Malaysia here we come

Today we took another international trip in Asia and visited Malaysia. We were very lucky to meet a new friend Evelyn who was in Flowers class today along with one of our moms Karin. On the table this morning we saw lots of colored markers, crayons and pastels along with some sheets of white drawing paper. On the table next to the materials was a book all about Vincent Van Gogh whose work we saw last week when we visited The Netherlands. Van Gogh painted a vase full of sunflowers using yellow, orange, brown and green and then we noticed that the only colored markers and pastels we had were the same colors. We did some beautiful pictures of the sunflowers and we hope to see them on the wall soon. On the second table was the orange play-dough we made yesterday morning with Pooja. We used it to make lots of things this morning too including cookies and cakes. The toy car rug was again popular this morning with so many of us playing on it that there was a big traffic jam with cars back to back across many of the roads. The large wooden Montessori blocks were also popular this morning and we soon discovered that if we rolled marbles down the blocks they mad e a great sound, just like music. After packing away the toys we headed for the park and enjoyed the sunshine for a short time. When we returned we were greeted by Evelyn and Karin who had come to talk to us all about Malaysia. Evelyn told us lots of fun things about Malaysia and we soon spotted Malaysia on the big world map on the wall. We saw how Malaysia is made up of 2 parts and 14 states. The flag had 14 stripes each of which represented a state and a 14 pointed star which represented the 14 Sultans. The flag also contained a crescent moon which represents Islam. There are many different people in Malaysia with Malay, Chinese and Indians making up the Malaysian population. We saw lots of pictures of the people with their hair covered, dancing and saying “Namaste” as a welcoming. We learnt how to say “Good Morning” in Malay too “Salama Pagi”. We knew the Chinese way to say ‘Hello’ already and also the Indian way. Evelyn then showed us a short video about the Chinese New Year showing lots of people around some shredded vegetables. They were using chopsticks to mix the vegetables and fish while saying “Lohe” which means ‘Mix’. We then saw lots of paper which looked just like the shredded vegetables and paper fish to try our own New Year celebration. We each had a pair of chopsticks and mixed the paper vegetables and fish together. Once we had finished we put the remains in a small bag to take away with us at the end. We then saw an amazing picture of the biggest flower in the world called a Rafflesia which is about 1 meter wide, about 7 kgs in weight and smells very bad. We then did our own drawing of the flower on the table. Thank you Karin and Evelyn for a wonderful trip to Malaysia. In circle time we again flew on our imaginary airplane and today visited Austria, Malaysia, Holland and Ukraine. Wow, what wonderful international travelers we are! Have a great afternoon and we look forward to seeing you all again tomorrow.

All our love, Darren, Ayaka, Pooja and Ryoan