will just break the new books,” she told us. We said no. The teachers said maybe they will divide the books amongst themselves and they will just take it home because they know how to take good care of it.

“It’s okay, I have books at home,” one of our friends said. But that doesn’t mean we can break and tear the books in the classroom– what if everyone goes to your house and we break and tear your books, then we say, “Oh, it’s okay because they’re not mine. I have my own books at home.” We replied that it’s not okay.

“What if I go to N’s house, and I tear her books,” Pauline said. “Then I say, ‘That’s okay, I have my books at home.’ How will you feel, N?” she asked.

“Sad,” N replied. Our teachers said that we shouldn’t think about “Me! Me!” all the time; we should also think of the people around us. We should always think about each other.

Speaking of respect, our teachers also talked to us about talking nicely with our friends– they have heard us being not– so– nice.

“Don’t forget your ‘pleases’ and ‘thank yous’,” she said.

“You can say ‘Please, get my bag?’ or ‘Not broke it, please?’” R said.

“You can say, ‘Don’t break the books, please?’” C said. Our teachers also said that when using our “Magic Words”, we should say them in a nice way, not in an angry way.

Before we had our circle time, we had our music session with John. Just like in gym class, we were also divided into 2 groups. The other group made drawings as they waited for us.

We did some rhythm exercises and sang and danced along as John played his guitar. At around 10:00, we heard an alarm, and the teachers announced “Fire! Fire!” so Pauline closed all the balcony doors and she asked us to line up. Since we had our masks on, it was already covering our nose and mouth. We calmly walked down the stairs, followed by Flowers Class. Buds Class was already waiting for us. After that, everyone told us that we all did a good job for our fire drill!

We didn’t have time to play in the park anymore, so we took a walk and visited the pond. We saw some friends already there, together with their mommy. They had some nets and a makeshift fishing line. We thought they were catching fishes, but they were catching some crayfish! We didn’t know that the pond was also home to them!

“It looks like a lobster!” C exclaimed. Our new friends were really nice and kind, and they showed us the crayfish that they caught.

“Would you like to hold it?” the mommy asked. We were excited as Nimo took one crayfish and he asked us one by one to stroke it gently. The mommy put another crayfish on the ground, the smallest one without pincers. Riku was the only one brave enough to hold it in his hand. He eventually returned it to the tub where they kept all the crayfish they caught. The oldest boy amongst our new friends excitedly called out to us when he caught a big crayfish with big pincers– we all said “WOW!”

Aside from crayfish, the boy also excitedly showed us whenever he caught something tiny that resembled a tiny shrimp. They use it as bait for the crayfish. We also saw some orange fish-

“It’s koi!” Z said. “You know, there’ a crocodile here in the pond…” he told Sayaka, who grinned at him. We also saw some tiny black fishies.

Before we headed back to school, we said “Arigatou gozaimasu!” to our new friends, and they happily waved back at us. They were so nice, so kind– and that’s showing respect! See what happens when respect is given and showed to each other– we made some new friends, and they shared with us what they were doing.

For free playtime in the morning, we played the drum with Sayaka, and we helped Nimo revamp our old table by sanding it carefully. He said that he will repaint it, too. Sayaka also read Christopher’s Japanese book to us; it was a funny story about a crocodile who is trying to figure out how he can use his long mouth.

That sums up our Wednesday– how about you? How was your day?

Love,

All the beautifully different children in Petals Class