An early birthday party for Christine

We were happy to see our friends and teachers after the long weekend which was filled with Halloween festivities and fun at home. We eased back into the week with a few activities at the tables. This morning, our teachers took our leaf drawings off the wall so we pasted them into our workbooks and added one sheet of paper that explained what we did for this activity. We also did some drawings and then we were drawn to the carpet where we had a numeracy centre with a new counting game to play. On this table, there were wooden numbers from one to ten with a container in front of each one. In a small wooden box in the centre of the table, there were counters. Our task was to match the number of counters with the numerical symbol, by placing the containers inside each container. We counted carefully and were able to do all of the numbers. Some of us enjoyed playing this game and returned to do it again and again.

Hisami added the finishing touches to Christine’s birthday card with our help. We added stickers and some other decorations to it. We played imaginatively with the Lego and created many different scenarios with our friends. In one of them, we pretended that we were making a fire engine.

Vincent: We need only red Lego for the Fire Engine

Lilian: We can use the blue Lego for the water

Michaela: We need water and fire

William L: We need a ladder

Michaela: We need a siren for the sound

Our circle time was filled with a discussion and a story related to our theme for this month. We sat together on the carpet and Shelley asked us many questions.

Shelley: When you come to school, whether it be by car, train, taxi, walk or bicycle, what do you see along the way?

William L: Cars

Alexis: Motorcycles

Michaela: Fire Engine

Lucinda: Cars

Michaela: Ambulance and bikes

Shelley: Do you only see these things on the way to school?

All: No

Shelley: When you look in the direction of the sidewalk, what can you see?

Alexis: Buildings

Shelley: And what is inside the buildings?

Michaela: People

Alexis: Toys and bags

Shelley: What else can you see inside the buildings?

Alexis: Food shops

Lucinda: Toys shops

Michaela: Cake shops

Shelley: And who is making the cakes inside the cake shop?

William L: Grown ups

Michaela: The Baker man

Shelley: Yes, the baker

Michaela: There is also the Pancake shop

Lucinda: The Band Aid shop and the clothes shop

Shelley: What are the people’s jobs inside their shops?

Michaela: The pancake man makes pancakes. My daddy makes pancakes on the weekend for me

Alexis: My mom made pancakes yesterday

Lucinda: My brother, Alex, makes pancakes now

Shelley: If your mom decides that she doesn’t want to make dinner, where can you eat dinner?

Lucinda: Outside

Michaela: In a restaurant

Shelley: Who works in the restaurant?

Michaela: The restaurant lady

Shelley: The person who gives you the menu and waits for you to order your food is called, the waiter. He or she waits for you to choose what you want to eat for your dinner.

This discussion is going to take us into the many jobs that people in the

neighbourhood do and in fact, on our way back from the park, we sang “Who are the people in the neighbourhood, that we meet on the street each day?” We thought of a policeman, baker, delivery man, taxi driver, bus driver, station master, shopkeeper, cyclist, grandma, children, mums, dads, postman etc.

After this lengthy discussion, Shelley started to tell us a story about a hat seller. He chose an unusual way to sell his hats. He carried them on his head. So she put about five hats on her head and showed us how good she is at balancing. She walked really straight and kept her head and back still as she walked around the room. She called: Caps for Sale, fifty cents a cap! In her story which was just the beginning part of the book, she told how the peddler couldn’t sell any hats, so he went for a walk to the countryside, found a tree and sat down to have a rest. She took the book out and then read it to us. We listened intently as we heard about the monkeys that stole the hats and how frustrating it was for the peddler, because he couldn’t get the hats back. When we went to the park, Lucinda re-enacted the story with Shelley when she was on the top of the climbing frame. Lucinda pretended that she was one of the monkeys that had stolen the hats. She told Shelley that she had eaten the hat, which is a slight deviation from the real story. At the end of our story, we all had a turn to try to balance the hats on our head.

Just before we had our snack, we secretly got Christine to come to Flowers Class so we could give her a surprise party. Even though her birthday is only in the middle of November, we decided to give her an early celebration. We sang “If you’re happy and you know it”, “How old are you now”, “Happy birthday to you” and “Otanjobi omedetou”. When we wanted to know how old she was, we clapped and counted and she had to tell us when to stop. We stopped at 23 which was when Christine told us to; so we think that she is 23 years old. Tokutaro gave her the

Flowers Class card, Lilian gave her the Petals Class card and Sofie gave her the Buds class card. Just before she blew the candles out, Jennifer put a crown on her head. It was a lovely celebration for all of us.

We had a wonderful day today and really enjoyed the warm sunshine on our backs in the park. We look forward to continuing with our discussion tomorrow and wonder where it will take us. We looked at some cards of people and their professions; we saw a soccer player, a guitarist, a drummer, a ballerina, a princess, a chef, a fisherman, a construction work etc.

Thanks for a wonderful start to the week.

Love always Shelley, Hisami and Liezel.