Gym Class Fun

We had another fun day today with our friends in Flowers Class. There were a few of us who completed our Japanese calligraphy on the table with Ayaka’s help. We did the calligraphy all by ourselves after practicing with water and when it had dried we were able to attach it to the bamboo top and bottom. Kosei, Riko and Eito all came to the table to attach the bamboo. First we used a bit of glue on the washi (rice paper) and then bent it over the bamboo. We then used a bit of long tape to attach it firmly. We used the same technique to attach the bottom of the paper and hung them in the classroom. They look great, please take a look if you get a moment. Ethan and Ryan continued decorating their spinning tops by applying red, blue and silver jewel stickers and then moved to the carpet area to join Nile and Eito practicing spinning their tops. Also on the carpet area Ryan, Ethan, Lucinda and Eito enjoyed using the roller ball tracks attached to the Velcro wall. It is quite difficult to set up the tracks but with a little practice we soon managed to get the balls rolling down the tracks. As soon as we had finished our snack we headed for the park. It was cold but nice in the sunshine and we were soon joined by Tokutaro and Adam. When we arrived back it was time for our Japanese gym class with Tanaka Sensei. We started off with our usual “Ohaiyo Gozaimasu” and a few stretching exercises. We also practiced both our table and bridge poses which we are getting very good at now. Next we moved like rabbits and bear across the floor before doing some great animal actions. We started off by walking and then did some monkey, lion and dolphin actions. We then played a mocha game where we had to find a partner quickly and stick with one body part to them, for example sticking our hands together, belly buttons, knees, feet, foreheads, cheeks and noses. This was really fun and we had to listen and move quickly. We then played a train game where everyone walked around in a circle and when Tanaka Sensei blew the whistle we had to make a train of only girls and boys. We had a little bit of a competition to see which were faster the boys or the girls. The boys won the first two rounds and then the girls won one round as well. After we had packed away we read a book together called ‘Don’t let the aliens get my marvelous mum’. This book was really funny and showed lots of aliens with different body shapes and eyes. We saw in the book lots of stars and when we reviewed our discussion from yesterday Jenny said it takes 1 year for the earth to go around the moon. Alexis then said it takes 1 day for the earth to spin. We looked at the ceiling but couldn’t see any stars in the classroom but the teachers had an indoor planetarium projector. Tokutaro turned off all the lights for us and Adam switched it on but the room was not dark enough and so we took the projector into the kitchen area and could all see the stars projected on the ceiling. There were thousands of them to look at. Have a great afternoon.