Hermit Crabs and Autumn Leaves

We were lucky to have Jen (Sofie’s mum) with us again this morning in the classroom. Thank you Jen. On the main table we saw all our artwork we made with melted crayons yesterday. They looked different and when we looked closely we saw that they had been put together into 3 big long strips. Next to the artwork we saw some yellow and red liquid with some other implements. When we looked closely we saw they were droppers and finger sponges. The yellow and red liquid was a kind of dye which we could pick up with the droppers and then squirt or drop onto the artwork. It is quite a bright color and looks good. The finger sponges we used like finger painting. Each sponge is attached to a small hollow cup which then fits on the end of our fingers. We used these to dab red dye onto the paper. On the second table Olivia saw the wooden Montessori tree puzzle and was able to complete it without any help. After snack time we went to the park and had a great time with our friends and siblings from buds class and petals class. When we came back to the classroom it was time for Tokutaro’s ‘Show & Tell’. He had lots of things to show us and he started off with some beautiful photos from Okinawa of hermit crabs. He had written underneath ‘Hermit Crabs’ with a marker too. He told us how he was building a sand castle on the beach and saw lots of shells and also some hermit crabs there. Next he showed us his collection of beautiful shells and walked around the group slowly showing us them all. Tokutaro also had two of his favorite books: the first was about a bus and the people on it and the second was about some small creatures called ‘ika-ika’ which looked just like hedgehogs. Toku started to read the Japanese books to us too which was a real surprise and really well done. Next his friends asked him lots of questions about his wonderful things and he answered all of them. This was a great experience for all of us, thank you Tokutaro and well done! In circle time we were talking a little yesterday about the Autumn and found in a book about how it can get foggy at this time of year. Luckily we had a book titled ‘In the foggy, foggy forest’. This was a book with lots of silhouettes in it and we had to guess what we thought the silhouettes were. There were unicorns, bears, princesses and ogres which we were all surprised to see. We had only a short amount of time after all the excitement and decided to have some fun with some Autumn leaves. We all lay down on the carpet in a big circle with our heads in the middle. We faced upwards and then the teachers brought out two buckets which they told us were filled with water but we were so surprised to see they were actually filled with cloth leaves. They were green, yellow and orange and they fluttered down onto us. It was so much fun we tried again and again. Have a great afternoon. All our love, Darren, Ayaka & Jen