A new week and we are all back together

Monday, February 9^th, 2015 It was a great start to the week with all of our teachers back in the classroom, and of course, Monday’s gymnastics lesson helped keep us warm and energized.

Our activities at the tables are usually limited on a Monday because we have a short time for Free Play and then we start packing the equipment away to make space for us. We worked really well as a team and rolled the carpets up. While we were doing this, Vincent was directing us, saying “Orai, orai” just like the people at the gas station do, when our mums put gasoline in their cars. He played a game with us and shouted stop and then we froze and stopped rolling; then we continued and rolled up the entire carpet. We took the dress up clothes and found a place for them too and at the end of our lesson, Shelley changed our library area a little and put the white table there for us to either sit at, and read books or we can still have the option of sitting on the circular cushions.

Shelley always gets inspired when she goes away as she visits schools and takes photos of their environments, chats to the teachers and Directors and brings all her passion back to Ohana. She of course saw that there are amazing outdoor spaces however here in Tokyo, most schools do not have this priviledge.

She also feels that it is important to teach us how to respect books more and if we have a table, we can look at them and turn the pages more carefully. In fact, our teachers in Petals Class have been covering our books from our library shelf, with plastic, so that their covers are stronger. We love reading books and appreciate their time and care, in teaching us this. We also love listening to stories so this is going to be a cosy space for story time too. When she was in Sydney, she went to this school that has couches in their library, just like we have at home. Maybe we can get one too!

During Free Play time, we had a game with dice and counters in the numeracy. We could choose any dice. We learnt how to roll a dice and count the dots on it. We then counted out the corresponding number of counters and placed them into our own containers. We loved playing this game and counted the numbers efficiently.

We spent some time building with the Lego and noticed that Koh is particularly good at creating interesting designs. We felt inspired by his construction and joined in by building as well. Shelley saw a wonderful example of how we can respect what our friends have made with equipment and other materials which she will introduce to us this week. It would mean that we can leave some of the things that we make out and if our friends want to move or add to what we have made, we would appreciate it if they could ask our permission. We will leave a card with our name and photograph on our work so that they know who made it.

This is an example of how we will use the cards. This little girl was playing in the kitchen in the dress up corner and didn’t want to pack away, because she had not finished her play. If any of her friends want to play there, they need to consult with her.

Our gymnastics class was a little different today because we had two teachers. Tanaka sensei will be complete his teaching at Ohana, at the end of March. All of the instructors have to complete two years in an area of Tokyo and then they move to another place. We are sad to see him go as we love him and the way that he works with us. Today he introduced us to Miyashita sensei who we think we will like as he is gentle, helpful and fun. In one of our new exercises, we crawled between his legs as if they were a tunnel. We did many of the same exercises that we have learnt in the past, but today, there was a new part to our “Aruku” game. In this game, we walk around the room while Tanaka sensei says, “Aruku, aruku, aruku” and then suddenly he starts counting “ichi, ni, san, shi, go……”; now this is the funny part. If he says “gorilla” we have to lie down on our tummies and pretend that we are sleeping. We have to be still like a statue. The addition to the game was the counting aspect. If he counted above ‘go’ we just kept on walking. Well today, he kept on counting higher than ten but he came to “jyu ichi, jyu ni, jyu san, jyu shi, jyu go…..” and then he added ‘gorilla’. He tried to trick us and in the beginning he did. The last game we played was holding hands in a circle and pretending that we made a pancake which we pretended to eat. We then made a small circle and someone suggested that we eat ice cream, so we pretended to eat ice cream. The cue for making a small or big circle was dependent on either pancake or ice cream. If he said pancake we made a big circle and if he said ice cream, we made a small circle.

We had a great time at school today and can’t wait for tomorrow as it will be our second gymnastics class of the week.

Love always Shelley, Hisami and Liezel