The map of Tokyo

Good afternoon Moms and Dads, we had another wonderful day at school! We started our morning by making a giant birthday cake using the cork blocks and decorated it with candles using the connector blocks. We presented our enormous cake to Pauline because her birthday was coming soon so we had an early, pretend birthday party! On our craft table there were a ton of stuff laid out, we asked Nimo what he was preparing and he told us that he wants us to make a house from our “Junk Art Box”. Inside were paper cups, plates, plastic cutlery, ribbons, and stickers. We were free to use any of the materials on the table, inside the box, as well as the materials shelf to make our unique house.  We got very creative and made some amazing buildings! Our friends were really into the craft that we continued our morning craft time much longer than usual! After our friends who wanted to do the craft were finished, we ate our snacks and hurried to the park so we could have more time at the park! We were lucky today because we were the only school at the park, we had a great time using the whole park for our tag game!

When we got back from the park, we lied down a little bit to cool down then started our circle time. Nimo brought his Ukulele and we sang some silly songs together! After our singing time, H read the question of the day for us, “Can you read a map?”.

Nimo: What is a map?

K: Pirates use it to get treasure.

K: They are for cars, I have a small car and a map inside.

H: My grandma gave me a big car!

M: We use maps to go on a trip on the airplane.

K: In my car we have a small television and a map on it.

R: My big car is at Grandma’s house.

R: My car is at my Chiba house. It’s a small car.

R: I don’t have any car

A: I don’t have a car or bike

R: My dad gets a car from the car shop… it’s very small

Nimo: What do we use a map for?

H: Drawing and reading

Reiri: Read

K: Map is for like… people that somewhere going not like when they’re shopping. I go like Ohana, yeah? It’s not there Ohana, then I gotta use a map. I go somewhere new, I need to use a map.

Y: I see Nimo look at map (in the morning).

Nimo: This is a map of Tokyo. This is Arisugawa Koen

K: My house is near koen

T: I know my house’s name in Japanese.

A: My daddy used to work near Azabu- juban

K: My home is near koen but station is close to my home

K: With my mommy go to station buy something

H: H and my daddy and my mommy and my T stay at Azabu home

Y: My mommy Azabu- juban station work

Nimo: Here’s Nanzan

R: I know Nanzan it’s so so tall and so far. My house is so so far

K: The shoggako is over here, yeah? You can see Ohana

Nimo: On the map you can see lots of little symbols. This one is shoggakou. What is shoggakou?

K: Elementary school

We played a game where Nimo showed us a symbol we needed to find on the map! The symbols were very small so we had to really look closely!

Nimo: What do you think this “Y” symbol stands for?

K: Buildings

H: Police car

R: Fire truck

K: Fire truck

Nimo: That’s right, this is a fire station. What do you think this “X” mean?

A: Police station!

Nimo: What do you think this is? “+”

R: Hospital

Nimo: What do you think this mark is? (Temple)

R: Kyu kyu sha

K: It’s from a movie Sen to Chihiro (Spirted Away).

Nimo: This mark is “otera” 

K: I know! Like jinjja

A: It’s a temple! I’ve been to temple!

We took a look at pictures of a Temple (Otera) and Shrine (Jinja) and noticed a few differences. Then Nimo pointed at the symbol for a generator. It looked like a sun with arms. Then he pointed at another symbol that looked like the generator symbol.

T: That’s why the sun is in the middle?

A: It’s a factory

Nimo: What’s a factory?

M: Help you make things

Nimo: What do you think this “T” symbol is?

R: School

Y: School

K: Yubin kyoku

K: Post office

Before we had our lunch we read our last Kamishibai we borrowed from the library. We plan to go back to the library tomorrow to return our books we borrowed. Today’s story was, “How the witch was eaten up” by Miyoko Matsutani. The story is a lot like the japanese mukashibanashi, “Sanmai no Ofuda”. After we finished the kamishibai we had to quickly get ready for lunch because it was already 1:30!

Thank you all for another wonderful day! Have a lovely evening and see you all again tomorrow!

Love,

Flowers