It's Okay to be Different

We had so many exciting things that we did on our first full day at school! Our Wednesday was such a WONDERFUL one!  Each of us had a smooth transition from doing our morning jobs to getting into our routines during the day. We were just so happy to be back to school that we did not notice where the time went and were quite surprised when our teachers said, “Please get ready for home time!”.

 MORNING ACTIVITIES

            We were as busy as the bees as we moved from one activity to another. We enjoyed making patterns on the cork board by hammering blocks with pins. D proudly showed A how to go around with this activity. Before long, B joined them to make several patterns. On the other hand, Ch, K, and R were so fascinated with the light table. Today’s light table activity was a little bit different from yesterday. We saw zigzag and wavy patterns on it, and we carefully put colorful jewels on the pattern lines. The jewels had irregular shapes and we quite enjoyed how they felt on our fingers. Seeing light shining through the jewels was amazing! On the floor, U, M, Di, and N had worked together quite well to build towers. U said, “Look at our tower! We could make a tower taller than us! Z was so engrossed with making stories with the felt materials. She made a scene on the felt board then said, “Look at this one. It’s this girl’s birthday so she gets a cake and two fairies!”. S was such a big girl who kindly assisted our new friends to get through with our morning activities.

 CIRCLE TIME

            As soon as we started our circle time, M asked, “Do you know why R cannot talk yet?”. M has been working closely with R and always tries her best to help him whenever we have transition times. When she popped the question, some of our friends shared their ideas. Here it goes:

            Vieda: How did you learn how to talk?

            U: At school and our mommies and daddies teach us.

            U: Or maybe his mommy and daddy are working so…

            C: He didn’t have the machine yet so he could not hear us talking.

            M: Oh I see! When R was 4 or 5, could he talk?

            Vieda: Perhaps let’s us C about R. Could R talk already when she was brought from the hospital?

            C: No, he could only say strange words.

We talked about how we learn how to talk by hearing. We all said yes to do what we could do to make school fun for R.

  Well, this was a perfect introduction to our book reading for today. Our book is called, It’s Okay to be Different” by Todd Parr. We looked through a few pages and focused on the lady who wears dark glasses and who had a special dog who guides her. She is different from us, but it is okay to be different.

  Vieda: What can you say about this picture?

            C: She’s wearing dark eyeglasses because it’s sunny.

            Z: She cannot see!

            Vieda: She is different from us, but it’s okay, isn’t it? People can be different from us but it’s okay.

            U: Yeah, my dad doesn’t have hair.

            Z: My Papa doesn’t have hair anymore hair.

            Vieda: So, are all dads like that?

            C: No. Baby doesn’t have hair, too.

            U: I didn’t have hair when I was a baby.

 Some of us could not remember what our hair looked like when we were babies. So, we decided to look at our life books and enjoyed seeing how everyone’s hair looked like!

  How does it feel not to see anything? We talked about the Paralympics briefly. The athletes participating in the Paralympics may look different from us, but it’s okay. They may look different from us, but they are the same in a way that they can also play sports. M thinks that there will be a swimming competition in the Paralympics. We had a short activity where one friend is blindfolded, while another friend would be her “eyes”.  We enjoyed doing both roles. Maybe we could play a game next time.

 QUESTION OF THE DAY: Do you have eyelashes?

            Everyone answered YES! Then, we closed our eyes and gently feel our eyelashes. Why do we need them?

            Z: My eyelashes got bigger and longer.

            U: Because they look good on you. They also protect our eyes from the sun.

            N: Because we are real people.

            U: They help us close our eyes and go to sleep.

            C: We need them to protect our eyes from the wind and the dirt.

            Brilliant ideas! Our eyelashes serve as our eye protection. Not only that, but they also help us show our feelings to the people we are talking to. To demonstrate this, Vieda asked for volunteers to show different emotions or feelings. True enough, even with a mask on, we could tell if our friends were happy, grumpy, or angry by just looking at their eyes! A big thank you to our eyelashes!

            Vieda: Do you think only people have eyelashes?

            M: Polar bear has, too.

            Ch: And dogs.

            U: Cats have eyelashes. And they also have something special on here (pointed to her cheeks) so they can scratch their face when it’s itchy.

            N: I think owl.

            Z: How about cheetah?!

            U: We have a rabbit at home, and I think it has eyelashes.

 Let’s find out tomorrow if these animals have eyelashes, too!

  Before we got ready for lunch time, we chorused to say, “It’s okay to be different. I am special!”. What a lovely way to end our circle discussion😊

 Love,

Flowers