What lives under the ground

“We’re a happy family, yes a happy family

And we live at the foot of the big fir tree

Flopsy and Mopsy, how can they be sweeter

And funny little Cottontail, and Peter”

This is a song that Shelley learnt when she was little, and it is about Peter Rabbit and his family. We also are a happy family in Petals Class. We know that some of us have big cries when we come to school in the morning, however the rest of the day, we have so much fun and enjoy everything that we are learning about, talking about, singing about, playing with etc. Today we had a long discussion about what lives under the ground. We read a story from a magazine all about moles called “Monty the Mole”. Moles are creatures that live under the ground and they build tunnels that they run along, looking for ants and worms, to eat. Moles also cannot see so they

don’t need lights in the tunnels when they are digging. We also saw pictures of ants, worms, woodchucks, rabbits, foxes, and snakes. We couldn’t believe that under the ground, there is another world that we cannot see. Maybe when we are walking outside or playing in the park, these creatures can hear us. Now that we have roots on our cherry blossom art work that are under the ground we will think about adding some of these underground creatures to our “work in progress”.

Hisami sat with us and we threaded yarn through holes that we punched in coloured paper. The paper was firm so it was easy for us to thread the yarn. We spent a long time concentrating and seeing how and where we could put the yarn. We made our own unique patterns with it and can use them in whatever way we want to. Sometimes people make bookmarks in this way; we can put them inside a book that we are reading to keep the place.

We changed the calendar while we were reading books in the library and our library leaders were most efficient when they collected our books to pack away. We are loving having our special jobs in the classroom each day and when our Snack time leaders completed laying the tables for us this morning, we said “thank you” to them.

During library time, we sat with Sharee and she read to us. You can see us sitting around her, engrossed in the book that she was reading to us. The book was our choice, and it was called “Five little monkeys”. Sharee asked us if we jumped on our beds, like the monkeys did, and some of us said: “Yes”. She said that when Michaela, her daughter jumps on her bed, she says almost the same thing as the mother in the story said: “No more monkeys jumping on the bed”.

Our teachers have been giving us three instructions at a time, and they are observing us to see if we can carry them out, without having them repeated. Some of us still need help with remembering all the tasks that we have to do. Today the three tasks were: “Take off our indoor shoes, look for our name on the magnet board and go and put our outdoor shoes on. Some of us can manage these things when our teachers speak to us individually however, in a large group; we sometimes are distracted and can forget. Also, those of us who use visual cues to guide us, sometimes falter at these times. Our teachers will focus more during class on giving us three instructions individually and also in small and large groups, to help us develop these skills.

Love always the children in Petals Class.