Ichigo daifuku and Yo-yo tsuri

What a great morning! Our Wednesday was very calm and quiet. Nikolas and Leanne were not here today so we miss you both. Fun activities were prepared for us by our teachers and wait…we have a visitor too. Ixdt was Yurika’s mom – Keiko. She also brought Yurika’s sister Erina. She’s so cute with chubby cheeks and her hands are so tiny. She knows her sister Yurika for every time Yurika comes near her she would smile. Our friends played with the ABC train and animals on the floor. Our mornings are always filled with exciting activities indeed! After our short playtime, we noticed that our teachers together with Keiko were preparing some stuff. They got this big container and put it in the middle of our classroom. They put a plastic cover underneath and we wondered why they did that. And then Sayaka filled half of the big container with water. We were so thrilled to see this for we already knew what was going to happen next – water play! And not only that, Keiko introduced a Japanese game called “yo-yo tsuri” also known as balloon fishing game. She showed some colorful “yo-yo” that had various designs. Sometimes they can have some stripes and spots on them. When she took one balloon, she got her water pump. She put some water in the balloon. Again, we were a bit curious why she did that with our balloons. We also saw some hooks that were tied on a plastic strings and other hooks had a string that was like paper-thin. Keiko said that the trick for this game here was to take the balloons out from the water. The balloons also had rubber bands attached to them and at the end of it there was a loop being tied. So the rule was to catch the loop from the balloon in order to fish it out. The kids used the hook with plastic strings while the teachers tried their best to catch the balloon with the hooks that had paper ones. It was very difficult. Keiko said if you’re using the paper string, we should catch the balloons as fast as we can. Otherwise, the water is going to damp the paper and it will get ripped off because it could not carry the weight of the balloon. Our teachers tried to do it faster but it was so challenging that you really have to practice a lot of times before you can actually get one out from the water.

After that enjoyable fishing game, we noticed that our placemats were already at the table. But it was so early to have our snacks, we saw Sayaka cutting some delicacies for us. And we found out that they were treats from Keiko. And they were the traditional Japanese snacks – ‘yaki-imo (baked sweet potato)” and “ichigo-daifuku (strawberry rice cake)”. We got a piece of these wonderful goodies. Most of the kids loved it, Ritsuka and Yurika ate the sweet potato. They loved it so much! The Buds were so delighted to have those treats. For sure, we all had a great day knowing more about Japan!

We made our circle time again today and of course, we sang our “Thank you” song. And the song goes like this…

Thank you, thank you; we had a nice time together

Thank you, thank you, and this time we’ll always remember

Come again, come again, we are glad to say

Come again, come again, come again someday

We gave them both a big hug. Yurika was so happy to get their warm hug. It was very long and tight. It was a pleasure to see Keiko and Erina today. A big thanks to both of you and we hope to see you again and do wonderful activities with us again!

Sofia, Lisa and Ritsuka did the spaghetti art today. It was a good sensory activity for them. We tried it too and it was fun!

At the park, we saw the Flowers and Petals classes. Rei, Yurika and Sofia got some balls from Sayaka and they played with the other friends from different classes. We also noticed that Riku and Sofia stayed and played together in one corner. It was nice that Riku was getting to know his friends a lot better.

Thank you so much teachers and friends in Ohana! We’ll see you again tomorrow!

Lots of love,

John, Sayaka and Maki