Oak tree and Acorns

A lot of our friends decided to skip snacks early in the morning for whatever reason. Maybe it was because the marbles and bouncy balls were out or it could have been that they were not hungry. For free play, Brahm went into the candy house to play and he remembered that it used to be a haunted house. He opened and closed the door for his friends in the haunted house. We also fingered out which balls bounced or not by throwing them on the wooden pallet. One of our new favorite activities is the fruit basket. We used the dump truck to pick up the fruit to carry around the room. At one point we used the basket to catch all the rolling balls on the ground. It was almost like it was a goal. There was a lot of other different kinds of play around the classroom as well. To clean up we carefully placed the different manipulatives in categories. There were the marbles, the gems and the balls. Once we finished we gathered in a circle.

R counted to see how many friends were in Petals today and there were 11 friends! Then H counted to see how many teachers. We only had two teachers today. Which number was bigger? 11 of course! There are so many of us so we agreed to help Kai and Sayaka by staying together when we go to the park. 

Since we collected lots of acorns last time we went to Arisugawa park Kai showed us a photo of the parts of the acorn. We looked at the acorn and saw that there is a cupule. That’s the cup looking thing on top of the acorn. Then there's the nut and a tip of the acorn. We then looked at different kinds of acorns. They might be different but they all come from oak trees. We found the leaf that matched our acorn tree. It was a long and thin leaf. Now we know the parts and what to look for in acorns let's go find some at the park! 

We got ready by ourselves with some help from the teachers to put on our jackets because they’re so big and zipping can be a little tricky too. We walked all the way up the hill to Arisugawa. On the way, we walked by ourselves down a stretch of the street with trees on both sides. It was a practice to see if we could stay together and wait for our friends. We were careful but a few of our friends went past the trees and had to be reminded to use their listening ears if they wanted to walk without the rope. Once we got into the woods we were able to enjoy the whole area as long as we stayed in the woods and not on the sidewalk. We loved venturing out in the tall grass. It was like exploring in the jungle. We used sticks to bushwhack our way though and found some tree stumps along the way. A and R were giggling the whole time they were hiking in the jungle. We also used the stick to pretend to cut the grass. On the big tree log, we climbed and balanced on it and even used it as a train! “It’s like we’re in a train car,” Collier said. There were also different sized rocks that we used to throw around. Lea and Hiori were in their own imaginary world. When Sayak asked what they were doing? They told her she's was too loud and continued playing. You know we even saw Oscar the T-Rex in his habitat! Oh, what a wonderful day to spend indoors and out. There’s so much imaginary play when we use the materials around us. We hope you’ve also had a fantastic day! 

Love always,

Dramatic Petals Class Children