The 5 Continents

This morning we started our new theme for February, International month. When we arrived we saw there were lots of new map posters on the walls. The posters show all the countries in the world as well as animals, where they come from as well as famous sights, food and natural features. Nile and Eito found some animals in the Lego and animal box and started to try and find them on the map. Eito found there were lots of sharks off the southern coast of Australia and Nile found a kangaroo in Australia. On the second map there were lots of flags from different countries which Nile, Eito and Tokutaro looked at very closely. On the main table we continued to make our own Setsubun Oni masks for tomorrow’s celebration. The masks we are making are constructed from paper bags and we cut the holes with the teachers help for the eyes and mouth. On the table next to the mask making we saw a big map of the earth showing the 5 continents. There was also some white paper and a compass. We saw and learnt about a compass last week when we were drawing circles for our space theme but didn’t get a chance to try it out. Today we used the compass to draw the whole planet earth and then using the map puzzle to look at we started to draw the continents into the circle. There were some colored pencils and markers so that we could color our artwork in to look like the land and the oceans. On the carpet Arata enjoyed the African continent map puzzle which had lots of countries to find the correct pieces for. It took quite a while to find them all. Once we had all packed away we headed for the park. It was a bit warmer in the sunshine and we had a good time on the slide, in the sandbox etc. When we returned to the classroom it was almost timer for our weekly gym session with Tanaka Sensei. Before we started though Nanako helped us sing and dance to the ‘Hokey Pokey’. We had some good ideas of our own such as putting our tummy’s in and also our hair. We started the gym class with some warm up exercises and stretches as well as some balancing work. We then tried or table pose with 1 hand up in the air, then 1 leg up in the air too. Tanaka Sensei then counted to 10 so that we could hold the pose. We then also tried the bridge pose which is a little harder but only counted to 5. We tried some skipping to the whistle and some walking on all fours like bears. We then tried crawling like crocodiles while the teachers held their legs apart so that we could crawl through them. We then played a listening game where we had to walk and when we heard the signal we had to lie on the floor, stand with our backs to the wall or sit with our knees in tightly. We tried some poses like a shrimp, a tree and a stone too. We soon made a big circle and Jennifer wanted to sing ‘A ring a ring of roses’ and did the actions. The teachers then asked us what things are circular. We instantly thought of the planets from last month as well as the moon. Soon everyone was thinking of fruits and vegetables as examples of things that are round. We also thought of tyres, wheels and biscuits. The earth is also round. When we looked at the Montessori map we saw that the countries were grouped into something called continents: Asia, Europe, Africa, North America and South America. We took the puzzle pieces out and then told the teachers where we are from. We also told the teachers where our mummies and daddies are from too. Have a great afternoon. All our love, Darren, Ayaka and Nanako