We are building the Buds village

Good morning everyone! Buds class is here again! Yurika was the earliest to arrive at our school today and it’s always a pleasure to be with her. We also like to thank Shelley and Goh for taking care of us and setting up the play activities that we can have for today. Thank you so much to both of you!                 In our circle time, we talked about the color green. Some of the kids could identify green and other colors. We played a little game of putting the green Popsicle sticks in the green cup. We tried to put other colors in the green cup but the cup made a funny sound. And that meant we needed to find and put the right color in it.

               Leanne, Sofia, Chloe and Riku knew where the green sticks were and everybody clapped their hands because of their initiative of putting the green sticks in the cup. Yurika and Rei got some help from the other kids and they were smiling when some of us was trying to tell which was the right one to pick.

We then sang some songs that we learned from before. Kaia really likes “Twinkle, twinkle little star”. She liked doing some actions of the song together with Leanne and Sofia. It was such a nice moment when Buds started to learn how each one of us behaves in the classroom and in this way, we can interact more cooperatively.

The Buds were all excited to see the big cardboard box. We knew that we’re going to paint again for today. Our teachers took out some yellow, brown and green paint. This was the first time for some of us to paint on a big cardboard and Yurika was so excited to start painting.

              Our teachers told us that we’ll be building our own village for Buds class. And we needed to put some paint on the ground (the cardboard) that we’ll be using for our village. Yurika began to use the paintbrush and John taught us how to use it. It was just like a pencil. For the first few minutes, everyone was so concentrated to use the brush for they loved to paint. And later, everyone used their hands instead. For the Buds, we wanted to feel and express ourselves with art. So, it was also a great practice for self-concentration, sensory-motor and creative expression. We also found out that combining these colors gave a lot more awesome effects on our soon-to-be village.

Before going to the park, John read a book entitled “From Head to Toe” by Eric Carle. The story was all about what animals can do. For example, a giraffe can bend its neck, a buffalo can raise its shoulders up and down, a monkey can wave its arms from side to side, a seal can clap its hands, a gorilla can thump on its chest, a cat can arch its back, a crocodile can wriggle its hips, a camel can bend its knees, a donkey can kick its legs and an elephant can stomp its feet. Each page had a question for us, listeners too. And that was, “Can you also do it?” And we all said yes. Rei, Yurika and Kaia were doing their best to do what the animals were doing. It was very cute how we took turns in doing the actions that we can imitate.

              The sun was up, and we were thrilled to see the park! When we arrived, Petals and Flowers classes were there too. They were all using the sand box tools to dig and build things. Sofia got a little cup and a small trowel from the tools and she said that she’s going to get some ice-cream. She pretended to scoop a portion of the sand and put it in the cup. Then, she repeatedly said, “ice-cream, ice-cream”. Chloe was playing quietly in the corner. She liked this kind of independent play. She was putting some sand on top of the other and she was trying to make a mountain. Leanne, Kaia, Lisa and Rei were going up and down the slides and sometimes they would ask their teachers to go with them.

After using the slides, Leanne would cheer her friends by saying “You can do it” when one Bud was hesitant to go down the slide. It was very encouraging because Leanne was exuding this confidence and she wanted to persuade her peers to have the same kind of attitude.

Thank you so much teachers for letting us experience this wonderful learning opportunities every day, we are looking forward to see you again tomorrow!

Lots of love,

John, Sayaka and Maki