Shinkansen and Our Dream

We have been fascinated with what happens when we get on the shinkansen or bullet train. We always find ourselves amused not only by its speed, but also what we could do while we are on it. Sometimes, it feels like we are more interested in the many things that we could do while we are on it. So, today we were so excited when we began in planning to have our very own shinkansen or bullet train in Flowers! As we are a team in Flowers, we love to share our ideas with our friends. Here are some of them:

            Hi: We need long paper.

            Ky: And markers

            Be: We need windows, seats, and a driver.

            D: We need to put sun because when people wait for shinkansen, there the sun so we can see.

            H We need to draw square for the door.

            K: Box and police. Once of us can be police. When I ride the shinkansen, I see lots and lots of police.

            R: You need to make a box chair, not like open the box.

            A: we need to make a blueprint. A blueprint is like a map.

            A: Black window and door

            Ky: Tickets and button

            B: We need two drivers so you can see on both sides. Four doors and lots of windows. We need train tracks.

            Hi: We need food.

            Ky: (The person who pushes the food cart says) Who wants to have? Who wants to have?

            H: In Japanese, “Dare ga hoshii?”

            Ki: Who wants to have food?

            Vieda: What kind of food do you usually eat on the shinkansen?

            Ki: I always eat shumai.

            R: I eat it, too!
           A: I usually have rice.

That’s a brilliant idea! On the top of our list is to make food that will be served on our shinkansen ride. What kinds of food should we make then?

            An: Pasta

            Re: Broccoli

            A: Onigiri or rice balls

            C: Popcorn ice cream?

            Ky: Potato chips

            H: Juice box

            Ka: The people ask juice or coffee. And then they will make what you want.

 We were also wondering what the person serving the food is called. We had some ideas on the name and what he/she looks like.

            A: A servant

            Ka: It has a hat and a ribbon. It has a black dress.

            D: We can have one person work on this side and one person work on this side.

D took one end of the measuring tape and asked Vieda to walk towards the end of the room. Then, we said stop walking and looked at what number the tape stopped at. It was 85 centimeters long. We hope to make our shinkansen with the same length.  Let’s see what things we could make tomorrow!

 QUESTION OF THE DAY (Can you sleep on the shinkansen?)

            We all answered YES! How can we sleep while riding on the shinkansen?

            Ki: Put the armchair up and sleep on mommy’s lap.

            A: Push the button and bed comes out.

            R: Push the button and futon comes out (then giggled!).

STORY TIME (If You Come to Earch by Sophie Blackall and Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown)

 We continued reading on the book about our earth. Today’s pages were about the things that grown-ups do to make our world work. There are many things or jobs that grown-ups do. Au made a comment on a picture of a lady farmer. He said, “This lady, she takes all the food that she finds and takes it to the store”. I noticed the man who looked like a pilot was holding a ship so she said, “Captain!. Kyi also thought that “Some people not working like grandma and grandpa. When younger, grandpa was a pro-wrestler, but I don’t know about grandma”. As soon he finished, B said, “My grandma and grandpa are making things in Osaka. They work at the same shop together”. It’s always great to see how people have different jobs which help us lives on earth manageable. We were so happy to share with our friends what we want to be when we grow up. We found it quite interesting that some of us have the same job that we want to do in the future!    

            Sh Astronaut

            D and Ke: Builder

            Be: I wanna be a mommy.

            Au: I want to be a teacher. I can be a new Vieda! In another school like Ohana that has another floor, like fourth floor in Lithuania.

            A: I want to be a singer on the stage.

            K: I want to be a police because I like running and catching bad guys.

            D: I want to be a teacher like Cameron.

            K: I want to be police. Police bad guys I will catch.

            A: I want to be police because I like to catch bad guys.

            R: Singer on TV.

            Ka: Artist because I like painting.

            Hi: I want to be checking the baby. Like doctor for the babies.

            H: I want to be a ballerina in Japan.

            I: I want to be a policeman because I like catching bad guys.

            C: I want to check the babies, too!

            K: I want to be SWAT. They fight like the police.

            Ra: (Pointed at the film director)

 The book also said that although grown-ups have jobs or work, when they finish work, they can do things that they want to do. We thought about Cameron. He is our teacher in Flowers, but do we think he does after Ohana?

            H: A daddy!
           K: He eats at home, he’s hungry for dinner.

            B: Cameron will be a daddy.

            R: A bird?
           Iy:A mommy?
           D: He has a baby.

We enjoyed discovering rhyming pairs in the book Goodnight Moon. K said that she had heard about this book when she was a kid! R confidently said, “hush and bush (bus)” rhyme. When it was the time for the clock, she also said, “But clocks don’t sleep”. K jumped in the conversation and excitedly shared, “DONG! My tock tock clock ahs oni monster/. Co looked surprised and replied, “But my clock don’t say anything”. Vieda said that her clock sings to wake her up. A asked her, “What song does your clock usually do? Just try singing it!”. When Vieda said she was too shy to sing, Kyi commented, “It’s okay, We will keep it as secret. We will not tell everyone!”.

Here are the other rhyming pairs we thought we had:

            Re:  star/car

            A: bar/ star

            S: yellow/play dough

            D: yellow/playdate

            Re: yellow/yo-yo

Some of the pairs sounded like they were not rhyming. A said, “We need to think words that have the same beginning sounds”. Then we remember that rhyming words sound the same at the end, and not at the beginning. We love sounding out rhyming words!

 MORNING FREE PLAY

            For our morning free play, our friends did their best to complete their Hinamatsuri craft just in time for tomorrow’s celebration. We had been asking what Hinamatsuri means. Hi said, “It’s day for girls”, while A said, “No, it’s for boys and girls!”. Well, good news! We have special guests who will tell us what Hinamatsuri is😊

            On another table, we found some tools and an interesting object that looked like a computer. We enjoyed trying the tools to work on the computer. Could we make something else using these tools? It was a great start to think of what things we could make.

            We also enjoyed our group painting project. We painted something that we see when we are on the shinkansen.

            Ri: I can see another train.

            Ka: I saw houses, trees, a little bit mountain, and flag.

            An: Trees and mountains

            Ke: Shinkansen. I saw Thomas the Train.

            C: I went to Kyoto, I saw Mount Fuji.

            Sh: I saw lots of people on the shinkansen, and house, police station and sky.

            Hi: I saw people and sky.

            K: I can see sky, train, tracks, clouds, and stars when it’s night.

 We looked at our finished painting and felt proud of how it looks like!

 We hope you had a wonderful day, just like us! We are excited when we tried the telephone that we made. We are taking it home and are excited to try it with our family😊

 We hope to see you all tomorrow!

Love,

Flowers XOXO