Our visit to the United Kingdom & Dash the Dog

This morning when we arrived we finished our world map drawing using the compass and colored pencils. Some of us were not here earlier in the week to do these drawings and so we got the chance today. For many of us it was our first time using a compass. With the teachers help we were able to draw perfect circles for our maps. The playdough was again popular on the table with many of the cookie cutters being used to make hearts. Nile, Kosei, Ryan and Ethan all took part in the memory game on the table. This involves using a covered board and we needed to memorize the piece placements. Removing two caps at a time we needed to look carefully to see if they matched and memorize the placement of those that didn’t. After clearing away the toys and eating our yummy snacks we went to the class library where Ayaka read us a great book called ‘Tiki, Tiki, Tembo’. We listened very carefully to this great story. Thank you Ayaka! In circle time we started off by making a circle and then thought ‘Hey, we always make a circle on the carpet, how about we make a rectangle this time’. We all held hands and managed to have 3 of us on each ‘short’ end and 5 of us on each side. It worked. It was then time to visit our second country for International week…..The United Kingdom. We know Darren is from the United Kingdom and we started by looking at the flag for the U.K. It has a red vertical / horizontal cross, a diagonal white and red cross and a blue background. The flag is made from the flags of England, Scotland and Ireland all put together. The Original Union flag from 1606 only had the English and Scottish flag together but then in 1801 the Irish flag was added to it to make what is known as the Union Jack. When we looked at the map of the areas there was another area called Wales too. Next we looked at some pictures of famous things from the U.K. We saw pictures of castles, fish and chips and Big Ben. Big Ben is the famous clock attached to the houses of parliament in London. We were very lucky because we had a model of Big Ben which Marc made and gave to flowers class last year. On the carpet Darren then put out some Japanese coins and we lined them up starting with the smallest to the largest. We had a 1, 5, 10, 50, 100, 500 and a 1,000 yen note. When we lined up the U.K. coins we had a different number of coins; 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50 pence coins and then a 1 pound coin. With the notes we had a 5, 10, 20 and 50 pounds. When we looked at the notes and coins we could see a face on all of them. Darren showed us a photograph of the queen of England named Elizabeth. She was wearing a crown just like on the coins. Darren then showed us the map again and told us how the area between England and Scotland has lots of green fields, farms and sheep. On the farms they use a breed of dog called a border collie. Border collies are used to herd the sheep and work on farms and so they love to run. We then practiced some rules about how to meet new dogs such as using a quiet voice, slow movements and letting the dog sniff you before moving your hands near them. We were soon joined by the buds class children and then Darren brought his puppy named ‘Dash’ into the classroom. Dash is a black and white Border collie puppy that is only 5 months old but is getting quite big already. He wanted to lick everyone and everything. We came close to dah with our hands closed so that he could smell our hands and then gave him a small snack for being a ‘good boy’. A few of us were a little nervous at first but we saw he was a very friendly dog and could stroke and pat him easily. Dash came to the park with us too and played with a tennis ball, sat when we told him to and even offered his paw when we said “hand”. We all had a fun day with Dash and when we returned to the classroom we watched a very short 3 minute clip of border collies herding sheep in England. The farmer only had a whistle and the dog moved the sheep all by himself between gates and fences etc. We would like to see Dash again, maybe when he is fully grown! Have a great weekend, stay warm and we look forward to seeing you next week.