Year of the Rabbit

Good evening moms and dads!

Free play time in the morning was busy with blocks at the play area of the classroom. Today was J’s first day in petals. He made a tower, a house, and tunnels and was so excited show for his teachers. With J (Marjorie), we did lots of number activities, we enjoyed it so much. R’s came in today for his first day back in Petals! He also enjoyed building blocks with friends. Nimo played the guitar to welcome us! Some of us were still settling in so his music really helped us feel calm and relax. 

After we packed away, we had snack time and started today’s circle time.

Sayaka started greeting with us, “Good morning Petals!”

Petals: Good morning!

Then Sayaka showed our job charts like Nimo introduced us yesterday. R and K were  our Weather Reporters so Sayaka asked them to check today’s weather. 

R: It’s sunny today!

K: (Very serious) Sunny today. 

Sayaka: Can we go to the park when it’s sunny?
Theo: No

Petals: Yes!
T: But it’s winter and cold.

Sayaka: I know but when you run and run at the park, you feel warm.

T: Yeah. When I run and run, I warm.

E: The sky is beautiful. 

Sayaka: I’m going to ask our attendance monitors to count our friends.

G: *Counted Petals friends.
C: *Counted Teachers.

S: *Counted the jackets on the floor.

Then Sayaka showed us what we received from the children in Touhoku. We sent Christmas cards to a school called Asahi Youchien and they also sent us a card. We took turns to choose one to take home. Nimo had a great idea to take a photo of us with the card and keep it in our portfolio. 

E: Can’t wait to show it to mama!

Today’s circle time was talking about the Chinese zodiac and one of Japanese activities which we call Kakizome. Sayaka wanted to guess what animal is this year’s animal. Sayaka had the toy rabbit inside her jacket and slowly slowly showed it to us. When the rabbit came out from the jacket, we said, “Rabbit!” We took turns to touch and feel the toy rabbit. It was soft and cute! Then Sayaka explained about the 12 animals in the zodiac. Every year the animal change,last year was the tiger and this year is the rabbit, and next year will be the year of the dragon. Our teachers mentioned that we are year of the dog, boar, or mouse depending on our year of birth. She lined up the toy 12 animals in order. Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse. Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Boar. As wrap up for circle time, we made the sound of animals and it was fun. “Are you ready to go to the park?” Sayaka asked us and we shouted, “Yeeeeesss!” 

We all had a great time at the park! It was a very windy day and we enjoyed feeling the wind.

After we came back, Sayaka read the book and it’s actually our one of favorite books, “Please Mr. Panda” by Steve Antony. The story was not only funny and cute, but also taught us important manners. When we would like to get something, we ask “Please” and it’s also nice to say, “Thank you!”. Sayaka showed us one toy and asked us what we can say if we want to play with it, especially if someone else is already playing with it. G volunteered, “I want to play…um…Please?”. Sayaka, “Thank you for asking nicely G, here you go!” G looked at the toy and it was a tiger, “Tiger! Roarrrrr!” It was a nice book to read before lunch. Especially looking at the donuts in the book, they made us so hungry! “I’m hungry now..” Sayaka said and we all agreed. “Do you want to eat lunch now?” We nodded our heads. 

Thank you very much for today and see you all tomorrow!

Love,

Petals class