Happy Birthday Shelley

It was such a cold and wet day outside but inside our classrooms it was warm and we all had a great time. It was a big day for Shelley and everyone was so kind with their beautiful wishes and gifts. We think that Shelley was really happy today and her heart was full. She said that her mummy called her from Australia to say Happy Birthday just before she came to school this morning. We prepared a beautiful card which looks like a book and we made pictures for her to keep. Sabine, who is a really good baker made special treats for us and the teachers. She made cupcakes that said “Happy Birthday” on them; each cupcake had a letter representing this phrase and we took a photo of them all lined up. The teachers had a peach tart in the shape of a heart and the candles also spelled the words ‘Happy Birthday’. They said that it was sooooo delicious. All of our friends and teachers were together upstairs when we celebrated and Moko also came to join us. Some of our faces were covered in chocolate from the chocolate muffins as we enjoyed eating them sooo much. Thanks Sabine for all the treats today. We loved them!

When we were sitting on the mat together We touched different parts of our bodies and then sang “Heads and Shoulders”. We also sang the “Body Rap”.

During the morning we had many other activities to do and we also welcomed Eva who is our new classmate on the second floor. She settled so beautifully and did all of the activities together with us at the tables even though she is really little. We did drawings at the table using markers, coloured pencils and crayons. When we draw we like to make dots and hit the markers hard onto the paper but with coloured pencils this didn’t work so well so Shelley showed us how to draw with them and we noticed how the colour came onto the paper in this way. We also played with play dough and pushed balls into the fish shaped cutters and saw an imprint of a sea creature on the play dough. Miya took the lid of the play dough container and made imprints of a car, (Gento said: “Beep, beep!”) a dinosaur and an owl. When Shelley said a bird, Miya said: “No, it is an owl!” She remembers everything.

Upstairs we welcomed Oliver who is Eva’s big brother and he had a great day as well. During circle time, he learnt about healthy foods. All of us could choose one of our favourite foods and pretend to eat it. We spoke about how it goes down into your tunmmy and then around and around in your intestines. We all liked different foods. At the activity tables we painted fruit and vegetables on large sheets of white paper.

Upstairs we are continuing to learn about patterns. Each day we do something different around this concept. Today we were grouped into pairs making patterns. This was a great exercise in co-operative play and each of us chose one colour and placed our dominoes alternatively in a pattern. We had to wait for our partner to place theirs and then we placed our one. We have some great photos of this activity. Shelley said thanks for a great birthday at Ohana!

Love Shelley, Darren, Kanako, Sabine and Marie