Happy Birthday, S!

S’s favorite book in Petals Class….

Goodbye May, hello June! Oh, and hello to our birthday girl…..S!

S arrived at school with a big balloon. Some of our friends were intrigued by why she had one. The teachers started singing “Happy birthday, S……” and everyone joined in. Yay! We’re celebrating another birthday!

We enjoyed watching S play with her balloon during free play, and it was interesting to see the balloon float. We asked S if we can play with it and she replied, “I’m still playing with it- wait, please.” When she was done, she lent it to us. We walked around with it, and the balloon floated and followed us. We ran around, and the balloon still followed us, so we giggled. But the teachers had to remind us to use our walking feet.

After cleaning up, we sang our morning songs while Pauline played the ukulele. But she said that she doesn’t know how to play “Happy Birthday”, so H volunteered to play. We sang “Happy Birthday” to S in English and Japanese then asked her how old she is today.

“I’m four!” S replied, holding up four fingers. We then gave her four big claps and four big stomps.

S brought some birthday goodies for us, and boy, were we excited to see them! We said thank you as she gave us a bag each. After that, S chose her favorite book in Petals Class to be read by the teachers- it was “Who’s Bad and Who’s Good, Little Red Riding Hood?” by Steve Smallman. Sayaka said it was a good time to have this for storytime, especially since it was about strangers.

But who are strangers? Our teachers said that strangers are people that we don’t know.

“Mommy said don’t talk to strangers,” H said. She has a point- but there are also nice strangers.

“Who do you think is the bad stranger?” Pauline asked.

“The wolf!” O replied.

“The rabbit is nice,” C said.

The story starts with Little Red Riding Hood needing to go to grandma’s house to bring some food over. Mommy told her, “Don’t talk to strangers!” but Little Red Riding Hood saw two strangers along the way: a wolf she got scared of, and a Rabbit that she thought seemed nice! She began to talk to the Rabbit and tell her all about Grandma who was living all alone with her jewelry. When she arrived at Grandma’s house, she was surprised to see the wolf in Grandma’s clothes! Then the police officer came, and he arrested…… the Rabbit! It turns out, the Rabbit was a thief, and he stole Grandma’s jewelry! He has been stealing from others as well. The wolf was nice and was Grandma’s friend- he was concerned for Little Red Riding Hood because he saw her all alone in the forest talking to a stranger, so he went to Grandma’s house to warn her. He was in Grandma’s clothes because he was feeling sick, so Grandma lent him her clothes so he can rest comfortably.

“Do you still think the wolf is the bad stranger?” Pauline asked.

“But wolf is grandma’s friend,” H said.

“Who do you think is saying the truth?” Pauline asked.

“The rabbit!” C said.

“But when the police came he grabbed…?”

“Bunny! He taking grandma’s jewelry,” H said.

“I see yesterday a big, big wolf,” S commented.

“So the bunny rabbit is a nice stranger or bad stranger?”

“Bad!”

“Not nice!”

“Because rabbit take all toys,” H said. The teachers said that a thief or a burglar is someone that takes somebody else’s things for their own, without permission or without paying for them. A thief steals things from someone.

“How would you feel if someone steals your things?” Pauline asked.

“Sad!” Everyone said.

Our teachers then told us that strangers can be nice or not- so- nice, just like what we read in the book. We can meet a lot of strangers who can smile at us and wave while saying, “Hello! Good morning! Konnichiwa!” It’s alright to smile and greet them back. There are also a lot of good strangers who like helping out other people. But some strangers can say hi and hello and then some might say, “I have some toys/ candy/ dinosaurs/ chocolates at home…. You can come with me so you can see!”

Pauline pretended to be the stranger and said, “Come, I have lots of chocolates in my house! Come with me!” She smiled sweetly. We eyed her warily.

“Oh, it looks like you love dinosaurs, I can see from your cap!” Pauline told O. “Come with me, I have lots of dinosaurs!”

“No, I have lots of dinosaurs at home,” O said.

“But I have MORE,” Pauline- as- the- stranger told O, and she took his arm, to which O used his big, loud, “NO!” We all clapped our hands because that’s the right response! When the stranger says that they want to take you away to their home, or take you anywhere you don’t know; if they start to grab you or touch you,then probably that stranger is not- so- nice and it’s time to take care of yourself by yelling as loud as you can, “TASUKETE KUDASAI! HELLLLLPPPP!” Then maybe good strangers and police officers near you will hear you, and they will come to help.

Pauline the stranger started to smile sweetly again at us and invite us to come with her.

“Come with me, you know I have lots of toys at home,” she told S and grabbed her leg.

“NO!” S yelled.

“I have lots of princess clothes at home….” She told R and R and took their arm.

“NO, THANK YOU!” they both said in a firm, big voice.

Once more, we practiced yelling in a big voice, “NO, THANK YOU! TASUKETE KUDASAI! HELPPPPPPP!”

We got ready to go to the park after our lesson about good strangers v.s. bad strangers. It was a beautiful day to be outside, playing with our friends and teachers. 1 ½ week to go, then we say goodbye to Petals Class…… 😢

Love,

All the happy children in Petals Class