We Cannot Build Another Friend
We’re going to miss you Ky!!!
Today was a very special day. It has been a happy day full of celebration, but also a little bit of a sad day…
We felt like this day would never come, and many of us didn’t want to accept it, but today was Ky’s last day in Flowers class and at Ohana. Tomorrow, he will go to Elementary School. We wanted to make this day as special as possible!
MORNING ACTIVITIES
When we arrived today, we saw a banner hanging in the middle of the classroom. Ke thought the sign said, “party day”, but Au saw that the beginning letter was “h”, so it must say something else. We figured out that the sign said Happy Birthday! Ky’s birthday isn’t until next month, but he wanted to celebrate it with all of his friends in Flowers class before moving on to the big school, so today we will also have a birthday party!
While we were enjoying the usual morning activities that our teachers prepared for us, something felt a little different. We all felt varying emotions about this being the last day of one of our best friends. But, we tried to enjoy ourselves as much as we could! Because today would be jam packed full of fun, we decided to end our morning activities early and go to the park before snack time.
We enjoyed running around the park, and because we decided to go early, we were the only school there! It was so nice to have the entire play area to ourselves!
BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION
After our snack and quiet play time, we made a circle around the table and got ready for our birthday celebration. Ky’s mommy joined us and sat next to Ky at the table. We started by asking why we were celebrating today…
Hi: Because Ky is going to big school.
Ke: It’s shougakkou!
Da: It’s elementary school.
We asked Ky if he could tell us anything about his new school, but he said, “I don’t know yet.” We saw a message on the whiteboard behind the table that said, “Good luck! We love you!” We tried to figure out what “good luck” meant….
Da: it’s like “see you later.”
Ky: Maybe “bye bye.”
We learned that saying “good luck” to someone is like saying goodbye to someone that you won’t see for a while, who is doing something special or important, and you want to tell them to do their best, have fun, and make lots of new friends.
Before we could begin our celebration, our celebrant needed three things…
Co: Cake
Hi: Message
Ai: Crown
Ky asked Au to place the crown upon his head, and he asked Da and Cameron to give him his birthday card. Our teachers brought out the cake and lit the candle. After making a wish, Ky blew out the candle and now we were ready for some birthday celebrant trivia!
1- What is Ky’s favorite color?
Re: green!
Right!
2- What is Ky’s favorite food?
Ri: Banana?
Au: Tomato?
Ai: Rice?
Da: Onigiri?
Ky told us that his favorite food has rice in it, but it’s not onigiri. His favorite food is fried rice, which his mommy made for his lunch today!
3- What is Ky’s favorite game to play?
Hi: Policman game?
Ai: Tagging?
Right! His favorite game to play is tag, which we played at the park today!
4- What is Ky good at?
Da: Drawing?
Hi: Puzzle?
Ky is very good at both drawing and puzzles!
GOODBYE PARTY
After our birthday party, we began our goodbye party for Ky. We started by expressing to him how we feel…
Au: I will miss your hugs!
Hi: I love you!
Ai: I love you!
Ke: I love you!
Co: I love you!
Re: I love you!
Ky told us that hearing all of those words made him feel, “happy.” Now, he had a message for all of us…
”Thank you for being my friend. Thank you for playing with me. But I’m gonna come sometimes.”
Next, Ky’s mommy read us a story called “A color of his own” by Leo Lionni.
Before we finished, Ky requested that we play a game together! He gave us three choices of games and we chose musical chairs.
SHOW AND TELL – Ky & Ai
Ky would go first today for our next round of show and tell!
Ky: I make a robot. I draw my name in English and Japanese. You can see inside a little bit. This is chair Ke made. Robot can sit. And picture of the robot sunglasses. I make everything in paper.
Q&A
Ke: Why you have robot?
Ky: I want to make it.
Au: So beautiful!
Ky: Thank you!
Da: Why robot has sunglasses?
Ky: He have bad eye.
Now it’s Ai’s turn!
Ai: It’s almost Easter. Easter is the time we celebrate all the eggs. The Easter bunny hides the eggs and you need to find them. You need to have a big backyard, but you can do it inside too. The Easter bunny is really hard to find too. I made a bunny and egg. So I used color paper, cut out and used tapes and draw the face. I used chopsticks to hold them.
Q&A
Cameron: Did you make them by yourself or did someone help you?
Ai: I did it by myself.
Ky: When is Easter?
Ai: It’s in April, but I don’t know the date.
Ai had us play a game where we needed to close our eyes while she hid the egg. Then she picked one of us to try to find the egg. If they found the egg, then they were able to hide it next. It was fun to play! We all said that we wanted to do an egg hunt in our classroom when it’s Easter.
STORY TIME
Ky and his family were very kind to donate two books to our class today, A color of his own by Leo Lionni and Can I Build Another Me? by Shinsuke Yoshitake.
Ky asked Cameron to read Can I Build Another Me? We enjoyed the story about a boy, Kevin, who wanted a robot to replace him to do all the things he didn’t like to do.
As we read the book, we realized that we are all special and unique. No one can replace who we are. It made us think about how we cannot replace our friends by building another.
We are all so proud of and happy for Ky to make the next big step in his life! Each of us will do the same when our time comes as well. But we will miss him a lot! We hope that we see Ky again in the future! Hopefully at our graduation! Tomorrow will feel like a weird day, for sure. He did so many things that made our class better. It won’t be the same without him. We wish him so much success and happiness in the future! We know that he will do amazing things!
As for everyone else, we will see you again tomorrow, for another wonderful day in Flowers class.
Love,
Flowers XOXO