We love TAIKO, Ohana-yah!
Early morning music! We heard rhythms like boom, boom, click, click in the classroom, and the atmosphere was quite different, and we’re intrigued by what was prepared for us today. When we realized that it was a special taiko day at Ohana International School, we excitedly told everyone that it was “drum” day.
Of course, we got ready and made sure to put on our Ohana school T-shirt and our hachimaki (special bandana). We adored donning our bandanas because we even looked at ourselves in the mirror. And guess what happened next? We showed our big smiles! Buds do know how to pose now.
While waiting for our Taiko workshop, we did some morning activities at the table. Today, a long piece of paper was taped up on one table for scribbling. We used some crayons, and we started making patterns and shapes all over the paper. It was really great to see that our friends were getting used to drawing these figures from simple lines into more complex and sophisticated patterns (for their age group). We also noticed that most of us learned the tripod grip (where they used three fingers – thumb, pointer, and middle finger) for drawing/scribbling. It was indeed a good practice, and you couldn’t believe the fantastic masterpiece we had just created.
We also had some leftover dough from last time’s activity that we explored and experimented with today. We added some cut-out twigs/branches and some toy flowers and plants. Again, these setups taught us how to manipulate them and allowed us to mix and put them together to make something different out of them. With our hachimaki on, we also decided to put some ornaments (toy plastic and flowers). It made us look more adorable and excited with our taiko.
Floor Activities
We also took out some sensory toys and materials from the box. We had some transfer beads, hammers and plastic sticks, colorful wheels for matching, and cups for stacking, putting, and pouring stuff. These are some simple but meaningful tasks we learned as well:
1. Using the hammer and pounding the sticks using enough force to bury them down in the hole.
2. Transferring materials with cups by incorporating small toys that can be contained and poured to the other cup.
3. Moving beads from one side to the other and deciding which color to do first before proceeding to the other side.
4. Categorization and matching colors and shapes using the circle tiles.
Story Time
Erika kindly read us wonderful stories such as Today is Monday, Three Little Kittens and Chika, chika, boom, boom helped us make our day more interesting and entertaining.
At the end of the stories, we also had our singing sessions, and the most requested one was “We will, we will, ROCK you!” We even made some dance moves and posed that only signified how fun it was doing these things with our friends and teachers.
Our Main Event: TAIKO workshop with Moko-sensei
It was lovely to see our taiko teacher today. Moko-sensei! First, we did our warm-up by doing some drum rolls. Moko-sensei, who is always enthusiastic and energetic, had given an amazing taiko experience. We filled the room with fantastic drum rhythm and sounds. It was absolutely a different learning experience for all of us.
Dong-dong, ka-ka, dong-dong, ka-ka, we used the drumsticks to click and beat the drums with so much power and joy throughout the session. We did so well in walking around the room while tapping the sticks together. We enjoyed making these sounds and moving around at the same time. Lastly, we also learned to say, “WE LOVE TAIKO, OHANA-YA!”
Moko-sensei, we can’t thank you and Shelley enough for making our taiko workshop an exciting one! By the end of the session, our group photo said a lot about it because our faces showed BIG smiles!
Park time
We went to the Green Area at Step Park and played games like “What’s the time, Mr. Wolf?, Bubble game, and Hide-and-seek.” It was a nice time for everyone because some of our friends even did a big somersault, balancing and crawling.
Lots of love,
All the children from Buds Class