Our first day of school

We were so happy to return to Ohana International School for the first day of the class of 2011-2012. Not all of our friends were at school today because some of them are really tired from being on an airplane for a long time and others are starting next week in September. We knew all the children who were at school today and had a great time with them and our teachers. We have one new teacher whose name is Kanako and she taught us music downstairs on the second floor during the day. She did fun things with us and we had a great time. First she played the piano and the music was really beautiful to listen to. She has a special tune that she plays on the piano that tells us to stand up and then she plays another one and that tells us to sit down. She had to show us first and then we knew what to do. She also played music that made us stand up slowly and grow and grow until we were really tall and then again, another sound that said that we should fall to the ground. She showed us different musical instruments and then she hid them underneath a cushion and we had to try to guess which instrument it was, when she played it. We guessed all of them and then we had a chance to play them. We pretended that we were animals and slid on our tummies like a snake and walked on all fours like a cheetah. We love our music time with Kana and look forward to seeing her every day at school.

Shelley sat and did morning circle with us and she saw many smiles on our faces as we sang songs that we remembered and did actions to them. Of course we sang our “Hello” song so proudly and then we sang “Everybody clapping”. Then we chose what actions we wanted our friends and teachers to do and we had to sing the words each time so this made the experience of the song new as well as old, as we knew the song from last year. We are far more independent now and it was so good to be able to come back to our beautiful school Ohana and know the routines etc. After singing these songs, Shelley asked us if we had been away during the summer vacation. We learnt that Finn went to Norway, Noah went to Seattle, Darren went to the UK, Kana went to Okinawa, Jamie went to England and Shelley went to Europe (Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, France and Germany on a motorbike)! And all of our friends and teachers had a great time. We decided to go outside early as it would be too hot later in the day but it was so hot already at 9.15am. We spent time in the shade however we really wanted to run around and play with the ball and get acquainted with the park again.

When we returned to school, we started “cooking”. What were we making? Our teachers didn’t tell us and Finn thought that it could be ice cream or jelly. We helped measure and pour in the ingredients which were salt, flour, colouring, cream of tartar, oil and water. Shelley took the mixture to the kitchen while we made new place mats for our snack and lunch times. We used sparkly pens, pastels and Poscas and they look really bright and pretty. Eventually Shelley came back and we realized that we had made “Playdough”. It was blue this time. It was a little hot so we will play with it tomorrow when it will be a lot cooler. It was a wonderful day at Ohana with much more to share but we have no more room to write.

Love always Shelley, Darren and Kanako