Our walk to the supermarket and Happy Thanksgiving

Since it is Thanksgiving in the US today, after Vincent had completed his Show and Tell, we spoke about how important it is to thank people for things that they do. Shelley said “thank you” to Liezel and Hisami for always helping her and doing things for her and for being her friends and colleagues here in Petals Class. Lucinda then said “Thank you” to Vincent for bringing beautiful ‘rocks’ for his Show and Tell. Koh then also thanked him for bringing his crystals to show us. Our teachers are always saying “thank you” to each other during the day and we think that it is very nice to show gratitude to those in your life, each and every day. One of the many things that we were thankful for today was the visit from William B’s grandma and granddad. They have been in Japan for a few weeks and will be returning to England on Monday; so we invited them to come and spend some time in our class this morning. William B’s grandma and granddad brought along a book called “My friend bear” and his grandma read it to us. We sat attentively for the entire time that she read the book to us and loved the story. The moral of the story was about having friends and appreciating them, no matter how big or small they are. William B brought his teddy along for the story and he said that his teddy had the same name as the one in the story. His name was Freddy. We sang our good morning song together with William’s grandparents and taught them the words. When it came to their turn, they knew and were able to sing the words perfectly. We think that William B’s granddad really enjoyed singing the other words of the song, because we noticed that he was singing them too. Then we all stood up and sang and did actions to some more songs viz. “Under the spreading chestnut tree”, “Incy, Wincy spider” and “Five little monkeys”. We laughed at the end because the mummy jumps on the bed too and the baby monkeys call the doctor after she bumps her head!

We had a really busy morning because after this, we went to the supermarket to do some shopping and see what kinds of jobs people do there. We walked in the warm sunshine and chatted along the way. When we got there, our teachers were worried because they saw the escalator and they were not sure if it was safe to go on it. Luckily they noticed that there was an elevator so we all got into the elevator and went up to the second floor. There we saw so many different foods on the shelves. There were sausages similar to the ones that Lucinda had for snack time. In fact, we also rolled sausages when we were playing with play dough. Here is a photo of real sausages that we saw on the shelf. It was in a section that was quite cold. We noticed that the milk, fish, cheese and yoghurt were all in an area that was cold. We saw many different kinds of juice and then we came to the vegetable section. What were we going to buy for the vegetable soup that we are going to make tomorrow?

We chose carrots, pumpkin, spinach, broccoli, potatoes and an onion. We look forward to chopping the vegetables and cooking them when we get to school tomorrow. We saw a man packing the shelves which was his job and we saw a lady standing behind the bakery. We were not sure if she was the baker. Shelley asked us if we can just walk out of the store with the basket and food but Alexis told her that she needs to pay. So we went to the cashier and Koh and Mika gave her some money and she gave us back some coins and a piece of white paper. We walked back to school and on the way, we were observing so many things. Lucinda saw a pole and she said: “That is a Japanese pole”. She then saw another one which she said was a Japanese pole too. She said that you can also get other poles in Japan but those two were specifically Japanese.

We spent some time in the park and then we returned to school for Vincent’s Show and Tell. In the early part of the day, we worked at the activity tables, completing our “Thank you” cards for the man at the Glass Studio and the Bakery. We were supposed to go to the bakery yesterday, but it was raining so we couldn’t. Today they were closed so we will try to go there tomorrow if we have time. At the activity tables, we continued making our gifts for our families for the Festive Season and Alexis and Giorgia worked on their junk art people. They both made teachers.

We were glad that the sun was out and we could go to the park and play today. We also had fun learning more about “people in the neighbourhood” and look forward to learning more about the different professions leading up to us building a cityscape in January, when we return after the winter break.

Love always Shelley, Hisami and Liezel