Mabuhay! All About the Philippines!

Happy Tuesday! We are so happy to know that our spring picnic has been rescheduled to April 9th. Rain or shine, we are happy that we can have our picnic next week

Today’s special time was about Vieda’s presentation about the Philippines. It was a great opportunity to learn about interesting facts about the Philippines. We enjoyed learning about the number of islands, kinds of foods, transportation and even their bamboo dance. Please read on to learn more about our “trip” to the Philippines.

Mi: It’s the Philippines’ flag!

Flowers (reading the number on the screen): 7,641 islands! That’s a big number.

About FRUITS

It was fascinating to see fruits that look like fruits known to us, but not quite the same. Luckily the fruits were labelled, and we tried our best to read each of them. We came across a fruit called “rambutan”.

Ty: I saw it in Maldives.

To: I ate it before.

Ty: If you eat too many you have to go to the hospital.

Sh: It looks like an egg (the fruit inside).

Yu: If you eat this, it’s too dangerous. It’s too spiky.

To: Inside have seeds.

Flowers: Star apple!

Ma: One time I saw it with my mom.

To: Durian! It is so sweet and I was a baby and I want to eat.

Ty: I saw it on TV. I saw a cat eating it.

Zo: Zo, grandma, and grandpa eating China.
Ma: It’s on the beach and it’s stinky and if you eat too much, your stomach will be ouchy.

Vieda: It does look like a durian, but it’s not. Let’s read its name.

Flowers: Jackfruit!

We were surprised to see the next picture about bananas. There are 12 kinds of bananas in the Philippines.

Yi: Which one is a real one?

Vieda: All of them!
Yu: The red banana looks like a potato a little bit.

TRANSPORTATION

We were amazed to see kalesa (a two-wheeled horse-drawn carriage) and jeepney.

Amused by the jeepney, we pretended to be in the jeepney and arranged chairs to look like jeepney. We learned how to stop a jeepney and even get off it!

We enjoyed watching people dancing the bamboo dance called tinikling and tried dancing it, too! At first, To thought, “He have a line and holding hands and jump and who jump is a winner. It’s like a competition”. On the other hand, Yu said, “I think they are people getting married”.

We also learned that a buffalo-looking animal called tamaraw is such a powerful animal which helps in the farming process and carries heavy things. A colorful rooster called sarimanok is a believed to bring good fortune, and we were so happy to make one to take home today.

CIRCLE TIME

We had a quick review about how families change. With the help of the family figurines we have in Flowers, we were able to explore ways in which family size can change.

Sh: When people in your family dies, your number gets smaller. It is very, very sad, too!

Ty: But when babies are born, your family number becomes bigger.

A: Oh, I want to have one more baby in the family.

Mi: When I grow up, I want to have 3 kids.

Ma: I want to have 10 kids!

Yu: I want 100 kids!

Sh: My brother is getting married soon. Me, I want to get married in Jerusalem.

Ty: I want to get married in Hawaii hospital and also in Japan.

Mi: I want to go to Alaska and get married.

What an interesting discussion we had! We’ll continue sharing details how families change and learn how we can contribute to the change positively.

Stay warm!

 Love,

Flowers XOXO