Of Play Band, Telephone, and Library

                Happy Friday! We love playing musical instruments, dancing, and singing. Our eyes lit up at the sight of different musical instruments and microphones on the table. We asked Vieda if we would be having our band again, and we got very excited when she said yes! We quickly put away our books and tidied up our room to get ready for our band. We had counted how many friends we had today and then compared that number with the musical instruments that we had on the table. There were 13 instruments so, we knew that each of us would have one instrument. The question was how should we decide which instrument would belong to our friends. The suggestion time began…

                Ka: We can share or take turns.

                C: We can line up.

                Re Yes, line up. I’m the number one (when we had the head count), so I’ll be the first.

                Vieda: What do you think would our friends at the very back feel?

                H: Maybe sad because only one instrument left.

                B: Line up like this and if you’re in the middle you can take it.

                A: My school said, “You get what you get, and you don’t get upset”.

                Ky: Maybe we should get more instruments!
                C: If someone is using, you can share or take turns.

                H: You can choose who is sitting nicely and be patient.

                K: Maybe everyone can be first.

There was a lot of discussions before we began our band play. Recently, there had been instances where Flowers friends feel “good” when they are number one or the first. We all want to be number one and we thought it was alright to feel that way. As days passed by, we felt that we tend to race with each other, instead of helping and supporting each other and usually tears are shed because of it. We love our friends and would like to spend fun time together, and not racing or competing with each other.

As we could not decide how to proceed with the selection of musical instruments and the sequence of our friends, we agreed that perhaps we should start by saying “being number one is not always the best”. We shared the idea that thinking of our friends’ feelings before ours would help us to be more supportive of others.

We sat in a line. Ky suggested that Vieda should call the ones who were sitting nicely and quietly first to choose their instruments. Vieda looked at Flowers friends and said, “Oh no! What should we do? Everyone is sitting so nicely and quietly!”. We looked at each other and then stood up when Vieda said, “You may all pick an instrument. And please think what should you do when a friend picks the one you like”. We tried our best be happy with what we got and not to be upset!

Then came the band play! We just love singing, dancing, and playing instruments. Beautiful music and singing filled the room!  Thank you everyone for being mindful of your friends😊

CIRCLE TIME

                We enjoyed making our paper cups telephone by painting them. Ky and Ka mentioned that they have made and played telephone with paper cups before. Co said, “You put one cup on your ear, and one on your mouth to talk”. Our teachers would put connect the two paper cups with a long string and we would try if we would be able to communicate through them like the way we do with real telephones.

                Speaking about telephones, we discussed how we should take turns in talking and listening if we want to have a successful telephone conversation. When one is listening, the other one is talking but it should never be both people talking at the same time. Ky suggested that “Maybe you make that telephone. In circle time, when someone is not listening to the teacher, you can “call” and put the other cup on that person’s ear!”.

COMMUNICATING THROUGH TECHNOLOGY (TELEPHONE)
                We have been celebrating our international months and learned a lot about how far most countries are from Japan. We have families in different continents of the world and are still able to communicate with them through telephone.

                B: I used my finger for the number. I hold the phone on my hand and then press the number.

                Ky: Once upon a time, a phone you need to spin. Then, what number coming in is you can see. I saw it my daddy’s friend’s old house. It’s black phone.

                Vieda: Oh maybe that’s like the phone we had when Liezel and I were little!

                K: When I go home at the train station, I saw lots of phone. When you press, the phone comes out for charging if you don’t have batteries.

It makes us wonder how we are able to hear the voice of the one we are talking to, when that person is in another place and sometimes in a very far country!

                B: When daddy call (Grandma Joe) I join when I wake up. There’s a special thing that you cannot see that connects us so we can talk with each other.

                Vieda: I wonder what that something that we don’t see.

                Ka: Well, if you cannot see, that means you’re blind!

                Vieda: Kati, do you call your grandpa in Thailand?

                K: I don’t call him because I’m just a kid so I don’t have a phone! I think phones have a sensor, so we can talk to each other.

                Iz: I hear the voice and see the person (when I call family in America).

                Ke: Daddy talk to mommy when mommy in London. But not K. I go to the airport. Mommy said taxi is waiting.

Nowadays, it is quite rare that we just hear the voice of the person we are talking to, especially those who are living in other countries. A said, “We do video call! I like talking on LINE because we can change our faces!”. Ri added, “I talk to my grandma in Wakayama on video call. I can hear grandma’s big voice”.

Communicating with our family and friends has been easy and convenient nowadays. It is amazing how we can talk and see them at the same time. It would be a great learning journey again as we try to discover how technology affects how we meet our family and friends. It would be wonderful to see how our moms, dads, and grandparents communicated with their friends before. Let’s have a chat about this next week!

QUESTION OF THE DAY (Do you like talking?)

                As we were talking about communicating through telephone, we thought of asking who likes talking.

                (YES, we like talking!)

                Iz: Because talking is so fun!
               K: If you cannot talk, people will not understand you!
               Hi Because I like talking about princess.

                C: Because some countries, you can hear them.

                Ka: Because talking is fun.

                K: Because it is fun to talk, and people make us laugh!

                (NO, WE DON’T LIKE TALKING.)

                B: Because when I talk, I get tired.

                A: Because my voice hurts here (pointed to throat) when I speak that much.

                K: Because I get tired.

                R: Because it we talk lots and lots of time, you become tired. Mommy likes talking, then Ke, then Ky, then daddy, and then me.

                R: Because I like eating and talking and mommy say you like snack, and I say yes.

 We also had lots of fun dancing and even dancing with Maryna today. Thank you so much, Maryna for always teaching us lots of fun dance steps! We had a wonderful reading time at the Azabu Library and were able to borrow books as well.

 Have a wonderful weekend!

Love,

Flowers XOXO