Sakura season

It was a lovely day as it was the first day of March, we felt spring is just around the corner..Spring has sprung! *Some of you who have hay fever, might have already “Felt” spring, already!

[Free Play Time]

We had sensory table today and there are lots of marbles in the tray. We used the tongs or chopsticks to pick them up and put them in the colored bowl. Some of us used our pointer finger and thumb and that was also a great fine-motor workout! It wasn’t easy to pick them up and move them into the bowls, but it was very nice exercise! Some of us used our fingers to feel, pinch, and, hold the pegs with Nimo, we enjoyed hanging up the mittens and socks with the pegs! It was another wonderful finger exercise. On one of our tables, Sayaka was making playdough for us and some of us helped her. J asked her, “What are you doing? I wanna do that.” Kazu also helped her and he was happy to pour the flour in the bowl. M and G touched and felt the flour. G said, “It’s like snow!” M commented, “It is very very soft!” E and C helped her a lot. When they were mixing all the ingredients, E said, “It’s like corn soup. I promise not to splash it!” C said, “It’s like…we are making food.” When he was adding oil, he said, “Oh! It’s a waffle! Haha we are mixing playdough!” T came to the table and said, “I wanna help you. When he was mixing it, he said, “It looks like playdough ocean!” This time we made two colors of playdough. One is green and the other is white *We didn’t add color*. We can’t wait to play with them tomorrow. Luckily some of us could play with it before afternoon class.

After we finished cleaning up, we had snack time and had circle time.

[Circle Time]I

Sayaka started today’s circle time with the question. “Did you notice something changed in petals class?” She added that we took a look around the classroom.

T pointed out the shelf for the toy box, and said, “This is not the same.” He is right!

Sayaka: We have a new play area here, you can get one box.

C: Not two.

Sayaka explained our new classroom arrangement. We also have cushions for reading and it’s really nice! After that we reviewed what we talked about yesterday with Marjorie.

Sayaka: Do you remember what you talked about with Marjorie?

E: Flower.

J: Pink.

M: It’s my favorite color.

M: Sakura.

R: I know sakura too.

K: Sakura tree.

Sayaka: Have you seen real sakura before?

R: I see real one!

J: I see a real one too at up.

Then Sayaka showed us a book she had for reading time. It was a Japanese book so Sayaka explained it in English. The tile was サクラ はる なつ あき ふゆ By おくやまひさし Sakura Spring Summer Autumn Winter By Hisashi Okuyama

Sayaka: Which season is this? (There are lots of snow on the tree)

T: It’s snowing.

M: Winter.

K: It’s so big.

Sayaka: Do you see flowers?

E: No, only snow.

Sayaka: These are buds on the tree!

Petal: Nooooo!

J: That’s not buds!

Sayaka: Oh the flower is blooming! It’s also called そめいよしの Someiyoshino.

G: It’s green!

Sayaka: Do you remember this? *Pointed the sakura petals

R: Petals!

T: The sun come, the leaf and blueberry grow grow and grow!

Sayaka: This is actually not blueberry, the book says it is poisonous.

J: Coisonous?

Sayaka: If you eat something poisonous, you will get sick and ouchie. Don’t eat it.

K: Don’t eat it!

J: I’m a grown-up so I can eat that.

K: Birds on trees.

T: It’s Autumn!

Sayaka: What’s different from the summer tree and autumn tree?

G: The color.

C: I like red, it’s my favorite color.

Sayaka: Then we go to…

Petals: Winter!

Sayaka: Look! This sakura is what color? *やまざくら Yamazakura.

L: White.

Before we all went to the park, Sayaka had a fun game ready for us! Marjorie helped her stick sakura petals on the floor and then some green leaves. The goal was for us to hop only onto the pink sakura petals and not step on the green leaves. The game was a very exciting and fun as we love these kinds of games!

It was beautiful weather to play outside. When we got to the park, buds friends were playing there and we joined them and had fun playing with them.

After we came back to school, it was lunch time! I know we had some changes from today and it was actually great! We all ate lunch together and had longer quiet time.

Thank you very much for another wonderful day! We are very excited to learn about another country tomorrow. See you all tomorrow.

Love,

Petals