Parties and Planes

            As the saying goes, there is a time for everything. There is a time to welcome new friends, a time to say “See you!”, and a time to celebrate. We felt lucky to be able to do these three things as a group in Flowers. We had been excited to welcome our new friends in Flowers (H, S, Sh, and A) and now the time has come to say “See you!” (And not goodbye!) to our dear friend Z. Before moving forward to Z’s party, we had the chance to celebrate Sayaka’s (Petals’ teacher) special 40th birthday party! Happiest birthday, dear Sayaka Sensei! Thank you for making us a part of your celebration!

            For Z’s special “graduation” party as Z would like to call it, she requested to us to sing the BINGO song. As we counted the number of the letters in the word, BINGO and Z’s letters, we realized that both had 5 letters in them!  Our musician, Nimo had a brilliant idea! We sang the song in the tune of BINGO with Za’s name. It went like this, “There is someone in Flowers class and Z is her name-o! Z-! Z! Z-! And we will miss her so much!”. Z loved singing our graduation songs and our dancing with Maryna. We would love to sing and dance with her before she leaves for Dubai, so we sang and danced today. We love you so much, Z! All the best in Dubai to you, L, S, and A!

            Zs party won’t be complete without asking her some questions. We are happy to share them here:

            Ky: Why go to Dubai?

            Z: Baba got a new job there and we had lived in Japan for a long time now.

            Ki: Baba?

            Z: That means my dad.

            S: What’s your dad’s name?

            Z: S

            S: Sign? Like kanban in Japanese (S thought that Zs dad’s name was “SIGN” which is called KANBAN in Japanese).

            Ra: (raised his hand) Bye!

            A: Why you going to Dubai, Z?

            Z: Because dad got a new job and we’ve been in Japan too long.

            A: I went to Dubai. I saw another Vieda and Nimo there. I ate sausage cream in Dubai.

            D: Sausage, my favorite!
           Z: My mom said that Dubai is so much fun!
           K: Is Dubai a country?

           Z  : Yes, I think so.

            A: Dubai is in UAE or United Arab Emirates.

            Au: I am not going to Dubai.

            A: I eat ice cream and ice cream cake.

            Z: My favorite flavor is mango peach.

            Ky: No ice cream cake because cake is rectangle, right? Ice cream is big and will fall down (melt).

            A: Do you have taxis in Dubai?

            Z: Yes, lots of them.

 We are happy to hear that Dubai seems a fun place to go to! Most importantly, we are glad to know that Z is excited to go there! We are so used to spending time with Z in Flowers every day. We are sure that we are going to miss her. Z said, “We can call!”. And she is right! We are excited to hear about all the wonderful places you will visit in Dubai, especially the tallest building, Burj Kalifa (K had been talking about this building!).

 CIRCLE TIME

            As soon as we started our circle time, A said, “I want to read the question of the day!”. He said, “Do you like airplanes?” in a big and confident voice. Bravo, A! Then, K did a great job in counting how many friends answered yes and no. She said, “No is 2 and Yes is 9. 9 is more than 2”.

            We asked S and Sh who answered no to share with us why they answered no. Thanks to them for sharing, others got excited to share their ideas, too!

            S: Because it’s not cute.

            Sh: I like only cute airplanes.

            Ka: I went to see airplanes and I don’t see cute airplanes.

            A: Airplanes cute and cool! They go down and real fast!
           N: I like airplanes because their design is to go fast.

            Ky: I see blue and white and Olympic mark on the airplanes.

 When we talk about airplanes, we think of places that the planes took us to. K said she went somewhere but could not remember the name of the place. N and D said that they went to Hakone by plane.  Wow😊 Then, Au said that an airplane took him to Lithuania!

  Few days ago, we had S’s mom and dad in Flowers to share about what they do as pilots. We were so inspired by the things that they shared with us. In fact, we learned so many things from them. Today, Vieda showed us some pictures that Ai and Wi (we remember their names, too!) shared with us on that day. It was a wonderful time of sharing what stood out for each of our Flowers friends. Here it goes:

  Sh: R is in mommy’s tummy there. He was not born yet.

            Z: I know A is a pilot.

            D: (Pilot means) She flies the airplane.

            N: I think we can also call them “plane flyers”.

            Hi: (We can also call them as) “Pilot planes”.

  We looked at some airplane pictures and made comments about what we observed.

            A: That’s the engine of the plane there.

            S: Oh, that plane is cute!
          H: (The plane is) In the sky.

            D: (S’s dad) That’s W.

(When D saw the picture of Spring Airlines Japan. He was quite sure that W was the one flying this airplane!)

            S: I see Fuji-san.

            A: It’s a volcano.

            Za: It’s a mountain. Mount Fuji is a mountain. Some people think it’s a volcano but it’s just a mountain.

            Ki: I see Mount Fuji. I look up and there’s no fire come up, but a volcano is fire come up from the top. So, it’s not a volcano. Only mountain.

 Then came another airplane photo.

            Za: She (A) looks different because she’s in a fighter plane. It’s a kind of airplane because it’s so up and only have one seat. There’s no air to breathe in and it fights with bad guys.

            K: Fighter planes fight other countries’ fighter planes. If the fighter plane is in Japan, all the fighter planes in Japan make a team and form a squad to fight the other fighter planes.

            D: This is the map on her legs! I know that!

            K The maps guide the people to their destination.

 Talking about pilots, we were excited to recall how Willem looked like.

            K: He came in a pilot suit.

            H: Rainbow?

            Z: He had a white collar.

            Ki: S’s dad have black down here (pants)and daddy’s here (chest) have daddy’s airplane badge.

 How about another type of airplane?

            Z: That’s air ambulance. It brings people to the doctor. It’s quicker than the ambulance.

            K: If the air ambulance is in another country, how can it fly and go to another country’s hospital when the water is blocking the way?

  Lastly, we would not forget W’s “office”! It brought a smile on our face when Vieda asked us if we would like to see how his office looks like!
            K: He needs help to work on all the buttons. It’s called a co-pilot.

            S: It’s like an assistant.

            Ki: Is that Shayla’s daddy’s plane inside?

            Z: Oh, today my daddy was talking to the airline!

 Of course, our discussion about airplanes won’t be complete with talking about the cabin attendants. A huge thanks to Wi for sharing with us what they do on the plane. K said, “I know! Cabin attendants keep people safe and sound in the plane!”.

Thanks to N for sharing his book called MAPS. We sang our Continent Song and tried to locate where we could see Dubai. And we did! We found it on the continent of Asia and in United Arab Emirates. We located Japan as well and we thought that we won’t be that far from Dubai! We love you, Z and will miss you a lot!

 Please enjoy the rest of the evening! See you tomorrow!

 Love,

Flowers